Sanscrit sala, to move, to go, it is corrupted both into Hindustani and Tamil. The word for don't fear seems to bear a relation to the Tami (
Tamil characters) anjaté. The word for laughing is preserved in the Tamil phrase (Tamil characters) he laughs uttering cacac, in the Telugu (Tamil characters) cacacnavu, is a rude, or horse laugh; and a resemblance is also found in our common English, to chuckle. The phrase for talk is half Hindustani, half Telugu. Tenoomoo for eat, in the Tamil (Tamil characters) tinnu, with the Khoond termination. Voonoomoo in like manner is the Tamil (Tamil characters) unnu, eat or drink. The word for tell is Telugu. Tonay for friend, is the Tamil (Tamil characters) tunai, a friend, a prop. The other word is Sanscrit mitra,[1] a friend, it is adopted into Tamil, but most usually to signify treacherous friendship. The words for light, and break of day, have only an obscure resemblance to Tamil words of like meaning. For night, the word resembles the Tamil (Tamil characters) nattam, night. The word for stars rejecting the Khoond plural is Telugu (Tamil characters) succu a star. The word for morning seems the same as the Telugu, (Tamil characters) nadu a day. Borasaka, for year, or, as I suppose, for years is no doubt, the Tamil (Tamil characters) varusham, a year. The three following words, for hot, cold, and rainy season seem to come from the Hindustani: the same remark applies to the word for maiming. The word for hundred seems to be a corruption of the Sanscrit word, that for thousand is I think the same as the Tamil (Tamil characters) ayiram and for two thousand, a sort of bad pronunciation of the Tamil (Tamil characters) irayiram, two thousand.
Such is the result of an investigation of the list of words, transmitted by Mr. Stevenson, expressly made the more minute, because both of the precision and check afforded by being written in Telugu characters: without these I should not have been able to give the words their proper enunciation, as the English orthography is not systematic and therefore uncertain. It must, however, be remembered that even the Telugu only gives the sound as conveyed to the ears of a comparative foreigner; though more likely to catch the true sound than an English ear. I suppose the mountaineers in question to have no written language.
From what has been stated, conclusions might be ventured; but it may be best to bring in further examples. The vocabulary of Dr. Maxwell has a somewhat larger number of words and phrases. It was accompanied by the following letter:
- ↑ It would hare been desirable to sire the Sanscrit in the original Dévanâgari characters, in the same way as the Tamil and Telugu characters are given. They were written in the copy; but omitted, I presume, through a want of that kind of type. W.T.
