Part 1 — Phonology.

1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the Lañc̀ʽa (ལཱཉ་ཚ) form of the Indian letters by Tʽon-mi-sam-bho-ta (ཐོན་མི་སམ་བྷོ་ཏ) minister of king Sroṅ-tsan-gam-po (སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ་) about the year 632 (s. Köpp. II, 56). The Indian letters out of which the single Tibetan characters were formed are given in the following table in their Nāgari shape.

surd. aspir. sonant. nasal.

gutturals. ཀ་ क ka ཁ་ ख kʽa ག་ ग ga ང་ ङ ṅa

palatals. ཅ་ च c̀a ཆ་ छ c̀ʽa ཇ་ ज j̀a ཉ་ ञ ña

dentals. ཏ་ त ta ཐ་ थ tʽa ད་ द da ན་ न na

labials. པ་ प pa ཕ་ फ pʽa བ་ ब ba མ་ म ma

palatal sibilants. ཙ་ tsa ཚ་ tʽsa ཛ་ dsa

semivowels ཝ་ व wa ཞ་ z̀a ཟ་ za འ་ ˱a

ཡ་ य ya ར་ र ra ལ་ ल la

ཤ་ श s̀a ས་ स sa ཧ་ ह ha ཨ་ ’a

2. Remarks. 1. Regarding the pronunciation of the single letters, as given above, it is to be born in mind, that surds ཀ་ ཏ་ པ་ are uttered without the least admixture of an aspiration, viz. as k, t, p are pronounced in the words skate, stale, spear; the aspirates ཁ་ ཐ་ ཕ་ forcibly, rather harder than the same in Kate, tale, peer; the sonants ག་ ད་ བ་ like g, d, b in gate, dale, beer. 2. The same difference of hardness is to be observed in ཅ་ ཆ་ ཇ་ or c̀, c̀ʽ, j̀ (c̀ʽ occurs in church; c̀, the same without aspiration; j̀ in judge) and in ཙ་ ཚ་ ཛ་ or ts, tʽs, ds. 3. ཞ་ is the soft modification of s̀ or the s in leisure (French j in jamais, but more palatal). 4. ང་ is the English ng in sing, but occurs in Tibetan often at the commencement of a syllable. 5. ཉ་ ñ is the Hindi न्य, or the initial sound in the word new, which would be spelled ཉུ་ ñu. 6. In the dialects of Eastern or Chinese-Tibet, however, the soft consonants ག་ ད་ བ་ ཇ་ ཛ་, when occurring as initials, are pronounced with an aspiration, similar to the Hindi घ, ध, भ, झ, or indeed so that they often scarcely differ from the common English k, t, p, ch; also ཞ་ and ཟ་ are more difficult to distinguish from ཤ་ and ས་ than in the Western provinces (Exceptions s. §§ 7. 8).

3. Vowels. 1. Since every consonant sign implies, like its Sanscrit prototype, a following a, unless some other vowel sign is attached to it, no particular sign is wanted to denote this vowel, except in some cases specified in the following §§. The special vowel signs are ེ, ི, ོ, ུ, pronounced respectively as e, i, o, u are in German, Italian and most other European languages, viz. ེ like ay in say, or e in ten; ི like i in machine, tin; ོ like o in so, on; ུ like u in rule, pull. It ought to be specially remarked that all vowels, including e and o (unlike the Sanscrit vowels from which they have taken their signs) are short, since no long vowels at all occur in the Tibetan language, except under particular circumstances, mentioned below (s. § 9. 5, 6 ). 2. When vowels are initial, ཨ is used as their base, as is ا‎ in Urdu, e.g. ཨ་མ་ ama, ‘mother’. 3. འ is originally different from ཨ་, as the latter denotes the opening of the previously closed throat for pronouncing a vowel with that slight explosive sound which the Arabs mean by أ‎ (همزة‎), as the a in the words: the lily, an endogen, which would be in Tibetan characters ལི་ལི་ཨན་; འ་ on the contrary is the mere vowel without that audible opening of the throat (as Arabic ا‎ without ء‎), as in Lilian, ལི་ལི་འན་. In Eastern Tibet this difference is strictly observed; and if the vowel is o or u the intentional exertion for avoiding the sound of ཨ་ makes it resemble wo and wu: འོ་མ་ ‘the milk’, almost like wo-ma, འུག་པ་ ‘the owl’ = wug-pa. In western Tibet this has been obliterated, and འ་ is there spoken just like ཨ་.

