;O

•CO

•^•IH^B^^HH

m^PPW-

illpi^

SHASTRI INDO-CANADIAN INSTITUTE

156 Golf Links, New Delhl-3, India

HO GRAMMAR

(WITH VOCABULARY)

BY

LIONEL BURROWS, B. A.

Bengal Provincial Civil Service.

Calcutta:

PRINTED AT CATHOLIC ORPHAN PRESS,

3 & 4, Portuguese Church Street. 1915.

Y/

printed by M. Apel for tlie Author,

At the Catholic Orphan Press,

3 Portuguese Church Street,

Calcutta.

1915.

t

PREFACE.

Sine-- I lirnan writing this (Jrammar, I have constantly encotnu the mistaken impression that tlrSre is no material difference he; . Mundari and IIo and that, inasmuch, as there are several grammars dealing with the former, it would he almosUi work of supererogation to compiles separate grammar on the latter It is certainly an accepted historical fact that the Santals, Hos and Mmvlas originally belonged to the same ahoriginal race, and it has been amply demonstrated that they still represent the same ethnic type with a strong linguistic affinity between the dialects they use. The language of the original ancient race was not, however, written so far as is known, and there is therefore no classical standard by which its various surviving forms can be measured and compared. Max Miiller has pointed out that "all savage tribes, with no letters to fix their tongues, alter their speech much more rapidly than civilized nations" and, in another place, he remarks that all unwritten languages are " in a state of continual com- bustion." The causes of this constant state of change are numerous, and some of them are curiously interesting. For instance, a missionary observer quoted by Max Miiller has reported that " when a chief or priest utters a witticism or invents a new phrase, it is at once caught up and passed current ; mispronunciations, imperfect articulations of words arising from loss of teeth in old men who, from their former rank or prowess, are entitled to respect, sometimes give rise to similar changes." Again, economic progress leads to the adoption of a new process or implement, the word for which may be coined differently by tribes speaking cognate dialects, but living apart, or may be borrowed by each from different adjoining races as " loan- words." Though, therefore, the three dialects — Santali, Mnndari and Ho — of the so-called Munda family of languages do contain marked features of comrnon descent, they have, by the action of time and separate environment, drifted apart on many points of usage, vocabulary and pronunciation. No one has ever questioned the necessity For separate grammars on*the Santali and Mundari dialects, and, as between Mundari and Ho, there are many differences, particularly in vocabulary, which though not perhaps sufficient, as in the case of French and Spanish, to exalt Ho to the dignity of a distinct language, are certainly sufficient to justify its separate treatment. The alterations and marginal notes I had to make in the Mundari Grammar which I used in learning Ho, made it look more like corrected proof-sheets originally set up by a mad compositor than the finally approved pages of a published volume.

2. It was in order to remove the heavy handicap on the acquisition of Ho from the Mundari text-books that the present work was undertaken. Since then, Babu Bhim Ram Salanki of the Singhbhum Deputy Commis- sioner's office has, I understand, published a Ho Grammar in English. T have not yet seen a copy of his book, but, as I had practically finished mine before I heard of his, I can only hope that there is room for another work on(tho same subject. My grammar doefe not pretend to be as scientific an exposition of the Ho dialect as the Rovd. J. Hoffman's book is of Mundari. It is merely a comparatively simple and popular manual based on a first- hand acquaintance with its subject acquired during three years of service as the officer in charge of the Kolhan, and it will have served its purpose if it is of practical use to fellow Government officials and other* who wish to study Ho.

L. B. B.

VlSHNUPOR,

1st September, 1914.

" \

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Li<'iit.-( 'oloiii-l S. If. Tickdl's jiMjicr on the " Grammatical cou^t ruc- tion of the Ho language" in the Journal of th.- Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. IX. Part II, ot 1840, reprinted at Appendix G to Vol. XXXtt,

Part II of 1866.

i

'2. Mr. Justice Campbell's paper on, " The Ethnology of India," with

Appendices 15 and F, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXXV, Part II, • , Supplementary Number, of 1866.

3., John Beames's "Outlines of Indian Philology" — Wyman Brothers,

Calcutta, 1867.

4. Sir W. W. Hunter's " Comparative Dictionary of the Non-Aryan

Languages of India and High Asia " — Trubner and Co. London, 1868.

5. Col. E. T. Dalton's " Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal," 1872,

6. Rev. J. C. Whitley's " A Mundari Primer" — Bengal Secretariat Press,

Calcutta, 1873.

