Pronunciation Guide
As a pan-Asian religion, Buddhism has made use of the major languages of an
entire continent. None of these languages is natively written in the Roman al-
phabet, but all can be transliterated into it. Each system of transliteration car-
ries its own set of pronunciation difficulties. The following guidelines are
intended simply to help the student overcome some of the more blatant hur-
dles to approximating correct pronunciation. They are not complete phonetic
guidelines.
Sanskrit and Pali. A few basic rules for pronouncing words in these lan-
guages are as follows:- Marked vowels: A bar (called a macron) over a vowel makes it long, not so
much in quality as in the length of time it is pronounced. Thus:
a as in "father"
i as in "machine"
ii as in "rule" - Unmarked vowels:
a as in "about"
e as in "they"
1as1n •. u·" lS
315