The Gundungurra Language

The Gundungurra Language, by
R. H. Mathews

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Title: The Gundungurra Language
Author: R. H. Mathews
Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21866]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Transcriber's Note: In this version, the following replacements were
made: a with macron is [a|], a with circumflex is [a^], i with macron is
[i|], o with circumflex is [o^], and n with tilde is [n~].]
THE GUNDUNGURRA LANGUAGE.

BY R. H. MATHEWS, L.S.
(Read October 4, 1901.)
The Dhar'rook and Gun'dungur'ra tribes respectively occupied the from
the mouth of the Hawkesbury river to Mount Victoria, and thence
southerly to Berrima and Goulburn, New South Wales. On the south
and southeast they were joined by the Thurrawal, whose language has
the same structure, although differing in vocabulary.
Besides the verbs and pronouns, many of the nouns, adjectives,
prepositions and adverbs are subject to inflection for number and
person. Similar inflections have, to some extent, been observed in
certain islands of the Pacific Ocean, but have not hitherto been reported
in Australia. I have also discovered two forms of the dual and plural of
the first personal pronoun, a specialty which has likewise been found in
Polynesian and North American dialects. Traces of a double dual were
noticed by Mr. Threlkeld at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, and
traces of a double plural by Mr. Tuckfield in the Geelong tribe; but the
prevalence of both forms of the dual and plural in different parts of
speech in any Australian language has, up to the present, escaped
observation.
Orthography.
Ninteen letters of the English alphabet are sounded, comprising
fourteen consonants--b, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, w, y--and five
vowels--a, e, i, o, u. Every word is spelled phonetically, the letters
having the same value as in English, with the following qualifications:
Unmarked vowels have the usual short sound.
Vowels having the long sound are distinguished by the following
marks:
[a|] as in fate [i|] as in pie oo as in moon [a^] as in father [o^] as in pole
ee as in feel ou as in loud

It is frequently difficult to distinguish between the short or unmarked
sound of a and that of u. A thick or dull sound of i is occasionally met
with, which closely approaches the short sound of u or a.
G is hard in every instance.
R has a rough trilled sound, as in hurrah!
Ng at the beginning of a word, as ngee=yes, has a peculiar sound,
which can be got very closely by putting oo before it, as oong-ee', and
articulating it quickly as ony syllable. At the end of a word or syllable
it has substantially the sound of ng in our word sing.
The sound of the Spanish [n~] is frequent, both at the beginning or end
of a syllable.
Y, followed by a vowel, is attached to several consonants, as in dya,
dyee, tyoo, etc., and is pronounced therewith in one syllable, the initial
sound of the d or other consonant being retained. Y at the beginning of
a word or syllable has its usual consonant value.
Dh is pronounced nearly as th in "that" with a slight sound of the d
preceding it.
Nh has nearly the sound of th in "that" with an initial sound of the n.
The final h is guttural, resembling ch in the German word "joch."
T is interchangeable with d, p with b, and g with k in most words where
these letters are employed.
A sound resembling j is frequently given by the natives, which can be
represented by dy or ty; thus, dya or tya has very nearly the same sound
as ja.
In all cases where there is a double consonant, each letter is distinctly
enunciated.
W always commences a syllable or word and has its ordinary consonant

sound in all cases.
At the end of a syllable or word, ty is sounded as one letter; thus, in
beety-bal-lee-ma[n~], it is disappearing, the syllable beety can be
obtained by commencing to say "beet-ye," and stopping short without
articulating the final e, but including the sound of the y in conjunction
with the t--the two letters being pronounced together as one.
Articles.
The equivalents of the English articles, "a" and "the," do not occur in
this language.
Nouns.
Number.--Nouns have the singular, dual and plural:
(1)