________________
JUNE, 1881.]
ASIATIC SOCIETIES.
MISCELLANEA.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
8. CROW LANGUAGE.-There is among European children born in India a quasi-secret dialect called the "Crow Language," which consists in dividing the vowel sound of each syllable by a "p." For example: " How do you do?" would in Crow language be pronounced How-p-ow do-p-o you-p-ou do-p-o? and "Quite well" as Qui-p-ite we-p-ell. I have hitherto regarded it merely as a childish trick of speech, and was therefore much astonished and amused to find the following sentence in a paper "On the Non-Aryan Languages of India," by E. L. Brandreth, Esq. (Journal R. A. S., N. S., vol. X, p. 8):"Kolarian Grammar apparently recognizes none of the root changes of the Dravidian, but derivative forms are not always indicated by affixed
ASIATIC SOCIETIES.
M. Leon Rodet has a paper on the correct meaning of the Numeral Notation devised by Aryabhata. The principle of this notation is expressed in the mnemonical éloka,Varga-aksharáni varge, 'varge 'varga-aksharáni. Kiệt so mau-gala |
Kha-dvi-navake svará nava, varge 'varge nava. antya-varge vá ||
.
M. Rodet corrects kha-dvinavake into khadvi navakam, and explains the whole thus: The consonants classified are used to express, and take for their numerical values the order which they hold in the alphabet,' thus, -1, -2, . 5, 10, 11,.. = 20, = 21, म = 25. The unclassed consonants are used for tens"; but as we have already = 10, 20, must be 30, which the author expresses when he says: n-m-au yas, y=n+m=5+25=30; and we continue making = 40.... 70, 80, स = 90 ह = 100.
"The nine vowels give birth to nine couples of zeros added to the numbers expressed by the consonants."
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particles only, but occasionally by infixes-thas in Santâli a noun may be formed by infixing t, p, or n with the same vowel as that of the root; for instance: ra-pa-j, a collection of kings, from raj, a king, u-nu-m, immersion, from um to bathe. The reciprocal active voice is formed in a similar manner by the insertion of p: thus da-pa-l, strike together, from dal, to strike."
Can the interjected p of the so-called "Crow language" have been borrowed as a disguise to ordinary English from any of the Indian languages? Do any of the Indian peoples use "secret" languages formed in this manner? A. M. FERGUSON, JR. Abbotsford Estate, Lindula, Ceylon, 14th March 1881.
The vowels are-a, i, u, r, 1, e, ai, o, au,-the long not being distinguished from the short; and these vowels attached to the consonants multiply them:
The Journal Asiatique, Oct.-Déc. 1880, contains the continuation of M. Senart's study of the Piyadasi inscriptions from the sixth to the twelfth edict inclusive. The last two of these are not found at Dhauli and Jaugada, and of ther by 1,000,000: tr 16,000,000. . . pr=21,000,000 twelfth only a few letters are preserved in the Kapur-di-giri version.
M. Cl. Huart follows with a paper on Ottoman Bibliography, containing a list of the books, in Turkish, Arabic and Persian, printed at Constanti nople in A. H. 1294-1296 (A.D. 1877-79).
=
by 100: gi stands for 300, chi 600,.. mi = 2500, yi=3000, &c.
u by 10,000: ghu=40,000, chhu 70,000 .. ru 400,000, &c.
&c.
And they are added, Aryabhata says: varge, avarge, nava-antyavarge vá,-"To the varga and to the avarga (to units and tens, separately) or to a group terminated by a varga." Thus 43 may be written Tor; 4300 may be written = gi +ri, or ; 430,000 as Tor, &c. It is to be noted that a is the maltiplier by 1000 = 1; and thus au= 100=1016; however as the numeral letters permit us to write numbers of two figures we have, in fact, by means of the consonants and au, the numbers up to eighteen figures and as h = 100,= 100 x 100 = 1018.
Aryabhata uses this notation for his astronomical
tables thus,
Yuga-Ravi-bhagands khyu-ghr; Šasi chayagiyinu
suchhlr; ku nisibunļkhshṛ prák;
Sani dunvighva; Guru khrichyubha; Kuja bhadlijhnukhr; Bhrigu-Budha saura. Chandrochcha jrushkhidha; Budha suguśithṛna; Bhrigu jashabikhuchhṛ besharkde; Buphinacha páta-viloma, budhdhny-ajárkodayách cha Lankáyám.
"In a Yuga the number of sidereal revolutions of the Sun is 4,320,000; of the Moon, 57,753,336; of the earth, 1,582,237,500; of Saturn, 146,561; of Jupiter, 364,224; of Mars, 2,296,824; of Venus and Mercury, the same as the Sun; of the Moon's apogee, 488,219; Mercury's, 17,937,020; of Venus, 7,022,383; and of the Moon's node, 232,236."
But it is only in the tables in his first chapter that Aryabhata has used this notation. M. Rodet
