VERNACULAR NAMES. 



The word Kol is used in a variety of senses and requires 

 definition. Broadly it includes both Mundas and Oraons and 

 practically all the aboriginal tribes of Cbota Nagpur. Col. 

 Dalton, 1 however, treats as Kolarian, or Kols, those r.ices 

 whose language is Munda or Kol, hence excluding the 

 Oraons, Gonds, etc., but including the Santals, and of course 

 including (though he does not specifically ,say so) those tribes 

 obviously Kolarian who have now more or less lost the Kol 

 language. Hunter again states that the scientific use of the 

 word embraces the Kolarian tribes of Munda, Ho, Bhumij 

 and Khar war, and in another place he says that it is a generic 

 word for the whole group of tribes included linguistically 

 within the term Kolarian, but that it is often applied in a 

 more restricted sense to embrace only the three principal 

 tribes Munda Kols, Larka Kols or Hos, and Bhumij Kols. 

 Inasmuch as the names of plants are usually the same or 

 similar amoug these three tribes, the word Kol is used in 

 the Flora in this last and restricted sense. In many cases 

 Kol names will still be found in use among Kolarian tribes 

 which have adopted Aryan languages, 2 but on the other 

 hand the Mundari, Ho and Bhumij names may be distinct. 

 The difference often only consists in the elision of the Mundari V 

 accompanied in the Ho with the peculiar partial reduplication 

 of the final vowel, 3 equivalent to the c' or k' of the Santal. 

 Thus a pot-herb is ara in Mundari or Bhumij a : in Ho, 

 arak' in Santal. Such trifling differences have sometimes 

 been ignored in the Flora. 



Owing to the spread of Aryan languages among the abori- 

 ginal races of Chota Nagpur, fosiored by the primary schools 

 and the law courts, the Kolarian and Dravidian languages 

 are unfortunately disappearing. Unfortunately, because the 



• Col. Edward Tuite Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, a moat interesting 

 work, published in 1872 and long out of print. 



2 This is an instance of Sir H. Bieky's contention toiat .language is 

 ntft a reliable guide to race. 



* Usually written thus :, but diacritical signs have frequently been 

 omitted in the Flora. 



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