Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group

CHAKMi OS CaiTTA&ONG HTT.T, T24CTS. 323

When these vowels commence a word, the non-initial forms are attached to the
tetter *JQ a as a kind of scaffolding for the support of the sound, exactly as alif is
used in Arabic. We thus obtain the following forms :—

*», ^j? °JJ **»

•^.Stm dm 5*5, fttofGcrZ**™

Note, however, that the initial form of ai is (S DO* not .

Sometimes vowels take special forms when initial. Thus we have for initial * in

£ VJ itefoA«ra, rejoicing, instead of sy^\ VJ. ;por initial f, we sometimes have

5 as in £jp O **>&> I. instead of C 0 . Sometimes the form or is used,

attached to a preceding consonant, as in £ ty**~£ *>&&*, much. In the latter case
may be omitted, as in fl^} for Q ^* ^nflt> having S0116" Sixni"

larly CO^f^y stands for <?fcw*i, not af»a*.

The sign *— is also used to denote the doubling of a letter as inQO *V^r O3> T

in the field ; 2r i^ whchwa, rejoicing.
When the letter Y^* y& is compounded with a consonant, it takes the form J
as in OQJ *y5* anyone, In similar circumstances, ^y r&9 takes the form V_p
in gjj ^p Ctt wwM* ft minister. Other compound consonants present no diffi-

culties.
The letter ch is often pronounced as *, and when this is the case, it is so trans-
literated. Thus<£ t?%iJ &* not beck.
It is not necessary to give a detailed account of Chakma Grammar, which closely
resembles that of Chittagong. The following remarks will suffice:—<•
Cerebral letters are regularly converted to dentals. Numerous examples will be
found in the specimens. We may quote, ddU for ddki, having called ; then for then,
a leg; anudi for anguthl, a ring; ghadaki, a matchmaker, for ghataki; and so on.
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