and the Languages of Australia. 175 



this evidence is concerned, is the great centre of languages, 

 of mythology, and of civilisation. 



As in another paper contributed by me High Africa has 

 been treated on as a centre of culture, it is not necessary to 

 go into the whole subject here. 



The Australian languages will be found to belong to one 

 of the earliest epochs of development of language in this 

 group, but I am of opinion that the testimonies brought 

 forward in Mr. Brough Smyth's work as to Australia 

 having been, at some former period, under the influence of a 

 white race, are correct. 



As such, I should class, which I cannot now account for, 

 though I have an hypothesis not yet tested, the curious 

 circumstance that the names of languages in Australia are 

 negatives. Now, a whole section in my prehistoric and 

 protohistoric comparative philology and mythology is de- 

 voted to the exemplification of this remarkable characteristic 

 of a negative series. Now one language is called the Kabi, 

 and Kaba figures largely in many languages of the old world 

 as a negative. 



Mr. R. Brough Smyth, in The Aborigines of Victoria, 

 Vol. II, page 8 (Trubner, 1878), says: — 



cf A great many of the languages of Australia are named 

 after the word ' no.' The late Mr. Bunce states that the 

 Melbourne people used to designate their language the 

 words ' Nuther galla,' nuther meaning ' no.' 



" The late Mr. E. S. Parker corroborates Mr. Bunce's state- 

 ment. He says: — The natives distinguish the different 

 talle, or languages, by their negations. Thus there is the 

 Burapper dialect, spoken by the Mallegoondeet ; the Utar 

 dialect, on the Murray and Lower Goulburn — these words, 

 Burapper and Utar, being respectively the negations of each 

 language ; and so of others. 



" This system of nomenclature appears to prevail in the 

 eastern and southern parts of the continent. 



" The Rev. W. Ridley, M.A., eminent amongst the philo- 

 logists of Australia, says the following are the names of 

 some languages spoken in the interior : — 1, Kamilaroi ; 2, 

 Wolaroi; 3, Wiraiaroi ; 4, Wailwria ; 5, Kogai; 6, Pikum- 

 bul ; 7, Paiamba ; 8, Kingi. The first five of these are 

 named after their negatives. In the first, Kamil signifies 

 ' no ;' in the second, Wol is ' no ;' in the third, Wira is 

 c no ;' in the fourth, Wail is ' no ;' in the fifth, Ko is ' no.' 

 In Pikembul, on the other hand, Piku means ' yes.' " 



