14 ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES, ETC. 



" Kara." It is of very great interest that more than 300 miles 

 south-west from Rockhampton, that is to say on the head waters 

 of the Paroo and Warrego rivers, near Charleville, the negative 

 " yam ma " is again found with tribes using mostly words of the 

 Curda language. 



South of Rockhampton, the Byellee tribe speaks the Wonda 

 language, which is one of the Wakkar dialects to be mentioned 

 directly. 



In the Leichhardt district, south of the 24th degree, the 

 Wakkar languages begin ; following up the head waters of the 

 Dawson River, crossing the ]\Iain Range to the sources of the 

 Burnett River, and from there following the mountains and 

 occupying the whole tract between Moreton Bay, the Brisbane 

 Eiver, and the railway line from Brisbane to Dalby. 



The Yaggara language near Brisbane is indeed a Wakkar 

 dialect, including the Gowar dialect on Moreton Island and the 

 Dsandai on Moreton and Stradbroke islands, as both these 

 dialects know the negative " yaggara," besides the negatives 

 '* gowar " and " dsandai." 



In the Wide Bay district south of the Wando dialects, and 

 in the eastern part of Moreton district down to the Brisbane 

 River, another language is spoken, the Karabi, or as it is mis- 

 spelled, the Kabi, or even Gabbie, between Gympie and Brisbane. 

 Father is given by " bey a " or " babbun," or " babbin." In 

 this dialect, the ear (a word characteristic of many East Aus- 

 tralian languages, is represented by " pidna " or " binnung." 



Karbi or Karabi is the negative Kara emphasized by the 

 apposition "hi." 



South of the Karbi dialects, the Yuggum language begins, 

 following the coast tract east of the Dividing Range, from the 

 Albert River down to Grafton, and is split up into many dialects. 

 The negative " wakar " is an abbreviation of " wakara," that is 

 to say " wa-kara," indeed not. " Wa" and " ya " means in- 

 deed. "Ya," " yau," and "yo," are used in the different 

 languages of Eastern Australia for the affirmative " indeed " or 

 "yes," and it is a strange coincidence with the Teutonic affirmative, 

 say with the Gothic "ya, " as it is found in Uliila's Bible, and with the 

 German, Dutch, and Scandinavian " ya " (ja) used as an affirma- 

 tive up to the present time. The English yes is composed of two 

 words, of "ya" or "yea," indeed, and of the copula "is,'' 



