On the Orthography of Asiatick Words in Roman Letters

Every man; who has occasion to compose tracts on Asiatick Literature, or to translate from the Asiatick Languages, must always find it convenient, and sometimes necessary, to express Arabian, Indian, and Persian words, or sentences, in the characters generally used among Europeans; and almost every writer in those circumstances has a method of notation peculiar to himself: but none has yet appeared in the form of a complete system; so that each original sound may be rendered invariably by one appropriated symbol, conformably to the natural order of articulation, and with a due regard to the primitive power of the Roman alphabet, which modern Europe has in general adopted. A want of attention to this object has occasioned great confusion in History and Geography. The ancient Greeks, who made a voluntary sacrifice of truth to the delicacy of their ears, appear to have altered by design almost all the oriental names, which they introduced into their elegant, but romantick, Histories; and even their more modern Geographers, who were too vain, perhaps, of their own language to learn any other, have so strangely disguised the proper appellations of countries, cities, and rivers in Asia, that, without the guidance of the sagacious and indefatigable M. D'Anville, it would have been as troublesome to follow Alexander through the Panjàb on the Ptolemaick map of Agathodæmon, as actually to travel over the same country in its present state of rudeness and disorder. They had an unwarrantable habit of moulding foreign names to a Grecian form, and giving them a resemblance to some derivative word in their own tongue: thus, they changed the Gogra into Agoranis, or a river of the assembly, Uchah into Oxydracæ, or sharpsighted, and Renas into Aornos, or a rock inaccessible to birds; whence their poets, who delighted in wonders, embellished their works with new images, distinguishing regions and fortresses by properties, which existed only in imagination. If we have less liveliness of fancy than the Ancients, we have more accuracy, more love of truth, and, perhaps, more solidity of judgement; and, if our works shall afford less delight to those, in respect of whom we shall be Ancients, it may be said without presumption, that we shall give them more correct information on the History and Geography of this eastern world; since no man can perfectly describe a country, who is unacquainted with the language of it. The learned and entertaining work of M. D'Herbelot, which professes to interpret and elucidate the names of persons and places, and the titles of books, abounds also in citations from the best writers of Arabia and Persia; yet, though his orthography will be found less defective than that of other writers on similar subjects, without excepting the illustrious Prince Kantemir, still it requires more than a moderate knowledge of Persian, Arabick, and Turkish, to comprehend all the passages quoted by him in European characters; one instance of which I cannot forbear giving. In the account of Ibnu Zaidùn, a celebrated Andalusian poet, the first couplet of an elegy in Arabick is praised for its elegance, and expressed thus in Roman letters:

“The time, adds the translator, will soon come, when you will deliver us from all our cares: the remedy is assured, provided we have a little patience.” When Dr. Hunt of Oxford, whom I am bound to name with gratitude and veneration, together with two or three others, attempted at my request to write the same distich in Arabian characters, they all wrote it differently, and all, in my present opinion, erroneously. I was then a very young student, and could not easily have procured Ibnu Zaidùn's works, which are, no doubt, preserved in the Bodley library, but which have not since fallen in my way. This admired couplet, therefore, I have never seen in the original characters, and confess myself at a loss to render them with certainty. Both verses are written by D'Herbelot without attention to the grammatical points, that is, in a form which no learned Arab would give them in recitation; but, although the French version be palpably erroneous, it is by no means easy to correct the errour. If álásà or a remedy be the true reading, the negative particle must be absurd, since taássunà signifies we are patient, and not we despair, but, if álásay or affliction be the proper word, some obscurity must arise from the verb, with which it agrees. On the whole I guess, that the distich should thus be written:

“When our bosoms impart their secrets to you, anguish would almost fix our doom, if we were not mutually to console ourselves.”

The principal verbs may have a future sense, and the last word may admit of a different interpretation. Dr. Hunt, I remember, had found in Giggeius the word dhemáyer, which he conceived to be in the original. After all, the rhyme seems imperfect, and the measure irregular. Now I ask, whether such perplexities could have arisen, if D'Herbelot or his Editor had formed a regular system of expressing Arabick in Roman characters, and had apprized his readers of it in his introductory dissertation?

If a further proof be required, that such a system will be useful to the learned and essential to the student, let me remark, that a learner of Persian, who should read in our best histories the life of Sultan Azim, and wish to write his name in Arabick letters, might express it thirty-nine different ways, and be wrong at last: the word should be written Aâzem with three points on the first consonant.

There are two general modes of exhibiting Asiatick words in our own letters: they are founded on principles nearly opposite, but each of them has its advantages, and each has been recommended by respectable authorities. The first professes to regard chiefly the pronunciation of the words intended to be expresses; and this method, as far as it can be pursued, is unquestionably useful: but new sounds are very inadequately presented to a sense not formed to receive them; and the reader must in the end be left to pronounce many letters and syllables precariously; besides, that by this mode of orthography all grammatical analogy is destroyed, simple sounds are represented by double characters, vowels of one denomination stand for those of another; and possibly with all our labour we perpetuate a provincial or inelegant pronunciation: all these objections may be made to the usual way of writing Kummerbund, in which neither the letters nor the true sound of them are preserved, while Kemerbend, or Cemerbend, as an ancient Briton would write it, clearly exhibits both the original characters and the Persian pronunciation of them. To set this point in a strong light, we need only suppose, that the French had adopted a system of letters wholly different from ours, and of which we had no types in our printing-houses: let us conceive an Englishman acquainted with their language to be pleased with Malherbe's well-known imitation of Horace, and desirous of quoting it in some piece of criticism. He would read thus:

Would he then express these eight verses, in Roman characters, exactly as the French themselves in fact express them, or would he decorate his composition with a passage more resembling the dialect of savages, than that of a polished nation? His pronunciation, good or bad, would, perhaps, be thus represented:

The second system of Asiatick Orthography consists in scrupulously rendering letter for letter, without any particular care to preserve the pronunciation; and, as long as this mode proceeds by unvaried rules, it seems clearly entitled to preference.

