Tibetan language for beginners Silvia Vernetto with the collaboration of Tenzin Norbu Version 2.1 March 18, 2003 1 Contents Introduction 5 Part I – Grammar 6 Sentence structure 7 Nouns 8 Articles 9 Personal pronouns 10 Genitive and dative cases 11 Possessive adjectives and pronouns 12 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns 13 Qualifying adjectives 14 Interrogative pronouns 16 Postpositions 17 Verbs - To be 18 Verbs - To have 23 Verbs conjugation 24 Verbs - Infinitive 25 Verbs – Present tense 26 Verbs – Future tense 27 Verbs – Past tense 28 Verbs – Negative form 29 Verbs – Interrogative form 2 30 .continue Questions and answers 31 Imperative 32 Verbs – Termination table 33 Want – need – can – like 35 Special structures 37 Numbers 39 Indefinite adjective and pronouns 40 Conjunctions 40 Part II – Little phrasebook Greetings – Making friends 41 In town and outskirts 46 Visiting a monastery 50 At the Barkor market 53 At the restaurant 55 At the hotel 58 Trekking 59 Weather 60 Time 61 Health 63 Common adjectives 65 Common verbs 67 Tibetan alphabet 70 Bibliography 3 72 Introduction These pages are intended to provide the basic rules to build simple sentences in Tibetan, suitable to have small conversations or ask information. The first part contains simple grammar rules and many examples on how to use them. The second part is a collection of words and phrases useful on different occasions (visiting towns and monasteries, trekking on mountains, eating at the restaurant, etc), where you can find some applications of the rules presented in the first part. Hurried and lazy people can skip directly to the second part, using sentences without knowing nothing about their structure, but it will be much less amusing.! Pronunciation rules Tibetan words have been transcribed using the Latin alphabet, trying to reproduce the original pronunciation.
However the readers must take in mind that some Tibetan sounds have not a precise correspondence in western languages. For instance you can hear a sound that is not really k nor g but stays somewhere in the middle between them; the same happens for p and b, or for d and t. At the end of this grammar you can see the Tibetan alphabet, consisting of 29 consonants and 5 vowels. For our western ears it can be difficult to perceive the difference between k and k’, between ts and ts’, or between ch and ch’.
Sounds that for us are quite similar, for Tibetans are very different. In any case, don’t get discouraged.Tibetan people can understand you even if you don’t use the exact pronunciation and often, with a smile or a warm laugh, they will repeat what you have awkwardly tried to say, giving you the possibility to listen the correct way to pronounce it.continue The Tibetan language is spoken in a very wide region, extending for thousands of kilometers. The written language doesn’t change, but the pronunciation can vary a lot going .from the western part of Tibet to the extreme eastern regions or to the Himalayan lands. In this grammar we will refer to the pronunciation used in Lhasa.
In general you can read the Tibetan sentences of this book as in English, but remember that: a is like in father e is like in let i is like in sing o is like in low ö is like the French eu in jeu u is like in moon ü is like the French u ny is like the Spanish ñ in niño g is like in goat j is like in jam r is rolled, don’t read it like the Italian nor the French r’s. ng is like in sing, but the g is almost silent (the very common word nga, that means I, is pronounced as something between nga and na). k,g at the end of a word are almost silent (yag, the popular animal yak, and chig, the number one, are pronounced almost ya and chi) h h after a consonant (except after c) means a breathy consonant. Don’t read ph as in photo and don’t read th as in three or as in this.
Pronounce thr and dhr like in tree and drum. In this book all the words are divided in syllables to make easier the learning. In a word the accent generally falls on the last syllable.but not always: at the restaurant remember to ask for momò (typical dumplings) and not for mòmo (grandmother). or better, Tashi deleg ! Part I Grammar Sentence structure In Tibetan language the structure of the sentence is: subject + object + verb The verb is always at the end.
Example: I am Pema = nga Pe-ma yin I - Pema - am this is a book = di teb re this - book - is Tenzin is in Tibet = Ten-zin Pö la du Tenzin - Tibet - in - is 6 Nouns In Tibetan language nouns can be monosyllabic or polysyllabic. Most of them are disyllabic. Example: monosyllabic disyllabic earth = sa mother = a-ma mountain = ri monastery = gom-pa people = mi lama = la-ma water = chu house = khang-pa tea = cha good = yag-po Most of polysyllabic nouns end with the particles: -pa, -po, -ba, -bo, -ma, -mo. In some cases, by adding the particle -pa to a word, a new term is created, denoting a man who is in some way connected to the item.
