WORK IN PROGRESS: the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.
by Stefan J. E.
Formation of the Tibetan Word
This section is just intended as an introduction and information. You will become naturally familiar with Tibetan words in the process of learning Tibetan, so there is no need to learn everything presented here. The important informations will be pointed out during class.
Definition from བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary:
- མིང་ཚིག་: ...དོན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་སྟོན་པ་མིང་སྟེ། བུམ་པ། ཀ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། དོན་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་སྟོན་པ་ཚིག་སྟེ། རི་མཐོན་པོ། ངས་བཤད། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཉན་ལྟ་བུའོ།
- མིང་ཚིག་, name word: "showing the essence of the object" is the name, like "vase" or "pillar", and "showing the particularities of the object" is the word / phrase like "high mountain", "I explained", "you listened".
Simple nouns
One syllable
- མགོ་, head; ཁྱི་, dog; གྲུ་, boat; གྲོ་, wheat; ཤིང་, wood; གཡག་, bos grunniens; མིག་, eye; མི་, person, man; རྩྭ་, grass; མེ་, fire; ཉ་, fish; བྱ་, bird; ཁ་, mouth
Two syllables
- ཅོག་ཙེ་, table; སོག་ལེ་, saw (the carpenters tool); སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟོན་ཀ་, autumn
Compound nouns with པ་ and བ་
- The endings པ་ and བ་ are used to form nouns and are then part of the noun as second syllable without adding any extra meaning. (See Compound nouns).
- ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather; ཁང་པ་, house; བུམ་པ་, vase; ཐོ་བ་, hammer; ཟླ་བ་, moon
With the same root as a verb:
འཁོར་ལོ་, wheel, with འཁོར་བ་, to turn, spin
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| to turn
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ
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| འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Compound nouns
Nouns, adjectives and verbs forming compound nouns
Noun and noun
| ཀོ་གྲུ་
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| leather boat
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leather-boat, a boat made from animal hide; (ཀོ་བ་, hide, leather)
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སྦྲ་ཐག་, rope of a yaks' hairs, སྦྲ་, thick material woven from long, coarse yak hairs ཐག་པ་, rope, string
| ཚོང་ཁང་
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| business house
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shop; (ཁང་པ་, house)
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| སྙིང་རུས་
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| heart bone
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courage, endeavour; (རུས་པ་, bone)
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Noun and adjective
| ཉེ་རིགས་
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| near lineage
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relatives, kinsman
ཉེ་བ་, near; རིགས་, lineage, family line, caste, blood-line, class, type
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| གླང་ཆེན
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| ox big
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elephant; ཆེན་པོ་, big, great
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| བྱ་རྒོད་
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| bird wild
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vulture
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Adjective and adjective
| Two adjectives with opposite meaning forming an abstract noun
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- ཆེ་ཆུང་, size; ཆེ་བ་, bigger, ཆུང་བ་, smaller
- མང་ཉུང་, quantity; མང་པོ་, many, ཉུང་ངུ་, few
- ཕྲ་སྦོམ་, thickness; ཕྲ་མོ་ / ཕྲ་བ་, subtle, fine, tiny, སྦམ་པོ་, thick, rough, coarse, bulky
Compound nouns where the meaning is not clearly apparent from knowing the words in the compound
| རྡོ་རིང་
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| stone long
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stone pillar, obelisk, monument
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| རྡོ་རྗེ་
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| stone lord
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vajra;..."