For the first method of writing Persian words the warmest advocate, among my acquaintance, was the late Major Davy, a Member of our Society, and a man of parts, whom the world lost prematurely at a time, when he was meditating a literary retirement, and hoping to pass the remainder of his life in domestick happiness, and in the cultivation of his very useful talents. He valued himself particularly on his pronunciation of the Persian language, and on his new way of exhibiting it in our characters, which he instructed the learned and amiable Editor of his Institutes of Timour at Oxford to retain with minute attention throughout his work. Where he had acquired his refined articulation of the Persian, I never was informed; but it is evident, that he spells most proper names in a manner, which a native of Persia, who could read our letters, would be unable to comprehend. For instance: that the capital of Azarbáíjàn is now called Tabríz, I know from the mouth of a person born in that city, as well as from other Iranians; and that it was so called sixteen hundred years ago, we all know from the Geography of Ptolemy; yet Major Davy always wrote it Tubburaze, and insisted that it should thus be pronounced. Whether the natives of Semerkand, or Samarkand, who probably speak the dialect of Soghd with a Turanian pronunciation, call their birthplace, as Davy spelled it, Summurkund, I have yet to learn; but I cannot believe it, and am convinced, that the former mode of writing the word expresses both the letters and the sound of them better than any other combination of characters. His method, therefore, has every defect; since it renders neither the original elements of words, nor the sounds represented by them in Persia, where alone we must seek for genuine Persian, as for French in France, and for Italian in Italy.

The second method has found two able supporters in Mr. Halhed and Mr. Wilkins; to the first of whom the publick is indebted for a perspicuous and ample grammar of the Bengal language, and to the second for more advantages in Indian literature than Europe, or India, can ever sufficiently acknowledge.

Mr. Halhed, having justly remarked, ‘that the two greatest defects in the orthography of any language are the application of the same letter to several different sounds, and of different letters to the same sound,’ truly pronounces them both to be ‘so common in English, that he was exceedingly embarrassed in the choice of letters to express the sound of the Bengal vowels, and was at last by no means satisfied with his own selection.’ If any thing dissatisfies me, in his clear and accurate system, it is the use of double letters for the long vowels (which might however be justified) and the frequent intermixture of Italick with Roman letters in the same word; which both in writing and printing must be very inconvenient: perhaps it may be added, that his diphthongs are not expressed analogously to the sounds, of which they are composed.

The system of Mr. Wilkins has been equally well considered, and Mr. Halhed himself has indeed adopted it in his preface to the Compilation of Hindu Laws: it principally consists of double letters to signify our third and fifth vowels, and of the common prosodial marks to ascertain their brevity or their length; but those marks are so generally appropriated to books of prosody, that they never fail to convey an idea of metre; nor, if either prosodial sign were adopted, would both be necessary; since the omission of a long mark would evidently denote the shortness of the unmarked vowel, or conversely. On the whole, I cannot but approve this notation for Sanscrit words, yet require something more universally expressive of Asiatick letters: as it is perfect, however, in its kind, and will appear in the works of its learned inventor, I shall annex, among the examples, four distichs from the Bhágawat expressed both in his method and mine 11Plate IV.: a translation of them will be produced on another occasion; but, in order to render this tract as complete as possible, a fuller specimen of Sanscrit will be subjoined with the original printed in the characters of Bengal, into which the Bráhmans of that province transpose all their books, few of them being able to read the Dévanágarì letters: so far has their indolence prevailed over their piety!

Let me now proceed, not prescribing rules for others, but explaining those which I have prescribed for myself, to unfold my own system, the convenience of which has been proved by careful observation and long experience.

It would be superfluous to discourse on the organs of speech, which have been a thousand times dissected, and as often described by musicians or anatomists; and the several powers of which every man may perceive either by the touch or by sight, if he will attentively observe another person pronouncing the different classes of letters, or pronounce them himself distinctly before a mirror: but a short analysis of articulate sounds may be proper to introduce an examination of every separate symbol.

All things abound with errour, as the old searchers for truth remarked with despondence; but it is really deplorable, that our first step from total ignorance should be into gross inaccuracy, and that we should begin our education in England with learning to read the five vowels, two of which, as we are taught to pronounce them, are clearly diphthongs. There are, indeed, five simple vocal sounds in our language, as in that of Rome; which occur in the words an innocent bull, though not precisely in their natural order, for we have retained the true arrangement of the letters, while we capriciously disarrange them in pronunciation; so that our eyes are satisfied, and our ears disappointed. The primary elements of articulation are the soft and hard breathings, the spiritus lenis and spiritus asper of the Latin Grammarians. If the lips be opened ever so little, the breath suffered gently to pass through them, and the feeblest utterance attempted, a sound is formed of so simple a nature, that, when lengthened, it continues nearly the same, except that, by the least acuteness in the voice it becomes a cry, and is probably the first sound uttered by infants; but if, while this element is articulated, the breath be forced with an effort through the lips, we form an aspirate more or less harsh in proportion to the force exerted. When, in pronouncing the simple vowel, we open our lips wider, we express a sound completely articulated, which most nations have agreed to place the first in their symbolical systems: by opening them wider still with the corners of them a little drawn back, we give birth to the second of the Roman vowels, and by a large aperture, with a farther inflexion of the lips and a higher elevation of the tongue, we utter the third of them. By pursing up our lips in the least degree, we convert the simple element into another sound of the same nature with the first vowel, and easily confounded with it in a broad pronunciation: when this new sound is lengthened, it approaches very nearly to the fourth vowel, which we form by a bolder and stronger rotundity of the mouth; a farther contraction of it produces the fifth vowel, which in its elongation almost closes the lips, a small passage only being left for the breath. These are all short vowels; and, if an Italian were to read the words an innocent bull, he would give the sound of each corresponding long vowel, as in the monosyllables of his own language, sà, sì, sò, sè, sù. Between these ten vowels are numberless gradations, and nice inflexions, which use only can teach; and, by the composition of them all, might be formed an hundred diphthongs, and a thousand triphthongs; many of which are found in Italian, and were probably articulated by the Greeks; but we have only occasion, in this tract, for two diphthongs, which are compounded of the first vowel with the third, and with the fifth, and should be expressed by their constituent letters: as to those vocal compounds which begin with the third and fifth short vowels, they are generally and not inconveniently rendered by distinct characters, which are improperly ranged among the consonants. The tongue, which assists in forming some of the vowels, is the principal instrument in articulating two liquid sounds, which have something of a vocal nature; one, by striking the roots of the upper teeth, while the breath passes gently through the lips, another, by an inflexion upwards with a tremulous motion; and these two liquids coalesce with such ease, that a mixed letter, used in some languages, may be formed by the first of them followed by the second: when the breath is obstructed by the pressure of the tongue, and forced between the teeth on each side of it, a liquid is formed peculiar to the British dialect of the Celtick.

