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TIBETAN GRAMMAR
BY
H. A. JÄSCHKE
MORAVIAN MISSIONARY.
SECOND EDITION
PREPARED BY
Dr. H. WENZEL.
LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL.
1883.
PREFACE.
The present new edition of Mr. Jäschke’s Tibetan Grammar scarcely needs
a word of apology. As the first edition which was lithographed at
Kyelaṅ in 1865 in a limited number of copies has long been out of
print, Dr. Rost urged the author to revise his grammar for the purpose
of bringing it out in an improved form. The latter, prevented by
ill-health from undertaking the task, placed the matter in my hands,
and had the goodness to make over to me his own manuscript notes and
additions to the original work. Without his personal cooperation,
however, I was unable to make any but a very sparing use of these,
adding only a few remarks from Gyalrabs and Milaraspa, with some
further remarks on the local vernacular of Western Tibet. Indeed,
special attention has been paid throughout to this dialect; it is the
one with which the author during his long residence at Kyelaṅ had
become most familiar, and with which the English in India are most
likely to be brought into direct contact.
Besides the above mentioned additions, I have taken a number of
examples from the Dzaṅlun, to make clearer some of the rules, and, with
the same view, I have altered, here and there, the wording of the
lithographed edition. The order of the paragraphs has been retained
throughout, and only one (23.) has been added for completeness’ sake.
The system of transliteration is nearly the same as in the Dictionary,
only for ny, ñ is used, and instead of e̱, ä (respectively ā̤) has been
thought to be a clearer representation of the sound intended. For the
niceties of pronunciation the reader is referred to the Dictionary, as
in this Grammar only the general rules have been given.
Finally I must express my warmest thanks to Dr. Rost, to whose
exertions not only the printing of this Grammar is solely due, but who
also rendered me much help in the correcting of the work.
Mayence, May 1883.
H. Wenzel.
ABBREVIATIONS.
act. = active.
C or CT = Central Tibet, especially the provinces of Ü and Tsaṅ.
cf. = confer, compare.
Dzl. = Dzaṅlun.
e.g. = exempli gratia, for instance.
ET = East Tibet.
fut. = future.
imp. = imperative.
inf. = infinitive.
i.o. = instead of.
Köpp. = Köppen.
Kun. = Kunawur, province under English protection.
Ld. = Ladak, province.
Mil. = Milaraspa.
neutr. = neuter verb.
perf. or pf. = perfect.
pres. = present.
s. = see.
term. = terminative case.
Thgy. = Thar-gyan, scientific treatises.
v. = vide, see.
vulg. = vulgar expression.
W or WT = Western Tibet.
CONTENTS.
I. Phonology.
Page
1. Alphabet 1
2. Remarks 3
3. Vowels 3
4. Syllables 4
5. Final Consonants 5
6. Diphthongs 6
7. Compound Consonants 7
8. Prefixed Letters 11
9. Word; Accent; Quantity 12
10. Punctuation 14
II. Etymology.
I. Article.
11. Peculiarities of the Tibetan Article 17
12. Difference of the Articles 18
13. The Indefinite Article 19
II. Substantive.
14. Number 20
15. Declension 21
III. Adjective.
16. Relation to the Substantive 25
17. Comparison 26
IV. Numerals.
18. Cardinal numerals 28
19. Ordinal numerals 31
20. Remarks 31
21. Distributive numerals 33
22. Adverbial numerals 33
23. Fractional numerals 33
V. Pronouns.
24. Personal pronouns 34
25. Possessive pronouns 36
26. Reflective pronouns 37
27. Demonstrative pronouns 37
28. Interrogative pronouns 38
29. Relative pronouns 38
VI. Verb.
30. Introduction 40
31. Inflection 41
32. Infinitive 42
33. Participle 43
34. Finite Verb 45
35. Present 46
36. Preterit 47
37. Future 48
38. Imperative 49
39. Intensive 50
40. Substantive Verbs 51
41. Gerunds and Supines 54
42. VII. Adverb 65
43. VIII. Postposition 67
44. IX. Conjunction 74
45. X. Interjection 76
XI. Derivation:
46. Derivation of Substantives 77
47. Derivation of Adjectives 78
III. Syntax.
48. Arrangement of Words 80
49. Use of the Cases 81
50. Simple Sentences 82
51. Compound Sentences 83
Appendix.
Phrases 86
Reading Exercise 92
Verbs 99
PART I.
PHONOLOGY.
1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the Lañc̀ʽa
(ལཱཉ་ཚ) form of the Indian letters by Tʽon-mi-sam-bho-ta (ཐོན་མི་སམ་བྷོ་ཏ)
minister of king Sroṅ-tsan-gam-po (སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ་) about the year 632 (s.
