These letters should be practised, i. e., pronounced aloud, at first under the direction of a munshi. In a short time, not only will their pronunciation cease to be an effort to the tongue, but the ear also will learn to distinguish the difference in sound, and thus, many spelling mistakes (which are frequently mistakes of pronunciation), will be avoided.
The letter a is pronounced like the u in the English word " gun " ; i as in " fin " ; u as in " put " ; á as in " father " ; í as in " marine " ; ú as the doubled o in " boot " ; e as in " they " ; o as in " tow." The Hindí dipthongs ai[1] and au as the at in " aisle " and ow in " how."
Pronounce every syllable and every letter of each word : say Sá-Hib, and not Sáib or SáHb. Above all, do not shorten a final short vowel that should be long : say pání and kawwá, and not páni and kawwa or worse still kawa.
There are in Hindí two letters n, one nasal (N) the other not. In Persian and Arabic, there is practically no nasal n.
- ↑ Note that the dipthongs are Hindi, and are represented in the Persian character by the equivalents of ay and aw.
