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 38 THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ASAMIYA LANGUAGE "The language of the Vedic hymns must have been at one time a spoken language in North-west of India, but it must be remembered that we know it in its poetic form only and mostly applied to religious subjects". (Max Muller's Selence of Language). "The spoken language of the Vedie priests probably differed from this dinlect of the hymns only in the absence of poetical constructions and archaisma". (Mac- donell's History of Sanskrit Literature). "On linguistic grounds we regarded as the ancestor of the speeches of India and Iran. Of these Indian speeches our oldest evidence is the Rig Veda"... (Keath's A History of Sanskrit Literature). "The Vedic language was spoken in the Panjab.... in 1500 B.C." (Uhlenbeck). "The beginnings of these (present-day dialects) go back to a great antiquity. Even at the times that the Vedie hymns were composed they must have existed as popu- lar languages. (Macdonell's H.SL.) This refers to the old Indo-Aryan period ranging roughly from B.C. 1500 to 500 B.C., "when the language was most copious in both its sounds and forms." (ODBL). One Bengali scholar has found out an ingenious device to give us an idea of the transitions of old Indo-Aryan through Middle Indo-Aryan (roughly from B.C. 500 to AD. 1000) to the New Indo-Aryan (irom A.D. 1000), by inventing a couplet to show its descent from OIA to NIA. Ganam gathayitva nāwam hayitva kakah avisyati parachi: Dylepitud yadyom modhi bhavati cinste anuyakyte. This is taken as a specimen of spokon OIA Vedie dialect of 1000 B.C. Tie steps in the transition of this dialect are shown by the changes of gathayitud to gathetud, udhayitod to dete, kakal to kake, paredhi to pladhi, in the first line and drkpite to delikhed, dedyam to dilom, melodhi to manadhi, bhavati to Roti, cinste to ciniyati, amulyskrete to amukaskate in the second line. So the couple would stand as: "Ganam plithetva nawam edhetud lake avisati priladi: Dekkpl yndisam manadhi hoti cihiyati amufas kate". This now stands a specimen by the close of the OIA, . 500 B.C. Further steps in the transition are shown by further changes of pitheted to gidhi, edheted to thia, kake to kage, dilati to aplandi in the first line; and dekichitua to dekkhyadiom to yedinem, hoti to hodi, einh- yati to chiedi, kate to kaladhi in the second line. So the couplet then stand as: "Gagan gildha ndoa udhia lage duisadi paladhi: Delkhia danem maadhi hodi inhiadi ambak Joaladi. This is said to stand as Magadhl Prakt of e. 200 A.D. Here the tran- sition seems to be again up the current as in changes to, & tot to