Note 2 — Phonology.

5. Final consonants. 1. Only the following ten: ག་ ང་ ཏ་ ན་ བ་ མ་ འ་ ར་ ལ་ ས་ (and the four with affixed ས, v. 5) occur at the end of a syllable. 2. It must be observed, that ག་ ད་ བ་ as finals are never pronounced like the English g, d, b in leg, bad, cab, but are transformed differently in the different provinces. In Ladak they sound like k, t, p e.g. སོག་ = sock, གོད་ = got, ཐོབ་ = top. 3. In all Central Tibet, moreover, final ད་ and ན་, sometimes even ལ་, modify the sound of a preceding vowel: a to ä (similar to the English a in hare, man), o into o̤ (French eu in jeu), u into ṳ (French u in mur). In most of the other provinces ག་ and ད་ are uttered so indistinctly as to be scarcely audible, so that སོག་, གོད་ become sŏʼ, gŏʼ. In Tsang even final ལ་ is scarcely perceptible, and final ག་, particularly after o, is almost dissolved into a vowel sound = a: སོལ་བ་ so-wa, དཀོན་མཆོག་ kon-choa.2 4. Final ས་ is sounded as s only in Northern Ladak; elsewhere it changes into i or disappears entirely, prolonging, or even modifying at the same time the preceding vowel. Thus the following words: ནས་ ‘barley’, ཤེས་ ‘know’, རིས་ ‘figure’, ཆོས་ ‘religion’, ལུས་ ‘body’, are pronounced in Northern Ladak: năs, s̀ĕs, ris, c̀ʽos, lŭs; in Lahoul: nai, shei, rī, c̀ʽō, lū; in Lhasa, and consequently by everyone who wishes to speak elegantly: nā̤, s̀ē, rī, c̀ʽō̤, lṳ̄. 5. In some words final ས་ occurs as a second closing letter (affix), after ག་ ང་ བ་ མ་, as in ནགས་ ‘forest’, གངས་ ‘glacier-ice’, ཐབས་ ‘means’, རམས་ ‘indigo’; these are pronounced in N. Ladak: nacks, gaṅs, tʽaps, rams, elsewhere nack (in Ü: nā), gaṅ (ET ghang), tʽap, ram. 6. ན་ before པ་ and མ་ is especially in ET very often pronounced m, e.g. ཉན་པ་ ñäm-pa, ཉོན་པ་ ñöm-pa, སྙེན་པ་ ñem-pa.