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 [[4]]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་ 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་; འ་ on the contrary is the mere vowel without that audible opening of the throat (as Arabic ا without ء), as in Lilian, ལི་. 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་ ‘the milk’, almost like wo-ma, འུག་ ‘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 [[5]]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་ ka-ra, ཀར་ kar (cf. §§ 5. 8 ).
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་ so-wa, [[6]]དཀོན་ 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་ ñäm-pa, ཉོན་ ñöm-pa, སྙེན་ ñem-pa.
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་, [[7]]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་). 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 [[8]]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་ (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.
Superadded consonants. 6. r over another consonant is written ⸆, and 11 consonants have this sign: རྐ་ རྒ་ རྔ་ རྟ་ རྡ་ རྣ་ རྦ་ རྨ་ རྩ་ རྫ་, above ཉ་ it preserves [[9]]its full shape, as better adapted to the form of that letter: thus, རྙ་. In speaking it is seldom heard except provincially, and in some instances in compound words after a vowel thus, ཨུ་ Urgyán, Urgyén, ancient name of the country of Lahore; རྡོ་ dórje ‘vaj̀ra’. Ladakees often pronounce it = s: རྟ་ sta ‘horse’ elsewhere ta. 7. Similar is the usage in those with a superadded ལ (namely: the surds and sonants of the first four classes, the guttural nasal, and ཧ), which latter is often softly heard in WT, but entirely dropped elsewhere, except in the case of ལྷ, which is spoken = ལ in WT, but with a distinct aspiration = hla or lha in ET. 8. ས is superadded to the gutturals, dentals and labials with exception of the aspiratae, then ཉ་ and ཙ་. It is, in many cases, distinctly pronounced in Ladak, but dropped elsewhere[3]. 9. ག་ ད་ བ་ ཇ་ ཛ་ with any superadded letter lose the aspiration mentioned in § [2. 6] and sound = g, d, b, j̀, ds. 10. རྗ་ རྩ་ རྫ་ often lose even the inherent t-sound in pronunciation and are spoken like j̀, s, z.
[1] A very clear exposition of the ramification of Indian alphabets by Dr. Haas is to be found in the Publications of the Palaeographical Society Oriental Series IV, pl. XLIV. [↑]
[2] This is the form in which the word, chosen by the missionaries to express the Christian “God” (cf. dict.), has found its way into several popular works. [↑]