4. Syllables. The Tibetan language is monosyllabic, that is to say all its words consist of one syllable only, which indeed may be variously composed, though the component parts cannot, in every case, be recognised in their individuality. The mark for the end of such a syllable is a dot, called ཚེག་ tʽseg, put at the right side of the upper part of the closing letter, such as ཀ་ the syllable ka. This tʽseg must invariably be put at the end of each written syllable, except before a s̀ad (§ 10), in which case only ང་ ṅa retains its tʽseg. If therefore such a dot is found after two or more consonants, this will indicate that all of them, some way or other, form one syllable with only one vowel in it: ཀ་ར་ ka-ra, ཀར་ kar (cf. §§ 5. 8 ).

6. Diphthongs. 1. They occur in Tibetan writing only where one of the vowels i, o, u have to be added to a word ending with an other vowel (s. §§ 15. 1; 33. 1; 45. 2 ). These additional vowels are then always written འི་, འོ་, འུ་, never ཨི་ etc. (cf. § 3. 3); and the combinations ai, oi, ui (as in བཀའི་, མགོའི་, བུའི་) are pronounced very much like ā̤, ō̤, ṳ̄, so that the syllables ནའི་, ཤེའི་, རིའི་, ཆོའི་, ལུའི་ can only in some vulgar dialects be distinguished from those mentioned in § 5. 4. 2. The others ao, eo, io, oo, uo, au, eu, iu (བཀའོ་, སྐྱེའོ་, བགྱིའོ་, འགྲོའོ་, འདུའོ་, གའུ་, བྱེའུ་, ཁྱིའུ་) are pronounced in rapid succession, but each vowel is distinctly audible. In prosody they are generally regarded as one syllable, but if the verse should require it they may be counted as two.

7. Compound consonants. 1. They are expressed in writing by putting one below the other, in which case several change their original figure.

Subscribed consonants. 2. The letter y subjoined to another is represented by the figure ྱ, and occurs in connection with the three gutturals and labials, and with m, thus ཀྱ་ ཁྱ་ གྱ་ པྱ་ ཕྱ་ བྱ་ མྱ་. The former three have preserved, in most cases, their original pronunciation kya, kʽya, gya (the latter in ET: ghya s. § 2. 6). In the Mongol pronunciation of Tibetan words, however, they have been corrupted into c̀, c̀ʽ, j̀ respectively, a well known instance of which is the common pronunciation Kanj̀ur i.o. kangyur, or eleg. ka-gyur (བཀའ་འགྱུར་). པྱ་, ཕྱ་, བྱ་ are almost everywhere spoken without any difference from ཅ, ཆ, ཇ (except in the Western dialect before e and i, where the y is dropped and པ, ཕ, བ alone are pronounced). མྱ is spoken ny = ཉ. 3. r occurs at the foot of the gutturals, dentals, labials, of ན, མ, ས, and ཧ, in the shape of ྲ. In some parts of the country, as in Purig, these combinations are pronounced literally, like kra, khra etc., but by far the most general custom is to sound them like the Indian cerebrals, viz. ཀྲ, ཏྲ, པྲ indiscriminately = ट ṭ; ཁྲ, ཐྲ, ཕྲ = ठ ṭh; གྲ, དྲ, བྲ = ड ḍ (in CT: ḍh); only in the case of བྲ the literal pronunciation br is not uncommon. In ནྲ and མྲ both letters are distinctly heard; ཧྲ sounds like shr in shrub, and so does སྲ generally. In Ü this r is dropped nearly in all cases: thus, ཕྲ pʽa, སྲ sa etc. 4. Six letters are often found with an ལ beneath: ཀླ་ གླ་ བླ་ ཟླ་ རླ་ སླ་; in these the ལ alone is pronounced, except in ཟླ་, which sounds da. 5. The figure ྭ, sometimes found at the foot of a letter is used in Sanscrit words to express the subscribed व, as in སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ (cf. § 9. 6 ) for स्वाहा; and is now pronounced by Tibetans = ō: sōhā; in words originally Tibetan it now exists merely as an orthographical mark, to distinguish homonyms in writing, as ཚ་ tʽsa, ‘hot’ and ཚྭ་ tʽsa, ‘salt’; but, as it is spoken, in some words at least, in Balti (e.g. རྩྭ་ rtswa ‘grass’), it must be supposed that, in the primitive form of the language, it was generally heard.—Note. Of such compounds, indeed, as ཕྱྭ་ ‘lot’ it is difficult to understand, how they can have been pronounced literally, if the v was not, perhaps, pronounced before the y.

