56 MATHEWS— NATIVE TRIBES OF VICTORIA. [March 4, 



lip oi" (someone). In other districts the equivalent of our nega- 

 tive adverb, "No," is used, with the suffix wurru, as, Woi-wurru, 

 meaning the No-lip, or Woi-speaking, people. 



Orthography. 



Eighteen letters of the English alphabet are sounded, comprising 

 thirteen consonants — b, d, g, h, k, 1, m, n, p, r, t, w, y — and five 

 vowels — a, e, i, o, u. 



The system of orthoepy adopted is that recommended by the 

 Royal Geographical Society, London, but a few additional rules 

 of spelling have been introduced by me, to meet the requirements 

 of the Australian pronunciation. 



As far as possible, vowels are unmarked, but in some instances 

 the long sound of a, e, o and u are indicated thus, a, e, o, u. In 

 a few cases, to prevent ambiguity, the short sound of u has been, 

 marked thus, u. 



It is frequently difficult to distinguish between the short sound 

 of a and that of u. A thick sound of / is occasionally met with, 

 which closely resembles the short sound of u or a. 



G is hard in all cases. Ji^ always commences a syllable or word. 



Ng at the beginning of a word or syllable has a peculiar nasal 

 sound, which can be obtained by adding together the two English 

 words "hangup," making "hangup" ; then assume this divided 

 into two syllables, thus, " ha-ngup." By pronouncing this so that 

 the two syllables melt into each other, the ng of " -ngup" will rep- 

 resent the aboriginal sound. At the end of a syllable, ng has the 

 sound of ng'vci " sing." 



At the beginning of a word or syllable, the sound of the Spanish 

 n is given by ny, but when terminating a word, the Spanish letter 

 is used. 



Dh is pronounced nearly as th in " that," with a slight sound of 

 d preceding it. Nh has also nearly the sound of tli in "that," but 

 with an initial sound of the n. 



A final h is guttural, resembling ch in the German word joch. 



T is interchangeable with d, p with b, and g with k. 



Ty and dy at the commencement of a word or syllable have 

 nearly the sound of j or ch, thus, tyu, in the name of Tyu-ron, 

 closely resembles chu or ju. But at the end of a word or syllable 

 ty or dy is sounded as one letter ; thus, raty, the last syllable of 