We may now consider in the same order, beginning with the root of the tongue and ending with the perfect close of the lips, those less musical sounds, which require the aid of a vowel, or at least of the simple breathing, to be fully articulated; and it may here be premised, that the harsh breathing distinctly pronounced after each of these consonants, as they are named by grammarians, constitutes its proper aspirate.

By the assistance of the tongue and the palate are produced two congenial sounds, differing only as hard and soft; and these two may be formed still deeper in the throat, so as to imitate, with a long vowel after them, the voice of a raven; but if, while they are uttered, the breath be harshly protruded, two analogous articulations are heard, the second of which seems to characterize the pronunciation of the Arabs; while the nasal sound, very common among the Persians and Indians, may be considered as the soft palatine with part of the breath passing through the nose; which organ would by itself rather produce a vocal sound, common also in Arabia, and not unlike the cry of a young antelope and some other quadrupeds.

Next come different classes of dentals, and among the first of them should be placed the sibilants, which most nations express by an indented figure: each of the dental sounds is hard or soft, sharp or obtuse, and, by thrusting the tip of the tongue between the teeth, we form two sounds exceedingly common in Arabick and English, but changed into lisping sibilants by the Persians and French, while they on the other hand have a sound unknown to the Arabs, and uncommon in our language, though it occurs in some words by the composition of the hard sibilant with our last vowel pronounced as a diphthong. The liquid nasal follows these, being formed by the tongue and roots of the teeth, with a little assistance from the other organ; and we must particularly remember, when we attend to the pronunciation of Indian dialects, that most sounds of this class are varied in a singular manner by turning the tongue upwards, and almost bending it back towards the palate, so as to exclude them nearly from the order, but not from the analogy, of dentals.

The labials form the last series, most of which are pronounced by the appulse of the lips on each other or on the teeth, and one of them by their perfect close: the letters, by which they are denoted, represent in most alphabets the curvature of one lip or of both; and a natural character for all articulate sounds might easily be agreed on, if nations would agree on any thing generally beneficial, by delineating the several organs of speech in the act of articulation, and selecting from each a distinct and elegant outline. A perfect language would be that, in which every idea, capable of entering the human mind, might be neatly and emphatically expressed by one specifick word, simple if the idea were simple, complex, if complex; and on the same principle a perfect system of letters ought to contain one specifick symbol for every sound used in pronouncing the language to which they belonged: in this respect the old Persian or Zend approaches to perfection; but the Arabian alphabet, which all Mohammedan nations have inconsiderately adopted, appears to me so complete for the purpose of writing Arabick, that not a letter could be added or taken away without manifest inconvenience, and the same may indubitably be said of the Dévanágarì system; which, as it is more naturally arranged than any other, shall here be the standard of my particular observations on Asiatick letters. Our English alphabet and orthography are disgracefully and almost ridiculously imperfect; and it would be impossible to express either Indian, Persian, or Arabian words in Roman characters, as we are absurdly taught to pronounce them; but a mixture of new characters would be inconvenient, and by the help of the diacritical marks used by the French, with a few of those adopted in our own treatises on fluxions, we may apply our present alphabet so happily to the notation of all Asiatick languages, as to equal the Dévanágarì itself in precision and clearness, and so regularly that any one, who knew the original letters, might rapidly and unerringly transpose into them all the proper names, appellatives, or cited passages, occurring in tracts of Asiatick literature.

अ

This is the simplest element of articulation, or first vocal sound, concerning which enough has been said: the word America begins and ends with it; and its proper symbol therefore is A; though it may be often very conveniently expressed by E, for reasons, which I shall presently offer. In our own anomalous language we commonly mark this elementary sound by our fifth vowel, but sometimes express it by a strange variety both of vowels and diphthongs; as in the phrase, a mother bird flutters over her young; an irregularity, which no regard to the derivation of words or to blind custom can in any degree justify. The Nágarì letter is called Acàr, but is pronounced in Bengal like our fourth short vowel, and in the west of India, like our first: in all the dialects properly Indian it is considered as inherent in every consonant; and is placed last in the system of the Tibetians, because the letters, which include it, are first explained in their schools. If our double consonants were invariably connected, as in Sanscrit, it would certainly be the better way to omit the simple element, except when it begins a word. This letter answers to the fat-hhah, or open sound of the Arabs, and, in some few words, to the Zeber of the Persians, or an acute accent placed above the letter; but this Arabian mark, which was supplied in the Pahlavi by a distinct character, is more frequently pronounced at Isfahan either like our first or our second short vowel, as in chashm and ferzend, and the distinction seems to depend, in general, on the nature of the consonant, which follows it. Two of our letters, therefore, are necessary for the complete notation of the acàr and zeber; and thus we may be able occasionally to avoid ridiculous or offensive equivocations in writing Oriental words, and to preserve the true pronunciation of the Persians, which differs as widely from that of the Muslimans in India, as the language of our Court at St. James's differs from that of the rusticks in the Gentle Shepherd.

आ

When the first vowel, as the Persians pronounce it in the word bakht, is doubled or prolonged as in bákht, it has the sound of the second Nágarì vowel, and of the first Arabick letter, that is, of our long vowel in cast; but the Arabs deride the Persians for their broad pronunciation of this letter, which in Iràn has always the sound of our vowel in call, and is often so prolated, as to resemble the fourth and even the fifth of our long vowels. Its natural mark would be the short A doubled; but an acute accent in the middle of words, or a grave at the end of them, will be equally clear, and conformable to the practice of polished nations on the continent of Europe. The very broad sound of the Arabian letter, which they call extended, and which the Persians extend yet more, as in the word ásân, may aptly enough be represented by the prosodial sign, since it is constantly long; whereas the mark hamzah as constantly shortens the letter, and gives it the sound of the point above, or below, it; as in the words ósûl and Islàm: the changes of this letter may perplex the learner, but his perplexity will soon vanish, as he advances. In writing Asiatick names, we frequently confound the broad à with its correspondent short vowel, which we improperly express by an O; thus we write Cossim for Kásim in defiance of analogy and correctness. Our vowel in fond occurs but seldom, if ever, in Arabian, Indian, or Persian words: it is placed, nevertheless, in the general system with the short prosodial mark, and stands at the head of the vowels, because it is in truth only a variation of the simple breathing.

