BY HERMANN B. RITZ, M.A. 69 



(b) Many words, apparently different, are really 

 identical ; 



(c) The apparent differences are due to a faculty 

 the Tasmanians seem to have had, in common 

 with the South Sea Islanders — namely, that of 

 interchanging tJhe members of certain sound 

 groups, for instance, the liquids " 1," " m," " n," 

 " r ;" and, again, the dentals " t " and " n " and 

 " 1." 



(d) The vowels seem to have been particularly sub- 

 ject to variation. Of course, this phenomenon 

 is, like the one just mentioned, also found in 

 the Indo-European languages. 



These points are illustrated by the evidence adduced 

 by Dr. Noetling, and we may now proceed to the discus- 

 sion of his paper. 



He states that the aboriginal vocabulary contains 

 no word for knife, axe, saw, bow, arrow, spear-head. 

 I could not find any of these myself, for the word for 

 spear-point — poyeena, poyeenta — bears a remarkable 

 likeness to the English " point " — perhaps, in the former 

 case especially, assimilated to " pe-na," an aboriginal 

 word, to which we shall refer again. 



Still, there are words for " gun " or " musket " — 

 " le rina," " le langta," " pawleena " (pawl-lina) ; but 

 these, when dissected, mean simply " swift weapon," 

 " long or far-reaching weapon," " round or powerful 

 weapon." Indeed, it is these very words that gave me 

 what I think is the clue that will enable us to find a 

 way out of the apparent confusion of the aboriginal 

 vocabulary. 



Next, Dr. Noetling discusses the word " trowatta," 

 which denotes a chipped implement. It consists of two 

 parts — "tro " and " atta." He offers the conjecture t'hat 

 " tta " is analogous to the " t " in ama-t-us (Lat.), ly-t-os 

 (Gr.), gelieb-t (Ger.), love-d (Eng.), and denotes some- 

 thing finished or made. The abruptly-ending sound of 

 " t " would seem to support this view. 



On the other hand, when we examine the vocabu- 

 lary, we find the " t " or " n " (with the Oceanic epi- 

 tfhetic vowel, in practically all the nouns. For instance, 



