504 



On the Origin of the E-indvi Language, 



[No. 



■ 



single Persian or Arabic word, # and the largest extent to which 

 Semitic element has been traced in any Urdu work does not exceed 

 40 or at the outside 50 out of every hundred.f While on the other 

 hand its remaining 50 to 60 per cent, of vocables are Hindvi, and its 

 structure and grammar are entirely so, and that to such an extent 

 that it is impossible to construct a single sentence in it without the 

 aid of the Hindvi grammar. Pedantic Mauluvis may string together 

 endless series of adjectives and substantives and even adverbs but 

 they can never be put in concord without indenting on the services of 

 Hindvi verbs, Hindvi inflections, Hindvi case-marks, Hindvi pro- 

 nouns and Hindvi prepositions. Nothing could be more conclusive 

 than this ; the grammar of the Urdu is unmistakeably the same as 

 that of the Hindvi, and it must follow therefore that the Urdu is a 

 Hindvi and an Aryan dialect. A variety no doubt it is, differing from 

 the original in having a large admixture of foreign element, but still 

 a variety of the Hindvi, as the Assamese and the Coch are varieties 

 of the Bengali. Englishmen who maintain that 200 per cent, of 

 Latin and Greek do not alter the Saxon origin of their vernacular 

 will, I am sure, readily admit my position, and if this be admitted 

 the question as to the character in which it should be written becomes 

 self-evident. As Sanskritic dialects the Hindvi and the Urdu have 

 undoubted claims to the Nagari, for that alone can supply the neces- 

 sary symbols properly to indicate their system of sounds. The Persian 

 alphabet has no such symbols and therefore fails adequately to repre- 

 sent the phonology of the Hindvi, except by the aid of a cumbrous 

 system of diacritical marks. It is besides, notwithstanding the great 

 facility with which it may be written, to quote the language of the 

 learned translator of Ferishta, " the most difficult to decipher with 

 accuracy, and the most liable to orthographical errors. In writing it 

 the diacritical points, by which alone anything like certainty is 

 attainable, are frequently omitted ; and in an alphabet where a dot 

 above a letter is negative, and below the same letter is positive, 

 who shall venture to decide in an obscure passage which is correct, or 

 how is it possible that a person unacquainted with the true orthogra- 

 phy of proper names can render a faithful transcript of a carelessly 

 written original ?' ? J 



It is true that owing to a feeling of national pride on the part 

 * Ante, vol. xxl. p. 1. f Yide Appendix. J Bragg' s Ferishta, p. xi. 



k 



