THE LANGUAGES OF AUSTRALIA. 



WHEN the first imperfect vocabularies of Australian dialects were collected, the great 

 differences observed between those spoken by tribes in close vicinity to one another led to 

 the impression that a multitude of totally dissimilar idioms were spoken in this country. 

 Further investigations have shown that this belief was not well founded ; and at present, 

 the opinion of those who have given attention to the subject is, that the tribes of Australia 

 are of one stock, and speak languages which, though differing in many respects, yet pre- 

 serve sufficient evidence of a common origin. This opinion, however, is founded rather 

 upon the resemblance of a few of the most common words, and a general similarity of 

 pronunciation, than upon any careful comparison of the various languages, more especially 

 with reference to their grammatical characteristics, on which alone any positive conclu- 

 sion can be founded. 



Our own field of inquiry did not extend beyond the limits of the colony of New South 

 Wales : but that, within this region, the dialects of all the native tribes are nearly akin, 

 cannot be doubted. The following comparative vocabulary, though brief, and compiled 

 under circumstances unfavorable to entire accuracy, yet shows sufficient evidence of a 

 general connexion. Moreton Bay, Lake Maquarie, Sydney, Liverpool, and Muruya, are 

 the names of places on or near the coast, from lat. 27 to lat. 36 south. Peel River, 

 Mudgee, Wellington, and Bathurst, are from one to two hundred miles inland, separated 

 from the coast line by the rugged chain of the Blue Mountains. Of the vocabularies, that 

 of the tribe at Lake Maquarie is principally from Mr. Threlkeld ; that of the Mudgee 

 dialect was furnished by Mr. Watson; the few words from Moreton Bay are from an 

 anonymous vocabulary which Mr. Threlkeld discovered among his papers. The remain- 

 der were obtained directly from the natives, in most cases from a single individual, with- 

 out the opportunity of a revision, which might have enabled us to detect some errors, and 

 supply deficiencies. The Australians have commonly two or three names for an object, 

 expressing the same general idea with slight modifications. This will be observed in the 

 words under the head of Lake Maquarie. To form a complete vocabulary, for the pur- 

 pose of comparison, it would be essential to obtain all these partially synonymous terms, 

 as otherwise many points of resemblance would be missed. 



Moreton Bay cubboa eu mill moral 



Lake Maquarie waluy kitwg,u-u- paikvy, po- nokoro kOrvka 



rSn rawv-g 



