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INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN INDIA—ROMAN TYPE . The letter of Sir Charles Trevelyan in our last number very ably states the case for his party in betair of the "use of the Italian , or Sir W . Jones ' s vowels ; but , strong as it appears , it does not answer the objections to the preference of Italian vocalisation to English , nor does it succeed in showing that the Italian system is suitable to India . Sir Charles ' s first position is , that the Italiau system comes nearest to the powers of the vowels in Latin and the languages derived from it , and it involves the further postulate that it is a system adopted bv literary and scientific men throughout
the civilised world . Nothing is more difficult to prove than that the present Italian vowel sounds represent those of the Latin at any period of the republic or the empire , and there are good philological grounds for doubting that the Italian a , i , and « , are identical -with the Latin . It is within the historical period that a has taken the ahsound for aw ,, and the oo sound for « is certainly not adopted by the French representatives of the Latin dialects . " The pedigree of Latin and Greek pronunciation is top ill established for us to allow Sir Charles Trevelyan to assume the legitimacy of his system on the grounds that it is Latin , and the heir of the Latin stock . The philological evidence has been for three centuries in controversy , and it
is not yet admitted , and , indeed , so unsatisfactory is it , that the English , pronunciation of Latin and Greek remains in force , because no sufficient case can be made out to supersede it ; and yet Sir Charles wishes us , under such circumstances , to admit this pseudo-Latin pronunciation as indisputable authority . As a matter of philological expediency the argument is not even satisfactory , so far as it is applicable to the expression of Oriental languages . This , however , as we shall show , is but a very small part of the subiect . We are quite ready to admit that the literary and scientific men of the Continent prefer the
Italian system , but , for the reason just referred to , this affords no argument for its adoption by Englishmen , nor have we * as Englishmen , any right to $ refer a Latin system to a Germanic system . t is not a matter of any great moment -whether Bengalee be so treated as to be convenient to a German , an Italian , or a Spaniard , but it is a matter of very great moment so far as Englishmen are concerned , and so far as Bengalese are concerned , that it shall be so treated as to be convenient to Englishmen and Hindoos .
"We are aware that the Italian system has been applied to Hindostanee , to Fecjeean , and to Hawoian j but so far from allowing this to be a reason for its extension , we can only regret that it should have been so applied . Sir Charles Trevelyan states that the consonants remain the same in the Italian and the English systems , and the five vowels alone differ , though the difference is greater than this ; and he takes the ground that the vowels are applied in English in an extremel y irregular manner , and deprecates the adoption of any English powers . Now this is the real point on which the i 3 sue depends , for as to the general adoption of the Roman type , that is
allowed by Sir W . Jones and the old school , by Gilchriat and his school , by Sir Charles Trevelyan and the new school 6 f civilians , by the missionaries , By Professor Hewmam , b y the German philologists , and "by all the various adherents of a conformity of The question now is one of progress material to the civilisation of India , it is no question of satisfjinga few classical scholars , the German , professors of Oriental tongues , the circle of philological dilettanti who apply the Sansorit alphabet to determine Indo-European roots , or the students of the Semitic languages . These are the parties irhqse prepossessions Sir Charles Trevelyan and his adherents seek to comply with , and whose convenience they oater for , while interests of the greatest moment and all practical considerations axe , utterly disregarded . They arc now seeking to fight the battle of the Indiun languages on the ground most favourable to them , and most unfavourable to the material interests concerned ; and
thus , while we applaud the Anglo-Hihdostanee movement so far as it goes , we caution the public against being deceived by the conclusions Sir Charles Trevelyan seeks to draw from it . Hindostanee is a lingua franca with aHmdee base and a partial Arabic construction , and it has a limited old literature . The Italian system is to some extent convenient , particularly so far as Semitic forms are concerned , to apply such apparatus of technical memory as Faraga , Vatasamnvanu-a , &c ; but , even in Hindostanee , this forms but an inconsiderable matter , and the language could be conveniently worked on a system less discordant with English , and Sir Charles Trevelyan has not told us this , that though Hindostanee is so largely used in the North-Western Provinces , because it is near to the Mahometan countries , which form the gate of inroad , and are the scat of a large Mahometan population , yet over ' a great part ot India it will be difficult to find one man in a village who has even a limited knowledge of Hindostanee ; that , in fact , to nine-tenths of the vast population of India it is a foreign language , and about as essential as French in the Highlands of Scotland or in the villages of the Tyrol .
progress , to learn English . They have to contend with a difficulty which Sir Charles Trevclyan has well set before us , the extrcmclv irregular manner in which the English vowels arc represented . The boy or girl will then find that in all the essentials of English reading the alphabet he has been taught for his own vernacular , so far from helping him , will throw him into . greater confusion , being needlessly wrought xip to be as dissimilar from English as can be , and thus the irrcat aim and end of his education is materially
interfered with , anil it may be frustrated instead of being facilitated . / docs not represent the ordinary English sound , but ai- ' docs , find only once will he come across ai in-English standing ' for . A Jti , too , helps him nor , for instead of representing at / , it has , to please the Germans , been nnule . io sound oit , U is uniformly the short oo , aud so throughout fie gets no help in diphthongs or vowels , except in o . Sir Charles Trevelyau refers to the circumstance ( hat his vowels do represent some of the sounds of the English vowels , but they are those least frequent or of least importance .
