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



centuries after the invention of the alphabet, that the pronunciation 

 was already altered to that of the present day. It is not impossible 

 that a more complete dictionary of this language in both its dialects, 

 that of Kunawar and that of Lahoul, and perhaps also of other un- 

 written Himalayan dialects and languages, situated as they are 

 between the great Tibetan and Indian families, might afford more 

 than one interesting result with regard to the history of the Tibetan 

 language and the histories of the people of these countries, in their 

 political situations as well in their civilisation. If such investigations 

 happened to be aided by the discovery of local records of such a 

 kind as formed the history of Sikkim, destroyed by the Nepalese 

 soldiery (v. Hooker's Him. Journ. I. p. 331) it might be possible to 

 clear up parts of the history of these countries hitherto very obscure. 



It would seem to me as if the collection of words given above, 

 might suggest the conjecture that the first of the two irruptions of 

 Tibetan power and influence into these valleys, inhabited by Boonan- 

 speaking mountaineers, was merely of a political nature, carrying 

 with it such institutions as taxes, very probably the first thing which 

 the small population of a secluded valley is likely to be taught by a 

 foreign invader, — some new articles of manufacture (cotton cloth, car- 

 pets, &c), words for the higher numerals, and some others ; whereas 

 the second, — perhaps going on in a more quiet and slow way, — brought 

 with it judicial and governmental institutions of a somewhat higher 

 order, and the religious and philosophical ideas as well as usages of 

 Buddhism, 



