Road safety
Posters for download.
Stop
This is the command form of dhabi-y, ‘(will) be quiet, (will) be still’, so we are using this for our translation of a Stop
sign. This is an intransitive verb, meaning you stop yourself.
Other words:
Wangidjay! An exclamation which is more like 'stop (doing that)'
Dhabi-la! Stop someting else, e.g. dhabi-la wilbaarr 'stop (the car)'. This is a transitive verb.
dhabi-ya_landscape.pdf
Hold my hand
Mara nganha bayama-lda-ya!
[hand me hold-continuous-command]
- We use nganha (‘me’) rather than ngay (‘my’) because mara is a body part, which in GYY can’t be separated from the whole body – technically called inalienable possession.
- It is the thing ‘done to’ by a transitive verb such as bayama-li (‘will hold’) - technically called the accusative case.
