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



From these examples, it appears that the Canarese sub- 

 stitute a hard I, the Telugus generally a hard d and sometimes 

 an I which is occasionally softened away as in the words for 

 wax, below, fruit, &c. — Some times eliding it altogether as in 

 the word gptp/ss/reO muzhankdl, "the knee" which becomes 

 •^j-*-3T°ex> mokdlu. 



So completely has the letter disappeared from Telugu, 

 that the Vadagala Vaishnavas of Telingana who are obliged 

 to repeat daily, portions of the sacred verses composed by the 

 twelve Azhwars, which they commit to memory from versions 

 written in Telugu characters, finding no letter to represent l£> 

 have adopted the expedient of restoring it bodily in its 

 original Tamil shape. 



Notwithstanding the high authorities of Messrs. Cald- 

 well and Pope, I am unable to concur in their view of con- 

 sidering the letter to be an r. In this, I am supported by 

 the Native grammarians. The author of the Sabda manjari, 

 the Tamil version of Paninis phonetic grammar, distinctly 

 affirms the identity of and ®ir * which he illustrates by the 

 following examples : — 



sLQAjsg! uzhunda becomes sl^/f^ ulundu, a kind of pulse. 

 @l£3ld knzhagam. @m&ih Iculagam, a verse. 



Cc#/TLB(i> sdzham. Q&rrmLa Q#nu.Lh chdhim and 



sddam, a kind of grain. 



So far the balance of authority preponderates in favor 

 of resorting to / which should then be distinguished by some 

 diacritical mark. 



There is however sufficient evidence to snow that the 

 letter is an original Turanian sound which has gradually 



* Lp,<ofr,QiuiTi[Qu<g, i< There is no difference between Lp and <ar." It is 

 remarkable that the original dictum of Panini from which this is adopted 



runs thus, ^c£^1"^M"^* £ ' between ^ aod tliere is 110 difference." Thus 

 we have d, zh and I replacing each other in the Southern dialects. 



