Note on Transliterated Sanskrit Words
369
The vowels are pronounced almost as in Italian. The sound of the short  a  is like the  u  in  but , the long  ā  is like the  a  in  far  and held twice as long as the short  a , and  e  is like the  a  in  evade . Long  ī  is like the  i  in  pique . The vowel  ṛ  is pronounced like the  re  in the English word  fibre . The  c  is pronounced as in the English word  chair , and the aspirated consonants ( ch ,  jh ,  dh , etc.) are pronounced as in  staunch-heart ,  hedge-hog ,  red-hot , etc. The two spirants  ś  and  ṣ  are pronounced like the English  sh ;  s  is pronounced as in  sun .