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261-267.
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Charles A. Bell, Grammar of Colloquial Tibetan (Alipore, 1939), p. v. Csoma de Koros, "Translation of a Tibetan Fragment," Journal of the Asiatio Society of Bengal I (1838) 269 ff.
TURRELL WYLIE
14,1,618Llo
11
kha
kra
kha
kha
kra
kha
kha
kra
kha
kha
;a Ea Era 3a
Aa ca cha ja Ra
;a ca cha ja Ra
;a ;a :ha :a Ra
;a ca cra ja Aa
: a ca cha ja Ra
nga
ca cha ja n Ya
ja
tha da
- - - - - - - - tra tha tha tra tha tha tra tha tha tha - - - - - - - - pha
pha
pla
pha
pha
pla
pha
pha
tlsa dza
t sha
dsa
thsa dza
t sha
dza va
tsha dza wa
tsla dsa
dza va
dsa wa
t sha
dza
tsra dsa
t s r a tsha
zha za
2a
sha
z ha
ha
*a
z'a
*a
la sha sa ha a
Sa 'a
sha
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2. 3. 4. 5.
6.
1950) . 9. Nobel, Suvarnaprabhisottama-sctra, 2 Volumes (Leiden, 1944, 1950) . 10. Yoshimura, Tibetan Buddhistology (Kyoto, 1953) . 11. Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (The Hague, 1956). l a . Fermri, mK'yen brtse's Guide t o the Holy Places of Central Tibet, Serie Orientale R o m a , XVI (Rome, 1958).
7. 8.
" Translation of a Tibetan Fragment," Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal I (1832) 2 6 9 R. Jaschlre, Tibetan-English Dictionary (London, 1881) . Das, Tibetan-English Dictionary (Calcutta, 1902) . Francke, A Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar Saga (Calcutta, 1905). Hannah, A Grammar of the Tibetan Language (Calcutta, 1912). Bhattacharya, Bhota-Prakiia, A Tibetan Chrestomathy (Calcutta, 1939). Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 Volumes (Calcutta, 1949, 1953). Tucci, T h e Tombs of the Tibetan Kings, Serie Orientale R o m a , I (Rome,
These are only two examples of the innumerable incongruities encountered in the transcription of the Tibetan language. More cases could be cited; however, the purpose of this paper is not to enumerate such inconsistencies, but rather to seek their elimination in future publications. I n view of the increasing interest in Tibetan studies, it is desirable now more than ever that serious consideration be given to the acceptance of a standard system of Tibetan transcription. It is time to trade transcriptional independence for uniformity in order to facilitate and standardize the advancement of Tibetan studies. Admittedly, no single system of transcription can accurately reflect both the orthography and phonology of Tibetan; but diversity of spelling and pronunciation is not uncommon in other languages for which standard systems of transcription have been adopted. This paper is concerned with a standard orthograplzic transcription for scholarly publication. What, then, should be the criterion for a standard system of Tibetan transcription, It should be of minimal complexity and capable of reproduction on a standard typewriter, i. e., one lacking special keys for diacritical marks. The addition of diacritics, either by hand or machine, requires time-consuming attention from the scholar. Even more important, it makes the same demands on the typesetter, who may not always share the scholar's enthusiasm for exactitude. As a result, typographical errors caused by the omission of such marks are frequently encountered in publications;
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TURRELL M'YLIE
the most common one being the omission of the dot over an n for the nasal velar ng. Justification for a diacritical mark rests in its indication of phonetic value and such marks are indispensable in phonetic transcriptions; however, in an orthographic transcription, such marks are extrinsic. Any transcription system exceeding the limit of minimal complexity wastes the time of the scholar, the printer, and the reader. Fortunately, such exotic elements as the Greek gamma for a prefix g and a miniature circle for a prefix a-chung, as used by Jaschkq3 have not gained favor. On the other hand, the dual function of an apostrophe to distinguish aspirates from unaspirates and to indicate the a-chung is still in use by some scholars. The indication of aspiration by an h, as in the transcription of aspirates in Sanskrit, eliminates this dual function of the apostrophe and maintains minimal complexity. The use of the apostrophe to indicate an a-chung in final position, as in mda' (arrow), is excessive, since mda, even without the apostrophe, can be reconstructed in only one correct way, i. e., with an a-chung as final; however, this use of the apostrophe should be retained for consistency on a one-for-one transcriptional ratio, even though it exceeds the limit of minimal complexity. The last, and perhaps most pedantic, practice to be discussed in this paper is internal capitalization. The desire to distinguish prefix letters from the real initial letter appears early in Tibetan studies. I n the article of 1832 by Csoma de Koros mentioned earlier, all prefix letters are printed in italics; a tedious practice that auspiciously faded from the scene. It is to be noted that the first letter of the first word in proper names is capitalized in that article, even if it is an italicized prefix letter. With the discontinuation of italicizing prefixes, capitalizaton shifted from the first letter of a word to the so-called "initial "; thus beginning the tradition of internal capitalization. There are two basic arguments in favor of " internal " capitalization, neither of which retains abstract validity when examined in concrete practice. The lexicographic argument maintains that capitalization of the true initial indicates to the reader the letter
'H .
