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I have departed in some particulars from the system almost unanimously adopted by Sanskrit and Arabic scholars, with a view to avoiding symbols which would probably confuse the ordinary reader. All these Oriental words will be pronounced with reasonable accuracy if the consonants are given their ordinary English pronunciation, and if the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. The following digraphs represent single sounds:—ch, dh, gh, kh, sh and th.

ch is to be pronounced as in church.

dh in Arabic words as th in this, or as z.

gh is a guttural, heavier than the Scotch ch in loch.

kh is to be pronounced as the Scotch ch in loch.

When these combinations are not digraphs, a · is placed between the two letters, as in rat·ha (to be pronounced răt-ha, not rath-a) and Is·haq (to be pronounced Is-haq, not Ish-aq). In Arabic words’ is used for the hamza (produced by a compression of the upper part of the windpipe, and practically the French h aspirée), ‘for the guttural ‘ain (produced in Arabic by a more violent compression of the windpipe, and voiced, but in Egypt and Persia practically equivalent to the hamza), and q for the deeper k which approximates to g as in gay.

Certain consonants are written with diacritical marks in order to enable the Arabic scholar to restore the written word.¹

The vowels e and o in Skr. words are always long.