The suffix originated in a dialect of
Noongar, an
Australian Aboriginal language, in which "-up" means "place of". The suffix "-in" or "-ing" has a similar meaning in a related dialect of Noongar.[1][2][3]
Places tended to be named after their distinctive features, whereby the place names could be used to create a "mental map" allowing Indigenous Australians to determine where water, food and other raw materials could be found. These sites were often located near sources of fresh water, leading to the common misconception that "up" and "in" mean "near water".[3]
The meanings and the pronunciations of many of these names has been lost over time.[3]
The system set the pronunciation of consonants as in English and vowels as in Italian. Using this system meant that "up" would be pronounced /uːp/oop, whereas the names were meant to be pronounced /ʌp/up.[4] The solution was deemed to be that doubling the following consonant would shorten the preceding vowel, thus "upp". This spelling convention was rescinded for towns in south west Western Australia in 1915 as the Australian pronunciation of "u" was almost always short.[4]
The usage of some terms are for the name of Noongar groups as well as places
Pinjarup is one of a number of names for one group – and it has been utilised and changed to the place name of
Pinjarra.
Earlier attempts had been published in the 1900s and 1920s exploring and explaining place names in the south west of Western Australia.[5][6]
List of places
The following is a selected list of locations in Western Australia which end in "-up".
^ Page 10 for items with 'up' - Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia. 50372 9b150c85-36ca-543a-8cbb-7cecf30b7821 (22 February 1904),
"Western Australian Aboriginal Place Names. (22 February 1904)", Science of Man and Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia, 7 (1), G. Watson: 11, retrieved 16 July 2024{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
The suffix originated in a dialect of
Noongar, an
Australian Aboriginal language, in which "-up" means "place of". The suffix "-in" or "-ing" has a similar meaning in a related dialect of Noongar.[1][2][3]
Places tended to be named after their distinctive features, whereby the place names could be used to create a "mental map" allowing Indigenous Australians to determine where water, food and other raw materials could be found. These sites were often located near sources of fresh water, leading to the common misconception that "up" and "in" mean "near water".[3]
The meanings and the pronunciations of many of these names has been lost over time.[3]
The system set the pronunciation of consonants as in English and vowels as in Italian. Using this system meant that "up" would be pronounced /uːp/oop, whereas the names were meant to be pronounced /ʌp/up.[4] The solution was deemed to be that doubling the following consonant would shorten the preceding vowel, thus "upp". This spelling convention was rescinded for towns in south west Western Australia in 1915 as the Australian pronunciation of "u" was almost always short.[4]
The usage of some terms are for the name of Noongar groups as well as places
Pinjarup is one of a number of names for one group – and it has been utilised and changed to the place name of
Pinjarra.
Earlier attempts had been published in the 1900s and 1920s exploring and explaining place names in the south west of Western Australia.[5][6]
List of places
The following is a selected list of locations in Western Australia which end in "-up".
^ Page 10 for items with 'up' - Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia. 50372 9b150c85-36ca-543a-8cbb-7cecf30b7821 (22 February 1904),
"Western Australian Aboriginal Place Names. (22 February 1904)", Science of Man and Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia, 7 (1), G. Watson: 11, retrieved 16 July 2024{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)