And it is the custom to repeat after this the vowel that precedes it; thus $S#° swatah is voluntarily, pronounced swataha, xr^S Hannah (a proper name) is pronounced Ram ah a; as if it was written •o»jfc;S-». The word &tq>$x> duhkhamu, pain is pronounced Dukhamu.
The letter \£\ csha, more conveniently expressed by X, is a compound of Jf ka and sS. sha; and is sounded like ct in action, direction, section. Thus *»*. axi 'the eye' AfijSx. parixa ' examination' fJLo'Sx) axaramu 'a letter of the alphabet.'*
The letter X is placed by the native authors at the end of the alphabet. In Wilson's Sanscrit Lexicon it is placed with the letter k.
The Telugus are as negligent in spelling as the English were before the days of Johnson. The words borrowed from Sanscrit are often misspelt. Thus \^ stri 'a woman' is often written [$ Sri 'fortune' and vice versa. The word ^i^o annam' food' is constantly written and pronounced =Sr|J?. The word \_iJ*<5^Fa:«ft Bramhanudu is frequently mispronounced SJ*£5&ffc!fc Biamanudu.
On the Sunna and Half Sunna.
It has already been stated that the circle or cipher o called sunna is used as a substitute for a nasal letter. But it is wrong, though customary, to place it in conjunction with ^ N or 5$) M. When N or M occurs double as ^i^t, 69the vulgar write esojjb or
even fc»oi&, and ^o^.
When sunna is followed by a consonant of the first four classes (varga) it is N; but the remaining letters (pa, pha, ba, bha, ma, ya, ra, la, va, sa, sha, sa, ha, xa,) sound it as M; and it likewise is M whenever it stands at the end of a word. Thus the word Sanscrit t&o^^So is pronounced sams-cru-tam. The Sanscrit words lfos« «So conversation, ■$Q$dS>o doubt, are pronounced sam-vadam, saraSayam. When followed by Y, the sunna is pronounced, nasally: thus i* oe»&S» say-ya-mi, 'a hermit,' •£)o-a<n>X's£» say-yogamu, 'juncture:' here the nasal sound of n is used, as in some French words,
- The letter X is in Spanish pronounced like lb. Thus Texiera and Xeres are sounded Tesshira and Sheres, or Sherry.
