TILE LETTERS—VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. It is impossible within the scope of this article to make any attempt at a complete statement of the values of the letters and their combinations, even in the languages of the modern civilized races. The following alphabetic list is intended only to afford a clue to answer those questions that are likely to be looked up in a general work of this character. The statements refer, of course, only to the modern foreign languages that use the Roman alphabet, except as otherwise noted above.
A generally has the value of a in English far, bath, fast, o• sometimes one approaching the sound of a in English cat; in Hungarian a is nearly o in hot, and a as a in short a in Sanskrit and in many East Indian names is as a in but; a in French is nearly as a in far.
A in Rumanian is as i in tin; in French nearly as a in far.
A or AE. See AE, below.
X in Rumanian relembles c in her.
g, in Polish is like a in fall nasalized. See N below.
A in Portuguese. See AM below.
A in Swedish is like a in all, or sometimes resembling o in obey.
AA in Danish and Norwegian is like a in all, o• sometimes resembling o in obey; in Dutch equals older AE. See AR, below.
In German ae (or is nearly as a in fate or in senate, or as c in set ; in Dutch ae (now spelt aa), and in Flemish ac, is like 0 in far; in Swedish ae (or d) is like e in set or in there; in Danish and Norwegian ac is often like a in sat ; in Welsh ac is somewhat like i in irc.
AE in Portuguese is like i in ice, nasalized, or pronounced through the nose.
AI or Ad (when j is a vowel) is in most eases a proper diphthong, essentially like the sound of aye, 'yes.' It is often best represented by a `long (i in this work). In French ai is nearly as a in fate; in modern Greek as e in set or a in senate; in Hungarian aj is as of in boil, and tij nearly as the sound of aye.