436 General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. [No. 125. 



without their introducing an error, the reading of the words is not cram- 

 med with a mass of supplementary d'h and other characters ; lastly, 

 it approaches much nearer to that which only attempts to render the 

 simple sound, without pretending to imitate all its shades, so that it is 

 easy to identify words, written by a scholar, with those which a tra- 

 veller, according to the mere pronunciation, has written down. The 

 great mischief at present is the variety of systems, founded on this 

 method ; for we cannot expect, that the public shall become accustomed 

 to this modification of the alphabet, unless the signs be generally 

 adopted. 



2. The Orientals do not always pronounce according to the rules of 

 orthography, and this difference between the manner of writing and 

 of pronouncing especially arises from euphonic laws. They, for instance, 

 write al-Raschid, while pronouncing ar-Raschid. Mr. Weijers pro- 

 poses to distinguish a character, subject to such a change, by putting 

 it in italics ; but this expedient displeases the eye, without indicating 

 to the reader the real pronunciation. This problem is evidently indis- 

 soluble, and we have the choice between the sound and the orthography. 

 The custom of the European nations with regard to this has established 

 the excellent principle of submitting ourselves to orthography ; thus 

 is written in all European languages " Shakespeare, Bordeaux" etc., 

 though the sound to be derived from this combination of letters, be 

 much different from the real pronunciation. To follow the ortho- 

 graphy is the only means not to efface the etymology of a word, and to 

 preserve a chance of unity in renderings ; yet there always remains 

 a great confusion in the representation of short vowels, so differently 

 pronounced in different words of the same language, that it becomes 

 difficult to express them in all instances by the same vowel of our 

 alphabet. 



3. One and the same letter is differently pronounced by every Orien- 

 tal nation. The Turks, for example, generally substitute for the short A 

 of the Arabs and Persians a short E ; the Musulmans of India in 

 many instances pronounce an E long, when the Persians pronounce 

 a long I ; in Persia a long A is substituted for a long Ou.* The Ara- 



* My readers will remember to give the sound of these vowels as in 

 French. f£i 





