Page:On the Non-Aryan Languages of India.djvu/9

Rh though it is spoken within a few hours' rail of Calcutta, we know nothing whatever of its grammar. Much less attention has been paid to the other South-Indian group, the Kolarian. Of the Savara, for instance,—the Sabaree of Ptolemy, a language which was considered of sufficient importance to be marked by a separate colour on the language map which accompanies the Madras Census Report,—we have only a very imperfect vocabulary. From this vocabulary it appears probable, but by no means certain, that the Savara belongs to the Kolarian group; but no sketch has been vouchsafed of its grammar. Of most of the other languages also of this group it is very little that we know. Of the numerous languages, again, on our northern and eastern frontiers, there is not one in twenty of the grammar of which we know anything at all.

The language map which accompanies this paper has been prepared from the best information I could get up to the present time, though doubtless the boundaries and positions of the languages are not in all cases exactly described. At the end of the paper I have given a table of all the languages and dialects of which (so far as I know) vocabularies have been published.

I will commence with the Dravidian group. The Dra vidian are the principal languages of the South of India, and are spoken by about 46 millions of people. Twelve languages are distinguished by Caldwell, viz. Tamil, Malayálam, Telugu, Canarese, Tulu, Kudagu, Tuda, Kota, Gond, Khond, Oraon, Rajmahál. In the Dravidian group there is a rational and an irrational gender of the nouns, which is distinguished, in the plural of the nouns, and sometimes in the singular also, by affixes which appear to be fragmentary pronouns; by corresponding pronouns, and by the agreement of the verb with the noun, the gender of the verb being expressed by the pronominal suffixes. To give an instance of verbal gender, we have in Tamil from root 'sey 'to do,' śeyd-ān 'he (rational) did'; śeyd-āl 'she (rational) did'; śeyd-adu 'it (irrational) did'; seyd-ār ' they (the rationals) did'; seyd-a 'they (the irrationals) did '; the full pronouns being avan 'he,' aval 'she,' adu 'it,' avar 'they,' avei ' they.'