ALPHABET USED FOR TRANSCRIPTION

a (â a{breve} ã), ä; b; ch; chh; d; e (ê e{breve} e{tilde}); f; g; h; i; (î i{tilde}) j; k; l; m; n; o (ô õ), ö; p; r; s; sh; t; ts (ts'h); u (û u{tilde}), ü; v; y; z; zh.[1]

1. RULES FOR PRONOUNCIATION.

Vowels.

1. a, e, i, o, u, as in. German and Italian.

2. ä, ö, ü, as in German.

3. Diphthongs give the sound of the two component vowels combined.

Consonants.

1. b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, are pronounced as in German and English.

[1. This is the same that has been adopted by my brothers in their "Results of a scientific Mission to India and High Asia;" for details see Vol. I., pp. 66 to 70; Vol. III., pp. 148-160.]

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2. h, after a consonant is an audible aspiration except in ch, sh, zh. In ts'h it is separated from ts by the Greek spiritus asper ', in order to prevent this letter from being pronounced as t and sh.

3. ch, as in English (church).

4. sh, as in English (shade).

5. j, as in English (just).

6. v, as the w in German (Wasser), being different from v in very, and w in water.

7. y, as y in the English word yes, and j in the German ja.

8. z, soft as in English (zeal).

9. gh, sounds like the French j in jour.

Signs.

1. {macron, here represented by a 'hat'} over a vowel indicates that it is long.

2. {breve, here omitted} this, the sign of imperfect formation (= u in but, e in herd) placed over a and e, I had no occasion to use in Tibetan and Sanskrit terminology: it occurs, however, in modern geographical names, as e. g. Bérma {the e has the breve in this word}.

3. ~ indicates a nasal sound of the vowel. {transcribed ã, e~, i~, õ, u~, herein}

4. ' marks the syllable on which the accent falls. Accents have been, however, introduced in geographical names only; in the other native words I have limited myself to distinguishing the quantity of the syllables which are long.

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5. ', the Greek spiritus lenis I used for rendering the Tibetan soft aspirate; in this I followed the advice of Prof. Lepsius, in his recent supplement to his well-known Standard Alphabet. {in original a reversed single quote, transcribed here as a forward single quote}.

2. DETAILED TRANSLITERATION OF THE TIBETAN ALPHABET.

The thirty simple letters of the Tibetan language are represented fin- Roman characters in the following manner:

The point separating the syllables in Tibetan words and sentences, is rendered by a small horizontal line.

The compound letters, seventy-four in number, and formed by having another letter subjoined or surmounted, are transliterated thus: the subjoined letter is written behind the radical, as e. g. ### is rendered by kr,--the surmounting precedes the radical letter, as e. g. ### lh.

[1. "Ueber Chinesiche und Tibetanische Lautverhältnisse, und über die Umschrift jener Sprachen." Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften von Berlin, 1861, p. 479.]

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The letters which according to grammatical rules ought to be silent, are printed with Italics, as e. g. rk is printed rk.

In order to facilitate the reading, I have spelt the Tibetan terms as they sound (with the omission of the mute letters); the reprinting in Tibetan letters is also left out in the text, but an alphabetical Glossary of Tibetan terms has been added at the end of the volume, in which the native spelling of every word and the detailed transliteration are given.

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