PROBLEMS IN INDIAN LANGUAGES 113 



to hear the same sound with extraordinary distinctness. The door 

 opened, and he stood face to face with a class of Hindu boys repeating 

 their lesson in unison. 



In the domain of linguistic study India occupies a unique position. 

 For practically all the languages of this continent, shut off from the 

 rest of the world by its huge mountain barrier, and equal in extent 

 to the whole of Europe excepting Russia, can be traced to a single 

 ancient tongue through a recorded development of some 3500 years. 

 India may, in fact, be regarded as the linguistic delta formed by the 

 stream of Sanskrit speech which, a thousand years before the found- 

 ation of Rome, broke, like the mighty river which gives the whole 

 country its name, through the stupendous mountains of the north- 

 west. For this vast period we have linguistic records registering 

 every step of development with a completeness which, especially in 

 its earliest stages, is unparalleled in the history of any other branch 

 of the Indo-European family of speech. At the present day there are 

 in India about a dozen languages descended from the oldest form of 

 Sanskrit and subdivided into nearly 300 dialects, which are spoken 

 by about 220,000,000 of people. Beside them are the four main Dra- 

 vido-Munda languages which represent the aboriginal speech of India, 

 and are spoken by some 60,000,000. These have, however, been 

 Sanskritized at various periods, while their literature is based on 

 Sanskrit models. These forms of aboriginal speech, existing either 

 below or cropping up through the Sanskritic alluvium, furnish, as we 

 shall see, some highly interesting and important problems to the 

 linguistic investigator which have hardly yet been touched by 

 scientifically trained scholars. In this connection I may mention that 

 modern India furnishes many striking examples disproving the old 

 theory which classified races according to the languages spoken by 

 them. Thus the tribes called Bhil at present speak only three 

 debased Sanskritic languages, though it is ethnologically certain 

 that they belong to the aboriginal race. Other aboriginal tribes 

 partly still retain their primitive tongue, but have partly adopted 

 Sanskritic dialects. There is indeed every reason to believe that 

 a very large proportion of the Hindu population which now speaks 

 Sanskritic vernaculars represents the descendants of the aboriginal 

 race with hardly any admixture of Aryan blood. 



As the history of the Indian languages admits of being traced 

 continuously in their successive stages from the earliest period, 

 it will, I think, conduce to clearness if, in considering the problems 

 which they offer at the present day, we follow the chronological 

 order of their development. 



Owing to the extraordinary interest created in Europe by the 

 discovery of Sanskrit a century and a quarter ago and the undoubted 

 importance which it possesses, the attention of trained scholars 



