The Essence of Islam – Volume V — Page viii
lowing system adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society. ث ح خ ذ. JNN I I I I N ص ض b b ع غ ق is at the beginning of a word, pronounced as a, i, u preceded by a very slight aspiration, like h in the. English word 'honour'. th, pronounced like th in the English word 'thing'. ḥ, a guttural aspirate, stronger than h. kh, pronounced like the Scotch ch in 'loch'. dh, pronounced like the English th in ‘that”. s, strongly articulated s. ḍ, similar to the English th in 'this'. t, strongly articulated palatal t. 2, strongly articulated z. ', a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear. gh, a sound approached very nearly in the r ‘grasseye' in French, and in the German r. It requires the muscles of the throat to be in the ‘gargling' position whilst pronouncing it. q, a deep guttural k sound. , a sort of catch in the voice. . Short vowels are represented by a for 'bud'); i for (like i in 'bid'); u for 'wood'); the long vowels by a for 'father'); i for S for 9 (like u in (like oo in or (like a in or (like ee in 'deep'); ai for S (like i in 'site'); u for 9. * (like oo in 'root'); au (resembling ou in 'sound'). . Please note that in transliterated words the letter 'e' is to be pronounced as in 'prey' which rhymes with 'day'; however the pronunciation is flat without the element of. English diphthong. If in Urdu and Persian words 'e' is * In Arabic words like (Shaikh) there is an element of diphthong which is missing when the word is pronounced in Urdu. viii