Vi70 ox T^E h/i^(^V^QE^ AN.V„l.lT^l^Al,URE 



blc orig'in, fire so qoinpletely a§^iinilfitei| Xo the 3fa- 

 laiiii proau'nciation, that they are no ioi^ger capable 

 of bein;>' recognized, even by a native yirj^,' unless 

 Jjy attention to their radicals ; tlie ain and ghain, in 

 particuUv, excepting in rehgious terms, arei very 

 gene,rall)i=co4ivcrt<?dinto Alifsind Gqf, both in wri;ing 

 asid pronunciation. It is certain, however, that Arabic 

 wortls arc naturally qptractable, apd are apt to have 

 a fnreign appearance when . ai^sunied into any other 

 language, in spite of allVniodifications. The Arabic 

 is a language so compleie in itselfj and so peculiar in 

 its structiure, that it is 4s li^le capable of coalescing 

 neatly with any other lauo;ua,gej as a curved line with 

 a straia:ht one. 



»' 



Marsden has likewise hazarded an opinion, that 

 the polish, which the Malayu has derived from 

 Sanscrit or liindiivi, lias been obtained immediately 

 from the natives oi' Guzcrat, previous to the debase- 

 jnent of the genuine Hinduvi of the northern pro- 

 vinces, by the mixture of Arabic nouns, and the 

 abuse of verbal auxiliaries. The resort of the people 

 of Guzerat to Malacca, he adds, ^\ is pavticularly 

 noticed by De Barros and other authentic writers ; 

 and it is well known that the Hindu language has 

 been preserved with more purity in that, than in any 

 other uiaritime province of Indian To this, it is 

 sufficitnt to answer, that tlie Sanscrit vocables, 

 adopted in Malayu and Guzcraii, are generally pre- 

 served purer in the former than, in the latter; that 

 the Guzerati has no pretensions to bp considered as 

 a pure dialect of Hinduvi, but on the contrary, is one 

 pr the very first that was corrupted by a mixture of 

 /trabic, and that long pjior to the period mentioned 

 \iy 1)e Barros-. The Bengali langii;!ge itselt, cor- 

 rupted in pronunciation, as it certainly is, might have 