Köpp. II, 56). The Indian letters out of which the single Tibetan
characters were formed are given in the following table in their Nāgari
shape.
surd. aspir. sonant. nasal.
gutturals. ཀ་ क ka ཁ་ ख kʽa ག་ ग ga ང་ ङ ṅa
palatals. ཅ་ च c̀a ཆ་ छ c̀ʽa ཇ་ ज j̀a ཉ་ ञ ña
dentals. ཏ་ त ta ཐ་ थ tʽa ད་ द da ན་ न na
labials. པ་ प pa ཕ་ फ pʽa བ་ ब ba མ་ म ma
palatal ཙ་ tsa ཚ་ tʽsa ཛ་ dsa
sibilants.
semivowels ཝ་ व wa ཞ་ z̀a ཟ་ za འ་ ˱a
ཡ་ य ya ར་ र ra ལ་ ल la
ཤ་ श s̀a ས་ स sa ཧ་ ह ha
ཨ་ ’a
It is seen from this table that several signs have been added to
express sounds that are unknown in Sanscrit. The sibilants ཙ་ ཚ་ ཛ་
evidently were differentiated from the palatals. But as in transcribing
Sanscrit words the Tibetans substitute their sibilants for the palatals
of the original (as ཙི་ན་ for चीन), we must suppose that the sibilisation
of those consonants, common at present among the Hindus on the Southern
slopes of the Himālaya (who say tsār for चार, four etc.), was in general
use with those Indians from whom the Tib. Alphabet was taken (cf. also
the Afghan څ and ڂ likewise sprung from چ and ج). ཝ་ is
differentiated from བ་, which itself often is pronounced v, as shewn in
the sequel; in transcribing Sanscrit, ब and व both are given,
generally, by བ only. ཞ་ seems to be formed out of ཤ་ to which it is
related in sound. ཟ་ evidently is only the inverted ཇ་. ཨ་ corresponds
with Sanscrit अ. འ་ is newly invented; for its functions see the
following §§.—The letters which are peculiar to Sanscrit are expressed,
in transcribing, in the following manner. a) The linguals, simply by
inverting the signs of the dentals: thus, ཊ་ ट, ཋ་ ठ, ཌ་ ड, ཎ་ ण. b)
The sonant aspirates, by putting ཧ་ under the sonants: thus, གྷ་ घ, ཛྷ་
झ, ཊྷ་ ढ, དྷ་ ध, བྷ་ भ. [1]
2. Remarks. 1. Regarding the pronunciation of the single letters, as
given above, it is to be born in mind, that surds ཀ་ ཏ་ པ་ are uttered
without the least admixture of an aspiration, viz. as k, t, p are
pronounced in the words skate, stale, spear; the aspirates ཁ་ ཐ་ ཕ་
forcibly, rather harder than the same in Kate, tale, peer; the sonants
ག་ ད་ བ་ like g, d, b in gate, dale, beer. 2. The same difference of
hardness is to be observed in ཅ་ ཆ་ ཇ་ or c̀, c̀ʽ, j̀ (c̀ʽ occurs in
church; c̀, the same without aspiration; j̀ in judge) and in ཙ་ ཚ་ ཛ་ or
ts, tʽs, ds. 3. ཞ་ is the soft modification of s̀ or the s in leisure
(French j in jamais, but more palatal). 4. ང་ is the English ng in
sing, but occurs in Tibetan often at the commencement of a syllable. 5.
ཉ་ ñ is the Hindi न्य, or the initial sound in the word new, which would
be spelled ཉུ་ ñu. 6. In the dialects of Eastern or Chinese-Tibet,
however, the soft consonants ག་ ད་ བ་ ཇ་ ཛ་, when occurring as
initials, are pronounced with an aspiration, similar to the Hindi घ, ध,
भ, झ, or indeed so that they often scarcely differ from the common
English k, t, p, ch; also ཞ་ and ཟ་ are more difficult to distinguish
from ཤ་ and ས་ than in the Western provinces (Exceptions s. §§ 7. 8).
3. Vowels. 1. Since every consonant sign implies, like its Sanscrit
prototype, a following a, unless some other vowel sign is attached to
it, no particular sign is wanted to denote this vowel, except in some
cases specified in the following §§. The special vowel signs are ེ,
ི, ོ, ུ, pronounced respectively as e, i, o, u are in German, Italian
and most other European languages, viz. ེ like ay in say, or e in ten;
ི like i in machine, tin; ོ like o in so, on; ུ like u in rule, pull.
It ought to be specially remarked that all vowels, including e and o
(unlike the Sanscrit vowels from which they have taken their signs) are
short, since no long vowels at all occur in the Tibetan language,
except under particular circumstances, mentioned below (s. § 9. 5, 6).
