Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/59

 If we compare this list of letters with the Anglo-Hindustáni alphabet, so ably advocated by Sir Charles Trevelyan, the differences between the two are indeed but small; and if we had only to agree upon a small alphabet sufficient to express the sounds of the spoken Hindustani, there is no reason why the Angle-Hindustáni alphabet should not be adopted. It expresses the general sounds which occur in Oriental dialects, and it employs but five dotted letters, for which new types would be required.

The defects of this system become apparent, however, as soon as we try to expand it; and we are obliged to do this even in order to write Hindustani, unless we are ready to sacrifice the etymological distinction of words by expressing and by h, ¸,,, ↳ C, and by's and by t, and, and by z. If distinct types must be invented to distinguish these letters, the array of dotted letters will be considerably increased. Even in Hindustani we should have to use different diacritical marks where we have to express two, three, or four modifications of the same type; and it would become extremely perplexing to remember the meaning of all these marks. Our difficulties would be considerably increased if we tried to adapt the same letters to more developed alphabets, like Sanskrit and Arabic; and if we went on adding books and crooks, crosses and half-moons, dots and accents, &c., we should in the end have more modified than simple types.

These modified types might, no doubt, be reduced to a certain system; and, after determining the possible modifications of guttural and dental consonants, each diacritical mark might be used as the exponent of but one modification. A glance at the comparative table of the different systems of transliteration will show how this has been achieved by different scholars more or less successfully.

But it is only after this has been done, after all letters have been classified, after their possible modifications have been determined, after each modification has been provisionally marked by a certain exponent such as the accent for expressing the palatal, dots for expressing the lingual modification, it is then only that the real problem presents itself: "How can all these sounds be expressed by us in writing and printing, without sacrificing all chances of arriving