1834.] System of Oriental Orthogruphy. 417 



etood than mo, which is another Gilchristian hieroglyphic ; and even the short a, 

 the stumbling-block of our Gilchristian friends, is quite as familiar to us as their 

 favourite w, and any body who will take the trouble to look in the English Dic- 

 tionary, will see it used at the commencement of 500 words like above, about, 

 abound, and so forth." 



We have not space to continue our extract, nor does the remainder of the 

 author's reasoning bear upon the precise question at issue. He however mentions 

 one strong fact in support of his object ; namely, that the Italian orthography has 

 been adopted by the American missionaries for the language of the Sandwich Is- 

 lands. To this we may add, that the same as far as regards the vowels is uniformly 

 upheld by Professor Rask of Copenhagen, the celebrated philologist, who hasdevot- 

 ed years of study to the fixing of accurate Roman equivalents for the Zend, Arabic, 

 Sanscrit, Armenian, and other alphabets. We recommend his essay " de Pleno 

 Systemate Decern Sibiluutium in Linguis Montanis, &c." to the serious attention 

 of all those engaged in similar objects ; the following caution applies to the 

 case of the Bengali aud other dialects derived from the Sanscrit stock, in which it 

 has been opposed to the uniform system, that the inherent short vowel having the 

 sound of o could not be represented by a, 



" Altera cautela haud parvi momenti est, ubi lingua qusedam antiqua quodam- 

 modo adhuc vivit, nimirum ne pronunciatione hodierna, si a litera discedat, pro 

 genuina assumta, scripturam antiquae linguae ad earn exprimendam depravemus 

 vocumque etymologias turbemus." 



The above remark of course equally opposes any reform of the spelling of aa 

 established language like the English or the French to suit the modern pronun- 

 ciation. His concluding paragraph will afford encouragement to those who 

 calculate upon the eventual substitution of the Roman characters for those of 

 India, although he is far from anticipating any such effect even for the limited 

 country, Armenia, (Christian though it be) to whose language his essay refers. 



" His observatis, haud ita difficile est scripturam Europaeam cuivis linguae pere- 

 grins accommodare, atque ita quidem ut ipsa gens, si per commercium Europaeo- 

 rum tale systema existere resciverit, immensum ambitum literature gentium 

 Europaeorum intellexerit, fructum, oblectationem, gloriam inde redundantes con- 

 sideraverit, haud reluctanter id suum facere velit, saltern viri docti non solum 

 voces singulas accurate et sine ulla confusione citare, sed quodlibet scriptura gen- 

 tis ita trans-scribere etfacili negotio typis exprimere ; immo trans-scribendo com- 

 moda quaedam pensa in studio suo hand parum levari poterunt." Commentatio 

 SfC Aut. E. Rask, Hafnia>, 1832. 



Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 



We observe that this Society has come to the determination of publishing its 

 future Transactions in the form of a Journal in octavo, to appear once in three 

 months, price 6«. We cannot but feel that this resolution strengthens greatly 

 the arguments in favor of the plan adopted and pursued now for nearly six 

 years by Captain Herbert and ourselves, for whatever can be urged in support 

 of a quarterly journal — the early appearance of papers, the cheap and convenient 

 form for circulation, &c. will apply more forcibly to a monthly periodical. This 



is the only form in which the lucubrations of the French Asiatic Society a Society 



yielding to none in the erudition and activity of its members — have hitherto ap- 

 peared. 



The cover of the present number contains the prospectus of the new journal. 



2 H 



