
























—1865.] Note on the Pronunciation of the Tibetan Language. 93 
in words like khy?, the dog, gyelwa, to fall down, Kye-lang, the name 
of the village in Lahoul where the Moravian Mission is established, 
the correct pronunciation has been preserved even in that province, 
and chha instead of khyi is only used by still more Eastern Tibetans. 
Upon the whole, it may be said that, if not perfectly, still to a certain 
degree, the different changes which the pronunciation of the language 
has undergone in the course of upwards of one thousand years, may 
be traceable even at the present day in the different districts of Tibet 
from Purig and Balti in the west to the capital town of Lhasa near 
the Chinese frontier, where the deviation, or we may justly say, the 
_ degeneration has reached its highest pitch, in introducing assimilations, 
‘ dissolving certain consonants nearly into vowels, dropping others entire- 
ly, confounding two or three cognate sounds into one intermediate, and 
“mingling the short vowels with one another. Assimilations as in the 
‘Latin compono instead of con-pono, are unheard of in the written 
Tibetan language, as also in the spoken dialect of the western pro- 
inces; the word gompa will in Purig mean nothing but a step; 
different idea, that of custom, practice, which the Lahoulee will 
“include, being connected with the spelling: gomspa or sgompa. In 
the pronunciation of Lhasa two more, gonpa to dress, to put on, and 
_gonpa, monastery, are mixed up with the two former, by means of 
assimilation of the n. Again: s in the end of a syllable is pronounced 
in Parig and Ladak, but dropped in most other districts, not with- 
‘out a prolonging or changing influence on the preceding vowel. Thus 
he word chhos, religion, law, (dharma in Sanscr.) is pronounced 
16s in Ladak, chhot in Lahoul, chhé in upper Kunawur, chhé in Lhasa ; 
7 and g, in the end of a syllable, are melted into semivowels or nearly 
liquid consonants in a similar way as in Danish (though not exactly 
same): skad, the language, loses its s even in Southern Ladak, 
in Lhasa it is mutilated into ké’; smad, the nether part, into 
’; Bod, proper name of Tibet, the Bhota of Sans., into Bo’; Ichags, 
, into chad’, scarcely different in goctandianiés, from ja, tea; 
| ‘sringmo, Rte, is pronounced shringmo in west Tibet, singmo or 
| Nearly simo in Lhasa; sa and za, shi*and zhi (the latter like ji when 
pronounced as in French,) which are as accurately distinguished by 
every Lahoulee or Ladakee, as .s in seal and z in zeal, are confounded 

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