<研究ノート> 大英図書館所蔵夏蔵対音資料Or. 12380/3495 について

Abstract

A small Tangut Buddhist fragment Or. 12380/3495 is preserved at the British Library, London, UK. A remarkable feature of this material is that in three out of the total five columns the Tangut characters are provided with phonetic transcriptions in Tibetan script. In this paper a brief description of the morphological features of the manuscript is followed by the edition of the Tangut text with comments discussing the readings of characters and other linguistic problems. The phonetic transcriptions in Tibetan scripts are also discussed from the viewpoint of Tangut phonology; in particular initial consonants, rhymes, and tones are compared with the forms reconstructed in previous studies including that of the present author. Some transcriptions betray intriguing features which have not been observed in the other materials.