482 PHILOLOGY. 



Rev. L. E. Threlkeld, who, for now nearly twenty years, has been labouring with 

 unwearied patience for the conversion and instruction of the aborigines. This grammar, 

 the only one heretofore published of any Australian idiom, contains a mass of valuable 

 information in relation to a subject entirely new. It is not surprising that the novelty 

 and strangeness of the principles on which the structure of the language was found to 

 rest, should have rendered a clear arrangement, at first, a matter of difficulty ; and some 

 degree of obscurity and intricacy in this respect have caused the work to be less appre- 

 ciated than its merits deserved. We were fortunately enabled to visit Mr. Threlkeld at 

 his station, and, in a few days passed with him, received many useful explanations on 

 points not sufficiently elucidated in the grammar, together with free access to his unpub- 

 lished notes, and the advantage of reference, on doubtful points, to the natives from whom 

 his materials had been derived. The grammar of the Kdrnilarai dialect which follows 

 is therefore entirely due to Mr. Threlkeld, the only changes being in the orthography, 

 the arrangement, and some of the nomenclature. The name of Kamilarai, it should be 

 remarked, is that given to the people of this district (or rather, perhaps, to their language) 

 by the natives of Wellington Valley. We are not aware if it is known to the people 

 themselves, or if they have any general word by which to designate all those who speak 

 their tongue. None is given by Mr. Threlkeld, to whom it would doubtless have been 

 known. 



The other dialect is that spoken at the place last-mentioned, Wellington Valley, 

 situated beyond the Blue Ridge, about two hundred miles west of Lake Maquarie, indeed 

 on the interior boundary line of the colony. At this place a mission of the Church of 

 England had been established about eight years before our arrival. We have to acknow- 

 ledge the extreme kindness of the Rev. William Watson, who, during a fortnight passed 

 at his house, not only gave every assistance in obtaining a vocabulary from the natives, 

 but did us the unexpected favor of drawing up an account of the most important peculi- 

 arities of the language, modelled as nearly as possible on the grammar of Mr. Threlkeld, 

 for the purpose of comparison. This is here given, with only some slight change of 

 form, and must be considered as constituting a most valuable contribution on the part of 

 Mr. Watson, to the stores of philological science. The language is known to the natives 

 who speak it by the name of Wira-durei or Wiraturai. 



PHONOLOGY. 



The following list comprises all the elementary sounds that occur in the Australian 

 dialects, so far as our observation has extended. 



PRIMITIVE SOUNDS. VARIATIONS. 



a v ; a, 



e i; y 



o u; w 



k g 

 I 

 m 