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| རྡོ་ཞོ་
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| stone yogurt, curd
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lime (quick and slaked)
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| མཆོད་རྟེན་
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| offering support
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stupa
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| མོ་གཤམ་
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| woman inferior, below
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barren woman, barren
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| གན་རྒྱ་
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| near seal
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written contract
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Translation compounds used for translations into Tibetan
སྒྲོལ་དཀར་, White Tara; སྒྲོལ་མ་, Tara, དཀར་མོ་ white
གྲུབ་མཐའ་, siddhanta, siddhyanta, philosophical tenets; མཐའ་, limit, end, border, གྲུབ་པ་, accomplishment, existence, established
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to be accomplished
existent, proven
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| གྲུབ་པ།
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འགྲུབ་པ།
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འགྲུབ་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Nominalizer and formatives
Note: Nominalization generally refers to change a verb, an adjective, or an adverb into a noun. In Tibetan nominalizers can also be used to change nouns into different (new) nouns.[1]
ཅན་
ཅན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the idea of possession of this word or phrase, or changes it into a new noun-phrase from the idea of "possession, being endowed, to have" (similar to a བདག་སྒྲ་). It can be used with animated and inanimate things.
Noun phrase
| སེམས་ཅན་
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| mind
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sentient being,
mind having one
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| ཀ་བ་ཅན་
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| pillar
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house (with pillars)
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| ཟུག་རྔུ་ཅན་
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| pain
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ill person
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| རི་བོང་ཅན་
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| rabbit
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rabbit bearer, the moon (poet.)
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Possession, adjectival phrase
| ནོར་ཅན་
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| wealth
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rich, wealthy
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| རྒྱུ་ཅན་
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| cause
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having a cause
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| ཚེར་མ་ཅན་
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| thorn
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thorny, having thorns
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The same phrase can have both meanings:
| ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་
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| qualities
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1. having good qualities,
2. learned, talented or holy, virtuous person
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| ལས་ཅན་
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| action, karma
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1. karmically fortunate one,
2. fortunate, having merit
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| བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་སྐྱོན་ཅན་དང་གསུམ་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་དུ་ཡིད་བྱེད་དྲུག་གིས་
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| dhyana second fault third good qualities mental attention six
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through the six mental attentions [apprehending] the second dhyana as faulty and the third as possessing good qualities...
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and from the same text:
| ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་ལ་བསྔགས་པ་བརྗོད་པས་མི་བསྔགས་པ་
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| virtuous person praise to express not praise
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not to praise—through expressing praise—the virtuous person, good qualities having one.
(Here "expressing praise" is the means one is not using and so one doesn’t praise)
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| Note on other usages: Rather different from the former two ཅན་ also shows "in the presence of, near to, side, in front of, before...", ཁོའི་ཅན་དུ་འགྲོ་བ།, "went to him", ང་ཅན་དུ་མ་ཡོང།, "will not come to me" (ཡོན་བ་ could have different meanings as all tenses have the same form.)
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| to come
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| ཡོན་བ
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ཡོན་བ།
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ཡོན་བ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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མཁན་
- མཁན་ comes after a word or phrase showing the "the doer, agent".
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| ཤེས་མཁན་
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| to know
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the knower"
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| རི་མོ་འབྲི་མཁན་
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| painting, to draw
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painter
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| to write, to paint
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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| བྲིས་པ
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འབྲི་བ།
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བྲི་བ།
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བྲིས
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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བདག་
བདག་པོ་, owner, ruler, sovereign, master
བདག་, I, me, self, ego
བདག་པ་, to be owned, belong to, being controlled, governed
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to be owned
being controlled
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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| བདག་པ།
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བདག་པ།
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བདག་པ།
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| past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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| ཞིང་བདག་
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| land, field
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landlord
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| ཁང་བདག་
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| house
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house-owner, landlord, ཁང་པའི་བདག་པོ།
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| ཀུན་བདག་
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| all
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ruler of the world
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| མངའ་བདག་
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| to possess
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lord, ruler, king
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| ཡོན་བདག་
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| offering, gift, payment
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benefactor; boss
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| སྦྱིན་བདག་
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| giving, generosity
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patron, benefactor, sponsor
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ལྡན་
- ལྡན་པ་ is a abbreviation of དང་ལྡན་པ་ and is in its full form treated in the verb section, (although it is not considerated to be a verb in Tibetan grammar). The meaning of ལྡན་པ་ is that of possession, associated with and concordant with.
