Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page xi
Publisher’s Note xi ع ‘ – a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear. غ gh – a sound similar to the French r in grasseye , and to the German r. It requires the muscles of the throat to be in the ‘gar- gling’ position to pronounce it. ق q – a deep guttural k sound. ء ’ – a sort of catch in the voice. Short vowels are represented by: a for __ َ ___ (like u in bud). i for __ ِ ___ (like i in bid ). u for __ ُ ___ (like oo in wood). Long vowels by: a for __ ٰ ___ or آ (like a in father ). i for ی __ ِ ___ or __ ٖ ___ (like ee in deep ). u for و __ ُ ___ (like oo in root ). Other vowels by: ai for ی __ َ ___ (like i in site ). au for و __ َ ___ (resembling ou in sound ). The consonants not included in the above list have the same phonetic value as in the principal languages of Europe. While the Arabic ن is represented by n , we have indicated the Urdu ں as ń. As noted above, the single quotation mark ‘ is used for transliterating ع which is dis- tinct from the apostrophe ’ used for ء. We have not transliterated some Arabic words which have become part of English language, e. g. , Islam, Quran, Hadith, Mahdi, jihad, Ramadan and ummah. The Royal Asiatic Society’s rules of