इ

Our third vowel, correctly pronounced, appears next in the Nágarì system; for our second short vowel has no place in it. This vocal sound is represented in Arabick by an acute accent under the letter; which at Mecca has almost invariably the same pronunciation; but, since, in the Zend, a character like the Greek E-psilon represents both our second and third short vowels, the Persians often pronounce zìr like zeber, calling this country Hend, and the natives of it Hendùs: nevertheless it will be proper to denote the Sanscrit icàr, and the Arabian casr by one unaltered symbol; as in the words Indra and Imám.

ई

The third vowel produced or lengthened is, for the reason before suggested, best marked by an accent either acute or grave, as in Italian:

It was once my practice to represent this long vowel by two marks, as in the words Lebeid and Deiwàn, to denote the point in Arabick as well as the letter above it; but my present opinion is, that Lebìd and Díwàn are more conformable to analogy, and to the Italian orthography, which of all European systems approaches nearest to perfection.

उ

This is our fifth vowel; for our fourth short one is, like our second, rejected from the pure pronunciation of the Sanscrit in the west of India and at Bánáras, though the Bengalese retain it in the first Nágarì letter, which they call ocàr: to the notation of this sound, our vowel in full and the Persian in gul should be constantly appropriated, since it is a simple articulation, and cannot without impropriety be represented by a double letter. It answers to hu-psilon, and, like that, is often confounded with iota: thus mushc has the sound of mishc among the modern Persians, as Numpha was pronounced Nympha by the Romans. The damm of the Arabs is, however, frequently sounded, especially in Persia, like our short O in memory, and the choice of two marks for a variable sound is not improper in itself, and will sometimes be found very convenient.

ऊ

The same lengthened, and properly expressed by an accent, as in the word virtù: it is a very long vowel in Persian, so as nearly to treble the quantity of its correspondent short one; and this, indeed, may be observed of all the long vowels in the genuine Isfaháni pronunciation; but the letter váù is often redundant, so as not to alter the sound of the short vowel preceding it; as in khósh and khód: it may, nevertheless, be right to express that letter by an accent.

ऋ

A vocal sound peculiar to the Sanscrit language: it is formed by a gentle vibration of the tongue preceding our third vowel pronounced very short, and may be well expressed by the prosodial mark, as in Rĭshi, a Saint. When it is connected with a consonant, as in Crĭshna, no part of it is used but the curve at the bottom. We have a similar sound in the word merrily, the second syllable of which is much shorter than the first syllable of riches.

ॠ

The same complex sound considerably lengthened; and, therefore, distinguishable by the prosodial sign of a long vowel.

ऌ

In Bengal, where the ra is often sunk in the pronunciation of compound syllables, this letter expresses both syllables of our word lily; but its genuine sound, I believe, is lrĭ, a short triphthong peculiar to the Sanscrit language.

ॡ

Whatever be the true pronunciation of the former symbol, this is only an elongation of it, and may, therefore, be distinguished by the metrical sign of a long vowel.

ए

Our second long vowel, best represented, like the others, by an accent, as in Véda, the sacred book of the Hindus, which is a derivative from the Sanscrit root vida, to know. The notation, which I recommend, will have this important advantage, that learned foreigners in Europe will in general pronounce the oriental words, expressed by it, with as much correctness and facility as our own nation.

ऐ

This is a diphthong composed of our first and third vowels, and expressible, therefore, by them, as in the word Vaidya, derived from Véda, and meaning a man of the medical cast: in Bengal it is pronounced as the Greek diphthong in poimèn, a shepherd, was probably sounded in ancient Greece. The Arabs and the English articulate this composition exactly alike, though we are pleased to express it by a simple letter, which, on the continent of Europe, has its genuine sound. In the mouth of an Italian the constituent vowels in the words mai and miei do not perfectly coalesce, and, at the close of a verse, they are separated; but a Frenchman and a Persian would pronounce them nearly like the preceding long vowel; as in the word Mai, which at Paris means our month of the same name, and at Isfahan signifies wine: the Persian word, indeed, might with great propriety be written mei, as the diphthong seems rather to be composed of our second and third short vowels; a composition very common in Italian poetry.

ओ

Though a coalition of acàr and ucàr forms this sound in Sanscrit, as in the mystical word óm, yet it is in fact a simple articulation, and the fourth of our long vowels.

औ

Here, indeed, we meet with a proper diphthong, compounded of our first and fifth vowels; and in Persia the constituent sounds are not perfectly united; as in the word Firdausi, which an Italian would pronounce exactly like a native of Isfahan. Perhaps, in Arabick words, it may be proper to represent by an accent the letters yà and wáw, which, preceded by the open vowel, form the respective diphthongs in Zohaìr and Jaúheri; but the omission of this accent would occasion little inconvenience.

अं

This is no vowel, but an abbreviation, at the end of a syllable, of the nasal consonants: thus the Portuguese write Siaõ for Siam with a nasal termination; and the accurate M. D'Anville expresses great unwillingness to write Siam for the country, and Siamois for the people of it, yet acknowledges his fear of innovating, ‘notwithstanding his attachment to the original and proper denominations of countries and places.’ It appears to me, that the addition of a distinct letter ga would be an improper and inconvenient mode of expressing the nasal sound, and that we cannot do better than adopt the Indian method of distinguishing it, in Sanscrit, Chinese, and Persian words, by a point above the letter; as in Siṅha, a lion, Cáṅhì, the name of an illustrious Emperor, and Sámáṅ, a household.

अः

This too is an abbreviation or substitute, at the close of a syllable, for the strong aspirate, and may be distinguished in the middle of a word by a hyphen, as in duh-c'ha, pain, though it seems often to resemble the Arabian hà, which gives only a more forcible sound to the vowel, which precedes it, as in hhicmah, science. It is well known, that, when such Arabick words are used in construction, the final aspirate of the first noun has the sound of tà; but, as the letter remains unaltered, it should, I think, be preserved in our characters, and expressed either by two points above it, as in Arabick, or by an accentual mark; since if we write Zubdahu'lmulc, or, the Flower of the Realm, with a comma to denote the suppression of the álif, every learner will know, that the first word should be pronounced Zubdat. The hà is often omitted by us, when we write Persian in English letters, but ought invariably to be inserted, as in Sháhnámah; since the aspiration is very perceptibly sounded in the true pronunciation of dergáh, rúbáh, and other similar words. The Sanscrit character before us has the singular property of being interchangeable, by certain rules, both with ra, and sa; in the same manner as the Sylva of the Romans was formed from the Æolick word hylva, and as arbos was used in old Latin for arbor.

