characters, which they find very easy then. The method adapted by us in this work, will remove all these difficulties.

Single and Double Vowels.

§ 6. In reading the names in the above Table and in pronouncing the proper sounds, written in the English characters, the learner must always remember:

1. Not to pronounce a, as in fate, mortal or all; but as in far, art or father.

2. é is always as e in met or send. Take care not to pronounce it as in mere, verb or cane.

3. i is always i, as in pin or ship; never as I, or as in tire.

4. I must be pronounced as o in seldom and ein heaven. 5. o must not be pronounced long as in oat, prose; but very short as in no.

6. ou pronounce always as in youth, bouquet, foot; and not as in pour, couple, about.

7. û is not as that of pure, turn, rule; it has no equivalent in English, but is the French tu, sur.

8. eo has no equivalent in English, it is in French feu, coeur; or German ö in Zöllner, völlig.

Compound Consonants.

§ 7. Turkish orthography does not employ combinations of two or three consonants and vowels to represent a single sound; we are under the necessity, however, of making use in this work of some combinations to represent Turkish sounds, for which there is no equivalent in English. These combinations are made by the addition of some vowels and consonants to h or y. kh has the sound of ch, as in the Scotch loch. gh, as the Greek 7, Armenian z.

zh must be pronounced as z in azure.

§ 8. The combinations tch and dj, so often to be seen in the transliteration of Turkish words, are but French notations of the English ch and j in church and joy.

§ 9. y must always be considered a consonant, and never allowed to degrade the sound of any vowel that may precede it; particular care must be taken by

Englishmen in this matter. It is always as in yell, yoke, buy.

§ 10. y is combined with other vowels to form a diphthong as will be seen in the next Table.

ay Ex.: qaymaq; as in lime, high, I.

éy

>>> déymék;

fate, prey, hey. >> here, clear.

§ 11. In the transliteration of Ottoman words, h must be emphasized at the beginning, middle and end. of words; at the end of the syllables it is generally accented; as: Allah', qah'vé, hékim. This is a most particular rule and requires a good deal of attention and practice in Englishmen; as a pernicious mode of orthography prevails among Englishmen, of introducing h mute very frequently at the beginning or end of words; as in honest, Jehovah etc. (§ 49 V.)

R is used as in English; except that it must never be allowed to be uttered obscurely; it must be pronounced fully and strongly; it is generally accented at the end of syllables. (§ 17.) Take care not to vitiate the pure sound of any vowel that may precede it.

G is always hard; as in give, got, get.

Numerals and Numeration by Letters.

§ 12. The numerical figures, ten in number, have been adapted by the Ottomans from the Arabs. They are the same that we make use of, calling them Arabic, because we took them from the Arabs. Their forms, however, differ considerably from thoses, which our digits have assumed, as the following table shows:

ད

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9; 10, 20, 30; 100 They are compounded in exactly the same way as our numerals. ۱۹۰۲ = 1902.

§ 13. The apparent strangeness of the fact that those numbers seem to be written and read not from

right to left, but from left to right is due to the circumstance that, in Arabic, the smaller numbers are read as well as written first. Thus an Arab would read 1. two and nine hundred and a thousand'. This, however, a Turk does not do. (§ 691.)

§ 14. If the Arabic alphabet is arranged according to numerical values, there appeares the ancient order, which is still used for notation and numeration. In this order, that of the old Phoenician, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin alphabets: the first nine letters represent the units; the second nine the tens; the third nine the hundreds and the last one one thousand; compare

وغ

الجد ؛ هوز ؛ حطى ؛ كلمن ؛ سعفص ؛ the Table of the Alphabet

¿bø¦¦cůÿ Ebjéd, hév véz, houť ti, kélémén, safés, qaréshét, sakhéz, dazighi. Therefore the numeration by letters, is called Ebjéd hisabî.

=

803,

§ 15. The method of numeration by the letters of the alphabet was a great task; it is fast going, if not entirely gone, out of practice, as puerile; but formerly great significance was attached to any combination of letters that expresses in one or more words an event or date. Thus kharab is €00 + 200 + 1 + 2 the Hejira date when Timurleng laid Damascus in 'ruins'; and qub béldéyi tayyibé is 2 + 30 + 4 + 400 + 9102 400 857, date of the year when + the 'Beautiful City', Constantinople, was taken by the Ottomans.

=

Exercise a.

Write and give the names of the following letters; they are arranged according to their numeral value:

て

د؛هه وزژ ا ب پ ج چ

ى ؛ ك گ ل م ن ؛ طى گل

؛ ض ظ غ . ذ ث خ س ع ف ص ؛ ق ر ش ت ؛ ث

Division of the Letters.

§ 16. The Ottoman alphabet is divided into four classes: vowels; hard, soft, and neuter letters.

Vowel letters:

.,, which are vowels generally,

',

when they are the second letter of the syllable.

ح خ ص ض ط ظ ع غ ق : Hard letters

ك گ ه : Soft letters . ت س ك

، ث ج چ د ذ ر ز ژ ش ف ل

Neuter letters:

and, when at the beginning of the syllables; as is the case with y and w in the English language.

B1. Pronunciation of Letters.

§ 17. All the Ottoman letters in the Alphabetical Table are considered to be consonants, except .,, which are often used as vowels, and call for further elucidation. (§ 29 ff.)

We now proceed to the phonetic value of the

consonants:

bé has the value of English b, as: béd bad, sly biradér brother. But when ending a syllable or word, it sometimes, anomalously, takes the value of p, as: sharap wine, iptida beginning. Especially is

this the case with the Gerunds in

gidip, Šī alîp. (§ 435.)

وب گیدوب

as:

→ pé is the English p, as: pédér father.

té is the German t, as: tt tatar a Tartar; courier.

It is sometimes changed into d in derivation when it

is originally final; as: git go,

gidér he goes.

.dépé a hill (ديه تپه demir iron (دمير) تیمور Also

ས

sé is found in Arabic words only, and is pro

nounced as s; as: sabit firm, Jémsal proverbs.

jim is pronounced as j, as: jan soul.

E

chim has the value of the English ch, in church;

as: cham the pine,

chali bush. (§ 8.)

ha has the harshly aspirated sound of English

h, in horse. It is chiefly used in Arabic words; as:

.haji pilgrim حاجی

خ

khê has no equivalent in English. It is the counterpart of the Scotch ch in loch and German Rache. It is generally transliterated kh. But there are a good many words in which it is commonly pronounced as h,

.hane house خانه ;hoja teacher خواجه as

> dal is German d, as: ♪ dérd.

szal is found in Arabic words alone; its value is z, as: .♪ zér’ré atom.

ré is in all positions a distinctly articulated lingual ras in rain. There are two important remarks, however, which is necessary for the English student to bear in mind with respect to this, to him, peculiar letter. Firstly, it must always be pronounced and accented (never dropped or slurred over, as in the pronunciation of part, pa't); and secondly, the value of the vowel before it in the same syllable must never be corrupted (as when it is pronounced pot pat; for far; cur car), but always kept pure, as with any other consonant; thus, qor', ♬ qîr', s'j zar'; not qo', qi, za'. (§ 49 V.)

jzé is English, as: géz.

zhé is only found in Persian and French words; it is of the value of the English s in treasure, and is transliterated zħ; as: • mûzhdé tidings, dragon, J, zhour'nal journal. It is often pronounced

azh ́dér