Introduction to my book phonology

Introduction to my book phonology
In this book, I seek to create a precise written form of Tibetan speech by creating a holistic classification system of human sound in a set of new written symbols. While this effort is to fulfill a need of my own people in language standardization, the system can also enhance the praxis of phonology globally.
Many of us have concerns about making a unified, standardized Tibetan language system; a system that will allow us to use a single written script to display the distinctions in Tibetan dialects. The question now is, “How?” some people are of the opinion that this will develop naturally with developments in transportation and communication. This is uncertain in time and object.
Some people think that Tibetan as spoken in Lhasa should be made the standard. However, even in Lhasa Tibetan there are disconnects between the written and spoken word. Making Lhasa Tibetan the standard would push this disconnect further into deterioration, not correction. For example, all Tibetans have now dropped the ‘sa’ prefix and suffix which is responsible for perhaps 60% of this effect. Some people think that Tibetan as spoken in Amdo should be made the standard, because it is more correct in connecting spoken and written forms of Tibetan (as compared to other dialects). The reality is that prejudicial factors will not allow for this. A third group of scholars feel that monastic Tibetan, as used in the three universities, should be declared the standard. However, again we are faced with risk in that no specified pattern yet exists to standardize this form. Dungkar Lobsang Trinley, the great scholar, said, “Unified Tibetan standard language should be neither Lhasa dialect nor Amdo dialect. It should be a new, refined Tibetan language.” These are the considerations of the present dialogue, though none have yet presented a detailed strategy to implement their thoughts.
I agree with Dungkar’s thought on this matter. The question then remains, “How?” This is the ultimate question that, to this point, no one has dared touch. Having said this, I would now also prepare a strategy to realize my own view. For this reason, I have started to write this book, Dradup Rigpa (Phonology).
How do we refine the written Tibetan language? We might classify Tibetan in two forms: Thonmism and non-Thonmism. The former is the interpretive system by Thonmi Sambhota which is the basis for the present-day system (which I refine here). The latter is the Tibetan phonetic system that is beyond the present-day application, which may be called “Amchodism.” In short, where the Thonmi system becomes inadequate to signify new sounds, new symbols must be developed. As such, this extension is itself a new system of pronunciation with new symbols (where it exceeds the reach of present day Thonmism). It should not be alarming that a new set of symbols be introduced, as this is not the first time. The five Thukpos and six Lokyigs were introduced under similar circumstances. I would not insist that new letters should be added, except that without them we will miss meaningful sounds. Ignoring these will damage the language. Leaving aside the issue of new letters, the point here is that assessment and refinement of the Thonmi system is the key to a unified Tibetan Standard language.
This new phonetic system as a theory is the mechanism for assessing and refining the phonetics of Thonmism. It is a completely new approach to phonetics. With this new system of pronunciation, we can approve or disapprove of a pronunciation of every letter of the Thonmist phoneme. This will, in some cases, include new sounds. Upon completion, there will be a final set of precise phonetics to every word to which this new system is applied.
Creating a standard written Tibetan then becomes a matter of knowledge. Not everything will be new as the new symbols are still based in the style of the original Thonmistic system. Once this system exists and people know it, we can then assume that Tibet has a standard unified language. Neither Lhasawas nor Amdowas need to study each other’s language. Each can use their respective language in their respective areas and use the new system for inter-province communication. Hindi serves as a living example of this. Hindi is very different between the northern states, but all understand the Hindi used on the national television channel. Everyone speaks their own versions in their own homes, and yet Hindi is the language of the entire nation of India. As such, this suggestion here is entirely practical and realistic. The differences between the new phonetics and the phonetics of present accents of the three Cholkhas will be similar to what we see in the Indian context.
There are many sounds covered in this book with no meaning. It is necessary to cover these sounds in order to be complete in the analytical coverage of the subject of human phonetics. Only those who understand the full phonetic system as described here will be able to pronounce these sounds correctly.
In Tibet, there are three major dialects (qualified to be called languages) as well as hundreds of minor dialects. If one can identify and portray the distinctions between the phonetics of the languages, this will be the greatest aid in engineering the unified Tibetan Language. Students of Tibetan or any other language can also use this system to refine their pronunciation. This is the most striking feature of this book: with this system, one can potentially learn a language without even consulting a teacher. Much like computer software, one can use this system to signify any sound that a human can produce.

Summary of the Book
In this book, human phonology has been classified as 2 genres, 11 sections (9 used in Tibetan), 2 divisions, 3 clusters, 2 casts, 3 families, 2 cells, and 6 members. Human sounds are classified as follows:
• Two genres: consonant and vowel.
• Consonants have 9 sections based on the 9 places as applied in Tibetan language (touch points on tongue and lip).
