wylie - standard system of tibetan transcription

7/22/2019 Wylie - Standard System of Tibetan Transcription

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A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription

Turrell Wylie

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 22. (Dec., 1959), pp. 261-267.

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A STANDARD SYSTEM OF TIBETAN TRANSCRIPTION

There is a Tibetan proverb which says"Every district its own dialect;

Every lama his own doctrine."to which might well be added:Every scholar his own transcription.Perhaps no other academic endeavor evidences the spirit of schol-arly independence more readily than the transcription of theTibetan language into Roman script. A survey of publications bya dozen Tibetan scholars selected at random reveals a dozenvarying systems of transcription-a profusion of apostrophes,diacritical marks, Greek gammas, capital and italic letters (seeChart I) .Some of the transcription practices encountered are as intriguingas they are inexplicable. For example, in an article by Csoma deK ~ r o s , ~ I nhe nasal velar ng is transcribed two different ways.initial position, it appears as an with a tilde, the diacritical markfor a palatalized nasal, not a nasal velar; but, in final position,it is transcribed as ng. In the same article, the velar fricative hand the a-chung are both transcribed as h. The a-chung as aprefixed consonant is distinguishable from the velar fricative inthat it is italicized; but this is unintentional since all prefixes areitalicized in that article. There is, however, no distinction madebetween the transcription of the a-chung in initial or final positionsand that of the velar fricative.

Charles A . Bell, Grammar of Colloquial Tibetan (Alipore, 1939), p. v.Csoma de Koros, "Translat ion of a Tibetan Fragment," Journal of t h e Asiatio

Society of Bengal I (1838) 269 ff.


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TURRELL WYLIECHART

COMPARATIVE OF TRANSCRIPTIONSABLE TIBETAN1-ka 2-- 1 4 , 1 , 6 1 8 L l o- - - - - - - - 11-

kha k r a kha kha k r a kha kha k r a kha kha kha- - - - - - - - - -aRa,-ng ;a Aa nga nga ;a ;a ;a :a tia ngacha Ea c a ca cha ca ;a ca ca c a c achha Era cha cha c h ra cha :ha c r a c ha cha ch aja 3a j a j a j a j a :a j a j a j a j a

Ra nya nya Ra Ra Aa Ra i5a nYa- - - - - - - - -t h a t r a t ha t h a t r a t h a t ha t r a t ha t h a t h a- - - - - - - - -a

- - - - - - - -pha pha pl a pha pha p l a pha pha

t s a - - - - - - - - - -t s r h a t l s a t s ha t h s a t sha t s h a t s l a t s r a t s ha t sha t s r adsa dza dsa dza dza dza dsa dza dsa dza dsa- - - - -a wa va wazha 2a sha zha i a i a Z a t a sha zha z'a- - - - - - - - -a za

ha- * a- !a- ' a- ?- ' a- k a- 'a * a---a shasha Sa-a -aa ' a


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A STANDARD SYSTEM OF TIBETAN TRANSCRIPTION 2631 . Csoma de Koros , " Translat ion of a Tibetan Fragment ," Journal of theAsiatic Society of Bengal I (1832) 2 6 9 R.2. Jaschlre, Tibetan-English Dictionary (London, 1881) .3 . D a s , Tibetan-English Dictionary (Calcut ta , 1902) .4. F rancke , A Lower Lad akhi V ersion of the Kesar Saga (Calcut ta , 1 9 0 5 ) .5 . H a n n a h , A G ram ma r of t he Ti beta n Language (Calcut ta , 1 9 1 2 ) .6. Bhat t acha rya , B h o t a - P r a k i i a , A Tibe tan Chr e s toma thy (Calcut ta , 1 9 3 9 ) .7 . Roerich, The Blue Annals , 2 Volumes (Calcut ta, 1949, 1953) .8 . Tucci , Th e Tom bs of th e T ibe tan Kings , Ser ie Or ien ta le R om a, I (Rome,1950) .9 . Nobel , Suvarnaprabhisot tama-sc tra, 2 Volumes (Leiden, 1944, 1950) .

10 . Yoshimura , Tibe tan Buddhis to logy (Kyoto , 1953) .11. Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Dem on s of Ti be t ( T h e H a g ue , 1 9 5 6 ) .l a . F ermr i , mK 'ye n br tse 's G uide to the Holy Places of Centra l T ib e t , Ser ieOr ien ta le Roma, X V I ( R o m e , 1 9 5 8 ) .

These are only two examples of the innumerable incongruitiesencountered in the transcription of the Tibetan language. Morecases could be cited; however, the purpose of this paper is not toenumerate such inconsistencies, but rather to seek their elimina-tion in future publications.

In view of the increasing interest in Tibetan studies, it is desir-able now more than ever that serious consideration be given tothe acceptance of a standard system of Tibetan transcription. Itis time to trade transcriptional independence for uniformity inorder to facilitate and standardize the advancement of Tibetanstudies. Admittedly, no single system of transcription can accur-ately reflect both the orthography and phonology of Tibetan; butdiversity of spelling and pronunciation is not uncommon in otherlanguages for which standard systems of transcription have beenadopted. This paper is concerned with a standard orthograplzictranscription for scholarly publication.

