Australian Aborigines - The Languages And Customs Of Several Tribes Of Aborigines In The Western District Of Victoria, Australia

As it has been found almost impossible to represent the correct sounds of the Australasian languages by adhering to the rules of English orthography, these rules have been necessarily laid aside, together with the signs of accentuation.Double consonants are used to express emphasis, and double vowels to express prolongation of the sound.People who are unacquainted with the difficulty of communicating in writing the pronunciation and sound of foreign words may cavil at the employment of so many double letters, but this mode has been adopted, after very careful consideration, as the most suitable for the purpose.The following examples will fully illustrate what is meant.The English word 'car' would be 'kaar, 'can' would be 'kann, 'rain' would be 'reeen, 'rainy' would be 'reecenze, 'meat' would be 'meet, 'met' would be ' mett,' 'life' would be 'liif, 'live' would be 'livv, 'tome' would be 'toom, 'tom' would be 'tomm,' ' boot' would be 'buut,' ' cut' would be 'kutt,' 'one' would be CONTENTS.