Introduction to the Devanagari Script for Students of Sanskrit Hindi Marathi Gujarati and Bengali by HM Lambert MA Cantab with a Fw by Prof JR Firth OBE MA (1953).pdf

INTRODUCTION TO THE

DEVANAGARI SCRIPT

FOR STUDENTS OF

SANSKRIT, HINDI, MARATHI

GUJARATI AND BENGALI

INTRODUCTION TO THE

DEVANAGARI SCRIPT

FOR STUDENTS OF .

SANSKRIT, HINDI, MARATHI

GUJARATI AND BENGALI

B Y

H. M. LAMBERT, M.A.Cantab.

Senior Lecturer

in Marathi

(Maharaja

Gaekwad's

Lectureship)

in the School of Oriental

and African

Studies,

University

London

WITH A

FOREWORD

PROFESSOR J. R. FIRTH, O.B.E.,

M. A.

Professor of General Linguistics

in the University

of London

GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

PRESS

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C 4

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON

BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI CAPE TOWN IBADAN

Geoffrey Cumberlege, Publisher to the

University

First

published

1953

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

FOREWORD

I T is a commonplace of linguistics to acknowledge t h e debt we owe to the ancient Indian

grammarians and to couple with it the name of Sir William Jones. It was he who first

set a proper value on the Devanagari and Arabic scripts in his dissertation as President

of the Asiatic S o c i e t y of Bengal on the Orthography of Asiatic Words in Roman Letters.

His chart of suggested symbols for the transliteration of the Devanagari, with the

addition of letters for Arabic and Persian, is the first presentation of what may be called

a phonetic alphabet on such a scale. He finds the Arabic alphabet almost perfect for

Arabic itself:—

'Not a letter c o u l d be added or t a k e n a w a y without manifest inconvenience. The same m a y

indubitably b e said of t h e D e v a n a g a r i system, w h i c h , as it is m o r e n a t u r a l l y a r r a n g e d t h a n a n y o t h e r ,

shall here b e t h e standard of m y particular o b s e r v a t i o n s o n Asiatic letters. O u r English alphabet

and o r t h o g r a p h y are disgracefully a n d almost r i d i c u l o u s l y imperfect.'

He aims at using diacritics common in Europe rather than new letters—and symbols from

'fluxions' or mathematics—so as to equal the Devanagari itself in precision and clearness.

A system of writing and spelling is the foundation of a system of grammar. Meillet

went so far as to say that the foundations of the science of grammar were laid by the

Indians. For all languages employing forms of the Devanagari script, the writing system

and the spelling carry implications of phonological analysis and statement. They are at

once practice and theory and deserve the first attentions of all students. This is well

illustrated in Miss Lambert's work on the Devanagari script, and it will be agreed that

the presentation of the phonological patterns, such as 'junctions' occurring in words or

arising out of 'sandhi' in Sanskrit, and other characteristic patterns in the modern

languages, is clear, systematic, and original, and particularly interesting in Bengali.

The treatment of conjunct characters in the third chapter of each section is new,

and apart from its intrinsic interest may be taken as an indication of what is lost when

the structure of the Devanagari system is superseded by the usual roman trans-

literations. In addition to this study of the writing system, attention is rightly given

here to calligraphy, for the practice of the hand is an obligation no less compelling

than that of the tongue and both are expressions not only of courteous relations but of

disciplined knowledge.

Miss Lambert has consistently applied the All-India Roman Alphabet to all five

languages in order to make comparison possible whether the languages are known to the

student or not. This treatment could be extended to the Dravidian languages. By this

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