Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/31

Rh original shape, but invariably assume terminations or undergo changes peculiar to the pure Teloogoo, or language of the land.

The third class of words which is generally mentioned by Dr. Carey as “derived from the Sungskrita,” I have named Sanscrit Corruptions; it consists of words which have passed into Teloogoo, either directly from the Sanscrit, or through the medium of some of its corrupted dialects, such as the Pracrit, and which, in order to be assimilated to the language of the land, have undergone radical alterations, by the elision, insertion, addition, or subtraction of letters. These changes have been sometimes carried so far, that it is difficult to trace any connexion between the adulterated word and its original in Sanscrit.

In the course of this work, it will be obvious to the Sanscrit scholar that the declension of the noun, by particles or words added to it—the use of a plural pronoun (మనము) applicable to the, first and second persons conjointly—the conjugation of the affirmative verb—the existence of a negative aorist, a negative imperative, and other negative forms in the verb—the union of the neuter and feminine genders in the singular, and of the masculine and feminine genders in the plural, of the pronouns and verbs—and the whole body of the syntax, are entirely unconnected with the Sanscrit; while the Tamil and Karnataca scholar will at once recognize their radical connexion with each of these languages. The reader will find all words denoting the different parts of the human frame, the various sorts of food or utensils in common use among the Natives, the several parts of their dress, the compartments of their dwellings, the degrees of affinity and consanguinity peculiar to them, in short all terms expressive of primitive ideas or of things necessarily named in the earlier stages of society, to belong to the pure Teloogoo or language of the land. It is true, (so mixed have the two languages now become) that Sanscrit derivatives or corruptions may, without impropriety, be occasionally used to denote some of these. This, however, is not common, the great body of Sanscrit words admitted info the language consists of abstract terms, and of words connected with science, religion, or law