30 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY 



3 



The two liquids na and ma, one of which is a lingual, 

 and the other a labial, are kept apart, in order to pre- 

 ferve the analogy of the fyftem ; and the other two are 

 introduced between the two Jemi-vowels : the firfl of 

 thefe is ra, as in Ra'ma, the conqueror of Sildn, 



The fecond is fa in Lanca, another name of that 

 ifland both in Tibui, and in India. A defect in the or- 

 gans of the common Bengalefe often caufes a confufion 

 between thefe two liquids, and even the found of na is 

 frequently fubftituted for the letter before us. 



When this character correfponds, as it fometimes 

 does in Sanfcrit, with our wa, it is, in fact, our Ji/th 

 JJiort vowel preceding another in forming a diphthong, 

 and might eafily be fpared in our fyftem. of letters; but 

 when it has the found of va, it is a labial,, formed by 

 linking the lower lip againft the upper teeth, and might 

 thus be arranged in a feries of proportionals, pa, fa, ba 9 

 va. It cannot eafily be pronounced in this manner by 

 the inhabitants of Bengal, and fome other provinces* 

 who confound it with ba, from whichit ought carefully 

 to be diftinguifhed ; lince we cannot conceive that, in 

 fo perfect a fyftem as the Sanfcrit, there could ever have 

 been two fymbolsforthe fame found. In fact, the Mon- 

 tes Parveti of our ancient Geographers were fo named 

 from Parveta, not Parbeca, a mountain. The zvdw of 

 the Arabs is always a vowel, either feparate or coalefcing 



with 



