Essay towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English: Prepared, with the Assistance of Bande Sangs-rgyas Phun-tshogs, a Learned Lama of Zangskar

Tibetan comprises a cluster of Tibeto-Burman languages spoken across Central Asia. Its classical written form is a major Buddhist language. First published in 1834, this dictionary of Tibetan, believed to be the very first, was compiled by the Hungarian orientalist Koroesi Csoma Sandor (c.1784-1842), who styled himself Alexander Csoma de Koroes in English, and was considered to be the founder of the field of Tibetology. Containing over 20,000 entries with English translations, the dictionary was created during the author’s travels in the East, during which he devoted himself to the study of the language. Remaining of great interest to linguists today, the dictionary begins with a useful guide to reading and understanding Tibetan words, with the value of each syllable given in Roman script. The entries themselves are arranged primarily under the language’s thirty consonants, with irregular verb forms listed where necessary.