n - University of Newcastle

10 AX AUSTRALIAN LSSGUAGE. THE XINPUXG DIALECT. 11
4. -go, -go-by, -gai.
Tlle 7aeailing of these is 'to, of, for.' The by Ulay taken as
R rariatioil of 130, and, like bo, very little more than an orllament
of speech. GO is suffixed to all kinds of ilouils to denote 'to,' -gok)y
and sonletinles -go to non-life nouns, in the seilse of 'for,' and
gai to life-nonns, in the same sense.
Examples of its use are :-Yilly 6ubbulgun killag8by ]runclalgbby,
'where is the paddle of that cailoe'? Gaio liindan
10. -no, -ba-no.
This is used after certain verbs of nlotioll; as, koroally WB
bon-no, 'go round the camp'; but koroally paigal-bano, 'go
:round the man.' It is also used in such sentences as kagga
klig ballunno, 'carry water from the river.' Its meaning lllay
be given as ' from,' ' arouncl,' ' apart,' and the like.
11. -urrugan.
juna$ bundango, 'I will make a handle for the tomahawk.'
Gaio Euan killan 6ubbogai biagg:ti gerriggai, '1 mil] make
spears for both the boy and the father.'
5. -gal, -jil, -gal-lo, -1la-gi1, -1ia;jil.
rl*
11:e sufixes -go and -gal corresponcl to one anotller in the
seilse of 'to' aid 'from.' Inji-go m6 iueails '\:-here are you going
to'? inji-gal 3%-6 is 'where are you coining fronl'? gai kamgil,
' 1 coule fro111 there.' Jil is a variant-form selcion~ used. The
life-nouns aclcl -gal or -jil to the form in -ua; as, paiginna-gal,
'from the man.' Sonletimes -gal takes the fortxi gil-10, and then
has the meaning, of 'in coming' o~ ' ~i-hen coming,' This is appa
rntly the agent-nominative addecl to a ~t~ellgthened fornl in -gi
6. -ha.
Ba is simply a locative fornl. Probably there is some connection
l>etween it ancl -bo ancl -by, which may be regarded as
little inore t,l~ail oruaments. It is sometimes found as a termina
tioil to naules of places. Its principal use as a noun-suffix is t
s'lrengthen the simple forms of life-nouns, auil thus form a nevi
hxse for the additioil of the suffixes.
This meails with.' It may be regarcled as a kid of possessive;
e.g., yilly noglim-urrugan paigal may be translatecl, 'where
is the dog's master '2 or here is the man with the clog '2 There
is a phrase walngira, 'you also,' which has some conilection wit11
this ; the g is intrusive bet~veen vowels to prevent hiatus.
12. -jim.
Jkmmeans 'nrithout.' Yilly noglim jim paigibl? 'whrl.r
is tile clog without a master '? This is one of the rerbal suffixes.
13. -gerry.
The peculiarity of this suffix is that, whilst it follox~s tlle rules
of the noun-suffixes, it has a verbal meaning. For instance,
kw&g-gerry gai, ' 1 wish it noulcl rain-'; nyail minyug-gel-ry
klig, 'she wants some water'; gai killa-gerry umbin-gerry,
'I woulcl like ta have that house'; yoglim gai inulla-gerry
hulgun-gerry, 'I do not like that woman.'
Dlany of these are merely aclditions to the simple nonlillatire
case, ancl are ilot usecl for inflection. To these may be acldecl the
su& -bil, which is usecl to turi1 some nouns into adjectives ; as,
woram, 'sleep,' woram-l>il, 'sleepy.' All terms for relatires are
7. -ma, -bai-ma.
usually strengthened by -j ara and -j al--gun ; e.y.,
Ma is rarely used as a noun-suffix, but, when so usecl, it has the
meaning of ' ill' ; e..y., malo dulbagga ballunma, 'you jump
in the river '; the longer form is used with life-nouns ; as, warri!
paigal-baima konno, 'carry this with the man.'
S. -a, -bai-a.
a ' malecousin.' YirabG, g- j. ar-gun
Acljectives generally agree in termination with the lloulls they
qualify ; but it should be noticed they do not follow any hard aid
fat rule. The suffix may be clroppecl from the acljective ; more
frequellt.ly it is dropped from the noun and retaineel with the
This takes the meailiilg of 'from,' 'ont of.' Examples of its use:-
It ura j u na bunclancla, ' pull the haildle out of the Lomaharrk ';
bnra monilo 6nan pagilb'aia, 'pull that spear out of the man.'
It often denotes possession ; as, gaiabaia &an, ' I hax-e a spear.'
9. -e, -ai, -ji, -bai
This is the coilverse of the particle -a ; it means into.' Ji is
used with nouns eilcliilg in -in ; as, umbin -j i, ' iu the house.' Ba-i
has the i acldecl to t,he streilgtheniilg suffix bn ; as, pagblbai, 'iu
the inan.'
adjective ; and rarely, when the sentence call be understood without
it, it is dropped from them both. On the other hand, this
rule is carried out to an extent that surprises us. For instance,
nubug and nubug-gun mean ' husband ' and ' wife,' but the
longerfomof nubug-gunisnubug-jar-gun. Now, Kibbiilbaia
means 'I(ibl$i has,' and to say 'Kibbin has a wife,' would
usually be Kibbinbaiagun nubugjargun. Again, burs ji11
gaiabaia mia would mean ' take the speck out of my eye';
where & aiabaia and mia agree in termination, yet mia has the
shorte; non-life form and gaiabaia has the longer life form.