yoshy
Jun 2007

|
quote: Originally posted by ntscuser
Hey Yoshy is it true that when Captain Cook first arrived in Australia he asked an aborigine tribesman what the local creatures were called? First he asked about a bird in a tree and the abo answered "kookaburra" which is aborigine for "bird in a tree". Next he asked about a bear sitting in a tree and the abo answered "koala" which is aborigine for "bear sitting in a tree". Finally he asked what all those strange creatures hopping about on their hind legs were called. Well this time the aborigine was completely stumped. They were so used to seeing them they simply didn't have a word for them so he just said "kangaroo". And to this day those creatures are still known throughout the rest of the world by the aborigine word for "fucked if I know!"
lmao
and your'e asking me
Im not a spearchucker but Some have suggested that it actually means "I don't understand" in one of the Aboriginal languages, but that is a recent and apocryphal explanation.
Instead, what we know now is that there were many, many Aboriginal languages in use at the time, and apparently, in one of them, ganjurru was the word for a specific species of kangaroo, not a word for all kangaroos as a whole.
__________________
When life hands you lemons, ask for tequila and salt and call me over.
There comes a point in your life when you realise;
who matters,
who never did,
who won't any more...
and who always will.
So, don't worry about people from your past,
there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|