ON BARBARIC AND SAVAGE LANGUAGES AND RACE NAMES. 663 



United States of America be adopted by the British Association in the 

 titles of the papers submitted to Sections E and H. 



As regards barbaric languages, the Committee are not prepared to 

 offer other suggestions than that — 



1. The above-named system should be adopted so far as it is 

 applicable. 



2. That in selecting symbols to express additional sounds endeavour 

 should be made to conform to the usage of previous authors. 



3. That explanatory examples of the signification of those symbols be 

 given by the writer. 



4. That the Secretary of the British Association shall direct the 

 attention of those travellers who may hereafter receive money grants 

 from the Association to the above resolutions. 



The system of orthography referred to above is subjoined. 

 The Committee request to be reappointed. 



SYSTEM OF ORTHOGRAPHY FOR NATIVE NAMES OF 



PLACES. 



Taking into consideration the present want of a system of geographical 

 orthography, and the consequent confusion and variety that exist in the 

 mode of spelling in English maps, the Council of the Royal Geographical 

 Society have adopted the following rules for such geographical names as 

 are not, in the countries to which they belong, written in the Roman 

 character. These rules are identical with those adopted for the Admiralty 

 charts, and will henceforth be used in all publications of the Society.^ 



1. No change will be made in the orthography of foreign names in 

 countries which use Roman letters : thus Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, 

 &c., names will be spelt as by the respective nations. 



2. Neither will any change be made in the spelling of such names in 

 languages which are not written in Roman character as have become by 

 long usage familiar to English readers ; thus Calcutta, Cutch, Celebes, 

 Mecca, &c., will be retained in their present form. 



3. The true sound of the word as locally pronounced will be taken as 

 the basis of the spelling. 



4. An approximation, however, to the sound is alone aimed at. A 

 system which would attempt to represent the more delicate inflections of 

 sound and accent would be so complicated as only to defeat itself. Those 

 who desire a more accurate pronunciation of the written name must leam 

 it on the spot by a study of local accent and peculiarities. 



5. The broad features of the system are that vowels are pronounced 

 as in Italian and consonants as in English. 



6. One accent only is used — the acute — to denote the syllable on which 

 stress is laid. This is very important, as the sounds of many names are 

 entirely altered by the misplacement of this ' stress.' 



7. Every letter is pronounced. When two vowels come together each 



' Since this was publislied in the Proceedings the sj'stem has been adopted by 

 the Intelligence Division, War. Office, on all precis and maps, bj; the JForeign and 

 Colonial Offices, in all reports, and in the Queen's Kegulations and Orders for the 

 Army. [January 1889.] 



