FL661486

sentences as specimens: Ngannalla main
ginsenaldair marong birramalli, That
man (a native) is a good guide in the bush,
Maldan kalliageri dallan ngalgu,
The young man will soon ascend the tree,
Ngaddu yalnambilli ngiudi muin
dullubasgu, I want to teach the native people
concerning their soul.
In abstract terms, as we must expect the language
is extremely poor, in fact there is hardly a
word of an abstract signification, words like
vice, virtue, justice, righteousness, generosity
or even love & goodness are unknown though
they may express the ideas by circumlocation by
verbs & adjectives, in concrete terms they are not wording, for every visible object or
action, they [original text crossed out] can find an expression.
Every variety of wood tree stones shrubs different
herbs & grains have their own proper name.
They have their declensions for nouns & form
a greater variety of cases than most European
languages. As a great pecularity they have
two nominatives. The simple & the active. Thus,
if I ask who is this, suppose it is a boy, they
say burai, if I ask who has done this, they
say not burai, but buradie. I will here
give repeat to you, the declension of