A Gun, For Instance, They Call 'gooroobeera', That Is,
A Stick Of Fire.
Sometimes also, by a licence of language, they call
those who carry guns by the same name.
But the appellation by which they
generally distinguished us was that of 'bereewolgal', meaning men come from
afar. When they salute any one they call him 'dameeli', or namesake, a term
which not only implies courtesy and good-will, but a certain degree of
affection in the speaker. An interchange of names with any one is also
a symbol of friendship. Each person has several names; one of which,
there is reason to believe, is always derived from the first fish
or animal which the child, in accompanying its father to the chase or a
fishing, may chance to kill.
Not only their combinations, but some of their simple sounds, were
difficult of pronunciation to mouths purely English. Diphthongs often
occur. One of the most common is that of 'ae', or perhaps, 'ai',
pronounced not unlike those letters in the French verb 'hair', to hate.
The letter 'y' frequently follows 'd' in the same syllable. Thus the word
which signifies a woman is 'dyin'; although the structure of our language
requires us to spell it 'deein'.
But if they sometimes put us to difficulty, many of our words were to them
unutterable. The letters 's' and 'v' they never could pronounce. The
latter became invariably 'w', and the former mocked all their efforts,
which in the instance of Baneelon has been noticed; and a more unfortunate
defect in learning our language could not easily be pointed out.
They use the ellipsis in speaking very freely; always omitting as many
words as they possibly can, consistent with being understood. They
inflect both their nouns and verbs regularly; and denote the cases of the
former and the tenses of the latter, not like the English by auxiliary
words, but like the Latins by change of termination. Their nouns, whether
substantive or adjective, seem to admit of no plural. I have heard
Mr. Dawes hint his belief of their using a dual number, similar to the
Greeks, but I confess that I never could remark aught to confirm it.
The method by which they answer a question that they cannot resolve is
similar to what we sometimes use. Let for example the following question
be put: 'Waw Colbee yagoono?' - Where is Colbee to-day? 'Waw, baw!' - Where,
indeed! would be the reply. They use a direct and positive negative,
but express the affirmative by a nod of the head or an inclination
of the body.
Opinions have greatly differed, whether or not their language be copious.
In one particular it is notoriously defective. They cannot count with
precision more than four. However as far as ten, by holding up the
fingers, they can both comprehend others and explain themselves. Beyond
four every number is called great; and should it happen to be very large,
great great, which is an Italian idiom also.
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