Reuben (Mindhiwugag), formerly called Young Reuben to distinguish him from another man, was a very old man of the Nungangulgu clan (which is often combined with the Nung-gumajbar). Hence his ancestors probably spoke Warndarang, but he himself has spoken only Nunggubuyu since his childhood. He died around 1975. His texts tend to be short and somewhat perfunctory.
Johnnie (Nanguru) was also an old man but was still alive when I left in 1977. He was from a clan whose territorial centre was Wanmari, between the Rose and Roper Rivers. His ancestors clearly spoke Warndarang, but he had no useful knowledge of that language and instead spoke Nunggubuyu and Mara (both quite well). Like Reuben, he was an authority on Warndarang-style circumcision singing (in Johnnie's case, for the Mambali semimoiety, roughly related to the Ngalmi clan of the Nunggubuyu). I obtained texts from him in both Mara and Nunggubuyu and the Mara ones will be published in my volume on that language. Whereas Reuben can be said to have been heavily Nunggubuyu-ised culturally, this was less so of Johnnie and his mythical texts (even when recited in Nunggubuyu) show narrative style and mythological substance characteristic of the Warndarang and Mara groups to the south. Most of his texts were extremely long and full.
Ma:di was for most of his life the leader of the entire Nunggubuyu community (see text 161 in particular). He was of the Murungun clan, though he had actually been adopted into the local Murungun clan and his ancestors had been from farther north. He died in 1977, aged around sixty. He was an outstanding narrator who gave relatively full and interesting texts, and who enjoyed using colorful and exotic vocabulary. His dramatic myths are especially excellent (e.g. texts 7, 13, 43), and readers who listen to the original tapes will recognise him as a master of intonational as well as other aspects of narrative technique.
Larangana was also of the Murungun clan and was of about the same age, but he was living when I left. His texts are of considerable ethnographic interest. Linguistically, his style involved a considerable amount of mumbling, false starts, and partly unintelligible passages, and readers interested in the language per se should start with texts by other narrators. Readers interested in ethnographic aspects of the texts should find Larangana's texts of high value.
Ga:gadug (Larangana's wife, rather younger than he) contributed some energetic texts, spoken at normal speech rates (i.e. relatively fast, with less self-monitoring and fewer pauses than most others). Her texts are thus more natural linguistically than some others. I was able to find no major differences between her grammar and lexicon and those of the male narrators, so there do not appear to be any highly crystallised female speech patterns.
Milton (Gabanja) of the Ngalmi clan was probably nearing forty when I worked with him; he was the first narrator I recorded. His texts were given enthusiastically and showed stylistic features similar to those used by Ma:di, but Milton's versions of myths were usually briefer than those obtained from Ma:di and other older speakers.
Dick (Da:bulug), brother of Milton, also in Ngalmi clan, aged about thirty during my fieldwork. He had helped me transcribe some of Milton's texts and had observed my difficulty with rapidly or unclearly spoken material. Dick therefore spoke very carefully and slowly when I recorded material from him; his texts are thus not difficult to transcribe and include few false starts, but are much slower in speed than normal Nunggubuyu.
Yurumura, brother of Milton and Dick, aged near thirty. A particularly intelligent and interesting narrator and informant whom I worked with toward the end of my fieldwork. He contributed a number of concise ethnographic texts, permitting me to round out the text collection reasonably well.
All of these people provided useful material, each with his or her own special individual features. I was fortunate that I arrived in time to have access to Ma:di and Reuben before they died, but even the younger narrators gave interesting texts. I regret that I was not able to work with certain other men and women in the community, but there just was not enough time in view of my other obligations.
I was assisted in transcribing these texts, and in carrying out basic grammatical and lexical analysis, by the following men: the above narrators, especially Dick, Milton, Ma:di, and Yurumura; also Jibulungu, Mujiji, and Dirjuna.
Further acknowledgements are due to Kathie Warren, Michael Hore, Colin Gilchrist, and other mission staff at the Anglican (Church Missionary Society) Numbulwar Mission, and to Rev. Michael Gumbili at Ngukurr. At AIAS my major debts are to staff in the resources, technical, secretarial, and publications departments.