280 G. A. Grierson— On the Kagmirt Vowel-Systen. [No. 3, 
On the Kaemirit Vowel-System.— By G. A. Grinrson, C.LE., LCS. 
[Read November, 1896. ] 
The only serious attempt to grapple with the intricacies of Ka¢miri 
pronunciation is that contained in Major Leech’s grammar of the 
language contained in pp. 397 and ff. of the J. A. S. B., Vol. XIII, 
for 1844. 
For its time Leech’s grammar was a wonderful production, but it 
has the disadvantage of being entirely written in the Roman character, 
without any definite system of transcription. He gives lists of words 
classified according to their vowel sounds, and extending over eight 
pages. These lists (and I have tested every word in them, in the mouth 
of a Kacmiri Pandit) are in the main accurate, but it is generally 
difficult and sometimes impossible to identify the words he writes, or to 
reproduce them in either the Persian or the Nagari character. 
Kagmiri is written both in the Persian and in the Carada alphabets. 
The latter belongs to the family of which Dévanagari is the best 
known member, and will be represented (for convenience sake) by 
Dévanagari in this paper. The Persian characteris used by the Mu- 
hammadans (who form about 93 per cent.), and the Carada (Dévanagari) 
by the Hindis (who form, say, 6 per cent.) of the population. Carey 
in his Serampur translation of the New Testament (1821) used the 
Carada character, but since then Missionaries have used either the 
Persian or the Roman character. The Persian character, with its 
facile omission of vowel-marks is not suited for representing the intri- 
cate vowel-system of Kag¢miri. And, indeed, to one whois not familiar 
- with the pronunciation of the language from practical experience, it 
would be impossible to gain merely a faint idea of the correct pronuncia- 
tion of most Ka¢miri words, even from a fully vocalized Persian trans- 
eription. This is forcibly illustrated by the late Dr. Burkhard’s Essays 
on Kacmiri. He transliterated rigidly from the Persian character, 
and hence, as a means for giving a practical colloquial acquaintance 
with the language, his papers are of little value, though of great value 
in other respects. 
