In the rustic or ancient pronunciation, the Telugue use the soft sounds alone. Thus we frequently hear the words O^chinna, cheppu, 3Su>Xo jilugu, ~SsSai£> jemudu pronounced cinria, c,eppu, zilugu, zemudu.
They in like manner mispronounce Sanscrit words.
The soft sounds are common in Irish, where true, dry &c, are pronounced thrue, dhry, &c.
The nasal sound 21 gna or ng of the first varga or class is like n in the word mignionelle or in opinion. It occurs in the common words ■b>-»kn3^£>!&» vang-mri-lamu ' a recorded deposition or statement.' Like all other nasals, it is'usually changed into O as in the word fc»o>Co angam ' the body.'
The nasal of the second varga or class is gp- and never appears alone: being always written under the letter j, as in the word ST^&tsia jnapacamu 'recollection' and ^^sS» jnanamu 'knowledge' san-jna, 'a sign.' These words are usually though not correctly pronounced T*_gwS'tf» gyapa-camu, "7T"g;SJSc» gya-namu, A\ saugya.
In teaching Sanscrit or Telugu the teacher is obliged continually to make his pupils pronounce harder than they fancy requisite.
The letters cb Ta, Da, and £0 Na, are harder, and the letters |S Ta, £5 Da, and ^ Na are softer, than the sound they have in English*
The hard D is often pronounced nearly like E, thus "SKiytf BezavSda becomes Bezoara.
The distinction between the hard and soft T is perceived in these
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• The soft D and the soft T are used in modern Greek; as is shewn in Dallsway's Constantinople.
