ORTHOGRAPHY EMPLOYED IN THESE VOCABULARIES. 



Roughly speaking, all Consonants are sounded as in English and all Vowels as in- 

 Italian or Portuguese. 



a sounds as ' a ' in ' master,' a as ' u ' in 



' but.' 

 a sounds as ' a' in ' rather.' 

 e „ ' e ' „ ' met,' ' berry.' 



e ,, ' a ' „ ' cake,' ' plate.' 



i „ 'i' „ 'hit," fill.' 



I „ ' i ' „ ' ravine,' or 'ee' in 'feet' 



o „ 'o' „ 'not,' ' bother.' 



6 „ ' o ' „ ' store,' or ' aw ' in 



' bawl.' 

 w (Greek ' omega ') sounds as ' o ' in ' bone,' 



' cold.' 

 u sounds as ' u ' in ' full,' ' put.' 



u sounds as 'u ' in ' rule,' or ' oo ' in 'fool' 

 ii sounds like the French 'u' or German 



'ii.' 

 o sounds like the German ' o,' or like ' u ' 



in 'hurt,' or 'i' in 'dirt.' 

 ai sounds like ' i ' in ' wine,' or ' i ' in ' bite/ 

 an sounds like ' ow ' in ' how.' 

 ea sounds like ' ea ' in ' bear,' or ' e ' in 



' there,' or ' a ' in ' care.' 

 ei sounds like ' ei ' in ' vein,' or ' ey ' in 



' grey.' 

 j oi sounds like 'oi' in 'join,' or ' oy ' in 



'boy.' 



Among the consonants, b, d,f, h,j, k, I, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, iv, ?/, and z are sounded as- 

 in English ; c only is used for the English 'ch' ; g is always pronounced hard, as in 

 'get,' 'give' ; n represents the nasal 'n' in 'bang,' 'singer,' and 'ringing'; q is only 

 used for the strong Arabic ' kof ' ; kiv represents the sound of ' qu ' ; the Greek gamma 

 r, y, represents the guttural gh, the Arabic £ {ghain) ; \ = the faucal gasp of the 

 Arabic 'qin ; the Greek x represents Teh, the Arabic C, the German and Scotch ch ; 

 h! gives the strong Arabic aspirate of C (double h) ; s is the English sh ; z, z in ' azure r 

 or French j ; B tt gives the sound of th in ' this '; Tt the sound of th in ' think,' 

 ' bath.' E) d is the Arabic J>. R r is the cerebral r. ' shows where the accent falls : 

 in the absence of any mark the accent falls on the penultimate syllable. A long vowel 

 is marked by -, and nasalisation by -. When ^ and \ or other terminal consonants 

 are thus crossed through it means they are only half pronounced. Many terminal 

 consonants in Acholi, Bari, and other Nilotic tongues are not exploded, just as happens- 

 with the " silent kaf " in Malay (in PeraA-, Sarawak). The Masai is very nasal, and has- 

 a very strong o (aw) sound. The Baamba attach ' e ' to the ends of nouns constantly. 

 In Nandi t is sometimes indistinguishable from p. In Bambute the grave and acute 



accents over the syllables convey the low : jr z and high itlZ sounds. PL stands for 



plural. In the Bantu languages the alternative plural prefix is often given without 

 the root, which is the same as in the singular. Thus : Ente might be ' cow ' in the 

 singular. The addition of Esi- for the plural would mean that Esiente was the full 

 plural form of the word. " Muntu ; pi. Ba- " would stand for " Muntu = one man ; 

 Bantu = men," ntu being the rout for "human being." $ stands for masculine;. 

 $ for feminine. 



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