2. For Egyptian names known to us through the Greek, both the Greek and the Egyptian form (as Cheops and Shufu) should be given, with a reference from the one which is not chosen for the main entry.
3. Biblical names are to be written as we find them in the English Bible, and the names of post-Biblical Jews, if derived from the Scriptures, should retain their Anglicized form. On the other hand, a strict transliteration is demanded of rabbinical and other more or less pure Hebrew names which are not taken from Scriptures, and therefore have no popular English forms, to which, again, there is an exception in the case of a few celebrated Jewish authors, as Maimonides, where an un-Hebrew form has been fully adopted in English literature.
East Indian names have such long accepted forms that it might well be doubted whether it will do to use any others. Cashmere, Mooltan, Jellaleddin, Punjaub, have taken their places in literature and in the popular mind. Nevertheless, as the better system which writes Kashmir, Multan, Jalal ud Din, Panjab, is now adopted in most histories, in all official documents, among others in Hunter’s great statistical dictionary of Bengal, it is evident that it is the coming method, and, in accordance with the {109} principles already laid down, we are inclined to recommend this spelling rather than the clumsy English fashion of the last generation.
All other Asiatic and African names should be transliterated according to the rules of the Royal Geographical Society, which we quote here from their Proceedings for August, 1885 (pp. 535, 536).
The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have adopted the following rules for such geographical names as are not, in the countries to which they belong, written in the Roman character. These rules are identical with those adopted for the Admiralty charts, and will henceforth be used in all publications of the society:—
1. No change will be made in the orthography of foreign names in countries which use Roman letters: thus, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc., names will be spelt as by the respective nations.
2. Neither will any change be made in the spelling of such names in languages which are not written in Roman character as have become by long usage familiar to English readers: thus, Calcutta, Cutch, Celebes, Mecca, etc., will be retained in their present form.
3. The true sound of the word, as locally pronounced, will be taken as the basis of the spelling.
4. An approximation, however, to the sound is alone aimed at. A system which would attempt to represent the more delicate inflections of sound and accent would be so complicated as only to defeat itself.
5. The broad features of the system are, that vowels are pronounced as in Italian and consonants as in English.