Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group

90

BENGALI,

Another but much more corrupt variety of Western Bengali is the patois spoken
in the hills of the Dalma range in Barahbhum in the south of Manbhum. It is spoken
in slightly different forms by the Kharias and by the Paharias. The Kharias are an
aboriginal tribe of Chota Nagpur whose proper language belongs to the Munda or
Kolarian family. Those who have settled in Manbhum have abandoned their ancestral
language, and speak this broken Bengali. The bulk of the tribe is to be found in the
District of Lohardaga, and there they speak their own language. Those of Manbhum
are a wilder and less civilised tribe than their brethren of that District. An account of
them by the late Mr. V. Ball will be found in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal for 1868, which is quoted on p. 285 of the Statistical Account of the
District. The Paharias are a cognate race to the Kharias, and inhabit the same hills.
See the Statistical Account of the District, p. 288.

The patois is called Kharia-thar or Paharia-thar, according to the speakers. The
number of speakers returned is as follows:—

District
Dialect
Number of Speakers.

Ehapft-tli&r . , •
2,298

w . t
PahS?iS-$hSf ....
402

TOTAL
2,700

As in the case of the Kurmall dialect of Bihar!, we meet Bihari forms mixed up
with Bengali ones, but not to sd great a,n extent as in that form of speech. In Kurmall,
Bibaii forms predominate, and the dialect is classed under Bihar!; but in Kharia-tbar,
the basis of the dialect is evidently Bengali. The following is an, account of the pocu*
Harities of the Kharia-thar as illustrated by the two specimens immediately following :—
L—PKONUNOIATION—
A Bengali a (pronounced in Bengali as o, or o) frequently becomes w. Thus, kuri,
for #ar«, having done; muri, having died; bunib, for baliba, I will say; dhuri, having
caught; *mnu> for karinu, I did; bilum, for bilamba, delay; mune, in (my) mind;
dilu> for dila> he gave; and many others. An aXt becomes indifferently, e, i or a. Thus
h&nydk, Uifak or han?&k> for hatteb he became; hWSk, it will be.
In the case of the word wwn*ak for marilek, A has become #.
The letter e (pronounced in Bengali as e or $)> frequently becomes *&> which is
pronounced as a, like the a in Hat. Thus, yydhak> pronounced ydhok* for ek, one;
AratfaJ, pronounced kmnak, for karilek, he did; h$if&k9 pronounced henndb, for hallek,
he became; twfdte, for balilSt, he said; t?&r> pr* shdr, a ser-weighi
The y is sometimes dropped. Thus kahinak, he said; Unak> it became.
The letter 5 is frequently changed to a (pronounced 6 as in hot). Thus nak, for
Ififc, a person; chhatka* for chhotka, small, young; char, for chor, a thief, and others.
So u and u become a in marash, for mdnush, a man; bloke, for bMtikAe, hunger.
Au becomes a£, in dailat, wealth*