THE KUMBAIXGGERI TRIBE. 485 



If a man wished to clear the women out from watcliing tiim at 

 any occupation he would make as if he were loosening his leaf, and 

 they would run away screaming with laughter. 



The legend of fire traces its origin to a woman wlio got it from 

 her menses. 



5.— LANGUAGE AND SOCIOLOGY OF THE KUMBAIXGGERI TRIBE, 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By R. H. MATHh'lVS, L.S., Associe etranger Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris. 



During the past few years I have contributed to the Eoyal Society 

 of New South Wales some original articles on the languages of Aus- 

 tralian tribes.* 



In the following pages I shall endeavour to briefly describe the 

 elements of the grammar of the Kumbainggeri language, spoken by 

 the aborigines inhabiting the north-east coast of New South Wales, 

 from Nambucca to Grafton, and reaching inland to the Main Dividing 

 Eange. These tribes were originally numerous and powerful, but have 

 so veiy much decreased during recent years that they are now only 

 found in small groups at a few camping places reserved for their use 

 by the Government of New Soutli Wales. 



In this language, in every part of speech subject to inflection, there 

 are two forms of the first person in the dual and plural, in one of 

 ■which the person or persons spoken to are included with tlie speaker ; 

 and in the other, the party addressed is exclusive of the speaker. 



ORTHOGRAPHY. 



The system of orthoepy adopted is that recommended by the 

 lioyal Geographical Society of England, but a few additional forms of 

 spelling have been incoi-porated to meet the requirements of the 

 Austi-alian pronunciation, as follow : — 



As far as possible, vowels are unmarked, but in order to prevent 

 ambiguity of pronunciation, in some instances the long sound of 

 a, e, o, and u, are indicated thus : a, e, 6, u. In a few cases the 

 short sound of u is marked thus u. 



G is always hard. E has a rouc:h trilled sound, as in the English 

 word " hurrah !" W always commences a word or syllable. T at the 

 beginning of a word or syllable has its ordinary consonant value. 



The sound of the Spanish n often occurs. At the beginning of a 

 word or syllable I have i-epresented this sound by ny, but when ter- 

 minating a word, the Spanish n is used. 



Dh is pronounced nearly as th in the English woixl '•' that," with 

 a slight sound of d preceding it. Nh has also nearly the sound of th 

 in " that," but with a slight initial sound of the n. 



"The Thurrawal, Gundung-urra and Dharnik Languages." Journ Roy. Soc. 

 N.S. \\^x'es, vol. XXXV., pp. 127-lGO. "The Aboriginal Languages of Victoria." 

 Ihii/. \ <<]. xxxvi., pp. 71-10f>. "Languages of Some Native Tribes of Queensland, 

 «Kc.' Ibid. Vol. xxxvi., pp. 135-190. 



