12 



Tlie Arabic Element in Official Hindustani. 



[No. 1, 



As I am here only outlining a defence of my side of the question, 

 I will pass on to another argument. Hindi is not one language. It 

 is ten or fifteen or more different dialects. The following list, taken 

 from a work which relates the early efforts of the Serampore mission- 

 aries to introduce the Bible in his own tongue to the home of every 

 ryot, will shew how great the diversity is. 



Dialect. 

 Brijbh;';s'ha, 

 Canojia, 



Koshala, 



Bhojpuri, 



Hariani, 



Bundelkhandi, 



Boghela, 



Harroti, 



Oojjainee, 



Oodeypooree, 



Marwari, 



Javpuri, 



Bikanirf, 



Bhattaniri, 



Magara, 



Tirhutiya or 



Maithil, 



Locality. 

 Agra, Mutti-a. 

 Cawnpore, Futtehgurh, Eta- 



wah, Bareilly, Alligurh. 

 Oudh. 



Benares, Grhazipoor, Arrah. 

 Hariana, Hissar, Rohtak. 

 Bundelkhund. 



Boghelkhund, (Central India.) 

 Malwah. ~) 



Ujayin. 

 Udaypur. . 



Marwar. \ Rajput ana. 



Jay pur. 

 Bikanir. 

 Bhattanir. 

 Behar, Patna. 

 Tirhoot, Purneah. 

 Bhangulpoor, Mongkyr. 



Now, I would ask those who wish us to abjure Persian and Arabic 

 and draw from " the well of Hindi undefiled," which of all these dia- 

 lects is to be considered as undefiled. If to the above dialects we add 

 Marathi, G-uzaratti, Sindhi, Ooch, Punjabi, Dogra, Cashmeree, Par- 

 buttia, Moonugee, Palpa — all of which are more or less Hindi — the 

 difficulty of selecting our standard becomes almost insurmountable ; 

 for in these various forms of Hindi not only do the vocables differ 

 but the very declensions and conjugations, the very root and fibre of 

 the language. Thus for the genitive case affix, we have kd, he, hi, 

 Hindi : da, de, di, didu, Punjabi : cha, che, chi, cliya, Marathi : sa, se, 

 si &c. Sindhi, and so on. The verb hond to be, undergoes a wonderful 

 variety of inflections. Not to multiply instances, it may suffice to say 



