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



I would place the mark above, because in conformity with 

 native usage and because, in manuscript, the circle would often 

 become a dot and thus create confusion. 



But might not both anusvara and visarga be expressed 

 by their original characters ♦ and * which would comport 

 very well with Konian type and be not at all unseemly ? 



Further, I would adopt for the palatal n, which Wilson 

 represents by n, the Spanish n ; for the guttural n the double 

 letters ng or n ; for the cerebral n an n and for the Tamil 

 palatal n an k. 



Wilson has no distinction between the Nagari 3J" 



and the Hindi j and Tamil p all of which he expresses by 

 r or ri and ri. 



The sounds are altogether different. I would write 



J * 



p \ p® t v t x 



The letter is usually written Jcsha and I am free to 

 confess these letters represent the sound perfectly. But many 

 Orientalists particularly those of France use an x. This prac- 

 tice is in accordance with axiom 4. 



Tamil Alphabet. 



The only letters that call for notice in Tamil, are : — 

 err 



P 

 esr 



£P 



The first, which is also common to the other southern 

 dialects, is an original Sanscrit sound, and is found in the old 

 alphabets of that language. It is a hard which is appro- 

 priately marked by a point below or I 



The next letter, if only representing the prolonged sound 

 of r as uttered in perfection by the Todas of the Nilagiris, 

 would easily be distinguished by a diacritical mark. But in 



