Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/60

 in the end at one uniform and universal alphabet?" It is clear that every type that has to be compounded or cast afresh is an impediment in the progress of uniformity, because those who have once provided themselves with diacritical types will not change them for others, and those who have but a common English font at their disposal will express the necessary modifications as best they can. The question, then, that must be solved, is not whether we should take dots or hooks, but whether it is possible to express all essential modifications in such a manner as to take away all excuse for individual crotchets, by proposing an expedient accessible to every one. This can be done if we avail ourselves of the resources of our fonts, which invariably contain a supply of one class of modified letters― italics. Many scholars, from Halhed down to Ellis, have seen the use to which these letters could be put in transliterating Oriental languages; but they have not hitherto been employed systematically. The principle by which we have been guided in making use of italics is this:

As in each language most letters are liable to but one modification, let that modification, whatever it be, be expressed by italics.

We thus reduce the number of letters, in our physiological alphabet, that require diacritical marks, on account of their being liable to more than one modification in the same language, to two: and while our Missionary alphabet is thus accessible in every part of the world, we reserve our few diacritical dots to the purposes of transliteration, where, as in Arabic, we may have to represent the same type with more than one diacritical mark.

Though this is a question which for the present hardly falls within the compass of Missionary labours, still it may be useful to show that, if required, our alphabet would also be found applicable to the transliteration of written languages. Besides, wherever Missionary influence is powerful enough, it should certainly be exerted towards breaking down those barriers which, in the shape of different alphabets, prevent the free intercourse of the nations of the East.