2. When vowels are initial, ཨ is used as their base, as is ا in Urdu,
e.g. ཨ་མ་ ama, ‘mother’. 3. འ is originally different from ཨ་, as the
latter denotes the opening of the previously closed throat for
pronouncing a vowel with that slight explosive sound which the Arabs
mean by أ (همزة), as the a in the words: the lily, an endogen, which
would be in Tibetan characters ལི་ལི་ཨན་; འ་ on the contrary is the mere
vowel without that audible opening of the throat (as Arabic ا without
ء), as in Lilian, ལི་ལི་འན་. In Eastern Tibet this difference is
strictly observed; and if the vowel is o or u the intentional exertion
for avoiding the sound of ཨ་ makes it resemble wo and wu: འོ་མ་ ‘the
milk’, almost like wo-ma, འུག་པ་ ‘the owl’ = wug-pa. In western Tibet
this has been obliterated, and འ་ is there spoken just like ཨ་.
4. Syllables. The Tibetan language is monosyllabic, that is to say all
its words consist of one syllable only, which indeed may be variously
composed, though the component parts cannot, in every case, be
recognised in their individuality. The mark for the end of such a
syllable is a dot, called ཚེག་ tʽseg, put at the right side of the upper
part of the closing letter, such as ཀ་ the syllable ka. This tʽseg must
invariably be put at the end of each written syllable, except before a
s̀ad (§ 10), in which case only ང་ ṅa retains its tʽseg. If therefore
such a dot is found after two or more consonants, this will indicate
that all of them, some way or other, form one syllable with only one
vowel in it: ཀ་ར་ ka-ra, ཀར་ kar (cf. §§ 5. 8).
5. Final consonants. 1. Only the following ten: ག་ ང་ ཏ་ ན་ བ་ མ་ འ་ ར་
ལ་ ས་ (and the four with affixed ས, v. 5) occur at the end of a
syllable. 2. It must be observed, that ག་ ད་ བ་ as finals are never
pronounced like the English g, d, b in leg, bad, cab, but are
transformed differently in the different provinces. In Ladak they sound
like k, t, p e.g. སོག་ = sock, གོད་ = got, ཐོབ་ = top. 3. In all Central
Tibet, moreover, final ད་ and ན་, sometimes even ལ་, modify the sound
of a preceding vowel: a to ä (similar to the English a in hare, man), o
into o̤ (French eu in jeu), u into ṳ (French u in mur). In most of the
other provinces ག་ and ད་ are uttered so indistinctly as to be scarcely
audible, so that སོག་, གོད་ become sŏʼ, gŏʼ. In Tsang even final ལ་ is
scarcely perceptible, and final ག་, particularly after o, is almost
dissolved into a vowel sound = a: སོལ་བ་ so-wa, དཀོན་མཆོག་ kon-choa. [2]
4. Final ས་ is sounded as s only in Northern Ladak; elsewhere it
changes into i or disappears entirely, prolonging, or even modifying at
the same time the preceding vowel. Thus the following words: ནས་
‘barley’, ཤེས་ ‘know’, རིས་ ‘figure’, ཆོས་ ‘religion’, ལུས་ ‘body’, are
pronounced in Northern Ladak: năs, s̀ĕs, ris, c̀ʽos, lŭs; in Lahoul: nai,
shei, rī, c̀ʽō, lū; in Lhasa, and consequently by everyone who wishes to
speak elegantly: nā̤, s̀ē, rī, c̀ʽō̤, lṳ̄. 5. In some words final ས་ occurs
as a second closing letter (affix), after ག་ ང་ བ་ མ་, as in ནགས་
‘forest’, གངས་ ‘glacier-ice’, ཐབས་ ‘means’, རམས་ ‘indigo’; these are
pronounced in N. Ladak: nacks, gaṅs, tʽaps, rams, elsewhere nack (in Ü:
nā), gaṅ (ET ghang), tʽap, ram. 6. ན་ before པ་ and མ་ is especially in
ET very often pronounced m, e.g. ཉན་པ་ ñäm-pa, ཉོན་པ་ ñöm-pa, སྙེན་པ་
ñem-pa.
6. Diphthongs. 1. They occur in Tibetan writing only where one of the
vowels i, o, u have to be added to a word ending with an other vowel
(s. §§ 15. 1; 33. 1; 45. 2). These additional vowels are then always
written འི་, འོ་, འུ་, never ཨི་ etc. (cf. § 3. 3); and the combinations
ai, oi, ui (as in བཀའི་, མགོའི་, བུའི་) are pronounced very much like ā̤, ō̤,
ṳ̄, so that the syllables ནའི་, ཤེའི་, རིའི་, ཆོའི་, ལུའི་ can only in some
vulgar dialects be distinguished from those mentioned in § 5. 4. 2. The
others ao, eo, io, oo, uo, au, eu, iu (བཀའོ་, སྐྱེའོ་, བགྱིའོ་, འགྲོའོ་, འདུའོ་,
གའུ་, བྱེའུ་, ཁྱིའུ་) are pronounced in rapid succession, but each vowel is
distinctly audible. In prosody they are generally regarded as one
syllable, but if the verse should require it they may be counted as
two.
