Hi everyone, this is my first post so I hope I don't embarrass myself
too badly.

I'd have to second Roger, I've been self studying Tibetan for a few
years now, and my understanding is that Wylie transcription actually
pretty closely mirrors the way that Classical Literary Tibetan would
have been pronounced in Lhasa a long time ago (provided that it is
understood that the "h" indicates aspiration), but that now regional
accents are applied to varying degrees in pronouncing classical
texts. Thus someone with a Lhasa accent reading a sadhana would
prounounce it differently than how they would normally speak, but it
will still differ from the way a person with a Kham accent would
prounounce the sadhana (which would still be different than the way
that the person with a Kham accent would normally speak). An example
of this might be the way that the Tibetan word for "dakini" or
"vajra" is pronounced in a name and when it is pronounced in a sadhana.

I believe that Wilson states in the introduction (or preface) that he
will utilize modern Lhasa pronunciation (whether colloquial or
literary, I don't know), so it will differ significantly from the way
the English letters used in Wylie Transcription are pronounced.

I have heard that in Ladakh they prununce things much closer to the
way that it is spelled/the way English speakers would pronounce the
Wylie letters; I have also heard that it is fairly agreed upon that
Ladakhi pronunciation has changed less than other Tibetan Dialects.
So the first letter is pronounced like the English "ka".

I apologize if my understanding is incorrect and has added to the
confusion.

Incidentally, when I first started studying Tibetan with Nyingma
students in Berkeley, I learned to pronounce the letters and their
sounds almost exactly as they would be pronounced in English based on
Wylie (after applying the pronunciation rules)- thus Tashi Delek was
prounounced Trashi Delek :-)

Cheers.
Kevin




On Dec 20, 2006, at 3:36 AM, wrighrp wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I've been told that regional accents make a difference here too.
>
> I first started learning tibetan at a Kagyu centre and then later at a
> Geluk one. I certainly noticed a difference in pronunciation,
> particularly between k-g for 'ka'. I asked someone (long ago - can't
> remember who) and was told that many Kagyu lamas have 'Kham' accents
> whereas many Geluk lamas have 'Lhasa' accents.
>
> I can't testify to the accuracy of this, but relate it for interest
> (and perhaps further discussion)
>
> Cheers
>
> Roger Wright
>
> --- In lotsawa@yahoogroups.com, "David Gordon" <dgordon4@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I have just begun to learn the alphabet and am already confused
> by what
> > appears to be a contradiction in the sound of the first gutteral.
> From
> > previous study I had learned that that letter was "ka," but in Joe
> > Wilson's Translating Buddhism from Tibetan the first gutteral is
> > indicated as "ga."
> >
> > Any clarification of this apparent discrepancy would be greatly
> > appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > David Gordon
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>



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