1834.] to the Orthography of Oriental Languages. 283 



imitated. In spite of every endeavour to recommend the Society's 

 alphabet for universal use, the business of the country continued to be 

 conducted either in the jargon spelling first adopted from similarity 

 of sound, or with the ad libitum improvements of those, who, knowing 

 the correct spelling of the original, adopted the letters they thought 

 best calculated to express the true sound of the words properly pro- 

 nounced. It is now near fifty years since the attempt was first made 

 to introduce this obvious benefit of a consistent and correct alphabet, 

 and yet Sir William Jones's mode of writing has gained no ground 

 in India, whatever may have been its fate elsewhere. What can have 

 been the reason for this ? Does not the fact itself afford irrefragable 

 evidence that there must be some inherent defect in the system that 

 induced its rejection, and led to others being preferred. There it was, 

 recommended by the Asiatic Society, composed of the principal civil 

 servants, and of all in the military, clerical, and medical professions, 

 who were entitled by knowledge of the subject, or by situation, to 

 take the lead in such a matter. There was this Society, periodically 

 putting forth its volumes, and all its principal members publishing their 

 works according to the orthography of the illustrious founder ; yet 

 no one out of the pale, and not all of those within it, could be brought 

 to spell names, in their correspondence, as the Society spelt them. For 

 fifty years this tree of Sir William Jones's planting has been stationary 

 or has grown like the aloe repulsive and disagreeable, living still, but 

 putting forth no branches and yielding no fruit. Who after this can 

 say that there must not be something in this system repugnant to the 

 ideas and preconceived notions of those whose language is English ? 

 The powers and pronunciations given to the different letters are ma- 

 nifestly not such as have been recognized and adopted as just and ap- 

 propriate by those who read and write that language. Another sys- 

 tem has gained ground in its stead, and to its prejudice, and this in spite 

 of the great names of Jones and Colebrooke and Wilson, whose ad- 

 herence to the antiquated style has prevented its sinking into absolute 

 disuse and oblivion. Let us inquire then what is this other system, 

 and what the claims it possesses to the preference of the unlearned. 



Towards the close of Lord Cornwalhs's government, Dr. John 

 Borthwick Gilchrist produced his Dictionary and Grammar of the 

 Hindoostanee language, and as matter of necessity, prefaced both by ex- 

 plaining the force of all the letters in use in that language, and the cor- 

 responding vowels and consonants of the Roman alphabet, by which 

 he proposed to express them. The difference between his system and 

 thatof Sir William Jones lies entirely in the vowels : the short unexpress- 

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