aborigines of the south-east coast of n. s. wales. 265 



The Gundungurra Grammar. 

 The Gun'-dung-ur'-ra is one of the principle dialects used in the 

 area defined in the opening paragraph. It was spoken in all the 

 country intervening between Burragorang and Picton, as far as 

 Goulburn, Crookwell and Yass. The Dhar'-rook dialect, very 

 closely resembling the Gundungurra, was spoken at Campbelltown, 

 Liverpool, Camden, Penrith, and possibly as far east as Sydney, 

 where it merged into the Thurrawal. A very old Dharrook 

 blackfellow, named "Jimmy Lownds," only recently deceased, 

 informed us that the Gundungurra and Dharrook natives could 

 converse together with but little difficulty. Adjoining the Gun- 

 dungurra on the west, is the great nation of the Wiradjuri-speak- 

 ing people. 



I. Value of letters, etc. — The spelling is on an English basis. 

 All the vowels have the same sound as in English unless marked 

 as follows : — 



a as in fate. 6 as in mote. 



d as in far. u as in mute. 



% as in mine. 



G is always hard. Dh is pronounced nearly as th in that, but 

 with a slight sound of d before it. Ng at the commencement of 

 a syllable has a peculiar sound, which can be got by assuming oo 

 to precede it, thus ngan is pronounced oong-an, articulating it as 

 one syllable. N before y, as in nyin, is pronounced like inyin 

 the two syllables being pronounced as one. The same applies to 

 d before y, as dyer, pronounced de-yer in one syllable. Ch is 

 sounded as ch in church. A final h is guttural, resembling the 

 German ch in noch, nach, ich, etc., but not quite so strong. Ng 

 at the end of a syllable has the sound very nearly of ng in sing, 

 but more nasal. The accented syllable is marked thus '. 



II. Nouns. — The plural is shown by an attached pronoun, 

 jil'-long, they ; or darh'-gang, the whole lot of them. Singular — 

 Bow'-wil, man. Plural — Bow'-wil-jil'-long, man-they, or men ; 

 Bow'-wil darh'-gang jil'-long, man-all of them-they. 



