256 MATHEWS—-LANGUAGES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. [May 15, 
NOUNS. 
Number.—There is no special declension for number, but the 
noun is followed by words signifying two or several. 
Ginggér bulabulari, kangaroos two. 
Ginggér girrawa, kangaroos several. — 
Gender.—Man, thaimburra. Woman, burranyen. Boy, bod- 
yerra. Girl, dillanggan. The sex of animals is denoted by words 
meaning ‘‘male’’ and ‘‘ female’’ respectively, placed after the 
creature’s name, as, Margan dyillawara, a buck wallaby. Margan 
kandura, a doe wallaby. Among birds, boro means a cock, and 
ngapara, a hen. 
Case.—There are the nominative, causative, instrumental, pos- 
sessive, accusative, dative and ablative cases. 
Nominative: Tua, a boomerang. Kunnai, a yamstick. Wan- 
dyi, a dog. 
Causative: Ginggéru nganya bittang, a kangaroo me scratched. 
Burranyendu nganya buang, a woman me struck. 
Instrumental: ‘Thaimburradu nganya bindaimang tuandu, a 
man at me threw a boomerang. 
Possessive: Burranyengu kunnai, a woman’s yamstick. Thaim- 
burrangu tua, a man’s boomerang. 
In the Gundungurra, and in several other aboriginal languages 
of New South Wales and Victoria, the article possessed takes a 
suffix, as well as the possessor. For example, warrangan means a 
boomerang, and murrifi a man, but ‘‘a man’s boomerang’”’ must be 
expressed, Murrin-gu warrangan-gumg. Until reported by me,’ 
this peculiarity of a double suffix in the genitive case of Australian 
nouns had not been observed by any previous author. 
Dative: Nguralami, to a camp. 
Ablative: Nguranga, from a camp. 
Accusative: This is the same as the nominative. 
ADJECTIVES. 
Adjectives take the same inflections as the nouns which they 
qualify. 
Thaimburra burwai, a man large. 
Thaimburradu burwaidu nganya buang, a man large me struck. 
Thaimburrangu burwaigu tua, a large man’s boomerang. 
1 «The Gundungurra Language,” Proc. AMER. PHIL. Soc., Vol. xl, p. 143. 
