1877.] 
of Eastern Turkistan. 
251 
In some words tlie a is pronounced like the English a in ‘hand’, 
‘than’, &c. 
Ex. : Yarkand, pronounced something between that spelling and 
‘ Yerkend ;’ at , ‘ name’, pronounced like the English word ‘ at’ 
(almost ett). 
N. JB .—As the people of Eastern Turkistan are rather uncertain in 
their use of the long vowels in writing, the use of them in short 
syllables being common and not implying any lengthening of the 
sound, in the following pages the broad mark (a, e, i and it) will 
only be introduced when the sound is long, and not invariably 
wherever long vowels are used. 
Ex.: -will be written bdshlamaq (pronounced almost bosh- 
lamock). Although there are three ‘ alifs’, yet only the first and 
third are pronounced long or broad. So also with the other 
vowels. 
V ^ B & P, often interchanged in writing, and often confounded in pro¬ 
nunciation. 
cis T, the ordinary oriental, or soft European sound. 
^ £ J & Ch, often interchanged; when preceding consonants, they both 
of them tend towards the pronunciation of the French { j ’; hence in 
that position they are often confounded with one another and with sh. 
Ex. : ‘ icliku ’ = goat, almost like ‘ ishku ’ (and, vice versa , the word tap- 
shurdi has been found written tapjurdi). 
Before vowels the distinction is better kept up. 
Ex. : chiqmaq, jabduq. 
^ H, a harsh guttural aspirate, but yet distinct from the following letter. 
The Eastern Turkistanis put below it the mark usually denoting the 
other oriental Ji. 
£ Kh, the German cli (as in machen , not as in ich). 
z> I), the ordinary sound. 
j R, do. But the Yarkandis often swallow it altogether 
when it precedes another consonant, and sometimes in that case omit 
it even in writing. 
Ex.: arpa = barley, pronounced apa ; irdi , irmas, pronounced and 
often written idi, imas. 
j Z, the sound as in ‘ zeal.' 
S, the ordinary sound. The Turkis write this letter with three dots 
reversed beneath the letter. 
tji Sh, the sound of the French ch, or the German sch , or of sh in the 
English word shall. (See remarks under J.) 
^ the oriental letter ‘ ’ain’, a sound inexplicable in writing. 
j j 
