400 SYSTEMS OP CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



In the formation of the Hindi and Bengali, and other dialects of this language, 

 by the joint contributions of two radically distinct languages, a remarkable illus- 

 tration is afforded of the results of an ethnic struggle between two dissimilar peoples 

 for the mastery of the common speech. The preponderance of numbers, or of the 

 blood, in such cases, usually carries with it the grammatical structure, and confers 

 it upon the resulting language. In the present case the Sanskrit element over- 

 whelmed and enveloped the primitive speech so completely, and impressed its 

 character upon it in so many particulars, that these dialects are still placed in the 

 Aryan family of languages ; although by the true criterion of classification, that of 

 grammatical structure, they are not admissible into this connection. Their voca- 

 bles are in the extraordinary disproportions of ninety per centum of Sanskrit to ten 

 per centum of aboriginal words, with the exception of the Marathi, which is estimated 

 to contain ninety-five per centum of the former against five per centum of the latter. 1 

 This ratio is without a parallel in cases where the grammatical forms followed 

 tl 3 minority of the vocables. It is explained, to some extent, by the opulence in 

 vocables of the highly developed Sanskrit, and a corresponding scantiness of the 

 same, for want of development, in the aboriginal tongues. Since grammatical 

 structure must determine the classification, the source and proportion of the voca- 

 bles are immaterial. Upon the manner of the formation of these dialects, which is 

 a matter of theory, some difference of opinion exists among oriental scholars ; but 

 upon the question of their grammatical structure they generally concur in repre- 

 senting it to be that of the aboriginal speech. Dr. Stevenson supposes " that the 

 North India vernaculars have been derived from the Sanscrit, not so much from 

 the natural process of corruption and disintegration, as through the overmastering 

 remoulding power of the un-Sanscrit element which is contained in them ;" and 

 Dr. Caldwell observes that " the grammatical structure of the spoken idioms of 

 Northern India was from the first, and always continued to be, in the main 

 Scythian [using this term generically], and the change which took place when 

 Sanscrit acquired the predominance, as the Aryans gradually extended their con- 

 quests and their colonies, was rather a change of vocabulary than of grammar, a 

 change not so much in arrangement and vital spirit as in the materiel of the 

 language." 2 These statements are so specific and rest upon such competent 

 authority as to leave no doubt upon the principal question. This fact, also, must 

 be received as conclusive evidence that the aborigines exceeded their conquerers 

 in numbers. Under the operation of the law of caste the blood of the Aryans has, 

 in the main, continued unmixed to the present day ; but the two stocks have 

 become one people, notwithstanding, by diffusion of blood, as well as by a common 



1 Dravidian Comp. Gram. Intro., p. 38. 



Ib. Intro., p. 38. The context is as follows: " Nevertheless, as the grammatical structure of 

 the Scythian tongues possesses peculiar stability and persistency ; and as the Pre-Aryan tribes, who 

 were probably more numerous than the Aryans, were not annihilated, but only reduced to a depen- 

 dent position, and eventually, in most instances, incorporated in the Aryan community, the large 

 Sanscrit addition which the Scythian vernaculars received, would not alter their essential structure, 

 or deprive them of the power of influencing and assimilating the speech of the conquering race. Ac- 

 cording to this theory the grammatical structure of the Spokane idioms," &c., as" above. 