7. Compound consonants. 1. They are expressed in writing by putting one
below the other, in which case several change their original figure.
Subscribed consonants. 2. The letter y subjoined to another is
represented by the figure ྱ, and occurs in connection with the three
gutturals and labials, and with m, thus ཀྱ་ ཁྱ་ གྱ་ པྱ་ ཕྱ་ བྱ་ མྱ་. The
former three have preserved, in most cases, their original
pronunciation kya, kʽya, gya (the latter in ET: ghya s. § 2. 6). In the
Mongol pronunciation of Tibetan words, however, they have been
corrupted into c̀, c̀ʽ, j̀ respectively, a well known instance of which is
the common pronunciation Kanj̀ur i.o. kangyur, or eleg. ka-gyur
(བཀའ་འགྱུར་). པྱ་, ཕྱ་, བྱ་ are almost everywhere spoken without any
difference from ཅ, ཆ, ཇ (except in the Western dialect before e and i,
where the y is dropped and པ, ཕ, བ alone are pronounced). མྱ is spoken
ny = ཉ. 3. r occurs at the foot of the gutturals, dentals, labials, of
ན, མ, ས, and ཧ, in the shape of ྲ. In some parts of the country, as in
Purig, these combinations are pronounced literally, like kra, khra
etc., but by far the most general custom is to sound them like the
Indian cerebrals, viz. ཀྲ, ཏྲ, པྲ indiscriminately = ट ṭ; ཁྲ, ཐྲ, ཕྲ = ठ ṭh;
གྲ, དྲ, བྲ = ड ḍ (in CT: ḍh); only in the case of བྲ the literal
pronunciation br is not uncommon. In ནྲ and མྲ both letters are
distinctly heard; ཧྲ sounds like shr in shrub, and so does སྲ generally.
In Ü this r is dropped nearly in all cases: thus, ཕྲ pʽa, སྲ sa etc. 4.
Six letters are often found with an ལ beneath: ཀླ་ གླ་ བླ་ ཟླ་ རླ་ སླ་; in
these the ལ alone is pronounced, except in ཟླ་, which sounds da. 5. The
figure ྭ, sometimes found at the foot of a letter is used in Sanscrit
words to express the subscribed व, as in སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ (cf. § 9. 6) for स्वाहा; and
is now pronounced by Tibetans = ō: sōhā; in words originally Tibetan it
now exists merely as an orthographical mark, to distinguish homonyms in
writing, as ཚ་ tʽsa, ‘hot’ and ཚྭ་ tʽsa, ‘salt’; but, as it is spoken,
in some words at least, in Balti (e.g. རྩྭ་ rtswa ‘grass’), it must be
supposed that, in the primitive form of the language, it was generally
heard.—Note. Of such compounds, indeed, as ཕྱྭ་ ‘lot’ it is difficult to
understand, how they can have been pronounced literally, if the v was
not, perhaps, pronounced before the y.
Superadded consonants. 6. r over another consonant is written ⸆, and 11
consonants have this sign: རྐ་ རྒ་ རྔ་ རྟ་ རྡ་ རྣ་ རྦ་ རྨ་ རྩ་ རྫ་, above ཉ་ it
preserves its full shape, as better adapted to the form of that letter:
thus, རྙ་. In speaking it is seldom heard except provincially, and in
some instances in compound words after a vowel thus, ཨུ་རྒྱན་ Urgyán,
Urgyén, ancient name of the country of Lahore; རྡོ་རྗེ་ dórje ‘vaj̀ra’.
Ladakees often pronounce it = s: རྟ་ sta ‘horse’ elsewhere ta. 7.
Similar is the usage in those with a superadded ལ (namely: the surds
and sonants of the first four classes, the guttural nasal, and ཧ),
which latter is often softly heard in WT, but entirely dropped
elsewhere, except in the case of ལྷ, which is spoken = ལ in WT, but with
a distinct aspiration = hla or lha in ET. 8. ས is superadded to the
gutturals, dentals and labials with exception of the aspiratae, then ཉ་
and ཙ་. It is, in many cases, distinctly pronounced in Ladak, but
dropped elsewhere [3]. 9. ག་ ད་ བ་ ཇ་ ཛ་ with any superadded letter
lose the aspiration mentioned in § 2. 6 and sound = g, d, b, j̀, ds. 10.
རྗ་ རྩ་ རྫ་ often lose even the inherent t-sound in pronunciation and are
spoken like j̀, s, z.
Examples.
ཀྱིར་ཀྱིར་ kyir-kyir, round, circular.
ཁྱི་ kʽyi, dog.
