1849.] valley of Asam and its mountain confines. 185 



of the Sanskrit, that bears a closer affinity to its parent, so that nearly 

 four-fifths of the words in common use are pure derivations from that 

 stock. Like its cognate the Bengali, it admits of the introductions of 

 Sanskrit terms with such facility, and to so great an extent, as to be 

 capable of conveying ideas with the greatest precision, thus adding 

 considerably to its copiousness. 



Whether it be a direct derivative of the Sanskrit, or only a corrupt 

 dialect of the Bengali, has been questioned. It seems highly probable, 

 however, that a careful investigation will conduce to the support of the 

 latter supposition ;. for there does not seem to be a greater diversity 

 between what are usually considered the provincialisms, spoken in the 

 remoter parts of Bengal, — in Chittagong and Silhet for instance, — and 

 the unadulterated Bengali of Nuddeah (where the language is said to 

 be spoken in its purity), than between any of these and the dialect of 

 Asam. 



From the circumstance of the country having from time immemorial 

 been governed by rulers of Shan origin, it is somewhat surprising that 

 more traces of their language are not to be found in the present dialect 

 of the Asamese. The very small proportion of words that may be 

 traced to Tai origin, appear for the most part to be adventitious. This 

 might serve to show that long previous to the invasion of the Shan con- 

 querors or the inroads of the hill tribes, the valley was inhabited by 

 a race intimately connected with Bengal or Berar, and this con- 

 jecture would seem to be confirmed by the traditions of the old king- 

 dom of Kamroop, and several antique Hindu remains in the most 

 remote parts of the valley, which have but recently been brought to 

 notice by the archaic researches of Major Hannay. 



After a careful comparison of the Bengali and Asamese dialects, we 

 make no hesitation in asserting, that, except with slight variations of 

 pronunciation, upwards of eight-tenths of the most common words are 

 identical. So strong an affinity may not be perceptible on a cursory 

 inspection of any given number of words taken from the two languages, 

 in as much as the secondary forms in current use in Bengal would most 

 likely be overlooked, and these, in many cases, come far nearer to the 

 Asamese terms than those words commonly used in Bengali composition- 



For the purpose of comparison, a list of words in both the Bengali 

 and Asamese dialects is here subjoined, And, the more clearly to 



2 b 2 



