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[Tibetan Grammar - Introduction] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles]

The la don particles


Case	Particles
Second Case: Objective Case, ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Fourth Case: Purposive Case, དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Seventh Case: Locative Case, རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་	སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་

Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the la don particles ལ་, ན་, སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ར་. The la don particles are in essence three particles ལ་, ན་ and སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་¹ which have overlapping usages within these three cases.

Note: There is no connection between the fact that there are three particles and three cases. The three cases come from Sanskrit grammar which was used to describe Tibetan grammar. It is a coincidence that the three Tibetan particles—combined as the la don—express functions found in the three Sanskrit cases. The three different particles of the la don are not identical in their usage. And though Tibetan grammarians generally try to establish an at least nominal equivalence among them, practically this equivalence does not appear. Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as la don these three particles are treated together. An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.

¹ སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle

Independent of verb type

Location in space

Place of activity

(Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, Objective case)


སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Buddha India Dharma taught
The Buddha taught the Dharma in India.

Direction


ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
field water irrigate
to irrigate the field

Location in time

Locative case


དེའི་ཚེ་ན་
that time
at that time


ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།
he time long Lhasa stayed
He stayed a long time in Lhasa.


དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།
time circumstance all death only meditate
At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.

Adverb of time with ན་

from སྔ་མ་: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"


སྔ་ན

earlier, previously


སྔ་ན་མེད་པ་

previously nonexistent


དུས་སྔ་མ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་
time former now until
from former times to now

Note: also སྔར་ "in the past, preceding, former, before", with a frozen la don (see: "frozen particles")


སྔར་ནས་འདྲིས་པའི་གྲོགས་པོ་
past to be acquainted friend
the friend [one] is acquainted with from the past

Purpose


ཞིང་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པ་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
farmer pl. the crop ripen water irrigate
The farmers irrigate for the ripening of the crop.

Referential qualifier (ལ་)


མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།
she child a born
A child was born to her.


ང་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་མི་ཆུང་ངོ།།
I you evil deeds not small
For me your evil deeds are not small.


སེམས་ཅན་ཆེན་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་པ་དང་འདྲ།
Mahasattva all son same similar, like
Mahasattva was for everyone like their son.


གཟུགས་བརྙན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ལ་བུད་མེད་དོ་སྙམ་
image, reflection woman woman to think
to think in regard to an image of a woman [that it is] a woman

Topical (ལ་)


དང་པོ་ལ།
first
regarding the first


དང་པོ་རང་ལུགས་བཞག་པ་ལ།
first own system to define; to put
firstly, [in regard to] the presentation of our own position


་་་་༌། དེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་དད་པ་ནི།
that trust faith
in regard to that, the trusting faith:

Adverbial (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)


ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།
he clear explained
He explained clearly.


བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ
truth exist
truly existent


མྱུར་དུ་
quick, swift
quickly, swiftly

མྱུར་བ་


དེ་ལྟ་བུར་ཡོད་པ་
that like be
to be like that

དེ་ལྟ་བུ་


རྒྱུན་དུ་
continuum
continuously

རྒྱུན་


རྟག་ཏུ་
permanent
always, constantly, permanently

རྟག་པ་

Qualifier of identity / equivalence (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

For reflections about ambiguities see: "3.2 Note on ambiguities".


མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།
human those big to appear
Those people appear as big.


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།
household grave only apprehend
to apprehend a household merely as a grave


གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།
one many appear
one appearing as many

Identity of transformation: what something is transformed into marked by (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

Objective case


མཁས་པར་འགྱུར་བ
learned to become, change into
to become learned


ལྷ་རུ་གྱུར་
god became
became a god


དུམ་བུར་གཅོད་པ་
pieces cut
to cut (something) in to pieces


རྒྱལ་པོས་ནི་སྟ་རེས་མགོ་བོ་དུམ་བུར་གསེས།
king axe head pieces split, shred
The king split the head into pieces with an axe.

Joining of noun and verb (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)