BY HERMANN B. RITZ, M.A. ^j 



IV.— SYNTAX. 



H. Ling" Roth, in his discussion of the Tasmanian 

 language (pp. 178 ff.), bases his remarks on the syntax 

 chiefly on Fr. Miiller's Grundriss der Sprachwissen- 

 schaft. As has been stated in the introduction, the pre- 

 sent investigation is confined to tlie original records ; 

 but it ma}' be pointed out, that from our dissection of 

 the words it seems that these words themselves w'ere 

 phrases, and that there is no trace of systematic acci- 

 dence or syntax. 



In my Introduction to the study of the Aboriginal 

 Speech of Tasmania, read on the i6th November, 1908, 

 before this Societ};, I translated a song which has fortu- 

 nately been preserved in three versions. For the sake 

 of completeness and brevity, I repeat one of the ver- 

 sions. The literal translation was : — " Might}-, run, fire, 

 heel, my, speedy, foot, my, speedy, thou, come, run, 

 bird, thou, very, great-man, man, very, great-man, hero." 

 This was rendered in plain English thus : — " With might 

 runs the bush fire; my heel, too, is speedy, and m}' foot 

 is swift. Come thou, and run with the speed of ^ bird ! 

 Thou art a real warrior, a man indeed, a warrior, a 

 hero !"' 



In the records we have some phrases translated. I 

 will briefly refer to them. 



Wilkinson's translation of a portion of Genesis is 

 very short, and mixed with English words. We take 

 the first four verses as specimens : — Trota, Godna po- 

 male heavena coantana. Lewara crackne. Godna carne, 

 tretetea, tretetea crackne. Godna capra tretetea lewarra. 



Godna and heavena are evidently English words. 

 Capra is probably a misprint for lapra (see). Trota is 

 a curious word. The mental development of the Abo- 

 rigines had not advanced to abstract ideas ; so they 

 could not tell Mr. Wilkinson the word for " beginning." 

 Then he probably laid a row of stones on the ground, 

 pointed to the first one. and asked what that was. He 

 would expect the equivalent of " beginning," and the 

 Aborigines told him it vvas trota or trowatta, a round 

 stone or pebble ! We let it pass as meaning " begin- 

 ning," and retranslate literally thus : — •" Beginning God 

 make heaven earth. Dark rest. God speak light, light 

 rest. God see Hght dark." 



