The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction

(Sean Pound) #1

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:


  1. 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"

  2. Unmarked vowels:
    a as in "about"
    e as in "they"
    1as1n •. u·" lS


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