The spoken languages of northern India are very various, differing one from another in the sort of degree that English differs from German, though all are thoroughly Sanskritic in their vocables, but with an absence of Sanskrit grammar that has given rise to considerable discussion.
The languages of the south are Dravidian, not Sanskritic. The letters of both classes of languages, which also vary considerably, are all modifications of the ancient Pali, and probably derived from the Dravidians, not from the Aryans.
The letters, which are a form of the Indian Sanskrit characters of that period, follow the same arrangement as their Sanskritic prototype.
Tonmi introduced the modified Sanskritic " writing in thirty characters " (already detailed under Language and six of which do not exist in Sanskrit) in two styles - the " thick letters " or " letters with heads " (u-ch'en), now commonly used in printed books, and the half-cursive " cornered letters," so called from their less regular heads.
