Professor Rasx’s Remarks on the Zend Language. 529 
Sanscrit there are also twelve single vowels; but fourof them are quite different 
from Zend, viz. ri, ri, lii, li. Sanscrit has only two diphthongs (ei, ow), and 
sometimes regularly interchanged with d; the two last characters are only various modes of 
writing the same letter, viz. th, formed from ¢ by the sign of aspiration just mentioned. Nos. 7 
and 8 are the English letters r and z, not the German z or¢s. No.9 is a kind of s, corresponding 
to the first s in Nagari 4] : I would express it in European characters by ¢, because it is usually 
changed to c or & in connected languages ; for instance, the Sanscrit pagah, Zend pacus, is the 
Latin pecus, &c. No. 10 exhibits three characters: the first is the common s, but frequently 
confounded with the last or sh, because in Pahlavi it is used for sh, and Pahlavi has been more 
familiar than Zend to the copyists of the Zendavesta for a considerable period ; in the oldest 
manuscripts, however, they are pretty accurately distinguished. The character in the middle 
appears in the best manuscripts in such a form that it is evidently composed of s (the first of 
No. 10) and & (No. 13). Of course it is not to be considered as a single letter, but as sk ; 
sometimes, however, it is confounded with sh. No.1lis the Arab ¢, Nos. 12 and 13 are the 
common European fand k. No. 14 contains two characters: the former is the common hard g, 
the latter I suppose to be a mere mistake, as I never met with any such figure for any kind of g. 
No. 15 is our m. No. 16 is an aspirated m, formed by joining the line of aspiration to the simple 
m; but as it is written indifferently either in this way or with the two distinct characters hm 
(Nos. 19 and 15), it can scarcely be considered but as an abbreviation. No.17is ourn. No.18 
contains two different characters, of distinct use and signification: the latter is the common 
English and Danish v hard, the former is the soft English w, in the beginning of words, for in 
the middle the same sound is expressed by the character No. 35, to which, of course, this 
ought to have been transposed. No. 19 is the strong English and Danish h. No. 20 is the 
consonant y expressed with two different figures, both of which are only used in the beginning 
of words. No. 21 exhibits, in the first place, the same consonant y as written in the middle of 
words; in the second place, the vowel long. No. 22 is the English sh, French tch, and Swedish 
k, before a, i, y, d and 6; I would rather express it with c alone, always to be pronounced as the 
Italian ce, ci, because in Sanscrit, and many other Indian languages, it occurs aspirated, and 
ought then to be written ch in analogy with j, jh, k, kh, g, gh, &c. No. 23 isp. No.24 is ch, 
or the French 7. No. 25 is the vowel 7 short (not e), corresponding to the long i already 
mentioned (No. 21). The next number has two characters, representing two different short 
vowels; the former is the Italian, German, and Danish wu short, the English 00 in book, good, 
&c.; the Jatter is the common o short. No. 27 is the vowel 6 long, corresponding to the short 
o just mentioned. No. 28 exhibits two different vowels: the former is the Danish @ short, the 
English ea in measure, or a in can, fancy; French 2 in aprés, &c., German & short: I prefer 
writing it with @ diphthong, because it occurs frequently long, which must be marked with an 
accent above, but this requires that the character should have no other mark or accent before 
hand. It is also, both short and long, written in this way in several other languages ; for 
instance, Greenlandic, Singhalese,(a) &c. The long @, which has been quite overlooked by 
ANQUuETIL, is written in Zend with the same character as the short, only protracted considerably 
(a) Vide CaLtaway’s Dictionary, Colombo 1821. 
