Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/72

6 8. The letter ksh has been included in the Alphabet; but, as it is a compound of s k and ష sh, it is rejected by some authors.

9. The fifteen initial vowels, అ u, ఆ a, ఇ i, ఈ ee, ఉ oo, ఊ oo, ఋ roo, ౠ roo, loo, ఎ ĕ, ఏ ē, ఐ ue, ఒ ŏ, ఓ ō, and ఔ uo, are emphatically termed by Teloogoo Grammarians ప్రాణములు lives, or living letters; because they are supposed to possess, within themselves, a perfect and independent existence or sound. They are purely initial, and are always written separately, unconnected with consonants or other characters. Like our capital letters, the initial vowels are to be found at the commencement of a phrase or sentence only, and never, in grammatical compositions at least, at the beginning of each word; except when words are written by themselves, as in a dictionary or vocabulary; for in a correct Teloogoo sentence, each word coalesces with the following one; the whole becomes a chain of continued links; and there is no beginning, or place for an initial vowel, except at the commencement of the sentence itself.

10. In naming these characters, the Sanscrit word కారము karumoo is affixed to each; thus, అకారము ukarumoo u, ఇకారము ikarumoo i, and so on.

11. The initial vowels are written on a line with the consonants, never either below, or above them.

12. When combined with consonants to form syllables, the above-mentioned vowels take quite a different shape. In this new form they are inseparable from consonants; and, from their constantly preserving a servile connection with some of these characters, Teloogoo writers have been induced to view them, in this shape, rather as abbreviated forms of the initial vowels above mentioned, than as independent letters. They are here again exhibited, opposite the initial vowels which they respectively represent; and the particular appellation given to each is attached to it.