Tibetan/Printable version

Tibetan

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Alphabet

Bod yig

When learning a new language, it's always a good idea to begin by knowing how to read and write. The Tibetan script has 30 consonants. The vowels are a, i, u, e, o. As in other Indic scripts, each consonant letter includes an inherent a, and the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ ka, ཀི ki, ཀུ ku, ཀེ ke, ཀོ ko. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords, especially transcribed from the Sanskrit.

Syllables are separated by a tseg ་; since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words.

Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal, because the language had no tone at the time of the scripts invention, tones are not written. However, since tones developed from segmental features they can usually be correctly predicted by the spelling of Tibetan words.

ཀ ka [ká]	ཁ kha [kʰá]	ག ga [ɡà/kʰːà]	ང nga [ŋà]
ཅ ca [tɕá]	ཆ cha [tɕʰá]	ཇ ja [dʑà/tɕʰːà]	ཉ nya [ɲà]
ཏ ta [tá]	ཐ tha [tʰá]	ད da [dà/tʰːà]	ན na [nà]
པ pa [pá]	ཕ pha [pʰá]	བ ba [bà/pʰːà]	མ ma [mà]
ཙ tsa [tsá]	ཚ tsha [tsʰá]	ཛ dza [dzà/tsʰːà]	ཝ wa [wà]
ཞ zha [ʑà]	ཟ za [zà]	འ 'a [ʔà]	ཡ ya [jà]
ར ra [rà]	ལ la [là]	ཤ sha [ɕá]	ས sa [sá]
ཧ ha [há]	ཨ a [ʔá]

The h or apostrophe (’) usually signifies aspiration, but in the case of zh and sh it signifies palatalization and the single letter h represents a voiceless glottal fricative.

Old Tibetan had no letter w, which was instead a digraph for 'w.

The Sanskrit "cerebral" (retroflex) consonants are represented by mirror forms of the letters ta, tha, da, na, and sha to give ཊ ṭa (Ta), ཋ ṭha (Tha), ཌ ḍa (Da), ཎ ṇa (Na), and ཥ ṣa (Sa).

As in other Indic scripts, clustered consonants are often stacked vertically. Unfortunately, some fonts and applications do not support this behavior for Tibetan, so these examples may not display properly; you might have to download a font such as Tibetan Machine Uni.

W, r, and y change form when they are beneath another consonant; thus ཀྭ kwa; ཀྲ kra; ཀྱ kya. R also changes form when it is above most other consonants; thus རྐ rka. An exception is the cluster རྙ rnya.

Nouns

Ming tshig

Here we have the declension of the noun house (Nang)

Cases	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Nang	Nang tsh'o
Genitive	Nang gi	Nang tsho i
Dative	Nang la	Nang tsho i
Accusative	Nang	Nang tsh'o
Locative	Nang la	Nang tsho i
Agentive	Nang gi	Nang tsho i
Ablative	Nang ne	Nang tsho ne

Genitive Case

The last sound of the noun determines the genitive suffix. The following rules determine the appropiate suffixes:

Last sound	Suffix
-'a	-'i
-g or -ng	-gi
-n, -m, -r or -l	-gyi
-d, -b or -s	-kyi

Agentive Case

The rules for which suffix to use are as follows;

Last sound	Suffix
-'a	-s
-g or -ng	-gis
-n, -m, -r or -l	-gyis or -kyis

Pronouns

Ming tshab

Possesive

Possesives
My	Ngai
Your	Khyed rang gi
His/her	Khong gi/Mo rang gi
Our	Nga tsho i
Your	Khyed rang tsho i
Their	Khong tsho i

• Ngäi nyal khri
  • My bed
• Khyed rang gi khyim tshang
  • Your family
• Khong gi po lo
  • His ball
• Ngäi tsho i khyi
  • Our dog
• Khyed rang tsho i mo ta
  • Your car
• khong tsho i kung kung chi'i khre
  • Their bus

Demonstrative

Demonstrative	De gra
This	Di
That	De
That	Pha gi
These	Di tsho
Those	De tsho
Those	Pha gi tsho

• Klung ma di : This river
• Khyer men de : That woman
• Lung pa pha gi : That valley
• Ku shu di tsho : These apples
• Lug de tsho : Those sheeps
• Sching tog pha gi tsho : Those fruits

Interrogative

Interrogative
Who	Su
What	Ga re
Where	Ga pa
When	Ga du
How	Ga na
How much	Ga tshod

• Khyed rang ga pa yod?
  • Where do you are?
• Khang mig ga na re?
  • How the room is?
• Grong khyer ga re re?
  • What city is?
• Khyed rang la su la re?
  • Who is with you?
• Mabjha shi tsho ga tshod dug?
  • How much are peacocks?
• De khyed rang ga du nang ro nang?'
  • When that take you?

Adjectives

Degree

Good
Positive	Jag po
Comparative	Jag ba
Superlative	Jag sho
Small
Positive	Tshung tshung
Comparative	Tshung ba
Superlative	Tshung sho
Beautiful
Positive	Tsche po
Comparative	Tsche pa
Superlative	Tsche sho
Clever
Positive	Bring po
Comparative	Bring ba
Superlative	Bring sho
Fast
Positive	Gryop po
Comparative	Gryop pa
Superlative	Gryop sho
Big
Positive	Tshen po
Comparative	Tshen ba
Superlative	Tshen sho

• Bryu ru ni zi la khong chung ba yod
  • Coral is cheaper than dzi
• Bu shel dang yu khong chung chung red
  • Amber and turquoise are cheap

We expresse feelings and emotions with adjectives.

• Kyi po yin : I am happy
• Khong thro sa wa yin : I am angry
• Thang chhe pa yin : I am tired
• Saem kyo wa yin : I am sad
• Nyop pa yin : I am bored
• Go khor wa yin : I am confused
• Dro go tog pa yin : I am hungry

Verbs

Bya tshig

Copula

Essential egophoric

• Nga bod mi yin
  • I am Tibetan.

The negative form is with the word Min

• Nga p'i ling min
  • I am not englisman.

Existencial Testimonial

• Kha lak shim po dug
  • The food is delicious

• Me tok nyin gje mi dug
  • The flower don't is beautiful

Infinitive

In general the suffixes for to create infinitives is pa or wa

Root		Infinitive
Read	Lok	To read	Lok pa
Go	Do	To go	Do wa
Hear	Nyen	To hear	Nyen pa
Eat	Sa	To eat	Sa wa

Present

Da ta ba

• Nga di la kha po med
  • I don't like it

Past

'da pa

There are several ways of expressing the past tense, the most common is with the suffixes chung, tong, and chin.

• Nga na ning lor nyi hong la yül kor chin pa yin.
  • I traveled to Japón last year.

Future

Ma ong pa

• Nga zla ba ze mar phar bre yod
  • I will pay you back next week

Imperative

The imperative is generally formed replacing the verb root with the central vowel change into an O

Infinitive		Imperative
To do	Dze 'pa	Do it!	Dzo
To let go	Tang wa	Let go!	Tong
To get up	Yar lang wa	Get up!	Yar long
To eat	To sa wa	Eat!	To so

Howerer, there are cases in wicht tang or dhang must be annexing to the verbal root. Others words take the preffix shok to create the imperative.

Infinitive		Imperative
To see	Ta wa	See!	To dhang
To lead	Ti wa	Lead!	Ti shok