Studies on Middle Indo-Iranian and Australian Aboriginal languages

Abstract

This survey had its beginning early in 1962 with an elderly man at Echuca (Vic.) who still remembered soneof his language, Wembawemba. Encouraged by Dr A. Capell and by Professor J. Smit recording began of this and other Victorian languages. Work was intensified in mid-1963 with help from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra. It has been ap~arent from the beginning that this survey was doomed to be inadequate as the languages of some entire groups of tribes disappeared completely many years ago (e.g. the languages of the Goulburn tribes), while others are virtually extinct (e.g. of Woiwuru of the Melbourne area only one or two people remember a few words from their early youth). Nevertheless as much material as possible was collected, informants being pursued far afield. 1 It would probably be true to say that there are no elderly or even middle-aged persons of Aboriginal descent in Victoria and the south of· New South Wales who have not at some stage been questioned by us about the language. However fragmentary the resulting material may appear, it represents all that was left in 1962- 1965, and several important informants have since died. It is hoped that this work will in some measure supplement the scanty information that can be gained from the works of earlier writers.