64 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



Cashmeeree Grammar under the title of a Grammar of the Punjabee 

 language :" that error was circulated, the Punjabee was mistaken for 

 Caslimeeree, and Caslimeeree is put down in all the lists as merely 

 " A dialect of the Hindee"— a description which applies to Punjabee, 

 but in no degree whatever to Caslimeeree. 



Punjabee, though called a language, is really merely a dialect — at 

 most it differs from Hindee as much as Lowland Scotch does from 

 English. The pronunciation is materially different; there are some 

 changes of letters, c. g., a pure Punjabee will say instead of ' UslcaJ 

 1 of him,' ' Usdct,' and so on ; but there is no difference of structure ; 

 very many words also seem strange to a new-comer, but most of these 

 turn out to be pure Sanscrit — for instance, instead of ' baliut aclwj 

 1 very good,' or l acha bat' a Punjabee says " Sath Bajan" What- 

 ever you say in the Punjab, the universal answer seems to be " Sath 

 Bajan." These are purely Sanscrit words, ' sath' being ' good,' and 

 * bajan'' or l vachart a word. 



The Cashmeeree, though very Sanskrit, is in its grammar and struc- 

 ture, and many of its vocables, a totally different language from the 

 Hindee or Punjabee ; more different I may say than French from Eng- 

 lish, perhaps almost as different as Greek from English ; and it is spoken 

 by a wholly and essentially different people. It is evidently a much 

 more complicated language than the Hindee. For instance, instead of 

 the universal * ha,' l he,' ' Jco,' there seem to be a great variety of 

 forms of declension of the noun by inflectional affixes and changes, like 

 the Latin and Greek, but more varied. The verbs seem also to have 

 regular inflectional conjugations. And in none of these do I see any , 

 near resemblance to the Hindee, beyond a community of root. Many 

 of the words are also exceedingly peculiar, and the Pundits are well 

 aware there is a large infusion of vocables from unknown sources. In 

 every way there is a great field for critical study. I brought down 

 with me a good many words and phrases, but they are too imperfect 

 to show much. I have obtained from Serampore a copy of Dr. Carey's 

 Punjabee New Testament, but no one can now read it. That very 

 learned and distinguished member of this Society, Babu Hajendra Lala 

 Mitra, whose absence, on account of ill-health, I am grieved to notice, 

 W» Li ml enough to promise, as I before mentioned, to look over the pa- 

 pers on tin' Cashmeeree hitherto published, and to give me a note on the 



