Diphthong

“ He now calls y a "diphthong." But he is wrong here by his own showing: he should rather have called it a triphthong. He says, "By pronouncing in a very deliberate and perfectly natural manner, the letter y, (which is a diphthong,) the unpractised student will perceive, that the sound produced, is compound; being formed, at its opening, of the obscure sound of oo as heard in oo-ze, which sound rapidly slides into that of i, and then advances to that of ee as heard in e-ve, and on which it gradually passes off into silence."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. ”

“ This contraction, called synæresis, is less harsh when the unaccented vowel is e. It is frequent, however, with the first two vowels of ahora.
(2) If two vowels come together, the first strong (a, e, o) and the second weak (i, y, u) , and if the accent rests on the strong vowel, they regularly form a diphthong and count as one syllable; e.g., cauto, peine, feudo, convoy, rey, soy. The dissolution of this diphthong constitutes a very violent poetical license. When it occurs it is termed diæresis and is sometimes marked by the dots so called ”

“ An initial j has often arisen in the dialects through a falling diphthong having become a rising diphthong, as jabl, jek, jiər, lit. Eng. able, ache, ear. Many educated people in the south of England make no difference in the pronunciation of ear and year. A s.Midl. s.Cy. saying to express a long period of time is ‘years and years and donkey’s ears’. A medial j has often been developed after a consonant. In many cases the change has been caused by a falling diphthong having become a rising diphthong, e.g. ”

“ Example 3.4 .i'ai'i'ai'on. [ʔi hai hi hai honʔ] which preserves the rhythm and length, if not the exact sounds, of the original English.
3.4 Diphthongs and Syllabic Consonants There exist 16 diphthongs in the Lojban language. A diphthong is a vowel sound that consists of two elements, a short vowel sound and a glide, either a labial (IPA [w] ) or palatal (IPA [j] ) glide, that either precedes (an on-glide) or follows (an off-glide) the main vowel. Diphthongs always constitute a single syllable. ”

“ The “broad” principle is especially convenient in writing diphthongs. Thus in English Broad Romic we write the diphthongs in high and how with the same vowel as ask (hai, hau, ask) , although all these (a) 's represent different sounds in ordinary southern English pronunciation. But the pronunciation of these diphthongs varies so much in different parts of the English-speaking territory, and the distinctions are so minute that it would be inconvenient to express them in writing ”

“ Diphthongs, as we term them, consist in the combination of two simple vowels, usually short, into a single syllable pronounced, therefore, with a single exspiratory effort, and with the stronger accent on the first vowel. The sound we hear is produced while the organs of speech are being changed from the position required for the one vowel to the position required for the other. ”

“ The finite verb. 1. The principal verb of a sentence, which always closes it (48.) receives in written Tibetan in most cases a certain mark, by which the end of a period may be known. This is, in affirmative sentences, the vowel o (called by the grammarians: སླར་སྡུ་བ་) , in interrogative ones the syllable am. Before both the closing consonant of the verb is repeated, or, if it ends with a vowel, འོ་ and འམ་ are written. The Perfect of the verbs ending in ན་ ར་ ལ་, which formerly had a ད་ as second final—ད་དྲག་—, assume ཏོ་ and ཏམ་.—2. ”

“ Only in some cases, in the Dative and Instrumental, the noun itself is changed, when, ending in a vowel, it admits of a closer connection with the corrupted case-sign. We may reckon in Tibetan seven cases, expressive of all the relations, for which cases are used in other languages, viz: nominative and accusative, genitive, instrumental, dative, locative, ablative, terminative and vocative. 1. The unaltered form of the noun has some of the functions of our Nominative and those of the Accusative and Vocative. 2. The sign of the Genitive is ཀྱི་ after words with the finals ད་ བ་ ས་ ”

