Shakespear, John: A grammar of the Hindustani language (London, 1826)

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A GRAMMAR OF THE

peculiariy applied to poetick compositions, formed, in
the language here treated of, agreeable to the style and
metre of the Persians: from the regions in which it has
become current, it is moreover called Hindi and Hindus-
tcim. The groundwork of it appears to be the Hindavi,
formeriy prevalent in the extensive empire, of which
Canoj was the capital;* or, the existing dialect of the dis-
trict of Braj, called Braj Bhdkhd. With the previous lan-
guage of the country, however, freely altered in many
respects to suit their idiom, the Musalman invaders and
rulers incorporated a great number of Persian, Arabic,
Turkish and other words ; thus forming the modern Hin-
dustani. Such being the various sources whence it is
derived, itis found written in the Persian or Arabic, as well
as in the Devanagari or proper Indian, characters. These
two alphabets will, therefore, now be given in the first
place, together with the subsidiary marks or signs adopt-
ed in the use of them.

* See Mr. Colebrooke’s Dissertation on the Sanskrit and Prakrit
Languages, in the seventh volume of the Asiatick Researches.