Page:和英英和語林集成.pdf/20

Rh ORTHOGRAPHY.

In transliterating the Japanese sounds into the Roman letter, the following system has been adopted in this work:&mdash;

The final n, when at the end of a word, has always the sound of ng; as, mon=mong, san=sang, min=ming; but in the body of a word, when followed by a syllable beginning with b, m or p, it is pronounced like m, as, ban-min=bamming; mon-ban=mombang; shin-pai=shimpai. Before the other consonants it has the sound of n; as, an-nai, bandai, hanjō.

The sounds of the other consonants, viz., b, d, h, j, k, m, n, p, s, t, w, y and z, do not differ from their common English sounds.

THE SYLLABLES IN COMBINATION.

The syllables commencing with the soft aspirates h and f, and y, when preceded by another syllable, for the most part lose their consonants, and their vowels combine with the vowel of the preceding syllable, sometimes forming a diphthong; as,