n - University of Newcastle

In Samoaii and in other Polpilesian dialects, 12g is very common
as an initial, and as a final too in the whole of Melanesia. In this
respect the Polynesia~l and the Melanesian languages are akin
to the Australian. The Malay also uses .~?y both as an iuitial
and as s final. Some -%ustralian dialects nasdise the 7c, as in the
English word ' ink '; to this there are parallels in the Melanesian
languages, and there the sound is represented by k or p.
In Tamil, one of th9 Dravidian languages of India, with which
our Australian language is supposed to be connected, one formatire
suffix is gzc, llasalised illto ng?~ : it is used as the initid sound
of a syllable, as in 129-11~2~, ' to quit' ; to this extent it corresponds
vith our 9zg.
Our author, in his edition of 1834, has i11 some words a doubled
gzctfz~ral-nasal, as in b u 11 g11 qr a i. As the second of these is
only a g attracted by the nasal that precedes it, I have written
such words n-it11 g-g. In fact, the double sound proceeds from
the one nasal, as in our English word 'finger.' Some of the
Melanesian languages hare this double sound both with y and
with k.
But in both of its uses, initial and final, the Australian 12y arises
from the nnsalisation of the guttural g ; it is a simple sound, and
should therefore l~e represented by only one letter, not by the
digraph pig. In Sanskrit, the symbol for it as a final, lor there
it is never used as an initial and selclom as a final, is n. ; but, as
the Australia11 ng comes from g, I prefer to use g as its symbol.
If me compare the Dravirlian 11 ag - al, ' a day,' with the Nelane-
sian bung, ' a day,' it is clear that the xy proceeds from a g, for
the original root of both words is the rerb bha, 'to sine.'
Further examination may, perhaps, show that our 7t.q is, iu some
cases, a modification of' the sound of 9, as in the French ' bon,'
' bien,' or even of a final vonel, but at present that does not
seem to me at a11 likely.
Besides qzy, there are the two subdued qznsnl soullds of 12 and
wz-that is, n before cl, and 112 before b; these harden the con-
sonaiit that follotvs, aud prodnce such sounds as nda, 911bn. The
same sounds are co~ui~loll in Fiji-a Nelanesian region-but not
in Polynesia.
Of the palnfals, the language has ch, as in the English word
' church,' and j, as in 'jam' ; to these map be added the consonant
y. The clr ancl the ,i souilds are, in some vocabularies,
printed as tch aid dj; that is quite unnecessary. I have adopted
6 as ihe symbc! for cA, because it is a simple sound.
The only cerebral that me have is r, although the sound of it
is often so aspemted as to resemble the Dravidian rough and
hard r. Our r is neither the Arabic vibrating yhr, nor the
Northumbriac l n r ~ but ~ , is more like the rolled r of the Parisians.
TIIE CiRAJIMAR. 7
The denfals are t, cl, 12, Z. As in the case of the gutturals k
and g, so with the dentals t and d; it is often difficult to decide
whether a native, in pronouncing a word, is using the one or the
other ; so also with p and bin the nest paragraph. The liquids
18 and I are really dentals, their sound being produced by the
ds, there are the conjunct
h to some of the con-
JL, and in each of them
it, from the consonant
as in the English words,
ome of these combined souncls I have
lips of a native, and I have no doubt
dustralian tribes, when
PECULIARITIES.
n some dialects, there is a tendency to insert the sound of y
er t and 7c ; as, t y a 1 a, ' to eat,' instead of t a 1 a. So also in
glish we somctimes hear ggarden for garden and Pyijad for kina.