46 



THE SPEECH OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 



Practically all the available material is contained 

 in H. Ling Roth's work, '* The Aborigines of Tas- 

 mania " (Halifax, 1899), supplemented by H. De 

 Charency's " Recherches sur les Dialectes Tasmaniens " 

 (Alen9on, 1880). A comparison of H. Ling Roth's work 

 with the sources of his information proves that his work 

 may safely be taken as a reliable standard of reference, 

 as far as the main facts are concerned ; the misprints 

 and errors of transcription are comparatively few in 

 number and easily corrected. We shall therefore be 

 able to quote chiefly from that book. 



De Charency simply gives a list of words taken 

 chiefly from French authors. 



Latham (i) and Mtiller (2) have dealt with the Tas- 

 manian speech, but I purposely postpone the study of 

 their theories until I have completed the elaboration of 

 my own. I am familiar with the usual views on the 

 subject of their works, and, on the other 'hand, do not 

 wish to run the risk of unconscious bias in favour of any 

 particular view until I have thoroughly investigated the 

 original sources of information. 



Taking, then, H. Ling Roth's book as our guide, we 

 find that there are certainly several dialects of the Tas- 

 manian language, and that these dialects are assignable 

 to fairly definite geographical regions. The number of 

 these dialects is difficult to ascertain ; but on broad lines 

 we can easily distinguish two, spoken in regions which 

 are separated by mountains and other obstacles, viz., the 

 Western and North-Western speech on the one hand, 

 and the Eastern and Southern on the other. The re- 

 cords of the former are much scantier than those of the 

 latter, and of these, more material is definitely assigned 

 to the East Coast than to the region of the River 

 D'erwent. 



We shall therefore begin our scrutiny with the 

 records of the Eastern speech, then take those of the 

 Southern, and finally those of the Western and North- 

 Western dialects. 



(i) G. R. Latham, Elements of Comparative Philology, 

 (Ivondon, 1862). 



{2) Fried. Miiller, Grniidriss der Spracliwissenschaft 

 (Vienna, 1S76). 



