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Art. II.—An Essay on the Brāhūī Grammar, after the German of the late Dr. Trumpp, of Munich University

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

In the range of philological study and research there is nothing so attractive as the discovery of certain tribes who speak a language unconnected with the languages of the peoples which surround them. In Europe we have the striking example of the Basque language on the French and Spanish frontier, and, on a larger scale, we find the descendants of the ancient conquerors of the upper part of Pannonia — the Hungarians — surrounded by German, Sláv and Latin elements, speaking the Magyar language, a language wholly isolated, whose philological position has not as yet been determined to the satisfaction of all. Such isolated peoples appear like islets on the vast ocean of Languages. Another remarkable example is the language of the Bráhúi in the north of Sindh and on the east of Balúchistan, on the north-west of British India, which is the subject of the present essay. This language is spoken in a region to which much attention has been attracted of late; it is the territory formerly known as the Khánat of Khelat. The writing of the Bráhúi is the Arabic alphabet, and the letters l and t are pronounced from the roof of the mouth with a strong emission of the breath.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1887

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References

page 60 note 1 Bolletino della Società Geografica Italiana, June, 1850.

page 60 note 2 The author, , thus anglicizes his name, which we have retained.

page 61 note 1 The Reverend Dr. Ernest Trumpp, late Professor of Oriental Languages at Munich, died in 1884. He was the author of Sindhi and Pashtú Grammars, and translator of the Adi Granṭh.

page 65 note 1 The use of the Greek letter is Dr. Trumpp's.

page 78 note 1 sing. ‘were’ plur.

page 84 note 1 Bellew gives the ease as dēryān, which according to Trumpp is incorrect.

page 84 note 2 In Telugu yémi is ‘what’, of which yédi is the neuter; déni is the inflection of both.

page 91 note 1 d'arak the accent is Dr. Trumpp's, as it is, in all the instances, where the / (alif) is not apparent.

page 94 note 1 Futurum exactum of Dr. Trumpp.

page 95 note 1 The Praeteritum of Dr. Trumpp.

page 95 note 2 khdák-ut. See footnote, page 91. The transliteration of the personal pronoun has been omitted as superfluous.

page 97 note 1 There is only one form of the infinitive in the Brahúi.

page 98 note 1 ḳhán-iv, ḳhkálk-ut etc., the accent is Dr. Trumpp's. See footnote, p. 91.

page 98 note 2 We find also written khá;n-evā and pronounced accordingly. Bux, however, gives the above form.

page 98 note 3 On Bux's authority.

page 101 note 1 -pa, etc. The accent is Dr. Trumpp's.

page 103 note 1 ḳhÁn-pa, etc. The accent is Dr. Trumpp's, he omits it in the future tenses!

page 104 note 1 au before a vowel becomes av.

page 104 note 2 r changes into s.

page 105 note 1 See footnote page 91. Dr. Trumpp omits the accents in the imperfect and pluperfect tenses.

page 106 note 1 Dr. Trumpp transfers the accent to the second syllable, possibly a printer's error.

page 107 note 1 The accents and diacritical marks are Dr. Trumpp's.

page 112 note 1 Bux writes o throughout.

page 114 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 115 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 116 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 117 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 118 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 119 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 120 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 121 note 1 See footnote, page 91.

page 122 note 1 Pronunciation uncertain.

page 124 note 1 Sindhi

page 128 note 1 Just like Telugu, which forms adverbs from adjectives by adding : k and g are frequently interchangeable.

page 134 note 1 Dr. Trumpp places the accent on all the vowels and writes thus: Brāaūī. M aulawi Alia Bakhsh uses none.

page 134 note 2 See: Sitzungsberichte der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1880, Supplement—Heft vi. bei G. Franz.