क

We come now to the first proper consonant of the Indian system, in which a series of letters, formed in the throat near the root of the tongue, properly takes the lead. This letter has the sound of our k and c in the words king and cannibal; but there will be great convenience in expressing it uniformly by the second of those marks, whatever be the vowel following it. The Arabs, and perhaps all nations descended from Sem, have a remarkable letter sounded near the palate with a hard pressure, not unlike the cawing of a raven, as in the word Kásim; and for this particular sound the redundance of our own alphabet supplies us with an useful symbol: the common people in Hhejàz and Egypt confound it, indeed, with the first letter of Gabr, and the Persians only add to that letter the hard palatine sound of the Arabian kàf; but, if we distinguish it invariably by k, we shall find the utility of appropriating our c to the notation of the Indian letter now before us. The third letter of the Roman alphabet was probably articulated like the kappa of the Greeks; and we may fairly suppose, that Cicero and Cithara were pronounced alike at Rome and at Athens: the Welsh apply this letter uniformly to the same sound, as in cae and cefn; and a little practice will render such words as citàb and cinnara familiar to our eyes.

ख

We hear much of aspirated letters; but the only proper aspirates (those I mean, in which a strong breathing is distinctly heard after the consonants) are to be found in the languages of India; unless the word cachexy, which our medical writers have borrowed from the Greek, be thought an exception to the rule: this aspiration may be distinguished by a comma, as the letter before us is expressed in the word c'hanitra, a spade. The Arabian, Persian, and Tuscan aspirate, which is formed by a harsh protrusion of the breath, while the consonant is roughly articulated near the root of the tongue, may be written as in the word makhzen, a treasury.

ग

Whatever vowel follow this letter, it should constantly be expressed as in the words gul, a flower, and gil, clay; and we may observe, as before, that a little use will reconcile us to this deviation from our irregular system. The Germans, whose pronunciation appears to be more consistent than our own, would scarce understand the Latin name of their own country, if an Englishman were to pronounce it, as he was taught at school.

घ

The proper aspirate of the last letter, as in the word Rag'huvansa: the Persians and Arabs pronounce their ghain with a bur in the throat, and a tremulous motion of the tongue, which gives it a sound resembling that of r, as it is pronounced in Northumberland; but it is in truth a compound guttural, though frequently expressed by a simple letter, as in Gaza, which should be written Ghazzah, a city of Palestine, and in gazelle, as the French naturalists call the ghazàl, or antelope, of the Arabians. The Persian word mígh, a cloud, is még'ha in Sanscrit; as mísh, a sheep, appears also to be derived from mésha, by that change of the long vowels, which generally distinguishes the Iranian from the Indian pronunciation.

ङ

This is the nasal palatine, which I have already proposed to denote by a point above the letter n; since the addition of a g would create confusion, and often suggest the idea of a different syllable. Thus ends the first series of Nágarì letters, consisting of the hard and soft guttural, each attended by its proper aspirate, and followed by a nasal of the same class; which elegant arrangement is continued, as far as possible, through the Sanscrit system, and seems conformable to the beautiful analogy of nature.

च

The next is a series of compound letters, as most grammarians consider them, though some hold them to be simple sounds articulated near the palate. The first of them has no distinct sign in our own alphabet, but is expressed, as in the word China, by two letters, which are certainly not its component principles: it might, perhaps, be more properly denoted, as it is in the great work of M. D'Herbelot, by tsh; but the inconvenience of retaining our own symbol will be less than that of introducing a new combination, or inventing, after the example of Dr. Franklin, a new character. China is a Sanscrit word; and it will be convenient so to write it, though I feel an inclination to express it otherwise.

छ

The same composition with a strong breathing articulated after it. Harsh as it may seem, we cannot, if we continue the former symbol, avoid expressing this sound, as in the word ch'handa, metre.

ज

This too seems to have been considered by the Hindus as a simple palatine, but appears in truth to be the complex expression of dzh: perhaps the same letter may, by a small difference of articulation, partake of two different sounds. This at least we may observe, that the letter under consideration is confounded, as a simple sound, with ya, and, as a compound, with za, one of its constituents: thus the yásmìn of Arabia is by us called jasmin, while the same man is Giorgi at Rome and Zorzi at Venice; or, (to give an example of both in a single word) yug, or junction, at Bánáres, is jug in Bengal, and was pronounced zug, or, in the nominative, zugon at Athens. We should, however, invariably express the letter before us by ja.

The Arabian letters d́hàl, d́àd, and dhà are all pronounced in Persia like za, with a sort of lisp from an attempt to give them their genuine sound: they may be well expressed as in fluxionary characters, by a series of points above them, ż, z̈, z⃛.

झ

The preceding letter aspirated, as in the word Jhasha, a fish.

ञ

This is the second nasal composed of the former and the letter ya. As the Italian word agnello and our onion contain a composition of n and y, they should regularly be written anyello and onyon; and the Indian sound differs only in the greater nasality of the first letter, which may be distinguished, as before, by a point. A very useful Sanscrit root, signifying to know, begins with the letter ja followed by this compound nasal, and should be written jṅyà; whence jṅyána, knowledge; but this harsh combination is in Bengal softened into gyà: it is expressed by a distinct character, which stands last in the plate annexed22Plate II..

ट

In the curious work entitled Toh́fahu'l Hind, or The Present of India, this is the fourth series of Sanscrit letters; but in general it has the third rank, more agreeably, I think, to the analogy of the system. This class is pronounced with an inflexion of the tongue towards the roof of the mouth, which gives an obtuse sound to the consonant, and may be distinguished by an accent above it. The first is the Indian t́a, as in the word cot́ara, a rotten tree, and is commonly expressed in Persian writings by four points, but would be better marked by the Arabian t́à, which it very nearly resembles.

ठ

The same with a strong breathing after it, as in Vaicunt́'ha, or unwearied, an epithet of Vishnu.

ड

A remarkable letter, which the Muslimans call the Indian dàl; and express also by four points over it; but it should, by analogy to the others, be distinguished by an accentual mark as in the word dańd́a, punishment. When the tongue is inverted with a slight vibratory motion, this letter has a mixture of the ra, with which it is often, but incorrectly, confounded; as in the common word ber for bed́a, great. It resembles the Arabian d́ád.