“ Peculiarities of the Tibetan article. 1. What have been called Articles by Csoma and Schmidt, are a number of little affixes: པ་ བ་ མ་ པོ་ བོ་ མོ་, and some similar ones, which might perhaps be more adequately termed denominators, since their principal object is undoubtedly to represent a given root as a noun, substantive or adjective, as is most clearly perceptible in the instance of the roots of verbs, to which པ་ or བ་ impart the notion of the Infinitive and Participle, or the nearest abstract and nearest concrete nouns that can possibly be formed from the idea of a verb. ”

“ Many of these old soft initial consonants which are now hardened in the modern dialects are preserved in classical Tibetan, i.e. in Tibetan of the 7th to the 9th century A.D. The old language seems to have pronounced prefixes extensively which in modern pronunciation in central Tibet are largely lost, whilst the soft initials have become aspirated or hardened and tones have developed, and in the west and east, where prefixes and soft initials have been preserved, there are no tones. ”

“ 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་འགྱུར་) . 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 ྲ. ”

“ But, as there is yet nothing fixed with respect to Tibetan orthography, I fear if I should send my papers, without going myself to Calcutta, they could not make proper use of them there, and it would give again rise to many mistakes, which, as I observe in every publication on the Tibetan language, are now also too much multiplied. The completion of the vocabulary or dictionary, since I missed my aim on my second return to Ladak, must be the fruit of some years’ industry. ”

“ Comparison. 1. Special terminations, expressive of the different degrees of comparison, as in the Aryan languages, do not exist in Tibetan. There are two particles, however, corresponding to the English than: བས་, after the final consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and after vowels (པས་, after ག་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ ས་2) , and ལས་; these particles follow the word with which another is compared (like the Hind. سے‎) and this then precedes the compared one, finally follows the adjective in the positive: རྟ་བས་ (or ལས་) ཁྱི་ཆུང་བ་ཡིན་ ‘horse—than dog small is’, just as in Hindūstāni: گھوڑى سے كتّا چھوٹا ھَى‎. ”

“ I have never said that the Tibetans have only one alphabet of their own. If you will inspect the second paragraph of my former letter to you, you will find that I have stated there, ‘In the whole of Tibet there is but one mode of writing, with respect to orthography, &c.’ But since you seem to have been offended at my expression, I beg now to state: [111] out of the four alphabets printed opposite page 418 of the volume formerly sent to me, the three first are Tibetan, called capital, small, and running hand ”

“ The subject of a transitive verb, in Tibetan, assumes regularly the form of the instrumental, of a neuter verb that of the nominative which is the same as the accusative. Thus, ངས་ཁྱོད་རྡུང་ is properly: [41] རྡུང་ a beating happens, ཁྱོད་ regarding you, ངས་ by me = I beat you. In common life the object has often the form of the dative, ཁྱོད་ལ་, to facilitate the comprehension. But often, in modern talk as well as in the classical literature, the acting subject, if known as such from the context, retains its Nominative form. ”

“ After having communicated the result of his labours to others, and heard from them that the Tibetan language, to the study of which he had sacrificed the best part of his life, was but a corrupt dialect of the Sanskrit, his heart was filled with undescribable anguish, and the strong man, who suffered so many privations cheerfully and without complaining, was prostrated on a bed of sickness by this new discovery. ”

“ In the Tibetan language the Adjective is not formally distinguished from the Substantive, so that many nouns may be used one or the other way just as circumstances require.1 The declension, likewise, follows the same rules as that of substantives. Only two remarks may be added here. 1. The particles པ་ མ་ པོ་ མོ་ are not very strictly used for distinguishing the gender, since even in the case of human beings པ་ and པོ་ are not seldom found connected with feminines, e.g.: བུ་མོ་མཛེས་པ་ just as well as བུ་མོ་མཛེས་མ་ ‘a fine girl’. ”

“ It must be understood that all Tibetan literature is 'sacred,' though some of the volumes of exquisite calligraphy on parchment, which for our benefit were divested of their silken and brocaded wrappings, contain nothing better than fairy tales and stories of doubtful morality, which are recited by the lamas to the accompaniment of incessant cups of chang, as a religious duty when they visit their 'flocks' in the winter. ”

