Ahorighud Bialccfs, S,-r., of Tasmanici. 27^ 



inflexions, combinations, and analogies of which have been 

 recognised by the eje as well as the ear, and stereotyped, as- 

 it were, by the printing press. 



Tlie circumstance of the aboriginal inhabitants of Van 

 Diemen's Land being divided into many tribes and sub- 

 tribes, in a state of perpetual antagonism and open hos- 

 tility to each other, materially added to the number and 

 augmented the energy of the elements and agents of mu- 

 tation ordinarily operating on the language of an unlet- 

 tered people : to this was superadded the effect of certain 

 superstitious customs every^vliere ])revalent, which led from 

 time to time to the absolute rejection and disuse of words 

 previously employed to express objects familiar and indis- 

 pensable to all — thus imperiously modifying nomenclature 

 and the substantive parts of speech, and tending arbitrarily 

 to diversify the dialects of the several tribes. 



The habit of gesticulation and the use of signs to eke out 

 the meaning of monosyllabic expressions, and to give force^ 

 precision, and character to vocal sounds, exerted a foi'ther 

 modifying effect, producing, as it did, carelessness and 

 laxity of articulation, and in the application and pronunci- 

 ation of words. The last named irregularity, namely, the 

 distinctly different pronmiciation of a word by the same 

 person on different occasions to convey the same idea is 

 very perplexing, mitil the radical or essential part of the 

 word, apart from prefixes and suffixes, is caught hold of. 

 The affixes, which signify nothing, are la, lah, le, leh, leah, 

 na, ne, nah, ba, be, beah, bo, ma, me, meah, pa, poo, ra, re,, 

 ta, te, ak, ek, ik, &c. Some early voyagers appear to have 

 mistaken the terminals la, le, &c., as distinctive of sex, 

 when aj)plied to men, women, and the lower animals. The 

 language, when spoken by the natives, was rendered embar- 

 rassing by the frequent alliteration of vowels and other 

 startling abbreviations, as well as by the apposition of the 

 incidental increment indifferently before or after the radical 



