Box 4 Folder 2: New South Wales place names, 1899-1903 - Page 50

[Page 50]

                                                                       Home for  Aborigines
                                                                                         Grafton
                                                                                             6-10.99

Dear Sir
               I have already sent to Mr Parker
a list of names of places in the vicinity, and
am sending names of trees &c.  to you
I would like, by your favor, to suggest to
the Anthropological Society, that if they wish for
accurate information, that they might send
their lists for each district, when collated,
for correction, to a person in each district,
who might be acquainted with the peculiarities
of aborigines  language, and able to represent the
sounds in our letters. Otherwise, by what I have
seen, they are most likely to represent an
entirely new set of words as the aboriginal language.
The dialects differ very much.
Here are words current in this district used by different tribes

Water                                Nah-roo               Goon
Fire                               Wah-gi             Why-bur-ra
Opossum                  Coor-ah-gy           Quian
Bear (Native)            Dun-gein-uh         Ombudgee
                                                    one syllable
Yes                                           Nyee                   Yowi
No                             Bee-o-wee   Yocum Wat-chee. Baal

                                                                                           Yours truly

                                                                                             F.C. Currey
                                                                                             Manager

The Police Magistrate
   Grafton.