Jatu Glossary. 



By E. Joseph, I.C.S. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The language spoken by the Rohtak Jats is called by 

 themselves Jatu. One and the same language, with dialectical 

 differences, almost imperceptible from Tillage to village, is 

 spoken throughout the Barigar or highlands lying between the 

 Khadir of the Jamna on the east and the Hissar HarianA tract 

 on the west. The language is variously known in different 

 parts as Barigarii, Jatu or Hariani. In Hariana it is called, 

 appropriately enough, Deswali or Desari. In Delhi it is some- 

 times styled Chamarwa from the fact that the Chamars who 

 also speak it are numerous ; but in Rohtak at least they speak 

 it ungrammatically. The language is in reality a dialect of 

 Western Hindi, modified on the one hand by the disturbing 

 influences of Panjabi in the north and on the other by the 

 Ahirwati dialect of Gurgaon in the south which is classed in 

 Dr. Grierson's Linguistic Survey as a form of the Mewati 

 dialect of Rajasthani. In Rohtak itself there is little of the 

 former influence, 1 but the moment the town of Jhajjar is 

 passed, we find the Jats of the south affected by Ahirwati, 

 into which their speech rapidly merges. The distinguishing 

 mark of the change, which at once arrests attention, is the 

 substitution of o for final a. If an Ahir of Jhajjar or his 

 Jat neighbour wishes to say that there has been a fine crop of 

 bulrush millet, he will say " baro achho bajro huo." With this 

 dialect the following pages have nothing to do, though it is 

 probable that some words have crept into the glossary winch 

 are not spoken in the north of the district. It is extraordi- 



ar forms 



peech 



collected 



words in one particular village, but I have been obliged to 



compile them as 

 district. The srra 



Sampla. 



thither through the 

 fact been recorded at 



English officers who serve in Rohtak generally find the 

 dialect difficult to understand and tiresome to acquire. Prob- 

 bably the bulk of Indian officers do so too, and certainly the 

 Muhammadans who do not belong to the neighbourhood do so. 

 The reason of this lies in the neerlect of Sanskrit and Hindi 



1 Dr. Grierson has been good enough to supply me with a MS. 

 °opy of his grammatical notes on the Bangani of KarnAI and PafciAl* 

 (Nirwana) which will appear in vol. be (1) of the Linguistic -urvey. It is 

 remarkable how muoh more the speech of this tree* is affected by 

 p nnj4bi forms than that of Rohtak. 



