While I coincide in opinion with Dr. Carey that, " among these fire "languages, the Telinga appears to be the most polished, and though "confessedly a very difficult language, it must be numbered with those "which are the most worthy of cultivation, it's variety of inflection being such as to give it a capacity of expressing ideas with a high degree of "facility, justness, and elegance"; with deference, I submit that he has given an erroneous view of the structure and derivation of the Teloogoo. In common with every other tongue now spoken in India, modern Teloogoo abounds with Sanscrit words, perhaps it has a greater proportion of them than any of the other southern dialects; nevertheless there is reason to believe that the origin of the two languages is altogether distinet.

With the exception of a few letters peculiar to Sanscrit words, and evidently taken from the Nagree alphabet, the round and flowing characters of the Teloogoo bear no resemblance to the square Devanagree: and even if the Teloogoo alphabet were found to be derived from the Nagree, it would only prove that the people of Telingana had borrowed the invention of a more civilized nation. The origin of their language might still be as different from that of their alphabet, as the origin of our present Roman characters, from that of our Saxon words.

It has already been mentioned that all the Native Teloogoo Grammars are written by Bramins, in the Sanscrit tongue; and that their arrangement of the alphabet, their illustrations, and their comparisons, are necessarily borrowed from the language in which they write. This circumstance might justify the supposition that the Bramins were the first who cultivated the Teloogoo, and brought it under fixed rules: but it connot be urged in proof of any radical connexion between the Teloogoo and the Sanscrit.

It has also been noticed that, in speaking the Teloogoo, the Soodras use very few Sanscrit words: among the superior classes of Vysyus, and pretenders to the Rajah cast, Sanscrit terms are used only in proportion to their greater intimacy with, the Bramins, and their books; and, when we find even such Sanscrit words as these classes do adopt, pronounced by them in so improper and rude a manner as to be a common jest to

the Bramins, who, at the same time, never question their pronunciation of pure Teloogoo words, I think we may fairly infer it to be probable at least that these Sanscrit terms were originally foreign to the language spoken by the great body of the people.

Some Native Grammarians * maintain that, before the King-Andhraroyadoo established his residence on the banks of the Godavery, the only Teloogoo words were those peculiar to what is emphatically termed the pure Teloogoo, now generally named the language of the land, which they consider coeval with the people, or as they express it "created by the God Brimha," The followers of this prince, say they, for the first time began to adopt Sanscrit terms with Teloogoo terminations, and by degrees corruptions from the Sanscrit crept into the language, from the ignorance of the people respecting the proper pronunciation of the original words. This would imply that the nation still retain some faint remembrance of those times, in which their language existed independent of the Sanscrit ; and it is certain that every Teloogoo Grammarian, from the days of Nunnia Bhutt to the present period, considers the two languages as derived from sources entirely distinct; for each commences his work by classing the words of the language under four separate heads, which they distinguish by the respective names of language of the land, 5 derivatives, 5233 Sanseril corruptions, and

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* See the Adhurvana Vyacurnum, as given in the Audhra Cowmudi.

Sanscrit provincial

లాపాస్తత్కా లీ నాహ రేఖ నాటాలి కా లేనమహతా సర్వంతత్సమం స్వల్పబు ఢీభిః| అస్ఫుటోచ్చార్యమాణం సత్తద్భ వంచేతిసమ్మతం | విశష నా వ్యత్యయా భ్యాంచపాదాడోగా క్తివిశెసతః | తద్భవాఇతికథ్య స్తే కాలేనమ హలెస మాః|బ్రహ్మణానిర్మితావాచఃపూర్వమాంశితుహూ రే అచ్చాఇతిచశ

¥ S T way I m w x z || The udherents of Andhra Vishinoo (before mentioned) who then resided on the banks of the Godavery spoke Tulsama words, (Sanscrit derivatives). In the course of time, these words, not being properly articulatedly the unlearned, by the change or obliteration of letters, or by being contracted, a fourth, or a half, became Tudb havas, (Sanscrit corruptions. Those words consisting of nouns, verbals, and verbs, created by the God Brimha, before the time of Hari, the Lord of And,hra, are called Uch,ha, (pure.)

This is the prince who is now worshipped as a divinity at Siccacollum on the river Krishna, and who was the patron of Kunva, the first Teloogoo Grammarian.

terms.

To these, later authors have added & foreign words ·

or those from other lands.

As this arrangement is essential to a proper illustration of the structure of the Teloogoo language, it will be adhered to in the following work. Of the different classes of words specified above, the three first only are mentioned in the Telinga Grammar by Dr. Carey; the first is there stated to comprize words current in the country of which the deri. "vation is uncertain", a "large proportion" of which are allowed to be included in the language; the second is stated to contain "pure Sungskrita words ;" and the third "words derived from the Sungskrita," but written and pronounced differently."

