Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/234

160 It is principally my purpose to give a brief account of the Adelaide tribe, obtained either by personal observation or direct information derived from the natives themselves. With a view, however, of showing the extraordinary difference of language that prevails, within a space of not more than fifty miles in extent many words of the Encounter Bay tribe, and a few also of that of Rapid Bay, have been interspersed among those of the Adelaide natives, and are distinguished by the initials e and r. There is manifestly a considerable difference among the natives in regard to degree of knowledge and capability of using their language. Here and there are to be met with a few possessing remarkable intelligence, and showing a real desire to afford general information, and to acquire the language of the colonists. On the other hand, one of the greatest impediments to becoming acquainted with an aboriginal dialect is the general indifference of the natives, and their slovenly habit of clipping, or contracting the words in ordinary use, and of substituting different vowels, and hard for soft consonants, or vice versâ. Though the dialects of Adelaide and Encounter Bay are so distinct as scarcely to have been derived from a common source, there are many words, used only by intermediate groups, but intelligible to those on either side of them. Hence it is very probable that the vocabulary of the Adelaide tribe may contain words that properly belong to the various groups which occupy the localities of Onkaparinga, Willunga and Aldinga inclusive; these groups being all friendly and frequently visiting Adelaide. Again, from the country to the east of Encounter Bay, many words have evidently been introduced into the Encounter Bay dialect, and others altered in construction by the natives about the Goolwa and Lower Murray. The natives evince great facility in compounding words, in forming new ones to represent objects previously unknown to them, and, also, in inventing figurative expressions. Numerous examples of compound words will be found in the vocabulary, as, for instance, moolayappa (nose-hole) nostrils; ngooroowerpo, backbone; of constructed words, as cherle (forearm), cherlinyerangge, shirt-sleeves; koole (head), koolinyĕre, hat; and of