পাতা:বাঙ্গালা-গারো অভিধান.djvu/৮

PREFACE. sale In opening schools among the Garos, who had no written language, the supply of text-books was one of the first problems. A few books in Garo for beginners have been prepared by American Baptist Missionaries, and are mostly in use. An Arithmetic thus prepared was destroyed by fire, and has not yet been replaced. The Missionaries, few in number, and burdened with a great variety of work, have not been able to give as much time as they would like to the preparation of Garo text-books. For this reason, as well as the fact that educated Garos should know Bengali, the language of their educated neighbors, it has been found necessary as well as wise to use Bengali text-books as a medium of instruction. To use these, a Bengali-Garo Dictionary Beemed to be almost one of the first needs. I therefore instructed Rev. Ramkhe, one of our mission employes, to give a portion of his time to preparing Garo definitions to a Bengali vocabulary. This he began in 1877, and he hil the present work completed in 188l. It was then put to press in Calcutta. But the difficulties of superintending the priuting at so great a distance, with no one at the press who understood the Garo language, has made its progress slow. Moreover, the Missionaries Rev. E. G. Phillips and myself, have at times, through absence, been obliged to delay the work. Garo proof readers have been trained; but either death or removals have always prevented their continued assistance. Thus the editing and proof reading has been extended over a period of six years, during which the adaptation of the Bengali character to the Garo language was in a state of growth, and subject to frequent changes. While it would be impossible to give all the terms to be found in the various dialects, the author has aimed at giving the definitions in the different leading dialects. Many of the more familiar Bengali words are often used in the definitions, -usually bracketed. Garoized Bengali words are also frequent. Notwithstanding these difficulties, and the apparent inconsistencies to be found in the book, we think there will be no difficulty in reading and readily understanding the definitions; and that the book is well adapted to the purpose for which it was made, riz., for the use of Garo pupils in learning the meaning of Bengali words. M. C. MASON. TURA, GARO HILLR, AssAM, September, 1887. ogle