CCT _ — mar. 1858-59.] for the Indian characters, 269 



We have now gone over the entire ground, in so far as the pe- 

 culiarities of the purely Indian alphabets are concerned, and it is 

 my impression that we have not met with any insuperable difficul- 

 ty. If the change is impracticable, at all events the impracticabi- 

 lity does not appear to consist in the impossibility of adapting the 

 Roman characters to the Indian sounds. 



The following view of the whole of the proposed modifications 

 will show how few and easy they are, and how little trouble is in- 

 volved in the plan. 



Proposed Indo-R,oman Alphabet.* 

 Vowels. 



a, a ; i, i ; u, u ; e, e ; ai (or ei) ; o, 6 ; au. 

 Anusivara m (or n). Visarga h. 



Consonants. 



Gutturals, k, kh ; g, gh ; n. 

 Palatals, c, ch; j, jh ; n or n. 

 Linguals, t, th ; d, dh ; n. 



Dentals, t, th ; d, dh ; m 

 Labials, p, ph ; b, bh ; m, 

 Semi-vowels, y, r, 1, v. 

 Dravidian do, r, r, 1. 

 Sibilants, s, sh, s. 

 Aspirate, h. 



A very important advantage, as it appears to me, of the scheme 

 exhibited above, is its simplicity. If it should be modified on further 

 consideration, I trust it will only be for the purpose of making it 

 more simple still. An accent to distinguish the long vowels and 

 a dot variously placed for distinguishing peculiar consonants, can- 

 not cause perplexity, and ought to be made to suffice. There are 

 doubtless a few points of detail which require to be more fully 



* Note. — Should the English names of the Roman characters be in- 

 troduced, e. g. ay, bee, aitch, el, &c. ? By no means. The characters 

 themselves stand upon a different footing from the names which happen 

 to be given to them in England, The Indian modes of denominating 

 the letters are better than the English, 



Vol. xx. o. s. Vol. v. n. s. 



