64 Remarks on the romanization of the Indian languages. [Jan* 



sentential quotations, the Romanized system, originally fixed by that emi- 

 nent scholar Sir W. Jones, and now but very slightly modified indeed, 

 is immeasurably more accurate, complete and philosophical than any 

 other that has been put forth by English Philologists. All who take an 

 interest in oriental literature must heartily rejoice in the fresh impulse 

 that has been latterly given to it ; an impulse which bids fair, ultimately 

 and at no distant period, to put out of use, for ever, those other, at once 

 crude and tasteless, systems, equally unphilosophical to the mind and unin- 

 viting to the eye, which have been applied by some learned but injudicious 

 scholars. This alone were result enough, amply to reward those active 

 and philanthropic individuals who have stirred up the present question. 

 Would they but rest here, they would be justly esteemed benefactors; be- 

 yond this their labours are either mischievous, or absurd, or both at once ; 

 of which, besides the philological arguments above given, may be adduced 

 the fact, that while occupied with more than quixotic hopes, excitement, 

 and confinement of view, in this vain attempt at more than an Herculean 

 task, they are dividing the warmest friends of native education and general 

 improvement: they do positively retard the period of the regeneration 

 of India; a consummation that can only be brought about by united exer- 

 tions ; by " a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether," of that 

 chain of instrumental truth which is to pull down for ever the monstrous 

 edifice of the superstitions of ages. 



Note. — Did we not consider this question as long since set at rest, we 

 might easily second our author with other arguments against the adapta- 

 bility of the Roman alphabet to take the place of the oriental alphabets either 

 of Arabia or India ; although it is no doubt possible to contrive that it shall, 

 by modifications and restrictions, represent any given number of sounds. 

 The real merit of the European alphabet, for writing and for printing con- 

 sists in its fewness of symbols : — multiply these by diacritical marks, and 

 it is put on a par with Eastern alphabets in one source of perplexity, while 

 it is behind them greatly in the distinction of letters inter se. Any one 

 engaged in printing knows the exceeding difficulty of setting up and of 

 sorting letters of the same name merely affected by a minute dot ; and 

 hardly a page of romanized writing can be produced in print properly ac- 

 centuated. Sir W. Jones's system of romanization even with the Trevelyan 

 modifications, is still far from being perfect, however sufficient, as we have 

 always maintained, for Europeans and sentential quotations. Some of the 

 continental systems, as that of Chezy, founded on the principle of repre- 

 senting single letters always by single letters, has a great advantage over it 

 in the transcription of poetry in particular, where it seems unprosodial to give 

 a short quantity to a vowel preceding such double letters as bh, dh, chh, 

 while mh f lb, require a long one. The hard palatial is, we think, better 

 represented by the c alone, that is, the Italian c; especially as both the 

 hard and soft sound of this letter are discarded in the present romanized 

 scale. What can look more uncouth than achchhd (by Chezy ucc'dj un- 

 less, indeed, it be the more ancient continental orthography utchtchhd, 

 which is qualified to express nothing short of a typographed sneeze ! — Ed. 



