81 



One hears from the same individual such varying forms 

 as [karnada] and [ga?-nara] for "north wind," [jalkata] and 

 [jelgada] for "three," [ko:rni] and [kworrni] for "man." 

 Especially in unaccented syllables is there much licence : 

 [raar;'kata] and [mar^kara] for "girl." These divergencies are 

 not surprising when we remember that the natives are without 

 lett-ers or any standard of "correcf^' speech. 



The Adelaide Language. 



An interesting and intelligent personality is Mrs. Amelia 

 Taylor, who claims to be the last survivor of the Adelaide 

 tribe. Born near Adelaide, and probably between 60 and 70 

 years of age, she now occupies a cottage at Point Pearce. 

 Her native name is [i^ariti], meaning "a gentle, misty rain." 

 Mr. M. Moorhouse, who was appointed Protector of Aborigines 

 in 1839, estimated the number of natives near Adelaide in 

 18i51 to be 220. Bisliop Short-, in giving evidence before a 

 Parliamentary Select Committee on the aborigines, in 1860, 

 said : — "The Adelaide tribe is gone. They used to come down 

 to Hindmarsh to bury. I remember 300 natives assembling 

 in the heart of what is called Norwood now." Dr. Wyatt, 

 who was Protector of Aborigines from 1837 to 1839, gave 

 evidence: — "With regard to the Adelaide tribe, it has nearly 

 died out. . . . The Adelaide tribe varied from 150 to 

 300 at one time, including the children — that is to say, the 

 tribe called the Adelaide tribe was a group of smaller tribes 

 of which the Adelaide tribe was the centre." Thus it appears 

 that in 24 years — from 1836 to 1860 — the Adelaide tribe 

 became almost extinct. 



In 1840 the Revs. C. G. Teichelmann and C. W. Schur- 

 mann, two Lutheran missionaries, published "Outlines of a 

 Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phraseology of the aboriginal 

 language of South Australia spoken by the natives in and 

 for some distance around Adelaide." In the follo^ving 

 vocabulary, obtained from Mrs. Taylor, any notes taken from 

 the above work are indicated by the initials "T. and S." 



The Adelaide Public Library contains a pamphlet 

 entitled "A Vocabulary of the language of the aborigines of 

 the Adelaide district and other friendly tribes of the Province 

 of South xiustralia, by William Williams, of the Colonial 

 Store Department. Adelaide, 1839." This little work is 

 mentioned in Mr. T. Gill's Bibliography of South Australia 

 (1885), but has not, as far as I know, been noticed in any 

 linguistic publication. It is interesting, because it is almost 

 certainly the first attempt to describe any native language of 

 this State, and precedes Teichelmann and Schlirmann's larger 

 and more complet-e work by one year. Tlie spelling is 



