cases

Bombay, and in Madras. A 'tank' does not mean a rectangular masonry-lined reservoir:-that sort of tank is no doubt common, but mostly for bathing or in connection with a sacred place or temple. The irrigation tank is in fact a suitable soil-depression, storing up the rain and drainage water, and varying in size from a pond filling the upper part of a small valley, to a vast lake covering hundreds of acres. The tank is closed in by an embankment of earth and masonry, or both. In some this is an enormous work, and the bursting of it is the cause of great destruction to agriculture. The 'tank' is always so situated that the rain water reaches it by flowing down all the water-courses, hill-sides, &c. of the neighbouring hills-it is in fact the catchment area of the high land. An escape is afforded in case the water threatens to overtop the embankment. In some cases the tank represents a lake which is never dry: in others, the whole of the water is run off or dries up early in the season, and the bed, enriched with slime, and moistened by the previous soaking of the water, is ploughed up and cultivated.

87. Orthography of Vernacular Names.

The mention of Indian provinces and some of their general features has already led me to introduce local terms, and this again suggests the question of the method of writing the native names of places, and the words indicating tenures, offices, and persons, and how far the use of such terms untranslated is permissible. Two methods of writing are possible-one is to endeavour to represent the word as pronounced, by writing it phonetically or with such English letters and syllables as the writer thinks will convey the desired sound. The other is to transliterate the real word into Roman letters. Unfortunately for the first method, English vowels (at any rate) have no uniform value or sound maintained under all circumstances:. hence it is impossible to be sure what sound is meant to be represented. Especially in the case of out-of-the-way'

words. It is only a limited number of words that can be phonetically written with fair certainty. The method therefore neither gives the true word, nor does it give the real pronunciation, because hardly two people would read the combination of letters in the same way. I have adopted then, perforce, the other plan, wherever possible. I give the vernacular word transliterated into the Roman character1. At any rate this represents the true word, though it does not indicate the pronunciation.

But this latter is of little consequence, because the value of the vernacular vowels being fixed and uniform, the student has only to master a very few rules or principles in order to pronounce quite accurately enough to be intelligible. And I wish at once to give the necessary instructions applicable to the reading of the vernacular terms throughout the book. Speaking generally, the words are read as if they were Italian-or with the 'continental' sound to the vowels. The short vowels are printed plain, the long (or broad sound) vowels have an accent. Thus :Uniformly sounded as

Of the other vowels 'e' is always like the French e in 'tête,' so that the Hindi word 'pet' (= stomach) is pronounced like the English word 'pate,' and not like the word 'pet,' and an accent is not ordinarily required. In a few instances, I have put an accent on the (é) so as to remind the reader. And in Southern Indian names I have always added the accent, because there they use a short ě sound as well as the long é.

'O' also needs no accent; it is always long as in 'depôt,' not as in 'pot.' Thus we speak of Gônd tribes-Goand, not short as in pond.'

1 In order to indicate the origin of the terms, a capital letter is often added: thus P. means the word

VOL. I.

с

is Persian; Pj. means Panjábí; A Arabic, S. Sanskrit, and H. a Hindi dialect.

Of the diphthongs, 'ai' is always pronounced like the English 'eye' (not like 'jay'). 'Au' is as in 'bough' (not as in 'awe').

As regards the accented and plain vowels, short 'a has the sound of 'a' in 'organ,' never of 'a' in 'pan.' As this vowel naturally inheres in every Sanskrit or Hindi consonant, it is constantly occurring, and attention to this one rule will almost secure a tolerable enunciation of words. 'Parasú-Rámá,' e.g., must be read like the English syllables purr-us-soo-Râmâ, and not as if it were the English 'parasol' or 'rammer.'

The accented 'á' is always broad. 'Alláhábáď has all the 'a's,' except the first, as in the French 'gâteau' or Italian lago.'

The 'i' is as in the English pit,' and the accented 'í' as our 'ee,' or 'ea' in 'cheat'; thus, Pitiká (Pity-kah), Pilibhit (Pee-lee-bheet).

The 'u' is always as in 'push' or 'put,' never as in 'jug,' 'pug' (which latter sounds would be supplied by short 'a,' without any accent, as above described).

