Bodhisattva Vehicle

1

Regarding the pronunciation of the single letters, as given above, it is to be born in mind, that surds ka, da + pa are uttered without the least admixture of an aspiration, viz. as k, t, p are pronounced in the words skate, stale, spear; the aspirates kha, tha + pha forcibly, rather harder than the same in Kate, tale, peer; the sonants ga, da + ba like g, d, b in gate, dale, beer.

2

The same difference of hardness is to be observed in ca, cha + ja (cha occurs in church, ca the same without aspiration; ja in judge) and in tsa, tsha + dza.

3

zha is the soft modificationof sha or the s in leisure (French j in jamais, but more palatal).

4

nga is the English ng in sing, but occurs in Tibetan often in the commencement of a sylable.

5

nya is the Hindi character omitted, or the initial sounds in the word new, which would be spelled nyu.

6

In the Eastern dialects of Eastern or Chinese-Tibet, however, the soft consonants ga, da, ba, ja + dza, when occurring as initials, ar pronounced with an asipiration, similar to the Hindi character omitted, character omitted, character omitted + character omitted, or indeed so that they often scarcely differ from the common English k, t, p, ch; also zha and za are more difficult to distinguish from sha and sa than in the Western provinces (Exceptions s. && 7.8).