It is one of the curses of Central Asiatic linguistic research that no language of this meeting-place of nations can be studied without reference tothe history of its neighbours and predecessors, which often belong to entirely different linguistic families. It is therefore only persons of singular erudition, or, like ourselves, of that hardihood which is bred of ignorance, who venture to dogmatize on any really difficult question of Central Asiaticphonetics or lexicography.