An alternate spelling or variant form of bettong, referring to the same small Australian marsupial.
Variant of 'bettong,' from Dharug, reflecting alternative transliterations of the Aboriginal language word into English.
The existence of both 'bettong' and 'bettonga' shows how Aboriginal languages were transliterated inconsistently when first recorded by English speakers—different people heard and spelled the same word differently, which is why many Australian animals and places have spelling variants.
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