Tibetan Grammar - Formation of the Tibetan Word
WORK IN PROGRESS: the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.
| 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 |
| ||||||||||||
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
|
|
|
| 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
[...]