2 Hiralal Kavyopadhyaya and Q. A. Grierson — [No, 1, 
4. We are all indebted to Mr. Hiralal Kavyopadbyaya for his very 
careful and interesting work, and I gladly welcome him as an accession 
to the small band of those who are attempting to throw light on the 
dark byways of Indian vernaculars. It is only by enlisting the 
assistance of gontlemen like him, who take an intelligent interest in the 
subject, and who are willing and able to put in writing that knowledge 
of facts which can only be attained by local experience, that we can 
hope to be able to finally map out the true relationship between the 
various languages of India. 
G. A. G. 
PART I. 
Chapter I. Orthography. 
5. The nasals W, and at, when standing alone are all equally 
pronounced like the dental «f, thus TH ‘ battle ’ is pronounced T*f. 
6. A Tatsama W: is pronounced like H Thus, ittff, ‘ cold ’ is pro- 
nounced A Tatsama V is pronounced like m. Thus, «m, ‘ langu- 
age ’ is pronounced «mT, and frv, ‘ a fault ’ is pronounced 
7. Exception, — In the word ' tho serpent of eternity,’ if is pro- 
nouncod like ij, — tlras, 
8. The remaining letters are pronounced as in Hindi. 
9. In the following grammar, words will be spelled as they are 
pronounced. So that wo shall spell TJf and not Tit, €trf and not Y^?f, 
WT’sIT and not WTT, tT* 3 and not and not WI-stTff. 
10. Note by translator. The above are very few of the letter changes in this 
dialect. This is, however, of little importance, as all will bo found in Dr Hoemle’s 
Gaudian Grammar. 
One very important change may be noticed here,— the shortening of an 
antepenultimate vowel. When, in a tadbhava word, a long vowel, owing to 
inflexion, conjugation, or other cause, finds itself in tho antepenultimate or other 
earlier syllable of a word, that vowel is shortened. Thus, tho long form of 
‘ a mango ’ is and of tfTTT ‘ a horse,’ tftTT^T. For further particulars on this 
point, and also for particulars regarding Long and Redundant forms, the 
reader is referred to the Gaudian Grammar, and to the Introduction to A Comparative 
Dictionary of the Bihari Language by A. F. R. Hoernlo and G. A. Grierson. 
The short vowels (like ci’iri hallo), JJ e (like e in met), and 0 (the short 
of ^T,1 6) s the imporfeot or neutral vowel “ (as in ghor’wd ) ; and the 
peculiar long d (pronounced like a in fall), whioh occurs in the root will all 
be found in this dialect, and the reader is referred to the preface of the Bihari 
Dictionary, above reforred to, for further information concerning them. 
