008 ON THE PERMUTATIONS OF THE LETTERS.

19. There are, at present, very few native works in this language that can, either as it respects orthography or manner of writing, lay claim to the character of even tolerably good Malayalim. The native scholars, in general, affect a knowledge of the Sanscrit, and aim to show it in their works: for this purpose the poetic style is usually adopted; and to make up the number of their syllables, grammar, idiom, and sense are sacrificed; words and phrases are borrowed from the Sanscrit and Tamil languages; letters are added or omitted; words are transposed and made to run into each other, so that a great deal of what they write is mere high sounding jargon; and it requires much practice to understand that part of it which has a meaning.
But besides affectation of style, knavery has a large share in this mystifying art; the object being to keep the people in ignorance, and consequently in dependance on the Brahmins, who for the most part are the authors, translators, and expounders of their writings.
20. But, though such a practice is worse than unnecessary, and cannot be too much deprecated, yet the nature of this language does, to a certain extent, require that changes should take place in the letters; and without exhausting the patience of the Student in noticing niceties that may be more easily learned by practice as they occur in the course of his studies; the following rules are submitted to assist him to ascertain how such changes are effected.