Page:The Curse at Farewell.pdf/52

 NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION AND TRANSLITERATION

=

‘Tue three s’s, palatal, dental, and cerebral, are distinguished thus: s, s,s. The cerebral x, ¢, th, d, dh are distinguished from the dentals by dots, thus : nyt, th, 4, dh.

Bengali differs from Sanskrit in pronouncing all three s’s and both #’s alike; it makes the Sanskrit v into 4, and y into f 5 and it often drops a, the included vowel which every consonant carries unless a different vowel supervenes, and so makes Kacha into Kach, Meghadita into Meghdit, and Devaydat into Debjani.

In Sanskrit a@ is pronounced like the # in dut, but in Bengali like a short (but not too short) o— e.g., Ravindrandtha is pronounced ‘ Robindronath.’ In both languages @ is pronounced like the @ in father, tas ee, was oo, e like ain mane, “The vowel r, which resembles the French r, is represented by r, to distinguish it from the consonant r.

Bengali makes no distinction in pronunciation between /and 7, « and @. 49