Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/179

 In tracing analogies with this aboriginal language, I find that the Indians of North America have a ' transitive conjugation,' which expresses the conjoined idea both of the persons acting and acted upon; ' the form has excited much astonishment and attracted the attention of the learned in different parts of the Avorld.' The aborigines of this colony have a similar form of expression, as is explained fully in my " Australian Grrammar";* this I have denominated therein ' active-transitive-reciprocal '; with the dual and the plural number, it constitutes ' the reciprocal modification'; as, bun-kil-lau bali, 'thou and I strike one another' reciprocally, or 'we-two fight'; which phrase would be thus analysed: — bun, the root, ' to strike '; -k i 1, the sign of the infinitive, ' to be, to exist '; -Ian denotes the present time and that the action is reciprocal; bali is the dual pi'onoun ' we-two.' ' I fight with him' would be expressed by biin-kil-lan bali- noa, in which the noa means 'he '; v. page 17; but to say 'he and I fight another' would be bun -tan bali-noa.

The Cherokees use no distinct word for the articles a and the; but, when required, they use a word equivalent to the numeral one^ and the demonstrative pronouns this and tliai, agreeably to the original use and nature of the words which we call articles; so likewise the aborigines of this colony; they too use wakal for o, and for the the pronoun demonstrative both of thing and of place; as, unni, 'thishere'; unnug. 'thatthere.' The Delaware dialect, according to Mr. Du Ponceau's notes in Elliot's Grammar, possesses an article wo or m', which is used for a and ilie, but not frequently, because these words are sufiiciently understood without it. The Tahitians possess a definite article te, used for our the\ but they express a by tehoe, 'one.' The American Indians have, in common with the Tahitians, an extra plural denot- ing we, including the party addressed. But this peculiarity the aborigines of New South Wales have not in their language, though they have, in common with the American Indians and the Tahitians, a dual of that kind; beside which, they have an extra dual denoting the object and the agent conjoined.

��The Use of the Personal JPronouns.

The following are examples of the way in which these pronouns are used in our aboriginal dialect: —

MTa?nples: — 1. Pital balinoa kakillan, 'we-two love one another '; lit., 'he and I are joyful (?.f .,live peaceably) with one an- other.' 2.Biinnun binug, ' thou wilt beat him'; bunuun bino- un, 'thou wilt beat her'; bunnun banug, 'I shall beat thee.'


 * See pages 23 and 32 of this volume. — Ed.

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