1840.] from Bactrian and Indo- Scythian coins. 361 



Now we know, that the languages of Iran do not admit 

 the Indian compound sv, for which they adopt another, more 

 agreeable to the laws of their sounds. The junction of conso- 

 nants, originally substituted for sv, is hv, as also h is used for a 

 simple s. This hv, hardened in Zend, becomes kv or q, which 

 simple sound is substituted for the Indian compound sv. The 

 old Persian language, less hard in sound, softens the above 

 mentioned hv in such a way, as to lose the h in u, so nearly 

 related to v ; the junction of characters, which corresponds in 

 the arrow-headed writing to the Zend *\ , properly denotes there- 

 fore uv.* This alteration is foreign to the Indian Pracrit. 



According to my opinion, the k in the name, above mentioned, 

 represents, as the Zendic q does, the compound sv, which is in- 

 cluded in the Greek letters <nr. Sva might be expressed in 

 Greek by aova. But by supposing, that v was more hardly 

 pronounced, (as for example the 9V of Sanscrit indeed becomes 

 9p in Zend), we shall not find the orthography air for sv very 

 strange. And I shall not insist even upon maintaining, that 

 those kings were called Svalyrios and Svalirisos; but I use 

 only sv to explain, how k (equivalent to) <\ may represent sp; 

 This k is the third Iranian transformation of hv, in the process 

 of which h becomes hard, as in Zend, but entirely drops the 

 sound v, consequently sv in Sanscrit, hv, or q in Zend, uv in 

 ancient Persian, k in the language of the coins, not yet geogra- 

 phically defined, (as to the countries in which it prevailed.) 



But why then a double kind of pronunciation upon the same 

 coin ? If the name of the king was Kalirisos in the native 

 language, why was it not the same in Greek ? and how 

 could it be written Spalirisus in Greek, if it in fact did not 

 sound thus in the language of the country ? A third view is 

 still possible, which appears to settle the difficulty. The king, 

 not being a native, was probably called Spalirisus or Sualirisos 

 in his own language, but not in the language of the country, 

 whose inhabitants were under his sway. They changed the 

 name into Kalirisos, according to the system of their sounds, 

 while the coin- stampers, knowing the Greek language, had no 

 reason to call him otherwise than he did himself. 



* The old Persian arrow-headed inscriptions, p. 107. 



