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



The first is pronounced in Arabic exactly like the 

 English ih in thing — but in India it has simply the force of 

 dental s, and but for its occurrence in a few words of Arabic 

 origin might be discarded altogether. As an anamolous letter, 

 it may be distinguished by s with a point above or 6*. 



The deep guttural breathing represented by ^ i s generally 

 rendered by h which as distinguished from the ordinary h 

 seems in all respects appropriate. 



The stronger guttural sound of £ common both to Arabs 

 and Persians, is universally rendered by kh with or without a 

 diacritical mark. Provision having been made for the aspira- 

 ted sound of k, it does not appear to us that any such distinc- 

 tion is required.* 



The Arabic and Persian J expresses the simplest sound 

 of z. The J which is also common to Arabia and Persia is 

 a very soft dental sound of the same letter. As an anomalous 

 letter it might be indicated by a supra linear point and the 

 infra linear sign would then be assignable with much pro- 

 priety to the cerebral form of the same sound in But it 

 is desirable to retain the same sign for the sister forms of 

 k and \£ and the cerebral sign of t being already pre-occupied 

 in the Devanagari alphabet, another expedient must be de- 

 vised. 



It is proposed to indicate J by z with a line below or 

 % (already adopted by Shakespear) leaving the anomalous 

 sign for t, and ^ as t and z. 



This is the less objectionable, because these two letters 

 do not properly fall within any of the established phonetic 

 classes of letters, being enunciated by rolling the inverted 



* Prof. Max Muller has proposed to represent these two sounds by A 

 with the soft and hard aspirates or *k and r h i but however well adapted for a 

 purely phonetic system they are unsuited to one proceeding on the rule of 

 strict transliteration. The missionaries of upper India likewise discussed the 

 plan of o jutting the h and expressing ^-hyk alone but rejected it as untenable. 



