ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF EASTERN AUSTRALIl 

 COMPARED. 



By JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 



[Read before the Rot/nl Society of Queensland, March 6, 1896. \ 



The aboriginal languages of Eastern Australia all belong to the- 

 same family. They are more or at least as much related to each 

 other as the languages of the Arian or Indo-Germanic family. 

 The words are derived from roots which are common to all of 

 them. All our aboriginal languages are very rich in words and 

 forms. There are more words in their languages for one con- 

 crete subject than in any of the Indo-Germanic languages. 



In the same manner as the Sanskrit must be considered 

 the leading and best preserved language of the Arian family, 

 or as the Finnish is the purest of the Altai languages, so the 

 languages of Northern Queensland are purer than those of 

 Southern Queensland and of New South Wales. There are about 

 twenty different languages in Eastern Australia, each of them 

 split up into a large number of dialects, and it is a most interesting 

 fact that one word, the word for foot, t'sitne is the same in all these- 

 dialects. No other word besides that runs through all the- 

 aboriginal dialects of Eastern Australia. Now there is one 

 word which is characteristic in showing a division between the 

 aboriginal languages of Queensland and those of New South 

 Wales, the word for camp or house. From the 20th degree 

 North, down to the borders of New South Wales, the word for 

 camp or house, is ngpi, hurapi, or yamba. From here through a- 



