1865'.] Note on- the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language. 91 



Note on the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language: — By the Rev. H. A. 

 Jaeschke of KyMang. 



[Received 1st February 1865. Read 1st February, 1865.] 



The Tibetan language is known to possess a .very rich literature, 

 though the smaller part of it is original, most of the Tibetan works 

 being translations from the Buddhistic part of the Sanscrit literature. 

 The whole is not of an older date than the 7th century, as that king 

 of Tibet who despatched one of his ministers to India, in order to 

 learn Sanscrit and create an. alphabet for the Tibetan language, was 

 a contemporary of Mohammad. It is incredible, of course, that he 

 should have loaded his writings with a great many superfluous signs, 

 especially when his only pattern was the Sanscrit, with its perfect 

 accommodation of the sign to the sound. On the contrary, he is 

 likely to have expressed in writing, with a few exceptions perhaps, 

 every sound of the language, as it was pronounced at his. time. At 

 present, however, the Tibetan mode of spelling, differs nearly as much 

 from the actual pronunciation in the greater part of the country as 

 in the English, or rather in the French language,, for the discrepancy 

 mostly rests in the consonants, many, of which have changed in 

 certain cases their original sounds, or are dropped in speaking, though 

 they are, considered etymologically, essential elements of a word, 

 and therefore appear in. writing,. in a. proportion similar to such French 

 words as : . ils parlent ; qu'est cela &c, e. g. bkrashis, pronounced 

 tashi. In French,, the cause and history of this discrepancy is clear, 

 as we know the Latin mother as well as the Gallic child, and possess 

 specimens from all ages, by which we can trace the gradual changes. 

 In Tibetan, nothing of the kind exists, or at least very little has yet 

 been discovered ; nor is there much reason for hoping that in their 

 own literature anything has been preserved that might throw light 

 on the history of the language, since the grammatical as well as the 

 historical powers of the Tibetan mind seem to be developed to a 

 very small degree, and the ancient orthography has been, with few 

 exceptions, scrupulously left unchanged, since its invention 1200 years- 

 ago. Csoma de Koros and other grammarians, especially Cunningham 



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