7. Sir George Campbell's " Specimens of Languages of India" — Bengal

Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 1874.

8. Rev. J. De Smet's " Rudiments of a Mundari Grammar " — Catholic

Orphan Press, Calcutta, 1891.

9. F. Max Miiller's " The Science of Language " — Longmans, Green &

Co., London, 1899.

10. Rev. J. Hoffman's " Mundari Grammar " — Bengal Secretariat Press,

Calcutta, 1903.

11. Rev. A. Nottrott's "Grammar of the Kol Language" — G. E. L.

Mission Press, Ranchi, 3905.

»

12. Dr. G. A. Grierson's " Linguistic Survey of India," Vol. IV, Introduc-

tion, and Parti — Supdt., Govt. Printing, Calcutta, 1906.

13. Rev. J. Hoffman's '' A Mundari Grammar with Exercises " — Catholic

Orphan Press, Calcutta, 1909.

14. Mr. L. S. S. O'Malley's " ttinghbhum, Seraikela and Kharsawan

Gazetteer," Vol. XX, Bengal District Gazetteers, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta, 1910.

TABLE OP CONTENTS.

PARA.

Chapter I. ... Introduction ... ... 1 to ,4

Quantities of Vowels ... ... 5 „ 7

Quantities of Consonants ...* ... 8 &

Chocked Vowels ... ... 10

Chiipti-r PI. .. Gender ... ... ... 11 & 12

Number ... ... ... 13 to 15

' Case ... ... ... 16

Chapter ITT. ... Added Postpositions, Simple and

Compound ... ... 17

Chapter IV. ... Declension of Nouns ... ... 18 & 19

Chapter V. ... Adjectives and their Comparison ... 20 to 25«

Chapter VI. ... Personal Pronouns ... ... 26 „ 30

Neuter Pronouns ... ... 31

Demonstrative Pronouns ... 32 & 33

Interrogative Pronouns ... ... 34

Indefinite Pronouns ... ... 35

Possessive Pronouns ... ... 36 to 40

Other Pronouns ... ... 41 & 42

Chapter VII. ... Tense Suffixes ... ... 43 to 45

Pronominal Subject-Signs ... 46

Direct and Indirect Object-Signs. ... 47

Chapter VIII. ... Present Tense, Indicative Mood, of

Transitive Verbs ... ... 48 to 50

> Imperfect Tense, Indicative Mood, of

Transitive Verbs ... 51

Examples on the Present and

Imperfect Tenses ... '52

Future Tense with Examples ... 53 to 56

Chapter IX. ... Perfect Tense with Examples ... 57 „ 5<j

Past Tense with Examples ... 60 „ 6^

Pluperfect Tense with Examples ... 64 & 65

VI

PARA. Chapter X. ... Conjugation of Indicative Mood of

Intransitive Verbs ... 66

Difference between Transitive and

Intransitive Verbs ... 67 to 69

Use of the verb dai — to be able ... 70

Use of the Imperfect Auxiliary ... 71

Examples on Chapter X ... 72

'Chapter XL ... Subjunctive M(ood ... ... 73

Conditional Mood ... ... 74 to 76

Examples on Subjunctive and

Conditional Moods ,f. « 77

Chapter XII. ... Imperative Mood ... ... 78

Prohibitions... ... ... 79

Invitations ... ... ... 80

Negations ... ... ... 81

Interrogations ... ... 82

Examples on Chapter XII. ... 83

Chapter XIII. ... Participial Forms ... ... 84

Participial Adjectives ... ... 85 & 86

Participial Nouns ... ... 87 to 90

Conjunctive Participles ... ... 91

Chapter XIV. ... Passive Voice with Examples ... 92

Chapter XV. ... Reflexive Verbs ... ... 93 & 94

Reciprocal Verbs ... ... 95 & 9g

Chapter XVI. ... Irregular Verbs— A and Mend ... 97 to 99

Bano ... ... 100

Men and Metd ... 101

Holdo ... ... 102

Kd ... ... 103

t

Chapter XVII. ... Impersonal Verbs with Examples ... 10k to 106

Chapter XVIII. ... Compound Verbs with Examples ... 107,, 110

Chapter XIX. ... Cardinal Numerals ... ... Ill & 112

Ordinal Numerals ... ... 113

Proportional Numerals ... ... 114

Distributive Numerals ... ... 115

Fractional Numerals ... ... 116

Approximations ... •••

Vll

PARA.

