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Pronunciation Guide and a Disclaimer note on Transliteration
Jain scriptures are written using Devanägari characters. To pronounce these characters in English correctly, it is necessary to put various diacritical marks on some English vowels and consonants. Scholars usually follow a standard transliteration scheme adopted by the International Congress of Orientalists at Athens, Greece in 1912. However, most Internet browsers and word processors may not display and print all transliterated characters. The main objective of this Jain education series has been to teach Jain concepts to Jain youth and lay people who do not have the knowledge of this transliteration convention. As a result, a following simplified scheme has been adopted for this series.
Only one diacritical mark, two dots over the letter "a" (aa) or "Ä" (AA) is used to indicate a long vowel sound of letter "ä" associated with certain words. The transliteration used here is neither authentic nor totally consistent. Therefore, while it will serve the purpose of learning Jain concepts, this book should not be used for learning correct pronunciations.
The pronunciation guide is as listed below. The bold letter in each Sanskrit word should be pronounced similarly to the bold letter in each English word. Please do not pronounce ä (aa) if the letter "a" but not "a" appears at the end of word such as Karma or Jina.
English vowel
English word
Sanskrit or Präkrit word
ago
Karma
far
Atmä
red
Deva
police
Jina
go
Ogho
rule
Guru
Note - The Jain Sutra book (JES 201) will have all diacritical marks in the transliteration portion of the original Sutras.
10.
THE FIRST STEP OF JAINISM
For Private Per Use Only
Dal
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