92 Note on the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language. [No. 2, 



In his work on Laclak, mention some dialectical differences in the 

 pronunciation of various districts, which in some instances agree 

 more accurately with the way of spelling, and the latter states that 

 the more learned Lamas, but these only, pronounce distinctly, though 

 rapidly, the initial letters which are usually silent. But a closer 

 inquisition shows the interesting fact, that in the most western ex- 

 tremity of Tibet in the province of Purig and the northernmost 

 part of Ladak, nearly all the consonants and the ancient pronunciation 

 of the language, as it was at the period of the invention of the 

 alphabet, has been preserved by the illiterate, not by a few learned 

 Lamas only, in the case of whom we could not be sure whether their 

 accommodation to the ancient spelling were not merely artificial — a 

 capricious imitation of what they are trained to revere as the dialect 

 of their sacred writings. Let me mention some instances. The 

 letters here in question are more especially those compound consonants, 

 consisting of two or three elements, which are in Tibetan, as in many 

 cases in Sanscrit also, denoted in writing by putting the following 

 consonant below the preceding one. Now e. g. the letter s as initial, 

 with a following &, t, &c. is spoken distinctly in Ladak, as in shad, 

 language ; stan, mat ; skarma, star ; I in the same case is pronounced 

 even in Lahoul, e. g. Itawa, to look at ; Ichangma, willow ; r in the 

 same case, in no instance in Lahoul, but in many in Ladak, e. g. 

 rclowa, the stone, and in still more, perhaps in every word where it 

 appears in writing, in Purig, e. g. rgyalwa, victorious, or more com- 

 monly, good, excellent, which is pronounced by Ladakees, and I 

 think everywhere else in Tibet : gyalla ; and so are words as : rdzogs, 

 rdza, rdzun, &c In a similar way a villager of Purig will call a 

 knife, gri ; washing, Ichruwa ; rice, bras • child, phrugu ; whereas even 

 in Ladak these four words are heard like dri, thruwa, dras, thrugu, 

 in Lahoul and more to the East like di, tutoa, dai or de, tugu, with 

 little or nothing of the innate r, and the p and h sounds changed into 

 t sounds with a more or less lingual pronunciation. Again : those 

 connected with what would be spelled y in English are pronounced 

 according to their spelling only in Purig and Balti in all cases, e. g. 

 byang, north ; phydg, hand (in respectful language) ; phyugpo, rich \ 

 these are spoken like jang, chhag, chhugpa already in the southeastern 

 part of Ladak, and in Lahoul ; whereas in the case of the k sounds, 



