Santali has been affected more or less by all the languages with which it has come into contact, and possesses a remarkable power of naturalising words of foreign origin. Next to the Bihari dialects, Bengali has of late years had most influence upon it. So strongly, indeed, do Bihari and Bengali affect Santali at present that there is produced a slight dia leotie difference between the Santali of Bihari and the Santali of Bengali districts. Words with the short inherent vowel, adopted by Santali from Bihari, retain the short a sound, those adopted from Bengali retain the short 0 sound. This dialectic difference accounts for the