§ 11. In order to make the statement as to the constituent elements of the seven languages as clear and complete as possible, it is necessary to notice the influence of Arabic and Persian. Although Hindi is a richer language than Bengali or Oṛiya, it would not be just to say that the amount of Tatsama words in the latter is in exact proportion to its poverty as compared with the former. That is to say, Hindi itself was o a certain extent poor also, and the reason that there are less Tatsama words in it than in some other languages is that it has had recourse to Arabic and Persian instead of Sanskrit to supply its wants. By a curious caprice, Hindi, when it uses Arabic words, is assumed to become a new language, and is called by a new name—Urdu; but when Panjabi or Sindhi do the same, they are not so treated. It is not advisable here to stop to examine why this is; it is enough to say that where Bengali, Oriya, and Marathi have recourse to Sanskrit, Hindi, Panjabi, Sindhi, and Gujarati in a great measure recur to Arabic and Persian; but as the proportions of the Hindu[1] and Musulman population are more evenly balanced in the area occupied by Hindi than in that of any other language, the tendency to borrow from Arabic has not, as in the case of Sindhi and Panjabi, where the Musulman population is greatly in excess of the Hindu, quite superseded the practice of borrowing from Sanskrit; nor on the other hand has the Hindu population, as in the case of Bengali and Oriya, where the Hindus largely preponderate, forced Sanskrit words into the language, to the exclusion of Arabic.
This is one of those cases, many more of which will occur
- ↑ For the information of readers in Europe it may be necessary to explain that the word "Hindu" is always used in India as a religious term denoting those Aryans who still adhere to the Brahmanical faith, and who in most parts of India constitute the majority of the population. "Hindî," on the other hand, expresses the language spoken by the Hindu population of the country from Delhi to Rajmahal, Hindusthan proper, or, as Chand calls it, "Hinduoṇ thân."
