Page:Aboriginesofvictoria02.djvu/45

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LANGUAGE.
29

Native Words and their Meanings in English.

Thununa ngi pandan.     Thununa ngi leckin nganatha yarn.
Going to I strike.     Going to I pour out I water.
Thununa ngi woorngan togä jacka. Thununa ngi wanjani.    
Going to I seek nest bird. Going to I take it.    
Thununa ngi bàndan.     Thununa ngi tat tat greletha.  
Going to I sleep.     Going to I keep to myself.  
Thununa ngi tethagengan jack.   Thununa ngi jellan boorkka ge jenat.
Going to I chew meat.   Going to I to sharpen by myself.
Thununa ngi keppeun.     Wäl ma ngetalung.  
Going to I scold her.     Spear of mine.  
Thununa ngi pertgana jack tyro. Man jilly panda ngan poorko.
Going to I catch meat line. He hit me head.
Thununa ngi batgejan gwian.   Tarlo jack thialan.    
Going to I cut axe.   Small meat cats.  
Thununa ngi màng gwan ngunga. Wulginga bundando kàlango.    
Going to I watch him.   How sting (or bite) snake.    
Thununa ngi jibban nat kallack. Nerdowa woona dthal.    
Going to I burn I stick or wood. Teeth of his.    
      Kinnat gan yarrowa.
      I am fightable (I was angry).

[Mr. Bulmer gives a farther explanation of these phrases in a letter to me. He says that he has used the word Jack for "bird" as well as for "meat," and this is the way the blacks always use it when they speak of birds. Tarlo jack is "little meat." If they were going to hunt kangaroo, they would use the term Woorngana jacka, meaning thereby that they were going to get "meat." He says he has failed to render one sentence, because he could not get it satisfactorily translated. It is this:—"I am going to sharpen my spear." The term ge jenat he thinks—he says he is almost sure—is as he has rendered it. Nat at the end of the word Gejen is a personal pronoun, first person singular; and, he supposes, is used to render the sentence emphatic. He finds that the blacks commonly use pronouns in this manner. To translate some sentences literally is nearly impossible—the corresponding English words would appear to be without sense. For instance, the sentence "I am going to burn a stick (or wood)" would be "I am going I burn a stick"—the ngi being, like nat, a pronoun, first person singular.]



The Verb.–To Hear.

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present tense.   Future tense.
Wänd-gän at I hear.   Wänd-gänä tha oorko I will hear.
Wänd-gän nungäng he hears.   Wänd-gän garä he will hear.
Wänd-gän thanä they hear.   Doorowäl-wangän they will hear.

Compound present tense.

Wängani I am hearing.
Nung-gän garä wängän he is hearing.
Wängänä quoit they are hearing.

IMPERATIVE.

Wängän Hear.