didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument that was originally found only in Arnhem Land in northern Australia. It is a long, wooden, tubular instrument that produces a low-pitched, resonant sound with complex, rhythmic patterns but little tonal variation. In popular understanding most Australians probably believe that this is an Aboriginal word. Indeed, the 1988 edition of The Australian National Dictionary attributed it to the Yolngu language of northern Queensland. Subsequent research has cast doubt on this etymology, and in 1990 the following statement was made inAustralian Aboriginal Words in English: 'Although it has been suggested that this must be a borrowing from an Australian language it is not one. The name probably evolved from white people's ad hoc imitation of the sound of the instrument'. This argument is supported by the two earliest citations: 1919 Huon Times (Franklin): 'The nigger crew is making merry with the Diridgery doo and the eternal ya-ya-ya ye-ye-ye cry'. 1919 Smith's Weekly (Sydney): 'The Northern Territory aborigines have an infernal - allegedly musical - instrument composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. It produces but one sound -'didjerry, didjerry, didjerry -' and so on ad infinitum'.