The corrections listed below have been applied to the text.
| Page | 3, | line | 13 | read | at instead of in. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 2 | read,, | respectively. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 7 | read,, | which instead of whom. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 9 | read,, | under particular. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 14 | read,, | همزة instead of همرنة. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 20 | read,, | exertion. |
| Page,, | 4, | line,, | 21 | dele | to. |
| Page,, | 5, | line,, | 5 | dele | down. |
| Page,, | 7, | line,, | 4 | read | succession instead of conjunction. |
| Page,, | 7, | line,, | 5 | read,, | each instead of either. |
| Page,, | 7, | line,, | 11 | read,, | subscribed instead of subjoined. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 11 | read,, | foot for food. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 12 | read,, | subscribed for subjoined. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 16 | read,, | homonyms. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 19 | read,, | language. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 23 | read,, | over instead of above. |
| Page,, | 8, | line,, | 24 | read,, | consonants. |
| Page,, | 9, | line,, | 10 | read,, | case. |
| Page,, | 10, | line,, | 4 | read,, | judgment. |
| Page,, | 11, | line,, | 9 | read,, | except. |
| Page,, | 12, | line,, | 21 | read,, | it instead of is. |
| Page,, | 13, | line,, | 1 | read,, | which serve to denote. |
| Page,, | 13, | line,, | 7 | read,, | preceding. |
| Page,, | 14, | line,, | 6 | read,, | exclamation. |
| Page,, | 20, | line,, | 3 | read,, | indiscriminately. |
| Page,, | 20, | line,, | 5 | read,, | superseded. |
| Page,, | 20, | line,, | 19 | read,, | But. |
| Page,, | 21, | line,, | 5 | read,, | adds. |
| Page,, | 23, | line,, | 1 | read,, | motion. |
| Page,, | 26, | line,, | 13 | read,, | terminations. |
| Page,, | 26, | line,, | 20 | read,, | precedes. |
| Page,, | 27, | line,, | 3 | read,, | higher than. |
| Page,, | 33, | line,, | 6 | read,, | to denote. |
| Page,, | 34, | line,, | 14 | read,, | letter-writing. |
| Page,, | 36, | line,, | 1 | read,, | The terms most &c. |
| Page,, | 36, | line,, | 16 | read,, | high person speaking of himself. |
| Page,, | 38, | line,, | 11 | read,, | ghaṅ. |
| Page,, | 39, | line,, | 14 | read,, | you may. |
| Page,, | 40, | line,, | 7 | read,, | verbs. |
| Page,, | 40, | line,, | 21 | read,, | an Accusative. |
| Page,, | 40, | line,, | 25 | read,, | neuter. |
| Page,, | 41, | line,, | 10 | read,, | form instead of shape. |
| Page,, | 41, | line,, | 11 | read,, | forms instead of shapes. |
| Page,, | 41, | line,, | 22 | read,, | the Perfect prefers. |
| Page,, | 42, | line,, | 1 | read,, | Perfect. |
| Page,, | 42, | line,, | 16 | read,, | recognises instead of acknowledges. |
| Page,, | 43, | line,, | 20 | read,, | idea instead of notion. |
| Page,, | 45, | line,, | 14 | read,, | with the exception. |
| Page,, | 46, | line,, | 6 | read,, | which will always be. |
| Page,, | 46, | line,, | 10 | read,, | to one. |
| Page,, | 52, | line,, | 15 | read,, | it expresses. |
| Page,, | 53, | line,, | 11 | read,, | found. |
| Page,, | 53, | line,, | 24 | read,, | passive sense, opposed to &c. |
| Page,, | 55, | line,, | 7 | read,, | affixes. |
| Page,, | 58, | line,, | 12 | read,, | that it. |
| Page,, | 61, | line,, | 12 | read,, | king’s. |
| Page,, | 64, | line,, | 8 | read,, | intended. |
| Page,, | 66, | line,, | 15 | read,, | རབ་ ‘principally, very’; |
[[1]]
Part I.
Phonology.
1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the Lañc̀ʽa (ལཱཉ་) form of the Indian letters by Tʽon-mi-sam-bho-ta (ཐོན་) minister of king Sroṅ-tsan-gam-po (སྲོང་) 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]]
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་ 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] [[3]]
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]).