NOTE TO THE READER. Is 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.: aah; e eh; i = ee; o = oh; ô = aw; u = 00. In diphthongs, the sound of each vowel may be distinctly heard, as ai = ah-ee; ou = oh-00. Those consonants which differ in look from the Roman character, are Ċ, pron. ch; j, pron. as an English j; ǹ, pron. ng'; š, pron. sh; and others, which are of less frequent occurrence, are explained fully in Chapter XX. I As frequently recurring examples of this orthography, may instance, proper 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 '; 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-manjahro. |