There are vernacular languages in India , of Indo-European type , which are spoken each of them by more millions of people than Hindostanee , and it is with them really we liave to deal , for Ilindostauee is a foreign , artificial , and perishable language , and must die away as Persian will die in India . As the Mahometan population loses its ascendancy , as vernacular literature acquires consistency , and ns the English language and English civilisation extend , Hindostanee must die , as it , rose , the creatnre of emergencies and the victim of them . As the vernacular element strengthens the Persian and Semitic elements will decline , for the study of Persian literature must decline , and the study of Arabic for theological purposes among the . Mahometans will take the position it docs amoug the Turks and that Hebrew docs among the modern Jews . A new Hindostanee of llindee and English is arising , which will outgrow the old Hindostanee of Hindee and Arabic . " When the philological party have succeeded in establishing their Urdu-Roman to the full , then Urdu and Urdu-Koman will have reached their doom , and it is for such transitory purposes that the civilising instruments of India are to bo alloyed and warped . tlic in
now m India or who will soon be there , am ) fW or last , whichever they like , the wants of two him ch-ed millions of people , who arc destitute of the " literature of civilisation , and to whom Enn-lis K civilisation must be communicated . We wilfnow suppose that in a town iii Bengal , Assam , Madras or some hill tribe , a school has been set up by tlfc missionaries , aud that the class books are printed after the Italian system , which the children learn They have then , many or all of them , according to the extent of English intercourse , and according to their own demand for intellectual
If there were anything sacred and imimitabic in Sir "W . Jones ' s system , < ir in Sir Charles Trcvolyan ' s recent modification of it , or if it were really aud truly of European uuivorsalit v , we m \< M perhaps be less encouraged to demand that it shall receive the necessary ' improvements . ; but the alphabet has not been held sacred , and changes have teen made even from the last canon of Sir Charles Trevclyaw
and his colleagues in the Calcutta Committee , oi which two letters have been altered by the missionaries . To appeal to European uniformity is to take a shifting shadow for a standard , for the alphabet of each country has material variations , and the fashion of language changes , not only m light modifications of vowels , but . in heavy consonants , and even now 1 he sh form of the German j is beimr reduced to the softer form of the latter . It
After all , the Unglisli public ami Jingnsu India will subject the whole system to a rigid and practical test ; it will not be enough for them that one Spanish or Portuguese professor in a university lias been contented , or that two or three Mahometans in a village in Bengal or Belmr are better pleased , that Syeed Abdoollah and the moonshees have fancies and prepossessions for complicated arrangements , but the question will be how the system works with the mass of the population j and let us sco how that will be . The philologists have led us to believe that tho introduction of Roman type is an essential instrument of civilisation in India , and they have adapted it ; to an Italian model . For this Sir Charles Trevelyau quotes the authority of Sir William Jpnes , a name ever to be read with reverence , and in matters which are those of authority to bo deferred to , but in this matter Sir W . Jones himself , were he alive , would , in all likelihood , bo found opposed to his disciples . In his day , in seeking a Roman alphabet to render the Indian languages for philological purposes , he justly consulted tho sympathies of the soholars of Europe , of tho very few constituting the class of Oriental students , and without reference to English prepossessions or English convenience he adopted the Italian system . This has been received by moat scholars , but we may mention , not disrespeofcfully , that not having been found suitable for English purposes—and after all Englishmen have constituted the authorities who deal with such matters—it haa had to contend with English spoiling and with GUclirist spelling , tho authority of scholars not having been acocptcd by the muHjtudo . We have stated what were tho circumstances Sir "W , Jones had to provide for , aud wo now beg to remind Sir Charles Trovelyan and his colleagues what they have to provide for : first or last , tho wants of a hundred thousand Englishmen or more .
a student looks at the Anglo-llindostancc a pUauet he will find rh and sh as in English ; but ah ia unknown on the Continent , and eh lias the huglbn sound in Spnnish alone , being sh in Irench , an in Italian . J has the English sound , beinff » cit « i the French / , the Italian , nor Netherlandish ilou j to vowel , nor is it the Spanish jotc . //' has thcLnjylsU sound instead of the High Dutch . X hns he English sound instead of the French or SjmiibU . Thus the conformity is less orthodox than is supposed , and the service rendered to the p i J ^ g of Europe less potential . Tho service to > m Englishman and Hindoo is , however , consj dctable , and the nrnctical man is tempted to ask vlij- mow
cannot be done . _ .... „[ The two /// , vff , c , ff , en , and the nnoiimlous poncrso tho consonants , vowels , and diphthongs , ? JV ™ Hindoo student be learned after tho Jiuslw" *; ??' but he will bo sorely and needlessly puzs ct to » powers attributed to tho vowels and uiphtno " ,, J There is no philological necessity for oh , oi » being represented hfau instead of tho fcng libh Jj w valenta , and this point might bo conceded at one The representation of i by ai is another unsa ^ lncw J expedient , founded on a philological f »» % » *" causing confusion If Iho Italian party cjmurt
. concede tho * they mig ht , compromise W ™ lish dot on it , which would give tho Hindoo tho K power of y vowol . So tender , however , ju « party of conoodinff tho vowels , that t u ) ^ rcador might well imagine it was a quos ton o l silivo alphabotionl cl . araoters , instead of nflec b scrip ooiisisting of consonants , which at opr , u » i p lies the place of vowels by vowol points a J « i them out . , t lir in do . We may bo thought to have gone too iui
India And Indian Progress.
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
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¦ ¦ ¦ s ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ' " ' . - - . ¦ ¦ ' ' " ' j 1326 THE IiEADEB . [ No . 454 , December 4 , 1858 . . — ; —__ ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1858, page 1326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2271/page/22/
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