16 
F. B. Sliawe— Tibetan Orthography and Pronunciation. [No. 1, 
The tendency to pronounce usually mute letters is most marked iu 
the most westerly provinces. In Purig superscribed and subscribed 
, ~\C 
letters are pronounced exactly as written. Hence we have p’yag- 
po “rich,” graii-mo “cold,” ^'3’ pru-gu “child,” fj*T sgrom 
a 
box,” 5T gri “knife,” §'-£N' bri-cas “to writ e”%^snyid “heart,” 
Tdrag “blood,” the pronunciation of which is *p’yuk-po, gran-mo, 
p'ru-gu, sgrom , gri, bri-cas, snyih, Tdrah,* whilst * cuh-po, dah-mo, f u-gu; 
dom, di, di-cas, nyih, fah * would be the usual pronunciation. Of 
Baltistan it can be said that every letter is pronounced in one way or 
another. Thus 1 T \ r §> s \' bdun u 7” is * vduri* instead of # dun ; * S z 3 , '$' 
dpe-ca “book” is * xV e ~c a * instead of *pe-ca* (Ladak:* spe-ca*). 
*>5*33’ dnul “silver” is * ynul * instead of * nul * (Ladak : * mid *). 
In Baltistan and Purig the sign * ( wa-zur ), which has otherwise quite 
disappeared, but is supposed to be equivalent to w 2 has remained in the 
word rtswa “ grass, ” which is pronounced *rtsoa * or * stsoa, * 1 2 3 
the usual pronunciation being * tsa.* 
The evidence of the Purig and Balti dialects appears to me to be 
of the greatest importance, for the following reasons:—Firstly, both 
districts accepted Mohammedanism in lieu of Buddhism at a very early 
date 4 and by so doing emancipated themselves from the influence of 
Lhasa and cut themselves off from the development of the other Tibetan 
races. Secondly, from the introduction of Islam probably dates the 
neglect of literature. Tibetan literature was almost entirely Buddhist 
and was necessarily driven out by the change of religion, whilst Islam 
had no vernacular literature to offer and made no attempts to provide 
any. 5 At present the inhabitants of Purig and Baltistan are absolutely 
1 Jaeschke, Dictionary, p. xix f. 
2 Jaeschke, Phonetik, p. 162 f. 
3 Jaeschke, Dictionary, p. xix. writes * rtsod # I have, however, usually heard 
# rtsoa, * with a distinct accent on the o which represents the lost wa-zur. 
4 The exact or even approximate date is not yet ascertained as far as I am 
aware. Cunningham (Ladak, p. 30 f), gives a list of Mohammedan rajahs of 
Khapalor in Baltistan, the 39th of whom is dated about A. D. 1410. Cunningham 
points out that this date coincides with the death of Silcander Butshikan of Kashmir, 
and is inclined to put the conversion of Baltistan at this date. He also points out 
that some of the persons named amongst the first 39 rajahs are palpably fabulous, 
and that, therefore, the list is open to objections. 
3 The Purig people are well acquainted with the pre-Buddhistic legend of 
King Gesar (cf. J. A. S. B. 1891, Pt. 1, No. 3, p. 113, Note 13.), although they 
have no written copies of the epic but rely on oral transmission only. The folk-lore 
