TEE ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF VICTORIA. 71 



THE ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF VICTORIA, 



By R. H. Mathews, l.s., 



Memb. Assoc. Etran. Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris. 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, July 2, 1902.'] 



Synopsis — Introductory. Orthography. The Tyattyalla Language. 

 The Tyapwurru and Wuddjawurru Dialects. The Thaguwurru Language. 

 The Woiwurru Dialect. The Brabirrawulung Language. Vocabularies 

 of Tyattyalla and Brabirrawulung Words. 



In 1898 I contributed to the Anthropological Society at 

 Washington an article describing the initiatory rites and 

 social organisation of the native tribes of Victoria. 1 On 

 that occasion I stated : " The only way at the present 

 time to accomplish what I have indicated [to define the 

 boundaries of the nations into which the aborigines were 

 divided] is to study the languages or dialects of the popu- 

 lation, grouping together those which have an evident 

 affinity." It is now my intention to proceed with the 

 work I commenced in 1898. 



At the time of writing the article referred to I had per- 

 sonally studied only two of the native tongues, but since 

 then I have made several additional journeys through 

 Victoria at various times for the purpose of visiting the 

 remnants of the different tribes and further examining the 

 structure of their speech. As no previous author has 

 attempted to supply the elements of the grammar of the 

 languages of the native tribes of Victoria, the pleasing 

 duty has devolved upon me to present to the reader a por- 

 tion of my researches in this direction. Gathering this 

 information from the lips of the natives, and reducing it to 



1 " The Victorian Aborigines : their Initiation Ceremonies and Divis- 

 ional Systems." — American Anthropologist, Vol. xi., pp. 325 - 343, with 

 map of Victoria, plate v. 



