180 MATHEWS—ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES. [April 3° 
word or syllable I have given it as zy, but when terminating a word 
the Spanish letter is employed. 
Ng at the beginning of a word or syllable has a peculiar nasal 
sound. At the end of a syllable it has substantially the sound of 
ng in ‘‘sing.”’ 
Dh is pronounced nearly as th in ‘‘ that,’’ with a slight sound of 
d preceding it. Nh has likewise nearly the sound of th in “ that,”’ 
but with an initial sound of the n. A final h is guttural, resembling 
ch in the German word ‘ bach.”’ 
T is interchangeable with d, p with b, and g with k, in most 
words where these letters are used. 
Ty and dy at the commencement of a word or syllable has nearly 
the sound of j. At the end of a word ty or dy is pronounced nearly 
as tch in ‘“batch”’ or ‘‘ ditch,’’ omitting the final hissing sound. 
All the details supplied in this article were taken down by myself 
from the lips of the natives speaking the languages herein dealt 
with—a tedious and laborious task. . 
THE MUuURAWARRI LANGUAGE. 
In acommunication to this Society in 1898 I described the social 
divisions and laws of intermarriage prevailing in the Murawarri 
tribe, together with a comprehensive list of totems, and will now 
proceed to exhibit the structure of their language. This tribe 
occupies an extensive region on the southern frontier of Queens- 
land, between the Warrego and Culgoa rivers, reaching also some 
distance into New South Wales. Languages similar in grammar to 
the Murawarri, although differing somewhat in vocabulary, extend 
northerly into Queensland for hundreds of miles. 
NOUNS. 
Number.—Nouns have three numbers, the singular, dual and 
plural. Gula, a kangaroo. Gulabural, a pair of kangaroos. 
Guladhunna, several kangaroos. The suffix daunna is frequently 
shortened to dhu, in rapid conversation. 
Gender.—Mén, aman. Mugifi,a woman. Guthera, a small boy. 
Gutheragamba, a small girl. The sex of animals is distinguished 
by using, after the name of the creature, the words dhungur, male, 
and guni, female, and these words take inflexion for number and 
‘case. 
SAS gt, Oe 