('li:i|)t.-r XX. ... Chronology ... ... 118

Months of the Year ... ... 119 & 120

Days of the Week ... ... 121 <fc 122

Parts of the Day ... ... 123

Coins, Weights and Measures ... 124

Points of the Compass ... ... 125

•

Chapter XXI. ... Separate Postpositions ... ... 126

>

Chapter XXIT. ... Adverbs of Tim* and Place ... 127

Adverbs of Manner ... ... 128

Chapter X.XIII. ... Conjunctions ... ... 129

Interjections... ... ... 130

Miscellaneous Particles ... ... 131

Chapter XXIV. ... Terms of Relationship ... ... 133 to 135

Caste and Tribal Names ... ... 136

Short Pieces for Translation.

English — Ho Vocabulary •

Ho — English Vocabulary

Index.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION AND QUANTITIES OF VOWULB AND CONSONANTS.

Arc.. riling to Hunter, many of the non-Aryan peoples of India take their tribal designations from their respective words for " man " and, aiming these. //<> is OIK- of the- oldest and most widely spread roots having that in. -aning. At the Census of 11)01, the number of people speaking the llo language \vas returned at 371,860. Five years later, Dr.* (iri'-r.-on estimated the number at' 383,120, and the Census of 1911 showed 420,000. Excluding about 12,000 who have emigrated to Assam and otlW parts as labourers, all these people live in the district of Singhbhnm and in the neighbouring Native States, of which Gangpur «fnd Mourbhanj contain the largest numbers. The habitat of the Hos is, however, the Kolhan Government Estate situated in the south-west of the district of Singhbhum. They are, together with the Mundas of the Hanchi district and the Santals of the Santal Parganas. the principal survivors of an originally compact race of aboriginals which, according to history and tradition, supplied the earliest settlers in the Gangetic« Valley. Compared with the prehistoric tenure of these Kols, as they are commonly called, the Aryan Hindus are intruders of last month, the Mahomedans of last week, and the British of yesterday. The word " Kol " is now a generic term applied to all the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur, including the Uraons, whose language is Dravidian though they belong to the same ethnic stock, and it is impossible to say to which tribe or tribes it should properly be applied. Its origin has been variously derived from the root ho — the phonetic change from h to k being very common — and the generic suffix li seen in words like Santali and Bengali ; from the Santali hdr — a man ; from the Sanskrit kola — a pig; from the Kanarese kallar—o. thief ; and from the ordinary Hindi kuli — a bearer of burdens. Sir George Campbell had " little doubt " that the latter deri- vation was correct, but Ur. Grierson does not so much as mention it, and it would be idle to speculate between the several alternatives *when such an authority as the latter has said that " we do not know anything really certain about the original meaning of the word." The empire of this primitive race was broken up by the Aryan advance and traces of it may be found in Assam and even in Burma. The main body concentrated on the Chota Nagpur plateau, however, and there found a more or less secure asylum to which other aboriginal tribes subsequently resorted. A portion of the race then moved southward from the higher steppes of the plateau, and eventually established itself in what is now known as the Kolhan after driving out the Bhuias and Jains, who were the first settlers. This

« ( 2 )

offshoot has retained its hold on the same tract of country ever since and is the Ho tribe of to-day. At first, they were nominally subject to the Singh Rajas of Singhbhum and, though they were in fact independent, it was in connection with tho claims to suzerainty urged by these Rajas that the Hos first came into contact with the British. Three attempts to subjugate them had been made previously by various Hindu chiefs, but the Hos had not only repulsed these invasions, but had also pursued a vigorous policy of reprisal on all sides. British expeditions in 1819 and J.821 were more or less successful, but they could not bo followed up owing to more important concern? elsewhere, and the Hos openly dis- regarded their engagements to pay tribute to the Hindu chiefs. They were always in demand where fighting was to be done and we*e never backward in responding to such demands, thus«amply justifying The name of Larkd or fighting Kols which has apparently always been attached to them by foreigners. They naturally took a hand in the Munda insurrec- tion of 1831, and this led to their ultimate subjugation in 1836-37. It was recognised, however, that they could not be forced to submit to the Hindu Rajas and they were therefore brought under the immediate control . of British officers whose administration was based on the indigenous system of village communities under hereditary headmen. That system is still in force and the rules framed in 1837 for the administration of civil justice are still applied every day. The rebellion of the Raja of Porahat during the Mutiny affected a considerable section of the Hos living on the borders of his State — the last remnant of fidelity to a quondam suzerain — but they were easily subdued and have given no trouble since. The Raja did indeed attempt to tamper with the Hos in the Kolhan proper. When the mutinous sepoys looted the Treasury, it so happened that there was no British officer at Chaibassa. Pending the arrival of Capt. Birch, how- ever, certain loyal Mankis took charge of all Government property in Chaibassa, and it was one of these men who brought Capt. Birch the arrow that was being circulated amongst the Hos as a call to arms by the Raja's agents. Capt. Birch summoned all the Mankis and, by firm and tactful treatment of the situation, regained the waverers and prevented any general outbreak. Cut off from the surrounding Aryans by "radical differences in race, religion and habits of life, the Hos had, even before the advent of the British, always abstained as far as possible from any intercourse with them. Since they have come under British protection, the tide of Aryan aggression, whether mercantile or territorial, which has been responsible au fond for almost all aboriginal risings, has been kept 'back, and the natural inclinations of the Hos towards exclusiveness have been sedulously fostered. They have thus advanced from barbarism to comparative civilization under more favourable conditions than their

