_ 1865:] Note on-the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language: 91 













_ Note on-the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language:—By the Rev. H. A. 
JanscuKE of Kyéelang. 
[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 eof 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 
ecommodation of the sign to the sound. On the contrary, he is 
ikely to have expressed in writing, with a few exceptions perhaps, 
ery sound of the language, as it was pronounced at his time. At 
esent, however, the Tibetan mode of spelling. differs nearly as much 
om the actual. pronunciation in the greater part of the country as 
in the English, or rather in the French language, for the discrepancy 
ostly rests in the consonants, many of which have changed in 
eertain cases their original sounds, or are dropped in speaking, though 
ey are, considered etymologically, essential elements of a word, 
nd therefore appear in writing, in a-proportion similar to such French 
rds as: ils parlent; qu’est cela Wc., e. g. bkrashis, pronounced 
shi. 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, 
Th 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 
| 8xceptions, scrupulously left unchanged, since its invention 1200 years 
ago. Csoma- de Korés and other grammarians, especially Cunninghan 
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