The Sindi and Multani alphabets have sonic old letters from the Indian several characters borrowed from the Gurumulthi or Gujerati alpha bets, overlaid by the Devanagari.
Three alphabets are used in Tibet, namely, the ecclesiastical Utshen or Dvoujam, primitive forms which are said to have been cut on wooden blocks for printing in the 7th century ; the Umin, from the northern alphabet of India, is a cursive form ; and the Khyugagi is still more so.
The Kchab or Passepa is said to have been in vented by the Grand Lama Bachspa (Pa-sse-pa), in A.D. 1259, during the reign of Kublai Khan. Five of the letters added to the Mongol Galik alphabet are still used by the Kalmuks on the Lower Volga.
The Dravidian alphabets of Southern India were derived from the character of the western cave temples, and as early as the 4th century A.D. This gave birth to separate types. The first of tlwse, represented by the inscriptions of tho Vengi tuul Chalukya dynasties of the Dekhan, was the source of the Telugu aud Canarese alphabets ; while from the other, represented by tho Cera inscriptions, proceeded the Tamil alphabet, the Tulu, the Malealam, and the Grantha or book alphabet, used by the Tatnil 13rahmans for the Sanskrit transcriptions of their sacred books. From it are derived two vernacular alphabets in use on the 3falabar coast ; ono is the Tulu Gmntha and the other the .Malealam, from which several characters were borrowed by the Christians of SL Thomas in order to supplement the Syria (Karshwai) alphabet which they obtained from the Nestorian missionaries.
Several of the Tamil letters are supposed to have been obtained from the ancient Vatteluttu or Vattezbattu, which is still in use by the Moplali of S. .Malabar.
Maldive alphabets are two. The old Dewehi Hakura is derived from the Dravidian alphabets of the mainland. It is written from left to right, aud is still in use in the Southern Atolls. Tho newer alphabet of the Northern Atolls is called the Gabali Tana, and is written from right to left like the Nashki alphabets. Nine of its 18 letters are merely Gobar or Arabic ciphers with phonetic values assigned to them ; the other 9 seem to be Telugu-Canarese numerals.
Singhalese has au isolated alphabet of the Pali class, but modified by early Grantha influence& It is confiued to the southern half of Ceylon, Tamil occupying the northern.
Burma, Siam, Pegu, and Cambodia employ the Pali alphabet in conjunction with another character apparently of somewhat different origin.
There are three Burmese forms. These are essentially identical, but are very dissimilar in appearance. They are the Kyoult-tsa or stone writing. The square Pali is used in their sacred books ; and the Tsa-lonli or round is their ordinary writing, and is scratched on palm leaves.
The Situnese use the square Pali for their sacred books, but have an elegant cursory character for ordinary use.
The Lao, a Siamese race, aa also the Cam bodians, have two alphabets,--tut ecclesiastical and a secular.
The Lepcha or Bong alphabet, used by the people of Sikkim, is supposed to belong to the Ahom group.
The Annan:few possess a script which has been adopted from the Chinese plionograins.
Tho Eastern Archipelago languago are very numerous. Mr. A. R. Wallace utunes 59 of them, but tho writing characters are only eight or at most nine iu number. The Javanese alphabet, like all others in the Archipelago, is written from left to right, each letter is distinct and un connected, and the writing is perpendicular and not slanting. It is the character used for the Javanese proper, the Sunda, the Bali, and it is believed tho Lombok, and including Palembang in Sumatra ; it is current among twelve millions of population.
In Sumatra, beginning from the west, the first evidence of a native written character is among the Battak, and it is singular that a nation of cannibals should possess the knowledge of letters. There was assuredly nothing of the kind in Europe or continental Asia until long after men had ceased to eat each other. The form of the Battak letters is horizontal.
The Korinchi alphabet, among the people of this name in Sumatra who border on Menangka bau, has 29 characters and consists of horizontal or slightly raised scratehings.