( 3 ) •

•intes of Chota Nagpur. Their progress has not linen retarded by the disturbing element of a prejudiced foreign domination in the most ordinary occupations of life, nor have they, a* a whole, come into close contact in other respects with the Aryan races. This, while it has probably resulted in the intellectual backwardness evidenced by an obtuseness that is often extremely irritating, has also preserved certain moral qualities, such as independence of character and a strong sense of sell'-iv^pect, which appeal peculiarly to the British imagination. As communications improve and mutual enlightenment progresses, this polic/ of isolation is, however, becoming not only more anachronistic, but also more difficult to enforce in practice. It must in all probability be aban- doned eventually, but it may be possible to maintain it long enough to enable education to perform For the Hos the same service as the hard hi-hool of experience has rendered to the Mundas and the Uraons of the Ranchi district who are now able to hold their own with the more advanced Aryan races. Meanwhile, as the Census figures show, the Hos are far from being a dying race and, as the number speaking Ho only falls short of the total number in the tribe by less than two thousand, it is evident that there is no immediate danger of their language, disappearing.

2. The language spoken by the Hos is a Munda or Kolarian dialect to which Mundari and Santali are nearly allied. The use of the word " Kolarian " in this connection is objected to by scientific writers, such as Miiller and Grierson, who prefer, and employ, the word " Munda." The former is perhaps too wide because the Dravidian Uraons are included among the Kols, but the latter is certainly too narrow because the Mundas are only one among several tribes using these dialects. The words in every language are made up of roots expressive of primary ideas, and inflections used with those roots to indicate various modifying rela- tionships. The degree of cohesion between these two components, known also as predicative and demonstrative roots or radical and formal elements, varies from mere juxtaposition to complete amalgamation, and is the basis on wlych languages are classified for the purposes of comparative philo- logy. In the earliest stage, known variously as the Radical or Isolating Stage, the inflections are themselves roots capable of being used as independent words, and undergoing no phonetic change when joined to other roots to effect modifications of the primary ideas expressed by such roots. The inflections are either prefixed or affixed to the root and may bear a different meaning from that which they have when used alone , although no alteration takes place in their form. The Chinese language is still in this stage and is, as Max Miiller puts it, language comme il faut.

. ( 4 )

The next step, known as the Agglutinative or Terminational Stage, occurs when the inflections have lost their meaning as separate words b*y a process which is known as ': phonetic decay." The roots are still complete words to which the inflections are agglutinated in order to express modifications of the primary ideas such as are signified, for example, by our declensions and conjugations. The root and its several inflections can, however, be readily distinguished and the whole word reduced to its component parts at a glance. The Turkish language te agglutinative, and so also are most of the Austro-Asiatic family of languages of which the Munda or rlolarian group is a member. The Organic or Inflectional Stage is reached when, by a further process of phonetic decay, inflections have not only lost their original forms as separate words, but have become so completely incorporated ^vith the root which they modify as to be no longer capable of identification and separa* tion into their original forms except by skilled philological analysis. In the more advanced languages of this stage, the laws governing phonetic changes in the interests of euphony are in full operation and affect both the primary root and the secondary inflection. All trace of the inflection .is gradually lost, and with it goes the modification of sense effected by it, until eventually additional roots have to be utilised to retain these modi- fications, the most advanced languages being thus made to resemble those

7 O O O

in the earliest stage of development. Examples of organic languages are Greek, Latin, Bengali, Hindi and English.

