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1834.") System of Oriental Orthography. 415 



rule 



aisle [pronunciation, 

 causa, Italian or Latin 

 " The natives of India are therefore already quite familar with the idea of dis- 

 tinguishing the modification of sound hy a corresponding modification of sign, and 

 ■when they see the same plan adopted in the anglified version of the alphabet, 

 they immediately recognize the propriety of it, and enter into the spirit of the 

 scheme. As the new orthography is mainly intended for the people of India, the 

 circumstance of its being entirely coincident with their preconceived feelings and 

 ideas must be allowed to be an advantage of no small importance. 



" It is hardly necessary to observe, that no kind of analogy exists between Dr. 

 Gilchrist's and the Indian Deva Nagavi alphabet. When an Indian reads Sir 

 William Jones' alphabet, he sees a long & immediately succeeding the short a ,• 

 a long i the short i, and a long ii the short %i, (the long vowel being in each case 

 distinguished by a mark as in the Sanscrit) which is just what his previous know- 

 ledge would lead him to expect ; but when becomes to Dr. Gilchrist's plan, he 

 finds a following it, and ee following i. What therefore would be his opinion of the 

 comparative merits of the two systems ? Would he not say, that one is in every 

 respect as complete as the alphabet of the gods (Deva Nagari), while the other is 

 an inexplicable mass of confusion. 



" Another advantage attending Sir William Jones' system is, that it is not only 

 analogous to, but is the very system itself which is used in expressing Latin and 

 all its derivations ; that is Italian, Spanish, French, &c. It is true that in Eng- 

 land we do not pronounce Latin in this way, but this is only because we have 

 barbarized it, and made it accord with our Saxon pronunciation. Even in 

 Scotland and Ireland, to say nothing of Continental Europe, they read Latin exactly 

 in the way in which it is now proposed to read Hindusth£ni. This entire coinci- 

 dence of the new Hindustani orthography with the orthography of the learned 

 language of the whole of Europe, and with that of most of its colloquial languages 

 is a point of great importance. Even in the present age its advantage will be felt 

 in so far as the learned all over Europe, and in most cases the vulgar also, will 

 by this means obtain direct access to our Indian Literature ; and what is still 

 more deserving of consideration, a foundation will be laid for the establishment in 

 due time of an uniform system of orthography throughout the world. This is an 

 object, which, however distant the prospect of accomplishing it may be, no man 

 who has the slightest regard for posterity, should ever lose sight of: — next to the 

 establishment of an universal language, that grand desideratum of the philosopher 

 and the philanthropist, the establishment of an universal system of orthography 

 will most tend to the production of unrestricted freedom of intercourse between 

 all the families of the human race ; and the one has also a direct tendency to 

 bring about the other. Now if Gilchrist's plan were to be generally maintained 

 in India, so far from having advanced a step towards this grand result, we should 

 make a decidedly retrograde movement, and the proceeding would be tantamount to 

 shutting the door to the possibility of an uniform system of writing and printing 

 being ever adopted in the eastern and western hemispheres. Gilchrist's plan is 

 utterly abhorrent from the Roman family of languages, and it does not even coincide 

 with the English, as will be shown hereafter. 



"Sir William Jones' plan has a simple character for every simple sound,while 

 in Dr. Gilchrist's simple sounds are in three instances expressed by double letters 



