Koalas and their Aboriginal and Native Names

The word koala emerged from the aboriginal and native languages of the Australia, especially the Easter Australia where the koalas live. The aboriginal and native Australian dwellers named the animal (the koala) on the basis of one key observation which concluded that the animal (the koala) never used to drink water. Therefore; they decided to assign such a name to the koala which meant no water or not drinking water, or animal without water etc. Some of those aboriginal and native names have been picked by the researchers and you will be surprised to know that they all meant "No Water".

There are at least one dozen aboriginal and native names about koalas and they all belong to Eastern Australia's native and aboriginal languages.

Today; the researchers have found as many as one dozen aboriginal and native names of the koala. All of these aboriginal and native names belong to native Eastern Australian languages. This is the only area where the Koalas live and thrive in Australia. Some of these aboriginal and native names include Kaola, Koalo, Colah, Coola, Colo, Coloo, Koolewong and Koobor etc. It is rather astonishing that an animal can have so many native names belonging to a common geographic location.

The first couple of aboriginal and native names mentioned above are very closely related to the word koala in English and other languages while the later ones (Koobor and Koolewong) are almost entirely different. Therefore; all of these native names to a greater extent match the real word "Koala" as, they are one way or another very closely related in terms of pronunciation, expressions and to some extent alphabets too.

Only the Australian continent has Koalas, therefore, it was natural to have word koala being emerged from aboriginal and native languages of Australia.

The native languages and native people's naming of an animal does have a huge impact on the official naming of an animal and the naming of koala is a great example in this regard. Since, the koala is only the part of the Australian continent, therefore; it is natural to have its name being emerged from the native languages of the Australian continent.

How did the word Koala got its integration within English language? Even though there is not much literature about this but it is commonly believed that early Europeans in Australia especially the zoologists and botanists made core contributions for its integration within the English language (more precisely the English dictionary). According to the encyclopedia and dictionaries the word became part of English vocabulary during the first decade of 1800s (1801 - 1810).

The word "Koala" became part of the English vocabulary in the first decade of the 19th century (1800 to 1810).

Earlier there was also another name for the Koala as "Koola" (also belonging to Australia's aboriginal and native langauges) but this word is now considered as an obsolete one. Therefore; the word koala which belonged to Australian aboriginal and native languages for at least hundreds of years became part of the English language only recently in the 19th century.

Apart from English language many other global languages have integrated the word koala within their vocabularies as well. Even these languages have also derived the name for the koala from the aboriginal and native Australian names of the koala. Let's begin with Chinese, the most spoken language in the world (mostly in China), they write the word koala as " 考拉 " and it is pronounced as "cowla" or "kaola".

All the global languages such as Chinese, Russian, Spanish and many more have also derived the Koala's name from the aboriginal and native Australian words for koala.

Similarly; the Russians write the word koala as " коала " and it is pronounced as "kaala". Finally; the Spanish write the word koala as " Coala " and pronounce it same as in English language "Koala". You can notice that even all of these global languages too have derived the word "Koala" from the aboriginal and native Australian words for koala.

Despite so much buzz about this word "Koala" and its relation with Australia's aboriginal and native languages yet still people don't know much about the background of this word and even the animal koala itself. The word is only popular across the continent of Australia while outside Australia not many people generally know about it.

The word "Koala" and the animal "Koala" itself are both anonymous for majority of the people outside Australia. They even have no idea that the word belongs to Australia's aboriginal and native languages.

Even if they do know the animal (outside Australia), they hardly have any idea that the word "koala" belongs to the aboriginal and native languages of the Australian continent. Many people consider koala as some kind of an Australian bear and they even have no idea that the koala is marsupial just like the kangaroos.

Exploring the word further, if we look at the stats of this word (animal) "Koala" on Google search results, we will be astonished to conclude that the word Koala generates more than 127 million results. It is only behind kangaroo among the Australian animals and globally it possesses more results than many famous animals like Rhinos, caracals, ostriches and even macaw parrots as well.

In the online world, the word and the animal "Koala" generates more searches than many other famous animals like Rhinos, Caracals, Ostriches and Macaw parrots.

In terms of its trends, the word mostly gains momentum in Australia and United States mostly. Surprisingly; the word and animal is also very popular in Slovakia as well.