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



with much propriety be adopted. Its sound is exactly that 

 of the letters ng in sing, long, &o, and these letters, therefore, 

 seem to present the fittest substitute. But Sir W. Jones 

 objects to the addition of the g, on the ground that it might 

 create confusion, and often suggest the idea of a different 

 syllable. This difficulty might be overcome by tying the 

 two letters with an infra-linear line, but such complicated 

 signs are objectionable in themselves, and are, moreover, pro- 

 scribed by our 3rd rule. The line below the n alone, may 

 therefore be retained as the characteristic of this sound. Sir 

 W. Jones, viewing it as identical with anuswara, employs the 

 same mark for both, but in doing so, transgresses the funda- 

 mental rule which requires exact transliteration. 



3 and 4. The palatal and cerebral ens should, by analogy, 

 follow the rule already in such cases provided, the former 

 being represented by an accent above, the latter by a point 

 below, the line. But as the sound of the first is exactly 

 identical with that of the Spanish n and Portugueze nh* and 

 provision has to be made for another more purely palatal n 

 in the Tamil m y it seems advisable to adopt the Spanish n, 

 which presents a familiar representation of the exact power 

 of the Sanscrit letter, and thus to leave the palatal symbol 

 available for the Tamil n (m.) 



5. The last, or simple n, needs no distinguishing sign. 

 ' The Sanscrit alphabet concludes with a character ex- 

 pressing a sound compounded of k, s, and h, which it has been 

 usual to represent by these three letters in sequence. Others 

 have employed the Roman x for the same purpose, and con- 

 sidering that this letter is also a compound of h and s, and is 

 not otherwise required, the majority of the Sub- Committee 

 recommend that it should be appropriated to that sound.-|- 



* u Containing a composition of n and y as in the English word onion, 

 il and Italian agnello which written phonetically would be on-yon, and anycllo." — 

 Sir W. Jones. 



t Mr. Norman dissents. 