The words included in the first class, which I have denominated the language of the land, are not only a "large proportion" of words, but the most numerous in the language, and the model by which those included in the other classes are modified and altered, from the different languages to which they originally belong. Why the origin of this class of terms is supposed to be unascertained has not been stated; nor can I conceive how so erroneous a conclusion could have been adopted; for the name given to them by all Sanscrit Grammarians, by the whole body of the people, and by Dr. Carey himself, at once points out their derivation. This name is, a noun used either as a substantive or an adjective, in the former sense denoting a country or land, in the latter, in which it is here used, implying that which belongs to the country or land; it marks the words in question, not as merely "current in the country," but as the growth and produce of the land; it would be difficult to define more precisely the origin of any words, and to this class must we look for the pure Teloogoo-for the true language of the land.

The second class of words I have termed Sanscrit derivatives, and 1 prefer this denomination to that of "pure Sungskrita words" given to it by Dr. Carey; for although the words included in it contain the crude forms of pure Sanscrit words, they cannot appear in Teloogoo in their

original shape, but invariably assume terminations or undergo changes peculiar to the pure Teloogoo, or language of the land.

The third class of words which is generally mentioned by Dr. Carey as "derived from the Sungskrita," I have named Sanscrit corruptions; it consists of words which have passed into Teloogoo, either directly from the Sanscrit, or through the medium of some of it's corrupted dialects, such as the Pracrit, and which, in order to be assimilated to the language of the land, have undergone radical alterations, by the elision, insertion, addition, or subtraction of letters. These changes have been semetimes carried so far, that it is difficult to trace any connexion between the adulterated word and it's original in Sanscrit.

In the course of this work, it will be obvious to the Sanscrit scholar that the declension of the noun, by particles or words added to it-the use of a plural pronoun (3) applicable to the first and second persons conjointly-the conjugation of the affirmative verb-the existence. of a negative aorist, a negative imperative and other negative forms in the verb-the union of the neuter and feminine genders in the singular, and of the masculine and feminine genders in the plural, of the pronouns and verbs-and the whole body of the syntax, are entirely unconnected with the Sanscrit ; while the Tamil and Karnataca scholar will at oncé recognize their radical connexion with each of these languages. The reader will find all words denoting the different parts of the human frame, the various sorts of food or utensils in common use among the Natives, the several parts of their dress, the compartments of their dwellings, the degrees of affinity and consanguinity peculiar to them, in short all terms expressive of primitive ideas er of things necessarily named in the earlier stages of society, to belong to the pure Teloogoo or language of the land*. It is true, (so mixed have the two languages now become) that Sanscrit derivatives or corruptions may, without impropriety, be occasionally used to denote some of these. This, however, is not common, the great body of Sanscrit words admitted into the language consists of abstract terms, and of words connected with science, religion, * The reader is requested to refer to the irregulars zw

nouns,

or law, as is the case, in a great degree, with the Greek and Latin words incorporated with our own tongue: but even such Sanscrit words as are thus introduced into Teloogoo are not allowed to retain their original forms, they undergo changes, and assume terminations and inflections unknown to the Sanscrit, and, except as foreign quotations, are never admitted into Teloogoo until they appear in the dress peculiar to the language of the land.

I am

This brief notice of the structure of the Teloogoo seemed necessary, in order to explain the principles on which the following chapters are founded the further consideration of the subject I leave to others, as the prolonged discussion of it is foreign to a work of this nature. inclined, however, to believe that the Teloogoo will be found to have it's origin in a source different from the Sanscrit, a source common perhaps to the Teloogoo, with the superior dialects of the Tamil and Karnataca. But the introduction of Sanscrit words into this language must have taken place at so remote a period, as to be now almost beyond the reach of inquiry. With the religion of the Bramins, the people of Telingana could not fail to adopt much of the language of that extraordinary tribe; their constant intercourse with each other for a long series of years has necessarily confirmed this intermixture of language, and it must be admitted that the Teloogoo has been as much improved by adopting an indefinite number of words from the Sanscrit, as cur own tongue has been ameliorated by borrowing from the more refined languages of Greece and Rome.

Having concluded the few introductory remarks which I had to offer to the reader in explanation of the plan of my work, I avail myself of this occasion to make my public acknowledgments for the assistance with which I have been favoured in the course of it's progress.

To my friend Mr. Stokes of the civil service on this establishment, who did me the favour to peruse the manuscript before it was submitted to the Government, I owe many valuable suggestions; and I am under particular obligations to my colleagues in the Board of Superintendence