The difference of the several dialects of the hill tribes consists not exactly in the idiom of the languages, but chiefly in their pronunciation. Therefore the same or nearly the same word in the mouth of a Toda with his pectoral pronunciation can scarcely be recognised as the same in the mouth of the Kotas with their dental pronunciation. The Badaga and Kurumba dialects are midway between the former two with regard to pronunciation, only the Badaga is a little more guttural than the Kurumba. There is a little difference in the dialects of the several Badaga tribes, those who came at a later period to the hills-for instance the Kangaru ("Lingaites"), who emigrated from Targuru-speaking a purer Canarese than the common Badagas. The names The Todas also have some slight difference in their pronunciation according to the different districts they inhabit; for instance, some pronounce the s quite pure, others like the English th, and others like z.* of the Toda tribes are not quite correct in the letter of Mr. Hodgson. They are the following five: Peikee, Kenna, Pekkan, Kuttan, Tódi. The chief tribe is the Peikee, which pronounces the s like th. ABORIGINES OF THE EASTERN GHATS. To the Secretary of the Bengal Asiatic Society. SIR,-Pursuant to my purpose of submitting to the Society, upon a uniform plan and in successive series, samples of all the languages of the non-Arian races of India and of the adjacent countries, I have now the honour to transmit six more vocabularies, for which I am indebted to Mr. H. Newill, of the Madras Civil Service, at present employed in Vizagapatam. These six comprise the Kondh, Sávara, Gadaba, Yerukala, and Chentsu tongues. In forwarding them to me, Mr. Newill, a very good Telugu scholar, has noted by an annexed asterical mark such words of these tongues, and particularly of Yerukala, as coincide with Telugu. He has also remarked that many of the Chentsu vocables resemble the U'rdu. Having, as you are aware, a purpose of submitting to the Society an analytical dissection of the whole of the vocabularies collected by me, I shall be sparing of remarks on the present occasion. But I may add to M. Newill's brief notes a few words, as follows: The Chentsu tribe, whose language, as here exhibited, is almost entirely corrupt Hindi and U'rdu, with a few additions. from Bengali, affords one more example to the many forthcoming of an uncultivated aboriginal race having abandoned their own tongue. Such relinquishment of the mother-tongue has been so general that throughout Hindustan Proper and the Western Himalaya, as well as throughout the whole of the vast Sub-Himalayan tract denominated the Tarai, not excluding the contiguous valley of Assam, there are but a few exceptions to this the general state of the case; whilst in the Central Himalaya the aboriginal tongues are daily giving way before the Khas language, which, though originally and still traceably Tartaric, has been yet more altered by Arian influences than even the cultivated Dravirian tongues. The very significant cause of this phenomenon it will be our business to explain by and by. In the meanwhile the fact is well deserving of |