National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

156   DETAIL OF THE ALPHABET USED.

employing a peculiar sort of italic letter. Some of the prefixes are actually pronounced when the preceding syllable ends with a vowel ; in such cases I have introduced them in the column of the ordinary transcription without any difference in the type.'

In several Tibetan words I found a marked discrepancy between the pronunciation and the native mode of writing, and this as regards the consonants no less than the vowels. When referring for such words to Csoma's dictionary and more especially to that of I. J. Schmidt, a few immaterial differences were all that were perceptible between their spelling and that we had received from the Lamas. The most frequent difference between sound and spelling was the dropping or modification of consonants, not quite arbitrary but chiefly limited to the grammatical rules. Consonants not pronounced are left out in the phonetic transcription, and are printed in italics in the transliteration.

Exceptionally, viz. in names much used by foreigners, letters otherwise silent in Tibetan, are also pronounced. I quote as instances: Spiti, for Pit, or Spit; Iskardo for Kardo, or skardo; also for Gnari Khdrsum, a form which we often heard, the proper pronunciation would be Ngari Khôrsum.

Duplication, composition, and substitution.

The duplication of a consonant is sometimes more difficult to decide upon than appears at first sight. Double consonants are often used on Anglo-Indian maps, merely to indicate that the preceding vowel should be short (in conformity with their occasional use in Europe,' where in many languages a reduplication is never pronounced strictly as such). I have limited reduplication to the cases where it corresponds with the pronunciation.' Sometimes, but rarely, the native spelling differs from the pronunciation, showing a tendency to pronounce as double a consonant which has not the mark of duplication in Hindostani.

Compound consonants we used, as a general rule, only for such letters as are composed of the respective two consonants in succession, as: "ks" for "x," "ts" for

' For details in reference to such cases, see J. J. ScxMmT, Grammatik der tibetanischen Sprache, 1839, p. 19. Also a complete alteration of a consonant can be caused by a combination with 1, r, and y, either surmounting or subjoined, see CsoMk's Tibetan Grammar, pp. 6-8.

2 As examples in German there are "beten" and "betten;" in English it often coincides with a different pronunciation of the preceding vowel, e. g. "acute" and "cuttinâ" In Italian double consonants are in harmony with the rules for pronunciation.

3 We now also write "'Agar," not "ntaggar," as we had done in the beginning of our publications in conformity

with the ordinary mode of writing the "g" in English works and maps.