1876.] E. B. Shaw— On the Ghalchah Languages. 141 



are sisters, Ghalchah and Dardu would then be cousins, and we should expect 

 to find this more distant relationship typified in their speech. 



It is therefore interesting to compare the Ghalchah with the Dard 

 dialects. Isolated words may creep into a language at any time, especially 

 when new ideas or inventions reach a rude people from a more civilized one. 

 It will be seen, however, from a list which I have collected, that the words 

 which resemble one another in Ghalchah and Dardu convey the most simple and 

 fundamental ideas. But it is to a comparison of grammatical forms that 

 we must look for a measurement of the degree of affinity that exists 

 between them. 



First, with regard to the declension of the Noun. Here the Ghal- 

 chah dialects are almost bare of inflection, the cases being chiefly marked by 

 separable pre-positions and post-positions. But the one termination of an 

 oblique case which is not so separable (in the Wakhi dialect), occurs also 

 as a Dardu inflection. In the Wakhi Instrumentative and Ablative cases, 

 the termination an is used in addition to the appropriate preposition ; as in 

 Latin (e. g. cum vird). There is also a Genitive absolute with the same 

 termination, which may possibly be a relic of its general use for the Genitive 

 case, e. g., zui-an, mine, Mir-an, " the king's." 



Now, taking Dr. Leitner's work as the most complete account we have 

 of the Dardu dialects, we find in the Arniya form (or that spoken in the 

 valleys adjoining Wakhan on the south of the Hindu-Kush water-parting), 

 the same termination an used for all the oblique cases of the Plural. It is 

 not used in the Singular, but still it is distinct from the proper termination 

 of the Plural, as will be seen below. 



Ghalchah (Wakhi). 



ENGLISH. 





Dabdtt (Arniya). 



Nom. S. mir 



a king 



Nom. 



S. miter. 



Nom. PL mirisht 



kings 



Nom. 



PL miter ann. 



Gen. „ mirav (an) 



of kings 



Gen. 



„ miterauAN. 



Dat. „ mirav-ar 



to kings 



Dat. 



„ miteranAN-te» 



Ace. „ mirav 



kings 



Aec. 



„ miter an an. 



Instr. „ da mirav an 



with or by kings 



Instr. 



„ mit eran an -somega. 



Abl. „ sa mirav an 



from kings 



Abl. 



„ miter an an -sar. 



It will be seen that the Dardu noun has preserved the termination an 

 in other oblique cases where it has been lost or has never existed in Wakhi ; 

 on the other hand the Wakhi has got it in the Singular as well as in the 

 Plural. The fact of the Plural affix in Arniya being also an (as av is in 

 Wakhi) need make no confusion ; but for clearness' sake I also give the 

 plural of a Pronoun where this possible ambiguity does not exist. 



V- 



