Hints to Travellers, Scientific and General, Vol. 2 / Tenth edition, revised and corrected

by Royal Geographical Society

(a) That vowels are pronounced as in Italian and consonants as in English;

(b) That every letter is pronounced, and no redundant letters are used.

The system aims at giving a close approximation to the local pronunciation; but it is recognised that in some languages, notably Russian, Greek, and Arabic, the necessity for letter-for-letter transliteration often renders this impossible.

Table of Spelling and Pronunciation R.G.S. II.

a	Long and short, as in lāvă	Somāli, Bukhāră.[*]
ä	As in fat; rare; chiefly in Teutonic languages.
ai[‡]	The sound of the two Italian vowels; frequently slurred over, almost as in Eng. aisle, ice	Wadai; Shanghai.
au	The two Italian vowels; frequently slurred, almost as ou in out	Sakau; Bauchi.
aw	When followed by a consonant, or when terminal, as in awl, law	Dawna, Saginaw.
b	As in English.
c	Not to be used, but always replaced by k or s;	Kandahar, Serang.
	except in the compound ch, and in many conventionally spelt words, as	Calcutta, Celébes.
ch	As in church; never tch or tsch for this sound	Chad, Maroch.
d[†][‡]	As in English.
dh	Soft th as in they: a slight d sound preceding it in Semitic languages	Dhuvu, Riyadh.
e[‡]	Long as in eh; short as in bet. (For the e sound in the French je, see note at end on the “neutral vowel”)	Gēlo; Mafĕking.[*]
(ee)	Used for i (q.v.) only in a few conventional names	Darjeeling, Keelung.
ei[‡]	The two Italian vowels, frequently slurred	Beirut, Raheita.
(eu)	Not used as a single sound.
f	As in English; ph must not be used for this sound (except in Greek; see ph)	Mustafa, Maidan-i-Naftun.
g	Hard, as in get, gift; never as in gem, gin	Gedáref, Gilgit.
gh	Soft guttural, the Arabic ghain غ	Dagh, Baghdad.
h	Used only when sounded; or in the compounds ch, dh, gh, kh, sh, th, zh	Vrh, Ahmadabad.
i	Long as in marine; short as in piano (not as in pin)	Fiji; Kibonde.[*]
j	As in English; except in transliteration of Russian, Bulgarian, and Chinese, where it equals zh, or the French j[§]	Japan, Ujiji (Eng. j); but Jitómir, Jelezna, Jao-ping (Fr. j).
k	As in English: hard c should never be used (except in conventionally-spelt words)—thus, not Corea, Cabul, but	Korea, Kabul.
kh	Hard aspirated guttural, as in the Scottish loch (not as in lock)	Khan, Sebkha.
l[†]	} As in English.
m
n[†]
ng	Has three separate sounds, as in vanguard, finger, and singer. If necessary to distinguish, a hyphen may be placed, as in van-guard, sing-er	In-gássana; Bongo; Ng-ami, Tong-a.
o	Long as in both[¶]; short as in rotund	Angōla, Kigōma; Angŏra, Hŏnŏlulu.[*]
ö	As in German; equals the French eu in peu; or nearly the English sound in fur	Gömle, Yeniköi.
(oo)	Used for u (q.v.) only in a few conventional names, chiefly Chinese	Poona, Foochow.
oi[‡]	The Italian vowels: sometimes slurred as in oil. If necessary for pronunciation, a hyphen may be inserted as in Tro-itskoi.
ou[‡]	Dissyllabic, and not as French or English ou	Zlatoust.
ow	Represents, as a diphthong, nearly the au sound (above) only in the romanisation of Chinese. Conventional.
p	As in English.
ph	As in loophole; not to be used for the f-sound, except in Greek or conventionally	Chemulpho; Paphos, Haiphong.
q	Represents only the Arabic Qaf (ق): i.e. a guttural k	Qena, ʿIraq.
qu	Should never be employed to represent the sound of kw: thus, not Namaqua, Quorra, but	Namakwa, Kworra.
r[†]	As in English; should be distinctly pronounced.
s	As English ss in boss, not as in these or pleasure	Rosario, Masikesi.
sh	} As in English.
t[†]
th	Hard th as in thick, not as in this	Tharmida.
u[‡]	Long as in rude, or as oo in boot; short as in pull	Zūlū; Rŭanda.[*]
ü	Represents the French u, as in tu (Fr.)	Üsküb.
v	} As in English.
w
x
y	Always a consonant, as in yard;	Kikuyu, Maya.
	it should not be used as a terminal vowel, e or i being substituted; e.g., not Kwaly or Wady, but	Kwale, Wadi.
z	As in gaze, not as in azure.
zh	As the s in treasure, the z in azure, or the French j in je; but for the sound in Russian, Bulgarian, and Chinese use j (vide note above under j)	Zhob, Azhdaha.
Notes.
	The doubling of a vowel or a consonant is only necessary when there is a distinct repetition of the single sound, and should otherwise be avoided	Nuulua, Loolmalasin, Jidda, Muhammad.
	Accents should not generally be employed; but in order to indicate or emphasise the stress, an acute accent may be used	Saráwak, Qántara, Tong-atábu, Paraná.
	A long or short mark over a vowel (e.g. ā, ŏ) should only be used (and that sparingly) when without it there would be danger of mispronunciation	Kūt, Hashīn, Angŏra.
	Hyphens will not be used except to indicate pronunciation, and with the Persian izafat, -i-	Mus-hil; Pusht-i-Kuh.

[*] The long and short symbols given in this column are merely for explanation, not for use.

[†] See note at end on Liquid sounds.

[‡] Pronounced differently in Greek: see ‘Alphabets of Foreign Languages transcribed into English according to the R.G.S. II system’ (to be published in the R.G.S. Technical Series).

[§] This decision has been arrived at chiefly owing to the large number of English (and French) maps of these countries in which the zh sound appears as j.