The accented ú' is always as our 'oo' and never the 'you' sound peculiar to English. Thus read' Telugu' as Teloogoo, not as 'Tell-you-gou,' and 'púram' as in 'poor,' not 'pure.'

Of consonants little need be said. The ordinary reader need not attempt the niceties of sound; but I may mention a general distinction in t's and d's (which are very common letters), viz. that some are dental (pronounced with a touch of the tongue against the teeth), and others palatal (touch against the palate). The latter are distinguished by a dot under the letter.

These dots will however not concern the ordinary student, and are retained for the use of those who are going to learn the vernacular dialects regularly.

'Th' is not sounded in any Indian dialect as a sibilant (i.e. likethin' or 'that'). It is simply a hard 't' with a slight aspirate after it.

The gutturals 'kh' and 'gh' of Arabic and Persian words

are indicated by drawing a line under the two letters, thus— 'kh' and 'gh' (pronounced like ' loch' in Scotch).

The Arabic consonant 'ain is a sound the student need not trouble himself to try and pronounce; it is hardly noticed except in writing, and is represented by the apostrophe (or by a') at the end of a word. Thus 'jama' =a total sum; ra'íyat=a subject, a cultivating tenant, 'mu'áf'=pardoned.

As there are two letters 'k' in the Perso-Arabic alphabet, one distinguished by the long 'tail' and the other by two diacritical points, in the native character,-I use 'k' for the former, and 'q' (without any conventional 'u' added) for the latter.

The letter 'y' is always a consonant, and is never used as a vowel in transliterating.

When an 'n' is intended to be merely a nasal intonation, not a distinct letter, it is written with a dot 'n' and then it is hardly sounded: e.g. gánw=a village, which is pronounced like 'gow' with a nasal intonation.

'G' is always hard, never as in 'gin,' which would be the 'j'sound. I have only to add that these instructions suffice for all words in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Hindustání, Bengálí, Maráthí, &c., i. e. for Northern, Eastern, Western and Central India, and to a great extent in Madras also. But in this latter Presidency there are several separate languages-Tamil, Telugu, Canarese and Malayalam; there are also many names which are virtually Anglicized, and I have not knowledge enough-if any change were desirable-to restore a strict transliteration. In Burma also the language is wholly different, with a variety of additional vowel-sounds, and a transliteration system has not yet been fixed. In writing about that province I could, therefore, only adopt the common spelling; but the native words I have used are very few, and by giving accented vowels the value above assigned, no great error will be perceptible.

§ 8. Retention of Anglicized Names.

Where a name of a river or place has become thoroughly English, I have retained the familiar form, indicating (if it is known) the real vernacular word in brackets. It would be affectation to ignore the common 'Calcutta' (Kalkaṭṭa or Kálíghát ?), 'Cawnpore' (Káhanpur 1), Oudh (Awadh 2), Lucknow (Lakhnau), Sutlej River (Satlaj), Sylhet (Srihaṭṭa or Silhaṭṭ), Chittagong (Cháṭṭágráon) Lahore (Láhaur), &c. The names of Burmese towns-Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein, Mandalay, again, are virtually English words;—they have hardly any recognizable connection with the local vernacular names, and I have retained them as they are.

In conclusion, I may say that if the student will only remember to give the 'continental' sound to his vowels, giving the accented vowels their broad or full sound, he will be able before he has finished a chapter, to read all the Indian names without hesitation, and quite correctly enough. to be intelligible. Indian students will, on the other hand, have the real words, so that they can look them up in dictionaries and glossaries 3.

89. Employment of Vernacular terms.

A few remarks have also to be made about the use of vernacular terms-other than the names of places. A great number of vernacular revenue terms have not only come into use in the common speech of the people, but have been adopted into official language-many of them

1 The name is derived from Kähn or Kahan, one of the names of the god Krishna (city of Káhn), and not the Persian Khún, as sometimes said.

But the word should be pronounced Owd,' not 'Ood,' as I have heard done (i.o. as in proud— not prude).

'I can assure the reader that not the least part of the very great labour of getting up these volumes

has been the endeavour to trace the real form of vernacular words fancifully spelt (and rendered absolutely unintelligible) by the writers of Reports and text-books, especially the earlier ones. I have had to conjecture of half-a-dozen possible sounds which was right, and search and search again in dictionaries till I found it. Even so, I fear there may be several mistakes.