88 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



Sanscrit Alphabet. 



ri rl 



e i o ou an ah 



The first ten vowels are arranged in pairs in which the short or close state of 

 the sound precedes the long or open one. By the open a is meant either that 

 which occurs in the yvov A. father or that in water; by the open i, the pronun- 

 ciation of this vowel which is used in machine ; by the open u, that in rule ; by 

 e, the open power of this vowel which occurs in they or there, not the close one 

 in then ; by o, the open sound of it in hope, not the close one in hop ; by the last 

 i, and by ou, the English sounds of those letters, as in wine, pound ; — sounds 

 nearly unknown in the Shemitic languages or those of the western continent of 

 Europe, which the English have derived from their German ancestors (though 

 they do not express them by the same letters), and which are common to the 

 German, the Greek, the Sanscrit, and the Chinese colloquial systems. 



