THE ABOKIGINAL LANGUAGES OF VICTORIA. 75 



All the languages of eastern Victoria, although differing 

 widely in vocabulary from the Thurrawal, 1 reported by me 

 last year, are yet substantially the same in grammatical 

 structure as that language. This remark also applies to 

 that portion of Victoria situated west of the 145th meridian 

 of longitude, the only difference being that the western 

 districts have the trial number, whilst the eastern have 

 not. The eastern and western tongues both have inflexion 

 for number and person of nouns, adverbs, prepositions, etc., 

 in addition to that of the verbs and pronouns ; both have 

 the double form of the first person in all numbers beyond 

 the singular. In the vocabularies of all these languages — 

 the Thurrawal, Tyattyalla, Brabirrawulung, etc. — there 

 are several words in common, showing a community of 

 origin. 2 



Some of Mr. R. B. Smyth's correspondents ventured to 

 send him stories purporting to be told in certain native 

 dialects. 3 I have looked over all these stories, and can 

 pronounce them to be mere ungrammatical jargon, written 

 by men who knew nothing of the structure of the languages 

 they were dealing with. They are on a par with the 

 pigeon-English of the Chinese costerer : " Plenty me got 

 him cabbagee." 



It is desired in this place to thank all those gentlemen 

 who are in charge of Aboriginal Stations in Victoria, for 

 allowing me free access to the natives under their control, 

 and for other acts of kindness during my visits to their 

 respective districts, whilst I was engaged in linguistic and 

 other investigations among the native tribes of Victoria. 



2 Journ. Roy. Soc. N S.W., Vol. xxxv., pp. 127 - 160. 



3 " The Origin, Organisation and Ceremonies of the Australian Abor- 

 igines," — Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Phila., Vol. xxxix., pp. 556 - 578, with, 

 map of Australia, plate viii. 



1 "Aborigines of Victoria," Vol. u., pp. 48, 49, and pp. 53, 54. 



