proposed[1]. To acquire an accurate knowledge of the sounds conveyed by the various letters of any one of the alphabets which have been devised, marked as they are respectively with double, treble, and even quadruple dots, is just as difficult as to learn the Deva Nagree, or any other entirely new character; of the truth of which we may be in some measure convinced, when we reflect that, of all those who have professed to study any one of the above systems, some of which have been in vogue full fifty years, hardly any two of them adopted entirely the same orthography[2]. To write oriental languages in the Roman character may be useful to students in Europe, who have no native tutors at hand to teach them the pronounciation; but it certainly will be no advantage whatever to the people of India. The three first classes above-named will never adopt the new mode, which will be confined to the fourth, and the people in general will be as much excluded from all hope of official employment, or of acquiring any share in the administration of the affairs of their country, as they are at this moment.
But enough has been said, and it is time to act. Government ought, without further delay, to declare its intentions, and these
- ↑ It is astonishing how great a share vanity has had in producing these repeated schemes for expressiog the oriental languages in the Roman character; each successive speculator, as he toils in his study, surrounded by a halo of dots and dashes, which he mistakes for one of glory, indulges the pleasing vision of being handed down to posterity as the inventor of an universal “Hindee-Roman-Orthoepigraphical ultimatum,”—one of Gilchrist’s long words. He rivalled Jeremy Bentham in this respect, of whom it was said,
And I'm writing a word three pages long.
The Quarterly dogs to rout.It would not be very difficult to invent half-a-dozen,—but cui bono? no civilized nation, who has possessod the use of letters for centuries, will ever voluntarily change them. When I was at school, it was a common amusement of some of the boys to invent new characters, and even languages. I recollect two or three who manufactured a language by pronouncing English words backwards; by practice they became so well versed in it as to be able to converse together fluently; but they could not succeed in bringing it into general use: the rest of the boys preferred speaking in the usual mode, and pronouncing the words straightforward. India has Babel enough of different sounds and characters, without this new infliction.
- ↑ It is probable that this Hindee-Roman-Orthoepigraphical alphabet is more difficult to learn than an entirely new alphabet. We are bewildered between the old sound which we have been accustomed to attach to particular letters, and their new significations; the double, treble, and quadruple dots and dashes are extremely puzzling to recollect; and most undoubtedly in writing, mistakes are much more likely to occur in using the halo-dotted letters than those of the Nagree.
