Volume Ii Part 34 (1/2)

Sing : - : pediri (D) : -.

Sit down : - : k.u.mturi : -.

Sleep : mahuta : - : -.

Sneeze : - : tatino (D) : -.

Strike (with fist) : hela : - : -.

Swim : nahu : - : -.

Whistle : - : ino : -.

11. MlSCELLANEOUS.

Expressing friends.h.i.+p : - : magasugo (b) : -.

This is called : - : taina esana : -.

12. NAMES OF PERSONS.

Males, Number 1 : Woro : Ihara : Wadai.

Males, Number 2 : Iripa : Nubaida : Maho.

Males, Number 3 : Kari (father and son) : Tubuda : Hewawo.

Males, Number 4 : Baguya : Eratao : Mao.

Females, Number 1 : - : Lataoma, Konaia (D) : -.

Females, Number 2 : - : Narumai, Tatarai (D) : -.

Females, Number 3 : - : Haraobi, Bonarua (D) : -.

Females, Number 4 : - : Perodi : -.

Females, Number 5 : - : Gubetta : -.

APPENDIX 3.

REMARKS ON THE VOCABULARIES OF THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE, BY R.G.

LATHAM, M.D.

In the way of comparative philology the most important part of the Grammar of the Australian languages is, generally, the p.r.o.noun. That of the Kowrarega language will, therefore, be the first point investigated.

In the tongues of the Indo-European cla.s.s the personal p.r.o.nouns are pre-eminently constant, i.e., they agree in languages which, in many other points, differ. How thoroughly the sound of m runs through the Gothic, Slavonic, and Iranian tongues as the sign of the p.r.o.noun of the first person singular, in the oblique cases; how regularly a modification of t, s, or th, appears in such words as tu, su, thou, etc! Now this constancy of the p.r.o.noun exists in most languages; but not in an equally palpable and manifest form. It is disguised in several ways. Sometimes, as in the Indo-European tongues, there is one root for the nominative and one for the oblique cases; sometimes the same form, as in the Finlandic, runs through the whole declension; sometimes, as when we say you for thou in English, one number is subst.i.tuted for another; and sometimes, as when the German says sie for thou, a change of the person is made as well.

When languages are known in detail, these complications can be guarded against; but where the tongue is but imperfectly exhibited a special a.n.a.lysis becomes requisite.

Generally, the first person is more constant than the second, and the second than the third; indeed, the third is frequently no true personal p.r.o.noun at all, but a demonstrative employed to express the person or thing spoken of as the agent or object to a verb. Now, as there are frequently more demonstratives than one which can be used in a personal sense, two languages may be, in reality, very closely allied, though their personal p.r.o.nouns of the third person differ. Thus the Latin ego = Greek ego; but the Latin hic and ille by no means correspond in form with os, auto, and ekeinos. This must prepare us for not expecting a greater amount of resemblance between the Australian personal p.r.o.nouns than really exists.

Beginning with the most inconstant of the three p.r.o.nouns, namely, that of the third person, we find in the Kowrarega the following forms:

3.

Singular, masculine : nu-du = he, him.

Singular, feminine : na-du = she, her.

Dual, common : pale = they two, them two.

Plural, common : tana = they, them.

In the two first of these forms the du is no part of the root, but an affix, since the Gudang gives us the simpler forms nue and na. Pale, the dual form, occurs in the Western Australian, the New South Wales, the South Australian, and the Parnkalla as foIlows: boola, bulo-ara, purl-a, pudlanbi = they two.