1894.] F. B. Shawe —Tibetan Ortliog raping and 'Pronunciation. 
15 
So: SJ 3 )' sman “medicine,” spu “hair, 4 ’ star-ga “walnut,” 
are all pronounced with an audible s in Ladak, whilst the s is usually 
mute in Lahaul. The same takes place with other initials, e. g ., 
brduns-ces “to beat,” blta-ces “ to look,” Idags 
“ iron,” Ice “ tongue,” are often pronounced * rduns , Ita (sometimes 
sta !) leak, Ice* respectively, instead of * dun , ta , cak , ce * as would be 
usual. 
Another observation is connected with consonants having subscribed 
y , the so-called ya-tags . In the ordinary pronunciation both of the 
central and western dialects, Q’ py, p’y and S' by become respectively 
* c, c, and j* In Ladak and Lahaul however, §8’ py'ed “half” is not 
* cet* but * p’et; * p’y is “ duster, rag ” is not * cis * but * p’is ; * 
cs cs 
also in compounds as QJ^TgN’ lag-p’yis “towel,” sna-p’yis 
“ handkerchief,” etc., which are pronounced * lak-p’is , (s)na-pis* etc. 
o 
Similarly p’yi-pa “ heathen, non-Buddhist,” is not * c’i-pa* but 
* pi-pa; * ST^T bye-ma “ sand, ” is not * je-ma * but * be-ma ; * 
byed-pa “ to make,” is not *jet-pa* but * bet-pa.* 1 2 The verb 
p’yin-pa “ to arrive,” is unknown in Ladak and Lahaul (P), but is used in 
Spiti as * p’in-pa,* not as * c’ in-pa* which would be the regular pronun¬ 
ciation. A similar usage prevails with some words with subscribed r, the 
so-called ra-tags , e. g., the root bran is correctly pronounced * dan* 
So in Ladak in the word bran-sa “ dwelling, ” pronounced * dan- 
sa.* But p’o-bran “ residence, ” is pronounced in Ladak very 
often * p’ob-ran * and lha-bran “ idol-house, ” is often pronounced 
* Ihab-ran * 2 All the examples cited from the Ladak dialect are not 
a peculiarity of educated people, who might affect an artificial and 
refined mode of speech, but are in daily use amongst the illiterate mass 
of the people. 
1 This word is rather interesting on account of its widely spread use, for 
* bet-pa * is in common use in Kunawur, seldom (I believe) heard in Lahaul, and 
quite unknown in Ladak, except in two or three villages in which it is in constant use. 
2 The two examples given are certainly compound nouns, but it will be observed 
that the analogy with the compounds noted above is not exact. In the former mute 
letters become audible; in these latter cases the labial b, has assumed a dental 
from d, and cannot therefore be said to be mute. It is just as easy to say 
* p’o-dran, p’o-dan or p’o-ran* as to say # p’ob-ran, * and would be in accordance with 
modern pronunciation. The same irregularity occurs in a place-name in Sikkim. 
See J. A. S. B. 1891. Part 1, No. 2, p. 69. 
