Specimens Of Languages Of India

From the introductory remarks. I do not purpose to attempt here any comparisons of the languages shown. I have neither the time nor the ability to do so. Fortunately the language-specimens were obtained before famine came upon us, and now that the printing is completed, I issue them with the briefest possible note. I will only mention one or two salient features in the classification of the non-Aryan tribes of these territories, which the specimens render self-evident. It is very clear that most of the aboriginal tribes of the Central Provinces and several of those of Western Bengal (including in these latter the Dangars, Oraons of Chota Nagpore, Paharies of Rajmehal, and Khonds of Orissa) are radically allied to the Dravidians. Intermixed with these tribes, but speaking a language quite without affinity to the Dravdian tongues, are the tribes which I call Kolarian, forming a minority among the aborigines of the Central Provinces, but a great majority among those of Western Bengal. Throughout the western borders of Bengal, and all over the Chota Nagpore country, these people are very numerous and prolific, and form large, settled, and civilised communities among the best of her Majesty's Indian subjects. Strange as it may seem, I believe that their very fully developed language has not yet been found to have any affinity with any other groups of language whatever, except with one now rapidly dying-out tongue, far away on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, the Mon or Talain of Pegu, with which some affinities are, I think, apparent. The specimens numbered 9 and 10 make it clear that all the non-Aryan languages of the Darjeeling, Bhootan, and Nepalese Hills are of the Thibetan type....