aa˛-fang-ǝ (G. anfangen) to begin; alée˛ (G. alleín) alone; schee˛ (G. schön) handsome; bee˛ (G. bein, pl. beine) leg, legs; kee˛ (G. kein) none; grii˛ (G. grün) green; duu˛ (G. thun) to do. Was hǝt ær geduu˛? (G. Was hat er gethan?) what has he done? mei˛ (G. mein, meine) my; dei˛ (G. dein) thy; nei˛ (G. hinein) within; ei˛ being the only nasal dipthong.
The obscurity arising from a neglect of the nasal vowels appears in the following lines—
"Die amshel singt so huebsch un' feih, Die lerch sie duht ihr lied ah neih;" ... "Awhaemle duht mich eppes noh."—Rachel Bahn.
Final n is not always rejected, but remains in many words, among which are—'in' in; 'bin' am; 'un' and; 'iin'(him) G. ihn (but hii˛ for G. hin thither); 'fun' (from) G. von; 'wan' (when); 'hen' (have) G. haben; 'kan' (can); 'schun' (already) G. schon.
German infinitives in-en end in-ǝ in PG., a vowel not subject to nasality, so that when G. gehen (to go) remains a dissyllable it is 'gee'ǝ,' but when monosyllabised it becomes 'gee˛'—this vowel being nasalisable. Similarly, G. zu stehen (to stand) becomes 'tsu schteeǝ' and 'tsu schtee˛;' G. zu thun (to do) may be 'tsu tuu˛'—'tsu tuuǝ' or (with n preserved) 'tsu tuunǝ,' and G. gehen (to go) may have the same phases.
§ 5. The Consonants.
The Germanism of confusing b, p; t, d; k, g, is present in PG. and they are pronounced flat, that is, with more of the surface of the organs in contact than in English—a characteristic which distinguishes German from languages of the Dutch and Low-Saxon (Plattdeutsch) type.[11] This must be remembered in reading the examples, in which the ordinary usage of these letters will be nearly followed.
The consonants are b, ch, d, f, g (in get, give), gh, h, j (English y), k, l, m, n, ng, p, r (trilled), s (in seal, not as in miser), sch (in ship), t, w (a kind of v made with the lips alone). 'ch' has the two usual variations as in recht and buch, and its sonant equivalent 'gh' (written with 'g' in German) presents the same two phases, as in G. regen and bogen. 'ng' before a vowel as in singer, hence 'finger' is fing-er and not fing-ger. 'n' before 'k' is like 'ng,' as in G. links (on the left), which is pronounced like an English syllable. Vowels to be repeated are indicated by a hyphen, as in ge-ennǝrt (altered), nei-ichkeit (novelty).
Should letters be wanted for English j, z, v, w, the first may have dzh, and the others italic z, v, w, with ks for x.
As the reader of English who speaks PG. can learn the German alphabetic powers in half an hour, PG. should be written on a German basis, and not according to the vagaries of English spelling, with its uncertainty and reckless sacrifice of analogy. In print, PG. should appear in the ordinary roman type, in which so many German books are now published.[12]