94 



HORATIO HALE ON LANGUAGE 



The earliest attempt to explain the complex system of Australian speech was made by 

 a zealous and experienced missionary, the Eev. L. E. Threlkeld, of New South Wales. 

 His work, a pamphlet of some 130 pages, entitled "An Australian G-rammar, compre- 

 hending the priaciples and natural rules of the language, as spoken by the aborigines in 

 the vicinity of Hunter's River and Lake Macquarie, in New South Wales," was published 

 at Sidney in 1834. The author had been previously a missionary in the Society Islands, 

 and had acquired a knowledge of the language there spoken ; but while the Tahitian 

 alphabet was found nearly sufficient in his new field, the simple Polynesian grammar 

 afforded him no aid in unravelling the difficult web of the Australian speech. A few 

 years after his grammar was published I had the pleasure of visiting him at his mission, 

 and witnessing his assiduous efforts for the benefit of his humble charges. His manu- 

 scripts, which he freely communicated to me, showed his constant progress in his studies 

 of the laiiguage, of which he had foand it as hard to fathom all the depths as his succes- 

 sors have found it to discover all the mysteries of the social organization of this singular 

 people. 



The pronunciation of the language is simple and euphonious. The consonants s, /, 

 and V are lacking. The only sound strange to English utterance is the n {ng as in miger) 

 when it is an initial, as i'laloa, I ; i^nnlo'a, thou. The vowels are sounded as in Italian or 

 Grerman, except the u, which represents the English u in but. 



There are seven declensions, two of which are restricted to proper names, the one of 

 persons, the other of places. The remaining five declensions comprise the common nouns, 

 and are distinguished by the terminations of the nominative. Each declension has ten 

 or eleven cases, comprising two nominatives, a genitive, two datives, an accusative, aud 

 four or five ablatives. It wo^^ld be easy to furnish a special name for each case, but for 

 our purpose it is needless. The fact which chieflj^ calls for remark is that the language 

 discriminates in its cases with more logical nicety than any of the Aryan tongues. In 

 tne nominative, for example, there is a neuter or ground form, used in answer to the ques- 

 tion, who (or what) is it ? — and an active form which governs the verb, and answers the 

 question, who (or what) did it? There is a dative expressing "for" the object, and 

 another expressing " to " the object ; and the various ablatives express " on account of," 

 " from," " along with," " staying with," etc. The character of these declensions can be 

 most clearly shown by giving examples of the first aud second. In the first, Biraban, 

 which means " Eagle-hawk," is declined as a proper name, and in the second as a common 

 noun. 



Second Declension. 



lAraUni, 



birabanto, 



birabankoba, 



Inrahanko, 



hirnhanfako, 



hiriiban, 



IrirabaiUin, 



birabanlabiriin, 



hirahantoa, 



birahiivtaha, 



a hawk 



a hawk does, etc. 



a hawk's 



for a hawk 



to a iiawk 



a hawk 



on account of a hawk 



away from a hawk 



along with a hawk 



staying with a hawk 



It will be evident at a glance that these declensions are formed by affixing to the 



