Ridley, Rev. William, Kamilaroi and Other Australian Languages, second edition, revised and enlarged by the author; with comparative tables of words from twenty Australian languages, and songs, traditions, laws and customs of the Australian race. New South Wales, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, Philllip-street, Sydney, 1875 1819-78 RIDLEY, William, Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages. (Sydney, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1875) Ferguson 14916. Kamilaroi; 3: notes on pronunciation, 5: grammar, 17: vocabulary (685 words) including place names, 39: phrases, 40 extracts from Gurre Kamilaroi (Missionary Primer); [Other languages] 97: Turuwul: 64 words, phrases (from Lizzie Malone, learnt from husband John Malone); 103: Language of Georges River, Cowpasture and Appin (196 words), sentences; (from John Rowley, son of Lt. Rowley 109: WodiWodi; 132 words, phrases; (from Lizzie Malone) 115: Twofold Bay; 16 words; (from Johnny Wyman) 119: Comparative tables of 107 words in Kamilaroi, Wiradhuri, Wailwun, Lower Hunter, Turuwul, George’s River, Wodi-wodi, Kogai, Pikumbul, Kingki, Paiamba, Dippil, Turrubul AND Victoria AND North-west Coast; 130: vocabulary of 40 words in Witaoro, Jajaorong, Ngenngenwurro, Burapper, Ta-ungGurong; 137: belief in supreme being and good and evil spirits (Kamilaroi, Wiradhuri, Wolaroi, Pikumbul, Kogai, Wailwun and at Twofold Bay); 139: origin legends south WA, Murri, Koinberi, Wee Waa; 141: cosmology Wailwun and Murray River; 143: tales with translation in Tharumba and Thurawal; 148: Bao-illi songs (texts with translations) - Kamilaroi, Wolaroi, Wailwun, Georges River and junction of Isis and Hunter Rivers; 151: types of food (Barwan, Darling River, Central Australia, Coopers Creek); 153: initiation ceremonies - Koinberi, between Barwan and Lower Castlereagh Rivers; description of bora ground, Hunter and Isis Rivers; marriage customs QLD, Lower Hunter, Wailwun; seclusion and care of women during and before childbirth; 157: avoidance relationship (Aust); 159: burial and mourning - Wailwun, Ginji; divisions of classes, 161: laws of marriage and descent (Kamilaroi, Balonne River, Barwan, Wiraiarai, Wailwun, Kogai, Wide Bay, Moreton Bay, Pikumbul, Narran), 164: comparison with Tamil system; 166: appearance and locations of above tribes ============ Language of George’s River, Cowpasture and Appin This language was spoken from the mouth of George’s River, Botany Bay, and for about fifty miles to the south-west.. Very few of the tribe speaking this language are left. The information was obtained by the author from Mr. John Rowley, formerly resident at Cook’s River (Botany Bay), son of Lieutenant Rowley; 1875. ========================= State Records Authority of New South Wales 30 Special bundles. Reports from Rev. W. Ridley on Aboriginal language and customs, 1871-75 Please contact the Archives Authority for the current location (City or Kingswood) of these records. The Rev. William Ridley was a Presbyterian minister who devoted much of his time to studying Aboriginal languages. This bundle contains correspondence between Ridley, the Colonial Secretary and others relating to Aboriginal languages. It includes examples of the Thurawal and Mudthung (or Thurumba) languages including stories (such as `The Spirit of the Fig Tree' and `The Story of Bundoola') with translations into English. Also included are notes on Australian Aboriginal languages and traditions (with comparative vocabularies). A copy of the Report of the Select Committee of the [Victorian] Legislative Council on The Aborigines (printed in Melbourne, 1859) contains examples of the Aboriginal language of two Melbourne tribes. Reference Number: 4/788.2 http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/publications/aboriginalguide/aboriginalguide-05.htm#P1266_88118 ================== William Ridley (1819-1878) was recruited in London by Rev. J. D. Lang and arrived in Sydney in 1850. He was ordained by Lang and, in 1853 began to work with the Aborigines in the New England District. He extended his ministry to Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs, and began to publish works on the Kamilaroi language in 1856. The work on display concentrates on Kamilaroi, the particular language group defined as ‘The language of the Aborigines of the Namoi, Barwan, Bundarra, and Balonne Rivers, and of the Liverpool Plains and the Upper Hunter.’ (p. [1]), but also includes information on many other languages, such as Turuwul, ‘The language spoken by the now extinct tribe of Port Jackson and Botany Bay.’ (p. [99]) There is a chapter which includes a comparative table of words in twenty languages; as well as chapters on the Aboriginal traditions; their songs and tales, transcribed in the native languages, accompanied by translations; their habits and manners; their institutions and laws; and a concluding chapter on their treatment at the hands of the white man, ‘there has been war, and along certain lines of Australian territory there is still war, between the Colonists and the Aborigines. ... There has been a tendency to seek reasons for believing these people are not of the same species as ourselves. And even in a volume of Gospel Sermons the assertion has been, somewhat oracularly, published to the world, that for the Aborigines there is no immortality, that they have no idea of God, no devout feeling, nor any capacity for such thoughts and feelings. ‘It has, however been shown, in this book, out of their own mouths, from their songs and their cherished traditions, that they are by no means destitute of some qualities in which civilized men glory - such as the power of inventing tragic and sarcastic fiction, the thirst for religious mystery, stoical contempt of pain, and reverence for departed friends and ancestors. ... Hitherto, it must be confessed, British colonization has done much to destroy, and British Christianity has done little to save, the Aborigines of Australia. Sometimes effort for their good is discouraged by the anticipation of their speedy extinction. But this too popular theory of the speedy extinction of the Aboriginal race must be modified, if not negatived by such a sight as I have seen, and as may still be seen in some parts of New South Wales, - an assembly of hundreds of them, including dozens of hoary heads, and dozens of infants at the breast. (p. 171-172)