Page:Hindi grammar (Greaves).djvu/42

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18.
the hindi alphabet.
sect. 11

of the following sound, the organs of the mouth prepare themselves and the nasal appropriate to it is formed.

When followed by a vowel, the nasals have their fullest sound. The two ङ and ञ are "ot used in this way; न and म are about equivalent to the English n and m. Compare the Hindi नाम, name, with English name or nasty, and मारना, strike, with English mart. The Hindi ण has no equivalent in English, Practise such words as चरण, a foot; गण, a host; गुण, quality.

12. The aspirated letters ख, घ, छ, झ etc.

These may be treated of in one section, as, so far as the aspiration of the letters is concerned, the same prin- ciples are involved. The combinations in English, ch, ph rh, sh yield no help as the h is not aspirated. In the English words church, cholera, philosophy, rhetoric, ship we have somewhat the equivalents of च, क, the Urdu फ़, र, and श. The English words ghost and which do render some assistance, as these words, as pronounced by some speakers, do give a distinct aspiration to the h. Perhaps the nearest equivalents to the Hindi sounds to be found in English are in those cases where one of two words ends in one of the consonants referred to and the following word begins with h. If the earlier part of the first word be eliminated and only the last letter be pronounced in close conjunction with the second word