• Direction: each place has 3 directions of airflow (exhale, inhale, non-hale)
• Exhale direction has 2 divisions based on order (first and second action).
• Divisions have 3 clusters based on route (side, nasal, proper).
• A nasal route cluster has 2 casts (full and half nasal)
• A proper route cluster has 3 classes (plosive, non-touching, fricative)
• Classes have 2 families based on timing of voice (voiced, unvoiced)
• Families have 6 alphabets based on effort (masculine, feminine, neutral; +/- fancy)
This classification system can create 295237900 human vocal sounds. This number is achieved though the following calculations:
• 245 consonant variations = x
• Consonant pairs = x2
• Consonant triplets = x3
• Every consonant can be paired with any one of 20 vowels (infinite in practice, 20 explained here)
• FORMULA: 20x + 20x2 + 20x3 = 295,237,900
These sounds are those that are available for the Tibetan oral communication. 3,970, 680 more sounds of non-Tibetan sounds are also mentioned, brining a total of 299,298,580 sounds. Though it includes many hypothetical sounds, this number is not exaggerated, and there are many more hypothetical sounds that might be added to this set. In this book, I describe 4 potential levels of classification of sound—the least level being the one we work with here with a total of 245 possible sounds. The highest classification system expands to 47,300,838,480 sounds. Most of these are theoretical and are left to the reader’s understanding of the system of classification. If we had not lost the suffixes as in ‘gos’, dogs’, ‘satha’ and limited prefixes, Thonmism would also have as much as 111720 sounds. Today, we do not have even half that number in use.
The most important feature here is my description of the 245 Tibetan sounds and 8 foreign sounds. 20 vowels are also explained here. This brings us a total of 5060 sounds ([245 + 8] * 20) that are described in detail here. This is perhaps the grandest phonology for the Tibetan world of phonetics.
In the forward, there is guidance on how to read and use this book. However, we also need to define what we mean by the term “Phonetics”. I have explained ‘vowels’ and ‘consonants’ by their repetitive sources or causations, but not yet in practice. When we produce human sound, we use some important aetiologies (causes): places, actions, efforts and factors.
1. Place: As shown in figure 1 an 2, there are 9 places for the Tibetan sounds:
a. Aney
b. Kkaney
c. Kaney
d. Kyaney
e. Chaney
f. Zaney
g. Taney
h. Daney
i. Paney
j. Two places for foreign sounds are Vaney and Thaney (See fig. 20,21)
2. Action: Action relates to the movement of places and air. This has two categories: The action of place and of air.
a. Action of place: This refers to the movement of the lower center point to the upper center point (as described in the first chapter). This has 3 kinds: action in relation to time, tightness and base.
i. Action in relation to time: Every complete alphabetical sound consists of two actions, namely ‘first action’ and ‘second action.’
1. First action is the raising of the lower center point of places to the upper center points (this does not include returning). This is the cause of the consonants. This first action has here kinds of action: plosive, fricative and non-touching.
a. Plosive action is the action of place that has two points tightly touching each other directly
b. Fricative action is the action of place where two center points lightly touch each other.
c. Non-touching action is the action of place where two points do not touch each other at all.
2. Second action is the completion of the first action by retreating the lower center points from the position of first action to their normal position. This is the main cause of vowels.
ii. Action in relation to bases are actions of the basic parts, affecting the second action only, in hat it affects only the vowels. These are throat, tongue, lip and jaw action respectively.
1. Throat action is variation in throat movement from tight to loose
2. Tongue action is variation in the shape and touching point of the tongue
3. Lip action is variation in the shape and touching point of the lips
4. Jaw action is variation in the jaw in degree of openness
3. Effort: Variation in effort is used to determine the gender of a sound: Variation in tightness f the throat muscle, consumption of energy and the flow of air. There are three basic genders and these can each be varied by a ‘fancy’ gender. The first three and the last one are most common n Tibetan language and the first two and the last two are in Hindi.
a. Masculine
b. Feminine
c. Neuter
d. Fancy masculine
e. Fancy Feminine
f. Fancy Neuter
4. Factors: Variation in the causes of sound are of two general factors: The factors of organ and function.
a. The factor of Organ is the factor that Is given mostly thorough oral parts. This has 2 subsections: place and route.
i. Place factor is given during the second action of every complete sound of alphabetical member as the four bases affect variations in vowel sounds. This again has four kinds: Throat, tongue, lip and jaw.
1. Throat factor will affect the fancy genders and vowel by expanding or contracting the throat
2. Tongue factor will affect the vowel by the shape and touching point of the tongue.
3. Lip factor will affect the vowel by the shape and touching point of the lip
4. Jaw factor will affect the vowel by variations in the openness of the jaw.
ii. Route factor is the way that air is passed. There are two kinds of route: proper and improper.
