132 Contrihitions towards Vernacular Lexicography. [No. 2, 



generalization and faint analogy are serious impediments to this 

 mode of enquiry. Serious consideration and careful weighing of 

 the evidence ought always to accompany the tracing up to real 

 antecedents and the distinguishing of proper relationship. Paucity 

 of language and the frequent occurrence of synonymous terms cloud 

 the real meaning in obscurity, and alliteration in sound is a great 

 misleading element in the feminine language of the Bengalis. 



Theories often precede the actual collection of facts, and the 

 "brilliant ideas once taken hold of, are seldom abandoned till there is 

 an absolute dearth in the finding of the most distantly related sup- 

 porting facts. Every flutter of the wing or the rustle of the leaves 

 is an alarming sound to an imaginative mind. Indeed theories 

 are first formed and facts are next collected and twisted and turned 

 to suit or to support or prove the foregone conclusions. 



Bengali works earlier than the fourteenth century after Christ 

 are not to be met with, and inscriptions and MSS. in the present 

 Bengali character scarcely go back earlier. Tradition in this parti- 

 cular is silent, so much so that there is no legend pointing directly 

 or indirectly to the relation of the Bengali to other languages. The 

 compound word VangabMsM is so recent, that a distinct name of the 

 Bengali language cannot be found in earlier works. Abul Fazl 

 once uses it, but it is not certain whether any books were then in 

 existence in the language. Bdngld is an older term, it stands for 

 the name of the country, as well as for the dialects spoken by its 

 people. These dialects were numerous in earlier days, and traces of 

 their differences may still be seen in the language of obscure villages 

 of distant districts. The gradual extension of commercial inter- 

 course has introduced changes in the spoken language of the 

 people, and differences in accent, pronunciation, and terminals, 

 and initials, slowly but steadily disappeared, till all became one and 

 identical. Radical changes in the orthography, proper pronun- 

 ciation of words, go on increasing till people settle into a habit of 

 writing, the inconvenience of the want of which is felt with increas- 

 ing intercourse and business. Private, and lengthy messages are 

 better sent in writing than by verbal instructions. It is superfluous 

 to dwell here on the circumstances and necessities which led to the 

 practice of giving ocular shape to the meaning of sounds uttered by 



