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194
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY..
(JULY, 1909.
(3) Pronunciation
(8) The lip consonants y, 5 and on are all pronounced like the English p, 6, min pin, but and mad.
is voiceless and a bilabial. It is pronounced like the Scotch wh in which, when, etc.
w is voiced and a bilabial. It is like w in literary English wet, wait, etc. (See Wrights, Dialect Grammar, pp. 19 and 20).
(b) The teeth consonants, i, d and n are pronounced exactly like the Sanskrit dentals , , and 7; i..., by bringing the point of the tongue against the very edge of the apper front teeth. There are no English letters answering to these. The English dentals are formed at the gums and not at the point of the upper teeth.
1 is like the English I in lip, lad, etc.; and is a gum dental.
in like the English
in ring, riak, eto.
The dental has two pronunciations. When initial, it is a pure point dental like the Sanskrit 7. When medial and final it is gum dental like the English n.
(o) The Roof-oonsonants , d,,!,!, ? are also called cerebrals. These are all formed by curling back the tongwe and forcibly striking the ander part of it against the roof of the mouth. The Prim. Dravidian !, d,, !, are pronounced exactly like the Sanskrit 5,3,3, E, and q.
I and I are sounds peculiar to the Dravidian languages alone. ! is formed by carling back the tongue and pronouncing the English letter r; e.., in the word farm in a rather liquid manner. (Caldwell's Gr. of Drav., p. 28 : see also Kittel's Can. Gr., p. 10).
is a very hard rough sound, and is formed at the roof by the enrled point of the tongue. It comes nearer to the so-called Northumberlaad barr, but the latter is more avolar than cerebral (Wright's Gr. of Dialects, p. 19).
(d) The front consonants *,6', and ', are also called palatals. These are identical with the Primitive Indo-Gurmanic palatals in pronunciation; and are formed by the middle of the tongue and the hard palate. These have a soft guttural pronunciation almost like the English k and a in kid, get, etc.
m' is exactly like the Sanskrit
.
y is like the English'y in literary English, yelloxo, yield, etc.
..)
(o) The back consonaits k, 9 and i, correspond to Sanskrit sound of ng in the English word king.
, T and 7. nor has the
