Kangaroo: is this true ?

Question

Is it true that the first Europeans to see kangaroos asked the Aborigines what they were & when the Aborigines answered "Kangaroo" which actually meant "I don't know, mate" the Europeans thought it was the name of the animal ? Or is this another of those stories which is actually complete cr*p ?

Answer 1

The story is that when the English explorer James Cook and his friend Joseph Banks first espied a kangaroo during an expedition to Australia in 1770, they asked a nearby native what it was. They received the reply "kang-ooroo," which they assumed was the name of the critter in question. A later explorer, however, found that the natives seemed never to have heard of "kangaroos," and the legend grew up that what the native had actually said was the aboriginal equivalent of "I don't understand you"--in other words, that Cook and Banks had made an unbelievably dumb (not to mention comical) mistake. Subsequent research has established, however, that this was not the case. The real problem, apparently, was simply that the later explorers mispronounced "kang-ooroo" (it's ng as in sing, and I believe there's a roughly equal emphasis on the second and third syllables). The natives were mystified by the European pronunciation "kangaroo," and besides, whoever was asking was probably pointing at a variety of roo other than the large black kind, which, strictly speaking, is the only official "kang-ooroo." Anyway, lexicographers have since made several attempts to convince the world that "kangaroo" isn't merely the result of British incompetence. As usual, however, legend dies hard.

Answer 2

The word kangaroo first appeared in 1770, used by Capt. Cook and botanist Joseph Banks, supposedly an aborigine word from northeast Queensland, Australia, usually said to be unknown now in any native language. However, according to Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon ("The Languages of Australia," Cambridge, 1980), the word probably is from Guugu Yimidhirr (Endeavour River-area Aborigine language) /gaNurru/ "large black kangaroo."
"In 1898 the pioneer ethnologist W.E. Roth wrote a letter to the Australasian pointing out that gang-oo-roo did mean 'kangaroo' in Guugu Yimidhirr, but this newspaper correspondence went unnoticed by lexicographers. Finally the observations of Cook and Roth were confirmed when in 1972 the anthropologist John Haviland began intensive study of Guugu Yimidhirr and again recorded /gaNurru/."

Answer 3

There were about 250 Australian languages with, possibly, a thousand dialects of those when Cook visited. His ship was holed on the Barrier Reef and he careened her in what is now the Endeavour River near the modern Cooktown in NE Queensland to repair the damage.

In the weeks they were there, Joseph Banks collected a number of words from the local people,the Guugu Yimidhirr. One of the words he collected was "kangaroo".

When Arthur Phillip was sailing for Australia with the First Fleet, Banks, a friend, gave Phillip his list of words thinking they might be useful. Phillip tried the words on the local people in Sydney Cove but they didn't understand him. Some thought "kangaroo" was a European word meaning "large edible animal" and they referred to sheep and cattle as kangaroos.

It was not until the colony stretched north to Wisemans Ferry on the Hawkesbury River that Phillip found there were different languages. South of the river, the language was Dharuk, north of it was Awabakal. Both were as different from Guugu Yimidhirr as English is from Arabic.

John Haviland studied Guugu Yimidhirr in the 1960s and rediscovered the word which Banks heard as "kangaroo". He published his work in 1972. "Kangaroo" is a species of macropod, probably the Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

Answer 4

Actually I heard that in aboriginal language "kangaroo" means " I don't understand your question" Which is basically the same thing you said.

Answer 5

it comes from the Aboriginal language 'gangurro referring to the grey kangaroo

Answer 6

fake. the main important motives that the kangaroo and positively the emu (that may't walk backwards the two) have been chosen for the logo of Australia is that the two can purely pass forwards that's Australia as a rustic sees itself.

Answer 7

yes. I read the same story in a magazine

Answer 8

Yup thats true

Answer 9

Fortunately they didn't use the native words for "sod off white man"

Answer 10

tu as tout a fait raison...je ne pouver pas dire mieux...bravo