1877.] 
of Eastern TurJcistan. 
247 
not usually last long enough to allow of the growth of peculiarities 
common to the whole nation. When people, however, settle down in 
communities and towns, a certain number of expressions become worn 
down, as it were, by daily use, and in such a state of society these corrup- . 
tions would be likely to become fixed and permanent. In this process the 
rationale of the various formations becomes less evident ; the elements of 
the words are so fused together as to become indistinguishable ; from want 
of recognizable examples men cease to put together unconsciously each 
word as they want it, and begin to use only those to whose sound they 
have become accustomed, and which are as it were ready-made. Thus the 
language loses in its richness of perhaps superabundant forms. It leaves 
the fluid and enters the solid state. 
Even in Central Asia such a process has begun in the towns and 
villages. Who would recognize in the short word ivopti the compound 
tense bol-up-ir-d-i, “ it had become.” Yet a native of Khokand, who will 
use the former in conversation, will spell it out at the full length of the 
latter if he has occasion to write it. He has not yet lost his sense of the 
full force of every one of the five elements that build it up. To a stranger 
who knew that the infinitive was bolmdq (or even ivolmdq), the pluperfect 
ivopti would seem a most irregular form, and would be no guide in forming 
the pluperfects of other verbs. 
* The Yarkandi (who lives further East) has not proceeded so far in 
his corruption of the word. He contents himself with shortening it into 
bolupti (showing greater respect for the root). So aparado (or, as the 
Andijanis say : aparade) is used, where the true form is al-ip-bdr-a tur-ur, 
lit. “ having taken (he) going is standing” (viz., “ he is taking away”). 
The intermediate steps are alip-bdra-trur , then alip-bara-dur, then ap-bdra- 
dur, and then apara-dur; the corruption going on independently in the 
several members of the word, converting alip into ap , fusing the initial b of 
bar with the preceding p , and turning turur finally into do or de. So also 
the imperative of another compound verb is shortened from al-ip-lcel to 
apJce or even aTcke. And thus some words travel West, from the desert 
their birthplace, leaving a letter behind them in each country where they 
halt, but bearing the scars indelible on their bodies. 
In extending itself towards Europe the Turkish tongue seems to 
approach the inflectional stage of development. Even in such forms as 
wopte , apke, and do (for turur), -the root itself, the very sanctuary of an 
agglutinative language, has been invaded. But, moreover, in Western 
Turkish the affixes or terminations have become so far blended wfith the 
verb that their origin has been lost sight of. Some Grammarians in their 
analysis have mistaken, for instance, the pronominal affixes for parts of 
