A writing system for Yugambeh, drawn from the rock and wood carvings of Yugambeh Country.
A short video about Gibamyeri.
The video plays from YouTube when you press play.
English letters were made for English. Gibamyeri was made for Yugambeh.
Write Yugambeh with English letters and you are forever choosing: G or K? D or T? Yugambeh does not split these sounds the way English does, so the argument has no right answer. Gibamyeri gives each sound a single shape, so there is nothing to argue over.
Each Gibamyeri shape holds a whole syllable, and the parts of the shape show the sounds inside it. Gali nganya takes ten English letters but just four Gibamyeri shapes.
Children hear language in syllables long before they meet letters. Gibamyeri lets them read the way they listen: a beat at a time, each shape a sound they already know.
Gibamyeri, a completely new script for writing in his people’s Yugambeh language.
The shapes of Gibamyeri come from the rock and wood carvings of Yugambeh Country. Every Goomp Goomp book prints its title three ways: in Yugambeh, in English and in Gibamyeri, so children see that their language has a script of its own.
Shapes in Gibamyeri stand for sounds in Yugambeh. Once a reader knows a few, they can begin to spell out the words on the covers below.
Each book title, written in Gibamyeri.
lil + i
ngang + a
nyany + a