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Examples.

ཀྱིར་ཀྱིར་ kyir-kyir, round, circular.

ཁྱི་ kʽyi, dog.

གྱེན་ལ་ gyen-la, upwards.

ཕྱུགས་ c̀ʽug(s), Ü: c̀ʽū, cattle.

ཀྱུ་ kyu, hook.

ཁྱོད་ kʽyod, C: kʽyöʼ, you.

ཕྱུག་པོ་ c̀ʽug-po, rich.

ཕྱེད་ W: pʽed, C: c̀ʽĕʼ, half.

བྱ་མོ་ W: j̀á-mo, C: j̀ʽa-mo, hen.

མྱ་ངན་ W: ña-ṅán, C: -ṅän, misery.

ཀྲམ་ ṭam, cabbage.

ཁྲིམས་ ṭʽim(s), judgment.

གྲང་མོ་ W: ḍaṅ-mo, C: ḍʽ°-, cold.

ཕྲུག་གུ་ ṭʽug-gu, child.

སྲན་མ་ s̀ran-ma, srän-ma, pea.

གླ་ la, wages.

རླུང་(པོ་) luṅ(-po), wind.

ཟླ་བ་ da-wa (s. § 11 note), moon.

རྣོན་པོ་ nón-po, C: no̤m-po, sharp.

ལྗང་ཁུ་ jaṅ-kʽu (Ld. lj°), green.

སྐོམ་ (s)kom, thirst.

སྒོ་ (s)go, door.

སྒྱུར་བ་ (s)gyúr-wa, to alter, turn.

སྤྱིན་ W: (s)pin, C: c̀ʽin, glue.

སྤྲེའུ་ ṭe-u, Ld: s̀re-u, monkey.

སྨན་ W: (s)man, C: män, medicine.

བྱེ་མ་ W: bé-ma, C: j̀ʽe-ma, sand.

མྱུར་དུ་ ñur-du, quickly.

ཁྲལ་ ṭʽal, tax.

གྲི་ W: ḍi, ḍʽi (Pur: gri), knife.

དྲང་པོ་ W: ḍaṅ-po, C: ḍʽ°, straight.

བྲག་ ḍag, ḍʽag (brag), rock.

ཧྲུལ་པོ་ s̀rul-po, ragged.

བླ་མ་ lá-ma, priest.

སླ་མོ་ lá-mo, easy.

རྐང་པ་ kaṅ-pa, foot.

རྫུན་ W: zun, C: dsṳn, lie, untruth.

ལྟད་མོ་ tad-mo (Ld. lt°), C: täʼ-mo, spectacle.

སྒྲ་ ḍa (vulg.: ra), sound, voice.

སྤུ་ (s)pu, small hair.

སྤྱོད་པ་ W: (s)c̀od-pa, C: c̀öʼ-pa, to behave.

སྦྲུལ་ W: (sb)rul, C: ḍul, snake.

སྨྱོན་པ་ W: ñon-pa, C: ño̤n-pa, mad.

8. Prefixed letters. 1. The five letters ག་ ད་ བ་ མ་ འ་ frequently occur before the real, radical initials of other words, but are seldom pronounced, except in similar cases as § 7. 6. ག་ occurs before ཅ་ ཉ་ ཏ་ ད་ ན་ ཙ་ ཞ་ ཟ་ ཡ་ ཤ་ ས་; ད before the gutturals and labials with exception of the aspiratae; བ་ before ཀ་ ག་, the palatals, dentals and palatal sibilants with the same exception as under ད, then ཞ་ ཟ་ ར་ ཤ་ ས་; མ་ before the gutturals, palatals, dentals and palatal sibilants, except the surds; འ before the aspiratae and sonants of the five classes. In CT, to pronounce them in any case, is considered vulgar. 2. The ambiguity which would arise in case of the prefix standing before one of the 10 final consonants, as single radical, the vowel being the unwritten a,—e.g. in the syllable དག་, which, if ད is radical, has to be pronounced dag, if prefixed gā,—is avoided by adding an འ་ in the latter case: thus, དགའ་. Other examples are: གད་ gad (gʽäʼ) and གདའ་ dā; བས་ bas (bā̤, bʽā̤) and བསའ་ sā; མད་ mad (mäʼ) and མདའ་ dā; འགའ་ gā. This འ་ is added, though the radical be not one of the mentioned letters; as, བཀའ་ kā. 3. ད་ as a prefix and བ་ as first radical annul each other, so that only the following sound is heard, as will be seen in the following examples (དབང་ etc.). 4. Another irregularity is the nasal pronunciation of the prefixed འ་ in compounds after a vowel, which is often heard e.g. དགེ་འདུན་ pronounced gen-dún, gen-dṳ́n, but eleg.: ge-dṳ́n, ‘clergy’; བཀའ་འབུམ་ kam-bum, eleg. ka-búm, ‘the 100 000 precepts’ (title of a book).—Note. With regard to the aspiration of the soft consonants in ET the prefixed letters have the same influence as the superadded ones § 7. 9.

