Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/38

 XXVin INTEODUCTIOX.

of Carpentaria. If you ask me why there is only one word for ' two,' while the words for ' one ' are so numerous and different, I reply that, in other languages, and especially in those of the Turanian family, there is a similar diversity in the words for 'one'; and the reason is this, that, wherever there is a con- siderable number of words for ' origin,' ' commencement.' ' before,' &c., there will be a similar variety in the words for ' one,' which are formed from them. But the range of ideas for ' two ' is somewhat limited ; the only ideas possible are ' repe- tition,' or 'following,' or something similar. Let me show you this by a few examples. The Hebrew s hen aim, ' two,' is a dual form, and is connected with the verb shanah, ' to repeat;' the Latins also say 'vigesimo altero anno' to mean in the 'twenty second year;' but alter is 'the other of two,' and in ^French and English it means to 'change;' and secundus in Latin comes from sequor, 'I follo\y.' Thus we shall find that words for 'two' are the same as words for ' follow,' ' repeat,' ' another,' ' again,' ' also,' ' and,' and the like ; and most of these ideas are usually expressed by forms of the same root-word.

As to the form of the word bula*, we have here no friendly karaji to tell us whether the -la is radical or not. I think that the -la is formative. The Tasmanian bu-ali (Milligan writes it pooalih) is probably the nearest approach to the original form, the bu being the root and the -ali the affix. In the Tasmanian pia-wa, the pia seems to me to be only a dialect form of bula, for the liquid I easily drops out, and in the Aryan languages a modified ?< approaches very nearly to the sound of * (cf. Eng., sir) ; in the Polynesian, i often takes the place of u. Thus bula would become bu-a, bi-a, pia. The syllable tea in pia-wa, as in marawa, 'one,' is only a suffix, the same as ba in our colony. All the other words for ' two ' are only lengthened forms of bula.

As to the kindred of bula, I find that, in the Papuan island of Aneityum (New Hebrides), the word in-mul is ' twins'; there, in is the common prefix used to form nouns; the mul that

bura, pooali, piawah ; Victoria, buliim, pollit; South Australia, bulait, purlaitye ; New South Wales, blula, buloara, bul]oara-bo; Southern Queensland, bular, pubul, bularre, bulae; Northern Queens- land, bularoo. It is evident that some of these words have been written down by men who were not acquainted with the phonology of languages, and that the spelling does not adequately represent the real sounds. This is generally the case in vocabularies of Australian words, and is a source of much perplexity to linguists. One of the commonest mistakes is bular for bula. In pronouncing that word, our blackfellows let the voice dwell on the final a, and an observer is apt to think that this is the sound of ar ; just as a Cockney will say ' idear ' for ' idea,' ' mar ' for ' ma,' or ' pianer ' for 'piano.' In one vocabulary that I have seen almost every word
 * In my manuscript nobes I have the following forms : — From Tasmania,

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