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

མིང་ཚིག Ming tshig

Honorific forms

Many nouns and verbs have honorific forms called she sa.

Noun	Common		Honorific
Phone	ཁ་པར	Kha par	ཞེལ་པར	She par
Teacher	དགེ་རྒན	Ge gan	རྒན་ལགས	Gan lag
Book	དེབ	Deb	ཕྱག་དབ	phyag deb

Declensions

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

Ablative

• བོད་ནས།
  • Bod na
    • From Tibet.
• རྒྱ་གར་ནས།
  • Gya gar na
    • From India.
• ཡུ་རོབ་ནས།
  • Yu rob na
    • From Europe.

In sentences:

• ཁོང་ཡུ་རོབ་ནས་རེད།
  • Khong yu rob na red
    • She is from Europe.
• ཁྱེད་རང་རྒྱ་གར་ནས་ཡིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang gya gar na yin pa
    • Are you from India?
• ང་བོད་ནས་མ་རེད་པས།
  • Nga bod na ma red pa
    • Am not I from Tibet?

Pronouns

མིང་ཚཔ། Ming tshab

Possesive

Possesive
My	ང་ཡི	Nga yi
Your	རང་གི	Rang gi/Khyed rang gi
His/her	ཁོང་གི	Khong gi/Mo rang gi
Our	ང་ཚོ་ཡི	Nga tsho yi
Your	རང་ཚོ་ཡི	Rang tsho yi/Khyed rang tsho yi
Their	ཁོང་ཚོ་ཡི	Khong tsho yi

Examples:

• ང་ཡི་྅ལ་ཁྲི།
  • Nga yi nyal khri
    • My bed
• རང་གི་ཁྱིམ་ཚང།
  • Rang gi khyim tshang
    • Your family
• ཁོང་གི་སྤོ་ལོ།
  • Khong gi po lo
    • His ball
• ང་ཚོ་ཡི་ཁྱི།
  • Nga tsho yi khyi
    • Our dogs
• རཔ་ཚོ་ཡི་མོ་ཏ།
  • Rang tsho yi mo ta
    • Your cars
• ཁོང་ཚོ་ཡི་གྲོགས་པོ།
  • Khong tsho yi grogs po
    • Their friends

Demonstrative

Demonstrative	དེ་སྒྲ།	De gra
This	འདི	'Di
That	དེ	De
That	ཕ་གི	Pha gi
These	འདི་ཚོ	'Di tsho
Those	དེ་ཚོ	De tsho
Those	ཕ་གི་ཚོ	Pha gi tsho

Examples:

• གཙང་ཆུ་འདི། (Tsang chu di) : This river
• པུད་མེད་དེ། (Bud med de) : That woman
• རོང་ཕ་གི། (Rong pha gi) : That valley
• ཀུ་ཤུ་འདི་ཚོ། (Ku shu di tsho) : These apples
• ལུག་དེ་ཚོ། (Lug de tsho) : Those sheeps
• ཤིང་ཏོག་ཕ་གི་ཚོ། (Sching tog pha gi tsho) : Those fruits

Interrogative

Interrogative
Who	སུ	Su
What	ག་རེ	Ga re
Where	ག་པར	Ga par
Where from	ག་ནས	Ga ne
When	ག་དུས	Ga du
How	ག་ལ	Ga na
How much	ག་ཚོད	Ga tshod

Examples:

• དེ་ཚོ་ག་རེརེད།
  • De tsho ga re red
    • What are those?
• ཁོང་སུ་རེད།
  • Khong su red
    • who is she?
• ང་སུ་རེད།
  • Nga su red
    • Who am I?
• ཁྱེ་རང་སུ་ཡིན
  • khyed rang su yin
    • Who are you?

Questions and fast asks

• དེ་ད་རེ་རེད།
  • De ga re red
    • What is that?
• དེབ་རེད།
  • Deb red
    • It's a book.
• ཁྱེད་རང་བོད་ནས་ཡིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang bod na yin pa
    • Are you from Tibet?
• མིན།ང་རྒྱ་གར་ནས་ཡིན།
  • Min.Nga gya gar na yin
    • No.I am from India.
• ཁྱེད་རང་ཡུ་རོབ་ཡིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang yu rob yin pa
    • Are you from Europe?
• ལགས་ཡིན།
  • Lag yin
    • Yes (Polite)
• ཡིན་ཡིན།
  • Yin yin
    • Yes
• ལགས་མིན།
  • Lag min
    • No (Polite)
• ང་དགེ་རྒན་ཡི།
  • Nga ge gan yin
    • I am teacher.
• ཡིང་པས།
  • Yin pa
    • Really?/Are you?
• ཁོང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་རེད་མ་རེད།
  • Khong lob phrug red ma red
    • Is she a student, or not?

