Baanbay

The Banbai are an Indigenous Australian people of New South Wales.

Language

Baanbai, which R. H. Mathews had treated as a distinct language, appears on closer analysis, according to W. G. Hoddinott, to have been a dialect of Gumbaiŋgar. if not indeed almost identical to the language spoken by that tribe.

Country

The Banbai were a Northern Tablelands tribe whose lands are estimated by Norman Tindale to have covered some 2,300 square miles (6,000 km²), taking in Ben Lomond, Glencoe, Marowan, Mount Mitchell, and Kookabookra. They were also present along the Boyd River valley.

People

The Banbai appear to be closely related, as an inland people, to the coastal Gumbaynggirr.

Alternative names

• Ahnbi
• Bahnbi
• Dandi

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 191

Some words

• bodyerra (boy)
• dillanggan (girl)
• ginggēr (kangaroo)
• wandyi (dog)

Source: Hoddinott 1967, p. 58