3. It would be beyond the scope of this work to attempt to catalogue the principal characteristics of each of the three morphological classes into which languages are divided. This would in fact be impracticable because there is no definite line of demarcation between one stage and another, and because the characteristics of two languages in the same stage may differ widely according as they approximate to an earlier or a later stage of development. The most that could be done in any case is to give the characteristics of the various language families in each stage, but, for present purposes, we need only consider the Munda or Kolarian group of the Austro-Asiatic family. As already stated, this group belongs tto the agglutinative stage, and it may be added that it is nearer the isolating than the organic stage. Its principal characteristics are : —

(I) Unchangeable primary roots, generally monosyllabic, which can be used as nouns, verbs or adjectives.

• (II) The modification of these roots by constant inflections or

secondary roots, many of which have lost the power of separate existence, the various relationships thus expressed

( 5 )

equivalent to those signified bv the declensions and conjugations of more advanced hin^ua-

(III) Three nuinhers — singular, dual and plural — and a distinction

between animate beings and inanimate objects correspond- ing to, hut not coinciding with, the gender of organic languages.

(IV) Two forms for personal pronouns — foil and shortened or

separate and snffixeoj — each of which is used in accordance with definite rules.

'(V) Two further forms for the first personal pronouns, one of which includes, while the other excludes, the person addressed.

(VI) Absence of relative pronouns, accompanied by extensive use of participial forms.

(VII) Expression of direct and indirect objects by pronominal signs which are infixed in the verb.

(VIII) Use of postpositions instead of prepositions to indicate rela- tions of time and space.

(IX) Comparative inaction of the laws of euphony which, in any case, only affect the inflections or secondary roots and leave the primary roots intact.

•4. As adults can seldom catch sounds by the ear alone, experts are agreed^that, in studying a living language, the initial step is to determine familiar phonetic signs which will represent accurately and invariably the different sounds of that language. In the case of an unwritten language such as Ho, it is not a question of finding Roman equivalents for existing characters, but literally one of representing sounds by familiar Roman letters. It does not really matter very much what system is adopted for this purpose, as long as it correctly represents the original sounds and is consistently used. All officials will approach Ho rid the departmental vernacular examinations, and to them the method of spelling adopted in this work will present no difficulties. As regards others, the following notes on the quantities of vowels and consonants will help them to pronounce, with a fair degree of accuracy, Ho words seen for the first time in Roman characters, and will also enable them to reduce to familiar letters similar words heard for the first time in conversation. It is, I am aware, dangerous to dogmatise about the quantities of vowels and consonants without some knowledge of

( 6 )

phonetics which teach one, not only how to pronounce, but also to Ifear accurately, and record correctly, what is spoken in an unknown language. Such knowledge cannot, however, be acquired readily, and I do not expect therefore to be able to give anything more than an imperfect practical guide to the sounds heard in the Ho language. It is besides evident that, in the matter of phonetic pronunciation, there is considerable latitude for personal opinion between, on the one hand, the extreme of over-elaboration involving possible confusion and unnecessary labour, and, on the other, that of excessive simplicity incurring a risk of inadequacy. The Ho language will not be studied for literary purposes and, so far as speaking is concerned, teaching by a Ho is so infinitely more effective tha^t there is nothing to be gained by a complicated system of notation in, a grammar.

5. There are six simple Vowel sounds in Ho which may be re- presented by the letters a, a, e, i, o, and u.

A is equivalent to the sound of " a " in " rural ", and occurs in ape — three, hambal — heavy, and tasad — grass.

• A equals the " a " in " father," and occurs in dji — elder sister,

Idndd — to laugh, and bd — a flower. This is the only vowel that need be inflected in representing the vowel sounds of the Ho language.

E equals the " e " in " grey ", and occurs in engd — mother, sen or seno — to go, and hende — black.

/ equals the " i " in ;: police ", and occurs in ir — to reap, lijd — cloth, and giti — to sleep. It is perhaps open to question whether a shorter sound equal to the " i " in u in " does not rfccur in some words such as iril — eight, and ginil — a wall, but I think that the longer one is the proper sound in all such words. The first " i " in ini — that person, and in ir — to rub, is certain- ly short, but this is exceptional and the sound is too rare to

justify the adoption of a separate sign to represent it,

i 0 equals the "o" in " no ", and occurs in ondo — and, lolo — hot,

and bo — the head.

