ALPHER1991-001 - lexical attestation
Yir-Yoront yoq-par-muw sacred-board bullroarer
Australia - Lower Mitchell River - Kowanyama (Mitchell River Mission), Cape York Peninsula - Oceania - Sahul
Sacred / spirit
yoq-par-muw Yir-Yoront / English
Source term: bullroarer, sacred board
yoq-par-muw: Yir-Yoront term glossed "bullroarer, sacred board"; manufacture compared to a small smoothing-board (thopm), tied with string before swinging
Yir-Yoront speakers of the lower Mitchell River called the bullroarer yoq-par-muw — sacred board. They shaped it like a small smoothing-board, fitted it with a length of string — 'the one they tie with string' — and swung it.
The bullroarer. The one they tie with string. They make it like a small smoothing-board. Then they swing that one.
Alpher 1991:818
- Object
- Manufacture recorded in the lexicon: shaped like a small smoothing-board (thopm), then tied with a length of string before being swung. No dimensions, material, or object figure recorded.
- Function
- Glossed in the lexicon as 'bullroarer, sacred board'; manufacture and swinging are recorded, no ceremony.
- Map confidence
- medium - Kowanyama (Mitchell River Mission) township anchor on the lower Mitchell River in Yir-Yoront country, Cape York Peninsula; not a named performance site.
- Source location
- printed p. 818