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colonists initially reacted to Aboriginal speech as simply unintelligible and unattractive sounds64. However, as they studied the Sydney language the sounds became separate and pleasant and were ultimately recognised as meaningful units65.

We were at first inclined to stigmatize this language as harsh and barbarous in its sounds; their combinations of words, in the manner they utter them, frequently convey such an effect. But if not only their proper names of men and places, but many of their phrases, and a majority of their words, be simply and

unconnectedly considered, they will be found to abound with vowels, and to produce sounds sometimes melifluous, and sometimes sonorous...Their tone of voice is loud, but not harsh...in some ...very pleasing. (Tench 1979:291-2, 275)

The colonists began to recognise phonological word boundaries in Aboriginal languages. However, they discovered that reproducing the sounds was very difficult.

Not only their combinations, but some of their simple sounds, were difficult of pronunciation to mouths purely English: dipthongs often occur: one of the most common is that of a e, or perhaps, a i, pronounced not unlike those letteres in the French verb hair, to hate. The letter y frequently follows d in the same syllable:

63Peter Newton (1987) wrote a detailed history of the study of Aboriginal languages Australia-wide, from 1788 to 1860. He credits the First Fleeters with greater progress in their discoveries about Aboriginal languages than is widely recognised.

64Aboriginal music was also conceived as very unpleasant. 'We always found their songs disagreeable, from their monotony: they are numerous, and vary both in measure and time. They have songs of war, of hunting, of fishing, for the rise and set of the sun, for rain, for thunder, and for many other occasions' (Tench 1979:289). While many commented briefly on their experiences with Aboriginal music, very few non-Aboriginal people in colonial Australia ever studied or attempted to appreciate Aboriginal music. Conversely, Aboriginal people seem to have appreciated the colonists' music and enjoyed imitating it. However, in Tasmania, January 1793, on the d'Entrecasteau expedition's second visit they noted that while Aboriginal people enjoyed most of their music they 'closed their ears to the violin' (Berzins 1988:23). Another example of Aboriginal people objecting to the colonists' music was provided by William Dawes. He appears to have transgressed Aboriginal social propriety in singing mutigore (this may mean 'in a muted voice' or it could be a Sydney Language word) to an Aboriginal man, Ngalgear. Ngalgear became very angry about Dawes' singing and Patye told Ngalgear that the singing was about him:- 'Having sung Ngalgear mutigord and Ngalgear being very angry at it; I ask'd Patye...D.: Minyin gülara Ngalgear? Why is Ngalgear angry?...P.: Berfalwärin - Because you sung...On singing the same again at some distance from Ngalgear; Patyegarang said Kamarata, beriadinye. My friend he sings about you' (Dawes 1790-91). It is possible that Ngalgear thought Dawes was 'singing him' in the Aboriginal sense of controlling his health or destiny in this manner.

65The prejudice against Aboriginal languages was so reduced by this new understanding that 'Mrs Johnson, wife of the chaplain of the settlement...christened her little girl, born in Port Jackson, Milba Maria Johnson' (Tench 1979:292). Milba was the name of an Aboriginal woman known to the colonists.

thus the word which signifies a woman is Dyin; although the structure of our language requires us to spell it Dee-in. (Tench 1979:292-3)

In spite of the problems of pronuciation, the colonists attempted to use whatever knowledge they had acquired of Aboriginal languages in their attempts at cross- cultural communication. First attempts were necessarily ad hoc and linguistically simple, generally relying on single lexical items used creatively and with gestural enhancement. These early attempts at communication were often visited with misunderstanding and misuse of language. A more sophisticated understanding of Aboriginal languages developed as contact between Aboriginal people and colonists became more extensive and the colonial officials could actively pursue their

philanthropic interests. The lexical differences between Cook's list and the language of Sydney suggested to the colonists that there was more than one Aboriginal

language66. However, the reality of multilingual Australia was not discovered by the colonists until April 1791.

How easily people, unused to speak the same language, mistake each other, every one knows.—We had lived almost three years at Port Jackson (for more than half of which period, natives had resided with us) before we knew that the word Bee- al, signified no, and not good, in which latter sense, we had always used it, without suspecting that we were wrong; and even without being corrected by those with whom we talked daily. The cause of our error was this.—The epithet Wee-ree, signifying bad, we knew; and as the use of this word, and its opposite, afford the most simple form of denoting consent, or disapprobation, to

uninstructed Indians, in order to find out their word for good, when Arabanoo was first brought among us, we used jokingly to say, that any thing, which he liked, was Weeree, in order to provoke him to tell us that it was good. When we said Weeree, he answered Beeal, which we translated, and adopted for good; whereas he meant no more than simply to deny our inference, and say, no—it is not bad.— After this, it cannot be thought extraordinary, that the little vocabulary, inserted in Mr. Cooke's account of this part of the world, should appear defective; even were we not to take in the great probability of the dialects at Endeavour river, and Van Dieman's land, differing from that spoken at Port Jackson. And it remains to be proved, that the animal, called here Pat-a-ga-ram, is not there called Kanguroo. (Tench 1979:231)

Phillip and his officers eagerly investigated Aboriginal taxonomy. In the best tradition of eighteenth century science they wanted to know the names given by

66The word ’dialect' was used interchangeably with 'language' in the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth century.

Aboriginal people to the natural (and supernatural) world. As ethnographers, the colonists avidly collected lists of names of local people, the social groups with whom they were affiliated (designated by the colonists as ’tribes'), their artefacts and their ceremonial and secular rituals. They also collected botanical, zoological and geographical labels from the local people and listed them for future reference. The colonists did not simply collect Aboriginal lexicon they also appropriated some of the words into English. As interactions between Aboriginal people and the colony increased the colonists' use of Aboriginal names for things Australian became so commonplace that they renamed geograhical features using the Aboriginal names. For example, on 2 June 1791, 'Rose Hill, was changed, by order of the governor, to that of Par-ra-mat-ta, the native name of it' (Tench 1979:239).

