Page:A Grammar of the Telugu language.djvu/37

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ALPHABET.
19

The aspirates are as follows:—

ఖ kh as in park—house; ఘ​ gh as in log—house; ఛ chh as in coach—house; ఝ​ jh as in judge—Hale; ఠ th as in but—him, not—here; థ th (soft) nearly the same; ఫ​ ph as in up—here; భ​ bh as in abhor.

The capital shapes of the consonants are given in the alphabet. But some of them take another form when written beneath the lines. Thus క​ is the capital form and (Symbol missingTelugu characters) or (Symbol missingTelugu characters) is the second form of K. Thus in the words లెక్క​ (an account) పల్కు palcu (a word) the form (Symbol missingTelugu characters) is the second shape of K. Thus మ is M but the second shape is (Symbol missingTelugu characters) as in the name మన్మథ​ Manmatha, (Cupid) or మర్మం marmam, a secret.

The following are the letters with their second shapes, some of which (as in బ​ B) are nearly the same as the capital shapes.

క్క​ క్ఖ​ గ్గ​ ద్ఘ​, చ్చ​, చ్ఛ​ జ్జ​, జ్ఝ​, ఙ్ఞ​, ట్ట​, ట్ఠ​, డ్డ​, డ్ఢ​ ణ్ణ​ or ణ్న త్త​ త్థ​ ద్ద​ ద్ధ​ న్న​ ప్ప​ ప్ఫ​ బ్బ​ బ్భ​ మ్మ​ య్య​ ర్ర​ ల్ల​ వ్వ​ శ్శ​ స్స​.

In some of these combinations I have given the upper letter different from he lower (as క్ఖ) because the other combinations (as ఖ్ఖ​ or ఝ్ఝ​) are not such as ought to be used, though they sometimes occur in writing.

The pronunciation of some consonants is peculiar. Thus చ​ cha and జ ja are sometimes softened into ça (or tsa, as in but-some) and z or ds (as in sword's-end). The softer sounds, ça and za, are peculiar to Telugu and the harder sounds cha, ja, originate in sanscrit. Nor can any Sanscrit word use the soft sounds.