92 Note on the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language. [No. 2, 
in his work on Ladak, mention some dialectical differences in the — 
pronunciation of various districts, which in some instances agree 5 
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 f 
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. Nowe. g. the letter s as initial, 
with a following &, t, &. is spoken distinctly in Ladak, as in skad, 
language ; stan, mat; skarma, star; / in the same case is pronounced 
even in Lahoul, e. g. ltawa, to look at; lchangma, willow; r in the 
same case, in no instance in Lahoul, but in many in Ladak, e. g. 
rdowa, 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 
think everywhere else in Tibet : gyalla ; and so are words as: rdzogs, | 
rdza, rdzun, &e Ina similar way a villager of Purig will call a 
knife, grz ; washing, khruwa ; rice, bras ; child, phrugu ; whereas even 
in Ladak these four words are heard like dri, thruwa, dras, thrugu 
in Lahoul and more to the Hast like di, twwa, dai or de, tugu, with 
little or nothing of the innate r, and the p and k sounds changed into 
é 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 im all cases, e. g 
byang, north; phyag, hand (in respectful language); phyugpo, rich; 
these are spoken like yang, chhag, chhugpa already in the southeastern 
part of Ladak, and in Lahoul; whereas in the case of the k& sounds, 
ae ee tina See - 

