240 On writing Oriental words [No. 10, new series 



find the old spelling Kandy transformed into " Kandi," whilst in 

 the same paper Bellary declines to become " Ballari." 



It is impossible for the servants of Government, or any body 

 else, to give the right spelling, even if assisted by ^perfect scheme 

 of transliteration, unless they know how the word is written in the 

 original, and it so happens that most of our Official terms, and 

 very many proper names of Pensioner, In'amdars&c. are Hindus- 

 tani or Persian ; languages which hardly any of our Officials 

 know how to read. For inst nice — the word commonly written 

 " Nuzzerana" (and I do not see that we can find an Knglish 

 equivalent). How few Officials, European or Native, could spell it 

 rightly even with a perfect scheme of transliteration set before 

 them, simply because they do not know how it is written in the 

 original. They would hardly guess ' Nazrana.' So with such a 

 name as " MeerZynool Abdeen." How is a person unacquainted 

 with the original vernacular spelling, to know that it is " Mir 

 Zainu-l-'-'Abidm"? 



In my humble opinion two preparatory steps should be taken 

 by Government before ordering a new mode of spelling, 1st, a 

 complete scheme should be set forth by authority. 2ndly. Lists of 

 words in most common use, such as Official terms, names of Per- 

 sons, Places, Months, Years, Tariff articles kc. should be prepared ; 

 written both in the original language, and in the authorised 

 Roman letter orthography. 



I submit that no complete scheme has yet been set forth. That 

 of the Madras Literary Society is good as far as it goes (with the 

 one or two exceptions I have pointed out), but it would not meet 

 many words of constant occurrence. 



It is still a question how the ' hamza' should be noted in such 

 words as an orchard, ^jjj fit. Should it be ' amra-f and 



' la-iq/ or aniraT and " la'-iq" ? 



For such a word as l^-wjIj^ J ( an offer) no rule is laid down as 

 to the y I should write it ' darkhwast.' So, as to the final h in 

 Hindustani words. There is no rule to show if two such words 

 as a mosque and x^j a writing, are both to end with k ' h" in 

 transliteration, or whether one is, and the other not. 



