140 Contributions towards Vernacular Lexicography. [No. 2, 



by a slight modification becomes ^3>"*f . Indeed, when the Bengalis 

 speak amongst themselves, it is very difficult to catch the very flat 

 sound of u, which they simply use to connect the consonants ^ 

 and *f. 3lt*T is *tft\*f or ^"Tt*T, where W is elided. The numerals 

 from fifty-one to fifty- eight are all formations with *fT*, standing for 

 fifty and ^, t£ (*1-*T), fo* (fil fl),^J (l>>) &c, preceding. In eu- 

 phony *f after &, if, 3", and 5 is harsh, and hence instead of 4 WIST 

 we have 4*5TW, *t^t3 f%*«ffa ST^T* <WH{ &c. In f3**fte the *T is 

 doubled as the original form fig^ffa had a compound f3f preceding 

 *fl^. The Prakrit rule is : before two consonants a long vowel is 

 sharpened, and if the long vowel is retained, one of the consonants 

 is elided as W>f for Jlltf, ft $t*r for wt-tf, ^ for *J#, and ^«f?T for 

 ^3", and a short vowel before two consonants is occasionally 

 lengthened, and one of the consonants omitted, as lifel for fsi^L The 

 Hindustanis, however, have retained the forms ^3>*R\3l?;T^,^* *f3» 

 *ti5*f*T. Tne Bengali form «J©t (a group of five) is evidently a 

 corruption of the Sanscrit *f$£t ; of such forms as sf!3l,3»T5»r 9 ^'5% &c, 

 more hereafter. From the above derivations, it appears that the 

 Hindi has derived all its numerals from Prakrit, while the Bengali, 

 though not from the Sanscrit direct, yet not from the Prakrit either. 

 It has to be decided whether it is justifiable to draw the conclusion 

 that Bengali is a language independent of the Prakrit and con- 

 temporaneous with it ? But the mass of evidence on the other side 

 is so great as to leave no doubt whatever of its drawing largely 

 from the Prakrit. That the Bengali is an independent derivative 

 of the Sanscrit, is tenable under the supposition that the rules of 

 derivation in Bengali are similar to those of the Prakrit. At all 

 events the subject is open to discussion. 



Many distortions met with both in Prakrit and Bengali words 

 may be traced to the laws of Sandhi of Sanscrit grammar. Thus, 

 when an aspirate consonant becomes doubled, one of them becomes 

 a simple one. 



Sanscrit ^TFJ, in Prakrit instead of being ^TFCFl is ^t^jnrl, and 

 in Bengali ^T$ — so is ^5R*f — ^W3T! — *r«TO, wlfsfol — W$tf?I<l1 — 

 fiffsr, \^ x — 5^~~^* Similarly, a simple consonant is changed 

 into an aspirate, ^ — "5TC^"1 — "ST^". 



In the Bengali numeral *IT^ derived from 43>, the vowel ^ in 



