Tibetan Grammar - Formation of the Tibetan Word

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Articles on Tibetan Grammar

1. Introduction

2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable

3. Formation of the Tibetan Word

4. First case: ming tsam

5. agentive particle

6. Connective Particle

7. La don particles

8. La don particles—Notes

9. Originative case

10. Verbs

11. Verbs—Notes

12. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. E.

Formation of the Tibetan Word

This section is just intended as an introduction and information. You will become naturally familiar with Tibetan words in the process of learning Tibetan, so there is no need to learn everything presented here. The important informations will be pointed out during class.

This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

Definition from བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary:

• མིང་ཚིག་: ...དོན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་སྟོན་པ་མིང་སྟེ། བུམ་པ། ཀ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། དོན་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་སྟོན་པ་ཚིག་སྟེ། རི་མཐོན་པོ། ངས་བཤད། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཉན་ལྟ་བུའོ།

མིང་ཚིག་, name word: "showing the essence of the object" is the name, like "vase" or "pillar", and "showing the particularities of the object" is the word / phrase like "high mountain", "I explained", "you listened".

Simple nouns

One syllable

• མགོ་, head; ཁྱི་, dog; གྲུ་, boat; གྲོ་, wheat; ཤིང་, wood; གཡག་, bos grunniens; མིག་, eye; མི་, person, man; རྩྭ་, grass; མེ་, fire; ཉ་, fish; བྱ་, bird; ཁ་, mouth

Two syllables

• ཅོག་ཙེ་, table; སོག་ལེ་, saw (the carpenters tool); སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟོན་ཀ་, autumn

Compound nouns with པ་ and བ་

• The endings པ་ and བ་ are used to form nouns and are then part of the noun as second syllable without adding any extra meaning. (See Compound nouns).

• ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather; ཁང་པ་, house; བུམ་པ་, vase; ཐོ་བ་, hammer; ཟླ་བ་, moon

With the same root as a verb: འཁོར་ལོ་, wheel, with འཁོར་བ་, to turn, spin

to turn v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Compound nouns

Nouns, adjectives and verbs forming compound nouns

Noun and noun

ཀོ་གྲུ་

leather boat

leather-boat, a boat made from animal hide; (ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather)

སྦྲ་ཐག་, rope of a yaks' hairs, སྦྲ་, thick material woven from long, coarse yak hairs ཐག་པ་, rope, string

ཚོང་ཁང་ business house shop; (ཁང་པ་, house)

མིག་ཆུ་ eye water tears

ཆུ་མིག་ water eye well

སྙིང་རུས་

heart bone

courage, endeavour; (རུས་པ་, bone)

Noun and adjective

ཉེ་རིགས་

near lineage

relatives, kinsman ཉེ་བ་, near; རིགས་, lineage, family line, caste, blood-line, class, type

གླང་ཆེན

ox big

elephant; ཆེན་པོ་, big, great

བྱ་རྒོད་

bird wild

vulture

Adjective and adjective

Two adjectives with opposite meaning forming an abstract noun

• ཆེ་ཆུང་, size; ཆེ་བ་, bigger, ཆུང་བ་, smaller
• མང་ཉུང་, quantity; མང་པོ་, many, ཉུང་ངུ་, few
• ཕྲ་སྦོམ་, thickness; ཕྲ་མོ་ / ཕྲ་བ་, subtle, fine, tiny, སྦམ་པོ་, thick, rough, coarse, bulky

Compound nouns where the meaning is not clearly apparent from knowing the words in the compound

རྡོ་རིང་ stone long stone pillar, obelisk, monument

རྡོ་རྗེ་ stone lord vajra;..."

རྡོ་ཞོ་ stone yogurt, curd lime (quick and slaked)

མཆོད་རྟེན་ offering support stupa

མོ་གཤམ་ woman inferior, below barren woman, barren

གན་རྒྱ་ near seal written contract

Translation compounds used for translations into Tibetan

སྒྲོལ་དཀར་, White Tara; སྒྲོལ་མ་, Tara, དཀར་མོ་ white གྲུབ་མཐའ་, siddhanta, siddhyanta, philosophical tenets; མཐའ་, limit, end, border, གྲུབ་པ་, accomplishment, existence, established

to be accomplished existent, proven v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Nominalizer and formatives

Note: Nominalization generally refers to change a verb, an adjective, or an adverb into a noun. In Tibetan nominalizers can also be used to change nouns into different (new) nouns.

ཅན་

ཅན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the idea of possession of this word or phrase, or changes it into a new noun-phrase from the idea of "possession, being endowed, to have" (similar to a བདག་སྒྲ་). It can be used with animated and inanimate things.

Noun phrase

སེམས་ཅན་ mind sentient being, mind having one

ཀ་བ་ཅན་ pillar house (with pillars)

ཟུག་རྔུ་ཅན་ pain ill person

རི་བོང་ཅན་ rabbit rabbit bearer, the moon poet

Possession, adjectival phrase

ནོར་ཅན་ wealth rich, wealthy

རྒྱུ་ཅན་ cause having a cause

ཚེར་མ་ཅན་ thorn thorny, having thorns

The same phrase can have both meanings:

ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་

qualities

1. having good qualities, 2. learned, talented or holy, virtuous person

ལས་ཅན་

action, karma

1. karmically fortunate one, 2. fortunate, having merit

བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་སྐྱོན་ཅན་དང་གསུམ་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་དུ་ཡིད་བྱེད་དྲུག་གིས་

dhyana         second  fault          third    good qualities  mental attention six

through the six mental attentions [apprehending] the second dhyana as faulty and the third as possessing good qualities...

and from the same text:

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