with credit, and often with inftruction; from thefe only is praise truly worthy of acceptance, whofe cenfure generally carries with it conviction; being to arts and society what the bee is to the hive-if they fting, there is something in them; whereas your drones that buzz and hum about, as judges of what they take not the smallest pains to acquire, dogmatize without proof, are confuted, but never convinced. A critic of this defcription will very gravely exclaim-Why, the authour must have been mad, or in liquor, when he expected that I would read qoran otherwise than kworan,—without reflecting that likkur was last in his own mouth, though written liquor; or that in fpeaking, he may with impunity, confound #klfood, with ugl wisdom; while it is my duty to discriminate them here, as much as our lexicographers find it so to, infert affect, afcent, mine obferved, "fhould allure us by the familiar expreffiveness of its fymbols; and," continued he, "though we must at times boldly encounter fixed bayonet's in the field, they become formidable indeed when presented to us on every letter in our closets; I therefore advise you not to puzzle people with more notations than are abfolutely neceffary, for the difcrimination of founds, that might otherwise be confounded; provided also, that you cannot find such in our own alphabet, confirmed by examples we are already acquainted with." How far this judicious advice has been attended to, will be evident by a glance at the foregoing plan; in which the " comprises almost the whole of the marks adopted, and although used for more purposes than one, the reader will with pleasure perceive, that no two instances can well be confounded. Aa, is furely fuperfluous, nor is the favourite au, even in the words aunt, gauger, gauntlet, jaundice, jaunt, and so on, the broad a required: aw, is an inconvenient combination that might deprive us of confonant w, in awaz པ farvun report اواي a Hindoo month, arwaee اون found, aroun آواز it being a maxim with me, never to preserve a useless letter, to throw away one that is useful, nor depreciate it by restriction to a needless diphthong, neither vowel nor confonant being applicable to two ends, till unavoidable, and then in such cases only as cannot prove ambiguous; which the Synopfis itself will clearly demonstrate. The fhort a, perhaps in ftrict propriety, occurs in moofa دي Mofes, cefa Jefus, with several others; but which I have not paid particular attention to, from its being almoft impoffible to afcertain with any precision, the feveral degrees through which the a might be traced, till lost in น; especially in this country, where we have to contend more against the rapidity, mutability, and diversity of oral utter- · ance, and with lefs affiftance, than in any other. See notes g, m, and n. The a in grafs, garret, is feldom, if ever, to be found in the Hindooftanee; unless in fuch inftances as, ige̟aruh 。, eleven, gean knowledge, dhe an thought; where the e coalefcing with a, imparts to it a found that bears some resemblance to the letter in question; and were the above words written with rigid exactness, igyaruh, igye aruh, gyan, &c. might be the true mode of expreffing them. The afcent, for one thing, and effect, affent, for another. Wherever' men of rank or education, preserve the articulation of two apparently fimilar letters diftinct, it behoves me to do fo alfo; though by no means a ftickler for greater accuracy in these points, among us, than they obferve among themselves; which is verified in note (e) below; as I leave without repining the task of teaching Britons to surpass the natives in fpeaking Hindoostanee to future philologers; happy, if my labours can in the mean time pave the way to fuch extraordinary proficiency.. The letter alif might with greater propriety be termed ulif, like the Hinduwee ukar; but as they cannot be introduced here, without the appearance of anticipation, I would advise the perusal of note (m) on the letter u, before the reader proceeds a step further; because a previous acquaintance with it, will facilitate the acquifition of every thing else. The kar of the Naguree letters a-kar, ee-kar, bu-kar, The flender English or Arabic a in bale, tale, being the ai in bail, tail, or the French mafculine e, will be found under this letter in its proper place---confult note (g); (e) The Arabic aen & the eye, fo called, perhaps, from its resemblance sometimes to that organ, has (like u, q. v.) with the aid of a ye wao and the diacritical points, occasionally the power of all our vowels; but which however I have not distinguished in such cases, with any mark here, fince the Arabians only, and the very few who can