transact business through this medium in almost every part of India.
But not to mention that the Hindoosthanee varies from itself beyond most other languages spoken in India; the higher Musulmans introducing such a number of Arabic and Persian terms, as to render their dialect almost unintelligible to the great body of Hindoos, and the learned Hindoos using such a number of words derived from the Sungskrita as to make theirs almost equally unintelligible to the greater part of the Musulmans, it must be observed, that in Bengal, Orissa, the Mahratta states, Gujarat, and the whole of the peninsula, the Hindoosthanee is a foreign language, spoken only by a few, and of which the great body of the people are entirely ignorant; and that the different dialects spoken in the Punjab, in Cashmere, in Multan, and other parts, differ so much from that which is termed current Hindoosthanee, that they rather deserve to be called distinct languages than dialects of the same. Every person therefore, acquainted with Hindoosthanee alone,* must commit himself wholly to a native servant, and will in all probability be often misrepresented - and often deceived.
* The valuable labours of Mr. Gilchrist and Dr. Hunter, have however given a form and consistency to this language which before was a chaos and have rendered the acquisition of it comparatively easy.
