NTROD0cON M Bengali Khe janes bad bet, Nitd janena chora khat. Pias janen dhubi gi Assamese Bhoke najane bahi bhat. Ninde pajane chupi kha. Pihe najane dhobar gha | A few writers are in favour of reforming the speling of Assamese words. As already noticed the Assamese do not pronounce the cerebrals and use only one abilant. So, the cerebrals and 2 sibilants as also । and r may be dropped. But the iterate persons follow the meaning of words with both car and eye. So, I think, the spelling should follow the Sanskrit originals in cases of Tatsama and Tadbhava words. | Scals bearing incised pictorial signs have recently been unearthed at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. These have not yet been completely deciphered. But it is evident that the Brami alphabet of India is derived from this script. The probable date of Mohenjo-daro civilization is 30002750 B.cl PREFACE In the following pages I have made an attempt to give the principal rammatical forms and trace, in as brief a compass as possible, the origin of the Assamese language. I have not confined my attention solely to the standard form of our speech but have noticed both the language and dialects in current use in the Brahmaputra Valley. This is unavoidable for a correct understanding of the origin and development of our language, Words and grammatical forms have a history of their own, throwing light a ethnology, archeology and general history, and a consideration of all such materials is indispensable in a work of this kind My aim is to show wha they are not what they should be Such a wide consider tion would extend the field of grammatical studies and result in the development of a good, readable, healthy and useful Assamese literature. | I have generally followed the spelling adopted in the Hemakos3. But it will be observed that, in several particulars, this invaluable work has deviated from the Sanskrit spelling. I consider that spellies should follow the Sanskrit original as far as practicable. Both eye and car follow the meaning of a word. Further, for purposes of etymology, it is desirable that Sanskrit spelling should be maintained intact. Accord- ingly I have, in a few cases, suggested a deviation from the rematog. 1 see The Indus civilization by Dr. E. Mackay. 13
