^{page 134 note 1} Mr. Righdzin dBaṅpo, a Lhasa-bom Tibetan of 29 years of age, was employed aa a Research Assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies from December, 1948, to September, 1949, and subsequently for a further period of six months at Kalimpong, West Bengal. Though not himself a sku-drag, R. had attended the same school as members of that class, and was a speaker of LT. His ‘ speaking-style ’ LT has, however, been described by other Tibetans as somewhat bookish.

^{page 134 note 2} The use of single quotation marks, to indicate a technical term, has been discontinued once the technical sense is considered to have been established by operation. The justification for using this device is that it draws attention to a technical use, with special reference to Tibetan phonology, of a vocabulary that might otherwise be considered that of general language. Thus, such a term as ‘ verb ’ is to be understood in the sense in which it is defined below for Tibetan.

^{page 134 note 3} See Bell, Charles Sir, K.C.I.E., C.M.G., The People of Tibet, Oxford, 1928, pp. 71, 64.Google Scholar Of the provincial dialects of Tibet LT is considered to resemble the dialect of dBus more than that of any other province.

^{page 134 note 4} Robins, R. H. cf, ‘ The Phonology of the Nasalized Verb Forms in Sundanese ’, BSOAS., 15, 1953, p. 138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^{page 134 note 5} I should like to express my thanks to Rani S. T. Dorji, to David Macdonald, Esq., and to Dr. G. de Roerich, of Kalimpong, West Bengal, whose criticism of much of the material presented below I have found valuable.

^{page 135 note 1} The spelling adopted in all Tibetan examples in this article is that given either by R. himself or by another educated Tibetan, dPal-ẖByor Phun-Tshogs. These Tibetan spellings are given only in order that the examples may be identified. In practice LT is to all intents and purposes an unwritten language; utterances in LT are, when written down, regularly translated into the vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and style of ‘ written Tibetan ’. (Gould, Basil cfSir, C.M.G., C.I.E., and Richardson, Hugh Edward: Tibetan Word Book, Oxford University Press, 1943, p. 12:Google Scholar ‘ What is most of all wanted is that Tibetans themselves should realize what their colloquial speech is capable of, and that some Tibetan should appear who, with the courage of a Dante, will write books that any Tibetan of average education can understand, ’ cf. also Dousamdup, Kazi, An English-Tibetan Dictionary; Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1919, p. 7:Google Scholar ‘ Care has been taken to give the Tibetan words as correctly spelt where possible, but where colloquial words had to be used in preference to classical words, … no strictly correct spelling could be adhered to …’ The difficulty of symbolization is particularly great in the case of the ‘ verb ’ (Gould, cf and Richardson, : Tibetan Verb Roots, Tibet Mirror Press, Kalimpong, 1949, pp. 3–5Google Scholar). As a result the Tibetan spelling in more than a few examples appears at variance with the phonological analysis.

^{page 136 note 1} Most of the examples are taken from recordings of R. in conversation with other Tibetans, and from other material volunteered by R. In the course of research considerable use was made of Tibetan Word Book, by Sir Basil Gould, C.M.G., C.I.E., and Hugh Edward Richardson, and the allied series Tibetan Sentences, etc. I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the authors of this series both for the use that I was able to make of it myself and for their making their personal copy of Tibetan Word Book, containing new and unpublished material, available to me. Where examples are taken from works in this series, they are acknowledged by the use of double quotation marks.

^{page 136 note 2} The technical specialization of the term ‘ colligation ’ is to be distinguished from the usual dictionary ‘ meanings ’ (q.v.).

The following note is contributed by Prof. J. R. Firth: ‘ The application of this term is determined by its systematic use in statements of meaning in terms of linguistics at a series of mutually congruent levels, such as meaning in context of situation, meaning by collocation, and meaning by colligation, supported by statements of syllabic structure, of contonation, and other prosodic or phonematic features and structures.

‘ The place and company an institutionalized word or piece keeps in mutual expectancy with other words in text, which constitute its various meanings by collocation, is to be distinguished from the inter-relations in mutual expectancy of the more abstract syntactical categories in formally established grammatical structures.’

For the first employment of ‘ colligation ’ in this sense see Simon, H. F., ‘ Two Substantival Complexes in Standard Chinese ’, BSOAS., 15, 1953, p. 327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For ‘ contonation ’, see A. E. Sharp, ‘ A Tonal Analysis of the Disyllabic Noun in the Machame Dialect of Chaga ’, in the present number.

^{page 137 note 1} It is doubtful whether the sole example of syllable-initial voiceless alveolar friction to be recorded —) is a valid example of ‘ spoken’ LT.

^{page 140 note 1} The adoption of the syntactic pattern V + P1 + P2 results in the exclusion of a number of verbal phrases that might seem at first sight to qualify for inclusion. If the trisyllabic phrase ‘ ’(as in —) is included it might appear that‘ ’ (as in ) should also be included. The half-close vowel-quality (–do:) is, however, treated as the phonetic exponent of a further (interrogative) particle, i.e. V + P1 + P2 + P3, sometimes symbolized in the Tibetan script, as here, and sometimes left unsymbolized, the colligation of verb and ‘ interrogative noun ’ (, etc.) being sufficient indication. The same grounds may be adduced for the inclusion of ‘ ’ (as in —) and the exclusion of ‘ ’ (as in “ ” —) ( and are orthographic forms of one particle). Though phonetically trisyllabic the phrases that have been excluded are regarded as being of a different syntactic pattern (V+ P1 + P2 + P3) from that studied below (V + P1 + P2). (For the phonetic transcription, see note 1, p. 142.)

