Hindi varies in its treatment of the three sibilants. In the eastern part of its area, in Tirhût, Purneah, and Bhagalpûr श is the character used in writing by the Kayaths and mercantile classes, and in the extensively employed system of revenue accounts kept by the Paṭwâris and other local revenue and rent-collecting agents. It is written generally as in Gujarati, without the Mâtrâ or top line. The letter श is, however, in those districts looked upon as equivalent to, and pronounced in the same way as, स s. In fact, the people seem unable to pronounce the sound of sh. In Arabic words, which occur frequently, as the population is mostly Musulman, the ش is pronounced s. Thus, we hear sekh for shekh, sâmil for shâmil, and the like. Towards the centre and west of Hindustan,[1] however, this inability disappears, though in Sanskrit words of all classes there is very little to mark the difference between the two letters. ष has long been appropriated to express kh both in Hindi and Panjabi.
Bengali reverses the whole series. It has in use all three sibilants, but pronounces them all as sh. Thus, सकल is to a Bengali, not sakal, but shokol; षष्ठ shashto. To compensate, however, it treats the Arabic ش sh as s, saying, as noticed above, sekh, sâmil, for shekh, shâmil. Arabic س and ص become sh; شائل is shâil; صاحِب shâheb. Purists pronounce श and स as s, when they form the first member of a nexus in which र, ऋ, or न form the second, as श्रवन srobon, शृगाल srigâl; but this refinement is overlooked by the vulgar.
Oṛiya retains in its alphabet the three characters, but except in the so-called high style, श and ष are not much used. Both in Orissa and Bengal the inquirer is met with this difficulty that the learned classes persist in using Sanskrit words in their writings, without regard to the usage of the mass of their
- ↑ Hindustan must throughout these pages be understood in its literal and restricted sense of the area from Delhi to Rajmahal, within which the Hindi and its dialects are the mother-speech.
