48 
G. A. Grierson — Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. [No. 1, 
no mention of tlie Indian cerebralized four dotted letters of that charac- 
ter. Among the Indian alphabets described may be mentioned, Bangali, 
Tamil, Grantham, Telngu, Burmese (called Pegu), Marathi, Devanagari 
(three varieties, borrowed from Bayer), and Singhalese. There is also 
a comparative table of fifty common words, in twelve different Indian 
languages, including Sanskrit, Canarese, Konliani, and Gujrati. 
The versions of the Lord’s Prayer are collected from widely differ- 
ent sources. Some are very fair and legible. Others are grossly incorrect. 
The Bangali translation, which is taken from Wilkins’ sample given 
in Chamberlayne’s Sylloge * is almost worth reprinting as a curiosity 
for the number of seemingly impossible mistakes it contains. In fact 
it is quite illegible and unintelligible to every native of Bengal to 
whom I have shown it. It has evidently been made by some person 
who got a copy of the alphabet and a general description of the language 
and then 1 2 greatly dared.’ Even his knowledge of the alphabet is in- 
complete. For instance, he knew that the form for a non-initial e is C, 
but did not know that it must come before the consonant to which it 
is affixed. Hence for de, instead of writing cir, he wrote trC. Other 
similarly gross blunders occur in the writing, 2 and as for the language, 
when deciphered, it is not intelligible. Only here and there can a 
Bangali word (usually wrongly spelled) be recognized. The incorrectness 
of this version is very curious, for under the head of alphabets, the 
Bangali character is given with very considerable accuracy. Most 
of the other translations are fair enough. Amongst them I may men- 
tion, Hindustani by Schultz, (Persian character ; Commences, asmdn po 
(misprint for par ) ralitd, so hamamrd bap), ‘ Brachmanic ’ (the Latin 
version transliterated into Devanagari), Sanskrit (Devanagari. Com- 
mences urddhva-lolca-sthito mat-pitah), ‘Akar Nagarika ex Caschia ’ 
(language, Bhojpuri; character, Devanagari), Gujrati, Goanese, Tamil 
(five versions), Telugu, Sanskrit (Telugu characters), Marathi, Cana- 
rese, Sanskrit (Grantham characters), Marathi (current hand), Singha- 
lese, and Burmese (Pegu). Altogether the Sprachmeister is a fairly 
correct and interesting compilation. 
It held the field as an authority on Oriental languages till 1771 
when there appeared, from the press of the College de Propaganda 
Fide, a Latin pamphlet entitled ‘ Alphabetum I Brammhanicum | seu | 
Indostanum I Universitatis Kasi |’. As its name implies it is a des- 
cription of the Devanagari alphabet, and is the first book printed in 
1 No wonder La Croze lamented over Wilkins’ editing. 
2 For instance the initial form of vowels is sometimes used instead of the non- 
initial form, and one consonant is used for another. Thus lappa, father, is spelled 
Idinmaa 
