1903.] E. H. Walsh— Tibetan Language , 8f Recent Dictionaries. 81 
derson’s Vocabulary 3 ; while in Jaschke, Desgodins and in the present 
Dictionary this same word is spelt 5pr=fl Phral-Grig , and in either 
case pronounced the same. The latter is, in this case, the correct 
spelling. 
Spelling and pronunciation are in fact the chief difficulties in 
learning Tibetan. As regards the former, the two or three examples 
already given to some extent shew this, and it is perhaps not too 
much to say that the spelling of almost every word has to be indivi¬ 
dually known. As regards the latter, the difficulty is the number of 
similarly sounded but differently spelt words with different meanings, 
and also the system of tones by which the tone in which a word is 
pronounced is according to its spelling high or low pitched. The 
Tibetans divide all words into two broad classes, low toned which are 
called pho “ male,” and high toned which are called 3\j mo 
“female,”the one supposed to represent the deep toned voice of a man 
and the other the higher pitched voice of a woman ; but between these 
two there comes another, <3^ ma-ning , “ medium, ” and there are also 
further modifications of these two broad classes. The right mastering 
of tones, a system so entirely strange to the Europeans, is essential 
to a knowledge of spoken Tibetan. 
(5) The present system of translation of the Tibetan alphabet must be 
modified . 
The present Dictionary has followed the system adopted finally at 
the Vienna Congress of Orientalists, for Sanskrit and allied alphabets. 
This system, however, hns the drawback that in certain cases letters 
are selected to represent oriental letters which do not themselves corres¬ 
pond in sound with them, and hence a conventional diacritical mark is 
added to indicate that such letter is conventionally used to represent a 
particular sound; such letters are n for nga ; ha for nya ; sha 
for (ej* zha ; ga for sha ; and lia for (^’ a. Every one of these should 
be changed, and in each case the letter be transliterated so as to re¬ 
present its actual sound. As will be seen, there is no difficulty in doing 
this. 
One single objection is sufficient to condemn for practical purposes a 
system so artificial, namely, that there is no finality about it. These may 
S Tibetan Manual compiled by Yinoent C. Henderson. Chinese Imperial Maritime 
Customs. Revised by Edward Amundsen. Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1903. 
J. I. 11 
