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CEYLON BRANCH — ilOYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Nagari, which gives two additional letters unlike all others 

 for these so-called vowel sounds, is to be admired for so doing. 

 The Roman alphabet which represents the former (ri) by 

 two, and the latter ( h i) by three letters, is far more true and 

 philosophical. The new letters of the Nagari give no in- 

 formation at all as to the character and composition of the 

 peculiar sounds which they represent, while the combinations 

 ri and hi shew both. They shew that the former requires 

 two positions of the tongue, and the latter three, to accomplish 

 its utterance. They shew also what these positions are, and 

 what the order of their succession. 



It must here be remarked, however, that in the Singhalese, 

 a vowel sound frequently occurs which must be attended to 

 at the present time, though it will probably vanish, at least 

 in writing, when the people who speak Singhalese rise in 

 taste and intellect. I allude to that ugly guttural sound of 

 a of which t and % are the symbols, which is heard in the 

 bleating of a sheep, and in some measure also when a person 

 with an English accent utters in a melancholy manner, and 

 very lengthened, the word Mary. If it be thought desirable 

 to represent it in roman characters, it may be done by un- 

 derlining the letter a, a symbol adopted in Bengal to intimate 

 anomaly, and which does not interfere with its quantity, a 

 circumstance needful to be attended to, as this word, like 

 every other vowel-sound in Singhalese, may be either long 

 or short ; hence the unfitness of the symbol 33 hitherto gene- 

 rally used to represent it, as this gives universally the idea 

 of a long vowel or even dipthong. Using the acute accent 

 then, to indicate the long state of the vowel, a notation 

 strictly analogous to the oriental mode of doing the same, we 

 may represent to the eye the whole single vowel system by 

 these few and simple forms 



short i, e, a, a, o, u 



long 1, e, a, (\ } 6, u. 



