The Wiradyuri and Other Languages of New South Wales | Page 5

Ngin tyilba. 3rd " He beats Malu tyilba.
Past Tense.
1st Person I beat Ngaty tyilbin.
Future Tense.
1st Person I will beat Ngaty tyilbên.
Imperative Mood.
Beat, tyilbak. Beat not, burreba tyilbak.
Conditional Mood.
Perhaps I will beat, Ngaty tyilbên mumbun.
In all the foregoing examples, the remaining persons and numbers of the verb can be supplied by the table of pronouns.
Middle Voice--Indicative Mood.
Present Tense.
Singular. I am beating myself. Tyilbanyungbenggat.
The conjugation can be continued through all the moods, tenses, etc., the same as in the indicative mood.
Reciprocal.
We two (incl.) are beating each other, Tyilptyerrungal. We all (incl.) are beating each other, Tyilptyerrungungur.
There are forms for all the persons and tenses.
Adverbs.
Yes, ngungui. No, burreba. To-day, gillaty. To-morrow, perbur. Yesterday, dyelli-dyellik. By and bye, gillandam. Some time ago, gillenadya. Long ago, yagaluk-wanda. Where, windyella? (singular); windyellaubul? (dual); windyellat? (plural). How many, nyabur? Here, kingga. There, nyua.
Numerals.
One, kaiapmin. Two, buletya.
Initiation Ceremonies and Marriage Laws.
The initiation ceremonies of the Burreba-burreba are the same in all essential respects as those of the Wiradyuri tribes, which I have described in detail elsewhere.[10] The social organisation is also similar to the Wiradyuri, comprising two phratries, each of which is subdivided into two sections, as exemplified in the following synopsis:--
Phratry. A man. Marries Sons and Daughters. A Murri Ippatha Umbi and Butha. Kubbi Butha Ippai and Ippatha. B Ippai Matha Kubbi and Kubbitha. Umbi Kubbitha Murri and Matha.
Although marriages generally follow the above rules, yet in certain cases Murri can marry Butha, and Kubbi may take Ippatha as his spouse-- a similar liberty being allowed the men of phratry B. Again, where there is no objection arising from nearness of kin, a Murri man may marry a Matha woman, but her totem must be different from his, and she must belong to a distant family. This applies to the men of every section. By the strict letters of the foregoing table, it would appear that the child of a brother can marry the child of a sister, but this is rigorously forbidden--the table being construed to mean that a brother's child's child marries a sister's child's child.
Each phratry has attached to it a group of totems, consisting of animals and inanimate objects. Every man, woman, and child in the community has his particular totem, which is inherited from birth. For further information on this subject the reader is referred to numerous papers contributed by me to different scientific societies.
The Ngunawal Language.
The native tribes speaking the Ngunawal tongue occupy the country from Goulburn to Yass and Burrowa, extending southerly to Lake George and Goodradigbee.
In a contribution to the Anthropological Society at Washington in 1896, described the Bunan ceremony,[11] an elaborate type of initiation practised by the Ngunawal in common with other communities. In 1900 I published an account of the Kudsha[12] or Kuddya, an abridged form of inaugural ceremony which is likewise in force among the same people. The social organisation regulating marriage and descent, which I described in the last mentioned article,[13] also applies to the Ngunawal.
The Ngunawal is one of an aggregate of tribes whose sacred songs I have learnt and published, with the accompanying music, in an article I communicated to the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland in 1901.[14] These are the first sacred songs of the Australian Aborigines which have ever been set to music.
Nouns.
Number.--Nouns have three numbers. Mirri, a dog; mirribula, a couple of dogs; mirridyimma, several dogs.
Gender.--Baual, a man; bullan, a woman. Words for "male" and "female" distinguish the gender of animals, as, gurabun muddun, a bear, male; gurabun dhuruk, a bear, female.
Case.--The principal cases are the nominative, causative, instrumental, genitive, accusative, dative and ablative.
The nominative is the name of the sbuject at rest, and is without flexion.
The causative, or nominative-agent, represents the subject in action, as, bullanga gudha ngubumui?, a woman a child beat.
Instrumental.--Baualga burraingu nguburi? dyui?ga, a man a wallaby killed with a spear. Here the instrument, a spear, takes the same suffix as the causative. The wallaby, burrai, takes the genitive affix, as being the possessor or recipient of the killing.
Accusative.--Except in such instances as the wallaby in the last example, the accusative is the same as the nominative.
The genitive case is represented by an affix to the name of the property as well as to that of the owner, a peculiarity which I was the first to report[15] in Australian languages. Baualngu mirriwung, a man's dog.
Every object over which ownership may be exercised can be declined for number and person, as under:-- Singular 1st Person My dog (dog my) Mirridya. 2nd " Thy dog Mirridyi. 3rd " His dog MIrriwung. and so on through all the persons of the dual and plural.
If a couple or more articles be claimed, an infix is inserted between the noun root and the possessive affix, thus: Mirribuladya, dogs both mine; mirridyimmadya, dogs several mine.
Dative.--Ngurani munnagai, to the camp come.
Ablative.--Ngurawurradyi yerribiwurri, from