Adjectives

Degree

Positive	Good	ཡག་པོ	Yag po
Comparative	Better	ཡག་ག	Yag ga
Superlative	The best	ཡག་ཤོས	Yag sho
Positive	Many	མང་པ་	Mang po
Comparative	More	མང་ང	Mang na
Superlative		མང་ཤོས	Mang sho
Positive	Sour	སྐྱུར་པོ	Kyur po
Comparative	More sour	སྐྱུར་ར	Kyur ra
Superlative	The most sour	སྐྱུར་ཤོས	Kyur sho
Positive	Fun	སྐྱིད་པོ	Kyid po
Comparative	More fun	སྐྱིད་བ	Kyid ba
Superlative	The most fun	སྐྱིད་ཤོས	Kyid sho
Positive	Eminent	དམ་པ	Dam pa
Comparative	More eminent	དམ་པ	Dam pa
Superlative	The most eminent	དམ་ཤས	Dam sho
Positive	Big	ཆེན་པོ	Tchen po
Comparative	Bigger	ཆེེན་བ	Tchen ba
Superlative	The biggest	ཆེན་ཤོས	Tchen 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

The sentence structure is:

Subject+object+verb

Copula

Essential egophoric

ང་བོད་པ་ཡིན།

• Nga bod pa yin
  • I am Tibetan.

The negative form is with the word Min.

ང་དབིན་ཇི་པ་མིན།

• Nga bin ji pa min
  • I am not an Englisman.

Existencial testimonial

ཁྱེད་རང་དགེ་རྒན་རེད།

• Khyed rang ge gan red
  • You are a teacher.

The negative form is with the word Ma red.

ཁ་པར་སེར་པོ་མ་རེག།

• Kha par ser po ma red
  • The phone don't is yellow.

Asking questions

Yes/no question are formed by adding the question mark པས (pa) to the end of the verb. Examples:

• ཁོང་བོད་པ་རེད་པས།
  • Khong bod pa red pa
    • Is he Tibetan?
• འདི་ཁ་པར་རེད་པས།
  • Di kha par red pa
    • Is this a phone?

Negative questions

• འདི་ཁ་པར་མ་རེད་པས།
  • Di kha par ma red pa
    • Isn't this a phone?
• ཁྱེད་རང་མཚོ་མོ་མིན་པས།
  • Khyed rang Tchomo min pa
    • Aren't you Tsomo?

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

However, there are cases in which tang or dhang must be annexing to the verbal root. Others words take the prefix shok to create the imperative.

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

Vocabulary

Colors

• ཁ་པོག Kha dog:Color
• ནག་པོ Nag po:Black
• དཀར་པོ Ka po:White
• དམར་པོ Mar po:Red
• སེར་པོ Ser po:Yellow

Countries

• བིད Bod:Tibet
• རྒྱ་གར Gya gar:India
• ཡུ་རོབ Yu rob:Europe

Days

• གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ Za nyi ma:Sunday
• གཟའ་ཟླ་བ Za la ba:Monday
• གཟའ་མིག་དམར Za mig mar:Tuesday
• གཟའ་ཧླག་པ Za hlag pa:Wednesday
• གཟའ་ཕུར་བ Za phur bu:Thursday
• གཟའ་པ་སངས Za pa sang:Friday
• གཟའ་སྤེན་པ Za pen pa:Saturday

Months

• ཕྱི་ཟླ་དང་པོ Phyi la dang po:January
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་ག྅ིས་པ Phyi la nyi pa:February
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་གསུམ་པ Phyi la sum pa:March
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བཞི་པ Phyi la shi pa:April
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་ལྔ་པ Phyi la nga pa:May
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་དྲུག་པ Phyi la drug pa:June
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བདུན་པ Phyi la dun pa:July
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བརྒྱད་པ Phyi la gyad pa:August
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་དགཱུ་པ Phyi la gu pa:September
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བཅུ་པ Phyi la chu pa:October
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བཅུ་གཅིག་པ Phyi la chu tchig pa:November
• ཕྱི་ཟླ་བཅུ་ག྅ིས་པ Phyi la chu nyi pa:December

Objects

• ཁ་པར Kha par:Phone
• དེབ Deb:Book

Profesions

• དགེ་རྒན Ge gan:Teacher
• སློབ་ཕྲུག Lob prug:Student