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TURRELL QYLIE
The phonetic argument suffers from the same practices as the lexicographic argument in that only the first word of a textual passage or of compounded names is subjected to capitalization. This evidences the assumption that the reader is familiar with Tibetan pronunciation; and if this be the case, what need is there for phonetic capitalization? An attempt to eliminate this situation could be made by phonetically capitalizing every single word, but such an attempt would be futile. What should be capitalized to show that the word bod is pronounced PO, that dbang is wang, or bya is chya, and so on? For published examples of the inconsistency involved in this practice, consider Roerich's capitalization of the sub-joined I as the phonetic initial; e. g., gLo (pronounced Lo) in all cases except when subjoined to the lexicographic initial x; e. g., Zla (pronounced Da) .5 Unable to capitalize a non-existent d, the initial x was capitalized, again evidencing the assumption that the reader knows that the combination xl is pronounced d. This is but one example; many more could be cited, but many would prove no more than one that capitalization of the " phonetic initial " is even less justified than the capitalization of the " lexicographic initial." -4 reader with knowledge of the Tibetan language needs no capitalization; those with no knowledge may find such random and inconsistent capitalizations intriguing but of little value in pronouncing Tibetan properly or in using a Tibetan dictionary. Because of the diversity between Tibetan orthography and phonolo,gy, it is sometimes desirable to transcribe Tibetan according to its pronunciation. When writing for the non-specialist, it would be pedantic to insist on the spelling Bkra-shis-lhum-po for the name Tashilhumpo, or Bla-ma for Lama. On the other hand, much data about Tibet has been prepared for the non-specialist in which only a phonetic transcription is given. Such transcription reduces the value of these works to the specialist since the reconstruction of the correct orthography is sometimes impossible. For example, Chango, the name of a village appearing on some Western maps a t approximately 100' 30' East and 31" 30' North, is actually Brag-mgo according to its orthography. Whenever it is desirable
George N. Roerich, The Blue Annuls, Vol. I1 (Calcutta, 1953), pp. 1154-5, 1934-5.
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to transcribe words phonetically, it is suggested that the proper orthography be added in parentheses, e. g., ". . . in the village of Chango (Brag-mgo) . . . ." Since internal capitalization a t random, whether of the orthographic or phonetic initial, is valueless and total capitalization too cumbersome, it is suggested that Csoma de Koros' original practice of capitalizing the first letter, whether a prefix or an initial, be restored if only for the sake of visual conformity to Western capitalization practices. I n conclusion, the following system, devoid of diacritical marks and representing minimal complexity, is suggested for adoption as the standard for Tibetan orthographic transcription. ka ca ta Pa tsa wa ya sha kha cha tha pha tsha zha ra sa ga ja da ba dza za la ha nga nya na ma 'a a
This is the system devised years ago by members of the Inner Asia Project a t the University of Washington, with a single altertion to be proposed: the substitution of a dot for a dash in transcribing an initial y with a prefix g. This substitution is made for the sake of visual continuity. When components of proper nouns are joined by dashes, a dash between a prefix g and an initial y isolates the g. For example, the transcription Yar-'brog-g.yumtsho is visually preferable to Yar-'brog-g-yu-mtsho. The .revised system is therefore identical to the one used by the late Rend de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, with the exception that he practiced "internal lexicographic capitalization," a practice not advocated in this paper for the reasons given earlier.