THE WOMBAT. 13 



Wales, as ko-ba, kin-ba, um-ba ! here, as before, it merely 

 strengthens the preceding syllable. In the island of New Britain 

 of Northern Melanesia, ba is an independent word, and means 

 4 there ' (demonstrative) j so also ab, abi (demonstrative) of 

 Torres' Straits. 



From these instances, I think I am justified in considering 

 bang, that is, ba nasalised, as a prepositive and strengthening par- 

 ticle in the Woddowro pronouns. In that use, it has analogies in the 

 a, ai, ko (prepositive) of the Melanesian examples on page 9. 

 That use is also supported by the Hebrew pronoun an-oki, ' I,' 

 where the oki is the pronoun, and an is a prefixed particle, as is 

 i»lso the Fgyptian an and ant in the pronouns of the first and 

 second persons. And in the New Hebrides it seems likely that 

 the original form of these two pronouns in Efatese were na- ku, ' I, 

 and an-ka, ' thou.' 



As to the final k of the Woddowro pronouns, it is merely a 

 termination and has no significance. It is very common in ]Sarr- 

 inyeri words of South Australia ; elsewhere on this continent it 

 is ka, ga, nga. In fact, in Nos. 6 and 12 of the Woddowro pro- 

 nouns, ng takes its place. 



From all this it appears that the syllables between bang and 

 the final k are the real body of the pronouns which we have now 

 to consider. These I will refer to by the numerals attached to the 

 Woddowro pronouns as given on a previous page. 



(1) The first pronoun in most of the Australian dialects is 

 nga, ngai ; but, in many places, ngi and sometimes nge is the root- 

 form that is used. Ngi-k is therefore a regular word to mean ' I.' * 



*Many of our tribal vocabularies were compiled by men who followed 

 the English sound of the letter i in writing down the words. I therefore 

 think that often in them ngi is intended to represent the sound of ngai, 



(2) Ngin, in a variety of forms, is invariably the pronoun 

 ' thou.' I therefore conclude that Mr Tuckfield's bong-en ought 

 to be bang-ngin. 



(3) Ta, da are common demonstratives ; as (in Awabakal) 

 emmo-umba ta ' mine that (is) ' ta-ra, ' they (are)'. It is also a 

 very common suffix in place names, as in Parra-ma-ta. And in 

 many languages, the dental d is strengthened by prefixing to it the 

 sound of n ; hence nda-k in the third pronoun may sound like 

 nuk. 



(4) Bangui has the b of bula, ' two,' elided. 



(5) The bula is here manifest. 



(6) Through the influence of the nasal of bang, the t of the 

 demonstrative ta, da is dropped. 



