Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/376

 56 A>' AUSTEALIA^' LANGUAGE.

8. CONJUXCTIOXS.

G-udjir, 'and'; minnig, 'if; ka, 'or.' Tliore is no word for ' when,' but minnig and ka are used in its stead ; for instance, ' Avlien I see you to-moi'row ' will be expressed by 'if I see you to-morrow'; and ' when did you come to Perth '? will be ' did you come to Perth to-day or yesterday '?

9. Interjectioxs.

Nah— ah ! so ! (to indicate that a person is listening to what is related), and n'yon — -'alas'!

��GUAMMAE AND VOCABULARY

OF THE ABORIGINAL DIALECT CALLED

THE WIRRADHURI.

��[The Wirradliiiri dialect, or, as I call it, the Wiradhari, covers the whole heart of N. S. Wales ; its hmits are shown on the map of the native tribes. I consider myself fortunate in having secured the pubhcation of the Grammar and Vocabulary of so impoi'tant a tribe. The following manu- script was written about fifty years ago by the late Archdeacon Giinther, and is specially reliable because of its author's character and experience, and because, at that time, the tribe had not j-et begun to decay, and its language was entire. He was educated for the Ministry at Basle, in Switzerland, attending lectures there at the University and the Missionary- College ; suljsequently he prosecuted his studies at the C. M. Society's College, Islington, London.

In 1S37, he commenced his missionary work among the aborigines of the Wiradhari tribe at " "Wellington Valley," now Wellington, in Xew South Wales. Here he compiled this Grammar and Vocabulary ; he also trans- lated the Gospel by St. Luke and portions of the Prayer Book for the use of the tribes on the Macquarie River and the neighbouring country. His efforts and those of the mission party, in ameliorating the condition of the natives and teaching them, met with considerable success. After the mission was abandoned by the authorities, he was induced by Bishop Broughton to accept the parish of Mudgee, where he laboured for many years, and died in December, 1879.

These MSS. are the property of the late Mr. Giinther's son, the present Archdeacon of Camden, New South Wales, who has kindly lent them to me for this pui-pose. In editing them, I have retained the author's mode of spelling the native words, and have made only some slight alterations in the form of the matter of the Grammar and the Vocabulary, with the view of securing greater symmetry throughout. — Ed.]

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