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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
The foundation for the following remarks, or the text, as it were, on which I shall comment, will be Mr. Erskine's very learned and curious essay “on the sacred books and religion of the Pársís.” My opinion, it is true, differs almost entirely from that of Mr. Erskine; but I feel convinced that neither this truly liberal and amiable scholar, nor the Literary Society, will be displeased at seeing the same object represented in two different points of view. Either of the opposite opinions, or perhaps both of them, may be false, and yet the discussion of the subject may effect a step towards that truth and clearness which are the noble ends of every reasonable inquiry. But should you think my remarks fall too far short of this object, or are otherwise too crude and imperfect, I beg you will pardon the attempt, and purify the pages in the favourite element of the Pársís.
* Vide Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society, vol. ii. p. 295.
† Or fire worshippers.
* Vide Anquetil du Perron's “Vie de Zoroastre,” in his Zendavesta, page 2, note 1.
† In his Treatise on the “Orthography of Asiatic words,” fourth specimen.
‡ P. 309, c. 25, in vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay.
* As I have no where seen a correct Zend alphabet, I shall here go through that given by Anquetil in the Zendavesta, tom. ii, p. 24Google Scholar, in Mem. de l'Académie des Belles Lettres, tom. xxxi, and repeated in Meninski's Thesaurus, introd. tab. 2 (second edition), in order to show what original character I mean by each of the letters mentioned in the text already, or occurring in the words to be quoted in the following lines. His No. 1 is short a or u, according to Gilchrist's system, but note e; No. 2 is b, No. 3 is t, and No. 4 is the English j, or French dj; No. 5 contains two distinct letters, as I infer from finding them used in different words, and never confounded in any good manuscript; the latter character I take for q, or the Arab 
; the former for the same letter aspirated qh, that is to say 
because I have observed that the line which makes the lower part of the figure even in other letters, denotes aspiration. No 6 contains four characters, which make three distinct letters: the first is the common d; the second I would express by the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic 
, it is never confounded, though sometimes regularly interchanged with d; the two last characters are only various modes of writing the same letter, viz. th, formed from t by the sign of aspiration just mentioned. Nos. 7 and 8 are the English letters r and z, not the German z or ts. No. 9 is a kind of s, corresponding to the first s in Nagari 
: I would express it in European characters by ç, because it is usually changed to c or k in connected languages; for instance, the Sanscrit paçah, Zend paçus, is the Latin peçus, &c. No. 10 exhibits three characters: the first is the common s, but frequently confounded with the last or sh, because in Pahlavíit is used for sh, and Pahlaví has been more familiar than Zend to the copyists of the Zendavesta for a considerable period; in the oldest manuscripts, however, they are pretty accurately distinguished. The character in the middle appears in the best manuscripts in such a form that it is evidently composed of s (the first of No. 10) and k (No. 13). Of course it is not to be considered as a single letter, but as sk; sometimes, however, it is confounded with sh. No. 11 is the Arab 
. Nos. 12 and 13 are the common Europeans f and k. No. 14 contains two characters: the former is the common hard g, the latter I suppose to be a mere mistake, as I never met with any such figure for any kind of g. No. 15 is our m. No. 16 is an aspirated m, formed by joining the line of aspiration to the simple m; but as it is written indifferently either in this way or with the two distinct characters hm (Nos. 19 and 15), it can scarcely be considered but as an abbreviation. No. 17 is our n. No. 18 contains two different characters, of distinct use and signification: the latter is the common English and Danish v hard, the former is the soft English w, in the beginning of words, for in the middle the same sound is expressed by the character No. 35, to which, of course, this ought to have been transposed. No. 19 is the strong English and Danish h. No. 20 is the consonant y expressed with two different figures, both of which are only used in the beginning of words. No. 21 exhibits, in the first place, the same consonant y as written in the middle of words; in the second place, the vowel i long. No. 22 is the English sh, French tch, and Swedisli k, before a, i, y, ä and ö; I would rather express it with c alone, always to be pronounced as the Italian ce, ci, because in Sanscrit, and many other Indian languages, it occurs aspirated, and ought then to be written ch in analogy with j, jh, k, kh, g, gh, &c. No. 23 is p. No. 24 is ch, or the French j. No. 25 is the vowel i short (not e), corresponding to the long i already mentioned (No. 21). The next number has two characters, representing two different short vowels; the former is the Italian, German, and Danish u short, the English oo in book, good, &c.; the latter is the common o short. No. 27 is the vowel ó long, corresponding to the short o just mentioned. No. 28 exhibits two different vowels: the former is the Danish œ short, the English ea in measure, or a in can, fancy; French è in après, &c., German ä short: I prefer writing it with œ diphthong, because it occurs frequently long, which must be marked with an accent above, but this requires that the character should have no other mark or accent before hand. It is also, both short and long, written in this way in several other languages; for instance, Greenlandic, Singhalese,(a) &c. The long œ, which has been quite overlooked by Anquetil, is written in Zend with the same character as the short, only protracted considerably downwards to the left. The other figure under No. 28, is the common e, with the same sound as in Sanscrit, Italian, and other Indian and European languages. No. 29 is a nasal a, which I would express with the Polish 
(a) not with an, from which syllable it is very different. No. 30 is a nasal consonant, different from the clear n (No. 17). As it never occurs in the beginning of a word, it might without confusion be expressed with the capital N in a small size, corresponding to the bulk of the other letters. No. 31 contains two other different nasal consonants, of which the latter may be compared to the Sanscrit 
and expressed with g, the other to the Sanscrit 
and expressed with j. No. 32 is the vowel ú long, the English oo in moon, corresponding to the short u already mentioned (No. 26 first place). No. 33 is á long. No. 34 is a kind of strong or aspirated t, which I compare with the Arab 
, and express with the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic p, it agrees with po, the ninth letter in the Armenian alphabet, but is quite different from the above-mentioned th (No. 6 last place), which is formed from t by joining to it the sign of aspiration. No. 35 is w in the middle of words as explained already. Next to this is a diphthong apparently composed of long á and a short œ, but commonly pronounced as áo; at all events, it is no single letter of the alphabet. The following is the syllable ah (not ch), and the last represents the two letters st (not sht). But as it may be more pleasing to get a view of the alphabet as it is, than to go through the numberless mistakes and misrepresentations of Anquetil, I shall subjoin a Zend alphabet, reformed according to the above observations. The letters seem naturally divided into three different classes, as follows:
(a) Vide Callaway's Dictionary, Colombo 1821.
(a)This character represents the nasal sound of the vowel in Polish; as, for instance, b 
d 
“I shall be,” would be pronounced like bindin in French.
* The Zend word Zarapustris is an adjective declined, as paitis, as might be said in Latin Zoroastrianus.
† The Zend verb governs the dative, not the accusative, as the Latin Veneror.
* Vide Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, vol.ii. p. 170.
† Sir Wm. Jones has already observed many more letters in these inscriptions. “In five of them,” says he, in his Discourse on the Persians, “the letters which are separated by points, may be reduced to forty; at least I can distinguish no more essentially different.” The remaining two letters did not occur, perhaps, in the five inscriptions he examined.