Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/102

went and sat on it for hours together and fell into a sleep, hoping that by the time he woke up he will find himself at the foot of the mountain. Night passed and on waking he found to his disgust that he remained just where he sat before he went to sleep, and having returned home fell foul with the scientist who attributed motion to the Alpine glaciers. He seems to have found out afterwards that the glacier moves only one inch in twenty-four hours. Change in language also is just of that nature. This must take away the fright out of those linguistic purists who dread the mention of dialects as vehicles of literary expression. There are so many conservative influences within language which do not allow words and forms to go their own way. Still, the movement and change go on in spite of ourselves, steadily and imperceptibly. There is a gradual transition from one dialect into