1884.] 
5 
Trade Dialect of the Naqqdsh. 
Now tlie question is, are these Naqqash words Y> 2 iYi oi a bond fide 
dialect, some relic of a past language in Northern India, or are they 
merely an argot, a more or less conscious formation of words for the 
purposes of secrecy ? I think the answer will eventually be, when there 
are more data than at present available to go upon, that the bulk of the 
words are really dialectic and traceable to surrounding idioms, or to the 
former stages of the modern Aryan languages, but that in some cases 
words have been inverted and nonsense syllables prefixed or affixed in 
order to hide their true form. E. g., nath=than, place ; gaukha=gazkha= 
kaghaz, paper; (pu)-chha-(ri)=chha, six,and so on. Such methods are 
no more uncommon in India than among thieves, bad characters, and 
children in Europe.* 
There is only one way of ascertaining the answer to the question 
above propounded, and that is, by comparison of the Naqqash trade 
dialect with such others as are available and with the surround¬ 
ing idioms and ancient tongues of Northern India. The dialects at 
present available to me are the Naqqash, the Zargari of Kashmir, the 
Zargari of the Panjab, the Zargari of the North West Provinces, the 
dialect of the carpenters, blacksmiths and masons of Kashmir, of the 
shawl-weavers of the Panjab and Kashmir, of the so-called Khurasani 
Magadds, and of the Changars. The languages I propose to compare 
the above with are Kashmiri, Panjabi, Hindi, Prakrit and Sanskrit, and 
secondarily with Persian and Arabic. 
The authorities consulted for the words in the comparative tables 
given in this paper are— 
Dr. Leitner, Linguistic Fragments, 1882, pp. v-vh, xvi-xviii, and 
xxii, appendix pp. 2 and 3. Sketch of the Changars, 1880, p. 12. 
Elliot, Faces of the North West Provinces, Beames’s Ed., 1869, vol. i, 
pp. 160-1 and footnote by Beames. 
Lodidnd Panjdbi Grammar, 1854, p. 82. 
Kellogg, Hindi Grammar, pp. 94—108. 
Platt, Hindustdni Grammar, pp. 49—50, and foot notes, 85—6 
and 112. 
Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar, §§ 475—89. 
All the above names of tribes and trades speak for themselves ex¬ 
cepting the Khurasani Magadds and the Changars. The former were a 
band of foreigners, who infested the Panjab in 1868-72, and who said 
they were Khokandis or Persians, but Dr. Leitner (p. xii.) seems to 
think they were Persian Grypsies with a long residence in India. The 
latter are a humble tribe, harmless enough in their way, to be found 
* See Appendix to Dr. Leitner’s Analysis of ’Ahclud-Ohafur’s Dictionary, 1880, 
p. xviii, and liis Linguistic Fragments, pp. xiv, xv. 