imitate them, articulate the following examples, with the requifite, clinking, guttural, confonant-like utterance of each vowel. science, eed is a festival, issut honour, omr♬ age, The Perfian scholar will perceive, and learn if he can, this aen from a good teacher; while fuch as حین ارض content themselves with the Roman letters only, will do well to imitate me, in prolating the last word above, with our u in urn, without making any difference between it and urz the ground, as fimilar inftances will not be wanting, to perplex, rather than instruct the learner, who distracts himself with these fubtilties. (f) Rikab or rikeb, a stirrup; bar, ber, a time; chooree-bar, chooree-her, a bracelet-feller; bheegana, bheegona, to wet; milana, milona, to mix; arna, orna, to stop; deobana, čoobena, to fink; chhipana, ch hipona, to conceal. In Brij (the Arcadia of Hindooftan, the capital of which is Muthoora, about 20 kos north-west from Agra) the bhak ha or language there, is diftinguished from the other old dialects of India, by the number of final os; this a of the reft, being often foftened by the Brijbasee into the Omega or Omicron of the Greeks. Thus in the Rama en. Ruho ek din uwudhi ud,hara fumj hut mun dookh burho upara. ہو ایکدن بوده ادبا را سمجهت من دکمہ بر ہوا پارا "Reflecting that one day only remained for him to perform his promife, my anxiety encreased without bounds." So bu-kar, may be dispensed with; and is disjoined by the hyphen for this purpofe; being of no more ufe than the a-lpha, b-eta, &c. of the Greek, or the a-liƒ, k-af, d-al, of the Perfian alphabet.. The latter, and every thing relative to it, will be best attained from the Arabic and Perfian grammars; while the Hinduwee fyftem will be found fully and accurately explained by Halhed and Kirkpatrick, in their excellent, works. When one confonant intervenes between two vowels, کتاب give it to the last,—bu bar by the fpring, pa neewater, ki tab a book; So pit mat kuho fuk hee kyfa jin put hue bun.baluk yfo.. وبت بات کہو سکی کیو جن شہد کی بن مالک یو پو if "What parents must they be, fifter, who have banished such a son to the wilderness?" We also contrive to call tařée ,a proff, notch سپاہی fpabee تاري tareen آبدار abdar ناچ nach صراف Jarraf bobdar, toddy, fepoy. Ganthna, or goont hna, to plait. The Perfians substitute go for a very frequently; jan or joon life, nan or noon bread. The old infinitives gawuna or gapna, pawuna or pa ona, la ona, a ona, guwuna, &c. for gana to sing, panaɩɩ to find, lana ɩ to bring, anal to come, jana U to go, help to, account for, ouna, jouna, should they occur fo, or their imperatives pl. which I always exprefs by ap‚ jap, a, ) & ja~ being fingular. Dalan or dulan, a hall; banat, bunat, cloth; palan, pulan, a pad; chalak, chulak, clever; chadur, chuddur, a fheet; nana, dada, or nunna, dudda, a grandfather; kaka, kukka, (whence chucha) an uncle; generally with a reduplication of the intermediate confonant. The a & u commonly change in compofition, whence um-rus mangoe juice, um-choor mangoe flices, from am, rus, and choor; bud-kar an evil-doer, from kurdun, to do, &c. s We feem to have an antipathy to final a, &c. whence, choonam, Bengal, houder, hooker, rupee, pys, and the Cockney's idear, fellor; for choona bungala M dea and fellow: bungala Mhoudu out hoogu roopecu~~ pyfu (g) Thee of this work, is never mute; being, on all occafions, the French mafculine e in vérité, the flender English a, in bale, fale, tale, male, or its correfponding diphthong ai, in bail, fail, tail, mail, thus exhibited here bel بیل سيل میاں تیل a fruit fo called, fel a fpear, tel oil, mel concord. See note on cu. Though there be many inflances among ourfelves, where this very letter precludes all evafion, and ambiguity; people have nevertheless thought it more equivocal, than a, ca, ae, ai, è, é, ê, and exprefs if two, give one to each fyllable, bud lee change, chur cha mention; . and when initial or final, treat them as in English, swameea lord, burd .verfe نظم verfe. The vowels and diphthongs a bull, prat the morning, nuzm require no general comment in this place; each being particularly specified in the table, and notes; a, e, ee, 0, 00, ou, y, with their liquids ya, ye, yo, are long, and need no mark: o, čo, become thus fhort; while i, u, yi, yu, are naturally so: we have therefore nothing to advert to here but the diærefis (,) in dhoun ' wafhings, by aban - a defert, sop toom sleep you, bop fow; to prevent thefe words exprefs its found accordingly in one or other of these ways. Were it not too great refinement, the acute, grave, and circumflex, might be useful in 3 bé from, b. without, dènal, to give, bêchna l' to sell; بی particularly if