The system of transliteration adopted by W. D. Whitney in his Sanskrit Grammar and C. R. Lanman in his Sanskrit Reader has been followed. For purposes of pronunciation the vowels may be treated as in Italian, but a is analogous to the sound in English ‘but’. The consonants may be pronounced as in English, the diacritical marks being ignored, except in the following cases: c is similar to ch in church: f and are approximately sh in shun: s is always surd as in sun: m or ǹ is a nasalization of the preceding vowel: the aspirates like th are pronounced approximately like th in pothook. The letter r may be taken as nearly ri. Similarly Į is li or lri.
The complete alphabet is as follows:
ñ;
gutturals: k kh g gh doma’s; t th d dh labials: p ph b bh m;
n;
vowels: a ā iĭuūṛ ṛ ļe ai o au; palatals: c ch j jh ñ;
dentals: t th d dh n; semivowels: y rlv; further: ǹṁ þ.