Part I.

Phonology.

1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the Lanča (23) form of the Indian letters by Ton

mi-sam-bho-ta (H′′35‍′′5) minister of king Sron-tsan

༡uk-sanu-bko-ta (ཐོན་མི་སམ་བྷོ་ད)

gam-po (7) about the year 632 (s. Köpp. II, 56). The Indian letters out of which the single Tibetan characters were formed are given in the following table in their Nagari shape.

gutturals.. ཀ་ a ku | ཁ་ ༊ ་@ ག་ T 9@

nasal.

ङ na

It is seen from this table that several signs have been added to express sounds that are unknown in Sanscrit. The sibilants ♂ evidently were differentiated from the palatals. But as in transcribing Sanscrit words the Tibetans substitute their sibilants for the palatals of the original (as F for), we must suppose that the sibilisation of those consonants, common at present among the Hindus on the Southern slopes of the Himalaya (who speak tsar for, four etc.), was in general use with those Indians from whom the Tib. Alphabet was taken (cf. also the Afghan and likewise sprung from and). is differentiated で from, which itself often is pronounced v, as shewn in the sequel; in transcribing Sanscrit, and both are given, a a generally, by only. seems to be formed out of q to which it is related in sound. evidently is only the inverted E. ' corresponds with Sanscrit is newly invented; for its functions see the following §§. The letters which are peculiar to Sanscrit are expressed, in transcribing, in the following manner. a) The linguals, simply by inverting the signs of the dentals:

thus, त ट, 72, p 3, 7 3, p. b) The sonant aspirates, by

putting ཧ་ under the sonants: thus, གྲ་ཁ, དྷ་ མ, ཌྷ་ ་

དྷ་ ༥, བྷ་ ཨ.")

ढ,

*) A very clear exposition of the ramification of Indian alphabets by Dr. Haas is to be found in the Publications of the Palaeographical Society Oriental Series IV, pl XLIV.

2. Remarks. 1. Regarding the pronunciation of the single letters, as given above, it is to be born in mind, that suds 5 are uttered without the least admixture of

ཀ་

an aspiration, viz. as k, t, p are pronounced in the words skate, stale, spear; the aspirates forcibly, rather harder than the same in Kate, tale, peer; the sonants

like g, d, b in gate, dale, beer. 2. The same difference of hardness is to be observed in E or è, č, j (è occurs in church; è, the same without aspiration; ì in judge) and in or ts, ts, ds. 3. Qis the soft modification of or the s in leisure (French j in jamais, but more palatal). 4. is the English ng in sing, but occurs in Tibetan often in the commencement of a syllable. 5. ཉ་ ñ is the Hindi, or the initial sound in the word new, which would be spelled 3* nu. 6. In the dialects of Eastern or Chinese-Tibet, however, the soft consonants

when occurring as initials, are pronounced with an aspiration, similar to the Hindi,,,, or indeed so that they often scarcely differ from the common English k, t, p, ch; also & and are more difficult to distinguish from ¶ and ✅ than in the Western provinces (Exceptions s. §§ 7. 8).

3. Vowels. 1. Since every consonant sign implies, like its Sanscrit prototype, a following a, unless some other vowel sign is attached to it, no particular sign is wanted to denote this vowel, except in some cases specified in the