Tibetan to Tongan: do not carry Tibetan letter clusters into the target word
A written cluster is not a ready-made Tongan sound sequence
Jäschke’s historical Tibetan grammar describes stacked consonants and regional differences in the realization of written final letters. A Tibetan word’s visible consonants therefore cannot always be pronounced as a simple sequence of equally independent sounds. The source’s written form and its pronunciation need separate analysis.
The Peace Corps Tongan introduction describes a different syllable structure: native words do not end in a consonant, and consonants do not cluster in the way the Tibetan script might suggest. Its ng represents one consonant sound. Rendering Tibetan text into Tongan requires selecting Tongan words for the meaning; it is not accomplished by copying visible source clusters into Latin letters.
The glottal-stop sign can distinguish unrelated meanings
The Tongan introduction contrasts anga, behavior or attitude, with ‘anga, shark. The initial glottal-stop sign is part of the word distinction, not optional punctuation. A Tibetan passage about someone’s conduct should not become a passage about an animal through loss or addition of that mark.
Tibetan punctuation follows another system. Jäschke identifies the tsheg as a written syllable separator. It does not have the same function as a Tongan glottal-stop sign. Translating a source sentence cannot involve copying every source separator into an apostrophe-like target sign, nor deleting every such target sign as though it merely divided text.
A long vowel is not a repeated-looking decoration
The Tongan course distinguishes kaka, climb, from kākā, cheat, through vowel length. A source instruction about climbing and an accusation of cheating must consequently retain different target words even though the unmarked letter sequences resemble each other.
Jäschke’s regional Tibetan pronunciation observations include written final letters associated with changes in a preceding vowel or weakening of the final sound. Those source observations do not provide a Tongan vowel-length conversion table. First determine the Tibetan lexical meaning, then preserve the actual length marking of the selected Tongan word. Removing macrons to simplify the output can change the translated action.
A retained name has a different purpose from a translated noun
When a Tibetan place or personal name accompanies a Tongan message, its identification may need preservation rather than replacement with an unrelated Tongan dictionary word. That is distinct from translating a common noun or action. The Tongan syllable patterns described in the course do not authorize inventing a new name without regard to the source pronunciation.
For this direction, keep three tasks distinct: read the Tibetan expression through the appropriate source pronunciation or lexical meaning, choose the Tongan wording that conveys the intended message, and retain the target signs that distinguish its words. A result written entirely in familiar Latin letters can still change conduct into a shark or climbing into cheating. Faithful translation depends on those specific distinctions, not simply on producing a visually simpler script.
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