250 
R. B. Shaw— A Grammar of the Language 
[No. 3, 
are very chary of wasting more “ nuqtas” than they can help, and 
make but seldom a difference in writing (and sometimes in speaking) be¬ 
tween <-> and and between ^ and The sound given to the final 
letter of the Perfect Participle is distinctly that of p, as may moreover be 
discovered from the fact that it hardens the dentals which follow it (in 
affixes), e. g., bolu(p)-ti , and not bolu(b)-di, as would be the case accor¬ 
ding to the Pules of Phonetic Variation (which see) if the final consonant 
were soft. 
Again, it will be seen that I have written ait-Ti , 7cet-ni, whereas in 
Turki manuscripts these words are often written ait-m, Tcet-m. This latter 
s]Delling is due to a recollection of the origin of the formation (viz., the 
presence of the auxiliary irdi or idi in a shortened form), but the pronun¬ 
ciation is in fact that of a double t ; as in English the word written as 
“ cupboard” is ]:>ronounced “ cubboard.” The Turki writers, however, very 
frequently recognise this pronunciation by merely putting a “ tashdid” over 
the t instead of preserving the d in the second place (o for <A). 
CHAPTER I. 
THE LETTERS. 
The letters employed in writing by the inhabitants of Eastern Turkis- 
tan are the same as those in general use among Muhammadan nations, 
viz., those of the Arabic alphabet. It is needless to describe their system 
of writing at any length since it is known to all Oriental scholars ; only 
the peculiarities of pronunciation, form, or use, will be noted here, 
f A, a in the beginning of words is often pronounced very broad (like aw) ; 
as in at = horse (pronounced awt or ot). 
In other parts of a word, if preceding several consonants together, 
it is also often pronounced broad. 
Ex. : bashqa = other (pronounced boshqa). 
In other cases, however, it resembles the a in father. 
The short pronunciation of a is that of our words ordinary, oriental, 
America, <fcc. 
