7\ 



502 



On the Origin of the Hindvi Language. 



[No. 5, 



admixture did take place. On the contrary it is certain that the abori- 

 gines receded as the tide of the Aryan conquerors flowed onward from 

 the north-west, very much in the same way as the Eed Indian in North 

 America receded from the contact of the Saxon and the Celt, and they 

 could not therefore leave behind much of their dialects to leaven the lan- 

 guage of the aggressors. At the same time as it is impossible for two 

 languages to come in contact without exchanging their vocables, so 

 we find that from 5 to 10 per cent, of the vocables of the modern 

 Aryan vernaculars of India are of non-Sanskrit or Turanian origin. 

 Owing to the same cause the dialects of the aborigines shew a con- 

 siderable stock of Sanskritic vocables, varying of course in proportion 

 to the extent of intercourse which the different tribes who speak them 

 had with the Brahmans. When the aborigines had receded beyond the 

 Krishna, their flight was checked by the sea, and they had accordingly 

 there to make their last stand against their conquerors, and it is 

 beyond the Krishna, therefore, that we find the descendants of those 

 aborigines in the largest number and in full possession of their origi- 

 nal dialects. 



After having thus taken, wdiat I trust will appear, a sufficiently 

 consistent view of the origin of the Hindvi, I shall now turn to the 

 Urdu, otherwise called the Hindustdni. Mahomedan writers inform 

 us that the necessity of colloquial intercourse between the Moslem 

 invaders and the natives of this country, produced a mixed dialect of 

 which the grammar was purely Indian, but the vocables partly foreign 

 and partly Indian. It was first principally used by the Affghan sol- 

 diery and therefore called the Urdu or the " camp dialect." Chiefs 

 and nobles next took it up and it now forms the language of nearly 

 half of the Mahomedan population of the country, the other half 

 speaking the ordinary Hindvi. This sort of fusion of the vocables of 

 one language into another is common enough in the history of lan- 

 guages. To a small extent it is taking place in almost every language 

 on earth ; and instances are not wanting to shew that it has happened 

 to a very large extent without affecting in the least the grammatical 

 peculiarities of the recipient. In Bengal the language of the courts 

 contains no less than 30 per cent, of Arab, Persian and other foreign 

 words, and still it is acknowledged to be Bengali. There is a class of 

 books also in Bengali which is said to be written in " Mahomedan 

 Bengali," and some of the Gospels have been translated into it. Its 



