248 Orthography for Place-Names. 



IX. Orthography for Native Names of Places. 



The Council of the Eoyal Geographical Society have adopted 

 the following rules for such geographical names as are not, in the 

 countries to which they belong, written in the Roman character. 

 These rules are identical with those adopted for the Admiralty 

 charts, and will henceforth be used in all publications of the 

 society. 



1. No change will be made in the orthography of foreign names 

 in countries which use Roman letters : thus Spanish, Portuguese, 

 Butch, etc., names will be spelt as by the respective nations. 



2. Neither will any change be made in the spelling of such 

 names in languages which are not written in Roman character as 

 have become by long usage familiar to English readers : thus 

 Calcutta, Cutch, Celebes, Mecca, etc., will be retained in their 

 present form. 



3. The true sound of the word, as locally pronounced, will be 

 taken as the basis of the spelling. 



4. An approximation, however, to the sound is alone aimed at. 

 A system which would attempt to represent the more delicate in- 

 flections of sound and accent would be so complicated as only to 

 defeat itself. 



5. The broad features of the system are that vowels are pro- 

 nounced as in Italian and consonants as in English. 



6. One accent only is used — the acute — to denote the syllable 

 on which stress is laid. 



7. Every letter is pronounced. When two vowels come to- 

 gether each one is sounded, though the result, when spoken quick- 

 y, is sometimes scarcely to be distinguished from a single sound, 

 as in ai, au, ei. 



8. Indian names are accepted as spelt in Hunter's " Gazet- 

 teer." 



The amplification of the rules is given below : — 



Letters. 



Pronunciation and Remarks. 



Examples. 



a 







e 



eh, e as in benefit. 



Tel-el-Kebir, Ole- 







Jeh, Yezo, Medi- 

 na, Levuka, Peru 



