05-01-090
90
BENGALI.
Another but much more corrupt variety of Western Bengali is the patois spoken
in the hills of the Dalm
range in
Ba
hbh
m
in the south of Manbhum. It is spoken in slightly different forms by the Khais
and by the Pahis.
The Khais
are an aboriginal tribe of Chota Nagpur whose proper language belongs to the
Mu
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 Pahis
are a cognate race to the Khais,
and inhabit the same hills. See the Statistical Account of the District, p.
288.
The patois is called Khai-
hr or Pahi-hr,
according to the speakers. The number of speakers returned is as follows:-
|
District.
|
Dialect.
|
Number of Speakers.
|
| Manbhum... |
Khai-hr... |
2,298
|
| " ... |
Pahi-h ... |
462
|
| |
TOTAL
|
2,760
|
As in the case of the Kuml
dialect of Bihr, we meet Bihr
forms mixed up with Bengali ones, but not to so great an extent as in that form
of speech. In Kuml, Bibr forms predominate, and the dialect
is classed under Bihr; but in Khai-hr, the basis of
the dialect is evidently Bengali. The following is an, account of the pecu-
liarities of the Khai-hr as illustrated by the two specimens
immediately following:-
I.-PRONUNCIATION-
A Bengali a (pronounced in Bengali as 
,
or 
) frequently
becomes u. Thus, kuri, for kari, having done; muri, having died; bunib, for
baliba, I will say; dhuri, having caught; kunnu, for karinu, I did; bilum, for
bilamba, delay; mun
,
in (my) mind; dilu, for dila, he gave; and many others. An a
,
becomes indifferently, 
,
or a. Thus
hn
k,
hink
or hank,
for halk,
he became; hibk,
it will be.
In the case of the word munk for mrilk, has become u.
The letter
(pronounced in Bengali as
or ), frequently
becomes 
,
which is pronounced as 
,
like the a in hat. Thus, yhak,
pronounced yhk,
for k, one;
kunk,
pronounced kunnk,
for karilk,
he did; hnk,
pronounced hnnk,
for halk,
he became; bunk,
for balilk,
he said; sr,
pr. Shr, a
sr-weight.
The y is sometimes dropped. Thus kahink, he said; hink, it became.
The letter is frequently changed to a (pronounced as in hot). Thus
nak, for lk, a person; chhak, for chhk, small, young;
char, for chr, a thief, and others.
So u and
become a in m
ash,
for mnush,
a man; bhak,
for bhkhe,
hunger.
Au becomes ai, in dailat, wealth.