Page:The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language Part 1.pdf/103

2 of purity), which are brought into the province by immigrants from the north-west and the west, Bengali has, within recent years, come in contact with Khas-kurā or Parbatiyā (the so-called Nēpālī) at Darjeeling in the north.

On its borders, it meets with several aboriginal languages and dialects, Within the western boundary of Bengali is found Santali (Sāõtālī), a dialect of the Kōl (Muṇḍā) group (of the Austro-Asiatic branch of the Austric family of speeches); and Hō and Muṇḍārī, also Kōl speeches closely related to Santali, are found to the west of Bengali. Besides, two Dravidian dialects, intimately connected with each other, are found to the west of Bengali: Malto, which is spoken in the Rāj-mahāl Hills, and Kuruk̲h̲ (Kū̃ṛuk̲h̲) or Oraon (Orāõ), which just touches Bengali at its extreme western fringe. In the north and the east, Bengali comes in touch with a number of speeches which are members of some six different groups of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Tibeto-Chinese family. To the north, we have Lepea or Róng, a dialect of the Tibeto-Himalayan group; Dhīmāl, Limbu and Khambu, which are 'pronominalised' speeches