Note 1 — Phonology.
Reading edition
It is seen from this table that several signs have been added to express sounds that are unknown in Sanscrit. The sibilants ཙ་ ཚ་ ཛ་ evidently were differentiated from the palatals. But as in transcribing Sanscrit words the Tibetans substitute their sibilants for the palatals of the original (as ཙི་ན་ for चीन), we must suppose that the sibilisation of those consonants, common at present among the Hindus on the Southern slopes of the Himālaya (who say tsār for चार, four etc.), was in general use with those Indians from whom the Tib. Alphabet was taken (cf. also the Afghan څ and ڂ likewise sprung from چ and ج). ཝ་ is differentiated from བ་, which itself often is pronounced v, as shewn in the sequel; in transcribing Sanscrit, ब and व both are given, generally, by བ only. ཞ་ seems to be formed out of ཤ་ to which it is related in sound. ཟ་ evidently is only the inverted ཇ་. ཨ་ corresponds with Sanscrit अ. འ་ is newly invented; for its functions see the following §§.—The letters which are peculiar to Sanscrit are expressed, in transcribing, in the following manner. a) The linguals, simply by inverting the signs of the dentals: thus, ཊ་ ट, ཋ་ ठ, ཌ་ ड, ཎ་ ण. b) The sonant aspirates, by putting ཧ་ under the sonants: thus, གྷ་ घ, ཛྷ་ झ, ཊྷ་ ढ, དྷ་ ध, བྷ་ भ.1