Minorities in an Islamic State — Page vi
vi Publishers’ Note Long vowels by: a for or (like a in 'father'); i for ی or (like ee in 'deep'); u for و (like oo in 'root'); Other: ai for ی (like i in 'site') ; au for و (resembling ou in 'sound'). Please note that in transliterated words the letter 'e' is to be pronounced as in 'prey' which rhymes with 'day'; how- ever the pronunciation is flat without the element of English diphthong. If in Urdu and Persian words 'e' is lengthened a bit more it is transliterated as 'ei' to be pro- nounced as 'ei' in 'feign' without the element of diphthong thus ' ےک ' is tran s literated as 'Kei'. For the nasal sound of 'n' we have used the s ymbol 'ń'. Thus Urdu word ' ںیم ' is tran s literated as 'meiń'. * The consonants not included in the above list have the same phonetic value as in the principal languages of Eu- rope. We have not transliterated Arabic words which have become part of English language, e. g. , Islam, Mahdi, In Arabic words like خيش (Shaikh) there is an element of diphthong which is missing when the word is pr o nounced in Urdu. * These transliterations are not included in the system of transliteration by Royal Asiatic Society. [Publishers]