གྱེན་ལ་ gyen-la, upwards.
ཕྱུགས་ c̀ʽug(s), Ü: c̀ʽū, cattle.
ཀྱུ་ kyu, hook.
ཁྱོད་ kʽyod, C: kʽyöʼ, you.
ཕྱུག་པོ་ c̀ʽug-po, rich.
ཕྱེད་ W: pʽed, C: c̀ʽĕʼ, half.
བྱ་མོ་ W: j̀á-mo, C: j̀ʽa-mo, hen.
མྱ་ངན་ W: ña-ṅán, C: -ṅän, misery.
ཀྲམ་ ṭam, cabbage.
ཁྲིམས་ ṭʽim(s), judgment.
གྲང་མོ་ W: ḍaṅ-mo, C: ḍʽ°-, cold.
ཕྲུག་གུ་ ṭʽug-gu, child.
སྲན་མ་ s̀ran-ma, srän-ma, pea.
གླ་ la, wages.
རླུང་(པོ་) luṅ(-po), wind.
ཟླ་བ་ da-wa (s. § 11 note), moon.
རྣོན་པོ་ nón-po, C: no̤m-po, sharp.
ལྗང་ཁུ་ jaṅ-kʽu (Ld. lj°), green.
སྐོམ་ (s)kom, thirst.
སྒོ་ (s)go, door.
སྒྱུར་བ་ (s)gyúr-wa, to alter, turn.
སྤྱིན་ W: (s)pin, C: c̀ʽin, glue.
སྤྲེའུ་ ṭe-u, Ld: s̀re-u, monkey.
སྨན་ W: (s)man, C: män, medicine.
བྱེ་མ་ W: bé-ma, C: j̀ʽe-ma, sand.
མྱུར་དུ་ ñur-du, quickly.
ཁྲལ་ ṭʽal, tax.
གྲི་ W: ḍi, ḍʽi (Pur: gri), knife.
དྲང་པོ་ W: ḍaṅ-po, C: ḍʽ°, straight.
བྲག་ ḍag, ḍʽag (brag), rock.
ཧྲུལ་པོ་ s̀rul-po, ragged.
བླ་མ་ lá-ma, priest.
སླ་མོ་ lá-mo, easy.
རྐང་པ་ kaṅ-pa, foot.
རྫུན་ W: zun, C: dsṳn, lie, untruth.
ལྟད་མོ་ tad-mo (Ld. lt°), C: täʼ-mo, spectacle.
སྐྲ་ W: s̀ra [4], C: ṭa, hair.
སྒྲ་ ḍa (vulg.: ra), sound, voice.
སྤུ་ (s)pu, small hair.
སྤྱོད་པ་ W: (s)c̀od-pa, C: c̀öʼ-pa, to behave.
སྦྲུལ་ W: (sb)rul, C: ḍul, snake.
སྨྱོན་པ་ W: ñon-pa, C: ño̤n-pa, mad.
8. Prefixed letters. 1. The five letters ག་ ད་ བ་ མ་ འ་ frequently
occur before the real, radical initials of other words, but are seldom
pronounced, except in similar cases as § 7. 6. ག་ occurs before ཅ་ ཉ་
ཏ་ ད་ ན་ ཙ་ ཞ་ ཟ་ ཡ་ ཤ་ ས་; ད before the gutturals and labials with
exception of the aspiratae; བ་ before ཀ་ ག་, the palatals, dentals and
palatal sibilants with the same exception as under ད, then ཞ་ ཟ་ ར་ ཤ་
ས་; མ་ before the gutturals, palatals, dentals and palatal sibilants,
except the surds; འ before the aspiratae and sonants of the five
classes. In CT, to pronounce them in any case, is considered vulgar. 2.
The ambiguity which would arise in case of the prefix standing before
one of the 10 final consonants, as single radical, the vowel being the
unwritten a,—e.g. in the syllable དག་, which, if ད is radical, has to
be pronounced dag, if prefixed gā,—is avoided by adding an འ་ in the
latter case: thus, དགའ་. Other examples are: གད་ gad (gʽäʼ) and གདའ་
dā; བས་ bas (bā̤, bʽā̤) and བསའ་ sā; མད་ mad (mäʼ) and མདའ་ dā; འགའ་ gā.
This འ་ is added, though the radical be not one of the mentioned
letters; as, བཀའ་ kā. 3. ད་ as a prefix and བ་ as first radical annul
each other, so that only the following sound is heard, as will be seen
in the following examples (དབང་ etc.). 4. Another irregularity is the
nasal pronunciation of the prefixed འ་ in compounds after a vowel,
which is often heard e.g. དགེ་འདུན་ pronounced gen-dún, gen-dṳ́n, but
eleg.: ge-dṳ́n, ‘clergy’; བཀའ་འབུམ་ kam-bum, eleg. ka-búm, ‘the 100 000
precepts’ (title of a book).—Note. With regard to the aspiration of the
soft consonants in ET the prefixed letters have the same influence as
the superadded ones § 7. 9.
