AUSTRALIAN BLACKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 21

AUSTRALIAN BLACKS

A STUDY OF DIALECTS

EIGHTEEN MONTHS^

RESEARCH.

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, December 20.

A study of aboriginal dialects and folk-lore has been completed by Or, A. Capell, of Sydney, who has covered 4000 miles during the past 13 months in the remotest parts of north and north-western Australia", ...

Dr. Capell studied and recorded the several dozen dialects spgk©n -by aborigines of those areas. He also". in» vestigated the-mythology that farms the backg^quncV of cave, paintings in the Kimberley. district During his journey in; someofAustralia's .mpst, mhojp^table tetrairihe travelled fey aero« planei^rain, motortruck, : stfajßaerf and; mission lugger. Once he spent three months "coVeiang- §00 milej^vOtf mule back OTijn nrulg; qarts,:On^saOQier oc-. casion :he rode on theliiggage on the top of a camel, . /

When crossing the precipitous Phillips Range and sandstone mountains in Western Australia, the going was so hard that the party had to lead the mules. Last June the motor truck was so badly bogged near Mt, House, ; in the Kimberley district, that it tool? a week to travel a quarter pf a mile in the vehicle.

Dr. Capell, who carried out the work under a fellowship from the Australian National Research Council, evolved phonetic script for recording the dia» lects he studied. They fell into four main language groups that are not of a homogeneous nature. For recording purposes he carried a typewriter, which, in addition to Roman characters was fitted with special phonetic sym* bols.

"Some dialects have grammars so complex that they leave Latin and

Greek in the shade," said H>?, CapeUi "I earoe on » tribal group at-Forrert River who speak a language with Mv genders. I found that natives on tht Bopey Biver country use three ton«w and glide, after the Chinese fashion, tjnlike the Chinese, however, tonef majce no difference to the meaning of

the words, as they srfe purely ornamen* tai. T^is is the only tone languaf* that has been reported in Australta,"*

E)r, Capell thinks the aboriginal population in the regions trayerße«l Jim been vastly overrated. He'did not: at* tempt to enumerate the natives,; ;sufc formed the opinion that the;tribal: groups numbered between■: 300 »ndl400: on the average. The natives. kßeyrtfoeir numbers were decreasing, but seemed to view the matter philosophicallsrirAn instance of the dwindling pogul&tion was afforded by the fact that nQW.}#PM» was not more than ; a do^en ab^rifine* speaHihg the; language of the Unggumi t?ibe ; which belongs to a dist?iefe iieir Derby (Western Australia), vi.-,i "I never encountered any ; hpßt4Ut3r; on the part of the natives witj^ whonv I came in qontact," he said, -?■' Qr th« contrary, ...I was surprised at ; V&eir fpien^Wnes? a»4 *he patienee.-.ih«yi-*x»-hibited towards me x when- qusStion» ing them and probing into thei?f language peculiarities, For their hejp t-|r®»----wardedi them with gifts of tob?|cc^#nd coloured neckerchiefs," %<&?

The Australian National Iteresirch Council commissioned pr, C^eJ^ to undertake the survey to order fc provide a record of native dialects to as* sist in the compilation of. an aboriginal' history by helping to trace relationships between tribal groups, and for practical purposes,