1897.J M. M. Chakravarti —Language and Literature of Orissa. 327 
Sadhubhasa writing of Gan jam being rounder and distiucter than 
in the main tract. 
While in the border tracts Oriya is being thus powerfully acted 
upon by the three great vernaculars, within its main area (viz., the 
regulation districts and the Garjats) the Oriya has similarly influenced 
the other languages spoken by foreign residents, such as the aboriginal 
speeches, the Hindi, the Bengali and the Telugu. 
In the Tributary States of Orissa the numerous dialects spoken 
by the various aboriginal tribes are being gradually supplanted by the 
Oriya. The chief intercourse of these tribes is with the Oriyas who 
are the ruling race, and who carry on the bulk of the trade and of 
the manufactures. Consequently Oriya is .becoming the prevalent 
speech; and the aboriginal tribes, no sooner they settle permanently, 
adopt the Oriya speech mixing a few of their old words. Already in 
Keunjhar Athigurh, Kataki Athigurh, and round about the chief towns 
of Garjats, the speech in use is little different from the ordinary 
Oriya, only the pronouneiation is sharper. In the jungles, the Khands, 
the Bhumijas, the Juaqgs, Ac., though they still retain their vocabu¬ 
lary, are borrowing freely from the Opya ; and as their own vocabu¬ 
lary is limited, their speeches in course of time will become chiefly 
Oriya. If the present system continues, the Oriya is destined to be 
the prevalent speech of the Tributary States. 
During the Musulman, the Maratha, and the British rules, a few 
Muhammadans, Rajputs (upcountrymen), and Bengalis settled in Orissa. 
Their speeches have been more or less changed by the surrounding 
Oriya tongue. The Rajputs have lost practically all knowledge of the 
Hindi, and generally speak in Oyiya. The Muhammadans still speak 
the Urdu; but the tone is Oriyaised, and numerous grammatical 
forms have been dropped. 1 Similarly the speech of the Bengali settlers 
has altered. From the frequent use of hare, an imitation of the Oriya 
participle hari, their speech is vulgarly kuown as herd. They interloaded 
the Bengali sentence with Oriya verbs and Urdu words, e. g., one 
gentleman speaking of a dinner, remarked 
^§1^ (the ladies cooked so well, that on taking the food our 
hearts were delighted). Nowadays that intercourse with Bengal and the 
Bengalis is increasing, and the settlers are more and more reading 
the Bengali works, the males are more or less shaking off the patois. 
1 Through the influence of the Mahomedans, the speech of the Cuttack Bazar 
people has been altered. They speak in an affected tone changing to 
and if to ^ e.g., ^ ^ ^ Here the initial five qjj s arj 
changes of 
