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p. 94

KEY TO THE SOUNDS REPRESENTED BY THE CHARACTERS USED.

a as in father.

ā nearly of the same quality, but of longer duration. It is used as a matter of convenience to distinguish a few words from others nearly like them.

ai as in aisle.

e as in net.

ē as in they but lacking the vanish.

ei the sound of ē followed by a vanish.

i as in pin.

ī as in pique.

ō as in note.

o a more open sound than the last, nearly as in on.

oi as in boil.

ū as in rule.

û nearly as in but, a little nearer to a.

û at faint sound like the last. Sometimes it is entirely wanting.

y as in yes.

w as in will.

w an unvoiced w which occurs frequently at the end of syllables. When it follows vowels other than ō or ū it is preceded by a glide and is accordingly written uw.

hw the preceding in the initial position. It has nearly the sound of wh in who.

l as in let.

L an unvoiced sound made with the tip of the tongue against the teeth, the breath being allowed to escape rather freely at one side of the tongue.

L nearly like the preceding, but the sides of the tongue are held more firmly against the back teeth, resulting in a harsher sound often beginning with a slight explosion. Some speakers place the tip of the tongue in the alveolar position.

p. 95

m as in English.

n usually as in English, but sometimes very short.

ñ as ng in sing.

h as in English but somewhat stronger.

x has the sound of jota in Spanish.

s as in sit.

z the corresponding voiced continuant; only after d and rare.

c as sh in shall. It seldom occurs except after t.

d is spoken with the tongue on the teeth.

t an easily recognized, somewhat aspirated surd in the position of d.

t an unaspirated surd which is distinguished from d with difficulty.

k, ky a surd stop having the contact on the posterior third of the hard palate. Except before e, ē, i, and ī a glide is noticeable and has been written as y.

g, gy the sonant of the preceding, occurs rarely.

k when written before a back vowel (a, o, ō, û, ū) without a following y, stands for a surd nearly in the position of c in come, but the contact is very firm. The resulting sound is very harsh and quite unlike the English sound.

q is a velar surd occurring only before back vowels.

tc as ch in church.

dj the corresponding voiced sound equivalent to j or soft g in English.


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