INTRODUCTORY NOTES
NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION
Vowel-Sounds
| a has the sound of a in ‘woman.’ ā has the sound of a in ‘father.’ e has the vowel-sound in ‘grey.’ i has the sound of i in ‘pin.’ ī has the sound of i in ‘police.’ o has the sound of o in ‘bone.’ u has the sound of u in ‘bull.’ ū has the sound of u in ‘flute.’ ai has the vowel sound in ‘mine.’ au has the vowel sound in ‘house.’ |
It should be stated that no attempt has been made to distinguish between the long and short sounds of e and o in the Dravidian languages, which possess the vowel-sounds in ‘bet’ and ‘hot’ in addition to those given above. Nor has it been thought necessary to mark vowels as long in cases where mistakes in pronunciation were not likely to be made.
Consonants
Most Indian languages have different forms for a number of consonants, such as d, t, r, &c., marked in scientific works by the use of dots or italics. As the European ear distinguishes these with difficulty in ordinar pronunciation, it has been considered undesirable to embarrass the leader with them; and only two notes are required. In the first place, the Arabic k, a strong guttural, has been represented by k instead of q, which is often used. Secondly, it should be remarked that aspirated consonants are common; and, in particular, dh and th (except in Burma) never have the sound of th in ‘this’ or ‘thin,’ but should be pronounced as in ‘woodhouse’ and ‘boathook.’
