'Notebooks of William Dawes, one dated 1790, comprising grammatical forms and vocabularies of the language spoken in the neighbourhood of Sydney, New South Wales.'
Source: Catalogue record compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project, http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/19/5956.htm (sighted: 01/07/2009)
'[The notebooks] are of great importance to Aboriginal communities of New South Wales, to linguists, residents of Sydney, researchers trying to reach new understandings about Aboriginal Sydney, and many others. Following colonisation, Aboriginal languages around Sydney were destroyed so rapidly and comprehensively that Dawes' work remains a unique and key source. '
Source: David Nathan, Dawes Online: Interactive Digital Facsimile Edition of Dawes 1790 website, http://www.hrelp.org/dawes/ (sighted: 01/07/2009)
[Dawes' Notebooks were] formerly part of the library of the Orientalist and linguist William Marsden (1754-1836), a portion of which he presented to King's College London in 1835. Marsden's manuscripts were transferred from King's College London to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) shortly after its foundation in 1916.'
A microfilm copy is held in the State Library of New South Wales.
Source: Catalogue record compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project, http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/19/5956.htm (sighted: 01/07/2009)
An electronic text version of the notebooks was created as a collaboration between Aboriginal Affairs New South Wales, the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project and the Library Special Collections, both based at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, United Kingdom.
The work of English marine officer William Dawes (1762 - 1836) and surgeon-explorer George Bass (1771-1803) recording indigenous language.
The Aboriginal Language of Sydney: A Partial Reconstruction of the Indigenous Language of Sydney Based on the Notebooks of William Dawes of 1790-91, Informed by Other Records of the Sydney and Surrounding Languages to c.1905
Z1602140
2005
single work
thesis
'Wara wara!' - 'go away' - the first indigenous words heard by Europeans at the time of the social upheaval that began in 1788, were part of the language spoken by the inhabitants around the shores of Port Jackson from time immemorial. Traces of this language, funtionally lost in two generations, remain in words such as 'dingo' and 'woomera' that entered the English language, and in placenames such as 'Cammeray' and 'Parramatta'. Various First Fleeters, and others, compiled limited wordlists in the vicinity of the harbour and further afield, and in the early 1900s the surveyor R.H. Mathews documented the remnants of the Dharug language. Only as recently as 1972 were the language notebooks of William Dawes, who was noted by Watkin Tench as having advanced his studies 'beyond the reach of competition', uncovered in a London university library. The jottings made by Dawes, who was learning as he went along, are incomplete and parts defy analysis. Nevertheless much of his work has been confirmed, clarified and corrected by reference to records of the surrounding languages, which have similar grammatical forms and substantial cognate vocabulary, and his verbatim sentences and model verbs have permitted a limited attempt at reconstructing the grammar. (Australasian Digital Theses Program record)
The work of English marine officer William Dawes (1762 - 1836) and surgeon-explorer George Bass (1771-1803) recording indigenous language.
The Aboriginal Language of Sydney: A Partial Reconstruction of the Indigenous Language of Sydney Based on the Notebooks of William Dawes of 1790-91, Informed by Other Records of the Sydney and Surrounding Languages to c.1905
Z1602140
2005
single work
thesis
'Wara wara!' - 'go away' - the first indigenous words heard by Europeans at the time of the social upheaval that began in 1788, were part of the language spoken by the inhabitants around the shores of Port Jackson from time immemorial. Traces of this language, funtionally lost in two generations, remain in words such as 'dingo' and 'woomera' that entered the English language, and in placenames such as 'Cammeray' and 'Parramatta'. Various First Fleeters, and others, compiled limited wordlists in the vicinity of the harbour and further afield, and in the early 1900s the surveyor R.H. Mathews documented the remnants of the Dharug language. Only as recently as 1972 were the language notebooks of William Dawes, who was noted by Watkin Tench as having advanced his studies 'beyond the reach of competition', uncovered in a London university library. The jottings made by Dawes, who was learning as he went along, are incomplete and parts defy analysis. Nevertheless much of his work has been confirmed, clarified and corrected by reference to records of the surrounding languages, which have similar grammatical forms and substantial cognate vocabulary, and his verbatim sentences and model verbs have permitted a limited attempt at reconstructing the grammar. (Australasian Digital Theses Program record)
