Notwithstanding the Teloogoo alphabet may be thought to contain some superfluous characters, it will readily be admitted that, in consistency, it is superior to our own. The sound attached to cach letter remains constantly inherent in it: the coalition of words may cause one character to be changed for another, or may require the elision or the insertion of letters; but no association whatever can render any letter mute, nor can any change, or combination, give to one or more characters the sound belonging to another. The student, therefore, after once acquiring the correct sound of the Teloegoo letters, immediately pronounces every word with accuracy, and very little practice enables him to read with fluency and precision:-while a foreigner, who attempts to acquire a correct English pronunciation, scarcely ever arrives at the full attainment of his object. The proper pronunciation of our words, indeed, depends more upon the combination of our letters, than upon any fixed sound inherent in each separate character: and, in this respect, a person commencing the study of our language, for a long time, labors under the difficulties experienced by those, who are left to discover the meaning of the principal words in a sentence, without any other aid than what the context affords.

All Native Grammarians concur in reducing the number of letters in the Teloogoo alphabet to thirty seven; by excluding from it forty four characters which they acknowledge to belong to the language, but will not admit into the alphabet. They reject nineteen letters as peculiar to words of Sanscrit origin; fifteen small connected vowels, as only abbreviated forms of the large initial unconnected vowels; eight characters, as merely marks for certain consonants when doubled; and two, as contracted signs for certain letters which they have retained. But, in giving a general view of the Teloogoo alphabet, I shall insert all the letters which they have rejected; for they belong to the language, as much as those which they have admitted; and the whole are equally unknown to an English reader. Inclusive of these, the Teloogoo alphabet will be found to consist of no less than eighty one different symbols.

the ten aspirates

ro, 2 roo, and ✅ 10, 4

khu, ₪ g,h,Y chh, oj,h,© th, ‹ dh, qth, ç dh, & ph, and 3⁄4 b,h, the nasals & gnu nyu, and the consonants sh, & sh, ∞ ksh, and 8h, are the nineteeen characters stated by Teloogoo Grammarians to be peculiar to words of Sanscrit origin. To these, the connected vowels ro, and roo, should also be added. For, had not all the connected vowels been rejected from the alphabet, as marks instead of letters, a place would have been originally assigned to these two characters, in the list of symbols peculiar to Sanscrit derivatives.

Although the lettera sh, is, as above stated, peculiar to Sanscrit, modern 5 authors admit, that, Sanscrit derivatives excepted, all Teloogoo words which have the letters, followed by the connected vowels 9, § re, — è, or Se, may change thes, intosh; hence, chesi, or & cheshi, having done. $ chèsena, or cheshěno, he, she or it, did. & siggo, or ¿× శిగ్గు shiggo, shume.

The short initial vowels ě, 2 Ŏ, and their corresponding connected vowels 6 →ě,, (excluded by Grammarians as being merely marks) together with the consonants & ts, & dzu, o lu, ∞ rru, and cn, are to be found in words

of the pure Teloogoo only.

The other letters of the alphabet are common to all Teloogoo words, whether 7 derived from the Sanscrit, or otherwise.

9

kesh has been included in the Alphabet; but, as it is a com

sh, it is rejected by some authors.

VOWELS.

INITIAL UNCONNECTED VOWELS.

u,

ee,

00,

←oo, 2000. roo,

we lives, or living letters; because

The fifteen initial vowels, a, 2 i, Li W5° roo, m lx, I ě, I è, D ue, w ỏ, 2ō, and uo, are emphatically termఓర్, ed by Teloogoo Grammarians 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. In naming these characters, the Sanscrit word 382 karumo is affixed to each; thus, & 2 ukarumo u, 2 T8 L ikarumo i, and so on. 11. The initial vowels are written on a line with the consonants, never either below, or above them.

10

12

CONNECTED VOWELS.

When combined with consonants to form syllables, the abovementioned 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 abovementioned, 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.