NOTE TO THE READER.
Reading edition
In the orthography of most African words and proper names in this book, especially in those which are written for the first time, I have followed what seems to me the simplest and most satisfactory phonetic system—that of Dr. Lepsius’ standard alphabet.
As this may be new to some of my readers, I may mention here that the vowels are generally pronounced as in Italian, viz.:—
a = ah; e = eh; i = ee; o = oh; ô = aw; u = oo.
In diphthongs, the sound of each vowel may be distinctly heard, as ai = ah-ee; ou = oh-oo.
Those consonants which differ in look from the Roman character, are—
Č, pron. ch; ǰ, pron. as an English j; ṅ, pron. ng’; š, pron. sh; and others, which are of less frequent occurrence, are explained fully in Chapter XX.
As frequently recurring examples of this orthography, I may instance,—
“Čaga” —pronounced “Chaga;”
“Moši” „ “Moshy;” and
“ǰipé” „ “Jeepay.”
I have only diverged from this system where the xproper names from long use have accustomed us to other spelling. Thus I write “Galla,” although properly it should be “Gala,” and I have even avoided disfiguring the “j” of “Kilima-njaro” with a v; although I fear the result of this lenity will be that half my readers will pronounce it wrongly. To avoid this I may, perhaps, for the benefit of the timid who always shirk African names, write its exact pronunciation in our clumsy English orthography.
This would be:
Killy-manjāhro.
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