2007-09-27 15:59:53 · 9 answers · asked by charlie l 1 in Travel ➔ Australia ➔ Other - Australia
When Captain Cook hit the Barrier Reef in the Endeavour, they careened her in the mouth of what is now the Endeavour River near what is now Cooktown to mend the hole. They were there about six weeks. Joseph Banks went botanising and made contact with the local people and collected some of their vocabulary. One word he collected was "kangaroo".
Some years later, when Arthur Phillip was to command the First Fleet and establish the new colony in NSW, his friend Joseph Banks gave him the list of words he had collected. On arrival in Sydney, Banks tried the words on the locals who hadn't a clue what he was talking about. After early explorers reached the Hawkesbury River, they found that the people on the other side of the river spoke a different language from the people on the Sydney side. The Sydney people spoke Dharuk while north of the Hawkesbury they spoke Awabakal. Phillip realised that Banks's words were from a completely different languge from the Sydney language.
In 1972 an anthropologist, John Haviland, was working with the Guugu Yimidhirr people of the Cooktown area and discovered the word "gangguru" meaning the eastern grey kangaroo. It was clear that Banks had collected the local name but its origins were lost for 200 years.
"kangaroo" therefore, means the eastern grey kangaroo in Guugu Yimidhirr.
2007-09-27 16:49:08 · answer #1 · answered by tentofield 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
What andy c has told you is a well loved Aussie story.
It seems it may in fact not be the case.
(Personally, I prefer the "I don't know" story.)
Read the word history below.
kangaroo -
a type of large Australian animal with very long hind legs and great power of leaping, the female of which carries her young in a pouch on the front of her body.
Word History: A widely held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning "I don't know."
This is in fact untrue.
The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia.
In 1820, one Captain Phillip K. King recorded a different word for the animal, written "mee-nuah."
As a result, it was assumed that Captain Cook had been mistaken, and the myth grew up that what he had heard was a word meaning "I don't know" (presumably as the answer to a question in English that had not been understood).
Recent linguistic fieldwork, however, has confirmed the existence of a word gangurru in the northeast Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, referring to a species of kangaroo.
What Captain King heard may have been their word minha, meaning "edible animal."
2007-09-27 23:44:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
User Andy C is correct -
Just read it in a book yesterday
2007-09-28 00:15:58 · answer #3 · answered by • Koala • uʍop ɹǝpun 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
when the first explorers landed on oz shores, they came across the natives,thinking them uncivilised, they stayed to study them for a while.seeing a kangaroo they asked a native,what is that, kangaroo was his reply. happy with this answer it was sketched and named.little did they know that kangaroo in the native language meant i don't know.so there you have it the simple answer to your question is I DONT KNOW lol
2007-09-27 23:24:46 · answer #4 · answered by andy c 3 · 5⤊ 1⤋
It means to do a hand stand and do backward flips down a flight of stairs!
2007-09-27 23:18:10 · answer #5 · answered by Lady 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Kangaroo means large foot.
2007-09-27 23:08:26 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
kangeroo with an e isnt a word!!!!!
2007-09-28 00:47:03 · answer #7 · answered by ~∂Їβ~ 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Lage foot.
2007-09-28 07:15:35 · answer #8 · answered by waltzsingmatilda 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
it means if you want to geroo you can! xx
2007-09-27 23:08:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