Page:Esperanto (The Universal Language).djvu/29

 3. The sound of the letters is always the same, whether initial, medial or final. "One letter one sound."

4. There are no silent letters in Esperanto ; every letter must be sounded separately, even in the case of the double letters, Aj, Aŭ and Oj, the pronunciation of which is given. "H" is never silent.

5. Esperanto being a phonetic language, every word is read exactly as it is written, and written as read.

Dume = "doo-may," not "doom." Iel = "ee-ale," not "eel."

Traire = "trah-ee-ray," not "tra-ire." Fingringo = feen-green-go, not fing-gring-o (treat "ing" always after this model).

1. Every word in Esperanto is accented on the penultimate (the last syllable but one). Hence this syllable must be well marked, raising the voice on it, and not on the final syllable. Even in words of two syllables the accent must be strong, distinct and clear upon the first. This is called the "tonic" accent.

2. This, however, does not mean that the other syllables should be slurred or pronounced carelessly. Every syllable must get its full sound-value, but the neglect of the tonic accent would tend, in a great measure, to rob the language of an essential part of its beauty and euphony.

These are formed by the junction of words, much the same as in English. In Esperanto the principal word is always placed last, this word taking the termination determining which part of speech it is.