Table of Contents
First published as ‘Le langage Wailwan’ in Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, 4 (5th series), 1903, pp. 69-81. The article was written in English and translated into French by Oscar Schmidt. This version was retranslated into English by Mathilde de Hauteclocque.[1]
The Wailwan language, one of the idioms of the natives of New South Wales, is spoken on both sides of the Barwon river, from Walgett as far as Brewarrina; it can be heard all the way back up the Castlereagh, Macquarie and Mara rivers up to about 70 miles to the south, where it meets the Wiradyuri and Wongaibon languages. To the east of Wailwan, Kamilaroi is spoken, and to the north, Yualeai.
The different parts of speech will first be dealt with, showing the declensions of the nouns and the adjectives, the modifications of the pronouns, the conjugation of the verbs, and then some brief lists of the adverbs and the prepositions. This will be followed by a vocabulary of some of the most important words of the everyday language. This paper does not claim to give a complete grammar, but merely an insight into the grammatical structure.
Perhaps this will interest philologists, allowing them to compare the different languages of the Australian natives with those of other primitive peoples.
Eighteen letters of the English alphabet are sounded, comprising thirteen consonants and five vowels, namely, b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, w, y, and a, e, i, o, u.
The system of orthoepy recommended by the circular issued by the Royal Geographical Society, London, has been adhered to, except for the following modifications:
As much as possible, vowels have been left without special signs, but in a few cases the long sound of a, e and u is indicated as follows: ā, ē, ū. In some cases the short sounds of the u and o are notated ŭ and ǒ.
G is hard in all cases. W always commences a syllable or word.
Ng starting a word or a syllable has a peculiar nasal sound; at the end of a word it takes the sound of ng, as in the English word ‘sing’.
The sound of the Spanish ñ is quite common; at the beginning of a word or syllable I have expressed it as ny, whereas when it is at the end of a word, it is the Spanish letter which has been used.
Y at the beginning of a word or syllable has its ordinary consonant value.
Dh is pronounced nearly as th as in the English word ‘that’, with an initial sound of d preceding it. Nh is also close to th, as in the word ‘that’, but adding an initial n sound.
T is interchangeable with d; p with b; and g with k in most words where these letters are employed.
Ty and dy at the beginning of a word or a syllable are pronounced rather like the English y or ch; so, dya or tya has nearly the same sound as ja or cha.
At the end of a word or syllable ty or dy are pronounced as tch, as in the English words ‘pitch’ or ‘catch’, but omitting the last whistling sound.