lien | State Library of Queensland “Word of the Week” Week Thirty-Four.

As part of State Library’s commitment to the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages, we will be promoting a ‘word of the week’ from one of the 125+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and dialects from across Queensland.
To coincide with Book Week 2019, Week 34’s word is biibabiiba [pronounced bee-bah bee-bah], from the Yuwaalaraay language of South-West Queensland and North-West NSW. It is new word derived from Aboriginal English meaning ‘book’. Biiba refers to ‘paper’; biibabiiba signifies ‘many papers’ and is used for ‘book’ as well as ‘newspaper’.