72 



THE SPEECH OP THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 



Una, fire — doublet of wina, stick, firewood ; or of 

 ngune, from nagana, the " eater up," or even from 

 ngonina, nagana, the flickerer, flapper. 



TJghana kanna nire, true — oana, speak ; kan, word ; 

 nire, good. 



Warra, bark of tree — palla. round, sheh, ''' palhum." 



Warrane, blue sky — warra, vauh. 



Warrena, warrentinna, cloud in sky — warra, rounded 

 mass ; tin, extensive. 



Waratte, hoar-frost. There seems to be an interest- 

 ing interchange of meanings. Paratta, waratta are 

 onomatopoetic, from the prattling noise of hail or the 

 crackling of icicles ; but the ice forms a covering, like 

 tark, and so we have the warra family of words, in touch 

 Avith palla, parra, round. 



Warrawa, spirit of the dead — warra, cloud, appari- 

 tion ; wa, active. 



Wina, fuel, stick, taste, feel, try, wake — pena, stretch 

 out, active. 



Wia lutta, red charcoal — Vv-ia, wood ; lut, bright, 

 shining. 



THE AVESTERN AND NORTH-WESTERN 

 SPEECH. 



Here we have some striking characteristics, different 

 from those of the Eastern and Southern words ; but, 

 when allowance has been made .for these, the words are 

 found to be essentially the same. 



W^e notice at once a softer pronunciation of the con- 

 sonants, b, d, g, for the Eeastern p, t, k. We also have 

 the nominal suffix, lea, to take the place of the Eastern 

 na. As a specimen of the extraorclinary spelling occa- 

 sionally used b}' the recorders, we may note i-aynghlalea 

 (bad), which seems to stand for the Eastern wiena-na 

 (crooked). Such spelling might make the whole of the 

 record doubtful but for the fact that there is a certain 

 consistency underlying the spelling, which enables us to 

 establish fairly reliable conclusions. We must bear in 

 mind that the climate and ph}-siographical features of the 

 West and North-West are singularly like those of the 

 West of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and we need not 

 be surprised if the intonation and articulation of the 