the Hindooftanees themselves prolated e in these and fimilar words, with fuch precision; but either this is not the cafe, or my ears have not perceived the distinction sufficiently for me to use my own marks even; for it has frequently happened, that an example, written at one time, or in a certain province, with ẽ long occurred afterwards in another place with short: whence it seemed evident there would be no end to fuch niceties; which induced me to relinquish them, as a feaft for my fucceffours in this department; who having less to digest, may with more fatisfaction, riot in the exploration of whatever has escaped me. Our e in bell, well, net, bet, &c. does not exist, as far as I can judge, in the Hindoostanee; though it must be confessed that many words like ,a trial آزمایش a fwain, armaef نایک wounded, naek گیا ئل ghael ياي مجهول have a found so near it, or i, as almost to perfuade me to write gha,il, azmaish, did this not interfere with my appropriation of e to Jon? ye mujbool, and i to zer alone, or with a fervile and aen zer الف زیر ع This e after a, is termed by the Arabians which nevertheless correfponds as well with the pronunciation of this country, and better with the orthography, than fail, and fo on. confound tale fortune, nere طالع نیر oils تل with tel The reader who recollects that is never filent or fervile here, will not ,near نيري ,the whole ساري mine, fare ميري mere میر neer water, meer a title, fer a weight fo called; but read them as if written talè, &c. Tera, or tora, thy; julebee, julabee, a sweetmeat; necche, neechoo, below; peech he, peechhoo, behind; derungee, dirungee, delay; fewar, fywar, name of an aquatic weed; khoorshed, khoorfnyd, the fun; tel, tyl, oil; khemu, khymu, a tent; eganu, yeganu, strange. E (b) words being read dhoun, byaban, foo, boo; but as the ufe and effects of this (,) have already been noted in the Synopfis, it would be wholly fuperfluous to fay more on the subject. · :. Initial and final letters are often either dropped entirely, changed, added, or transposed, without affecting the word's fignification at all. Boos or bboosa, straw, jora, jořce, joř, a pair; uswar, fuwar, a horfeman; : anar, undr, or nar, a pomegranate; zumanu, zuman, time; lukkur, lukra, lukree, a timber; duwa, durace, (h) Ee need not be deemed ambiguous by such as can fee; though generally reprefented by others with i, ea,-e, ie, ei, ey, or y, but ce being equally if not more familiar to us than i in the French word ami or e in be, I still prefer this mode; efpecially fince these letters are fo ufefully employed to exprefs other founds. The deen a day, bees Zeekar, is in the common Nagurce blended with ikar, the Hindoos therefore do not accurately distinguish religion, from din twenty, from bis and qua ftory, they confound with keefu a pocket, ردن بایس poison, whence it often becomes difficult to ascertain in this work, the stages froin ee in feel, seek, to i of fill, sick, and fo forth; though those who can hit the medium, might mark it ee, or in y improve on my plan, by restricting the last to short i, and referving this for the vocal power it has in dial, giant, as by this means, y would be appropriated to the liquid and useful diphthongs ya, ya, &c. only. Ee preceding a in the hurry of utterance, and to avoid the hiatus, often forms ya; ee ar, or yar a friend, eead, yad, remembrance; a circumftance that may give fome infight into our kindred vowel-confonants y & w; (on which so much has been observed by different grammarians) if we attend to fwan, fweet, fwim, fwop, fwum; thus, fo,an, Scocet, fooim, sooop, foo,um, the hiatus here being as evident as in ee ar, and equally well avoided by swan, &c. Hence I am led to believe, with Lowth, Johnson, and Sheridan, that y & w are always vowels, forming a kind of diphthong with the one next them, and no more confonants than a, e, i, o, u, in genial, onion, neuter, lieu, ufe, our; and we find for the foregoing reafons, that in Sunfkrit they fay, dwar not deoar, a door. See note on the letter w. To return to eea and ya; though I cannot yet determine which of thefe is the beft, Sheridan in his excellent work exprefsly declares, "All compound founds fhould be marked only by fuch characters, as will naturally and neceffarily produce thofe founds upon their being pronounced according to their names in "the alphabet;" which inclines me ftill in a great many inftances to my former practife, and in this I am also confirmed by a regard to the etymology of nouns ending in ee; which are all aptotes in the fingular, but triptotes in the plural. and I therefore prefer the above to malyon, beebyah, beeby, as more etymological, if not orthographical.-- Sec |