Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/66

 Ivi I^"TEOD^CTION.

which thoy are joined denote things to be held merely in possess- ion, or to be eaten, or to be drunk. In Samoan there is a some- vvhat similar use of lona and lana, ' his.'

7. In the Awabakal dialect (see the Gospel ]U(.<}si}n), a main feature is the use of the demonstrative ta us a suffix ; it is added to nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs, and always has the effect of strengthening the word to which it is joined ; as, unni xa Ivuri, 'this man,' wakal-la purreang, ' one day'; its jDlural is ta-ra; another form, apparently a plural, is tai, as in mararang-tai, ' the good'; the singular form tarai means 'some one,' 'another.' Ta is simply a demonstrative particle, and may be related to the Sanskrit tad, 'this,' 'that.' Ta is always a suffix, and I consider it the same word as the demon- strative -na, which is so common as a suffix to nouns in all Melanesia, and sometimes in Polynesia. Some Ebudan dialects use it as a prefix, na, ni, in. In Telugu, ni and na are attached to certain classes of nouns before adding the case signs, as da-ni-ki, ' to that.' This t a is probably the same as the Dra- vidian da of inda, 'this,' anda, 'that.'

8. In Awabakal, a noun or adjective, when used as the sub- ject cf a proposition, takes ko (to, lo) as a suffix; so also in Fijian and Samoan, k o, ' o as a prefix. In i\-wabakal, this ko must be attached to all the words that are leading parts of the subject; as, tarai-to bulun kinbirug-ko, ' som.e one from among them.'

In Awabakal, there seems to be no definite arrangement of words in a simple sentence except that required by expression and emphasis ; but an adjective precedes its noun and a pro- noun in the possessive may either follow its noun or go before it. In Dravidian also, the adjective precedes its substantive ; but the possessive pronouns are prefixed to the nouns.

These comparisons are general ; those that now follow com- pare the Australian with the Dravidian.

9. In Grond and Tamil, the instrumental case-ending is -al. "With this compare the IVarrinyeri ablative in -il, and the -al of "Western Australia (pj). 29, 32, 49 of Appendix).

10. The Tuda dialect alone in the Dekkan has the sound of y and the hard ih of the English 'thin'; in Australia the

Narrinyeri has the th of ' thin,' but there is no/" anywhere.

11. The Tamil inserts a euphonic m before b ; this is also exceedingly common in Australia. The Canarese dialect hardens muru, ' three,' into miindru. Some of the dialects of Australia have a similar practice, and the Eijians do the same.

12. In Tamil, the conjunctive-ablative case has odu, dialect toda, ' together with,' su2)posed to come from the verb to-dar, 'to join on.' The corresponding Awabakal word is katoa for kata (page IG).

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