Scattered throughout the accounts of First Fleet writers are words from the Sydney language which had evidently become part of the developing dialect of Australian English. Words from the Sydney language were used to describe the new environment and its people. The early colonists were very conscious of the

distinctions made by Aboriginal people in classifying their material and cultural world and the environment around them. For example, in his writing, Phillip distinguished at least two different different kinds of kangaroo and used their Aboriginal names. For example, he wrote—'in the course of the day, they had seen numbers of Pattagorong and Baggaray; in one herd, it was supposed there could not be less than forty (Phillip 1968:341). So comfortable was Phillip with the lexicon

that he did not even consider it necessary to inform the reader that pattagorong was

'red kangaroo' and baggaray 'grey kangaroo'. It was important that the colonists

understood the diversity of Aboriginal classification of flora and fauna because they relied on Aboriginal knowledge of the natural world as part of their survival strategy.

As already noted, in mid April 1791, an exploring party, led by Phillip and accompanied by Aboriginal guides Colby and Boladeree, travelled forty miles west

of Sydney to the Hawkesbury River. They discovered Aboriginal people with a language and culture different to that of the Port Jackson people. Colbee and Boldaderee could converse with the Hawkesbury people which suggests that either they were familiar with the local language or it was a dialect of one of their own first languages.

Although our natives and the strangers conversed on a par, and understood each other perfectly, yet they spoke different dialects of the same language; many of the most common and necessary words, used in life, bearing no similitude, and others being slightly different...That these diversities arise from want of

intercourse with the people on the coast, can hardly be imagined, as the distance inland is but thirty-eight miles; and from Rose Hill not more than twenty, where the dialect of the sea coast is spoken. It deserves notice, that all the different terms seemed to be familiar to both parties, though each in speaking preferred its own. (Tench 1979:231)

Though the tribe of Buruberongal, to which these men belonged, live chiefly by hunting, the women are employed in fishing, and our party were told that they caught large mullet in the river. Neither of these men had lost their front tooth, and the names they gave to several parts of the body were such as the natives about Sydney had never been heard to make use of. Ga-dia (the penis), they called Cud-da; Go-rey (the ear), they called Ben-ne\ in the word mi (the eye), they pronounced the letter I as an E. And in many other instances their pronunciation varied, so that there is good reason to believe several different languages are spoken by the natives of this country, and this accounts for only one or two of those words given in Captain Cook's vocabulary having ever been heard amongst the natives who visited the settlement. (Phillip 1968:347)

The available evidence suggests that the colony's officials acquired the most impressive knowledge of Aboriginal languages. However, the general population were increasingly exposed to Aboriginal people and it is very likely that they had some common means of communication. The convict artist Thomas Watling had a low opinion of the efforts of the officers to learn the Sydney Language. He claimed they were not advanced beyond his own limited knowledge. In December 1791, he wrote:-

It were presumption in me to speak of their language, with which I am but little acquainted. Glossaries have been attempted by some of our pretending and aspiring gentry, who, I am conscious, are as much ignorant of it as myself. I think it is by no means copious, but rather confined to a few simple sounds; but whether this is, or is not a beauty, I leave to the learned to determine. To an European ear the articulation seems uncommonly wild and barbarous; owing, very likely, to those national prejudices every man imbibes, and perhaps cannot entirely divest himself of. One thing they have in common with more refined communities, that marks a clannish propinquity of kindred; which is a similarity

in the termination of their sir-names: Terribi-long, Bennalong, By-gong, Wye- gong, Cole-bree, Nan-bree, &c., &c., are full as striking as Thomson, Johnson, and Robson. (Watling 1945:30-31)

In December 1790, Tench observed that Phillip's convict gamekeeper, M'Entire, was able to speak to Aboriginal people 'in their own language' although it did not save him from being speared (Tench 1979:205). He was speared by a young man from Botany Bay called Pemulwy67 (Tench 1979:202; Collins, vol. 1, 1975:118) of the Bidjigal people who had recently visited the settlement (Phillip 1968:327). Bennelong had several times shown 'much dread and hatred' of M'Entire and he was regarded among the colonists as of bad character. It was commonly believed that M'Entire had killed Aboriginal people although he denied it (Tench 1979:202). However, he was not universally disliked and 'was well known to those natives who frequented Sydney, and when they saw him at the hospital they expressed great marks of sorrow, all the women and several of the men shedding tears' (Phillip

1968:327). M'Entire must have had considerable association with Aboriginal people in order to have acquired a knowledge of local languages.

Some evidence suggests that, by May 1791, the colonists were able to

communicate with Aboriginal people from beyond the confines of settlement without the aid of an Aboriginal interpreter. For example, on a second expedition to find the junction of the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers, the marines William Dawes, Watkin Tench and Isaac Knight and a private soldier found that they were able to

communicate with Hawkesbury district Aboriginal people (Tench 1979:235-36). However, there is no comment in the records of the extent of their ability to

communicate with the people. The same Aboriginal people were familiar with some of the Aboriginal people who lived in the settlement and it is very likely that they had learnt some strategies for communicating with the colonists from Sydney people.

67Variously spelt as:- Pim-el-wi (Tench 1979:202; Collins, vol. 1, 1975:118), Pemullaway (Phillip 1968:327), Pe-mul-wy (Collins 1975:118). 'Pe-mul-wy, a wood native...' (Collins 1975:466). Pemulwy was the hero of a semi-fictional book about his life written by Eric Willmot (1987).