Volume II Part 17 (1/2)

It has. .h.i.therto been very generally believed that the languages spoken in different portions of the continent of Australia are radically distinct; and as such a circ.u.mstance, were it really the case, would tend to prove that its inhabitants originated from several separate races, it becomes rather an important matter to set this question at rest, and to endeavour to show from what cause so erroneous an opinion originated.

The arguments which prove that all the Australian dialects have a common root are:

1. A general similarity of sound and structure of words in the different portions of Australia, as far as yet ascertained

2. The recurrence of the same word with the same signification, to be traced, in many instances, round the entire continent, but undergoing, of course, in so vast an extent of country, various modifications;

3. The same names of natives occurring frequently at totally opposite portions of the continent. Now, in all parts of it which are known to Europeans, it is ascertained that the natives name their children from any remarkable circ.u.mstance which may occur soon after their birth; such being the case, an accordance of the names of natives is a proof of a similarity of dialect.

CAUSES OF ERROR IN ENQUIRERS.

The chief cause of the misapprehension which has so long existed with regard to the point under consideration is that the language of the aborigines of Australia abounds in synonymes, many of which are, for a time, altogether local; so that, for instance, the inhabitants of a particular district will use one word for water, whilst those of a neighbouring district will apply another, which appears to be a totally different one. But when I found out that in such instances as these both tribes understood the words which either made use of, and merely employed another one, from temporary fas.h.i.+on and caprice, I felt convinced that the language generally spoken to Europeans by the natives of any one small district could not be considered as a fair specimen of the general language of that part of Australia, and therefore in the vocabulary which I compiled in Western Australia I introduced words collected from a very extensive tract of country.

Again, in getting the names of the parts of the body, etc., from the natives, many causes of error arise; for they have names for almost every minute portion of the human frame: thus, in asking the name for the arm, one stranger would get the name for the upper arm, another for the lower arm, another for the right arm, another for the left arm, etc.; and it therefore seems most probable that in the earlier stages of the inquiry into the nature of the language of this people these circ.u.mstances contributed mainly to the erroneous conclusion that languages radically different were spoken in remote parts of the continent.

PROOFS OF IDENt.i.tY OF THE LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT.

One singularity in the dialects spoken by the aborigines in different portions of Australia is that those of districts widely removed from one another sometimes a.s.similate very closely, whilst the dialects spoken in the intermediate ones differ considerably from either of them. The same circ.u.mstances take place with regard to their rites and customs; but as this appears rather to belong to the question of the means by which this race was distributed over so extensive a tract of country, I will not now enter into it, but merely adduce sufficient evidence to prove that a language radically the same is spoken over the whole continent.

If then we start from Perth in Western Australia, following the coast in a southerly direction, it will be found that between Perth and King George's Sound a common language is spoken, made up of several dialects, scarcely differing from one another in any material points and gradually merging into the dialects of these two places, as the points considered are nearer to one or the other.

The princ.i.p.al causes of difference between the dialects of these two places are, 1st, that at King George's Sound the terminating syllable of all names is dropped; and 2nd, that all verbs, with a very few exceptions, end in gur, instead of the varying termination which is given to them at Perth. Any person who can speak the Perth dialect will, by observing these two rules, be able to converse freely with the natives of King George's Sound.

(TABLE OF EXAMPLES TO ILl.u.s.tRATE THIS DIFFERENCE OF DIALECTS.)

From these examples it will be seen that the King George's Sound dialect is the simplest of the two; and indeed I am inclined to believe that the dialect there spoken is more simple than that in use at any other portion of the continent.

If we now proceed to Adelaide in South Australia we still find the same language spoken, but the dialect here is considerably softened; the hard g of Perth is exchanged for k, and b becomes p and w. Many of the nouns take -anga as a termination, and the verbs take -andi and -endi. This addition of soft terminations and a general sweetness of sound appear to be the peculiar characteristics of the Adelaide dialect. No large vocabulary of this language has yet been published, but one-eighth of the words known as belonging to the Perth dialect have been found also in that of Adelaide; we may therefore fairly conclude that when the latter language is better known a still greater degree of ident.i.ty will be found to exist.

Natives from several parts of the Murray and Murrumbidgee and from Port Phillip have been brought into communication with natives from King George's Sound, scanty vocabularies from some of these points are also extant, and the amount of evidence thus gained clearly establishes that the several dialects are all derived from a common root.

The labours of Mr. Threlkeld in the vicinity of Hunter's River and Lake Macquarie enable us to compare the language of that portion of Australia with those of the other points which we have just considered, and the result of this comparison also shows that the languages are radically the same.

TABLES OF EXAMPLES.

The following Tables will give a sufficient number of words common to those four dialects to show the degree of similarity which exists among them.

(TABLE OF SUBSTANTIVES.

TABLE OF VERBS.)

VARIATIONS OF DIALECT.

Now before proceeding farther and thus entering upon ground which is very little known, there are several important circ.u.mstances worthy of consideration. In the vast extent of country which is comprised between the points embraced in these tables it was to have been expected that very great variations of dialect would have been found. If we only reflect upon the differences of dialect existing between the several counties of England, so limited in extent, how much greater were the variations to have been reasonably antic.i.p.ated in a country between two and three thousand miles across, where an unwritten language is in use, and where no communication whatever takes place between the inhabitants of distant portions: moreover in this great extent the vegetation becomes totally different; birds, reptiles, and quadrupeds inhabit one portion of the continent which are unknown in another, and external nature altogether changes. Under these circ.u.mstances many new words must have been invented, and new terms must constantly have been introduced as the population spread across the country, and as those who were constantly pus.h.i.+ng on from the outskirts of the inhabited parts ceased to communicate with the districts which had been first peopled, these changes must have been unknown to the original inhabitants of the continent and to those of their descendants who successively inhabited their territory.

If for instance this country was first peopled from the north or the tropical parts, the most remote inhabitants of the southern portions must have invented terms for snow, ice, hail, intense cold, etc., as well as for every tree and bird, for every fish and reptile, and for every insect; all the compound and comparative terms derived from these, as well as the original words, we ought therefore to expect to find totally different in the languages of the north and south, of the east and west; and from whatever portion of the continent we imagine the first inhabitants to have proceeded the same reasoning holds good.

RADICAL IDENt.i.tY OF THE p.r.o.nOUNS.

But personal terms, such as the parts of the body, the p.r.o.nouns, etc., and also verbs describing ordinary actions, ought not to be expected to vary in the same degree; and we shall accordingly find that it is chiefly in words of these and similar cla.s.ses that the greatest degree of resemblance is found to exist. With regard to the p.r.o.nouns this is very remarkable. In the singular, plural, and dual numbers they almost coincide in Western Australia, South Australia, and Sydney. The following table of the p.r.o.nouns as used in those places will show this: