OF ASIATICK WORDS. 23 



of the tongue, which gives it a found refembling that 

 of r, as it is pronounced in Northumberland : but it is, 

 in truth, a compound guttural, though frequently ex- 

 preffed by a fimple letter, as in Gaza, which fhould be 

 written Ghazzah, a city of Palejline ; and in gazelle, as 

 the French naturalifts call the ghazdl, or antelope, 

 of the Arabians. The Per fan word migh, a cloud, is 

 megha in Sanfcrit ; as mifli, a fheep, appears alfo to be 

 derived from mejha, by that change of the long vowels 

 which generally diftinguifhes the Iranian from the 

 Indian pronunciation. 



This is the nafal palatine, which I have already pro- 

 Dofed to denote by a point above the letter n; iince the 

 addition of a g would create confufion, and often fug- 

 geft the idea of a different fyllable. Thus ends the 

 firfr feries of Ndgari letters, confirming of the hard and 

 [oft guttural, each attended by its proper afpirate, and 

 followed by a nafal of the fame clafs ; which elegant 

 arrangement is continued, as far as pofhble, through the 

 Sanfcrit fyflem, and feems conformable to the beauti- 

 ful analogy of nature. 



The next is a feries of compound letters, as moft 

 grammarians confider them, though fome hold them to 

 be fimple founds, articulated near the palate. The firfl 

 of them has no diftinct fign in our own alphabet, but is 

 expreffed, as in the word China, by two letters, which 

 are certainly not its component principles. It might, 

 perhaps, be more properly denoted, as it is in the great 

 work of M. D'Herbelot, by ifli ; but the inconve- 

 nience of retaining our own fymbol will be lefs than 

 that of introducing a new combination, or inventing, 

 after the example of Dr. Franklin, anew character. 



China 



