| v
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Z, z | (zo) as in English | z
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PRELIMINARY NOTES.

In order to make the best progress in acquiring the words and sentences
in the following pages, the student is recommended to learn a few at a
time by repeating them aloud with the aid of the phonetic pronunciation
in the third column.

Although the system of phonetics may seem a little cumbersome, practice
will soon enable the student to pronounce the words easily and
naturally. The following notes will be useful:--

1. *Accent.*--In Esperanto, *every letter*, whether vowel or consonant,
*is sounded*. *The accented syllable of a word is always the last but
one.* Thus, _nobla_ (noh'blah), _irado_ (ee-rah'do), _telefono_
(teh-leh-foh'no), _internacia_ (in-tehr-naht-see'ah), _folio_
(fohlee'oh).

It should be borne in mind that _j_ and _ux_ *are consonants*, and do
not, like the vowels, of themselves constitute a syllable. Thus, _tiu_
(tee'oo, *two* syllables) and _tiuj_ (tee'ooy, also *two* syllables),
_rajdi_ (rah'y-dee, *not* rah-[)i]'dee), _antaux_ (ahn'tahw, *not*
ahn-tah'[)o][)o]).

2. *The vowels, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, should in Esperanto be
pronounced quite purely*, and entirely without any drawling after-sound.
Many English speakers diphthongize _a_, _i_, _o_, and pronounce _late_
as "l_a-i_t," _pale_ as "p_a-i_l," _paper_ as "p_a-y_-per," _road_ as
"row-d," etc. This habit of drawling the vowels, when transferred to
Esperanto, thus: _Mi ne povas bone paroli_, mee'y nay'ee
poh'[)o][)o]-vah(r)ss boh'[)o][)o]-nehy pah(r)-roh'[)o][)o]-leey,
immediately reveals the nationality of the speaker.

There is also an inclination to interpose an _r_-sound between _la_
("the") and a word beginning with a vowel, thus: _la(r)ebleco_ instead
of _la ebleco_, _la(r)internacia lingvo_ instead of _la internacia
lingvo_, etc. This should be avoided.

3. *Combinations of Consonants.*--There are a few consonantal
combinations which offer a slight difficulty to English beginners, viz.,
_gv_, _kn_, _kv_, _sc_. The combinations _gv_, _kn_, and _kv_, as in
_gvidi_ (gvee'dee), _knabo_ (knah'bo), _kvieto_ (kvee-eh'toh), may be
practised by first placing a vowel before the _g_ or _k_, and gradually
suppressing it. Thus, first say _la knabo_ (lahk-nah'bo), and gradually
drop the "lah," until fi