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Examples.

གཡག་ yag, bos grunniens. དཔེ་ཆ་ pé-c̀ʽa (Ld.: spe-c̀ʽa), book. བཟང་པོ་ záṅ-po, good. འབབ་པ་ bab-pa, to descend. དབང་ waṅ, vulg. C: aṅ, power. དབུས་ Ṳ̄, name of the Lhasa district. དབེན་པ་ en-pa, solitude. དབྱིབས་ yib(s), ib, figure. དཀར་པོ་ kár-po, white. དགྲ་བོ་ ḍá-wo, enemy. མངར་མོ་ ṅár-mo, sweet. བཅུ་བཞི་ c̀ub-z̀i, eleg. c̀u-z̀i, fourteen. དབུ་ u, resp. head. དབུགས་ ug(s), C: ug, ū, breath. དབྱར་ཀ་ yar-ka, summer. དབྱེ་བ་ ye-wa, e-wa, difference.

9. Word; Accent; Quantity. 1. The peculiarity of the Tibetan mode of writing in distinctly marking the word-syllables, but not the words (cf. § 4) composed of two or more of these, sometimes renders it doubtful what is to be regarded as one word. 2. There exist a great number of small monosyllables, which serve to denote different shades of notions, grammatical relations etc., and are postponed to the word in question; but never alter its original shape, though their own initials are not seldom influenced by its final consonant (cf. § 15). 3. Such monosyllables may conveniently be regarded as terminations, forming one word together with the preceding nominal or verbal root. 4. The accent is, in such cases, most naturally given to the root, or, in compounds, generally to the latter part of the composition, as: མིག་ mig, ‘eye’, མིག་གི་ míg-gi, ‘of the eye’; ལག་ lag, ‘hand’, ལག་ཤུབས་ lag-s̀ub(s), ‘hand-covering, glove’.—5. Equally natural is, in WT, the quantity of the vowels: accentuated vowels, when closing the syllable, are comparatively long (though never so long as in the English words bee, stay, or Hindi راجا‎ etc.), otherwise short, as མི་ mī ‘man’, མི་ལ་ mī-lă ‘to the man’, but མར་ măr, ‘butter’.—In CT, however, even accentuated and closing vowels are uttered very shortly: mĭ, mĭ-lă etc., and long ones occur there only in the case of § 5, 4. 5. and 8, 2., as ལས་ lā̤ ‘work’; ཆོས་ c̀ʽō̤ ‘religion’; མདའ་ dā ‘arrow’; གཟའ་ zā ‘planet’; and in Lhasa especially: ནགས་ nā ‘forest’; ལེགས་པ་ lē-pa ‘good’; རིགས་ rī ‘class, sort’; ལོགས་ lō ‘side’; ལུགས་ lū ‘manner’.—In Sanscrit words the long vowels are marked by an འ་ beneath the consonant, as: ནཱ་མ་ (नाम) ‘called’, མཱུ་ལ་ (मूल) ‘root’ (s. § 3).

10. Punctuation. For separating the members of a longer period, a vertical stroke: །, called ཤད་ s̀ad (s̀äʼ), is used, which corresponds at once to our comma, semicolon and colon; after the closing of a sentence the same is doubled; after a longer piece, e.g. a chapter, four s̀ads are put. No marks of interrogation or exclamation exist in punctuation.—2. In metrical compositions, the double s̀ad is used for separating the single verses; in that case the logical partition of the sentence is not marked (cf. § 4).

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A list of a few useful words.

