Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/78

12 precede any of the 4 first letters in the 3d Vurgu it must be  nu only, if it precede any of the 4 first letters in the 4th Vurgu, it must be  n, and, if it precede any of the 4 first letters in the 5th Vurgu, it must be  m, and not any other nasal. But this rule does not apply to corruptions from the Sanscrit, or to words of the pure Teloogoo, or of the common dialect. The nasal before a consonant, without an intervening vowel, is, in such words, represented either by the sign of the letter n, viz. n, or by the character n or m, or  n, hereafter mentioned.

31. Besides this division of the first 25 consonants into Vurgus or Classes, according to the principles of Sanscrit Grammar, there is a classification of the consonants which is peculiar to the Teloogoo itself, and an intimate acquaintance with this arrangement of the alphabet, which pervades every part of the language, is of the highest importance to a correct grammatical knowledge of the Teloogoo. The chapter which follows, on the changes of the letters, (perhaps the most difficult and intricate part of the Grammar,) will be absolutely unintelligible, unless due attention be paid to this classification. It is as follows.

32. The first perpendicular line in the forgoing arrangement of the consonants, (No. 16,) containing the first letter in each of the five Vurgus, viz. k, ts or ch,  t,  t, and  p, forms the first class; and these letters are denominated  or hard letters.

33. The third perpendicular line in the above arrangement of the consonants, (No. 16,) consisting of the third letter in each Vurgu, viz. g, dzu or ju,  d,  d, and  b, which are termed  or soft letters, constitutes the second class.

34. The third class includes all the remaining consonants in the foregoing classification, (No. 16.) The consonants in this class are termed, or fixed letters, from their not being liable to those changes, to which, as hereafter explained, the letter of the other two classes are subject.

35. The letters n or m,  n, and  h, which conclude the list of consonants in the view of the whole alphabet given in page 4, are omitted from the foregoing