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



is of necessity used by tliem In a manner in which it would be looked upon by us 

 as a consonant, that is, when it closes the syllable expressed by the preceding 

 character, and is pronounced by the aid of the vowel part of that syllable, drop- 

 ping its own vocalic power, — In which case an Ethiopia character is also neces- 

 sarily used as a consonant ; — they then call this letter ^^fT KanD?T, i. e. 

 curtailed; and so make it perfectly obvious that they do not look upon the power 

 of a character in any other light than as syllabic, even when the circumstances of 

 the case would appear almost to force upon them a different conception of the 

 subject. 



Here I have to notice a circumstance, which seems in some measure at least 

 to indicate, that the framers of the alphabet before us were persons habituated 

 to hieroglyphic writing. In the Sanscrit language there occur several articulate 

 sounds commencing with a combination of two or even of three consonantal 

 powers, and which are, in consequence expressed by the Pandits by combinations 

 of two or three of their syllabic characters.* Each of those combinations is 

 reduced to a single character, for a reason which shall presently be considered ; 

 but the point to which I now wish to draw attention Is, that in the reductions in 

 question, very little care is shown to preserve any likeness of the resulting com- 

 pounds to their component characters. In most of the compositions not more 

 than one of the ingredient letters can be recognized, — at least by those who are 

 not very skilful In the analysis ; — and the consequence is, that the learner has 

 thrown upon him very unnecessarily the burden of committing to memory a great 

 number of additional characters, which it is as difficult for him to fix in his 

 thoughts as if they had no relation whatever to those simpler ones with which he 

 was previously acquainted. Such indifference on the part of the framers of the 

 system to the numbers of extra-characters with which they encumbered it, looks 

 very like the effect of familiarity with a species of writing in which the amount 

 of symbols Is Indefinite. In support of this view of the subject may be noticed 

 the superabundance of letters in the alphabets of the Siamese and Tonquinese, — • 



* In this case also, the characters — that is, all except one of them in each combination, — drop 

 the vowel part of their powers, and so must practically have suggested to the Pandits some idea of 

 consonants ; though they have failed to excite a clear one, as is evident from what has been already 

 stated. 



