80 
E. H. Walsh— Tibetan Language , 8f Recent Dictionaries. [No. 2, 
I have referred to these dialects to shew that the main difference is 
one of pronunciation and idiom, and, as Desgodins says of the man from 
Tashilhnnpo who arrives at Tachienlu, “ After some time the Easterner 
and Westerner end by understanding one another.” 
Another reason why Central Tibetan is the best language for the 
foreigner to take as the colloquial standard is that the pronunciation is 
far more difficult than in the other dialects, owing to the large number 
of silent letters, which are sounded to a much greater extent in the 
outlying dialects; so that the foreigner who has learnt as his colloquial 
the central language will have less difficulty in learning from it the more 
easily pronounced dialects than he would by the reverse process. 
Apart from the above reasons, Central Tibetan should be the stand¬ 
ard because it is the language of Government and of official and general 
correspondence throughout the country. 
(3) There should be a carefully prepared comparative table giving 
the pronunciation of every letter and combination in each of the known 
dialects . 
Jaschke gives such a table in his Dictionary for certain of the dia¬ 
lects of Western Tibet, and also marks words and phrases peculiar to 
those languages in his Dictionary with a (W.), but this is for a portion 
only, and how different is the pronunciation in the eastern dialects will 
be seen from the table of pronunciation which Desgodins prefixes to his 
Dictionary, where many of the pronunciations given, though not special¬ 
ly stated, are clearly those of Eastern Tibet. 
(4) There should be a recognised standard of spelling of colloquial 
words, which , where the ivord is also found in literature , should be the liter¬ 
ary spelling (as given in Jaschke's Dictionary ). 
This condition may appear to a person not acquainted with the 
Tibetan language to be self-evident and unnecessary, but as a matter of 
fact it is not so. 
In Tibetan “ things are not what they seem,” and the pronunciation 
of a word gives, within certain limits, little clue as to its spelling. 
When Skra (“hair”) is pronounced “ ta,” D-Bus is pronounced ii, 
Grogs is “ do," spyod is “ cho” and A-Bras-Ljong is “ Denjong” and 
where the mountain Kangchenjanga (“ Kinchenjunga” ) is spelt Gangs- 
Chhen-Mzod-Lnga ; and where any one of these words as sounded could 
have equally well, phonetically, have been correctly spelt in a variety of 
different ways, it will be seen that spelling in Tibetan, especially in the 
central dialect, presents a difficulty to the learner such as is not met 
with in any other language. I will give an actual example. The word 
CV 
“ ready” pronounced “ tandi” is spelt Gral-Sgrig in Hen- 
