﻿AND PRACRIT LANGUAGES. 223 



ors from other kingdoms in some very remote 3.^e *. 

 This opinion I do not mean to controvert. I only 

 contend, tliat where simihir words are found in botii 

 ianguages, the Hindi lias borrowed from Sanscrit, 

 rather than the Sanscrit from Hind/. It may be re- 

 marked too, that in most countries the progress has 

 been from kmguages ricli in iiiilections, to dialects 

 sim,ple in their structure. In modem ichoms, aux- 

 ihary verbs and appendant particles supply the place 

 of numerous iotlections of the root : it may, for this 

 reason, be doubted, whether the present structure of 

 the Hindi tongue be not a modern refinement. But 

 the question, which has been licre hinted rather than 

 discussed, can be decided only by a careful exami- 

 nation of the oldest compositions that are now ex- 

 tant in the Hindi dialect. Until some person exe- 

 cute this task, a doubt must remain, whether the 

 ground- vvork of Hindi, and consequently oi' Hindu- 

 stdnl, be wholly distinct from that ot Sanscrit. 



O.v the subject of the modern dialect of Upper 

 India, I with pleasure refer to the vv^orks of a very 

 ingenious member of this society, Mr. GiLcniiisT, 

 whose labours have now made it easy to acquire the 

 knowledge of an elegant lano-uaiire, which is used in 

 every part of Hindustan and the Dckhin ; which is 

 the common vehicle of colloquial intercourse among 

 all well educated natives, and among tlie illiterate 

 also in many provinces of India, and v/b.ich is almost 

 every where intelligible to some among the inhabit- 

 ants of every village. The dialects, which will bf^ 

 next noticed, are of more limited use. 



GauhaI, or, as it is commonly called, Bengalah, 

 or Bengali, is the language spoken in the provinces, 



of 



* Third anniversary discourse. 



+ It is necessary to remark, that although Gnura b? the name ot 

 Bengal, yet the Brdhma?ias, who hear that appellation, ar^ not inha-- 

 bitants of Bengal but of tl'nidintdn proper. Tiicy resitle chiefly in 

 the Suh^ of Ddh'i; while the Brdh.r.auas of Bengal are avow'.'d cOiQ- 



nists 