ढ

The preceding letter aspirated, as in D'hácà, improperly pronounced Dacca. In the same manner may be written the Arabian d́há, but without the comma, since its aspirate is less distinctly heard than in the Indian sound.

ण

This is the nasal of the third series, and formed by a similar inversion of the tongue: in Sanscrit words it usually follows the letters ra and sha, (as in Bráhmeńa, derived from Brahmań, the Supreme Being; Vishńu, a name of his preserving power); or precedes the other letters of the third class.

त

Here begins the fourth series, on which we have little more to remark. The first letter of this class is the common ta, or hard dental, if it may not rather be considered as a lingual.

थ

Its aspirate, which ought to be written with a comma, as in the word Aswatt'ha, the Indian fig-tree, lest it be confounded by our countrymen with the Arabian sound in thurayyà, the Pleiads, which is precisely the English aspiration in think; a sound, which the Persians and French cannot easily articulate: in Persian it should be expressed by s with a point above it.

द

The soft dental in Dévatà, or Deity.

ध

The same aspirated as in D'herma, justice, virtue, or piety. We must also distinguish this letter by a comma from the Arabian in dhahab, gold; a sound of difficult articulation in France and Persia, which we write thus very improperly, instead of retaining the genuine Anglosaxon letter, or expressing it, as we might with great convenience, dhus.

न

The simple nasal, sounded by the teeth with a little assistance from the nostrils, but not so much as in many French and Persian words. Both this nasal and the former occur in the name Náráyeńa, or dwelling in water.

प

Next come the labials in the same order; and first the hard labial pa, formed by a strong compression of the lips; which so ill suits the configuration of an Arabian mouth, that it cannot be articulated by an Arab without much effort.

फ

The proper aspirate of pa, as in the word shepherd, but often pronounced like our fa, as in fela, instead of p'hela, fruit. In truth the fa is a distinct letter; and our pha, which is English is redundant, should be appropriated to the notation of this Indian labial.

ब

The soft labial in Budd'ha, wise, and the second letter in most alphabets used by Europeans; which begin with a vowel, a labial, a palatine, and a lingual: it ought ever to be distinguished in Nágarì by a transverse bar, though the copyists often omit this useful distinction.

भ

The Indian aspirate of the preceding letter, as in the word bháshà, or a spoken dialect. No comma is necessary in this notation, since the sound of bha cannot be confounded with any in our own language.

म

This is the last nasal, as in Menu, one of the first created beings according to the Indians: it is formed by closing the lips entirely, whilst the breath passes gently through the nose; and here ends the regular arrangement of the Nágarì letters. Another series might have been added, namely, sa, sha, za, zha, which are in the same proportion as ta, tha, da, dha, and the rest; but the two last sounds are not used in Sanscrit.

य

Then follows a set of letters approaching to the nature of vowels: the first of them seems in truth to be no more than our third short vowel beginning a diphthong, and may, therefore, be thought a superfluous character: since this union, however, produces a kind of consonant articulated near the palate, it is ranked by many among the consonants, and often confounded with ja: hence Yamunà, a sacred river in India, called also the Daughter of the Sun, is written Jomanes by the Greeks, and Jumnà, less properly, by the English.

र

The two liquids na and ma, one of which is a lingual and the other a labial, are kept apart, in order to preserve the analogy of the system; and the other two are introduced between the two semivowels: the first of these is ra, as in Raˊma, the conqueror of Sílàn.

ल

The second is la, in Lańca, another name of that island both in Tibut, and in India. A defect in the organs of the common Bengalese often causes a confusion between these two liquids, and even the sound of na is frequently substituted for the letter before us.

व

When this character corresponds, as it sometimes does in Sanscrit, with our wa, it is in fact our fifth short vowel preceding another in forming a diphthong, and might easily be spared in our system of letters; but, when it has the sound of va, it is a labial formed by striking the lower lip against the upper teeth, and might thus be arranged in a series of proportionals, pa, fa, ba, va. It cannot easily be pronounced in this manner by the inhabitants of Bengal and some other provinces, who confound it with ba, from which it ought carefully to be distinguished; since we cannot conceive, that in so perfect a system as the Sanscrit, there could ever have been two symbols for the same sound. In fact the Montes Parveti of our ancient Geographers were so named from Parveta, not Parbeta, a mountain. The wáw of the Arabs is always a vowel, either separate or coalescing with another in the form of a diphthong; but in Persian words it is a consonant, and pronounced like our va, though with rather less force.

श

Then follow three sibilants, the first of which is often, very inaccurately, confounded with the second, and even with the third: it belongs to that class of consonants, which, in the notation here proposed, are expressed by acute accents above them to denote an inversion of the tongue towards the palate, whence this letter is called in India the palatine sa. It occurs in a great number of words, and should be written as in paláśa, the name of a sacred tree with a very brilliant flower. In the same manner may be noted the śàd of the Arabs and Hebrews, which last it resembles in shape, and probably resembled in sound; except that in Caśmír and the provinces bordering on Persia it is hardly distinguishable from the following letter.

ष

The second is improperly written sha in our English system, and cha, still more erroneously, in that of the French; but the form generally known may be retained, to avoid the inconvenience of too great a change even from wrong to right. This letter, of which sa and ha are not the component parts, is formed so far back in the head, that the Indians call it a cerebral: either it was not articulated by the Greeks, or they chose to express it by their Xi; since of the Persian word Ardashìr they have formed Artaxerxes.

स

The dental sa, which resembles the Hebrew letter of the same sound, and, like that, is often mistaken by ignorant copyists for the ma.

ह

The strong breathing ha, but rather misplaced in the Nágarì system; since it is the second element of articulate sounds: the very hard breathing of the Arabs may be well expressed by doubling the mark of aspiration, as in Muhhammed, or by an accent above it in the manner of the long vowels, as in Ah́med.

क्ष

The Indian system of letters closes with a compound of ca and sha, as in the word paricshà, ordeal: it is analogous to our x, a superfluous character, of no use, that I know of, except in algebra. The Bengalese give it the sound of cya, or of our k in such words as kind and sky; but we may conclude, that the other pronunciation is very ancient, since the old Persians appear to have borrowed their word Racshah from the Racsha, or demon of the Hindus, which is written with the letter before us. The Greeks rendered this letter by their Khi, changing Dacshin, or the south, into Dakhin.

