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Bundar a family name at Moreton Bay is in Kamilaroi the common
noun for kangaroo
III The Languages of Australia are the
next topic. These are multifarious and highly
elaborate. And when the rapidly advancing
Science of Philology has enlarged its
survey a little more, I believe the most
profound Philologists will find ^in these languages, matter
worthy of a place in their illustrations. At
present I shall only enumerate a few
striking facts suggestive of the national character
and history of these people, and illustrate those facts
by specimens of the languages.
And first, it is worthy of remark that
throughout all parts of Australia known to
Europeans the aboriginal languages are numerous
and diverse, but linked together by resemblances
which clearly prove them to be all derived from
the same source. Some languages are confined
each to a small tribe inhabiting a tract of country
only some 50 or 30 miles in length and breadth.
It is rare to find the same language spoken on
two parallel rivers; and even in following