“ This is in the written language entirely like the Infinitive ཡིན་པ་ ‘being’, གཏོང་བ་ ‘giving’, བཏང་བ་ ‘having given’.—2. Whether the meaning is active or passive, however, can only be inferred from the context, e.g. བཏང་བའི་དངུལ་ is of course ‘the money given’, but དངུལ་བཏང་བའི་མི་ ‘the man having given, or, that has given, the money’; the Tibetan participle means nothing but that the action or condition is connected in some way with a person or thing. But it is natural that in the present participle the active idea should be the more frequent one, as well as in the preterit the passive.—3. ”

“ The Tibetan literature merits, without doubt, to be fully explored. In return of my acknowledgment for the received liberal assistance, if Government pleases to permit me to be under the protection of the commanding officer at Sabathoo, and to devote myself again to the Tibetan, I hope that if I could join either the same Lama, to whose intelligence I owe now my insight into this class of Asiatic literature, or be able to procure another intelligent person, I shall be able to finish what I have commenced in the course of one year ”

“ These are almost entirely wanting in the Tibetan language, and our subordinate relative clauses must be expressed by Participles and Gerunds, or a new independent sentence must be begun. The participle, in such a case, is treated quite as an adjective, being put either in the Genitive before the substantive, or, in the Nominative, after: འགྲོ་བའི་ཚོང་པ་རྣམས་ ‘the merchants who would go (with him) ’; ཉག་ཐག་གཡུ་བརྒུས་པ་ ‘the cord on which turquoises are strung’; འཁྱོས་མ་མང་པོ་ཡོང་བ་ཞིག་ [39] ‘one who gets (unto whom come) many presents’. ”

“ I hope that my sojourn in this inhospitable country, for the express purpose of mastering its language and examining its literary stores, will not have been time unprofitably spent, and that the Grammar and Dictionary may attest the sincerity of my endeavours to attain the object I have determined to prosecute.
“The structure of the Tibetan language is very simple. There is only one general form for all sorts of declinable words. In the verbs there is no variation in respect to person or number. ”

“ The men throughout these scenes are shown in Chinese secular costume such as is often seen in our Jātaka banners.
While these figures clearly point to a Chinese model of the scenes, the demonic deity in the centre of the foreground shows characteristic features of truly Tibetan taste. His squat dark blue figure sits sideways on a yellow horse, brandishing a scarlet club in his right hand. His hair is a flaming mass streaming upwards; a man’s bleeding head hangs from his saddle-cloth. ”

“ The predilection of Eastern Asiatics for a system of ceremonials in the language is met with also in Tibetan. There is one separate class of words, which must be used in reference to the honoured person, when spoken to as well as when spoken of. To this class belong, besides the pronouns ཉིད་རང་, ཁྱེད་, ཁོང་, all the respectful terms by which the body or soul, or parts of the same, and all things or persons pertaining to such a person, and [36] even his actions, must be called. ”

“ Its inhabitants differ much from other Tibetans in their stature, features, dress, and customs, as well as in the pronunciation of Tibetan. In physique they are very robust and simple, but very passionate ”

“ At Lagshung, the evening before, the Tibetans made prayers and offerings for a day cloudy enough to keep the water down, but in the morning from a cloudless sky a scintillating sun blazed down like a magnesium light, and every glacier and snowfield sent its tribute torrent to the Shayok. In crossing a stretch of white sand the solar heat was so fierce that our European skins were blistered through our clothing. We halted at Lagshung, at the house of a friendly zemindar, who pressed upon me the loan of a big Yarkand horse for the ford, a kindness which nearly proved fatal ”

“ At all events, whatever be its origin and meaning, no other prayer used by human beings in any quarter of the globe is repeated so often. Every Tibetan believes it to be a panacea for all evil, a compendium of all knowledge, a treasury of all wisdom, a summary of all religion. ”