From what little has been here stated it would seem to be fairly obvious that the language in its original form is strictly an agglutinative one. But a gradual process of deglutinisation has for some time been going on, no doubt originating through intercourse with neighbours speaking languages of quite another type, e.g. Assamese, Bengali, &c. Most Kacháris (Bårå) in this district are quite familiar with Assamese; indeed, it is very rarely that the writer has met with men who did not know this form of Aryan speech. Now a Kachári in the habit of speaking Assamese will, even when using his own mother tongue, to which he is strongly attached, not infrequently resort to a partially inflected form of expression instead of restricting himself to the use of infixes, &c. This gradual change in the language is especially brought out in the usage of the participial forms of the verb. It has been shown above, e.g. that the past participle (passive) can be declined like a noun. Again, in expressing a simple sentence like the following:—
I ran and caught and brought the horse
an Assamese speaking Kachári would probably make use of the active participle in ná-nŏi; whilst his more primitive brother, who might be less familiar with Assamese, would confine himself to the more idiomatic use of infixes. Thus the sentence given above might be expressed in two ways:
| Ánggorai-kho |  | Khàt-nanŏi ham-nánŏi |  | lóbo-bai. |
| Khàt-ham |
| I thehorse | | running catching | | bring-did. |
| run-catch |
It would seem to be not improbable that the language may gradually lose its agglutinative character, and approximate to the inflected type, though the process most likely will be but a slow one, owing to the very clannish temperament of the people which makes them cling strongly to anything they regard as their very own, e.g. their language (cf., a somewhat similar state of things in Wales and the Scottish Highlands). But in its present stage the language is one of no small interest to the student of comparative philology, because it is an apt illustration of a form of speech which, once strictly agglutinative, is now in process of learning inflexion through the pressure of contact with the speakers of Aryan tongues.[3]
[1] He may perhaps venture to refer the curious in these matters to his Outline Grammar of the Kachári (Bårå) Language. Shillong, 1884. An admirable summary of the leading features of this form of Non-Aryan speech is given in the Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. III, Part II, by Dr. Grierson, Calcutta, 1903, pages 1–17 and ff. [↑]
[2] A very similar construction in Assamese may be compared with this, viz:
| Father. | ||
| My | mór bópai | মোৰবোপাই |
| Your | tór baper | তোৰবপেৰ |
| His | tár bāpek | তাৰবাপেক |