Transcription

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spellings for the same words evidently in an
effort to overcome the problem of reproducing the
exact aboriginal enunciation, often a most
difficult thing to do. In writing aboriginal
words I have made it a rule to use the letter
"G", "g," where the sound is hard and "J", "j," where
it is soft and I fancy Mr Hewitt has also done
this judging by the frequency of 'J' in his spellings.
   In my booklet "Aboriginal Words and Names",
Lower Clarence River dialect, pubished 1935, I have
emphasised the strange fact that this dialect is
entirely different to that of the Richmond River
natives although the localaties are barely 70 miles
apart by air line, A still stranger fact is
that the Upper Clarence dialect seems to be
entirely different to that spoken by the Lower
river blacks taking Grafton, roughly speaking,
as the dividing line. When collecting words
from Freeburn, a half-caste native of Yumbah,
(Clarence Heads) he told me that a distance apart

 

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