A Tibetan Lesson

Sep 10, 2020 01:55 from Vanity
How do you pronounce spyan.ras.gzigs? Well, z (and zh) are normally pronounced s (and sh), so we can start by changing this to spyan.ras.gsigs.
Now to spyan: the s drops; py becomes ‘ch’; and a becomes fronted before n, changing spyan to “chen”.
ras: the a is fronted and the s drops, so ras becoems “re”.
gzigs > gsigs; the g drops, as does the final s, and we are left with sig; a final stop is usually voiceless even in those dialects that distinguish voice, so we have sik: Chen-re-sik, which is one pronunciation of the name of Avalokiteshvara, the Tibetan form of Kuan yin. In many dialects even the final k drops, and we are left with Chen-re-si, which you will variously see as Chenresi or Chenrezi. But the original spelling is spyan.ras.gzigs.
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That’s it. No more whining about Danish. Henceforth, I will merely be grateful that I’m not trying to learn Tibetan.