Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/180

 92 AX AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE.

Analysis. — 1. Pilal* is 'joy, peace, delight'; ball is the dual

pronoun, ' we two'; kakillan, which is the verb 'to be' in state

of continuation, consists of three parts — ka, the root of the verb

. ' to be, to exist'; -ki, the sign of the infinitive, -Ian, the sign of

continuation at the present time.

The negative form of this example would be keawaran bal* pital korien, 'we do not love one another,' or ' we do not agree the one with the other.' Here keawaran is the denial in the present tense, from keawai, the negative infinitive; the impera- tive negative is kora; as, pital ban kora, ' do not be peace- able', where ban is the present tense of the verb 'to be doing' ; the last word, korien, in the aboriginal sentence, is the negative adverb ' not' ; thus, in this sentence there are hco negatives, both of which are essential to express the negation.

2. The aboriginal phrase biinnunbanug, 'I shall smite thee,' shows at once the similarity of construction of this Australian language with that of the Indians of America; for, though I may write it separately, as bunnun banug, because I know the words to be the verb and the conjoined dual pronoun, yet it is pronounced as one word, and would be so considered by a stranger. If 'determination' is to be expressed, the particle wal must be inserted; as, bunnun wal banug, ' 1 shall and will smite thee'; this would be thus analysed : — biin, the root of the verb 'to smite'; -nun, the particle denoting futurity; wal denotes determination ; ba, is part of the verbal pronoun bag, 'I', while the i^ersonal pronoun is gatoa, 'I'; bi is the verbal pronoun ' thou'; -nug is the pronoun ' him' in the objective case; and the termination -noun in the next example is part of bounnoun, the feminine pronoun 'her,' in the objective case. Thus, our blacks carry out the dual beyond any known language in the world, whether ancient or modern ; and they also complete their dual by carrying it out to the feminine in the conjoined dual case, which the American Indians do not in the " second personal form."

Nug is pronounced ni'ig when applied to a j^erson, but nug when applied to a thing. So likewise, bun, 'to smite,' is accented, and is pronounced like the English word boon, 'a gift'; but biin, 'to permit to be,' is unaccented, and rhymes with the English word bun, ' a little cake.'

Our blacks say waita bali for ' I go with thee,' or 'we two go now together'; but waita bag would mean ' I go by myself '; waita bali no a, 'he and I go together'; waita bali bountoa, 'she and I go together'; to say ' I go,' emphatically, meaning no other but myself, would be gatoa waita u\v aniin; which would be construed thus: — gatoa is the personal pronoun 'I' ; waita


 * Pital in this language is the nearest word to express love.

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