3. DATABASE FIELDS
The main layout in the Bayala databases is OVERVIEW: see 2. The Big Picture. In this layout each entry is presented through a number of columns. These are ‘fields’ in the database, which appear as columns in the program’s ‘Browse’ mode. They will be described in turn.
1. THE ‘SOURCE’ GROUP OF FIELDS
The 'Source' group of fields appear at the bottom left corner of the OVERVIEW layout in Fig 2.1.
Fig. 3.1 ALLSYD source fields
The Source fields consist of the following, treated below briefly in turn::
—Page
—Line
(Australian is covered in 3.2 Word Fields.)
SOURCE DB (cerise, or dark pink)
The ‘Source DB’ field shows the name of the database being examined. Generally all records in a database have the same entry here. Thus in the ALLSYD database every record has ‘ALLSYD’ in this 'Source DB’ field. The purpose of having such a field is that it is sometimes necessary to know which database a record comes from. In the combined databases such as COASTAL, made up of records from NORTH, SOUTH, ALLSYD and elsewhere, this field reveals where the records have been taken from.
SOURCE (pink)
The ‘Source’ field contains an abbreviated note identifying the source of the record concerned. Thus it might say ‘Dawes (a)’, or ‘Collins 1’, or ‘Tench’. More detailed source information is found in ‘Source details’.
The ‘Source details’ field, while it appears to be just another ALLSYD field and column, is actually a field drawn from the Carol VOCAB DETAILS related database. That database has a ‘source’ field too, and an entry ‘Dawes (a)’ in it; and it has a ‘source details’ field, and it is there that all the information for the Dawes Notebook (a) is stored.
Fig. 3.2 The Dawes (a) record in the Carol VOCAB DETAILS database
It occurs in that database just once, in a single record. But the same information appears in the ALLSYD database over 600 times, occurring in every ‘Dawes (a)’ entry. While it would be quite easy to put it in 600 times, it would take up database space. And by having it occur just once in the Carol VOCAB DETAILS related database but showing it where needed in ALLSYD, the Developer can be sure that every use of it is identical—with no occasional typing errors, omissions etc.
This drawing in of information from elsewhere is an example of the relational character of the databases in action, first presented in Fig. 0.2.
LANGSHORT (dark blue, gold print)
The ‘LangShort’ field shows a short form (abbreviation) of the language name. Instances that occur in ALLSYD are:
BB: the classical Sydney language
BB stands for Biyal Biyal meaning ‘no no’. (biyal is Sydney language for ‘no’.) Australian languages are often identified by the word used for ‘no’ in the language concerned, e.g. Wiradhuri (wira = ‘no’) and Kamilaroi (gamil = ‘no’). Sometimes, notably in languages along the Murray River, the ‘no’ word is repeated, and this is the form used in the case of Biyal Biyal. This name for the classical Sydney language was used as early as 1821 by the journalist, explorer and ethnologist Archibald Meston and was adopted by the Developer and Keith Vincent Smith in 2001. The term was introduced into the databases to distinguish words recorded around Sydney during the First Fleet days (i.e. prior to corruption from English or other languages) from those recorded there at a later time.
Syd and DG
Additional records have been identified in the ‘LangShort’ field as ‘Syd’ (for ‘Sydney language’), and sometimes as DG (for Dharug). The Sydney language and Dharug are dialects of one another.
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For all language abbreviations used in the Bayala databases see Fig, 7.14.
STATUS (mid pink)
The ‘Status’ field is used to identify authorship. If the record is from, say, ‘King MS’ (Philip Gidley King’s journal manuscript), then the status field might say ‘King’ (or ‘PGK‘ — it does not matter what, so long as all the King MS ‘status’ fields are the same, if they are the original entries). If the entry has parts, however, as ‘Boora’ and ‘Carremay’ in:
Fig. 3.3 A two-word entry.
LINE (lighter green)
additional sub-entries might be created, for bura and garimayi, and these would be identified as ‘JS’ in the status field, indicating they were derived and not original records. See for example the entries for Nowalbangi and boobangí in Fig 3.1, where JS appears in the ‘status’ field, both words having come from the entry
“Nowalbangí boobangí" nawalbangayi bubangayi “Relative to dressing wounds” pus make did / cover did
Dawes (b) [b:14:9] [BB] [NSW] [1790-91].
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King’s entries in the 'Australian' column would also be placed in square brackets to further identify the derivative nature of the sub-entries:
Fig. 3.4 Analysing individual words in an original multiple-word entry separately:
“[Boora-Carremay]” bura “[Fine Weather]” cloud King MS [:401:11.1] [BB] [NSW]
The status field (and much more) is not included in 'summary lines' (as the Developer has termed this particular group of five fields, which present the most basic information for each record), such as the one for the pair of records immediately above.
NOTEBOOK (light blue)
The ‘Notebook’ field originally occurred only in ALLSYD to identify the Dawes notebooks, and it could have been omitted there as the particular notebook is cited in the source field; but it seemed useful to keep it, and so it has stayed. It shows which of Dawes’ two notebooks, (a) or (b), the entry derives from. This field was subsequently found to be useful to distinguish certain other sources, notably the Anon notebook (c), as well as in other databases altogether.
PAGE (darker green)
The ‘Page’ field shows the page number on which an entry occurs. If a page, say page 23, has three columns, and the entry comes from column 2, it might be presented as ‘23.2’. Some source pages are complex, with areas of one kind or another. So ‘35.7’ might mean the 7th ‘area’ (perhaps a column in a table). It is not necessary to be specific as the field is intended only as a guide to help someone else (any User, whether the Developer or other person) find where the entry was taken from.
The ‘line’ entry shows the line number on the page, or within a column on a page, or perhaps a line number in a table. Generally it is fairly obvious when the source is consulted and the relevant page found what the line number refers to. It is more helpful to have a line number however imperfect than not to have it. The use of such numbers helps distinguish entries in the database. It also helps in sorting them into the original order.
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SORTING
In a computer database, sorting can be done in an instant, whether by page and line, or by part of speech, by category, alphabetically by Australian name, or English translation, by source, by tense, by creation or modification date—indeed by anything for which a field has been created and entries are present.