1S50.] 



Language of the Gonds. 



35 



Tamil that it has been deemed likely to furnish some sort of confir- 

 matory evidence to the theory of an original substratum, on which 

 the principal dialects of the country have grown and been developed : 

 if a relationship can be traced between the languages of races of men 

 dwelling in one common country, but divided by an extent of land 

 sufficient to induce a belief that no intercourse was ever maintained, 

 and characterized by features in social, and individual life indicating 

 respectively the advances, and transformations of the civilizing prin- 

 ciple, and the energy of mental activity, and the stagnant and motion- 

 less state of rude and barbaric tribes who have known little or no 

 advancement from periods of remote antiquity. 



What will now be attempted, is, to show that notwithstanding 

 these lines of contrast between the more refined nations of the South, 

 and the ruder and simpler inhabitants of the mountains, yet their lan- 

 guages, marked by a diversity fully accountable by the circumstances 

 of their relative condition, have withal a certain resemblance, a cer- 

 tain family aspect, which it is impossible to overlook or deny. 



I. The class of words selected in the first place consists of such 

 as are exactly similar in their elementary formations. 



1. Water Gondi 



Rakarry, Sodrajee. 



3. Wood 



5. Tree 



Gondi 



Gondi 



Ir. Tamil Ner — Water. 



S. Sanscrit Nira, from Ni to 



obtain. 



The rejection of the ini- 

 tial consonant is easily con- 

 ceivable, and what renders 

 this probable is the absence 

 of the same consonant in 

 the Gondi word " to re- 

 ceive" or u obtain" yetalle: 

 the last syllable alle or ille 

 being only the usual termi- 

 nation of their verbs. 



Katya. Tamil <se.oni_.Kattai — 



"1. Trunk of a tree, block, 

 a piece of timber." — Rot- 

 tier. 



Marra. Tamil ix-irih. Marrum a 



tree. 



