1838.] Remarks on Indo-Chinese Languages. 59 



It may therefore fairly be a question how far the intelligent missionaries 

 at Sadiya and elsewhere, might he justified in endeavouring to anticipate 

 ki some measure the work of time. It will scarcely be disputed that a 

 translation of the Scriptures, (unless in very minute portions) for such 

 a tribe, for instance, as that of Champhung, speaking a dialect understood 

 only by thirty or forty families, would be most preposterous. Much may, 

 no doubt, be done to diminish these fractions of language, and the Babel 

 confusion and difficulty they occasion, by the judicious efforts of our 

 political Agents and Missionaries in the ultra-Gangetic and other regions. 

 Much prudence will indeed be required to avoid exciting the hostility 

 of national prejudices, and other impediments to universal improvement. 



In many cases, however, little difficulty would be experienced in con. 

 fining translations, &c. to a more general language, which would ultimately 

 supersede the more confined colloquial idioms. Thus, it is stated that 

 " the majority (of the Champhung families) can speak more or less of 

 Manipuri, or the languages of their more immediate neighbours." Again 

 that " dialects so nearly similar, as are those of the northern and central 

 Tangkhuls, are generally intelligible to the adult male population on 

 both sides ; while the women and children, who rarely leave their homes, 

 find much difficulty in making themselves (mutually) understood." In 

 these and similar cases, the way is plain ; to extend education in the com- 

 mon or nearly common language; then, as the want of intellectual and 

 especially of religious supply is felt, it will be sought in the language of 

 the printed hooks. 



III. Intimately connected with this point is that of the character to be 

 taught to a people having none of their own. It should seem good, as a 

 general principle, to employ, in such instances, the one used by the dominant 

 neighbouring nation, especially if the languages be of kindred origin ; for 

 in this case, that character will be the best adapted to the sounds of the 

 cognate dialect, and may be expected generally to give it a fitter and more 

 correct expression than would any foreign alphabet. 



The words in the " Comparison, &c." are given in the Roman character, 

 according to the modified system of Sir William Jones, to which the term 

 Romanizing system has been applied. The writer thinks " they furnish 

 abundant evidence that the Roman character is adequate to express every 

 sound of the human voice, and is well fitted to be the written representa- 

 tive of all languages." 



There is a fallacy here, into which most of the thorough-going advocates 

 of the Romanizing system have been betrayed ; it is that the modifications 

 applied, according to that system, to the Roman alphabet, are not equally 

 applicable to almost any other alphabet. Now, it is an obvious fact that 

 the Roman letters are, as applied to eastern languages, both redundant 

 and deficient. First, there are no letters corresponding to the ten aspirated 

 consonants 4t 51, &c. ; to the sibilants *t «'nid H ; to the liquids * and % ; to 

 the nasals 3> 41 4 ; t<> the long vowels vsrt ??, &c. Again, the letters c, f, q, 