Examples.
གཡག་ yag, bos grunniens.
དཔེ་ཆ་ pé-c̀ʽa (Ld.: spe-c̀ʽa), book.
བཟང་པོ་ záṅ-po, good.
འབབ་པ་ bab-pa, to descend.
དབང་ waṅ, vulg. C: aṅ, power.
དབུས་ Ṳ̄, name of the Lhasa district.
དབེན་པ་ en-pa, solitude.
དབྱིབས་ yib(s), ib, figure.
དཀར་པོ་ kár-po, white.
དགྲ་བོ་ ḍá-wo, enemy.
མངར་མོ་ ṅár-mo, sweet.
བཅུ་བཞི་ c̀ub-z̀i, eleg. c̀u-z̀i, fourteen.
དབུ་ u, resp. head.
དབུགས་ ug(s), C: ug, ū, breath.
དབྱར་ཀ་ yar-ka, summer.
དབྱེ་བ་ ye-wa, e-wa, difference.
9. Word; Accent; Quantity. 1. The peculiarity of the Tibetan mode of
writing in distinctly marking the word-syllables, but not the words
(cf. § 4) composed of two or more of these, sometimes renders it
doubtful what is to be regarded as one word. 2. There exist a great
number of small monosyllables, which serve to denote different shades
of notions, grammatical relations etc., and are postponed to the word
in question; but never alter its original shape, though their own
initials are not seldom influenced by its final consonant (cf. § 15).
3. Such monosyllables may conveniently be regarded as terminations,
forming one word together with the preceding nominal or verbal root. 4.
The accent is, in such cases, most naturally given to the root, or, in
compounds, generally to the latter part of the composition, as: མིག་
mig, ‘eye’, མིག་གི་ míg-gi, ‘of the eye’; ལག་ lag, ‘hand’, ལག་ཤུབས་
lag-s̀ub(s), ‘hand-covering, glove’.—5. Equally natural is, in WT, the
quantity of the vowels: accentuated vowels, when closing the syllable,
are comparatively long (though never so long as in the English words
bee, stay, or Hindi راجا etc.), otherwise short, as མི་ mī ‘man’, མི་ལ་
mī-lă ‘to the man’, but མར་ măr, ‘butter’.—In CT, however, even
accentuated and closing vowels are uttered very shortly: mĭ, mĭ-lă
etc., and long ones occur there only in the case of § 5, 4. 5. and 8,
2., as ལས་ lā̤ ‘work’; ཆོས་ c̀ʽō̤ ‘religion’; མདའ་ dā ‘arrow’; གཟའ་ zā
‘planet’; and in Lhasa especially: ནགས་ nā ‘forest’; ལེགས་པ་ lē-pa
‘good’; རིགས་ rī ‘class, sort’; ལོགས་ lō ‘side’; ལུགས་ lū ‘manner’.—In
Sanscrit words the long vowels are marked by an འ་ beneath the
consonant, as: ནཱ་མ་ (नाम) ‘called’, མཱུ་ལ་ (मूल) ‘root’ (s. § 3).
10. Punctuation. For separating the members of a longer period, a
vertical stroke: །, called ཤད་ s̀ad (s̀äʼ), is used, which corresponds at
once to our comma, semicolon and colon; after the closing of a sentence
the same is doubled; after a longer piece, e.g. a chapter, four s̀ads
are put. No marks of interrogation or exclamation exist in
punctuation.—2. In metrical compositions, the double s̀ad is used for
separating the single verses; in that case the logical partition of the
sentence is not marked (cf. § 4).
A list of a few useful words.
ཀ་ར་ or ཁ་ར་ ká-ra, kʽá-ra, sugar.
ཁང་པ་ kʽaṅ-pa, house.
གང་ W: gaṅ, C: gʽaṅ, which?
གུར་ W: gur, C: gʽur, tent.
ངལ་ ṅal, fatigue.
ཅི་ c̀i, what?
ཆད་པ་ W: c̀ʽad-pa, C: c̀ʽăʼ-pa, punishment.
ཆུང་བ་ c̀ʽuṅ-wa, little.
ཇ་ W: j̀a, C: j̀ʽa, tea.
ཉི་མ་ ñí-ma, sun; day.
ཉུང་མ་ ñúṅ-ma, turnip.
ཏིབ་རིལ་ tíb-ril, tea-pot, kettle.
ཀུན་ W: kun, C: kün, all.
ཁུང་ kʽuṅ, hole.
ག་རུ་ or གར་ W: ga-ru, gar, C: gʽ°, where?
ངན་པ་ ṅan-pa, C: ṅam-pa, bad.