V equals the " u " in " rule ", and occurs in ub — hair, sukuri — a pig, and busu — straw.

6. Besides these simple sounds, there are certain other vowel sounds which may be represented by combined Roman vowels or diphthongs. According to Hoffman, though any two vowels may stand side by side in Mundari, each retains its original sound, fusion of two vowels into a new

( 7 )

soun 1 never occurring. Such fusion doos occur in I ID, MI- rather, to jmt the matter in :i logical manner, there aro vowel sounds in the I ID language which cannot be represented \>y any of tlie six simple vowel equivalent! nor by any two of them pronounced separately.

,!/ eijtials the " ai " in "aisle", and occurs in ainl —evening, / lift

— to work, and sadai — common.

*

An equals the " ou " in " out ", and occurs in ami — not yet, Liulnin — to be in a hurry, and bauu — elder brother.

Oi equals the " oy " in " oyster", and occurs in oidr — to swim, hoio — the wind, and moi — to bud.

7. All other complex vowel sounds can be split up into single vowels and represented by the appropriate Roman equivalents. There is no necessity to employ a diaeresis to indicate that such equivalents are to be pronounced with separate efforts of the voice because all combinations other than ou, an, and oi must be so pronounced. Examples are der — to precede, aed — seven, 2(i — yes, oe — a bird, od — a house, tumid — six, did — a lamp, kuam — the chest, ked — to call, and meang — the day after tomorrow. It will thus be seen that the law of harmony of vowels, which operates so strongly in English, is not of any great importance in Ho. Euphonic elisions do occur occasionally, but, as already explained, the idiom of an agglutinative language requires that secondary roots acting, for example, the part of case and tense-suffixes shall not in any way affect the primary root; and when an agglutinative language is but little removed, as Ho is, from the isolating stage, the primary roots do not act phonetically on the secondary roots either to any extent.

8. Turning to the Consonants, the sounds ordinarily represented by the Roman letters c, f, q, v, w, x, y and z, either do not exist or are adequately represented by other consonants. Thus, s represents the sound of " c" in " cistern," and k that of " c " in " cold ". Ch — pronounced as in " chimney " — is, however, common, but the " ch " in " chord "'must be rendered by k. According to the ordinarily accepted system of translit- eration, " f " must always be rendered by ph. The sound does not, however, exist in proper Ho words, and, in such Hindi words as have been adopted into the language, the aspirate has been dropped, e. <i. pliaujddri — criminal, and phursat — leisure, become in Ho paujddri and pursat respectively. The nearest approach to the sound of " x " in " box " is represented by the ks in the Hindi loan-word mtksdn — to destroy. The sound does not exist in any indigenous word so far as I know, nor do those indicated by " v ", " w " and " z ". A sound similar to the familiar

( 8 )

"y " does undoubtedly oxist in many Ho words. Whitley uses it in. the spelling of all Mundari words where the sound can be traced, e. g. he writes dyub — evening, deyd — the back, diyd — a lamp, lioyo — the wind, and tuyu — a jackal. Hoffman says that " y " is rare, but adds that it is used instead of " e " where the latter occurs between two vowels. He cites loyonq (Mundari for ' a rice field ') as an example, but at page 34 of his «" Mundari Grammar with Exercises — Part I " he renders the same word loeony, and he spells all the examples given above without the " y".

* DeSmet has no rule on the subject, but generally omits the " y " except in the Mundari word for the numeral " one " which he spells both moiad and moyad. This example shows clearly that, if oi is pronounced as in para. 6 above, both renderings will be spoken alike. Tn the samo way, the "y" sound in other words may be represented by the conjunction of two vowels. For example, both Hoffman and DeSmet write tuiu (a jackal) and not tuyu. There is no Ho word beginning with the sound of " y " and this makes it certain that the sound is foreign to Ho except in so far as it is caused by the conjunction of two or more vowels. I have there- fore refrained from using the consonant " y " at all and experience will, I

' think, show the reader that perfectly correct pronunciations of the following examples are obtained by spelling them as I have done, and as both Hoffman and DeSmet do in several instances : — aiub — evening, did — a lamp, doed — the back, hoio — the wind, moid — five, maiom — blood, meang — the day after tomorrow, sded — to breathe, taiom — after, and tuiu — a jackal. This method of spelling results in vowels coming together in a manner which would be repugnant to organic languages, but which, as explained in para. 7, is natural in an agglutinative language.

