1900.] 
H. Francke — A collection of Ladakhi Proverbs, 
135 
A collection of Ladakhi Proverbs. — By The Rey. H. Francke, Moravian 
Missionary, Leh. Communicated by the Philological Secretary. 
[Read June, 1899.] 
The Ladakhi word for proverb is gtamdpe [pronounced stamspe'] 
which means ‘ word example.’ Stamspe is the general term for what 
might be called quotations, the shepherd’s calender and the popular 
moral code. 
Ladakhi popular poetry has become famous for the frequent 
application of the laws of ‘ parallelism.’ Many beautiful examples, 
illustrative of this form of poetry, will be noticed in the proverbs. 
In the following each proverb will be treated in this way — 
(a) the Proverb in the orthography of Ladaki letter writing, (5) 
pronunciation, (c) literal translation [does not claim to be 
good English], {d) application, (e) grammatical and other 
notes. 
Concerning the orthography of (6) the following will suffice : The 
vowels are the Italian vowels^, d rather like e. All accents given, refer 
only to the stress. sh-=p^^ zh~ (^^ng — z;^^c=^:^^ — ts~z, 
ths = ^. The unaspirated Tenuis holds the mean between English 
tenuis and media. Single 7’ = Hindustani r. The r preceding a consonant 
is like the German guttural r, following a consonant it is like the 
English r, spoken quickly. 
THE PROVERBS. 
1- (a) j 
(6) spid’ nyin ring’moa drang’ sumdang dro’ sum 
mi’thse ring’moa skyid’ sum dang dug’ sum. 
I They are long, when ending a syllable, short in all other cases. 
