'Witawalang'/'Witawali' ('in centre of Fleurieu' / 'towards cape Jervis'

Abstract

‘Witawalang’ and ‘Witawali’ are the same name: the former merely adds the Ngarrindjeri locative suffix -angk to the latter. The language and correct spelling are uncertain, and the meaning unknown. It might possibly have been a Kaurna name originally, as the morphemes are more rather consistent with known Kaurna words than with Ngarrindjeri; but we know it only from Tindale’s informants 1934-40, the Ngarrindjeri speakers Clarence Long (Milerum) and Ephraim Tripp. Thereis no evidence from early settlement times that the Kaurna used this name in the Fleurieu ranges or elsewhere. No meanings have ever been suggested for it at this location.