A Phonological Study in the 'Phags-pa Script and the Meng-ku Tzu-yün

Abstract

National Library of Australia Card no. and ISBN 0 7081 0483 5 Library of Congress Catalog Card no. 76-173088 Contents Acknowledgments 1 Abbreviations 6 For example, kiegen (readdhe-en), erkegud (read erk'e-ud), iruger (read hiru-er), etc. But he corrected this point in his 'Nachtrag zur Erklärung der altmongoli schen Inschrift', ZKM, III (1840), pp. 22-57. 7 'Rapport sur deux medailles en cuivre jaune trouvees ä Sourabaya, ...', JA, V, 15 (1860), pp. 321-37 + 3 illustr. Two coins introduced in this article have Arabic and 'Phags-pa inscriptions. The 'Phags-pa inscription was deciphered as Ta-Yuan t'ung-pao by Pauthier. 8 'De l'alphabet de Pa'-sse-pa,...', JA, V, 19 (1862), pp. 5-47. 9 Ibid., p. 39. 10 'On an ancient Buddhist inscription at Keu-yung kwan, in North China', JRAS, n. s. V, 1 (1870), pp. 14-44 + restoration of the Keu-yung-kwan Inscription. 11 Wylie (ibid.) gives a full account of 'Phags-pa studies until his time. He also (p. 26, n. 3) gives a specimen of 'Phags-pa script which he reproduced from a pillar 9 Tibetan, Uighur, and Mongolian inscriptions of both walls had been de ciphered.12 In 1895 R. Bonaparte published photo-reproductions of the wall inscriptions of Chii-yung-kuan and some other 'Phags-pa documents such as The Edict o f Buyantu Qan 1314, which von der Gabelentz and Wylie had already reproduced from Chinese sources.13 The publication of the Chiiyung-kuan inscriptions was an epoch-making event in oriental palaeographical studies. Until then, for example, the Hsi-hsia script had been completely unknown.14 G. Deveria, who provided many reproductions of Chii-yung-kuan inscriptions to Bonaparte, also contributed to the decipher ment of some 'Phags-pa inscriptions.15 Besides inscriptions of epigraphs in the 'Phags-pa script, some silver tablets(p'ai-tzu) had been found in Siberia, inscribed in Mongolian in the 'Phags-pa script.16 D. Banzarov successfully identified the Minusinsk p'ai-tzu inscription as the 'Phags-pa script,17 although it had earlier been of Yung-ho-kung, Peking. According to W ylie, Pallas (op. cit., vol. II, plate 22) also gives a sim ilar specimen to his own. The 'Phags-pa alphabet in this speci men is arranged in the T ibetan alphabetical order, i.e., om, a, ä, ...k ,k h , ..., and it is most interesting th a t this specimen lacks voiced consonants, i. e. the g, d, b, ...series. But some of the le tte rs are indecipherable eith er because the rep ro duction was inadequate or because the original was illegible. As regards other in scriptions, he m istakenly identified the Hsi-hsia scrip t as Neuchih (Jurchen) script. For furth er details, see E. T eram oto, 'Kyoyökan no hekibun oyobi sono chökoku bijutsu ni tsu ite ',