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178 the peculiarities of the vulgar speeches in their holy literature; being men of the society, the শিষ্টs imbibed the altered pronunciation of the common people, and thus unawares deviated from the Vedic norm: we notice in the very ব্রাহ্মণs how in some cases the বিসর্জ্জনীয় has been disregarded, ন has been reduced to ণ, and ঈ has been reduced to ই. That in the matter of general accent, the শিষ্টs do not disclose a regular accent system but only uphold the Vedic recent for the words of the Vedic mantras alone, by a study of the Vedic accents, cannot be illustrated in this brief review.

Dual.—A dual in addition to a plural was no doubt a commonly accepted form in the pre-Vedic days, for the classical Aryan languages of Europe disclose some almost effete dual forms. To express two together as a pair, is a familiar mode of thought exhibited by all peoples all over the world, but to retain a regular dual system, does not appear to be a normal inclination in man, in any part of the globe. I am inclined to think, that the formation of dual, was in the case of some people, the first step towards expressing a general plural number; but when a regular plural was reached, the earlier form in this grade of evolution, either died out or was retained only for very occasional use. It is not unlikely, that dual was a regular plural form in the dialect of one section of the culture group of the Aryans, and at the fusion of dialects in the growth of one generalized common speech, the non-regular plural (i.e., the dual) forms stuck to the language as dual, but for practical purposes, the dual was only restricted in use, in expressing the special thought relating to a pair. That in the Vedic language, the dual has this sort of restricted use, cannot be very much doubted. What has been observed by the Vedic scholars in this matter, has been fitly expressed by Whitney in the following words: "The