English
Colloquial wjafCT To be .. * m 320 IV. Literary Ditto m * 325 V. Usf^’El To have ; to possess . . * m 331 VI. Active, Transitive, 4-Rooted Colloquial Verb To send m * 331 VII. Literary Ditto * * 340 VIII. Passive, 4-Rooted Colloquial Verb To be se?it . . '** * • * * * ■* 349 IX. Active, one-Rooted Colloquial Verb Slijfc’q* To see * * • * . * • * 354 X. Neuter, one-Rooted Colloquial Verb To be glad , To rejoice * * 360 XI. Literary Ditto * ■ 361 XII. Passive, 4-Rooted Literary Verb or *lKc-S|W*r To be sent 1 / * -* 36<s XIII. Active, 2-Rooted Colloquial Verb Q^'P* To go. . 371 XIV. Literary Ditto 378 XV. 2-Root ed Literary Verb Q^p/q* To become, etc. 383 CONTENTS. XV11 Page XVI. Active, 4-Rooted Colloquial Verb 1 n o do. To make , etc. 387 XVII. Literary Ditto ■ V 3S19 XVIII. Passive, 4-Rooted Colloquial Verb •cr C-. _ . or To be made. To be done , etc. . , 393 XIX. Passive, 4-Rooted Literary Verb n'CJ* To be made. To be done , etc.. . 394 XX. Passive, Literary Verb N5 To be made , or done , etc. 395 Tibetan Grammar. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. § 1. The *T| pi’ Ka-K‘a $ or Tibetan Graphic System. I. — rT ]' a l’ Ka-li , or Consonantal Series of thirty letters rx Letter. Name. Remarks. Ka Like K in the Urdu word Kab, When, A com¬ pact Bound. p K'a Kk, forcibly aspirated. Like the Persian £ Kh. p 6a Pronounced softly, from low down in the throat rather more sharply than hard English G, and in a way that to English ears seems to give it the sound of K. C Nga Like the sound of ng in the English word sing it often begins a word in Tibetan. As a final, often represented by a superscribed o, called o TC*T|V o La^koRj or o cipher , 6 , Cha Like the Ch in charge. A compact sound £ Ch‘a Chha. A forcibly aspirated ch. e tJs i J‘ a Like the J in jar. As an initial it is slightly as¬ pirated, and may be pronounced like 3* ch. nte B *e* th ° pover * of the8e ,etu>rs * as represented by their rom*nizod equi 2 TIBETAN GRAMMAR. Letter. Name. Remarks. 9 ' Nya Like the combined sound of the nya in lanyard. 5 Ta A compact dental sound, like the Urdu or Persian , or the Bengali v® . * T*a Also dental, but forcibly aspirated. 6a This is not exactly a dental d, nor is it an aspirated d s as sometimes described, but a dental sound, rather like the th in think , as pronounced by some Irishmen ; or like the Bengali w, but with a strong similarity to a dental t. A soft sound. Na A dental N, softly sounded. q ! i Pa English P, but more fully and compactly pro¬ nounced. ** P‘a Not Ph (i.e. F, or Fh), but P-k. A strong aspirate. p i Ba Sharper than the English B t and rather like P f but Softer than the latter. i Ma English 3/, sometimes abbreviated into O, written 1 over the initial, and representing final m, and called ° ° La’-kor, o cipher. It is also called T5*-kor and is the same as the Sanskrit | Anuswara. 1 i Tea Like the sound of Ts , or Russian Ts§. A compact sound. & Ta‘ a Not Tsh, but Ts-h , strongly aspirated. * Dz‘a Not Dzh , but Dz-h. Aspirated. Sj VVa English W . £ hy a Something like the French J in jadis , or Persian j , or Russian Zhe, but with a tendency towards the sound sh , and also with the ya sound. Henfte, hard z'hya, or soft shy a. TIBETAN GRAMMAR. Letter. Name. Remarks. a 2a English Z } but inclining to sound of s. : 'a Spintus lenis , with a vowel-sound like that in the Urdu word BaS, Enough ; but soft and lone, as though gently emanating from the throat. In words from Sanskrit it is used as a “ mora ” to denote prosodical length, i.e. a long syllable WJ Ya English Y, as in yard , you, yoke . ye, yes, yiddish yea. Ra English R , well sounded. Ol La English L, but, at the end of a syllable, sounded either very faintly or not at all, and sometimes changed to •V Ra. * Sha 3h. Full, strong sound. Sa 3. Full, strong sound, like ss in hies, but, at the end of a syllable, not sounded at all. Ha H. Well aspirated. A Like the vowel-sound in the Urdu word ^ Has Enough . Pronounced very short, but harder i fuller and compacter sound than that of Q' Tin* P sound of W is inherent in all simple non-fina! consonants unqualified by any vowel-sign, and in all compound consonants sounding as one, when similarly unqualified. It is not inherent in the consonant which has a softer and more emu- nating sound. II ‘“" The WW a ‘ li > or Vowel-Series, being five vowele, and f ou vowel-signs. For the purpose of illustrating the signs, one