Lesson 10: Most Complex Tibetan Syllable, Numbers,
48
Days of the Week, How to Read Tibetan Prose, Tibetan Verse Bibliography
58
Preface
By the kindness of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Spiritual and Temporal Supreme Head of Tibet, and many spiritual masters of the four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism who have been teaching in the west since the 1960s until now, many people have become interested in Tibetan Buddhism. They have studied and practiced well for many years and now we can see that there are many high scholars and practitioners growing in the western countries. Buddhist teaching in Tibet started in the Seventh Century as many great Tibetan translators started to work translating the Sanskrit Buddhist texts of India into the Tibetan language. Many western and eastern scholars have praised and mentioned that Buddhist texts of the Buddha's own words (Ka-gyur) and commentary texts (Ten-gyur) by Indian Buddhist masters translated in the Tibetan language as authentic and precise. Many say the meaning is very clear in the Tibetan works. Many westerners are learning the Tibetan language as they see that it is important to learn the Tibetan language in order to study and practice more advanced Tibetan Buddhist practices. I am very pleased and appreciate that there are now many Tibetan language books in English to assist in learning the Tibetan language, both by Tibetan and foreign scholars. In my small book, I have tried to explain, by easy and clear definition of Tibetan consonants, vowels, prefixes, suffixes, etc., the necessary basics of the Tibetan language so that people can learn how to write and read the basic Tibetan language. In the last two years, I have taught Tibetan language classes to students at Emaho Buddhist Center, Scottsdale, Arizona. I have gained a little experience in knowing how to
explain things in a way that will help students easily understand the language. I have used these methods in this book. Tibetan children growing up in the west, who do not have much opportunity to learn the Tibetan language in their schools, will get some benefit of understanding of the language from this book and the simple presentation. Lastly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bill Wares (Thupten Tsering) for editing, computer entry, and valuable suggestions. Jampa Khechok Scottsdale, AZ USA 2009
Lesson 1 I. Consonants During the Reign of King Songtsen Gampo (7th Century), Tibet became a powerful country and established relationships and trade with many neighboring countries. Also, Buddhism was admired by and beginning to influence the king and people of Tibet. However, there was no written language at that time. To further develop foreign relationships and trade with other countries, and to learn and practice Buddhism comprehensively, the king sent Thumi Sambota and sixteen youths to India to learn the Sanskrit language and literature, and to invent a script for Tibetan. After studying for a decade in India, Thumi Sambota succeeded in creating a new Tibetan script.
In general, Tibetans use two different scripts for writing. These are "Uchen" (Big Head) and "Ume" (No Head). Variations on the Ume script include "Tsugring" (Long Leg), "Drugtsa" (Fancy), and "Kyugyik" (Cursive). Everyday writing is usually done in the cursive script. Uchen letters are used in Buddhist Scriptures, publications, and all texts. Today, many individuals who are interested in learning Tibetan are using the Uchen script for reading and writing. There are 30 consonants in the Tibetan alphabet. These 30 consonants are divided into 7½ categories (Rows). A category consists of 4 letters (consonants). In the last of the 7½ categories, there are only 2 letters.
1
2 Literary Tibetan for Beginners
A. The 30 Uchen Consonants And Transliteration:
!&+048<@-
#(,159=A-
HĀ
Ā
KĀ
CHĀ
TĀ
PĀ
TSĀ
ZHA
RA
KHĀ
CHHĀ
THĀ
PHĀ
TSHĀ
ZA
LA
$).26:>-
%*/37;?-
SHĀ
SĀ
GA
JA
DA
BA
DZA
'A
NGA
NYA
NA
MA
WA
YA
4 Literary Tibetan for Beginners
C. Consonants Categorized By "TONE" High Tone
High Tone
!&+04-
#(,15>?@-
KĀ
KHĀ
CHĀ
CHHĀ
TĀ
THĀ
PĀ
PHĀ
TSĀ
TSHĀ
SHĀ
SĀ
HĀ
Low Tone and Longer
$).26-
Low Tone
%*/37;<=89:-
GA
NGA
JA
NYA
DA
NA
BA
DZA
MA
WA
YA
RA
LA
ZHA
ZA
'A
Consonants 5
D. Consonant Pronunciation Guide:
!#$%&()*+,./0123-
KĀ - "k" as in king, kin KHĀ - "k" as in quit, curb GA - "g" as in give, gift NGA - "ng" as in going, king CHĀ - "ch" - as in chant, cherry CHHĀ - "chh" as in China, chimney JA - "j" as in jump, jug NYA - "ny" as in canyon, Daniel TĀ - "t" as in Tara, tardy THĀ - "th" as in therapy, thunder DA - "d" as in Dharma, dart NA - "n" as in not, no PĀ - "p" as in pot, Papa PHĀ - "ph" as in path, passenger BA - "b" as in box, boat MA - "m" as in mouse, mother
456789:;<=>?@A-
TSĀ - "ts" as in physic, Tse Tse fly TSHĀ - "tsh" as in Tsering, Tsok,
DZA - "dz" as in Tsar, zebra WA - "w" as in work, white ZHA - "zh" as in seizure, treasure ZA - "z" as force 'A - "ah" as in art, all YA - "y" as in yak, yellow RA - "r" as in ram, road LA - "l" as in London, lamp SHA - "sh" as in shampoo, shut SA - "s" as in sale, sum HĀ - "h" as in hero, hat Ā - "a" as in academia, apart, (like the indefinite article - a - as in "a bird"
6 Literary Tibetan for Beginners
E. Vocabulary - Single Consonant Words 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
#%()*./123-
(KHĀ) = mouth
11.
