176 Correspondence. [ ^|"}^„. 



Correspondence. 



DERIVATION OF THE WORD PINGUIN. 



To the Editors of " The EmuT 



Dear Sirs, — In Tlie Emu, vol. viii., page 39, Mr. J. R. 

 M'Clymont, M.A., publishes an interesting note on the derivation 

 of the word '' Pinguin" He states that it is either derived from 

 the Latin vj or d pi nguis, fat, or that it is a Dutch word, because 

 it was used before 1595 in a narrative of the first expedition of 

 the Dutch to the Eastern Archipelago, where Pingiiins (printed 

 Pill guy 11 s) are mentioned.* 



I have, during the last 10 years, taken up the study of the 

 Tasmanian aborigines, and in the course of my studies I found 

 it necessary to refer to the vocabularies of the Tasmanian 

 language that have been handed over to us. I was surprised to 

 see what an enormous mass of information these vocabularies 

 contain, but it does not appear that much use has been made of 

 it. In connection with a paper, " On the Antiquity of Man in 

 Tasmania," which will be published shortly, I had to make some 

 calculations with regard to the shell-heaps, which led into 

 further researches regarding the food of the aborigines. For 

 this reason I extracted from the vocabularies the names of all 

 animals, birds, &c., and plants that were distinguished by the 

 aborigines, and to my surprise 130 different species could be 

 discovered. These 130 words represent about 15 per cent, of 

 the known words of the Tasmanian language. More surprising 

 is the number of birds that were distinguished by special names. 

 Fifty-three different birds are recorded, and among these is the 

 Penguin. Milligan, in his vocabulary of the Tasmanian language, 

 gives (page 39) the following words for Penguin : — Tribes from 

 Oyster Bay to Pittwater (eastern tribes) — Penguin {Sphenisacs 

 minor), Tomen-yenna. Tribes about Mount Royal, Bruni Island 

 (southern tribes) — Teng-wynne, or Ngavaredekah. The first-f* 

 and the last word do not concern us, but the similarity between 

 the words " Penguin " and " Teng-wynne " is so striking that it 

 is difficult to believe in a mere coincidence. Tasmania was not 

 discovered before November, 1642, yet Mr. M'Clymont lias 

 clearly shown that the word Pinguin occurs in a Dutch 

 publication of 1597. We must assume that either Tasmania 

 was discovered by a stray Dutch navigator long before Abel 

 Tasman sighted it, or that the Tasmanian word represents a link 

 with other languages hitherto unsuspected. I think that the 

 first theory is very improbable. I rather feel inclined to think 



* I am greatly indebted to Mr. Robert Hall, C.M.Z.S., who drew my attention to 

 this interesting note. 



t There is no doubt also a great similarity between Tomen-yenna and Teng-wynne, 

 particularly if we consider that the suffix " na " or " ne " has no special meaning 

 " Tomenyn " and " Tengwyn" are unquestionably very similar. 



