Aboriginal Tribes of India. 339 



constitute the northern group, which consists of six lan- 

 guages ; and the Gondi, Telugu or Telingi, Canari, and Ta- 

 mili, constitute the southern group, which consists of four 

 languages. 



Each of these may be subdivided into local dialects, differ- 

 ing from each other as much, and even more so than those 

 of portions of the same countries in Europe ; but it is not 

 my intention to enter here upon an examination of these 

 dialects. 



In the languages of the northern group (especially the 

 Hindi), Sir William Jones and Mr T. H. Colebrooke, after 

 much pains found that nearly nine-tenths of the words have 

 a Sanscrit origin. This great abundance of Sanscrit dimi- 

 nishes as we proceed southwards ; and the language at the 

 extreme point of the peninsula, and that spoken on the Nil- 

 gherry hills, scarcely contains any Sanscrit words at all but 

 those of science and abstract metaphysical terms. 



The Rev. Dr Stevenson of Bombay, one of the closest 

 investigators of the Hindu institutions and languages, and 

 who is well versed both in the Sanscrit and in the vernacu- 

 lar tongues of the south, has discovered in the Mharatti 

 (which is apparently a Sanscrit dialect) numerous words be- 

 longing to the southern group. For the purpose of these 

 inquiries he consulted the following dictionaries compiled by 

 Europeans, viz : — 



1. Dr Hunter's Hindu, . . published in 1808 



2. Campbell's Telugu or Telingi, . ... 1821 



3. Marshnian's Bengali, . . ... 1828 



4. Clough's Cingali (of Ceylon), . ... 1830 



5. Molesworth's Mhratti, . . ... 1831 



6. Reeve's Canari, . . . ... 1832 



7. Bolter's Tamili, ... ... 1834 



8. Guzeratti Vocabulary. 



Dr Stevenson carefully compared all these dictionaries one 

 with another ; and he made out tables placing words of simi- 

 lar sound and meaning in juxtaposition, by which he traced 

 several hundred vocables to be identical, though the nations 

 using them are at the present day unknown to each other, 

 and living hundreds of miles apart ; but not one of these 

 identical words was of Sanscrit origin. 



