1870.] Contributions toicards Vernacular Lexicography . 137 



formation of these, no system or plan has been followed. Princi- 

 pally they are compilations from Sanscrit dictionaries, and the com- 

 mon colloquial distortions of many Sanscrit and foreign words have 

 been inserted, without rhyme or reason, to swell the bulk of the 

 work. Indeed so little attention has been given in the selection of 

 words, and so little care has been taken in arranging them, that the 

 several modifications of a word as pronounced by the illiterate have 

 been put in, as so many distinct and independent words. No compiler 

 of an English dictionary would dare put in idear as a distinct word 

 from idea, though it is so pronounced by many. The compiler of 

 a Bengali dictionary, however, puts in the following %T^1, ?fas1, 3Tt5f, 

 ^5», 3"f3»1, and ?rfsf1 as so many distinct words. Words that have 

 not retained the entire Sanscrit form have been by some regarded 

 as Prakrit, though such forms are never to be seen in that lan- 

 guage and others with equal carelessness been introduced as original 

 Bengali. Indeed the negligence is so great, that in one dictionary 

 I find the word W^sr (wine) marked as a Prakrit word. 



It is held by some that the language of the aborigines of Bengal 

 has largely contributed to the formation of modern Bengali, and 

 that though Sanscrit forms the nine-tenth part, or even a greater 

 proportion, of the whole bulk of the language ; the case -terminations 

 are the relics of the aboriginal Bengalis. This is not the place to 

 discuss the origin of the language ; it must, however, be admitted 

 that many of the case-terminations can be traced to the Prakrit, 

 a derivative of the Sanscrit, and the rest may be explained without 

 recourse to fanciful suppositions. 



With these few prefatory remarks on the formation of words in this 

 language, I propose to give here a list of derivations which I 

 have endeavoured to trace to the Sanscrit or other languages, 

 and from time to time in subsequent papers to discuss the genealogy 

 of different words. 



In common conversation, it may be observed that the illiterate, 

 and especially the women of the lower classes, eliminate the r 3" 

 from words which contain it, or insert one in words having none. In 

 Prakrit this is arrived at by a more comprehensive rule,* viz., that 

 sharp consonant compounds are filed off by the elision of the final 



* Cowell's Prakrit Grammar. 

 19 



