Literary Source For Late 18th Century Spoken Tibetan

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269594/1

Page #1
Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Tomus XXXIV (1-3), 245-248 (1980) A LITERARY SOURCE FOR LATE 18TH-CENTURY SPOKEN TIBETAN (AMDOWA) .BY ERNST STEINKELLNER (Vienna) Recently I have stumbled upon a piece of material valuable for the history of modern Tibetan dialects in a literary area where I suspect that the linguist would hardly look for it. And the purpose of my note on this material is only to call the linguist's attention to it. Historical material for an observation of the development of Spoken Tibetan is scarce. In the case of the Amdo-group of dialects so far only a Chinese transcription of 15th century Amdowa is known through Nishida's article from 1963.1 Roy Andrew Miller while surveying the history of the Tibetan language in a footnote to his review of Rona-Tas' Tibeto-Mongolica2 refers to a period of <> with the <> and notes that <>, and yet we have. 1 Nishida Tatsuo, Juroku seiki ni okeru Seikosho Chibettogo Tenzen kogen ni tsuite - Kango-Chibettogo tangushu iwayuru Heishubon 'Saibankan yakugo' no kenkyu : Kyoto Daigaku Bungakubu Kenkyu Kiyo 7 (1963), 85-174. 2 Language 44,1 (1968), note 1. 3 Loc. cit., 148. Acta Orient. Hung. XXXIV. 1980

Page #2
246 E. STEINKELLNER The Geshe Dr. Lobsang Dargyay and myself have been working together for some time on a translation and interpretation of a philosophical essay on the rnam thar ago gsum, the three doors towards liberation, written by Gun than 'Jam pa'i dbyans, also known as Gun than dKon mchog bsTan pa'i sgron me. This aGe lugs pa-scholar lived from 1762-1823. He was born in m Dzod dge smad, South-East mDo smad, Amdo. He was admitted to the mDzod dge dgon named bKra sis chos gline at the age of five, to bkra sis 'khyil (= Bla bran, Labrang) at the age of seven and went to Central Tibet at the age of seventeen in 1778. There he studied in the sGo man grva tshan of 'Bras spuns and was then installed in 1792 as the 21st in the gdan rabs of Bla bran, bKra sis 'khyil. When Lobsang Dargyay was preparing the notes for Gun than's biugraphy and a systematical survey of his works he pointed out to me a text in order to show what playful ideas our most serious scholar was capable of having. This text caught my attention at once : it had evidently been written in colloquial language.8 It is included as Nr. XVI of the tenth volume (na smad cha) of the Col. lected Works which were reproduced by Ngawang Gelek Demo (New Delhi 1972 ff.). It bears the marginal title Phal skad zab chos (The profound teaching in colloquial language) and has a verse in the place of a formal title which I would translate as : <>10 The text consists of eleven folio-pages and is evidently incomplete. It was probably composed after Gun than's return to bKra sis 'khyil, i.e. * The following notes on the circumstances of Gun than's life are mainly based on a short biography prepared by Lobsang Dargyay (Gun than dKon mchog betan pa'i sgron me'i rnam thar mdor bsdus) which will be published 1981 in the Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde. mDzod dge smad must be the same as mDzo-dge smad-ma which according to T. V. Wylie (The Geography of Tibet according to the 'Dzam-gling-rgyas-bshad, Roma 1962, note 710) is the Dzoge area of J. F. Rock's map 3 (The Amnye Ma-chhen range and adjacent regions. A monographic study, Roma 1956, cf. G. Roerich, Le parler de l'Amdo, Roma 1958, map: Dzoge). It is situated ca. 35o latitude and 103deg longitude. * Unidentified according to Wylie, loc. cit., note 775. 7 Cf. Rock, loc. cit., 29-47. 8 That Gun than composed works in colloquial Tibetan has already been noticed by Gene Smith in his University of Washington - Tibetan Catalogue, Seattle 1969, 92. 18 Or: *(which) by the power (dban [gis ?]) of rDo rje 'chan (is granted)>>. 10 rDo rje 'chan dban mi yi gar rol pa'i // yab rje bsTan pa'i agron me'i zal sna nas // skye bo blo dman kun gyis go bde'i ched // phal skad tshul du gnan ba'i zab chos bzugs 80 // Acta Orient. Hung. XXXIV. 1980

