july — sept. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. 238 



mentary books, without much loss of time, and certainly with much 

 less expenditure of time, than by studying in the common ways 

 with such books as are already provided ; and Fourthly, that if 

 there is no alternative, we must of course begin by learning the Na- 

 tive character, but still if we follow out the other parts of the sys- 

 tem here proposed, it will be much less a hindrance to him than to 

 those who adopt the usual means, because he will seldom have to 

 read any words but those which he knows, and then the strange cha- 

 racter is comparatively a small hindrance. Of course, in applying 

 the English character, the value of each letter must first be denned, 

 as is now fully recognized as an essential principle, and which 

 is always acted upon in the Bengal books. The letter, A, for 

 instance, has in English seven distinct sounds as in the words, 

 hat, mast, all, many, America, Yacht, make. In all the East In- 

 dian languages, the letter which represents the sound of our A, in 

 Mast or long A, somewhat modified, represents the sound of our 

 A in amuse, or short A, and therefore this letter, with and without 

 a long mark over it, should represent these two sounds and be used 

 whenever the corresponding characters are used or implied in the 

 foreign word. With respect to the other sounds of it, some are un- 

 known in certain languages, as for instance the sounds of that let- 

 ter in the words hat and Yacht are unknown in any Asiatic lan- 

 guage. No Native Indians can pronounce the words hat and hot, 

 but are under the necessity of substituting some other vocal sound 

 for them, till they have learnt the true pronunciation. The other 

 sounds of it will of course be represented by those English vowels 

 which more properly represent them, only taking care, to use the 

 same letter to represent the long and short sound, distinguishing 

 the former by a long mark over it. Thus the sound of E in Hen, 

 and ,Fete which are properly the same sound pronounced long or 

 short, are represented in the Indian languages by modifications of 

 the same letter and should therefore both be represented by E. 

 With respect to the sounds which are either unknown in English, 

 or not represented by any one English letter, they should either be 

 represented by a combination of English letters, if possible, or if 

 not by a letter or letters, distinguished by a mark ; as for instance 

 one or more dots under them. There are, for instance, four let- 