All the sounds used in Sanscrit, Arabick, Persian, and Hindì, are arranged systematically in the table prefixed to this dissertation33Plate I.; and the singular letter of the Arabs, which they call âin, is placed immediately before the consonants. It might have been classed, as the modern Jews pronounce it, among the strong nasals of the Indians; but, in Arabia and Persia, it has a very different sound, of which no verbal description can give an idea, and may not improperly be called a nasál vowel: it is uniformly distinguished by a circumflex either above a short vowel or over the letter preceding a long one, as îlm, learning, âálim, learned.

Agreeably to the preceding analysis of letters, if I were to adopt a new mode of English orthography, I should write Addison's description of the angel in the following manner, distinguishing the simple breathing, or first element, which we cannot invariably omit, by a perpendicular line above our first or second vowel:

This mode of writing poetry would be the touchstone of bad rhymes, which the eye as well as the ear would instantly detect; as in the first couplet of this description, and even in the last, according to the common pronunciation of the word perform. I close this paper with specimens of oriental writing, not as fixed standards of orthography, which no individual has a right to settle, but as examples of the method, which I recommend; and, in order to relieve the dryness of the subject, I annex translations of all but the first specimen, which I reserve for another occasion.

I.

Four Distichs from the Srˋi bhaˊgawat 44See Plate IV. The Letters are in Plate II..

Mr. Wilkins's Orthography.

This wonderful passage I should express in the following manner:

II.

Moˊha Mudgara.

The title of this fine piece properly signifies The Mallet of Delusion or Folly, but may be translated A Remedy for Distraction of Mind: it is composed in regular anapæstick verses according to the strictest rules of Greek prosody, but in the rhymed couplets, two of which here form a ślóca.

A verbal Translation.

1. Restrain, deluded mortal, thy thirst of acquiring wealth; excite an aversion from it in thy body, understanding, and inclination: with the riches, which thou acquirest by thy own actions, with these gratify thy soul.

2. Who is thy wife; who thy son; how extremely wonderful is even this world; whose creature thou also art; whence thou camest—meditate on this, O brother, and again on this.

3. Make no boast of opulence, attendants, youth; all these time snatches away in the twinkling of an eye: checking all this illusion like Máyà, set thy heart on the foot of Brahme, speedily gaining knowledge of Him.

4. As a drop of water moves tremulous on the lotos-leaf, thus is human life inexpressibly slippery: the company of the virtuous endures here but for a moment; that is our ship in passing the ocean of the world.

5. The body is tottering; the head, grey; the mouth, toothless: the delicate staff trembles in the hand, which holds it: still the flaggon of covetousness remains unemptied.

6. How soon are we born! how soon dead! how long lying in the mother's womb! How great is the prevalence of vice in this world! Wherefore, O man, hast thou complacency here below?

7. Day and night, evening and morning, winter and spring depart and return: time sports, life passes on; yet the wind of expectation continues unrestrained.

8. To dwell under the mansion of the high Gods at the foot of a tree, to have the ground for a couch, and a hide for vesture; to renounce all extrinsick enjoyments,—whom doth not such devotion fill with delight?

9. Place not thy affections too strongly on foe or friend, on a son or a kinsman, in war or in peace: be thou even-minded towards all, if thou desirest speedily to attain the nature of Vishnu.

10. Eight original mountains, and seven seas, Brahme, Indra, the Sun, and Rudra, these are permanent: not thou, not I, not this or that people; wherefore then should anxiety be raised in our minds?

11. In thee, in me, in every other being is Vishnu; foolishly art thou offended with me, not bearing my approach: see every soul in thy own soul; in all places lay aside a notion of diversity.

12. The boy so long delights in his play; the youth so long pursues his damsel; the old man so long broods over uneasiness; that no one meditates on the Supreme Being.

13. This is the instruction of learners delivered in twelve distinct stanzas: what more can be done with such, as this work fills not with devotion?

III.

The following elegy, which is chosen as a specimen of Arabick 55Plate V. and Plate III., was composed by a learned Philosopher and Scholar, Miˊr Muhammed Husain, before his journey to Haidarábàd with Richard Johnson, Esq.

The Translation.

1. Never, oh! never shall I forget the fair one, who came to my tent with timid circumspection:

2. Sleep sat heavy on her eye-lids, and her heart fluttered with fear.

3. She had marked the dragons of her tribe, (the sentinels) and had dismissed all dread of danger from them:

4. She had laid aside the rings, which used to grace her ankles; lest the sound of them should expose her to calamity:

5. She deplored the darkness of the way, which hid from her the morning-star.

6. It was a night, when the eye-lashes of the moon were tinged with the black powder (Alcohol) of the gloom;

7. A night, in which thou mightest have seen the clouds, like camels, eagerly gazing on the stars;

8. While the eyes of heaven wept on the bright borders of the sky;

9. The lightning displayed his shining teeth, with wonder at this change in the firmament;

10. And the thunder almost burst the ears of the deafened rocks.

11. She was desirous of embracing me, but, through modesty, declined my embrace.

12. Tears bedewed her cheeks, and, to my eyes, watered a bower of roses.

13. When she spake, her panting sighs blew flames into my heart.

14. She continued expostulating with me on my excessive desire of travel.

15. ‘Thou hast melted my heart, she said, and made it feel inexpressible anguish.

16. ‘Thou art perverse in thy conduct to her who loves thee, and obsequious to thy guileful adviser.

17. ‘Thou goest round from country to country, and art never pleased with a fixed residence.

18. ‘One while the seas roll with thee; and, another while, thou art agitated on the shore.

19. ‘What fruit, but painful fatigue, can arise from rambling over foreign regions?

20. ‘Hast thou associated thyself with the wild antelopes of the desert, and forgotten the tame deer?

21. ‘Art thou weary then of our neighbourhood? O wo to him, who flees from his beloved!

22. ‘Have pity at length on my afflicted heart, which seeks relief, and cannot obtain it.’

Each couplet of the original consists of two Dimeter Iambicks, and must be read in the proper cadence.

IV.

As a specimen of the old Persian language and character, I subjoin a very curious passage from the Zend, which was communicated to me by Bahman the son of Bahraˊm, a native of Yezd, and, as his name indicates, a Pársì: he wrote the passage from memory; since his books in Pahlavi and Dérì are not yet brought to Bengal. It is a supposed answer of ˊIzad or God to Zeraˊhtusht, who had asked by what means mankind could attain happiness.

