Tibetan grammar describes the morphology, syntax and other grammatical features of the
Tibetan language, the language and dialects of the Tibetan people spoken across a wide
area of eastern Central Asia.
Generally considered a member of the Tibeto-Burman language family, typologically Tibetan is
classified as an ergative-absolutive language.
Nouns are generally unmarked for grammatical number but are marked for case.
Adjectives are never marked and appear after the noun.
Demonstratives also come after the noun but these are marked for number.
Verbs are possibly the most complicated part of Tibetan grammar in terms of morphology.
The dialect described here is the colloquial language of Central Tibet, especially Lhasa
and the surrounding area, but the spelling used reflects classical Tibetan, not the colloquial
pronunciation.
Nouns and case Nouns are not usually marked for grammatical
gender or number.
Natural gender may be conveyed through the lexicon, e.g. གཡག་ "yak," འབྲི་
<'bri> "yak-cow."
In human or animate nouns, gender may be indicated through suffixes.
These suffixes are generally པ་ or པོ་ "male," and མ་ or
མོ་ "female."
Number is never marked in inanimate nouns or animals.
Even human nouns can only take the plural marker ཚོ་ if they are specified
or definite, e.g. ཨ་མ་ "mother" → ཨ་མ་ཚོ་ "(the)
mothers."
Tibetan does not mark definiteness, and such a meaning would be left to be deduced from
the context.
Tibetan nouns are marked for six cases: absolutive, agentive, genitive, ablative, associative
and oblique.
Particles are attached to entire noun phrases, not to individual nouns.
Case suffixes are attached to the noun phrase as a whole, while the actual noun remains
unchanged.
The form taken by the suffix depends on the final sound of the noun to which the suffix
is attached.
Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked form of
the noun, which may be used as the subject of an intransitive verb, the object of a transitive
verb or the experiencer of an emotion.
Genitive case The genitive case marks possession and is
often translated as "of."
The form of the genitive suffix depends on the last sound of the noun:
if the last sound is a vowel or འ་ <'a> then the suffix is འི་ <'i>
if the last sound is ག་ <-g> or ང་ <-ng> then the suffix is གི་
if the last sound is ད་ <-d>, བ་ <-b>, ས་ <-s> or one of the secondary sound
suffixes then the genitive suffix is ཀྱི་
if the last sound is ན་ <-n>, མ་ <-m>, ར་ <-r> or ལ་ <-l> then the suffix
is གྱི་ .
Wheel of dharma ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ
Skin of sheep ལུག་གི་པགས་པ
The genitive is also used to form relative clauses.
Here, the genitive suffix is attached to the verb and is translated as "that" or "who."
Agentive case Formally the agentive case is built upon the
genitive by adding ས་ <-s> to the latter; consequently:
if the last sound is a vowel or འ་ <'a> then the suffix is ས་ <-s>
if the last sound is ག་ <-g> or ང་ <-ng> then the suffix is གིས་
if the last sound is ད་ <-d>, བ་ <-b>, ས་ <-s> or one of the secondary sound
suffixes then the genitive suffix is ཀྱིས་
if the last sound is ན་ <-n>, མ་ <-m>, ར་ <-r> or ལ་ <-l> then the suffix
is གྱིས་ .
The agentive is used for ergative and instrumental functions.
The ergative function occurs with the subject, agent or causer of transitive verbs, the agent
of "mental" and "verbal" actions and the perceiver of a sensation.
Ablative case The ablative case is always suffixed with
ནས་ .
It marks direction away from the noun.
Like the agentive case, the ablative can also take the ergative role marking the agent of
an action.
Associative case The associative case is marked by the suffix
དང་ , which may be translated as "and" but also as "with," "against" or
have no translation at all.
When the associative case suffix is followed by a pause, for example:
The associative suffix cannot combine with other case or plural markers on the same noun
or noun phrase:
Oblique case The oblique suffix fulfills the functions
of both the dative and locative cases.
The dative case marks the indirect object of an action and can be translated as "to."
The locative case marks place, with or without movement, or time, and can be translated as
"on," "in," "at" or "to."
There are two varieties of the suffix, one of which is dependent on the final sound of
the noun and one that is not.
The form –ར་ <-r> is found only after vowels and འ་ <'a> whereas –ལ་ <-la>
can be found after all sounds including vowels and <'a>.
The <-r> form is rarely used to mark the dative with monosyllabic words except the personal
pronouns and demonstrative and interrogative adjectives.
Pronouns Personal pronouns
Pronouns have between one and three registers and three numbers: singular, dual and plural.
Demonstrative pronouns Tibetan has proximal, medial and distal demonstrative
pronouns: proximal འདི་ <'di> "this," medial དེ་ "that," and distal ཕ་གི་
"that over there."
