The first words were all nouns and the names of visible objects, and this state of things probably continued for a long period and was the cause of many erroneous primitive conceptions and ideas.

Some traces of the earliest form of language can still be discerned.

Thus of Santali Sir G.Grierson states: "Every word can perform the function of a verb, and every verbal form can, according to circumstances, be considered as a noun, an adjective or a verb.

It is often simply a matter of convenience which word is considered as a noun and which as an adjective ...

Strictly speaking, in Santali there is no real verb as distinct from the other classes of words.