National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0293 Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia : vol.3
Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia : vol.3 / Page 293 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000041
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

V. COMPARATIVE CONCLUDING REMARKS.

1. Connection of geographical terminology with history and ethnography.—2. General formation of geographical
names.—3. Modifications in the different linguistic groups.

1. CONNECTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY WITH HISTORY AND
ETHNOGRAPHY.

For India in general, a northern and a southern family of languages can be
distinguished.¹ With the northern family, Hindostani is spread over the country as
lingua franca, and in the geographical names also the Sanskrit element is still not
unfrequently met with. From the general lists of names of which the preceding Glos-
sary is but a selection,² I found that for these regions about 80 per cent. belong to
the Hindostáni now in use (25 per cent. of these, however, being traceable to Arabic
or Persian origin) and the remaining 20 per cent. are Sanskrit, more or less pure.

The number of languages formerly spoken in India³ must have been much
greater than it is at present. But from the migratory habits of the natives and