THE public has been already informed, at the latter end of the preface, that the Italian or rather the Scottish Alphabet has been made use in this work to write the oriental names; but as some objections have been made to so general a definitionh it has been thought proper to give here the particulars of it.

All the vowels are to be pronounced in the Italian or Scottish way; but as there are numberless places where the sound of the English oo is preceded by an o, and three such os might look strange and would infallibly mislead the Reader, the figure 8, that is, the Greeck 8, has been used to signify the sound intended by the double o. It is thus the word Seradj-ed-do’8lah is written, or thus Seradj-ed-do’ulah, the Acute Accent or the double dots, … marking the letter on which the Emphasis is to fall, and the voice to be raised. However, the work having been printed by several Printers, this has been disregarded by some, who have adhered to the usual spelling; so that the double o is often seen where there ought to be a Greek 8.

Qh and also kh answer exactly to the Scottish ch in Cariarach, Glenorchi; that is, that compound letter is to be pronounced like a strong h or aspiration fetched from the throat.

Gh is to be sounded everywhere as the Scottish Gh in Daughter, and even more gutturally; although in the word Djaghir and some others, in use amongst the English, it has been thought proper to follow the ordinary spelling, and of course to suffer its retaining the sound of the English gh in Moningham.

The English j in jaylor has been put after a D, because that same l in number of places bears in this work the same sound as the small i in initials. It is for that reason that we write Djaafer-qhan.

The words Ráo and Ráy are often written with two dots upon the first vowel to denote the elevation of the voice, and also to distinguish those and some other similar words, in two syllables. In general the Acute Accent, or the two dots upon a letter, denote its being to be pronounced distinctly from the preceding vowel. The word Vezir has been in some places Vizier, &c.; nor have my endeavours been able to wean the Printer from that practice and some others.

But Printers have been guilty of an infinity of alterations both through chance and through wilfulness; let it be a standing rule then that all the vowels of a name are to be sounded each distinctly and in the Scottish manner.