Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/75

Rh early student: but this separation of them will lead to false ideas, unless it be at the same time borne in mind that, in Teloogoo, they are never so separated, and are not significant symbols except when compounded with each other. Indeed the consonants and connected vowels form together a set of inseparable syllabic characters, generally compared by Teloogoo writers to animated bodies; the life, or vowel, giving existence or articulation to the consonant, which, on separation from it, becomes a mere dead symbol, void of every sound. As Teloogoo words are composed chiefly of these syllabic characters, terminating with a vowel, a final consonant is seldom found in the language. When it does occur, the consonant cannot, as in English, stand alone. Without any sign, the ten letters before mentioned represent syllables ending in the vowel u, and the other consonants represent no articulation whatever. In the case of a final consonant, therefore, it is necessary to affix to it the sign, to denote that the sound is retained, but obstructed. Thus, final k, kꞕ, or g, must be written, , or , never , , or without any sign, as before exhibited.

19. To form syllables, the connected vowels are added to the consonants, in the following manner. 20. It is not requisite to add the u, to the ten letters mentioned in No. 18; because the sound represented by that letter is already inherent in them.

21. In adding to the consonants the connected vowels oo,  oo,  roo, and  roo, which are placed to the right of these letters, it is necessary previously to write the connected vowel  u, above the consonants; except above those in which the sound of that character is inherent; because this sign,