The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page xvi
System of Transliteration In transliterating Arabic words we have followed the system adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society. | 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'. h, a guttural aspirate, stronger than h. ċkh, pronounced, like the Scotch ch in 'loch'. > dh, pronounced like the English th in 'that', 'with'. s, strongly articulated s. d, similar to the English th in 'this'. bt, strongly articulated palatal t. b7, strongly articulated z. E', a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear. gh, a sound approaches 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 — (like u in 'bud'); i for → (like i in 'bid'); u for (like oo in 'wood'); the long vowels by a foror (like a in 'father'); ī for or (like ee in 'deep'); ai for s (like i in 'site'); ū for - (resembling ou in 'sound'). (like oo in 'root'); au for , The consonants not included in the above list have the same phonetic value as in the principal languages of Europe.