Pahlavi letters. With these alterations the passage may be translated as follows:—
Ep. II, ii, 9. 'And there may be a position of the stars, settled even by computers of the stars, when they would take that of the sun and moon from the tables of Shatro-ayâr, that of Saturn from the Hindû tables, and that of Mars from the tables of Ptolemy, and the position comes out very good, and they are able to speak of the maturity of strength undoubtedly brought on. 10. That this is to be seen as an occurrence is a conjunction which is not possible; because, if the tables of Shatro-ayâr be exact, yet, since its Saturn and Mars are not from the tables, the effect is not a good configuration; if the Hindû tables be correct, yet, since its sun, moon, and Mars are not from those tables, the effect is not good; and if the tables of Ptolemy be correct, yet, since its sun, moon, and Saturn are not from those tables, the effect is not good; on account of which the conjunction is not correct in any way; they believe it possible, however, for a firm mind to accomplish this auspicious labour. 11. But they say the just and wise are making the decision that this would be a very good position, because that which is in the tables of Shatro-ayâr is truly issuing from him, the great Shatro-ayâr; and that of Shatro-ayâr, being better through the tables of Ptolemy, remains that employed.'
In conclusion, it is desirable to make some remarks upon the transliteration of Pahlavi, because it is necessary to express not only the various sounds of the letters of a very deficient alphabet, but also the mode of writing several abbreviated compounds which are quite as essential to the correct orthography of Pahlavi as the forms of the separate letters themselves. For this purpose italics are used to indicate not only a few differences of sound from the usual English pronunciation of consonants, but also different letters having the same sound, and letters abbreviated in the writing of compounds. When the abbreviated letter is already italicised, the preceding short vowel (which is not expressed in Pahlavi writing) is also italicised to indicate the abbreviation, or an apostrophe is introduced between the two consonants when no short vowel sound intervenes. Hyphens are used both to connect the components of compound words, which are often written