What, then, should be the criterion for a standard system ofTibetan transcription, It should be of minimal complexity andcapable of reproduction on a standard typewriter, i. e., one lackingspecial keys for diacritical marks. The addition of diacritics, eitherby hand or machine, requires time-consuming attention from thescholar. Even more important, it makes the same demands onthe typesetter, who may not always share the scholar's enthusiasmfor exactitude. As a result, typographical errors caused by theomission of such marks are frequently encountered in publications;


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A STANDARD SYSTEM OF TIBETAN TRANSCRIPTION 265under which a given word may be found in a Tibetan dictionary.If the reader is sufficiently familiar with the Tibetan languageto use a dictionary, is it not safe to assume the reader could findthe word without the benefit of the initial capitalization? Whethersafe or not, this seems to be the assumption of those using suchcapitalization, for its function in relation to lexicographic use isnot explained to the reader. Moreover, a survey of material pub-lished in transcription reveals that only the first word is subjectedto such capitalization. For one example, a recent publication, inwhich initial capitalization is pra~ t i ced ,~ontains thirty-threepages of Tibetan text in transcription in which only one letter iscapitalized; i. e., the first letter of the first word.

The practice of capitalizing the " initial " of only the first wordin compounded names results in an unsatisfactory transcriptionof words having an initial y with a prefix g as in g.yu (turquoise) .For example, if g.yu is the first word, then the y is capitalized andthe prefix g is not, i. e., g Y u ; but, if it occurs as other than thefirst word, then both the g and the y are in small type withouta separating mark, making it seem as if the g is the initial and they is sub-joined, i. e., -gyu , which is a different word. One solutionto such problems lies in the capitalization of each and every word,a proposal too demanding of manual and visual effort to be takenseriously. On the other hand, a proper system of transcriptioneliminates such problems regardless of capitalization. In fact,such capitalization is a concession to Western practices, for thereis no such thing as a capital letter in Tibetan.

The lexicographic justification for " initial " capitalization de-pends on its identification of the orthographic initial consistently,a justification not substantiated in actual practice.

The phonetic argument maintains that the initial should becapitalized as an indication to pronunciation and in order to dis-tinguish prefix letters, which are silent in the dialect of CentralTibet. The application to English of such " phonetic " capitaliza-tion would result in such spellings as: hour, kNight, pNeumonia,psychiatry, and phTisic.

Alfonsa Ferrari, mK 'ye n brtse's Guide to the Holy Places of Central Tib et, (Rome,1958).


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266 T U R R E L L Q Y L I EThe phonetic argument suffers from the same practices as the

lexicographic argument in that only the first word of a textualpassage or of compounded names is subjected to capitalization.This evidences the assumption that the reader is familiar withTibetan pronunciation; and if this be the case, what need is therefor phonetic capitalization? An attempt to eliminate this situationcould be made by phonetically capitalizing every single word, bu tsuch an attempt would be futile. What should be capitalized toshow that the word bod is pronounced PO, that dbang is wang, orbya is chya, and so on? For published examples of the inconsis-tency involved in this practice, consider Roerich's capitalizationof the sub-joined I as the phonetic initial; e. g., gLo (pronouncedLo) in all cases except when subjoined to the lexicographic initialx; e. g., Zla (pronounced Da) .5 Unable to capitalize a non-existentd, the initial x was capitalized, again evidencing the assumptionthat the reader knows that the combination xl is pronounced d.This is but one example; many more could be cited, but manywould prove no more than one that capitalization of the " phoneticinitial " is even less justified than the capitalization of the " exi-cographic initial."-4 reader with knowledge of the Tibetan language needs nocapitalization; those with no knowledge may find such randomand inconsistent capitalizations intriguing but of little value inpronouncing Tibetan properly or in using a Tibetan dictionary.Because of the diversity between Tibetan orthography and phon-olo,gy, it is sometimes desirable to transcribe Tibetan accordingto its pronunciation. When writing for the non-specialist, i t wouldbe pedantic to insist on the spelling Bkra-shis-lhum-po for thename Tashilhumpo, or Bla-ma for Lama. On the other hand,much data about Tibet has been prepared for the non-specialistin which only a phonetic transcription is given. Such transcriptionreduces the value of these works to the specialist since the recon-struction of the correct orthography is sometimes impossible. Forexample, Chango, the name of a village appearing on some Westernmaps a t approximately 100' 30' East and 31" 30' North, is actuallyBrag-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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A STANDARD SYSTEIM OF TIBETAN TRANSCRIPTION 267to transcribe words phonetically, it is suggested that the properorthography be added in parentheses, e. g., ". . . in the village ofChango (Brag-mgo) . . . ."

Since internal capitalization a t random, whether of the ortho-graphic or phonetic initial, is valueless and total capitalizationtoo cumbersome, it is suggested that Csoma de Koros' originalpractice of capitalizing the first letter, whether a prefix or aninitial, be restored if only for the sake of visual conformity toWestern capitalization practices.

In conclusion, the following system, devoid of diacritical marksand representing minimal complexity, is suggested for adoptionas the standard for Tibetan orthographic transcription.

ka kha ga ngaca cha ja nyata tha da naPa pha ba matsa tsha dzawa zha za 'aya ra lasha sa ha a

This is the system devised years ago by members of the InnerAsia Project a t the University of Washington, with a single alter-tion to be proposed: the substitution of a dot for a dash in tran-scribing an initial y with a prefix g. This substitution is made forthe sake of visual continuity. When components of proper nounsare joined by dashes, a dash between a prefix g and an initial yisolates the g. For example, the transcription Yar-'brog-g.yu-mtsho is visually preferable to Yar-'brog-g-yu-mtsho. The .revisedsystem is therefore identical to the one used by the late Rend deNebesky-Wojkowitz, with the exception that he practiced "in-ternal lexicographic capitalization," a practice not advocated inthis paper for the reasons given earlier.

'Renk de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (The Hague, 1956)

wylie - standard system of tibetan transcription

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