1. Proper route factor is when air is passed through the center point. Proper route factor has two kinds: non-nasal and nasal.
a. Non-nasal: This is the condition when air is passed through the respective places while the nasopharynx is completely closed
b. Nasal: This is the condition when air is passed through the nasopharynx as well as the respective places. Nasal has two kinds: Full nasal and half nasal.
i. Full nasal: This I the condition where the nasopharynx is open for the first and second actions
ii. Half nasal: This is the condition where the nasopharynx is open only for the first action.
2. Improper route factor is the condition where air is passed to the sides of the respective places, or where the air is inhaled. There are two kinds: inhaling and side factors.
b. Factor of function is the way that these factors are applied. There are two variations here: timing and direction.
i. Timing factor: This varies by the timing of air passing during the two actions of a sound. It has two kinds: non-air and with air.
1. Non-air is the factor of not passing air during the first action of a sound. This is the factor for plosive sounds.
2. With air is the factor of passing air during the first action of a sound. This is a factor for non-plosive sounds. This has two kinds: voiced and unvoiced.
a. Voiced refers to the vibration f the vocal chords during the passing of air in the first action.
b. Unvoiced refers to the lack of vibration of the vocal chords during the passing of air in the first action.
ii. Direction factor: his refers to the direction of air. There are three types: exhaling, inhaling and non-haling.
1. Exhaling refers to passing air from inside the lungs to outside through the vocal organs. This is by far the most common means of producing sound
2. Inhaling refers to air passing from outside to inside. The Vietnamese ‘b’ sound is an example of this where air is momentarily inhaled during the production of sound. Sounds made in this way are not counted in the alphabet (as in the 245 members here) as the sound is not made through the larynx.
3. Non-haling refers to the production of sound by making a vacuum inside the mouth and drawing air in by releasing that vacuum. Kissing, clicks of various types, (e.g. as found in African tribes) are examples of this type of sound production that does not utilize the lungs. Sounds made by this factor are also not included in the alphabet here (as in the 245 members) as the sound does not come through the larynx.
5. Motivation of sound is the causation of sounds. No oral sound is possible without a motivation. Thus, when place, action, effort and factors come together and a sound through the larynx is added, a complete sound member (alphabet) is produced. These are explained in detail in the succeeding chapters.
If we are to make the ka sound, first, we can construct it using the system this way;
• Place: Kaney (the third shown in figures 1,2)
• Action; plosive (the third center points touch tightly)
• Effort: Masculine
• Factors:
o Timing: Non-air
o Direction: exhaling
o Route: Proper (without nasal; jaw factors depending on the vowel)
When correct place, action, effort and factors are put together with the larynx vibrating, ka sound is automatically heard.
For spoken Tibetan, there are 9 consonants:
• aa section
• kka section
• ka section
• kya section
• cha section
• ta section,
• da section
• pa section
The kka section is a new section. This is not included in the sound from the 30 Tibetan alphabetical characters, but in spoken Tibetan, sounds from this section are used as much as others. In fact, this sound section has symbols in Arabic languages. Two more sections, the ‘va’ and ‘tha’ of foreign languages have also been fully explained here.
In this book, there are 245 consonants and 20 vowels explained in a most detailed way. These are:
• aa section: 8
• kka section: 26
• ka section: 33
• kya section: 29
• cha section: 29
• ta section: 33
• da section: 29
• pa section: 29
These sounds are of the Tibetan language. Pa section and tha section have four each and they are of foreign sounds.
The number of vowels is uncertain by its nature. If you make a number limit, you are making a wrong interpretation of vowels. So I have given a few choices of vowels here and the grandest set at a limit of 20.
It is apparent that only 4 vowels cannot serve the literature well enough. Thus, what Thonmi chose in limiting the number of vowels to 4 was a curtailment of his work. Foreigners knew this point and extended the vowel range long ago. Now, there are 28 pure vowels identified within the international phonetic alphabet. These sounds are now transcribed universally in the international phonetic alphabet. Tibetan lexicography lacks this element.
I assume that no phonograph can transcribe every possible human sound, but I attempt here an exhaustive graphing of meaningful Tibetan sounds. In order to deal with these sounds, it is pivotal to prepare a new set of phonographs to transcribe these sounds. Such a phonograph should be called “Duptak” (forming symbols) because such symbols would represent not the sound itself but the causations of sounds. This is, in my view, a primary distinction between established international phonetics and the system here. It is my great regret that I had to publish this work before my inclusion of such a phonograph (though I have started to create them already). With a system such as this, we would have a set of precise, exhaustive, unified phonetic symbols for writing our own language in Tibetan phonetics which can then be applied in Tibetan lexicography internationally. With the aid of this lexicography, we can create a unified Tibetan standard language.