Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/13

Rh lastly, the same names are pronounced differently in different places. East and West Syriac, Egyptian and Syrian Arabic, have notable differences of pronunciation.

The only reasonable course, then, seems to be transliteration into conventional combinations, which always represent, not the same sounds, but the same letters of the original alphabet. Then anyone who knows the language can put the word back into its own letters. He who does not will be puzzled as to how it should be pronounced; but this is the case always when we do not know the language in question. Now, the first principle of exact transliteration is to use one Roman letter for one letter of the original alphabet. The reason of this is plain. In English we use combinations of letters to represent one sound, such as sh, th, ph. In Semitic languages (and Coptic and Armenian) these sounds have each one letter. But the two separate sounds may also follow one another, each represented by its own letter (as in mishap, anthill, uphill). If, then, we use several letters for one sound, how are we to write these? Supposing, then, this essential principle of one letter for one letter, it follows (since we have not nearly enough Roman letters to go round) that we must differentiate them by various dots and dashes. This is not pretty, and it gives trouble to the printer; but it is the only way of saving the principle, that anyone who knows the original letters may be able to put words back into them with ambiguity. As a matter of fact, there is a system, already very commonly accepted, at least in scientific books, by which this may be done. It is simple and easily remembered. Shortly, it comes to this: for our sh sound (in "shop") use š, with a wedge above: for the softened Semitic "begadkefath" letters put a line below; for "emphatic" letters (ḥ, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, ḳ ) put a point below; for Arabic ǵīm put a dash above. The strong Arabic guttural ḫā has a curve below. ‘Ain is ʿ; and the stronger Arabic form of the same sound ġ (ġain). Hamza, when wanted, is ʾ. Consonantic i and u are y and w. In