9. All the other English consonants occur and do not call for any special mention except in the following cases : —

D and t without any diacritical marks are pure dentals, and occur in dub — to sit, idi — to take, teng — to weave, and giti — to

sleep.

•

J? and t are cerebrals, and occur in dudi — a bridge, hende — black, tote — to shoot, andjete — sunshine. This distinction should be carefully attended to from the beginning as it may sometimes make all the difference in the meaning of a sentence, e.g. med— -the eye, and med — iron, seta — a dog, and seta — morning.

G always represents the " g " in " gate ", and occurs in geled — ten, sengel — fire, and idang — dawn. The sound of " g " in " gem " is represented by ;' as in jodr — to greet.

( 9 )

// i< sounded ut the be^innin^ of Ho words, r. </. her (to sow) :md not , •/-. /il.sl (twenty) and not /.-•/', hut not in tho middle, ,-../. /'/ (u feather) and not /A/7. Such words as <///-///('/>///• (west; and MiiAorrf (to journey) are obviotu compounds, tin- element- of which must retain their original form. Similarly, loan-words taken from other vernaculars retain the initial " h ", Imt drop the one in the middle, e.<j. lu'ijir — to be present, and ImLinn — to order, but kdn'i — a story, and mdri<i—a. water-course, instead of the Hindi forms k<i/i<ini and nin/turid. This applies to the* aspirate standing by itselt. When compounded with another consonant, it is, with one exception, dropped in loan-words, e.;/. ij/Ktr becomes ijdr — to take evidence, phaujddri becomes IKinjddri — criminal, thik becomes tik — proper, and ndlisli becomes ndlis — to bring a case. The single exception is ch pronounced as in para. 8, the sound of which occurs both in indigenous and exotic words, e.g. chanab — the end, cJiauli — rice, kecho — tiles, and pichd — to follow.

N may be noticed in connection with a common diacritical sign, the effect of which is exactly the same as that of the Bengali chandrabindu, i.e., the preceding vowel is strongly nasalized. Thus, dyr — a yoke, pena'm — a weaver, and rdrisd — to rejoice.

l\ — the cerebral ' r ' does not occur in Ho and is elided from all Mundari words in their Ho form. Thus, horo becomes ho — a man, ord becomes od — a house, and a rand i becomes dandi — to marry. The ordinary ' r ' is retained, however, as in diri — a stone, herel — a husband, and uri — cattle.

10. The checked vowels common to all Kolarian languages are thus described by Hoffman : " The pronunciation of a vowel, commenced in the ordinary way, is suddenly checked by a rapid partial contraction of the muscles used in its formation, and then, by a relaxation of those muscles, the breath or sound is allowed to flow out without receiving any furthot modulation. This process gives to the vowel the soun^ of two vowels of which the first is very distinct, smart and short, whereas the second sounds somewhat like a slight short echo of the first." These checked vowels undoubtedly occur in Ho, and the question is whether a distinct diacritical mark should bo adopted to indicate them. Whitley, DeSmet and Hoffman each uses a different sign for this purpose, but they are not consistent in its application, and it seems to me that, in a usage of ' this sort, which is not regulated by ascertained rules, and which is in fact applied arbitrarily by the people themsolvo.s, it is bolter to do without any

• ( 10 )

diacritical sign. In words, such as huju (to come) and da (water), which are in every-day use, this peculiar pronunciation will be readily acquired by the student, but further progress can only be made very gradually, and the use of a diacritical sign will, if he pays any attention to it, only make the beginner's difficulties more acute without being of any real assistance to him. I may add that I never paid much attention to

these checked vowels, except in the commonest words, and that I had no

•

difficulty in making myself understood. Nor have I ever met anybody knowing either Mundari or Ho whose practice and experience were not the same. The only cases in which* the matter is really of practical importance occur in the spelling of words which differ entirely in meaning, but only slightly in sound, according as a checked vowel is used or not. For example, rd pronounced ordinarily means "to* untie", but pronounced with the vowel checked as described above, it means " tt> cry ". In all such cases, the difficulty may be circumvented by spelling the checked vowel phonetically, the word meaning " to cry " being rendered rda. Further examples are d (the mouth) and da (to release), bau (to mould) and bauu (elder brother), uru (a beetle) and uruu (to • remember).

CHAPTER II.

GENDER, NUMBER AND CASE.

