2015 ON OHISSA PROPER 



parently from any affinity with the Telinga. Most of the titles of which the 

 natives are so fond are pure Sanscrit; more than three-fourths of the nouns 

 and roots of verbs may be traced to that language, and its few simple inflec- 

 tions are obviously founded on the rules of the Vyakaran. The basis of the 

 alphabet is the common Hindi or Nagari character, somewhat disguised 

 however by a peculiarity in the mcde of writing it. In the direction of Ben- 

 gal, the Ooria language is used tolerably pure, following the line of the coast 

 as far as the Hijellee ana Tumlook divisions at least, I have been credibly 

 informed that in the Mysadal Pergunnah, all revenue accounts are written on 

 tal pair or leaves of the palmyra'tree in that dialect. On the western side 

 of the Midnapore district, the two languages begin to intermingle, at Ra~ 

 nj Sarai about twenty miles north of the Subanrekha. A very mixed 

 and impure bhasha is used in the Zemindari of Naraingerh and the hill 

 estates beyond it, which improves a little at Midnapore (itself situated in a 

 Jungle Mehal called Bhanjbhum) and at that town becomes more decidedly 

 Bengali. The inhabitants of the country on the north of Keerpoy (offici- 

 ally termed the Jungle Mehals) probably speak the language of the Ben- 

 gal province quite correct and unmixed. To the westward the Gond 

 and Ooria languages pass into each other on the estate of Sanepur, the 

 Raja of which country informed me that half his peaple speak one and 

 half the other dialect. On the south we find the first traces of the Telin- 

 ga about Ganjam, where a different pronunciation may be observed. The 

 people there call themselves Oodlahs and Wodiahs, instead of Oorias, 

 Gerh becomes Gadda, Jagannath, Jagannada, &c. The language of 

 Orissa Proper still however prevails at Baurwah forty-five miles south of 

 Ganjam, on the low lands of the coast, and as far as the large estate ofKi- 

 medy in the hills, beyond which the Telinga begins to predominate, at 

 Cicacole is the prevailing dialect, andin Vizagapatam, Telinga only is spok- 

 en in the open country. In the mountains of the interior, however, the 

 dialect of the Odras is used by the bulk of the inhabitants, from Gumser 

 down to Palcondah, Bastar, and Jayapur. 



1 know of no original composition deserving any notice in the language 



