Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/131

Rh and that no Englishman ordinarily thinks of the pedigree of the words which he uses, or is in the least offended by the difference in their origin. The same may be said, more or less, of all the modern European languages. If Bengalee and Hindusthanee ever become as well fitted for every purpose of literature and science as English and French, no person will have reason to complain of the process by which this may have been effected. A similar process has been gone through in India. Sanskrit itself was engrafted by a race of conquerors on the national languages, and very evident traces of its incongruity with them exist in the south of India, and in various hilly tracts. The Mahommedan invaders afterwards introduced a profusion of Arabic and Persian, and a few Turkish words. The Portuguese contributed the naval vocabulary and many other words, which are now so blended with the vernacular dialects as not to be distinguishable by the natives from words of ancient Indian origin. And, lastly, numerous English words have been already naturalised, and others are daily becoming so through the medium of our civil and military systems, of our national customs