M — MOORA to MOORS (Part 2 of 2)

halter,’ or as he writes, baug-doore, he derives from dur, ‘distance,’ instead of dor, ‘a rope.’ He has no knowledge of the instrumental case with terminal ne, and he does not seem to be aware that ham and tum (hum and toom, as he writes) are in reality plurals (‘we’ and ‘you’). The grammar is altogether of a very primitive and tentative character, and far behind that of the R. C. Missionaries, which is referred to s.v. Hindostanee. We have not seen that of Schulz (1745) mentioned under the same.

1752.—“The Centinel was sitting at the top of the gate, singing a Moorish song.”—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 272.

1767.—“In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey, you must at least have a smattering of the Language for few of the Inhabitants (except in great Towns) speak English. The original Language, of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo. … But the politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans and Persian. … The only Language that I know anything of is the Bengala, and that I do not speak perfectly, for you may remember that I had a very poor knack at learning Languages.”—MS. Letter of James Rennell, March 10.

1779.—

“C. What language did Mr. Francis speak?

W. (Meerum Kitmutgar). The same as I do, in broken Moors.”—Trial of Grand v. Philip Francis, quoted in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 226.

1783.—“Moors, by not being written, bars all close application.”—Letters in Life of Colebrooke, 13.

” “The language called ‘Moors’ has a written character differing both from the Sanskrit and Bengalee character, it is called Nagree, which means ‘writing.’ ”—Letter in Mem. of Ld. Teignmouth, i. 104.

1784.—

“Wild perroquets first silence broke,
Eager of dangers near to prate;
But they in English never spoke,
And she began her Moors of late.”

Plassey Plain, a Ballad by Sir W. Jones, in Works, ii. 504.

1788.—“Wants Employment. A young man who has been some years in Bengal, used to common accounts, understands Bengallies, Moors, Portuguese.…”—In Seton-Karr, i. 286.

1789.—“…sometimes slept half an hour, sometimes not, and then wrote or talked Persian or Moors till sunset, when I went to parade.”—Letter of Sir T. Munro, i. 76.

1802.—“All business is transacted in a barbarous mixture of Moors, Mahratta, and Gentoo.”—Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 333.

1803.—“Conceive what society there will be when people speak what they don’t think, in Moors.”—M. Elphinstone, in Life, i. 108.

1804.—“She had a Moorish woman interpreter, and as I heard her give orders to her interpreter in the Moorish language…I must consider the conversation of the first authority.”—Wellington, iii. 290.

” “The Stranger’s Guide to the Hindoostanic, or Grand Popular Language of India, improperly called Moorish; by J. Borthwick Gilchrist: Calcutta.”