The aspirates are as follows:—
ఖ kh as in park—house; ఘ gh as in log—house; ఛ chh as in coach—house; ఝ jh as in judge—Hale; ఠ th as in but—him, not—here; థ th (soft) nearly the same; ఫ ph as in up—here; భ bh as in abhor.
The capital shapes of the consonants are given in the alphabet. But some of them take another form when written beneath the lines. Thus క is the capital form and (
Telugu characters) or (Telugu characters) is the second form of K. Thus in the words లెక్క (an account) పల్కు palcu (a word) the form (Telugu characters) is the second shape of K. Thus మ is M but the second shape is (Telugu characters) as in the name మన్మథ Manmatha, (Cupid) or మర్మం marmam, a secret.
The following are the letters with their second shapes, some of which (as in బ B) are nearly the same as the capital shapes.
క్క క్ఖ గ్గ ద్ఘ, చ్చ, చ్ఛ జ్జ, జ్ఝ, ఙ్ఞ, ట్ట, ట్ఠ, డ్డ, డ్ఢ ణ్ణ or ణ్న త్త త్థ ద్ద ద్ధ న్న ప్ప ప్ఫ బ్బ బ్భ మ్మ య్య ర్ర ల్ల వ్వ శ్శ స్స.
In some of these combinations I have given the upper letter different from he lower (as క్ఖ) because the other combinations (as ఖ్ఖ or ఝ్ఝ) are not such as ought to be used, though they sometimes occur in writing.
The pronunciation of some consonants is peculiar. Thus చ cha and జ ja are sometimes softened into ça (or tsa, as in but-some) and z or ds (as in sword's-end). The softer sounds, ça and za, are peculiar to Telugu and the harder sounds cha, ja, originate in sanscrit. Nor can any Sanscrit word use the soft sounds.