འདི་ <'di> and དེ་ also have temporal meanings where འདི་
<'di> is connected with present and དེ་ is connected with the past or the future:
ཕ་གི་ , on the other hand, can only express spatial distance.
From these demonstrative pronouns the following adverbs are derived: འདིར་ <'dir>
"here," དེར་ "there," and ཕ་གིར་ "over there."
The demonstratives can be used as both pronouns and adjectives.
As pronouns they act much in the same way as the third person pronouns do, but may also
refer to previous clauses or events.
As adjectives they appear after the noun and act as any other adjective would.
Both adjectival and pronominal demonstratives are capable of receiving both case and number
suffixes.
Verb classes Volitional and non-volitional classes
There is an important division of verbs into two main classes: volitional and non-volitional.
The former concerns controllable actions, and the latter non-controllable actions.
This difference is comparable to that in English between look and see, and between listen and
hear: listen and look are volitional because you can choose to do them or not, while see
and hear are non-volitional because they do not denote deliberate actions.
These two classes are important when conjugating any Tibetan verb because each class can only
use a certain set of suffixes.
This means that volitional verbs cannot use the same suffixes as non-volitional verbs
and vice versa.
For example, the verb form མཐོང་པ་ཡིན་ would be incorrect as
is a non-volitional verb and is a volitional suffix.
The correct form would be མཐོང་པ་རེད་ or "I saw."
Transitive and intransitive verbs Both the volitional and non-volitional classes
contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs.
The forms of transitive and intransitive verbs remain the same if the two verbs share the
same root.
The difference between transitive and intransitive is only evident in the way each verb is used:
if the verb takes an object then it is transitive, if it does not then it is intransitive.
This distinction determines which case the nouns will take.
Verb inflection Verbs in modern spoken Tibetan have between
one and three stems.
These are the present-future stem, the past stem and the imperative stem.
Many verbs, however, only have one stem when spoken, remaining distinct only in writing,
meaning that inflection is based mainly on the use of verbal auxiliaries.
The verb is inflected by means of attaching suffixes to the verb stem in a similar way
to nouns and pronouns.
Copulas Tibetan has several verbs that can be translated
as "to be" or "to have" which appear in two classes.
Copulas in the first class are essential, meaning that they denote an essential quality
of the noun.
Copulas in the second class are existential, meaning that they express the existence of
a phenomenon or a characteristic and suggests an evaluation by the speaker.
The difference between essential and existential copulas is similar to that of the verbs estar
and ser in the Spanish language.
Essential copulas There are three essential copulas: assertive
རེད་ , revelatory རེད་བཞག་ , and egophoric ཡིན་
Essential-assertive copula རེད་ is the "assertive" essential
copula.
It translates as "to be" and represents an objective assertion or affirmation regarding
the subject of the sentence.
The negative of རེད་ is མ་རེད་ .
The attribute may be an adjective, giving an attributive meaning, or a substantive,
giving an equative meaning.
The attributive immediately precedes the verb.
This copula, in rare cases, may also express possession of a quality:
Essential-revelatory copula རེད་བཞག་ is the
"revelatory" copula, meaning that the speaker has only recently become aware of what they
are stating.
It may be translated as "to be" with the statement preceded by an exclamation such as "Hey!"
or "Why!"
Its negative form is རེད་མི་འདུག་ .
Essential-egophoric copula ཡིན་ is the "egophoric" essential
copula.
It is usually translated as "I am" because of its main use with the first person.
Like རེད་ , it can be used with adjectives or substantives.
Its negative form is མིན་ .
ཡིན་ may, on rare occasions, express an intention or an insistence on the
part of the speaker:
Existential copulas There are three existential copulas: assertive
ཡོད་རེད་ , testimonial འདུག་ <'dug> and egophoric ཡོད་
.
Existential-assertive copula ཡོད་རེད་ is the
"assertive" copula.
This copula is used with the second and third person pronouns and implies a definite assertion
by the speaker.
It can usually be translated three ways according to context; "there is/are," giving an existential
sense, "to be at," giving a certain location or by the verb "to have," giving a possessive
sense.
Its negative form is ཡོད་མ་རེད་ .
It can also be preceded by a qualifying adjective to form the attributive sense in which it
can be translated as "to be."
Existential-testimonial copula འདུག་ <'dug> is the "testimonial"
copula.
It is translated in the same way as ཡོད་རེད་ in all cases but it differs in a
subtle way.
It implies that the speaker was a witness to what is being stated.
Its negative form is མི་འདུག་ .
It can also, like ཡོད་རེད be preceded by a qualifying adjective to form
the attributive sense in which it can be translated as "to be."
Existential-egophoric copula ཡོད is the "egophoric" copula.
Like ཡིན་ it is associated with the first person but it instead marks possession
and location).
It may also be used to express the speaker's opinion of something or an acquaintance with
something.
Its negative form is མེད་ .