# Tibetan/Printable version

The current, editable version of this book is available in Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection, at
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tibetan

# 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 | Common | Honorific | 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 | Root | Infinitive | 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