1864.] On the Origin of the Hindvi Language. 505 



of the Mahomedan rulers of India, and partly to the inconvenience and 

 trouble on their part of learning a foreign alphabet, the bulk of the 

 literature of the Urdu is now written in the Persian character, which 

 cannot now be changed, and there are certain Arabic and Persian letters, 

 such as (3 £ ? J * which have not their counterparts in the Nagari ; 

 but these facts cannot, I contend, invalidate the right of a language 

 to the use of its own native alphabet. In importing foreign words, 

 the rule has hitherto been to assimilate them to the language into 

 which they are imported, and not to invent a new alphabet for their 

 sake ; the Greeks did not add to the number of their letters when they 

 met with new letters, such as j, in the language of their neighbours, 

 but represented them by their nearest equivalents in their own alphabet, 

 and the same course should be, and in fact has hitherto been, adopted 

 in writing the Hindvi. 



But whether it be proper to write the Hindvi in the Nagari or the 

 Persian characters, certain it is, on the arguments so ably set forth by 

 Capt. Lees, that the Roman alphabet is by no means adapted fairly to 

 represent its system of sounds. 



The question is one of great importance. It has already engaged the 

 attention of some of the most distinguished scholars of Europe,^ 

 and it would be presumptuous on my part to dispose it off at the 

 fag end of an article on a different subject. But as a native who 

 feels deeply interested in the prospect of the vernaculars of his coun- 

 try, I cannot allow this opportunity to pass, without observing that 

 the question has been hitherto discussed mainly, if not entirely, from 

 an European stand-point. The benefits which European scholars, offi- 

 cials and missionaries are to derive by substituting the Boman cha- 

 racters in their writing and printing of Indian dialects, are what have 

 been most elaborately discussed, but little consideration has been 

 shewn as to the advantage which the natives are to derive by accept- 

 ing the Boman as a substitute for their national alphabet. It is from 



* It is worthy of note that Sir William Jones, Gilchrist, Wilson and some 

 others whose names are intimately associated with schemes of Bomanisino-, were 

 not advocates for converting all native writing into the Roman character for 

 natives, but for supplying a uniform plan for representing foreign words in 

 European languages for the use of European scholars. Dr. Max Muiler's system 

 is also avowedly intended for Europeans. It is called the " Missionary Alpha- 

 bet," and Christian Missionaries in foreign parts are the principal persons who 

 are expected to benefit by it. Even Lepsius looks to Missionaries for his 

 principal supporters. 



3 T 



