New-York daily tribune., 1844-08-09

INDIAN NAMES Hon. Caleb Cushing's Let.
ters from the East, TO the American National
Institute, published in the National Inteigen-
Ger. In conclusion, permit me to suhjpin few
words of explanation III regard TO the name OF
Bombay. Europeans in gencrsl, and the Eng
dish not least, have iravestlcd all the proper
names, sometimes from original mlsapprehcnSion
as to the true name, but more frequently from
the laundering diversity of writing and spelling
which grows UP in the attempt to translate the
letters of foreign language into ones own.-
Our language is above all others, capTicous and
uncertain in its pronunciation. Nobody could
guess the true pronunciation of such PLAN names
as Beaufort and Bc,vor, 20 say nothing of Choi
mondilly and Marloribanks. Yet these are ia
mar Eaglish names. How much greater the
difficulty in Asiatic names, alike stranger to the
eve and the eay Oitentimes 1t happens that the
name we use is the translation nj translation
and thus involves the accustomed blundcrs OF
successive stages of transition. Thus many Ci
the Asatc names were brought TO Europe by
French or Portuguese, who cnGeavornd to repre-
sent the sound by letters OF The a phabet accord
ing to their pronunciatlon; and then we adopt
their letters but pronounce them as If they
our letters Sometimes we thus translate u name
originally false, through two q. three languages
Thus, there is people IN AFRICA, Tor instance,
who have very good name of their own, and
who, being long descended Christians, our elders
If not our bettors In that respect, would seem 10
be entitled to pass IN tho world by name oi their
own selection. Bnt the Arabs had given them
the nickname of Ha6esk, (half breeds.) in ailu
sion to their blood, mixed OF Arabic and African :;
this was atinizsd into Abysslnia ana we perse
vere in despite of their renons,ance, to Gail them
Abyssinians This case originally one OF
IL IS
is pardonable. But, Of the inuumerabIe cases Of
mere laundering, some are unpardonabc, because
gratui,ous and voluntary. 1hu,, when one find,
the word Seinds in an English book, who cun
guess what II implies Whether it be word OF
two syllables or OF one2 Whether the object o.
the ,s to lengthen the i Whether the has
any d'stinet sound2 If so, wis, that sound is
If not, why i, is put there : Atterward, il h,
happen TO see the word speit Simply ana naturall,
Sindh, a new light breaks upon him, and he i
vexed at the folly of these who, with the means
OF knowing and doing better, had so foolishly pro,
pagated the custom Of spelling il Scinde Hap
PLY, this case was a remed,able one. Blu, the
blundcr is now i!retfierab.e by which Calcst,
has been transmitted into Calcutta, Colico6u into
Calicut, Udaya pura into Odeypoor, Jayapura mo
Jeypoor Vnruni into Bofnco. Gunga into Ganprs.
Ayodhya into Dude, Mandirrol into Madras, Go.
vay into Goa, Cholomandata into Coromsnee
Cnitradurgs into Chttledroog, Jasar into Jessnre.
Surashta into Surat, Bargosha into Broach.
Cach'ha into Clutch, and B0nbadeviiuto Bombay.
One Of the rocky points OF Bombay was Inc an
cient site of a fame 10 the lud!an goddess Bomos
6evi. OF cid, 1t was not raro III India fur The
name Of the shrine of the divinity to pass 10 ii,
place in which il WAS situated, and thus 1t hap.
pened in this instance.