(NGA) = I 12. (CHHĀ) = part/pair 13.
(JA) = tea
14.
(NYA) = fish
15.
(DA) = now
16.
(NA) = if, sick (PHĀ) = father
17.
(BA) = cow
18.
(MA) = mother
19.
5D79;<=>?-
(TSHĀ) = hot (TSHĀ) = salt (WA) = fox (ZA) = eat (YA) = single of a pair (RA) = goat (LA) = mountain pass, (prep. to, at, for, on) (SHĀ) = flesh, meat (SĀ) = ground, earth, soil
F. Vocabulary - Two Consonant Words 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
is the second syllable of a word, it is pronounced WA.
Examples:
B.
Word
Pronunciation
Meaning
:PR-29-2-
DrO-WA
to go, beings, transmigrators
ZA-WA
to eat
When the consonant letter
2-
.-
(DA) is a prefix of the root letter
is pronounced WA.
Examples: Word
Pronunciation
Meaning
.2J/-0.LJ<-3J.-
WEN-PA
solitary place
YER-ME
inseparable
2-
(BA), then
8 Literary Tibetan for Beginners
Lesson 2 Vowels A. The vowels in Tibetan are called YANG-
.L%?-
The 4 Vowels - Signs and Sounds are:
A
= "i";
ä
= "u";
= "e";
= "o".
J
The 4 Vowel Names are
A
ä
$A-$82?-G-
J :PJ%-0RR /-
A-
R
GI-GU SHAB - KYU DRENG-PO NA-Ro
- "AH" is an unwritten vowel sound, inherent in all 30 consonants. Without the "AH" sound, all the consonants are considered lifeless. If a syllable is only a single consonant and vowel, the vowel is expressed soon after
the consonant (see Examples in Table below)
If the root letter has a superscript or a subscript, then there is another way of reading the vowel, which will be explained later.
Vowels 9 Sign
Name
Position
$A-$-
A
ä J
Sound
ABOVE
"I" (as in me)
Example
GI-GU
RI = mountain
82?-G-
2-
BELOW
"u"
SHAB-KYU
BU = boy
:PJ%-0R-
3J-
ABOVE
"e" as in (eh)
DRENG-PO
ME = fire
/-
8R-
R
ABOVE
"o"
NA-RO
ZHO = yogurt
B. Method Of Spelling - Vowels In Conjunction With Consonants:
!A!!J!R#A##J#R-
Spelling
Pronunciation
KA-GI-GU
KI
KA-SHAB-KYU
KU
KA-DRENG-PO
KE
KA-NA-RO
KO
KHA-GI-GU
KHI
KHA-SHAB-KYU
KHU
KHA-DRENG-PO
KHE
KHA-NA-RO
KHO
$A$$J$R%A%%J%R-
Spelling
Pronunciation
GA-GI-GU
GI
GA-SHAB-KYU
GU
GA-DRENG-PO
GE
GA-NA-RO
GO
NGA-GI-GU
NGI
NGA-SHAB-KYU
NGU
NGA-DRENG-PO
NGE
NGA-NA-RO
NGO
10 Literary Tibetan for Beginners
C. The Four Vowels Joined With the Thirty Consonants
31 Mar 2009 - the phone at the county's Communist Party branch would not comment. A monk who answered the phone at the Draggo Monastery said that a monk there died last Friday, adding he did not know how. ... for Tibetans, including one year since th
There must not be any white showing around the iris because this gives an incorrect expression. Light eyes are undesirable regardless of the coat colour and ...
Feb 6, 2003 - Understand naming conventions for devices, partitioning, ..... Even the first process, init, with process ID 1, is forked during the ..... Add the directory to the contents of the PATH variable: ...... michel ~/test> feed.sh apple camel
Feb 6, 2003 - Chapter 6:Awk: introduction to the awk programming language. â¢. Chapter 7: ...... specific conversion script for my html files to php. LIST="$(ls ...
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. Literary Device.
Show all data for Alan Turing (Q7251) limited to 100. On Wikidata Query Service Beta. Extract of the result. Turing's field of work (P101) is computer science ...
services company. ... for Web development â Web pages are HTML text files. .... application such as Word â files created via WP apps contain a lot of extra, ...
be shut up in a cell, as he is a source of infection or contamination for others. Shun the company ...... sv:s:ök lp:m:ehmn:a wan:i s:v:üem:cCaev:D:ðy:m:eD:g:Cet: .
10 definitions and 10 sample sentences. This makes it ... analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Page 3 of 7. ACCOUNTING FOR BEGINNERS. (WWW.GLOBALFINANCESCHOOL.COM FOR BEGINNERS). BY SHLOMO SIMANOVSKY PDF. Just how can? Do you assume that you don't need adequate time to opt for shopping publication. Accounting For Beginners (www.GlobalFinanceSc