212 THE LANGUAGES OP THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 
William Jones’ system for the expression of Indian, Arabian 
and Persian words. He had a better recognized right to die* 
tate in arbitrary matters than any single philologist, although 
superior to him in knowledge, is likely to have again ; bis 
system is also a good one, and was not recommended to others 
until long experience had satisfied him of its convenience ; it 
has also been extensively followed by English orientalists 
since. 
1 hese considerations induced us, at the commencement of 
our labours, to recommend an adherence to it on the part of 
our contributors, but a subsequent more enlarged acquaint¬ 
ance with the vocalic characters of the languages of the Ar¬ 
chipelago, has satisfied us that Sir W. Jones himself would 
not have extended it unmodified to them. Its literal applica¬ 
tion to languages having a different vocalism from those which 
were the subject of his studies, violates the very principles 
upon which it was constructed. These principles, if sought in 
an examination of his scheme of orthography and the examples 
which lie gives of its application, rather than in his own dis¬ 
sertation, will be found to involve almost all the fundamental 
rules which we have suggested. The specimen which he gives 
of Sir C. Wilkin’s method, perfect as he considers it of its 
kind, contrasts so strongly with his own simpler orthography 
of the same passage, that we cannot fancy his approving of 
the use of the latter for a language like the Malay, which it 
arrays in lines of bristling accents even more formidable to the 
eye than the flat prosodial marks of Sir C. Wilkins. This 
will be made to appear still more improbable by a direct com¬ 
parison of the Sanskrit alphabet with the Bugis, which has 
evidently been composed or remodelled by Hindus to whom 
the system of the former was familiar. In the Hevanagari 
every consonant ends in an inherent vocalic sound, which is 
consequently the most common vowel in the Sanskrit. This 
vowel Sir W. Jones represents by an unaccented a, thus fuell¬ 
ing one of the most important of our rules, the very one too 
•which renders his orthography so much simpler than Sir C. 
Wilkins’. In the Bugis also every consonant has an inherent 
vowel, but it is the sound which Sir W. Jones indicates by 
a and a. Ibis is the case too with the Batta alphabet; and 
in the other principal languages, and, we may safely assume, 
in nearly all the others, the a occurs most frequently in the 
tone which Sir W. Jones indicates by a and k. A reference 
to the example which we have subjoined of the application of 
his system to the Archipelagic languages will make this more 
apparent. 
