Page:A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia.djvu/14

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PREFACE.

often sounded Dtabbat kolo (to move falling down); Darbow (to stoop); Darbow kolo (to move stooping); Murrijo (to walk); Murrijo kolo (to move walking): so that, probably, it may be found, on attentive examination, that Kolo, Gulut, Gulbang, Gulbat, all expressing motion, and Gur, also, are but various modifications of the same radical word.

There is another variety of pronunciation which occasions a difference in sound that is more apparent than real; namely, the sound of B for P, and P for B; the sound of D for T, and T for D; of G for K, and K for G. These letters, respectively, are in so many instances used indiscriminately, or interchangeably, that it is frequently difficult to distinguish which sound predominates, even in the same district; but the predominant sound varies in different districts; as, Barduk, Parduk; Gatta, Katta; Tabba, Dappa: which last word may be heard occasionally in all the different forms; Dappa, Dabba, Tabba, or Tappa. But, bearing in mind these differences of dialect, and varieties of pronunciation, which necessarily belong to any widely-spread unwritten language, and making due allowance for those local terms which must be introduced into different districts, as applicable to peculiarities of situation, soil, climate, occupation, food, and natural products, I have no hesitation in affirming, that as far as any tribes have been met and conversed with by the colonists, namely, from