Page #3
A LITERARY SOURCE FOR LATE 18TH-CENTURY SPOKEN TIBETAN (AMDOWA) 247 between 1792 and his death in 1823. It contains a conversational sermon on the Buddhist principles with questions and answers and is written in prose. In order to fully evaluate the possible output of a study of this text, it seems appropriate to take a look on some presuppositions that are provided by the person and educational background of the author. Since we know that he was raised in mDzod sge smad we would assume that the dialect he chose to write this piece in was his native dialect, i.e. Dzoge according to Roerich's map. 11 Whether the dialect of <> belongs to the northern or southern group of Amdowa 12 I cannot say. Considering the fact, that Gun than not only stayed at Bla bran during his formative years but once again after about fourteen years abroad, and that he most probably wrote this text while staying at Bla bran, it is possible that his native <>> cannot have been much different from the dialect of Bla bran (<>), which is counted among the northern group by Roerich.13 Another important aspect of this material is that its author was not only a scholar of great authority but also an esteemed poet. His ability to present the spoken language in written form, i.e. to chose the appropriate orthographical means, must be considered to have been rather great.14 Finally : Since our author wrote this text fully conscious that he was writing dialect, we need not fear, that - in spite of the theoretical content of the text - his normal language behaviour as a monk-scholar corrupted too much of the dialectmaterial in the direction of the literary language of his monastic environment. The parts of the text that are Literary Tibetan are clearly distinguished, and the rest must be representative for the <>> or/and <> dialect as spoken by an educated scholar with strong emotional bonds to the language of his people. To sum up: with this text we have a piece of late 18th century Amdowadialect before us which, considering the cultural circumstances, could hardly have been recorded more precisely. After it has been studied, it will not only provide new grammatical and lexicographical material for the history of Amdowa, but also perceptions with regard to its phonetics, and -- since the educated orthography used, transgresses the regional limits of Amdo - probably also with regard to Tibetan phonetics of the 18th century in general. 11 Loc. cit., 11. Considering his education it would not seem important whether he was a Mongol by birth (Gene Smith, loc. cit., 82) or a Tangut (B. Baradijn, cf. note 14, 211). 13 Roerich, loc. cit., 7. 18 Loc. cit., 7. 14 Another one of his experiments on languages and orthography, the Zlos gar gyi batan bcos, has been studied by Badgar B. Baradijn, Leningrad 1925 (Gesprache buddhistischer Monche. Aus dem Russischen ubersetzt von G. Bufe und W. A. Unkrig - Zeitschrift fur Buddhismuskunde 8, 1, 1928, 209-242). Acta Orient. Hung. XXXIV. 1980

Page #4
248 . . E. STEINKELLNER: A LITERARY SOURCE FOR AMDOWA In presenting this material it is my hope to find a specialist or a team of specialists who might be interested in studying it. I myself am not capable of doing the linguistic research the text would deserve and shall not deal with it any further. I also hope that other scholars working on the large body of Tibetan literature available nowadays will likewise place similar materials they come across at the linguist's disposal. N. B.: Prof. Rona-Tas, University of Szeged, has expressed his intention to study the above text. Acta Orient. Hung. XXXIV. 1980

Page #5
The Acta Orientalia publish papers on oriental philology and culture in English, German, French and Russian. The Acta Orientalia appear in parts of varying size, making up volumes. Manuscripts should be addressed to: Acta Orientalia, 1363 Budapest, Postafiok 24. Correspondence with the editors and publishers should be sent to the same address. Orders may be placed with "Kultura" Foreign Trading Company (1389 Budapest 62, P.O.B. 149 Account No. 218-10990) or its representatives abroad. Les Acta Orientalia paraissent en francais, anglais, allemand et russe et publient des travaux du domaine des recherches orientulos. Les Acta Orientalice sont publies sous forme de fascicules et seront reunis en volumes. On est prie d'envoyer les manuscrits destines a la redaction a l'adresse suivante: Acta Orientalia, 1363 Budapest, Postafiok 24. Toute correspondence doit etre envoyee a cette meme adresse. On peut s'abonner a l'Entreprise du Commerce Exterieur <> (1389 Budapest 62, P.O.B. 149 Compte-courant No 218-10990) ou chez representants a l'etranger. <> vykhodiat otdel'nymi vypuskami raznogo ob'ema. Neskol'ko vypuskov sostavliaiut odin tom. Prednaznachennye dlia publikatsiia rukopisi sleduet napravliat' po adresu: Acta Orientalia, 1363 Budapest, Postafiok 24. Po etomu zhe adresu napravliat' vsiakuiu korrespondentsiiu dlia redaktsii i administratsii. Zakazy prinimaet predpriiatie po vneshnei torgovle <> (1389 Budapest 62, R. O. V. 149 Tekushchii schet No 218-10990), ili ego zagranichnye predstavitel'stva i upolnomochennye.