ཆང་, c̀ʽaṅ, beer.
ཆར་པ་ c̀ʽár-pa, rain.
ཆེན་པོ་ c̀ʽen-po, great.
ཉ་ ña, fish.
ཉུང་བ་ ñuṅ-wa, little, few.
ཉེ་མོ་ ñe-mo, near.
ཏོག་ཙེ་ tóg-tse (W), hoe.
ཐག་པ་ tʽag-pa, rope.
ཐོད་པ་ W: tʽód-pa, C: tʽöʼ-pa, skull.
དང་ daṅ, dʽaṅ, and; with.
ནག་པོ nag-po, black.
ནོར་ nor, wealth, property.
ཕན་པ་ pʽan-pa, pʽäm-pa, use, benefit.
བ་ ba, bʽa, cow.
བུ་ bu, bʽu, son.
མེ་ me, fire.
མེད་ med, mĕʼ, there is not.
ཚང་མ་ tʽsaṅ-ma, whole.
ཞོ་ z̀o, s̀ŏ, curdled milk.
འོད་ od, wöʼ, light, shine.
ཡི་གེ་ yí-ge, letter.
ཡོད་ yod, yöʼ, am, is, are.
རི་ ri, hill, mountain.
ལ་ la, mountain-pass.
ལུག་ lug, sheep.
ཐང་ tʽáṅ, the plain.
ད་ W: da, C: dʽa, now.
དུད་པ་ dud-pa, dʽüʼ-pa, smoke.
ནད་ nad, näʼ, disease.
པར་མ་ pár-ma, a printed book.
ཕུག་རོན་ pʽug-rón, -ró̤n, dove.
བལ་ bal, bʽal, wool.
བུ་མོ་ bu-mo, bʽ°, daughter.
མིང་ miṅ, name.
ཙམ་ tsam, how much?
ཞག་ z̀ag, C: s̀ag, day.
འོ་མ་ o-ma, wo-ma, milk.
ཡང་ yaṅ, also.
ཡིན་ yin, am, is, are (cf. § 39).
ར་མ་ ra-ma, goat.
རིན་ rin, price.
ལམ་ lam, road.
ཤ་ s̀a, flesh, meat.
ཤིང་ s̀iṅ, tree, wood.
སུ་ su, who?
ཨ་ཕ་ a-pʽa, (vulg.) father.
རས་ (Ld: ras) rā̤, cotton cloth.
གོས་ (Ld: gos) gō̤, gʽō̤, clothing.
སེམས་ sem, soul.
ཁྲག་ ṭʽag, blood.
སླེབ་པ་ leb-pa, to arrive.
རྩྭ་ W: sa, C: tsa, grass.
སྔོན་པོ་ ṅon-po, ṅo̤m-po, blue.
གཞུ་ z̀u, bow (for shooting).
དགུན་ཀ་ gun-ka, gṳn-ka, winter.
མཚོ་ tʽso, lake.
འདྲི་བ་ ḍi-wa, to ask.
ས་ sa, earth.
སོ་མ་ só-ma, new.
ཨ་མ་ a-ma, (vulg.) mother.
དུས་ (Ld.: dus) dṳ̄, dʽṳ̄, time.
ཐབས་ tʽab(s), means.
བག་ཕྱེ་ W: bag-pʽe, C: bʽag-c̀ʽe, flour.
གྲོ་ ḍo, ḍʽŏ, wheat.
རྒད་པོ་ gad-po, gʽäʼ-po, old.
སྐྱེ་བ་ (s)kye-wa, to be born, grow.
སྙིང་ ñiṅ, heart.
གཟིག་ zig, leopard.
མགྱོགས་པ་ gyog(s)-pa (Ü: gyō-pa), fast, quick.
འབྲི་བ་ ḍi-wa (bri-wa), to write.
PART II.
ETYMOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
THE ARTICLE.
