84 
E. H. Walsh— Tibetan Language , &f Recent Dictionaries. [No. 2, 
Also the use of h for renders it liable to he confused with 
h with which it has no affinity in sound or otherwise. 
Jaschke used a particular symbol for this letter when initial (a 
circle placed below the line), and when following a consonant he did not 
transliterate it separately at all. 
(6). There must be a Recognised System of Transcription (as distinct 
from Transliteration ) of Tibetan names , and other words likely to be em¬ 
ployed in English. 
From what has been already said regarding the Tibetan spelling, 
it is quite clear that the transliteration of a word will in most cases give 
no indication of its sound to a person not acquainted with the language. 
CS 
Who, for instance, in Bkra-Shis-Lhun-po wonid 
recognise the well known City of “ Tashilhunpo,” or in Bka-Blon-Spung 
the familiar “ Kalimpong ” ? 
NO 
It is therefore necessary to fix a standard system of transcription 
which shall be phonetic and represent the actual sound of the word, and 
at the same time be uniform. Such systems have been adopted by the 
Rev. Graham Sandberg in his Handbook of Colloquial Tibetan, 1 and 
by Rev. Edward Amundsen in his Primer of Standard Tibetan. 8 These 
are not, however, quite suited to the purpose of transcribing names and 
words that will require to be printed in newspapers, books of a general 
nature, as they contain certain special marks, and here also there is not 
uniformity. Thus the Rev. Graham Sandberg uses the comma above 
the line to indicate the omission of a silent consonant, while the Rev. 
Edward Amundsen employs this mark to indicate an aspirated letter. 
All non-essential marks should be omitted. The only mark which 
is essential is the diaeresis ( " ) in certain cases over the vowels o and u, 
which is a mark known to all printers and in general use and therefore 
presents no difficulties. It also exactly represents the pronunciation, 
which, in the words where it would be employed, is that known in all 
countries to be implied by this mark, namely, the b and u in German. 
(7). All Honorific words should bear a distinguishing mark , and 
against every common word the corresponding Honorific word should be 
noted, and similarly against every Honorific word , the corresponding com- 
« 
mon word . 
1 Haudbook of Colloquial Tibetan, by Graham Sandberg. Thacker Spink, 
Calcuta. 1894. 
8 Primer of Standard Tibetan, by Edward Amundsen. Printed at the Scandi¬ 
navian Alliance Mission Press. Ghoom, Darjeeling. 1903. 
