Chapter V: Appendix

RULES FOR THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES.

CONTRIBUTED BY MR. HERRLE.

_British System_--_French System_--_German System_--_Alphabets_, _Russian-English_; _English-Russian_.

BRITISH SYSTEM.

_Rules adopted in 1885, by the Royal Geographical Society at London, for the Orthography of Native Names of Places._

Taking into consideration the present want of a system of geographical orthography, and the consequent confusion and variety that exist in the mode of spelling in English maps, the Council of the Royal Geographical Society have adopted the following rules for such geographical names as are not, in the countries to which they belong, written in the Roman character. These rules are identical with those adopted for the Admiralty charts, and will henceforth be used in all publications of the Society.

1. No change will be made in the orthography of foreign names in countries which use Roman letters: thus Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc., names will be spelt as by the respective nations.

2. Neither will any change be made in the spelling of such names in languages which are not written in Roman character as have become by long usage familiar to English readers: thus Calcutta, Cutch, Celebes, Mecca, etc., will be retained in their present form.

3. The true sound of the word as locally pronounced will be taken as the basis of the spelling.

4. An approximation, however, to the sound is alone aimed at. A system which would attempt to represent the more delicate inflections of sound and accent would be so complicated as only to defeat itself. Those who desire a more accurate pronunciation of the written name must learn it on the spot by a study of local accent and peculiarities.

5. The broad features of the system are that vowels are pronounced as in Italian and consonants as in English.

6. One accent only is used, the acute, to denote the syllable on which stress is laid. This is very important, as the sounds of many names are entirely altered by the misplacement of this "stress."

7. Every letter is pronounced. When two vowels come together, each one is sounded, though the result, when spoken quickly, is sometimes scarcely to be distinguished from a single sound, as in _ai_, _au_, _ei_.

8. Indian names are accepted as spelt in Hunter's Gazetteer.

The amplification of the rules is given below:--

---------+-----------------------------+----------------------------
Letters. | Pronunciation and Remarks. | Examples.
---------+-----------------------------+----------------------------
a | _ah_, _a_ as in _father_ | Java, Banána, Somáli, Bari.
e | _eh_, _e_ as in _benefit_ | Tel-el-Kebír, Oléleh, Yezo,
| | Medina, Levúka, Peru.
i | English _e_; _i_ as in |
| _ravine_; the sound of |
| _ee_ in _beet_. Thus, not |
| _Feejee_, but | Fiji, Hindi.
o | _o_ as in _mote_ | Tokio.
u | long _u_ as in _flute_; the |
| sound of _oo_ in _boot_. |
| Thus, not _Zooloo_, but | Zulu, Sumatra.
| All vowels are shortened in | Yarra, Tanna, Mecca, Jidda,
| sound by doubling the | Bonny.
| following consonant. |
| Doubling of a vowel is only | Nuulúa, Oosima.
| necessary where there is |
| a distinct repetition of |
| the single sound. |
ai | English _i_ as in _ice_ | Shanghai.
au | _ow_ as in _how_. Thus, not |
| _Foochow_, but | Fuchau.
ao | is slightly different from | Macao.
| above |
ei | is the sound of the two | Beirút, Beilúl.
| Italian vowels, but is |
| frequently slurred over, |
| when it is scarcely to be |
| distinguished from _ey_ |
| in the English _they_. |
b | English _b_. |
c | is always soft, but is so | Celebes.
| nearly the sound of _s_ |
| that it should be seldom |
| used. If _Celebes_ were |
| not already recognized it |
| would be written |
| _Selebes_. |
ch | is always soft as in | Chingchin.
| _church_ |
d | English _d_. |
f | English _f_. _ph_ should |
| not be used for the sound |
| of _f_. Thus, not |
| _Haiphong_, but | Haifong, Nafa.
g | is always hard. (Soft _g_ | Galápagos.
| is given by _j_) |
h | is always pronounced when |
| inserted. |
j | English _j_. _Dj_ should | Japan, Jinchuen.
| never be put for this |
| sound. |
k | English _k_. It should |
| always be put for the |
| hard _c_. Thus, not |
| _Corea_, but | Korea.
kh | The Oriental guttural | Khan.
gh | is another guttural, as in |
| the Turkish | Dagh, Ghazi.
l | As in English. |
m | As in English. |
n | As in English. |
ng | has two separate sounds, |
| the one hard as in the |
| English word _finger_, |
| the other as in _singer_. |
| As these two sounds are |
| rarely employed in the |
| same locality, no attempt |
| is made to distinguish |
| between them. |
p | As in English. |
q | should never be employed; |
| _qu_ is given as _kw_ | Kwangtung.
r | As in English. |
s | As in English. |
t | As in English. |
v | As in English. |
w | As in English. | Sawákin.
x | As in English. |
y | is always a consonant, as | Kikúyu.
| in _yard_, and therefore |
| should never be used as a |
| terminal, _i_ or _e_ |
| being substituted. Thus, |
| not _Mikindány_, but | Mikindáni.
| not _Kwaly_, but | Kwale.
z | English _z_. | Zulu.
| Accents should not | Tongatábu, Galápagos,
| generally be used, but | Paláwan, Saráwak.
| where there is a very |
| decided emphatic syllable |
| or stress, which affects |
| the sound of the word, it |
| should be marked by an |
| _acute_ accent. |
---------+-----------------------------+----------------------------

FRENCH SYSTEM.

