n - University of Newcastle

APPENDIX.
(4
A SHORT
GRA3II~IA.R AND VOCABULARY
OF THE
DIALECT SPoliXx Bs THE DIINP~G PEOPLE,
on the north-east coast of New South Wales.
(%y tAe REV. H. Livingstone, TVinznzcvcr, T'ictoria.')
--
I. THE GRAIkIJIAR.
The Miny~z& dialect is spoken at Byrs_lay ailcl on the Brunswick
River. The ilatives on the R9ond River have ltwsister
dialect callecl the Nyug; those on the Tweecl call their own
Qando 09. Gando~vaI, but the Rfiny ug they call Gendo. The
words minyug ancl nyug mean 'what '? or 'something,' for
they are used either interrogativelp or assertively. Similarly, the
words galldo and gendo mean 'who'? or 'somebody.' These
three dialects are so closely related that they may be regardecl as
one language; it is uilderstood from the Clarence River in New
South Wales northward to the Logan in Qneensland. For this
language the aborigines ha~e no general name.
It is vell known that the Australian dialects are agglutinative,
everything in the nature of inflection being obtained by suflkes.
To this, the RIin y u g is no exception ; so that, if I give an account
of its suffixes, that is nearly equivalent to giving an exposition of
its grammar. It will, therefore, be convenient to take, first, such
suffixes as are used with the noun and its equi~-alents, and, afterwards,
those that may he regarded as verbal suffixes. The words
that take what may be called the noun-suffixes are (1) Nouns,
(2) Adjectives, and (3) Pronouns.
--
XO UNS ancl AD JEC'TIVES.
As the same general principles apply to both nouns and adjectives,
these may be examined together as to (1) Classification,
(2) Number, (3) Gender, (4) Suffixes.
: *Written for this volume at my request.-ED.