ཀ་ར་ or ཁ་ར་ ká-ra, kʽá-ra, sugar. ཁང་པ་ kʽaṅ-pa, house. གང་ W: gaṅ, C: gʽaṅ, which? གུར་ W: gur, C: gʽur, tent. ངལ་ ṅal, fatigue. ཅི་ c̀i, what? ཆད་པ་ W: c̀ʽad-pa, C: c̀ʽăʼ-pa, punishment. ཆུང་བ་ c̀ʽuṅ-wa, little. ཇ་ W: j̀a, C: j̀ʽa, tea. ཉི་མ་ ñí-ma, sun; day. ཉུང་མ་ ñúṅ-ma, turnip. ཏིབ་རིལ་ tíb-ril, tea-pot, kettle. ཀུན་ W: kun, C: kün, all. ཁུང་ kʽuṅ, hole. ག་རུ་ or གར་ W: ga-ru, gar, C: gʽ°, where? ངན་པ་ ṅan-pa, C: ṅam-pa, bad. ཆང་, c̀ʽaṅ, beer. ཆར་པ་ c̀ʽár-pa, rain. ཆེན་པོ་ c̀ʽen-po, great. ཉ་ ña, fish. ཉུང་བ་ ñuṅ-wa, little, few. ཉེ་མོ་ ñe-mo, near. ཏོག་ཙེ་ tóg-tse (W), hoe. ཐག་པ་ tʽag-pa, rope. ཐོད་པ་ W: tʽód-pa, C: tʽöʼ-pa, skull. དང་ daṅ, dʽaṅ, and; with. ནག་པོ nag-po, black. ནོར་ nor, wealth, property. ཕན་པ་ pʽan-pa, pʽäm-pa, use, benefit. བ་ ba, bʽa, cow. བུ་ bu, bʽu, son. མེ་ me, fire. མེད་ med, mĕʼ, there is not. ཚང་མ་ tʽsaṅ-ma, whole. ཞོ་ z̀o, s̀ŏ, curdled milk. འོད་ od, wöʼ, light, shine. ཡི་གེ་ yí-ge, letter. ཡོད་ yod, yöʼ, am, is, are. རི་ ri, hill, mountain. ལ་ la, mountain-pass. ལུག་ lug, sheep. ཐང་ tʽáṅ, the plain. ད་ W: da, C: dʽa, now. དུད་པ་ dud-pa, dʽüʼ-pa, smoke. ནད་ nad, näʼ, disease. པར་མ་ pár-ma, a printed book. ཕུག་རོན་ pʽug-rón, -ró̤n, dove. བལ་ bal, bʽal, wool. བུ་མོ་ bu-mo, bʽ°, daughter. མིང་ miṅ, name. ཙམ་ tsam, how much? ཞག་ z̀ag, C: s̀ag, day. འོ་མ་ o-ma, wo-ma, milk. ཡང་ yaṅ, also. ཡིན་ yin, am, is, are (cf. § 39). ར་མ་ ra-ma, goat. རིན་ rin, price. ལམ་ lam, road. ཤ་ s̀a, flesh, meat. ཤིང་ s̀iṅ, tree, wood. སུ་ su, who? ཨ་ཕ་ a-pʽa, (vulg.) father. རས་ (Ld: ras) rā̤, cotton cloth. གོས་ (Ld: gos) gō̤, gʽō̤, clothing. སེམས་ sem, soul. ཁྲག་ ṭʽag, blood. སླེབ་པ་ leb-pa, to arrive. རྩྭ་ W: sa, C: tsa, grass. སྔོན་པོ་ ṅon-po, ṅo̤m-po, blue. གཞུ་ z̀u, bow (for shooting). དགུན་ཀ་ gun-ka, gṳn-ka, winter. མཚོ་ tʽso, lake. འདྲི་བ་ ḍi-wa, to ask. ས་ sa, earth. སོ་མ་ só-ma, new. ཨ་མ་ a-ma, (vulg.) mother. དུས་ (Ld.: dus) dṳ̄, dʽṳ̄, time. ཐབས་ tʽab(s), means. བག་ཕྱེ་ W: bag-pʽe, C: bʽag-c̀ʽe, flour. གྲོ་ ḍo, ḍʽŏ, wheat. རྒད་པོ་ gad-po, gʽäʼ-po, old. སྐྱེ་བ་ (s)kye-wa, to be born, grow. སྙིང་ ñiṅ, heart. གཟིག་ zig, leopard. མགྱོགས་པ་ gyog(s)-pa (Ü: gyō-pa), fast, quick. འབྲི་བ་ ḍi-wa (bri-wa), to write.