l | As in English. | m | As in English. | n | As in English. | ng | has two separate sounds, | | the one hard as in the | | English word _finger_, | | the other as in _singer_. | | As these two sounds are | | rarely employed in the | | same locality, no attempt | | is made to distinguish | | between them. | p | As in English. | q | should never be employed; | | _qu_ is given as _kw_ | Kwangtung. r | As in English. | s | As in English. | t | As in English. | v | As in English. | w | As in English. | Sawákin. x | As in English. | y | is always a consonant, as | Kikúyu. | in _yard_, and therefore | | should never be used as a | | terminal, _i_ or _e_ | | being substituted. Thus, | | not _Mikindány_, but | Mikindáni. | not _Kwaly_, but | Kwale. z | English _z_. | Zulu. | Accents should not | Tongatábu, Galápagos, | generally be used, but | Paláwan, Saráwak. | where there is a very | | decided emphatic syllable | | or stress, which affects | | the sound of the word, it | | should be marked by an | | _acute_ accent. | ---------+-----------------------------+---------------------------- FRENCH SYSTEM. _Rules adopted in April, 1886, by the Société de Géographie at Paris, for the orthography of native names of places._ The geographic names in countries in which the Roman character is employed in writing (which includes the néo-Latin, Germanic, and Scandinavian languages) shall be written in the orthography of the country to which they belong. The following rules apply solely to geographic names in countries without a written language, and to geographic names in countries where another than the Roman character is employed in writing. Names of places for which the orthography, through long usage, has become consecrated shall, however, be excepted from the rules. Examples: La Mecque, Naples, Calcutta. The rules in detail are: 1. The vowels _a_, _e_, _i_, and _o_ are pronounced as in French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The letter _e_ shall never be mute. 2. The French sound of _u_ shall be represented by _u_ with a _tréma_ like the German _ü_. 3. The French sound _ou_ shall be represented by _u_, as in Italian, Spanish, and German. 4. The French sound _eu_ shall be represented by the character _oe_ [ligated] and be pronounced as in _oeil_.