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

158 BENGALI.

maranmri haySchhe, 6k prahar bel hate-hate. Takhan

assault has-ttoken-place, (when) one watch time was-occurring.1 M-that-time

jamite kona phasal chhila na. Sei dini 6m6.

any crop was not* That day Lwas*about-Mransplant>

South of Dinajpur and Bogra, and between them and the Ganges, lie, respectively,
the Districts of Rajshahi and Pabna. The dialect spoken here differs from that spoken
in Dinajpur, tending, if any thing, towards the standard Bengali spoken across the Ganges.
The language of Pabna, perhaps, differs more than that of Eajahahi, and for these two
districts it will be sufficient to give a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the
language of the women of the former district.
It is an excellent specimen of the extremely clipped pronunciation adopted by
women. In order to show this the more clearly, when the syllable yd is pronounced
like the a in hat, I have transliterated it *d. I also transliterated oyti, by ted, which, as
elsewhere, is the correct pronunciation.
Note the tendency to shorten a final e to t, as in sdmni for tdmne, in the presence of,
and &sti, for dsite, coming. Note also the Dative termination gune, as in dmdkgune, to
me; tapekgune, to the father.
1 At about the first watch in the morning.