Az píd u mád che ce píd u mád ne khoshnúd bìd hargiz bihisht ne vínìd; be jáyi cirsah bizah vinìd: mehán rà be ázarm níc dárìd, cehán rà be hích gúnah mayázárìd: aj khíshávendi dervísh nang medáríd: dád u vendád i kháliki yectà beh càr dáríd; az ristákhí zi ten pasín endísheh nemáyìd; mabádá ce ashù ten khísh rà dúzakhí cunìd, va ánche be khíshten nasháhad be casán mapasendìd va ma cunìd: herche be gitì cunìd be mainù az aúch pazírah áyed 66Plate VII. The Zend Letters are in Plate III..

A Verbal Translation.

“If you do that with which your father and mother are not pleased, you shall never see heaven; instead of good spirits, you shall see evil beings: behave with honesty and with respect to the great; and on no account injure the mean: hold not your poor relations a reproach to you: imitate the justice and goodness of the Only Creator: meditate on the resurrection of the future body; lest you make your souls and bodies the inhabitants of hell; and whatever would be unpleasing to yourselves, think not that pleasing to others, and do it not: whatever good you do on earth, for that you shall receive a retribution in heaven.”

It will, perhaps, be suspected, (and the language itself may confirm the suspicion) that this doctrine has been taken from a religion very different, both in age and authority, from that of Zeraˊhtusht.

V.

The following story in modern Persian was given to me by Mirzà Abdu'lrahhiˊm of Isfahàn: it seems extracted from one of the many poems on the loves of Mejnuˊn and Lailiˋ, the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Each verse consists of a Cretick foot followed by two Choriambi, or a Choriambus and a Molossus.

The Translation.

1. The man, who had inebriated himself with milk from the nipple of Anguish, who had been nourished in the lap of Affliction,

2. Mejnuˊn, mad with the bright hue and fair face of Lailˋi, himself a dark mole on the cheek of the desert,

3. Having found the way to the mansion of love, became fixed like the threshold on the door of love's palace.

4. Over his head the form of Madness had cast her shadow: the tale of his passion was loudly celebrated.

5. Among the Arabs a tumult arose on all sides; the relation of his adventures was a dessert in their assemblies.

6. A powerful Prince reigned in Arabia, possessing worldly magnificence and riches:

7. He had seen the depredations of Grief through absence from a beloved object: he had plucked many a black-spotted flower from the garden of love.

8. Even in his infancy he had felt the pain of separation: the bitter taste of that poison remained on his palate.

9. When he learned the story of that afflicted lover, he instantly gave an order to a slave,

10. Saying, ‘Make thy head like thy feet in running towards Najd; go with celerity, like a violent wind:

11. ‘Bring speedily with thee to my presence Her, who has stolen the heart of Mejnuˊn with a glance.’

12. The stripling ran, and in a short time brought Lailˋi, that Empress in the dominion of beauty.

13. To another slave the Prince gave this order: ‘Run thou also into the desert,

14. ‘Go to that ornament of frantick lovers, Mejnuˊn, the illumined taper of love.

15. ‘Bring quickly before me that inflamed youth, that heart-consumed anguish-pierced lover.’

16. The boy went, and returned, in the twinkling of an eye, accompanied by the ruler in the territories of love.

17. When the Prince looked at him, he beheld a wretch in bondage to the misery of desire.

18. Madness had fixed her abode on his head: he was clothed, as with a vest, with the wounds of separation.

19. His locks flowed, like a mantle, over his body: his only sandal was the callus of his feet.

20. In his hair stuck a comb of Arabian thorns: a robe of sand from the desert covered his back.

21. ‘O thou, said the Prince, who hast been lost in the valley of sorrow; dost thou not wish me to give thee the object of thy passion,

22. ‘To exalt thee with dignity and power, to bring Lailˋi before thee gratifying thy soul?

23. ‘No, no; answered he, far, far is it from my wish, that an atom should be seen together with the sun.’

24. ‘Speak truly, replied the Prince, art thou not willing to recreate thyself on the smooth plain of that beautiful cheek?

25. ‘Or hast thou no inclination to enjoy her charms? I adjure thee, by the soul of Lailˋi, to declare the truth!’

26. He rejoined: ‘O chief of men with generous hearts, a particle of dust from thy gate is a diadem on my head.

27. ‘The pain of my love for Lailˋi is sufficient for my heart: a wish to enjoy her presence thus would be injustice.

28. ‘To gratify this contemptible soul of mine, a single ray from that bright luminary would be enough.’

29. He spake, and ran towards the desert, his eye weeping, and his eye-lashes raining tears.

These couplets would fully answer the purpose of showing the method, in which Persián may be written according to the original characters, with some regard also to the Isfahánì pronunciation; but, since a very ingenious artist, named Muhammed Ghauˊth, has engraved a tetrastich on copper, as a specimen of his art, and since no movable types can equal the beauty of Persian writing, I annex his plate 88Plate VI., and add the four lines, which he has selected, in English letters: they are too easy to require a translation, and too insignificant to deserve it.

Huwa'l âzìz

VI.

The first specimen of Hindì, that occurs to me, is a little Ghazal or love-song, in a Choriambick measure, written by Gunnaˊ Beigum, the wife of Ghaˊziu'ldiˊn Khaˋn, a man of consummate abilities and consummate wickedness, who has borne an active part in the modern transactions of Upper Hindústàn.

The Translation.

1. My beloved foe speaks of me with dissimulation; and now the tidings of despair are brought hither to the desire of my soul.

2. Alas, that the smooth surface of my bòsom, through the marks of burning in the sad absence of lovely youths, is become like the plumage of a peacock.

3. Like me, O Hinnà, (the fragrant and elegant shrub, with the leaves of which the nails of Arabian women are dyed crimson) thy heart has long been full of blood: whose foot art thou desirous of kissing?

4. Instead of pain, my beloved, every wound from thy cimeter sucks with its lips the sweetness, with which it is filled.

5. The suspicion of love is vainly cast on Minnat—Yes; true it is, that my nature rather leads me to the company of beautiful youths.

Thus have I explained, by observations and examples, my method of noting in Roman letters the principal languages of Asia; nor can I doubt, that Armenian, Turkish, and the various dialects of Tartary, may be expressed in the same manner with equal advantage; but, as Chinese words are not written in alphabetical characters, it is obvious, that they must be noted according to the best pronunciation used in China; which has, I imagine, few sounds incapable of being rendered by the symbols used in this essay.