tibetan4beginners.pdf

Tibetan language

for beginners

Silvia Vernetto

with the collaboration of

Tenzin Norbu

Version 2.2

May 25, 2007

Contents

Introduction

Part I – Grammar

Sentence structure

Nouns

Articles

Personal pronouns

Genitive and dative cases

Possessive adjectives and pronouns

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns

Qualifying adjectives

Interrogative pronouns

Postpositions

Verbs - To be

Verbs - To have

Verbs conjugation

Verbs - Infinitive

Verbs – Present tense

Verbs – Future tense

Verbs – Past tense

Verbs – Negative form

Verbs – Interrogative form

...continue

Questions and answers

Imperative

Verbs – Termination table

Want – need – can – like

Special structures

Numbers

Indefinite adjective and pronouns

Conjunctions

Part II – Little phrasebook

Greetings – Making friends

In town and outskirts

Visiting a monastery

At the Barkor market

At the restaurant

At the hotel

Trekking

Weather

Time

Health

Common adjectives

Common verbs

Tibetan alphabet

Bibliography

Introduction

These pages are intended to provide the basic rules to build simple

sentences in Tibetan, suitable to have small conversations or ask

information.

The first part contains simple grammar rules and many examples on how

to use them.

The second part is a collection of words and phrases useful on different

occasions (visiting towns and monasteries, trekking on mountains, eating

at the restaurant, etc), where you can find some applications of the rules

presented in the first part.

Hurried and lazy people can skip directly to the second part, using

sentences without knowing nothing about their structure, but it will be

much less amusing...!

Pronunciation rules

Tibetan words have been transcribed using the Latin alphabet, trying to

reproduce the original pronunciation. However the readers must take in

mind that some Tibetan sounds have not a precise correspondence in

western languages. For instance you can hear a sound that is not really k

nor g but stays somewhere in the middle between them; the same happens

for p and b , or for d and t .

At the end of this grammar you can see the Tibetan alphabet, consisting

of 29 consonants and 5 vowels. For our western ears it can be difficult to

perceive the difference between k and k’ , between ts and ts’ , or between

ch and ch’ . Sounds that for us are quite similar, for Tibetans are very

different. In any case, don’t get discouraged...Tibetan people can

understand you even if you don’t use the exact pronunciation and often,

with a smile or a warm laugh, they will repeat what you have awkwardly

tried to say, giving you the possibility to listen the correct way to

pronounce it...

The Tibetan language is spoken in a very wide region, extending for

thousands of kilometers. The written language doesn’t change, but the

pronunciation can vary a lot going from the western part of Tibet to the

extreme eastern regions or to the Himalayan lands. In this grammar we will

refer to the pronunciation used in Lhasa.

...continue

In general you can read the Tibetan sentences of this book as in English, but

remember that:

a is like in father

e is like in let

i is like in sing

o is like in low

ö is like the French eu in jeu

u is like in moon

ü is like the French u

ny is like the Spanish ñ in niño

g is like in goat

is like in jam

is rolled , don’t read it like the Italian nor the French r’s.

ng is like in sing , but the g is almost silent (the very common word nga ,

that means I , is pronounced as something between nga and na ).

k,g at the end of a word are almost silent ( yag , the popular animal yak, and

chig , the number one, are pronounced almost ya and chi )

h h after a consonant (except after c ) means a breathy consonant. Don’t

read ph as in photo and don’t read th as in three or as in this . Pronounce thr

and dhr like in tree and drum .

In this book all the words are divided in syllables to make easier the learning.

In a word the accent generally falls on the last syllable...but not always: at the

restaurant remember to ask for momò (typical dumplings) and not for mòmo

(grandmother)...

Good luck ! ... or better, Tashi deleg !

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: