Under The Latter Head,
Acknowledgment Is Principally Due To An Able And Interesting Essay
On The Architecture Of Cashmere, By Capt.
Cunningham, and also to a
paper by M. Klaproth, both of whom appear to have treated more fully
than any other writers the subjects to which they refer.
As differences will be found to occur in the names of places,
&c. between the parts thus added and the remainder of the book,
it may be well to explain that in the former only are they spelt
according to the usually received method of rendering words of Eastern
origin in the Roman character. By this system the letters A, E, I,
O, and U, are given the sounds of the corresponding Italian vowels;
I and U are pronounced as in "hit" and "put;" and the letter A is
made to represent the short U in the word "cut." In this way it is
that Cashmere, correctly pronounced Cushmere, comes to be written
Kashmir, and Mutun, pronounced as the English word "mutton,"[1] is
written Matan, both of which, to the initiated, represent the true
sound of the words. Those who have adopted the system, however, have
not always employed it throughout, nor given with it the key by which
it alone becomes intelligible; and the result has been that in many
ways, but principally from the un-English use made of the letter A,
it has tended quite as much to mislead and confuse, as to direct.
In the narrative, therefore, wherever custom has not already
established a particular form of spelling, the explanation of the
sound has been attempted in the manner which seemed least liable to
misconception, and, except as regards the letters A and U no particular
system has been followed.
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