Noun phrase
| ཡིད་ལྡན་
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| mind
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person, possessing mind
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| བལ་ལྡན་
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| wool
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sheep, having wool
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| སྒྲོ་ལྡན་
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| feather
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bird, arrow, having feathers
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| སྐྱེ་ལྡན་
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| birth, production
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sentient beings, the universe
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Adjectival phrase
| དོན་ལྡན་
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| meaning
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meaningful
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| རིག་ལྡན་
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| intelligence, knowledge
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learned, intelligent
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ཉིད་
- ཉིད་ when placed after other terms it is used to produce abstract nouns, like in English "-ness". It’s used for the translation of the Sanskrit "ta" at the end of a noun. e.g. the ta in shunyata.
| སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་
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| to be empty
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shunyata, emptiness
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| ལུས་ཡང་བ་ཉིད་
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| body light
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the light-body-ness
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| གཏིང་དཔག་དཀའ་བ་ཉིད་
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| difficult to fathom
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the "difficult to fathom-ness"
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| མང་བ་ཉིད་
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| many
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"many-ness"
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| རྟག་ཏུ་སེམས་གྱ་གྱུ་མི་མངའ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་
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| always mind deceit not have through
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always through a mind-without-deceit-ness
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- ཉིད་ has different meanings, one very common is "this one, that very, itself"
པོ་ཆེ་
- Joined པོ་ཆེ་ expresses "big, bigger, great, greater".
| འོད་པོ་ཆེ་
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| light
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greater (degree of) light
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| གླང་པོ་ཆེ་
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| ox, bull
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elephant
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| རིན་པོ་ཆེ་
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| the value, worth
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precious, jewel, ratna, Rinpoche, precious one
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བུ་, འུ་
- བུ་ and འུ་ form diminutives of nouns.
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| སྒྲོམ་བུ་
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| box
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casket, small box
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| ཁང་བུ་
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| house
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small house, hut
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This process can also occur with taking off and then using the noun’s postfix-letter:
- གཟེར་, nail, stake; both གཟེར་བུ་ and གཟེ་རུ་ mean "spike, little nail", (taking off and using the ར་)
- ལུག་, sheep; both ལུག་གུ་ and ལུ་གུ་ mean "lamb", (taking off and using the ག་)
A change of the noun’s vowel can also occur:
- རྟ་, horse; རྟེའུ་, foal; སྟ་རེ་, axe; སྟེའུ་, small axe; བྱ་, bird; བྱིའུ་, little bird; མཚོ་, lake; མཚེའུ་, pond, small lake; རྡོ་, stone; རྡེའུ་, pebbles, small stone; ཁྱོ་, ཁྱོ་བོ་, ཁྱོ་ག་, husband; ཁྱེའུ་, child
ཕྲུག་
- ཕྲུག་ from ཕྲུ་གུ་ indicates the young ones of a species.
| བུ་ཕྲུག་, མིའི་ཕྲུ་གུ་
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| son
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young ones of humans, child, offspring
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| བྱ་ཕྲུག་
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| bird
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fledglings, birdling, nestling
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also:
| སློབ་ཕྲུག་
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| study
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student, pupil
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| སློབ་དཔོན་
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| study chief, master
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master, acharya
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| དགེ་ཕྲུག་
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| virtuous
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disciple, student, pupil
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| དགེ་རྒན་
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| virtuous elder
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teacher
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བྱ་
| ཤེས་བྱ་
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| to know
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that which can be known, knowable objects
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| སྤང་བྱ་
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| to abandon, discard
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discards, what is to be abandoned
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| འདུལ་བྱ་
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| to tame, subdue
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the one(s) to be tamed, disciple, student
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| བླང་བྱ་
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| to adopt
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what should be adopted, accepted
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ས་
- ས་ itself means "place, earth, ground, land, soil, base, territory; the element earth; stage, state, level, ground", related to that ས་ forms noun with the meaning "the place where":
[...]
Endnotes
- ↑ S. V. Beyer: The Classical Tibetan Language, "Syllabic formatives"
