STANNDARDISATION AND PRESERVATION OF TIBETAN LANGUAGE

STANNDARDISATION AND PRESERVATION OF TIBETAN LANGUAGE

STANNDARDISATION AND PRESERVATION OF TIBETAN LANGUAGE

K, Angrup Chairman Central Asian Studies Department Punjab University Chandigarh

The Tibetan language as we find and use it today is not very old but its dialects numerous as they are, belong to the hoary past. Thier antiquity cannot be determined in historical terms and it can be generalized that they are as old as the Tibetan race itself. Tibetan legends tell us that the immensely high plateau of Tibet surrounded as it is by the world’s highest mountains was once at the bottom of the sea. But now such 1egends have been proved by modern science to be well-founded. Various geographical surveys and scientific investigations have found plenty of evidence that from 30 to 70 million years ago, Tibet was indeed part of the sea bed. Finally, the sea disappeared and what had been the bottom was pushed up higher and higher by the internal movement of the earth. Građuelly, human 1ife evolved and steadily our culture and civilisation developed on the “roof of the world”.

In the primitive age what dialect or native language Tibetans spoke and what were its characteristics, nobody knows. But what is true, as the linguists believe, is that some elements of our dialects spoken through the ages do creep into standard language. Language change is a constant phenomenon, Over a period of centuries a language changes to a sufficient degree that early and modern speakers were they to meet, could understand one another only with great difficulty.

This principle of constant changeability applies to the Tibetan too and this explains why the people of dBus and Tsang can’t understand easily the language spoken by the people coming from Khams and Golog, though both the dialects belong to the same language family. Similar difficulty arises when the people of Ngari meet the residents of Amdo or Khams.

Tibetan speaking area does not comprise Tibet proper alone.Tibetan and its various dialects are also spoken in Ladakh, Zanskar, Lahul-Spiti, and north-

227

བོོད་ཀྱིི་བོརྡ་སྤྲོོད་རིིག་གནས་སྐོོརི་གྱིི་བོགྲོོ་གླེེང་ཚོོགས་འདུའི་དཔྱད་རྩོོམ་ཕྱོོགས་བོསྒྲིིགས། ern parts of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh. Bhotia, Tamang, Lepcha are other variants of Tibetan which are spoken in Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim. Similarly, dialects of Arunachal and Bhutan are also greatly influenced by the Tibetan. When Thonmi Sambhota wrote Tibetan Grammer, he was not aware that he was creating a work for the Tibetans alone and that such a vast expanse of territory will automatically come under the same linguistic jurisdiction.This interaction between various dialects and their intermingling with each other has taken place as a result of long historical process. Several Buddhist missionaries and traders have played a vital role in the transmission of their languages to the Tibetan speaking territories and there by influencing and moulding each others native tongues. It is true that longuage has no fixed boundaries and it transcends frontiers because of compulsions created by migration from one place to another. When we talk of preservation of Tibetan language,we will have to take into considera-tion all such dialecte and Sub-dialects which are spoken in a larger part of the Himalayans.

Literary Language (Chhos-Skad) We are aware that Tibetan language preserves a vast corpus of Buddhist literature in Kanjur and Tanjur which otherwise would have been lost to the future generations. The great translators, popularly knovn as Lo-tsaba, belonged to Gyang-tse (Tsang) or its neighbouring areas. Obviously language used by them for rendering Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit to Tibetan was greatly influenced by their native tongue. Before they embarked upon the gigantic task of translation, they had to lay down certain guidelines and adopt a methodology for the transferrance of ideas from one language to another language. The greatest problem faced by the Lo-tsabas was that of technical terminology required for rendering Senskrit Buddhist philosophy, religion and Tantras into Tibetan. There were two options before them either to create new equivalents or to prepare Tibetan equivalents by translating Sanskrit words wholesale alongwith their verbal roots and suffixes. They adopted the second course because they felt that it was easier for them to adopt equivalents nearer to Sanskrit.

These Tibetan equivalents were compiled into one volume known as Vyayutapatti which was later on incorporated into the Tanjur. This language developed out of a regional language, in due course of time, become Chhos-skad or a literary language of a country. This language is fully preserved in our collossal works and it needs not to be tampered with,

228

STANNDARDISATION AND PRESERVATION OF TIBETAN LANGUAGE Langauge of the Nobles (Sku-drag-gi-Skad) Another phenomenon peculiar to Tibetans is that of two-tier vocabulary one for the nobility and another for laity. It was felt that the literary language was not suitable for transacting official business. Therefore, the language spoken by the elites of Lhasa was adopted as official Language which later on proved quite serviceable in the matters of administration. One of the greatest merits of the language of nobles lies in the fact that it contains specific vocabulary including verbs for the nobility whereas for addressing the laity there is a separate set of verbs and pronouns. It is a peculiar feature of Tibetan unparalleled in the history of world languages. Again, it is a rare example of standard language which because of prestige and respect enjoyed by it, took the place of official languege.

In the past, the language of the Kutag was considered to be a language of a special or a privileged class of society. But now there is a change in the attitude of people. Educated and civilized people are adopting this language in their day-to-day business and while using it they also feel a sense of national pride and prestige. Paul L. Garvin defines a standard language as a codified form of language, accepted by and serving as a model to a larger speech comunity. The Kutag language fulfils these conditions.

In this connection, however, I have to make one observation which although contradicts our pre-accepted notion that Tibetan especially Sku-drag-gi-Skad is a standard language. We are perhaps aware that the language spoken by the nobles is a corrupt form of one of those dialects on which Thonmi Sambhota based his grammer because Sku-drag-gi-Skad as now spoken does not conform to the principles of phonetics laid down in the rtags-jug.

For the preservation of Kutag language I suggest that a dictionary of this Language must be prepered so that it may not be lost for ever.

Archaic Vocabulary (brda-rnyin) Language is not static. It is dynamic and is always in a state of flux.It has the tremendous capacity of absorption and elimination. Some words are added to it while others get eliminated. It is a natural phenomenon and none can halt this process. Many words and phrases which were once part of Tibetan usage are no longer part of our speech. These words are still in usage in many dialects of Tibet and in the territory contiguous to it. In fact that ancient vocabulary holds a key to the understanding of the development of Tibetan language. For

229

བོོད་ཀྱིི་བོརྡ་སྤྲོོད་རིིག་གནས་སྐོོརི་གྱིི་བོགྲོོ་གླེེང་ཚོོགས་འདུའི་དཔྱད་རྩོོམ་ཕྱོོགས་བོསྒྲིིགས། the proper understanding of Tibetan semantics it is necessary that archaic vocabulary is preserved and a suitable lexicon be prepared.

230