The regimental Moonshi : being a course of reading of Hindustani, designed to assist officers and assistant surgeons on the Madras establishment preparing for the examination ordered by government / by Capt. Edward T. Fox.

  • Cox, Edward T.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The regimental Moonshi : being a course of reading of Hindustani, designed to assist officers and assistant surgeons on the Madras establishment preparing for the examination ordered by government / by Capt. Edward T. Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    PREFACE The following pages have been written, with a view to assist young Officers and Assistant Surgeons on the Madras Establish- ment in acquiring a knowledge of the dialect spoken by the Sepoys of that Presidency, which it is indispensable they should be familiar with, ere they can pass the Examination which all Officers are now, by order of Government, obliged to undergo before they can be reported fully qualified for duty. The books hitherto published being, in Oordu, afford but little help in the attainment of this dialect; it is nevertheless necessary for those who wish to pass an Interpreter's Examination, to study the Chahar Darwesh (Bagh-o-bahar), Gooli Bakawali, Akhlaki Hindi or Ikwan-oos-Safa, as translating from one of them is a test in their Examination. The first of these Examinations is almost entirely colloquial; the Candidate is required to converse with a Sepoy or Havildar, and interpret between him and the Examining Committee (composed of Officers), and translate extemporally a paragraph from the Standing Orders, and also to read and explain an ordinary Sepoy's letter; to accomplish this he must necessarily be perfectly acquainted with the dialect spoken by the men. Having frequently heard young Officers regret that their Moonshis had no books in the ** Sepoys' Hindustani, and having myself experienced the same inconvenience, I had, when Inter- preter to my corps, a few pages of dialogues and letters prepared