The Institutes of Akbar 7: Remark by the Author.

7

As I had sometimes to use Hindi words, I have carefully described the consonants and vowels. Enquirers will therefore have no difficulty in reading; nor will any confusion arise from mistakes in copying. Letters like alif, lám, and a few more, are sufficiently clear from their names. Some letters I have distinguished as manqútah, and letters similar in form, without such a limitation. Letters which are purely Persian, have been distinguished as such; thus the p in padíd, the ché in chaman, the gáf in nigár, the zh in muzhdah. Sometimes I have added to the names of these letters, the phrase having three points. Letters peculiar to the Hindi language I have distinguished as Hindi. The letter yá, as in rí, I have called tahtání, and the té, as in dast, fawqání. The b in adab, I have merely called bé. Similarly, the letters nún, wáw, yá, and hé, when clearly sounded, have been merely described as nún, wáw, &c. The nasal nún I have called nún i khafí, or nún i pinhán. The final and silent h, as in farkhundah, I have called maktúb, i. e., written, but not pronounced. The y and w, when modified to é or ó, I have called majhúl. As consonants followed by an alif have the vowel a, it was not necessary to specify their vowels.