11. Peculiarities of the Tibetan article. 1. What have been called
Articles by Csoma and Schmidt, are a number of little affixes: པ་ བ་ མ་
པོ་ བོ་ མོ་, and some similar ones, which might perhaps be more adequately
termed denominators, since their principal object is undoubtedly to
represent a given root as a noun, substantive or adjective, as is most
clearly perceptible in the instance of the roots of verbs, to which པ་
or བ་ impart the notion of the Infinitive and Participle, or the
nearest abstract and nearest concrete nouns that can possibly be formed
from the idea of a verb. These affixes are not, however,—except in this
case—essential to a noun, as many substantives and adjectives and most
of the pronouns are never accompanied by them, and even those which
usually appear connected with them, will drop them upon the slightest
occasion. 2. Almost the only case in which a syntactical use of them,
like that of the English definite Article, is perceptible, is that
mentioned § 20. 3; a formal one, that of distinguishing the Gender,
occurs in a limited number of words, where མོ་ denotes the female, པོ་
the masculine. Thus: རྒྱལ་པོ་ gyál-po ‘king’, རྒྱལ་མོ་ gyál-mo ‘queen’. Or,
if the word in the masculine (or rather common) gender has no article,
མོ་ is added: སེང་གེ་ séṅ-ge ‘lion’, སེང་གེ་མོ་ ‘lioness’. 3. In most
instances, by far, their only use is to distinguish different meanings
of homonymous roots, e.g. སྟོན་པ་ (s)tón-pa (tó̤n-pa), ‘teacher’; སྟོན་མོ་
(s)tón-mo (tó̤n-mo) ‘feast’; སྟོན་ཁ་ (s)tón-kʽa (tó̤n-kʽa) ‘autumn’. Even
this advantage, however, is given up, as soon as a composition takes
place, and then the meaning can only be inferred from the context, or
known from usage: མིང་སྟོན་ (from སྟོན་མོ་) ‘name feast’ (given on the
occasion of naming or christening an infant); སྟོན་ཟླ་ (from སྟོན་ཁ་)
‘autumnal month’. In some instances the putting or omitting of these
articles is optional; more frequently the usage varies in different
provinces. 4. The peculiar nature of these affixes is most clearly
shown by the manner in which they are connected with the indefinite
article § 13.
Note. The affixes བ་ བོ་ are after vowels and after the consonants ང་ ར་
ལ་ always pronounced wa and wo, instead of ba and bo; thus, དཀའ་བ་
ka-wa ‘difficult’; རེ་བ་ re-wa ‘hope’; གང་བ་ gaṅ-wa (gh°) ‘full’; ཟེར་བ་
zer-wa (ser-wa) ‘to say’; མྱལ་བ་ nyal-wa ‘hell’; ཇོ་བོ་ jo-wo (jho-wo)
‘lord, master’.
12. Difference of the Articles among each other. 1. The usage of པ་ བ་
མ་ is the most general and widest of all, as they occur with all sorts
of substantives and other nouns. པ་ is particularly used for denoting a
man who is in a certain way connected with a certain thing (something
like والا and دار in Hindustāni and Persian): གྲྭ་ ḍa ‘school’, གྲྭ་པ་
(literally: scholar) ‘disciple, novice’; ཆུ་ c̀ʽu ‘water’, ཆུ་པ་
‘water-carrier’ (پانى والا); རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟ་པ་ ‘horseman’; དབུས་ ‘the
province of Ṳ̄’, དབུས་པ་ ‘a man from Ṳ̄’, ཁྱེའུ་ kʽyëu ‘boy’, ལོ་ lo ‘year’,
གཉིས་ ñi(s) ‘two’, hence: ཁྱེའུ་ལོ་གཉིས་པ་ ‘a two years’ boy’. If the
feminine is required མ་ is either added to, or—more commonly—used
instead of, the former: དབུས་མ་ ‘a woman from Ṳ̄’; བུ་མོ་ལོ་གཉིས་མ་ ‘a two
years’ girl’. The performer of an action is more frequently denoted by
པོ་ (or, in more solemn language, པ་པོ་), though, in conversation at
least, མཁན་ kʽan (kʽe̱n), is preferred; བྱེད་པ་ j̀ed-pa ‘to do, make;
doing, making’: བྱེད་པོ་, བྱེད་པ་པོ་, བྱེད་མཁན་ ‘the doer, maker’. 2. The
appendices ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ occur with a limited number of nouns only,
especially the names of the seasons, with numerals, and some pronouns.
(ཀོ་ seems to be a vulgar form of pronunciation for ཀ་).
13. The indefinite Article. This is the numeral one (§ 13), only
deprived of its prefix, viz.: ཅིག་, which form it retains, if the
preceding word ends with ག་ ད་ བ་, as: ཁབ་ཅིག་ kʽab-c̀ig, a needle; it is
changed to ཤིག་ after ས་, རས་ཤིག་ ras-s̀ig, rä-s̀ig, a cloth; to ཞིག་ z̀ig
(s̀ig) in all other cases. Some authors use ཅིག་ after any termination
indiscriminately. It is, of course, always without accent. The articles
པ་ བ་ etc. are not superseded by the indefinite article e.g. སྟོན་པ་
‘teacher, the teacher’, སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ ‘a teacher’. It is used even after a
plurality: thus, ཆུ་མིག་བཞི་ཞིག་དེ་རུ་ཡོད་ ‘there were some four wells’, and
even: མང་ཞིག་གདའ་སྟེ་ ‘there being a multitude of them’ (from Mil.). Very
often it is placed after the interrogative pronouns (v. 27), and
sometimes its original meaning is obscured so much that it occurs even
after known and definite subjects, where one would expect the
demonstrative (see f. i. Dzl. 25, 1. 28, 6. 128, 14).