Blackwell Reference Online

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The literary history of Tibetan goes back to the eighth century ce . Tradition credits Thon-mi Sambhoṭa, a noble Tibetan scholar and minister of King Srong-btsan-sgam-po, with devising the Tibetan writing system on the model of a north Indian script. Although there is no documentary evidence to support this attribution, it is clear that the Tibetan system is patterned on the B rāhmī writing , the Gupta variety probably being its immediate forebear ( Figure 6 ). The oldest epigraphic monument is the stone pillar of Zhol, Lhasa, which has been dated 764 ce . Figure 6 Tibetan talisman, the ‘horse of good fortune’ The adaptation to Tibetan of the Gupta alphabet made significant changes necessary because, unlike the languages for which Brāhmī and its offshoots evolved, Tibetan is not an Indo-European language. The structural principle underlying the Tibetan script is that of I ndian writing systems . The unit of representation is the syllable, but the unit of analysis is the segment. The alphabet consists of 30 letters ( table 13 ). In its basic form each letter represents a C plus an inherent V a. As with the Indian scripts, the inherent V is neutralized by attaching diacritic V satellites to the C letter. However, in contrast to the Indic systems, Tibetan has only one independent V letter, for a. By extending the principle of diacritical V indication, this letter is also used ... log in or subscribe to read full text