11. In Ho, the ordinary grammatical distinction between Genders is replaced by the distinction between Animate and Inanimate Objects. The fact that any particular noun denotes a male or a female being does not affect the construction of a sentence, but the question whether it denotes an animate or inanimate object is of material importance in that connection. As a rule, the same word expresses both the masculine and the feminine, as, e.g. sddom meaning either a stallion or a mare, sim either a cock or a hen, and kuld either a tiger or a tigress ; but, if an explicit designation of sex is desired, this can be secured by prefixing the words sdndi and engd, as, e.g. sdndi sim (a cock) and engd sim (a fowl). Sometimes the feminine form is indicated by a separate word, as, e.g. Mrd (a bullock) and gundi (a cow). Again, the words ho and kod (masculine) and era and kui (feminine) are used sometimes to indicate the sex of animate beings, as, e.g. ddsi ho (a male servant) and ddsi era (a

( 11 )

servant), AW Aon (a son) and kuili»n (a daughter^. The masculine and feminine forms for the common animals are as follows : —

A dog A cat A goat

MASCULINE. sdndi seta sand i bil<ii (or) pusi

FBHININR. ... enyd Sftd.

. . . 1'ni/d I'i/'ii (or) putt.

A sheep ,

i

•

A buffalo

A buffalo calf., A cow calf A capon

A pig

baidd merom (castrated) ... paled merom (one that has

not had kids.)

bodd merom (uncastrated)... engd merom. rudd merom ( „ )...

baidd mindi (castrated) ... pated mindi (as above).

rudd mindi ) ., , . ,.

> (uncastrated) enya mindi.

yorrd mindi * sdndi kerd

sdndi kerd hon ddmkom miu yaid sim

baidd sukuri (castrated)

enyd kerd (or) bitkil. nauki kerd (one that has not calved). enyd kerd lion.

petan miu.

kdluti sim (one that has not laid eggs).

kdluti sukuri (one that has not farrowed). engd sukuri.

The 'only other words denoting sex are the various terms of rela- tionship which will be dealt with later (Vide Chap. XXIV).

12. The distinction between animate and inanimate objects regulates the use of Number in nouns, pronouns and verbs. " Animate" is not synonymous with " living " because it only covers animal and intellectual, and not natural, life. Thus trees, flowers and plants are treated as inani- mate. Nor does it exclude all " neuter " nouns, because celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon and stars, and natural phenomena, such as lightning, rain and wind, are classed as animate objects.

13. There are three Numbers in Ho — the Singular, the Dual and the Plural. The Singular is always the original root, to which the • suffixes kiny and ko are added to form the Dual and Plural respectively. This only takes place in the case of nouns denoting animate objects. E.y. ko — a man, liokiny — two men, lioko — three or more men ; ipd — a star,

( 12 )

ipilking — two stars, ipilko — three or more stars ; but ddru — one or more trees according to the context.

Note— Nouns denoting family relations insert te before the Dual and Plural suffixes, e.g. misi — a younger sister, misiteking — two younger sisters, misteko — younger sisters.

14. The dual and plural suffixes may only be used with inanimate * nouns when it is desired especially to emphasise the number of objects

indicated. This is, however, uncommon and the form of the verb is not in any event affected. In Mundari, the plural suffix is used in enumera- tions of inanimate objects, as, e.g. Bulungko tamdkuko ad chauliko kiringeme. — Buy salt, tobacco and rice. This usage is permissible in Ho, but is not usual, the common form for the same sentence being either Bulung, sukul ondo chauli kiringeme or Bulling, sukul, chauliko kiringeme.

15. Apart from the use implied by its meaning, the Dual Number is employed as a general sign of respect among the Hos. I believe that its use was originally confined to the father-in-law, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law (husband's elder sister or younger brother's wife), and brother-in-law (husband's elder brother or younger sister's husband), but it is now used in addressing, in the presence of others, any relative to whom it is desired to show respect, e.g. a wife or a mother. Outside relatives, the dual is also employed, as an acquired usage, to express respect among the Hos themselves. A Ho will address any European of position in the second person singular with the addition of Gomke (master), but will usually, though not necessarily, address a clerk in the dual it' the latter is a Ho. If he is a Mahomedan or a Hindu, he will be addressed in the singular. The only Indians whom a Ho will address as Gomke are those whom he is actually serving.

16. The Case-suffixes of organic languages such as Latin do not exist in Ho, but the same relations between words are obtained bv the use oE compounds consisting of the root and an added postposition. The effect of these postpositions is to produce forms which are in all essentials' the equivalents of organic cases, and which can therefore be used in the declension of nouns.