20

Union Street,
Toowong, S. W. 1.
March 5th, 1943.

Dear Sir,

Referring to your letter of 4th inst. with enclosure
of memo from the Railway Commissioner's Office relative to
the suggested place name Singola, I have to advise you that
I have no knowledge of the word or its meaning. Probably, the
initial letter S in the name is an anglicised version of that
peculiar consonant used by the natives,which has no represent-
ative in the English language but which writers on aboriginal
languages render variously as dh, t, d, eh and j, the former of
which in my opinion is most appropriate. It is really a
palatal converted to a dental which may be best imitated by,
in pronouncing the word jam, to avoid touching the palate with
the tongue , touching the teeth only. If it should be
decided to use the name, I would suggest that, to suit English
utterance, that it be spelled "Dhingola". I think the accent
should be on the first syllable, as is usual in aboriginal
orthoepy. The sibilant S does not occur in any South Queens-
land language, nor, I think, in any other Queensland language.

In a vocabulary of a native tribe near Mt. Mulligan in
N. Q., by Francis Richards, which contains upwards of three
hundred words, the letter S does not appear. The initial
digraph, ch- however, frequently appears, and is probably is used
in the place of the one which I have described as dh.

As an instance of the sibilant being miss-used in a North
Queensland, I may mention the name Tarzali, on the Millaa Millaa
branch line. A local resident who had been a good deal in
contact with the local aborigines told me that its pronunciation
should be Tardhali. (I am sorry to say that I forget whether
it was the name of a tree or the personal name of a local native.)

Yours faithfully,

(F. J. Watson).

Mr. Sydney May,
Hon. Secretary,
Q. P. N. Committee,
University of Queensland.

(I enclose herewith the memo from the Railway Commissioner's Office).

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