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LAHUL DIALECT.

　Tibetan is spoken in Lahul along the headwaters of the Chandra and Bhaga down to within fifteen miles of their junction, especially about Kolung in the Bhaga Valley and at Koksur in the Chandra Valley.

　 In Pangi, the portion of Chamba lying beyond the Mid-Himalayan range, Tibetan is, moreover, spoken throughout that mountain portion of the district which lies below the western Himalayas.

　No local estimates of the number of speakers have been forwarded from the districts in which this dialect is spoken. At the Census of 1891, the figures were as follows:-

　No new materials have been forwarded for the purposes of this Survey. The Lahul dialect has, however, been mentioned and partly described by the late Rev. H.A. Jaeschke, and it will therefore be possible to make some few remarks which it is hoped will be sufficient to show how the dialect should be classed.

　AUTHORITIES- 　　　　　　　　　　

JAESCHKE, H.A.,	-ber die Phonetik der Tibetischen Sprache. Monatsberichte der Kniglich Preussi- schen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1867, pp. 148 and ff. Contains a short specimen on p. 182.
	-A Tibetan-English Dictionary with special reference to the prevailing dialects. To which is added an English-Tibetan Vocabulary. London, 1881. Contains a list of words in the Lahul dialect on pp. xvi and ff.

　The Lahul dialect is a kind of link between Western and Central Tibetan. It does not possess the tones of Central Tibetan. On the other hand, it in many details agrees with the Tibetan of Spiti.

　 Phonology.-Concurrent vowels are contracted; thus, khai, classical kha-i, of the mouth; m, classical me-i, of the fire; r, classical ri-i, of the hill; khoi, classical kho-i, his; sui, classical su-i, whose?

　Single initial consonants are the same as in classical Tibetan, and there are no traces of the strong aspiration of soft consonants which is so pronounced in Spiti.

　Final g, and often also final d, are very imperfeetly sounded. The result is an abrupt short pronunciation of the preceding vowel, which I have noted by adding the sign'. Thus, tho', classical thog, roof; phu'-ron, classical phug-ron, a pigeon; gon-me', classical mgon-med, helpless. This slurring of a final d does not appear to be a regular feature of the dialect. A similar state of affairs prevails in the dialects of and Tsang.

　A final s is changed to i; thus, nai, classical nas, barley; shei, classical shes, know; r, classical ris, figure; chh, classical chhos, religion; l, classical lus, body. Besides these we also find Central Tibetan forms such as n; sh; chh; l.