6 TJie Arabic Element in Official Hindustani. [No. 1, 



arms and art, which ended in the establishment of the Urdu or camp 

 language, a language destined advisedly for the palace, the court, the 

 camp, the market. Its father the Hindi, its mother the Arabic, it 

 borrows freely from both its parents. 



Up to this point most men will agree with me that the free use of 

 Arabic and Persian is defensible both on the grounds of the origin of 

 the language as well as of convenience. 



The two great accusations brought against the language, however, 

 are ; first, that the Arabic and Persian words are used in an incorrect, 

 garbled and distorted way, and secondly, that the language itself is 

 unintelligible to the mass of the people. I proceed to discuss these 

 objections a little more in detail. 



II. First, then it is asserted that the use of Arabic and Persian 

 words in the way they are employed by native officials is mere pedan- 

 try ; that the words are used in wrong ' senses and often utterly mis- 

 applied, that participles are used as nouns, nouns as verbs and so on. 



Now this may mean either that munshi Arabic is incorrect according 

 to the rules of grammar of the times of the Kuran ; or that it is wrong 

 according to the usages of the modern colloquial and written Arabic. — 

 If the former of these two theories is advanced, I meet it by a simple and 

 positive denial of its truth. A few examples may be taken as tests. 



Ashkhds. The Arabic shakhs, of which this is the legitimate and 

 regular plural, means, literally separation, or the distinguishing of one 

 thing from another ; or more strictly, the act or condition of being 

 separate and distinct. Shakhs is therefore the exact equivalent of the 

 English word "individual," a word which is good modern English 

 enough ; and ashkhds, signifying the persons or individuals concerned 

 in a lawsuit, is therefore a more accurate word than the Hindi fog ; 

 which really means, " the world," or the collected body of human 

 beings, and is quite out of place in designating a special class or num- 

 ber of people. 



Mudda'i, from da' a, he called. 



(Freytag — vocavit, advocavit, provocavit,) is the regularly formed 

 active participle of the 8th conjugation, and literally and exactly 

 means a claimant or prosecutor ; " Arrogans vel sili vindicans rem 

 contra aliquem ;" and is therefore a more expressive word than "badi," 