_Rules adopted in April, 1886, by the Société de Géographie at Paris, for the orthography of native names of places._

The geographic names in countries in which the Roman character is employed in writing (which includes the néo-Latin, Germanic, and Scandinavian languages) shall be written in the orthography of the country to which they belong.

The following rules apply solely to geographic names in countries without a written language, and to geographic names in countries where another than the Roman character is employed in writing.

Names of places for which the orthography, through long usage, has become consecrated shall, however, be excepted from the rules. Examples: La Mecque, Naples, Calcutta.

The rules in detail are:

1. The vowels _a_, _e_, _i_, and _o_ are pronounced as in French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The letter _e_ shall never be mute.

2. The French sound of _u_ shall be represented by _u_ with a _tréma_ like the German _ü_.

3. The French sound _ou_ shall be represented by _u_, as in Italian, Spanish, and German.

4. The French sound _eu_ shall be represented by the character _oe_ [ligated] and be pronounced as in _oeil_.

5. The lengthening of a vowel sound shall be indicated by the '_accent circonflexe_' (^), and the shortening by an '_apostrophe_' (').

6. The consonants _b_, _d_, _f_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _p_, _q_, _r_, _t_, _v_, and _z_ are pronounced as in French.

7. _g_ and _s_ have always the hard French sound, as in _gamelle_, _sirop_.

8. The sound represented in France by _ch_ shall be written _sh_. Examples: _Kashgar_, _Shérif_.

9. _Kh_ represents the strong and _gh_ the soft Arabic guttural.

10. _Th_ shall represent the articulation in the English word _path_ (Greek theta), and _dh_ the sound of _th_ in the English word _those_ (Greek delta).

11. Unless the letter _h_ is employed to modify the sound of the letter preceding it, it shall always be aspirated; it should, therefore, never have an apostrophe in names beginning with it.

12. The _i_ semi-vowel shall be represented by an y, pronounced as in _yole_.

13. The semi-vowel _w_ is to be pronounced as in the English word _Williams_.

14. The double sounds _dj_, _tch_, _ts_ shall be written with the letters which represent the sounds of which they are composed. Example: _Matshim_.

15. The _ñ_, n with a _tilde_, is to be pronounced like _gn_ in _seigneur_.

16. The letters _x_, _c_, and _q_ are not to be employed as duplicates, but the letter q may serve to represent the Arabian _qaf_, and the _aïn_ could be represented by a double dot.

The idea is to indicate, by means of the characters above given as near as possible the local pronunciation without attempting a complete reproduction of all sounds heard.

GERMAN SYSTEM.

_Rules adopted in 1888 by the Imperial German Hydrographic Office, for the orthography and pronunciation of foreign geographic names._

The names from nations who use the Roman or German alphabet are to be rendered in the native form, excepting such for which a German orthography has been generally adopted, as Kopenhagen, Neapel, Genna, etc. Other foreign names which are generally known and whose orthography has been generally adopted, as Zanzibar, not _Sansibar_; Zulu, not _Sulu_, will not be changed.

The letters are pronounced as follows:

a, as _a_ in _Vater_.

å, between _a_ and _o_ (_Åland's Inseln_).

e, as in _Eden_.

i, as in _Ida_.

o, as in _Brot_.

u, as in _nur_.

ä, (æ, Ae) retain their German sounds.

ö, (oe, Oe) retain their German sounds.

ü, (ue, Ue) retain their German sounds.

ai, as in _Kaiser_.

au, as in _auch_.

ao, not quite as _one_ sound.

ei, as in _Ei_.

b, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, x and z retain their
German sounds.

f, retains its German sound; also for _ph_, but the latter will not
be used.

c, always soft (as _z_). For the sound of _k_, _c_ is not to be
used.

j [with umlaut], for the English _j_ (_dj_).

q, will not be used; it is replaced by _k_; respectively by _ku_.

ch, as _tsch_.

sh, as _sch_.

y, is only used for the consonantal sound, not for _i_.

gh, oriental guttural sound (_Dagh_, _Ghazi_).

kh, oriental guttural sound (_Khan_).

v, is always soft; not to be used to give the sound of _f_.

When a vowel is to be pronounced clear and open the following consonant will be doubled: (_Tanna_, _Mekka_, _Bonny_). To lengthen a vowel sound, it will not be doubled, but if the vowel is repeated each will be pronounced separately (_Nuuluha_, _Oosima_).

But one accent (') will be used to indicate if particularly necessary, that is, in exceptional cases, the syllable on which stress is to be laid (_Matupí_).

RUSSIAN-ENGLISH.

ENGLISH-RUSSIAN.