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himself to get, for the word as spoken in the living local dialect. This may have been either Sākiyānam or Sakkiyānam (pronounced Sak-kiyānang).
It will be noticed that the orthography, there. fore, is very imperfect. It is strictly speaking, not so much an alphabet as a syllabary. The light
FIG. 32.—THE PEPPÉ VASES. Found by Mr. Peppé in the Sakiya Tope.
vowel a, pronounced as in our word vocal, is supposed inherent in every consonant on to which no other vowel is hung. No attempt is yet made to distinguish between long and short vowels. No diphthongs are written. There is no expedient as yet to show that a consonant is to be pronounced as a final, that is, without the inherent a; and this, together with the absence of groups, is what renders it impossible to express the double consonants so frequent in the actual language.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
