absurd to attempt the solution, without a series of writers of well ascertained antiquity, and without those collateral aids from civil history, which, in this country, it seems daily to become more vain to expect. Whether the Sanscrit be the groundwork of the spoken languages, or a subsequent addition; in other words, whether it be to them what the Saxon, or what the Norman is to the English, is a question to which caution and diligence may doubtless discover the true answer. For this purpose, it will be useful to observe with peculiar attention the state of derivatives and their roots, of compounds and their elements; the roots will often be found in Sanscrit where they have not been transferred, or have not been preserved in the vernacular tongue. But it will deserve particular notice whether insulated words or whole families have migrated; the first must happen in every case of intercourse between nations: the second, when it frequently occurs, is a strong proof of the descent of a language. It will also merit the greatest care to determine whether the Sanscrit words, in the spoken dialects, be learned, religious, and scientific terms, or words denoting the common objects and actions, for which no nation can be without names. In the first case they may be foreign, but in the second we may confidently pronounce the languages themselves to be of Sanscrit extraction.

We are informed by Sir William Jones, that in several of these tongues there is a combination of Sanscrit with an "unknown basis." Unhappily this great philologist seems to have considered the citation of authorities as unclassical, and to have regarded the detail of proofs as unsusceptible of elegance :-though it be very probable therefore, from his great reputation, that his assertion is true, yet he has not made his researches useful to his successors, who must repeat and verify them before they make any conclusions from them. It would be most curious to ascertain whether this unknown basis be the same in all, or in any considerable number of Indian languages.

In Mr. Pallas's Vocabulary, that part which relates to India is necessarily one of the most incomplete. I now wish and hope to remedy that defect, and, by the aid of the British government in this country, to ex

hibit a vocabulary, consisting of his words and of a certain number of others, in every language,. dialect, and jargon of India. It is not easy to distinguish these three terms from each other with logical precision; but, for practical purposes, the following distinction may perhaps suffice. When two sorts of speech differ so much that they who speak them are not intelligible to each other, we call them different languages; when they differ only so much as not to be easily and universally intelligible, they are different dialects; when this difference is confined to the unwritten and ungrammatical speech of the vulgar, it forms what the French call a patois, and what, for want of an appropriate term, I must, with the hazard of some reproach for innovation, call a jargon. Thus, before the union of the crowns, the Scottish and English were two dialects of the same Anglo-Norman language*. Since that period the Scottish can no longer pretend to equal rank; yet the remembrance of its former dignity, and the merit of the authors who have written in it, still entitle it to be called a dialect; from which the provincial speech of Lancashire or Devonshire would be conveniently distinguished by the term jargon.

It is my intention to transmit to the various governments of British India, a list of words for an Indian vocabulary, with a request that they would forward copies to judges, collectors, commercial residents, and magistrates, directing them to procure the correspondent terms in every jargon, dialect, or language spoken within the district committed to their trust and respecting the languages spoken without the Company's territories, that the same instructions may be given to residents at the courts of friendly and allied states, as far as their influence may extend. I shall propose that they may be directed to transmit the result of their inquiries to me, and I am ready to superintend the publication of the whole vocabulary.

It is particularly desirable that they should mark with great precision the place where any one language, dialect, or jargon, or variety of speech

* For so it surely must be called, though Scotland was never conquered by Normans. The proportion of Norman words in Scotch seems, for some reason, not yet very well ascertained, not to have been perceptibly less than in English.

ceases, and another begins; and that they should note with more than ordinary care the speech of any tribes of men uncivilized, or in other respects different from the Hindoo race, whose language is most likely to deviate from the general standard. Mixed and frontier dialects, for the same reason, merit great attention.

The languages now least known to us seem to be those which are spoken on both sides of the Indus, from Tatta to Lahore; and the inquiry might be extended to Cashmire, of which country there are so many natives in most parts of India, that the Cashmirian words can easily be procured.

In the words, especially in those which are familiar, it will be convenient to choose the most familiar of two, or more, nearly synonymous words: that for instance which would be most easily understood by the lower sort of people.

Where there are many foreigners resident in a district, especially when they speak a language not otherwise very accessible to our inquiries, it will be a great addition to the value of a communication to procure the words to be translated into the foreign as well as the local languages. When the words or their orthography have changed in modern times, it would be most desirable to procure from learned natives the correspondent terms in the more ancient speech.

This vocabulary would be completed by a collection of all the ancient and modern alphabets of the district; their force being represented in English characters according to Mr. Gilchrist's system.

The sounds of all these languages are to be represented by English characters; and it will be more convenient to adopt Mr. Gilchrist's orthography, which is fixed and generally known, than to contrive another which, even if it were better would require some time to teach, and probably encounter some opposition.

To facilitate the execution of the plan, there will be subjoined to this essay a specimen of the tabular form into which the vocabulary will be

thrown.

The extent and limits would be most perspicuously represented by

small maps, in which different colours might denote the different sorts of speech.

Where there are sounds, for the expression of which the English character and Mr. Gilchrist's orthography are supposed to be peculiarly inadequate, that circumstance ought to be mentioned. In such a case other signs may be used; provided that full warning be given of the deviation, and that the words be also given according to Mr. Gilchrist's system, as being that which is now best known and most generally adopted.

If from accidental circumstances, it should be difficult for any gentlemen to comply with the condition which requires the use of Mr. Gilchrist's system, he will be pleased to give as full an explanation as possible of the plan which he himself adopts.

Though in an undertaking which requires the support of the supreme authority, the first appeal must be made to the officers of government, yet I have no doubt that they will receive the voluntary aid of every intelligent Englishman, who possesses any means of contributing to the object; and that they will call for the assistance of all the learned natives, who must be able so powerfully to second their exertions.

VOCABULARY OF THE EMPRESS CATHERINE II.

1 God,

2 Heaven,

3 Father,

4 Mother,

5 Son,

6 Daughter,

7 Brother,

8 Sister,

9 Husband,

10 Wife,

11 Maiden,

12 Boy,

13 Child,

14 Man,

15 People,

16 Head,

17 Countenance,

18 Nose,
19 Nostril,
20 Eye,
21 Eye-brow,
22 Eye-lashes,

23 Ear,

24 Forehead,