Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/202

 Jvv*, 1875,] BOOK NOTICES, L89 Mathura merchant was thrown into consternation, by this announcement in a letter from Lis agent— Bdb&dj margayd, ha.fi bahubhej dijiye, The master has died to-day; send tlui rhi-/ ivi/r (no doubt, to perform, the obsequies) ; but after an immensity of wailing, it was discovered that the words more naturally (and truly) read thus, Bdbit Ajmar liaH bdhl bhej dijiye. Tlte master lias gone to Ajmer ; send the hig ledger, The inveterate omission of vowels in " Persianized Hindi," whether written or printed, seems to us a very serious impediment to its diffusion ; and, apart from this, we are so far Aryan in our proclivities, that we had rather keep any Arab intruders from overrunning India.* The praises which Mr. Beames lavishes on Urdu belong equally to Hindi proper; and we think its gradual substitution for its comparatively unwieldy sisters would be a gain to India. But such things cannot be forced. The Maratb&s will not relish the change ; and the Bangalis probably still less. Each of these nations has will, and character, and a growing literature. The Ban- galis, it iB true, as Mr. Beames says, cannot dis- tinguish between v and h ; f but they can, and do, distinguish between what is indigenous and what is foreign. These remarks have not taken us beyond the long and interesting Introduction, which counts for chap, I. The rest of the work contains 2-K) pages. Chap. H. discusses changes of vowels ; chap. HI. changes of single consonants ; and chap. IV. changes of double consonants. Everywhere we find traces of careful inquiry, and occasionally striking generalizations. But our limits begin to press ; we cannot venture to quote much, and are hardly disposed to criticize. The vocalism of the Sanskrit is singularly pure, the trilogy of a, i, « prevailing; and of other vowel sounds only e (long), o (long), ai, aw; which moreover, are restricted to derivatives and second- ary forms. In the main the vernaculars follow this pure system. On the other hand, the non- Aryan languages both in Northern and Southern India abound in broken and impnre vowels ; and Mr. Beames is on the whole ac last disposed to trace any deviation of the vernaculars from the Sanskrit pure vocalism to the influence of the non- Aryan tongnea. The vowel changes are less remarkable than the consonantal changos. At first sight the permuta- tions hero might well seem a complete chaos ; and • la another part of hw work w» Jin. 1 Mr. B-ames himself admitting " the impcrfeetneBfl of the Arabia character us - the expression of Aryan sounds. t Apropos of vaadf'. fft mn-t not forget one »f Mr. Btaraea'sbeetjulOM. Heboid- ti-i ' - Bi-ngala might .- in- under the same head as those Neapolitans of whom it was said ' Felices quibua viv-ere est hibere,' were it not that, several writers have spoken in strong terms of the "lawless license'' of Indian etymology. Mr. Beames, however, does not believe in this asserted lawlessness ; and he offers what he modestly calls " hints," aa a contribution towards that full solu- tion which may stUl be far off. We may divide the changes undergone by con- sonants into two kinds— positional and organic. Tho positional are so ealledbecause their character is determined by the position the consonant holds in a word. In regard to such changes the seven vernaculars are on the whole uniform — the same modifications running through all. Changes from one organ of speech to another which do not depend on position Mr. Beames calls organic. We would simply call them non-posi- tional. In these the peculiarities of the various languages come into strong relief. Each langunge has a genius or temper of its own. which determines the permutation. In regard to positional changes, the Aryan languages fall under the wonderfully comprehen- sive rule stated by Grimm. Aulaui hdU tUt t organs am reinstm and treusten; Inlaid ist geneigt es zu enveicften; Auslaut *»* i that is, initial letters retain most purely and truly the grade oi each organ ; letters in the middle incline to weaken it; final letters to hanl« (Grade means hers the character of tmnis or - • thus, h, j), i, which are tenues, would in the middle of words incline to become the medico g, h, A.) The rule holds good, in the main, of our Indian tongues. As to letters given in two forms, Mr. Beames holds that the cerebrals ff and ^ are the " real re- presentatives of the European r and d." They dis- tinctly differ from our t and d, however. We cannot at this moment lay our hand on the place where the opinion is given, but we know that the lexico- grapher Molesworth — of whom Mr. Beames speaks with warm and just admiration— held that our English t and d would be better represented by the dentals ?T and % than the cerebrals ^ and 7- Mr. Beames discards the theory that cerebrals were obtained from non-Aryan races, and labours, inge- niously at all events, to explain how they came into existence. None of the seven tongues is so fond of cerebrals as Sindhl ; and next come Oriya and Ma- j-athi. Yet puzzles abound. For instance, Sindht has no cerebral .1(9) ; Oriya and Marathi delight in it. They may have got it from non- Aryan races ; instead of the generous juice of the tine, tho Bengali drinks muddy diteh-water in which bis neighbours haw been washing themselves, their clothes, and their cattle. uxa Bahgatts are capital ut quizzing ; boi we don I know that taey can stand being quizzed. The scholarly and sarcastic Collector most take precautions against a mutiny at JJb- laeore.