506 



On the Origin of the Hindvi Language. 



[No. 5, 



w 



that point, therefore, that 1 wish to discuss the question here. I have 

 not the least objection to the adoption of a uniform system for the 

 reproduction of foreign words in European languages. On the con- 

 trary I think, for Englishmen in India, such a system is most urgently 

 needed, as much for the sake of convenience and precision — " to avoid 

 the chaos of caprice" — as for the researches of philologists • and I 

 have always advocated it to the best of my humble powers. 



Philologically considered, sounds are all that are of importance in a 

 living language, and therefore it is perfectly immaterial what are the 

 shapes of the symbols which indicate them ; and if it can be shewn 

 that one set offers advantages in writing and printing as well as 

 in precision, over another, considerations of antiquity or national 

 vanity ought not to stand in the way of improvement. But as the 

 case stands, while the Eoman alphabet is without question highly 

 defective both in its arrangement and in the range of sounds which 

 can be expressed by it, the Sanskrita has been acknowledged by 

 competent scholars to be the most perfect of all known systems of 

 letters, and the proposition therefore amounts to the substitution of 

 an avowedly inferior in place of a superior alphabet. It is true 

 that the Nagari letters are angular, and in cursive writing must yield 

 the palm of superiority to the Eoman, but facility in writing is not 

 the only nor the most important requirement of a good alphabet. 

 Besides, the Eoman, notwithstanding its superiority, is in this respect 

 far from being perfect. It is utterly unsuited for the purpose of re- 

 porting public speeches, and various systems of short-hand writing have 

 had to be devised for that work. For ordinary rapid writing, such as 

 taking down depositions, the Bengali and the Persian have been found 

 in our Courts quite as good for the Bengali and the Urdu languages 

 as the Eoman for the English, and the proposed change therefore is 

 uncalled for, particularly when we bear in mind that the Eoman let- 

 ters cannot be used in writing the oriental languages without a mul- 

 titude of dots and dashes and accents and commas, which completely 

 neutralise its cursive superiority. In the standard alphabet of Lepsius, 

 there are no less than 189 letters, of which the first a appears under nine 

 disguises, produced by dots and dashes and hooks and spurs above, 

 below and by the sides. The d in the same way has nine, e thirteen, i 

 nine and u twelve disguises. To such an extent has this process of 

 accentuation been carried with regard to the other letters that we 



