Thursday, April 7, 2011
quicko: wagga wagga woy woy
Australia has some of the coolest place names in the world -- Kirribilli, for example. Many of the best names come directly from Aboriginal languages. Here's the interesting part I just learned: there are many places that are words repeated -- Wagga Wagga or Woy Woy for instance -- and this rhetorical device, in Aboriginal, meant "a lot of" whatever the first word was. I have no idea what Wagga or Woy means, but say if one meant "ants," then the doubling effect would mean "LOTS of ants!" Cool, huh?
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3 comments:
Wagga means crows.
woy woy means deep water.
Wagga Wagga means place of many crows. And if you're not a local, you're not allowed to shorten it to just Wagga even though that's what you'll hear the locals call it.
Woy Woy means big lagoon or much water.
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