As a matter of fact the printed materials available for the home student do not at present enable him, if without the help of a native teacher, to translate, accurately and without skipping the difficulties, any modern Tibetan book (not even the so-called Tibetan Primers in use in Darjeeling) if such books do not happen to belong to those excerpted in the existing dictionaries. Jäschke’s, which is the best from this point of view, mentions only 25 titles of texts used as his sources. Comparing this with the more than 1000 titles quoted by Skeat as the sources for the material for his Etymological Dictionary of the [[iv]]English language we at once see the inadequacy of such material in the case of Tibetan.
It is true that at present more showy results can be obtained by the wholesale translation of texts (more with a view to making known their general contents, than to the furnishing of a precise philological, lexicographical and grammatical analysis), and it is certain that the results of such work of translation would be more attractive and interesting to the wider public. Yet one of the most valuable contributions towards laying a sound basis for future Tibetan scholarship is the painstaking, laborious and to a certain extent inglorious and humdrum drudging away at small texts with scrupulous attention to the smallest minutiae, for a secure fixing of illustrative examples by co-ordinating correctness of text, full discussion of meanings, sharp formulation of definitions and subtle analysis of all questions and problems involved.
The following essay is a first contribution towards an attempt to serve such an ideal. [[v]]
ABBREVIATIONS.
| adj. | = | Adjective. |
| A.S.B. | = | Asiatic Society of Bengal. |
| Bell | = | Bell’s Manual. |
| Cs., Csoma | = | Csoma’s Dictionary; if his Grammar is referred to it is specifically stated. |
| D. | = | Dutch. |
| Desg. | = | Desgodins, Dictionary. |
| dict. | = | Dictionary. |
| dicts. | = | All existing European Tibetan Dictionaries, but especially the three current ones by Jäschke, Sarat Chandra Das and Desgodins. |
| Dzl. | = | Dzanglun, ed. and trsl. by Schmidt. |
| Ed. | = | Edition. |
| fig. | = | figuratively. |
| G. | = | German. |
| Hannah | = | Hannah’s Grammar. |
| Henderson | = | Henderson’s Manual. |
| Hon. | = | Honorific. |
| J. | = | Jäschke, Dictionary, 3rd ed.; also Journal. |
| L. | = | Latin. |
| l. | = | line. |
| M.A.S.B. | = | Memoirs, Asiatic Society of Bengal. |
| pr. | = | pronounce, pronunciation. |
| prob. | = | probably. |
| q. v. | = | see. |
| S. Ch. D. | = | Sarat Chandra Das, Dictionary. |
| Schmidt | = | Schmidt’s Dictionary, German Edition. |
| Schroeter | = | Schroeter’s Dictionary. |
| Sk. | = | Sanskrit. |
| subst. | = | Substantive. |
| s.v. | = | sub voce. |
| syn(s). | = | synonym(s), synonymous. |
| voc. | = | vocabulary. |
[[1]]
MINOR TIBETAN TEXTS.
Primarily Lexicographically Treated.
By Johan Van Manen.