Page:A dictionary of the Sunda language of Java.djvu/12

Rh Having in the northern languages of Europe the Sound of the English y. the Dutch write the words wherein it occurs with dj, which for the reasons above assigned under c for tj, rather express a French than an original Dutch Sound. Thus where I have written janji, the Dutch would write djandji, to give the Sound; or would pronounce janji as yanyi, which is often made ridiculous by the Malay example of jagah bai-bai jangan jatuh, which a Netherlander, fresh from Europe and unacquainted with the Malay language invariably pronounces yaga bai-bai yangan yatuh. So also the Dutch call the Island which we inhabit yava, which the natives call jawa, to express which according to his own indeasideas [sic] of the power of letters, a Hollander would have to write djawa.

K has a uniform sound as in king, book, kick, kettle, and in Dutch as koning, kok, ketel, koken, and as will be observed, 1034 out of the 9308 words in the Dictionary, begin with this hard consonant so pronounced. The English c with this power of k has not been made use of.

L is sounded as in land, loll, lily in English, and as lang, lui, lakker in Dutch.

M as in man, maim, mummy in English, undand [sic] meel, meer, mom in Dutch.

N as in noun, no, linen, nose in English, and as na, naar, nanacht, neef in Dutch.

The combination of letters ng is to be sounded as in sing, ringing, longing in English, and zang, bang, tang, boring, hangen in Dutch. A great many words in Sunda begin with this ng, the pronunciation of which to a beginner is rather difficult and perhaps can only be overcome by a little practice from hearing the natives pronounce it. Thus in ngang'ah to gape, the apostrope after the second ng' shows that the word must be prounced ngang-ah, and not ngan-gah. The ng being in reality one letter sound, for which no European language perhaps possesses an appropriate letter. The apostrophe ' has been inserted wherever doubt was likely to arise as to pronunciation.

P as in past, pope, pippin in English, and as pak, pal, pap, pot in Dutch.

Q is not used in this dictionary, but the power of the English Q is represented by kw or kua.

R sounds as in run, river, barrow, in English, or rot, rand, boor in Dutch.

S as in sun, past, suspect in English, and sober, som, simpel in Dutch.

Sh does not occur in Sunda; the Arabic or Persian words where it ought to occur being softened by the elision of the h thus shah, king becomes sah.

T as in tame, tent, tatter, in English, undand [sic] teen, toe, tor, tot in Dutch, and never sibilant as in patience, nation. The English sound th does not occur in the language.

V does not occur in any Sunda word.

W is a very common sound, the same as in English wall, weat, reward, or in the Dutch wakker, wand, wild.

X does not occur; its sound would be represented by ks, as kraksan, a place in the Residency Basuki should never be written kraxan.

Y is to be sounded as in yam, yet, yore in English, and not as the Dutch y which has the power of ai. The Dutch represent this letter by j and jong, jood are by them pronounced as yong, yood.