Note 18 — C

Chenchu.—The Chenchus or Chentsus are a Telugu-speaking jungle tribe inhabiting the hills of the Kurnool and Nellore districts. In a letter addressed to the Bengal Asiatic Society,18 transmitting vocabularies of various tribes inhabiting Vizagapatam, by Mr. Newill, it is stated that “the Chenchu tribe, whose language is almost entirely corrupt Hindi and Urdu with a few exceptions from Bengāli, affords one more example to the many forthcoming of an uncultured aboriginal race having abandoned their own tongue.” The compiler of the Kurnool Manual (1885) remarks that Mr. Newill’s vocabulary “seems to belong to the dialect spoken by Lambādis, who sometimes wander about the hills, and it is not unlikely that he was misled as to the character of the persons from whom his list was taken.” As examples of the words given by Mr. Newill, the following may be quoted:—