Example: horse = ta horseman = ta-pa Tibet = Pö man of Tibet = Pö-pa 7 .continue Number and gender To make a noun plural you can add the particle -tso. Example: book = teb books = teb-tso person = mi persons = mi-tso .continue In many cases the terminations -po and -mo define the gender. Example: king = gyel-po queen = gyel-mo Some nouns have a single form for masculine and feminine. Example: children (male and female) = pu-gu In some case different words specifies different gender.
Example: male yak = yag female yak = dhri 8 Articles In Tibetan the definite and indefinite articles do not exist. Instead of the indefinite articles a and an you can use the word for the number one, chig, following the noun. Example: a boy = bu chig (pronounce chig almost as chi), a girl = bu-mo chig Instead of the definite article the you can use, if necessary, the demonstrative adjectives this/that and these/those, always following the noun. this = di that = de these = din-tso those = den-tso Example: the book (if it is near) = teb di the books (if it is far) = teb den-tso Note: demonstrative adjectives will be more extensively discussed at pg.
9 Personal pronouns I nga you khye-rang he/ she khong (honorific) he kho / kho-rang she mo / mo-rang we ngan-tso you khe-rang-tso they khong-tso In practice for he and she you can always use khong, even if it is an honorific term, to be used talking of important people (for example lamas or professors). 10 Genitive and dative cases To form the genitive case (ex.: the book of Tenzin) one must insert the particle gi between the owner and the owned: owner + gi + owned Example: the house of the lama = la-ma gi khang-pa lama - of - house the price of the tea = cha gi kong tea - of - price To form the dative case (ex.: I gave it to you) one has to put the particle la after the noun or the personal pronoun that receives the action. to = la Example: to the lama = la-ma la to me = nga la Pronounce these sentences with the accent on the particle la. 11 Possessive adjectives and pronouns To form possessive adjectives and pronouns simply add the genitive particle –gi to the personal pronouns ( in practice “your” is traduced as “of you”, etc.) except “nga-gi” that becomes “nge” (pronounce nge like ñe with a long e).
For plural persons you can also change the termination tso in tsö. my - mine nge your - yours khye-rang-gi his/her-hers/its khong-gi our - ours ngan-tso-gi / ngan-tsö your - yours khe-rang-tso-gi / khe-rang-tsö their - theirs khong-tso-gi / khong-tsö Possessive adjectives must be placed before the noun. Example: my friend = nge dhrog-po this is yours = di khye-rang-gi re 12 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns this = di that = de / pha-gi these = din-tso those = den-tso / phan-tso / pha-gi-tso Demonstrative adjectives must be placed after the noun. Example: this house = khang-pa di house - this this is my house = di nge khang-pa re this - my - house - is that is your friend = de khye-rang-gi dhrog-pa re that - your - friend - is 13 Qualifying adjectives.
In Tibetan qualifying adjectives are always placed after the nouns and do not change with the gender. The particle -tso to make plural or demonstratives used as articles are placed after the adjectives. Example: good person = mi yag-po good persons = mi yag-po-tso these good persons = mi yag-po din-tso Some common adjectives big = chen-po small = chun chun hot = tsa-po cold = dhrang-mo good = yag-po bad = dug-cha long = ring-po short = tung tung old = nyim-pa new = sar-pa To say very + adjective you can use: adjective + shi-tha or pe + adjective Es.: very hot = tsa-po shi-tha or pe tsa-po 14 .continue To say extremely + adjective. add the particle -shö to the adjective root.
Example: extremely hot = tsa-shö To say too + adjective add the particle -tak to the adjective root. Example: too hot = tsa-tak To ask how + adjective ? add the particle –lö to the adjective root. Example: how long is it ? = ring-lö re ? Comparatives To say more + adjective one adds the particles -ua to the adjective root. If the root ends with g or r instead of –ua you must use -ga or -ra.
Sometimes the root is slightly modified. Example: big = chen-po bigger = che-ua good = yag-po better = yag-ga To make a comparison the particle le (pronounced with a long e) is used in the following way: Ex: my horse is bigger than yours = nge ta, khye-rang-gi ta le, che-ua du 15 my - horse - your - horse - than - bigger - is Interrogative pronouns what ? = ka-re which ? = ka-gi where ? = ka-bar from where ? = ka-ne how ? = kan-dhre in which way ? = kan-dhre-si how much ? = ka-tsö when ? = ka-dü who ? = sü why ? = ka-re se-na Example: what is it ? = ka-re re ? what is there ? = ka-re du ? which is your house ? = ke-rang-gi khang-pa ka-gi re? what time is it ? = chu-tsö ka-tsö re ? hour - how much - is ? how much is the price ? = kong ka-tsö re ? price - how much - is ?