Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/229

 INDIA (RACES AND LANGUAGES) 217 central portion of northern India ; Urdu, also Sib. and asp. Jf s, ^ f, ^ , "5 A- called Hindustani, an offshoot of Hindi, the _k N y language of the Mohammedan population of f oj *t ^Ji ( '> 25 *> ^5 ** the whole of India, and spoken by all the culti- A. _5_ vated classes of the peninsula; and Dakhani Vowels . . . ( (5 , (jg 1 d, <S^S, (g 6, or Deccanese, also a Hindi dialect. The south- western group comprises Guzarati or Gujarati, the language of Guzerat and the dialects related 15 (g)a to it. The last and southern group is formed Guzarati. by the Marathi. All these languages with one exception make use of graphic systems differ- Gutt. X i, /t M, 01 ft ^l ^A. ing from each other, but in common derived Pal I^ ^A flrf jfrfA from the old Indie Devanagari alphabet, which in its turn is an adaptation of the Semitic char- Cer. g*, Z ?A, tf^, 4 rfA, Hi n. acters, and especially of the Himyaritic. Urdu or Hindustani, and often also Sindhl, is written with the Arabic-Persian Taliq characters. All Dent. ft, q JA, <t d, G[dh, '*[n. Lab. H p, 04 joA, i 6, ^ SA,. OT. the languages possess the same five classes of consonants, corresponding with those of San- skrit : gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and labials. They have also in common the peculiar Semi-vowels, jj y, 3. r, <it Z, *i ;. Sib. and asp. }{ s, XI f, ^J, A. semi-vowels, y, r, and I, as well as the aspi- ( ftK a ) Wi ) Q ^ *i rate h. The vowels are a, i, and, with the Vowels . . . < ^ ^ extended d, i, and A ; the closed diphthongs ( 3H M i JWl^- are 6 and 6, and the open diphthongs ai and au. Several of these languages also reckon r and I Arabic of the Urdu. as vowels. The following are the four princi- '. y 'M pal graphic systems, arranged according to the sounds ; the method of transcription employed Gutt. J3, ^ JA, ^J ft aS A is that given in Lepsius's " Standard Alpha- Pal. ^,  ?; A? ?A, ^ d, S j i^A, O ri. Devanagari. Dent. O ^, ^J , Ifiph, 5T&, Vfl>h, JT m. Semi-vow- I ^ y ' T r ' ^ ' ' * !!, 1 <, 1 *', t?K i 1 i ., i , els 1 3 r i l> r ^> SE ^ , u, i5e, o, I Sib. and asp. ^J , "91 f, TSJ , "*%> h. -^ ^ ,j)ai, j|aw. ( ^> ^T, T*. *> Bangali or Bengalee distinguishes the mas- ^ * - "V * culine, feminine, and neuter genders, and the Vowels . . . "3> "> 17 e i at i singular and plural number. Nouns possess J^ . ^ nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, voca- L Tf ai, 4JT ctu. tive, ablative, instrumental, and locative cases. The mode of declension is as follows: sin- Bangali. gular nom. lalad ( ^ a *- an< ^ acc ' bQfadkd, voc. OrUtt. ^> K, J|" Kh, *f ft <| gh, t^j W" balad, abl. baladhaite 1, instr. baladete, loc. la- Pal. "^ d, "B eA, ^ft ^A O^- ladete ; plural nom. baladtrd (7J<^lCT?lT)> Cer y" ? *t ^ T*fc rt 7T ^7 ft 71. ^ 1 -. (j il ^ .1 <^ . 1 V . /( 7 | . gen. baladerdiger (  ph, ^f 5, s^) 5A, T^ w. digeti, instr. baladerdigSte, loc. laladerdigetS. Adjectives agree with their nouns only in gen- Semi-vow- I >T ^' ?T r ' < '' N "> els IT* 7i der, but not in number and case. The sign of the feminine is a, and som'etimes t. Bangali is the only modern language of India which
 * ai A aw