The substitution one for another of the four P2 particles and is subject to a stylistic limitation; and may not be collocated with or indeed any syllable that, at the stylistic level of analysis, may be assigned to the ‘ honorific ’ category. They may be collocated with ‘ non-honorific ’ syllables such as

^{page 141 note 1} See Firth, J. R., ‘Sounds and Prosodies ’, Transactions of the Philological Society (1948), more especially pages 127–8, 151–2Google Scholar, and Henderson, Eugenie J. A., ‘ Prosodies in Siamese ’, Asia Major, 1, pt. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 2} i.e. intonation-one sentence (1S) and intonation-two sentence (2S). This statement of LT ‘ intonation’ as a two-term system is provisional only; further research may require a statement with a larger number of terms. In particular one or two examples have been recorded as follows:—

‘ cW ’ (see Prosodic Systems of the Word, III, ‘ closure ’).

Initial Syllable Medial Syllable Final Syllable

(a) high high level

(b) low „ „

e.g. (a)

(b)

The level pitch of the final ‘ syllable ’, as opposed to a fall in pitch (cf. Intonation, (b) I (a) and (b) I (β)), might perhaps be regarded as an exponent of a third (‘ continuative ’) term, i.e. 3s.

^{page 142 note 1} The symbols used in the phonetic transcription are based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1951). The I.P.A. comprises 138 letters and signs grouped under the five heads “consonants” (55), “vowels” (20), “other sounds” (31), ”length, stress, pitch” (12), “modifiers” (20). As is well known, each of the letters and signs symbolizes one, and in some eases more than one, type of human articulation. With regard to letters that symbolize more than one general-phonetic category the usage of this article is as follows:—

t, d: dental plosive; n: dental nasal; : alveolar fricative; C, : palatal plosive; j: palatal semi-vowel. Affricates are symbolized by groups of two “ consonants ”, and not by ligatures, , etc.:—

: alveolo-palatal; : alveolar; ts: alveolar. The use of h in the symbolization of aspirated plosives is here extended to affricates (tsh) no provision having been made for aspirated affricates in the I.P.A. Of the alternative symbols for “ tongue retracted ” - has been used. ' (e.g. g') has been used to symbolize occlusion without plosion, following Henderson, Eugénie J. A., ‘ Prosodies in Siamese ’ Asia Major, 1, pt. 2, p. 190.Google Scholar

The graphic representation of pitch is not that of the I.P.A.; it comprises the following eight symbols:—

… Pitch of preceding syllables left unsymbolized;

B. ¯ High level; C. _ Low level;

D. \ Fall; E. ' High fall; F. \ Low fall;

Λ Rise-fall; H. /Rise.

Each symbol is to be associated with a syllable.

In the sections dealing with intonation and tone a pitch-pattern has been given for each phonetic transcription; in other sections pitch-patterns are dispensed with and tone-marks used. Since tone is an abstraction of a phonological, and not of a general-phonetic, order it would be fruitless to look for appropriate symbols to the I.P.A. The following symbols have therefore been adopted for use, where necessary, as tone-marks:—

A. Tone one: absence of symbol,

B. Tone two: ' preceding the transcription of the word, e.g. A. B. . The tone-marks symbolize:—

A. Any one of the possible tone-one or tone-two pitch-patterns.

B. Correlated features of (1) voice-quality, (2) length/shortness of vowel in the final syllable. Except where there is evidence to the contrary (e.g. sigidu Λ - - -; Λ_ ¯\ has not been recorded), it is assumed that every one of the pitch-patterns stated is valid for each example.

The phonetic transcriptions are in general what is considered adequate for a ‘ reading transcription ’, but a more detailed transcription has been given where appropriate.

^{page 146 note 1} Prosodic grounds for the delimitation of syllables may be advanced as follows:—

A. Syllable Initial

I. Plosion (p-, ph-, b-; t-, th-, d-; c-, ch-, ; k-, kh-)

II. Affrication (; ts-, tsh-. dz-; )

III. Friction (except + labialization-voice, i.e. Φ) (s-, , β-)

IV. Lateralization (l-, )

V. Nasality + palatalization ()

VI. Semi-vowel (w-, j-, )

B. Syllable Final

I. Occlusion (without plosion) (-p', -b'; -k', -g')

^{page 147 note 1} The overall phonetic exponents of ‘ Junction ’ for the verb are given for comparison:—

A. ‘ Interverbal Junction ’

I. Syllable Initial

(1) Affrication - voice (ts-, tsh-; ).

+ voice + alveolarity ().

(2) Lateralization (l-, ).

(3) Labio-velarity (W-).

(4) Nasality + palatalization ()

(5) Plosion — voice (k-, kh; c-, ch; t-, th-; p-, ph-)

+ voice + palatalization ().

(6) Vowel initial () (the sole recorded example).

(7) Palatal plosion + front-spread vowel ().

II. Syllable Final.

Occlusion/friction + labialization 4- voicelessness (-p'/-Φ).

B. ‘ Intraverbal Junction ’

I. Syllable Initial

(1) Affrication + voice + alveolarity (+ dz-).

(2) Nasality + plosion (+ nd-).

(3) Labio-palatalization (+ ).

(4) Velarity + front-spread vowel (+ gi).

(5) Friction + velarization/labialization (+ ͮ/β).

II. Syllable Final

(1) Occlusion + velarization (-g' +).

(2) „ + labialization + voice ( +).

(3) Nasality + velarization (-ŋ +).

(4) Central vowel-quality (-ә +).

^{page 148 note 1} A few instances have been recorded of plosion-voice (velar/labial) in intraverbal junction, e.g. . The utterances from which these examples are taken are, however, considered to be artificially slow and have been disregarded.

^{page 153 note 1} See p. 137, note 1.

^{page 155 note 1} ‘ Translation meanings ’ in English have been added to the Tibetan text only where there appears to be a gain in clarity of exposition.