204 Report on Writing Indian Words [No. 8, New Series, 



From these examples, it appears that the Canarese sub- 

 stitute a hard I, the Telugus generally a hard d and sometimes 

 an I which is occasionally softened away as in the words for 

 vjax, below, fruit, &c. — Some times eliding it altogether as in 

 the word (LpLpiKi&rreb muzhankcd, "the knee" which becomes 

 "Scn-§-°oo mdkdlu. 



So completely has the letter disappeared from Telugu, 

 that the Vadagala Vaishnavas of Telingana who are obliged 

 to repeat daily, portions of the sacred verses composed by the 

 twelve Azhwars, which they commit to memory from versions 

 written in Telugu characters, finding no letter to represent ld 

 have adopted the expedient of restoring it bodily in its 

 original Tamil shape. 



Notwithstanding the high authorities of Messrs. Cald- 

 well and Pope, I am unable to concur in their view of con- 

 sidering the letter to be an r. In this, I am supported by 

 the Native grammarians. The author of the Sabda manjari, 

 the Tamil version of Paninis phonetic grammar, distinctly 

 affirms the identity of lq and ®rr * which he illustrates by the 

 following examples : — 



&-(Lpi5£} uzhunda becomes ^-<^3^^ idundu, a kind of pulse. 

 @L£>i5Lb hizhagam. @&r<&th kid^agam, a verse. 



Q<tFiTL£ii> sdzham. GV/rsynii Q&nL_Lh chdhim and 



sodam, a kind of grain. 



So far the balance of authority preponderates in favor 

 of resorting to / which should then be distinguished by some 

 diacritical mark. 



There is however sufficient evidence to show that the 

 letter is an original Turanian sound which has gradually 



* tp,©rr , Qiun nGufS, << There is no difference between lo and srr." It is 

 remarkable that the original dictum of Panini from which this is adopted 



runs thus, ^^^t"^^^'" 1361 ^ 611 ^' and h tncre is 110 difference." Thus 

 we have d, zh and / replacing each other in the Southern dialects. 



