Blacks of the Manning River District, New South Wales, 1851-1912 - Page 52

[Page 52]

the names to places given by the Surveyors and

  others, then there were often two places of the same

name, most of them were from some thing pecular  

about it, or in many instances from the trees that

  grew plentifully but it is very hard to get a

meaning without you get a Black to pronounce  

the word, as the Whites twist them into such  

form, that it is hard to make them out = Now  

in spelling these names I try always to give the  

full sound to the vowels. Now for the termination

All names ending in "bakh"] signified the  

name of a tree, and that they grew there,  

"Beet" = (twisted by the Whites into "Bit") that,  

was the plural of "Bakh" and was applied

to a  to a clump of saplins = or a number of the  

trees of one variety = "Bah" was applied to a  

gap or pass = strictly an open mouth = if  

a word was repeated it signified that that

  was very abundant in that   place =  

Many names were repeated, but to make the  

two words flow into each other fluently the first  

was pronounced with a kind of n. or ng sound  

take the Gloucester "Buckets" for instance = the  

correct name was Buckan BuckÅ«t = from  

BuckÅ«t   (BuckÅ«t was a stone) = repeated, was  

very stoney, or rather a big stone, the same with

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