characteristic of the dialects named, which thouo;h spoken at places 

 five or six lumdred miles apart with difierent dialects intervening 

 are evidently of one family. The same type of dialect is spoken 

 on the Norman River. 



Xumber is rarely marked save by distinct words. There are 

 however exceptions. In the speech of the Narrinyeri (South 

 Australia) the plural is indicated by a special terminal intieotion, 

 e.g., 'korni' a //*r//,,dual 'kornengk' two men, plural 'kornar' mw. 

 In the verb, number receives no sound mark. A fallacious notion 

 ,videly circulated may here be referred to with the 

 "" ' ■ '■ ■■ ■ ■' have no general 



of words in every 

 Take the Kabi dialect as an 

 example it has a general name for animal, man, tree, stone, creek, 

 mountain, and so forth. The only grounds for the delusion referred 

 to are the facts that some classesof objects have not been generalized 

 and that there is a preference for the special distincti^■e name, even 

 where a general one exists. Thus instead of speaking of a tree, 

 the native prefers to specialize the particular kind of tree. 



Gender is commonly distinguished by the addition of a word 

 signifying male, female, man, mother, or the like, but in special 

 classes of words such as the phratric names there are occasionally 

 terminations distinctive of sex, as for instance about Brisbane, 

 Queensland, ' barang ' a male of the class 'barang,' ' baranggan 

 a female of the same class. But the most striking case of phonic 

 indication of gender comes from the Daly River. I am sorry to 

 be unable to give my informant's name as my information came 

 indirectly, but I believe he is a member of the Roman Catholic 

 IVIission at that place and I hope he will publish a memoir upon 

 the very interesting dialect of which I have received a sketch and 

 a vocabulary. In the dialect referred to, which is known as tlie 

 Daktyerat and is spoken on the left bank of the Daly Ri^er, 

 Xorthern Territory, four genders are distinguished in nouns, 

 adjectives, and verbs, 02., masculine, feminine, neuter, and common. 

 Tlie general distinctive marks being 'y,' 'n,' 'w,' and 'm,' respec- 

 tively, with sometimes a following vowel, and these inflexions ar 

 initial in adjectives, e.g., ' yidello ' a hig (man), ' nudello ' - f^^" 

 (ivomaii), ' wudello" a big (fhim/J, sex not distinguished, ' ni 

 a l.hj fnl,;,rf ufang gender). These marks are probably the con- 

 sniiaiitnl radical of the third personal pronouns. In all the 



ecognized. The cases comprise 

 e, accusative, aJ)lative (instrui 

 ve, locative (wirh distinctions 



udello' 



ceedingly rich 

 16 fact 



tental) 



