Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 61
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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APRIL, 1932 ]
ALPHABETS AND PRONUNCIATION
[ $$ 135-137
North-western alphabets (unfortunately rendered of little use owing to the absence of any transliteration), Bee Leitner. A Collection of Specimens of Commercial and Other Alphabets and Handwritings as also of Multiplication Tables current in various parts of the Panjab, Sind, and the North-West Provinces, Lahore, No date. The Palæography of India, by Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha, Udaipur, 1894, contains specimens of nearly all the alphabets in use in India from the earliest down to the most modern times. It was reviewed by Bühler in JRAS., 1895, 246 ff., and, while very useful, must be employed with caution.
135. Tables 1 to 7 facing this page show the alphabets above referred to. The non-initial vowels are shown attached to the letter k. The Gupta characters are mainly taken from Bühler, op. cit. The others are all traced from actual handwriting by natives of the countries where the respective alphabets are employed. As they represent actual handwriting, their forms sometimes differ from those used in print. The Kaithi letters are those in use in Bihār. These characters vary slightly according to locality. The Gujarāti letters may be taken as representing the Kaithi of western India. The Landā and sākari letters are only samples of many varying forms. Further examples will be found in the related volumes of the LSI., in Leitner's work above mentioned, and in Stack's Sindhi Grammar. The only compound consonants shown are kea and iña. The others call for no special remarks, except that we may note that in Northern India (but not in Kašmir) it is customary to write rya and rua, when occurring in Tbh, words, and y, not f and , which forms are reserved for Tss. This applies not merely to MSS., but is also common in printing. Thus H. Anot märyo, he was killed, R. rwātā, loaves.
136. The Persian form of the Arabic character, henceforth referred to as the Persian character, is used in Hindi, Sindhi, Lahndā, and Kāšmiri. In Hindi it is used by Musalmāns and by Hindūs educated on Musalmān lines, in that highly Persianised form of the language known as Urdū. The Kaithi character is not adapted to expressing the sounds of many Arabic consonants, and religious influence has also been brought to bear in favour of Persian. The Persian character is never, nor indeed could it be, employed for writing the highly Sanskritized High Hindi, but it is frequently used for the well-known lingua franca, containing no excess either of Persian or of Sanskrit, called Hindöstäni. New characters are required for the sounds (s, or s) and d (3, 3 or 3), the cerebral » not being required. The 'butterfly 'h(e) is, properly speaking, reserved for expressing aspirated consonants, thus es kh, 4; ch, a th, etc., ye bhū, ke bahū ; but the distinction of using this form of h is not always observed in India. It cannot be used after d, d, 1, ?, where we have , 3,), for dh, dh, rh, rh, respectively. In Kāšmiri the Persian character is, as has been already stated, employed by Kašmiri Musalmāns, and has also been adopted by missionaries for translations of the Bible, although the first version of the New Testament, that of the Serampur Missionaries, was printed in Sāradā type specially cast for that purpose.
The sound of the Kg. ö is represented by alif with madda, 1, and the sound of is by or, sometimes, by 3, the proper sound of the latter (1) not being required by the language. In other respects Kāšmiri follows Urdū, and no attempt is made to represent the numerous epenthetic vowels except ö, the character for the simple vowel nearest in sound being used instead.
137. In Sindhi, if we exclude the mutilated Landā characters, the Persian is the only alphabet in use. It has, however, received a great number of new signs to suit the ideas of those who would put the written language under fixed rules. In this respect, wp to lately every writer was a law unto himself, but one system, which we may call the original Sindhi alphabet was more generally in use than others. This has been twice improved upon, once by Government, and again by Trumpp in his works on the language. The following table shows the special letters of the Sindhi alphabet in three columns. The first shows the original Sindhi alphabet, before it was experimented upon, the second the result of these experiments in the present Government alphabet, and the third shows that used by Trumpp in his grammar. As S. Dicy. follows the Government system of writing, that is necessarily followed in the present work.
