78 



and Scliiirmann, in dealing with 'tli© Adelaide language 

 (1840), say: — '> sometimes sounds as r in English, some- 

 times rather softer, as in birri (nail of fingers or toes), marra 

 (hand), gurltendi (to cough), &c." This ''softer" sound is, 

 of course, the Somersetshire r, and the two first words are 

 written in my vocabulary [bi?-i, mara]. Schiirmann, in the 

 introduction to his ''Vocabulary of the Parnkalla language" 

 (1844), says both sounds occur in that dialect (spoken near 

 Port Lincoln), and points out that they distinguish the mean- 

 ing of otherwise similar words, e.g., yurra, "man" — yurra, 

 "earth" (the latter written yura in the vocabulary); wirra, 

 "scrub" — wirra, "air, rain"; karra, "high" — karra, "grass" 

 (the latter written kara in the vocabulary). In our system 

 these words would be written [jura — jura; wira — wira ; kara, 

 ka/'a]. It will be noticed that there is the same difference 

 in Narrunga between [wiri] club, and [wiri] shoulder, between 

 [wara] language, and [wara] sea-beach, and between [mara] 

 leaf, and [mara] hand. 



The distinction is also observed by G. F. Moore, Advocate- 

 General of Western Australia, in his "Descriptive Vocabulary 

 of the language in common use amongst the aborigines of 

 "Western Australia" (London, 1842). This work is based 

 on a vocabulary compiled by Capt. G. Grey (afterwards 

 Governor of South Australia) in 1838, and deals with the 

 language of the natives living about the Swan River. Moore 

 writes the word [mara] hand "marh-ra," and adds: "The 

 first r is to be aspirated. This is an attempt to explain in 

 letters a sound which hearing and practice alone can enable 

 anyone to understand and acquire." To show how closely 

 allied the Swan River language is to our own dialects spoken 

 from Adelaide to the Great Bight, it is only necessary to 

 quote the following words from Moore's work: "marh-ra, 

 hand; buyu, smoke; dta, mouth; dtallang, tongue; gabbi, 

 water; kalla, fire; katta, head; kardo, husband or wife; 

 mandigara, girl; mel, eye; wangon, speaking; warm, female 

 kangaroo." 



[/]. I believe this to be a peculiar sound, not hitherto 

 recognized as single, and common to many of, perhaps all the 

 languages of the Tindo family (the group which stretches 

 along the coasts from Adelaide to Perth, and from the Great 

 Bight northwards into Central Australia). The word for 

 "fire" in the Adelaide dialect is given by Teichelmann and 

 Schiirman as "gadla" or "garla," and was at first heard by 

 me as [karla, karla] or even [krla], with a syllabic [r]. In 

 Narrunga the same word was heard at first as [kadla], with 

 a faint d, or as [kalla]; McEntire, in Taplin's Folklore, p. 63, 

 quotes it as "kudla." In the Baroota dialect (these Trans., 