of the vowels, namely, tfT A , which is also regarded as a consonant by Tibetans, is adopted as a basis. Any other consonant, however would do equally well. TIBETAN GRAMMAR, .T. _ - — - -— — — - Remarks. Like o in ^ BaS, Enough. Pronunciation short, hard, compact and full. Inherent in all non¬ final consonants not qualified by any vowel-signs, and in single-letter and compound-letter syllables sounding as one syllable, when similarly unquali¬ fied. Thus, in 5F T ‘ANG, Path , it is inherent j n but not in the fined C*. So it is inherent in C Nga, I, hut not in *C? Noo, Face; and in sr La, Pay , salary , but not in sr Lu , song. It also ceases to inhere by reason of modifications other than qualifying vowel-signs, as will hereafter be shown. See § 3. Short, like the i in is. The sign is cv called G'i-g'u, The Angle, and it is placed over the letter it modifies. Thus, Kyi A ** gn °f ^ e Gen * tive Oase. Short, like the u in full. The sign is vp called ^hyab-kvtj, The hook , and it is placed ! under the letter it modifies. Thus, D'u, A sign of the Terminative Case. | Short, like a in made, or the Italian e. The sign is - called t>ENO-BU, The standing 1 stroke , and it is placed over the letter it modifies. Thus, V?' Re-re, each. Short, like the o in for , or rock . The sign is ^ ' called Ka-ro, The horns over the nose , and it is placed over the letter it modifies.. Thus, X* Ro, A corpse; 6ong, Price ; Lod- pa, To read ; gp|* Lo’, Lightning ; t)o, Stone. TIBETAN GRAMMAR. § 2.—The Romanized Equivalents adopted in this work, showing the Powers of the thirty consonants. Tibetan Character. Romanized Equivalent. Remarks. * * 1 * Acute accent, used for instance with g t when *J|" Ga, is pronounced almost like k ; and with d , when Da, is pronounced almost like T. Thus, (jtONo, Price , because it is pronounced nearly like Kong ; but §F Go Door, pronounced like the ordinary hard English g . So also ]l)e, The , That , because it is pronounced almost like dental Te : but Dl, The, This, pronounced as dental d A * U This sign, placed over any letter, signifits a raising of the tone. 9 m Spiritus lenis, or gentle breathing. It is placed before a, thus ’a, to represent For example, CJ'Tj'V K’S, Order , Command. For simplicity’s sake, however, we shall seldom use it. It will never be used to represent Q,* as a prefix. - A C Spiritus asper , or rough breathing Thus p' K‘a, for Kha, e.g., K'yeb-wa, To carry away. K Tonic pitch high. P K* Pitch lower than K. =1 G Pitch deep. 6 TIBETAN GRAMMAR. Tibetan Romanized Character. Equivalent. Remarks. PT guarded e.g.—§)5T Gam, Box r, Cheat. Pitch higher than £. c I i \ 3 5 E 9 *> S q' guarded Cl CJ q $T and o i i 1 i Ng Ch Ch* J, J* Ny T T‘ Pitch low ; sometimes represented by o La’-KOR, o cipher . Pitch very high. Pitch lower than ch. When an initial, represented by J‘. Thus E J‘a , Tea. When it has a prefix, represented by J. Thus, <^ES4'q* Jct-fa, To cling ; JX-wa, To come to. To meet f To pay one's respects to. Pitch very low. Pitch low. Pitch very high. Pitch lower than T. Pitcli very low. D N P B, W. V e.g .— Do, (Stone. Pitch higher than D. Pitch low. Pitch very high. Pitch lower than P Pitch very deep. o (called o SM*' L a’-kor, cipher ). Is sometimes placed on top of a letter, and stands for a final ng t or m , or nts. The pitch of ST is low. - TIBETAN GRAMMAR. 7 Tibetan Character. Romanized Equivalent. Remarks. Ts Pitch high. Ts‘ Pitch lower than Ts. £ Dz* Pitch very low. ■a W Pitch low. 2 hy Pitch very low. e.g., 2 hyJ-mo, Hat t < pronounced almost like ShX-mo, a 1 e.g.,—3*^* Za-wa, To eat, pronounced al- *• most like Sa-wa. Pitch very low. *A When is a prefix, it is not transliterated at all in this work. Pitch very low. Y Pitch very low. R Pitch low. OJ L Lowest pitch of all. *4 Sh ) 5*1 S / Pitch high. H Pitch very high. IN A Pitch low. Vote.—T he remarks in column 3 regarding Tonic Pitch refer to the Rev. Mr. Amundsen’s Tone-system. I would, however, advise the student to direct his attention to the compactness or otherwise of his utterance, and to the shortness or length of his voweUsounds , rather than to Pitch of Tone. See § 19. Other letters, compound and reversed, are not included in the above tables. They are dealt with in § § 4 et seq. g TIBETAN GRAMMAR. § 3,_Phonetic Modifications of the Five Vowels. TheBe are based on 1?T A, as representing any of the thirty consonants. Tibetan Romanized Sound.