Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/149

Rh system of Oriya and Hindi. I doubt not, that you have heard in this city the Oriyas and the up-country men to read aloud their verses. It must be a familiar experience, that from the sound alone from a good distance, a Bengali can know whether an Oriya poem or some Hindi দোঁহা's are being recited. Even where there is no musical chanting, the character of the metres will indicate the characteristic difference. All this is due wholly to different accent systems. As the style of a language is the expression of the thought of the speakers, so is the metrical system in a language, due to the special accent system of the people. The Oriya verse of lines of 9 akṣaras, if read in Bengali fashion, the composition will sound like a disjointed prose piece; so also it will be with such ত্রিপদী lines of Upendra Bhanja, as:

Similarly if the lines of a Hindi দোঁহা be not read in the Hindi fashion, the music of the lines will fade away. Without pronouncing any definite opinion as to whether the lines quoted below, were composed in old Bengali or Hindi, I may bring to your notice, the basic Hindi character of the metre of the lines; the non-hasanta sound of the final syllable and the long sound of the penultimate, as have to be maintained in rightly reciting the lines, are to be duly noted. The lines are:

I do not mean to be exhaustive here; I want however to impress upon you, that we can solve many linguistic problems at least partly, if we take the factor of accent, deeply into our consideration.