Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/80

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14
TELOOGOO GRAMMAR.

sonant, or to the (Symbol missingTelugu characters); thus (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nya, or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nya, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyoo, or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyoo, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyoo, or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyoo. The same rule applies if the subsequent vowel be long (Symbol missingTelugu characters) or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) ō; but, when the vowel is joined to the (Symbol missingTelugu characters) y, the latter form only is used, and the (Symbol missingTelugu characters) of (Symbol missingTelugu characters) being omitted, the (Symbol missingTelugu characters) alone is affixed to the (Symbol missingTelugu characters), the preceding (Symbol missingTelugu characters) being written above the consonant; thus, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyō, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyō, or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) nyō. In all other cases where (Symbol missingTelugu characters) or other double forms are used, the subsequent vowel is attached to the consonant only, never to the double form; thus, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) rye, &c.

SIGNS.

40. The consonants have two auxiliary signs, viz. (Symbol missingTelugu characters) r and (Symbol missingTelugu characters) n: the former is used to represent the letter (Symbol missingTelugu characters) r, and the latter the letter (Symbol missingTelugu characters) n, when these letters precede another consonant without the intervention of a vowel; but, though pronounced before the consonant, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) r, is written after it; thus, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) urkoondoo, the sun. The (Symbol missingTelugu characters) n also represents (Symbol missingTelugu characters) n, at the end of a word; thus, (Symbol missingTelugu characters) pōyen, he, she, or it went.

PRONUNCIATION.

It is not difficult to communicate, to an English reader, the proper articulation of those Teloogoo characters, of which the pronunciation corresponds exactly with the familiar sound attached to some English letter; but it is scarcely possible to convey, in writing, a just conception of sounds altogether foreign to the ear. Grammar, by instructing us in the theory of a language, may enable us to read it with intelligence, and to write it with correctness; but no book can teach the practical use of a language, and the voice of an instructor is necessary, to communicate the full force and tone of a letter, representing some articulation altogether unknown to his pupil. A few concise rules, however, regarding the proper pronunciation of the most difficult Teloogoo letters, may assist the student; but, without the aid of a native instructor, they will fail to afford satisfactory information. I shall accordingly attempt to explain in the Roman character, the sound attached to each; and, in doing so, shall avail myself of the system of Dr. Gilchrist, not less because it is the best with which I am acquainted, than because most of those into whose hands this work