^^^P'-'l Kkbl.-e, Aboriginal Plant Names. 63 



It will be apparent at the outset that a potent source of 

 error in an investigation of this nature disappears with the 

 scientific identification of the specimens by a botanist of Baron 

 von Mueller's standing, especially when some morphological 

 characteristic is reflected in the native name. It is, however, 

 beset with peculiar limitations, for the recorded vocabularies 

 of a race that had not passed the picture-writing stage are 

 merely conventional representations of the sounds heard. 

 Green made syllables to express himself, but it is doubtful 

 whether he appreciated those subtleties of sound peculiar to 

 the language. It is fortunate, therefore, that we have three 

 vocabularies of the Wurunjerri dialect with which to compare 

 the plant names- — one by Green himself, another by William 

 Thomas, and a third by Daniel Bunce.* Although beyond the 

 scope of this paper to enter into details of the peculiarities of 

 each vocabulary, it is interesting to note that each vocabulist 

 stressed some inherent characteristic, and usually a different 

 one to his colleagues. The outcome of this is a closer approxi- 

 mation to the true phonetic expression. Bunce, for instance, 

 gives cool en th, man ; Thomas, kob lin (kool in) ; and Green, 

 kool in or kol in— all forms of kul in as expressed by Howitt 

 The dental " th " was strictly recorded by Bunce, but its exist- 

 ence was scarcely realized by Green and Thomas. Green was 

 disposed to lengthen certain syllables, as in " man eep," wood 

 ashes, which is given by Bunce as " man ip," embers, or 

 " mun nip," ashes. 



A student of the written language is at a marked dis- 

 advantage when it is a dead language, for, as Prof. Tucker 

 says, language is speech, and, according to W. von Humboldt, 

 " the outcome of the eternal striving of the human spirit to 

 make the articulated sound equal to the expression of the 

 thought." Some years ago I had the advantage of noting 

 the accents of natives who were related, I believe, to the Kulin 

 nation, of which the Wurunjerri were part. The impression 

 given may be of little value, but I was struck with the pre- 

 vailing long vowels and traces of rudimentary sibilants. 

 Some of these may be rescued from the imperfect records that 

 have been preserved, but the majority have been irretrievably 

 lost. In recording the sounds heard by them, much depended 

 on the care, training, and receptivity of the vocabulist. There 

 are some striking differences in the lists which suggest that 

 they were lacking in some or one of these essentials, and that 

 the languages of more than one nation are commingled. 



The method pursued in the present analyses is to examine 

 all words with the same root, and by process of elimination to 



*Brough Smyth, in " The Aborigines of Victoria," vol. ii., gives the 

 three vocabularies. 



