54 



THE SPEECH OF THE TASMANIAN" ABORIGINES. 



nina, nara, besides meaning " motion away from me,"" 

 may indicate the non-ego, the outer world, i.e., you, he,, 

 she, they, that thing; ni or noi, similarly, may mean 

 negation, as well as " apart from." Tana (also taw'e, tia,. 

 tiena, tienbug, tona, toni), means was (at a distant time), 

 depart, heap, mound, to add, vanish, sink, spark, call 

 (to a distance). Na, as " that thing," is the general' 

 suffix for nouns and adjectives, sometimes replaced by 

 ra or lia. 



The guttural consonants may express disgust (as in 

 the sound of retching), or something connected with the- 

 dropping of the chin. For the former meaning we have- 

 the common suffix ak or ik, expressing dislike, un- 

 pleasantness, also negation. For the latter we have 

 kana (also kami, kaiena, kuna), meaning mouth, teeth, 

 jaw, cheek, to speak, to sing, to reject. 



It will be observed that in the examples given, only 

 the first consonant, with the following vowel or diph- 

 thong, enters into the argument. 



The sounds r and 1 have other functions besides^ 

 that of indicating motion ; they also denote emphasis, 

 especially the r. Of course, a moving thing has more- 

 energy than a stationary one. In Norman's vocabulary,, 

 the letter r is verv conspicuous ; in most instances it is 

 merely a phonetic device to assure a correct pronuncia- 

 tion, but in others it probably indicates the throaty 

 bass-voices of the Aboriginal speakers. 



This is practically the whole material of the speech 

 of the Tasmanian Aborigines. All things were distin- 

 guished according to two ideas, namely, rest and motion.. 

 ■The liquid consonants expressed motion, and all the 

 others, rest. This is the explanation of the frequent 

 interchange of sounds within two groups. By a develop- 

 ment of psychic activity, it came to pass that the dental 

 sounds signified rest simply, the labials, rest attained 

 after motion, the gutturals, motion after rest, and the 

 liquids, simple motion. From these four groups, prac- 

 ticallv represented by four simple syllables, the whole 

 speech was formed, as will appear plausible from our 

 further demonstration. 



There were so few things of interest to the Abo- 

 rigines, tliat they could easily express them by a small 



