-

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~HE

CLASSICAL TIBETAN

LANGUAGE
-0-

_,,

'I'

Stephan V. Beyer

THE CLASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

SUNY series in Buddhist Studies

Matth~w

Kapsuin, diror

THE CLASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

Stephan V. Beyer

no de-phyir ies-nas Nlihad-pa yin gnoii-ha thoh-nos T/Jom-po yin

log-smra Ndug-nm Tlsod-pa yin -Pad-ma dkar-po

State University of New York Press

Publishal by

STAn UNIVElSITY Of NEW Yo~)( PlESS

Alb~ny

C 1992 State Univcrsicy ofNcw York AJI rights rauval Prinled in lhe Uniled StaleS of Amcrico No pan of thil book may bc uso:d or "'produd in any IIWlRer whallOCftr without wrirten ~rmi"ion. No pur of .hi. book may bc siored in I .ellieva! Iyllem or transmilled in any form or by any means iM:[uding electronic, dccuosn.ric. maplnic <2pf. mhanical. pho.ocopying. recording. Or otherwise wilhollt the prior permission in wriring of me publisher. For inform<l;ion. ~drcu Stile Univcrsicy QfNcw York Prtts 1')4 Washington Avenue. Suire 305. Albany. NY 12210-2384 Produclion by Marilyn P. Scmcnd Mariu:ting by Bemadene laManna

Library of ConJIUI Cau.lopnri Pu.blicl.lio. Data

Ikycr. Stephan V.. ]913The classia! Tibctan Jan~ J Stephan V. Bcyet. p. em. _ (SUNY Kria in Buddhisrlludicsl [ndudes bibliOS.aphic::al ",re",~ (p. ) 100 indO!, ISBN 0-7914109')...( _ ISBN 0-7914. [1OO-[ (pbk. ) libc"n lmguagc. I. Tide. II. Sories. PU608.B49 1992 495'.482421 _ dc20 912449')

CIP

10 9 8 7 6 S 4 3 2 1

I Ulm to prrM"" ~hiJJm' mqr~ rAfUlly ibM I prwtuu boob, .IMh inAilluU thllt my prwwitUs IU'~ propn-/y (It'g,miud. This (mt is for Rsbm; .

Summary of Contents
~don

... ............. ... ........... ... ..... .... .... . ..... .... v

FcrtwOnI. by MI2IfMw ICiJpIteitt ..... .... . .... . .... ..... .. .... :ai

'"!lICe ... . ........... .. ...... . .. .. . . ........ . ...... DiU

I. lotrodYdioll .............. . . .............. ...... ..... ........ 1 2. Tr.adI.......doa ......... ........ . ..... . . ............ ...... 3

3. ,....... "- COIIIat .... .. .. 7

1. Ddinln, TIbetan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2. nbetaQ and relaled IanJWIJCI ............. . ....... . ....... 8 3. ..... rUllon In TIbetan ..................... . . . ......... .... ... 18 I. Variation in New nbetan ................... . . .......... .. .... 19 2. Variation ill Old Tibetan . . . .... ........ " ....... . .. ...... 28
. Definin, classical Tibetan ..... .. ............. .. ....... . ........ 36

4. 'I1Ie WJ1tlna.,.ea. . . ......... ... .......... . ...... . .. . .... 39 5. ,..... ................. .. .. ..... .... .... . . ................ I. ArttaIlatory cScIa1ptJoni . ..... . . .. ......... ......... ... ... 2. Aroustk 4escriptions ............. ......... . .. ..... ......... 3. 1'be pboDcmk inYentory ...... . .. .... ... ... .............. 55 55 6l 6S

6. S,u.bteI .... .. ........................................... . 68

1. Lellll1b colIISuaints ........... .... ........ ....... . ...... 68

2. SJotl'IUer COIIIttaiJlts ......... ... . ........ . .............. 71

3. Co-occu.rrence c:oastralnts . . ... ..... ... ..... . . . .. . ...... ... .. 81 ... DIsYllabic streu pollps ....... ......... . .............. 90
7. ~

..................... . ...... . .......... . . . .. . . ... fJ7 1. Prelimlurlct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fJ7 2. Ledc:al morpllololY ......... .... . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
I. ConstructJons .. ........ . . . 1. CompollJlds ........ . . . . 2. DerivatJons ......... . . . . 1. inlM:r derivation .. . ... 2. Outer derivation ..... ... . . .. . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . ... .. . ... ........ . .. ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . ....... . ..... ........... 102 103 111 111

3. Word ramilies ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2. Borrowin, ....... .. ..... . . ... . .. ....... ............ 3. Imitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Honorifta ..... ,.. ..... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

119 137 138 147 152

vii

viii

THE Cu.ss1CAJ.. TIBETAN L\NOUAOE

8, Innectlons 160 I. Inncelion withtn syllables ... .. . .................. ....... 161 2. Morphophonemes across syllables .................. . . 186
9. Phn.ses ..... .. ................... . . ........... . .. . 1. Preliminaries. . . . . . . . . . .. ... ......... ...... 2. Nominals ..................... . ...... . ........... . . . .. ... ) . Phrases ., ......... ..... .... .. . ......... .. . . ..... 1. Nominal phrases .............. ..... . ........ .. . . ...... I. Simple nominal phrases ...... . .......... . ..... I. Specifiers ......................... ... . .. . ...... I. Delimiters ........................ . . .. . ...... l. Determiners ..... .. ........... ..... I . Definile determ iners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. I. Spatial determiners ........ .......... 2. Personal determiners ... .... . ........... 2. Indefinite determiners ......... . . .. ... ...... 2. Renex.ivcs ..... . ............. . ..... . 2. Quantirlers ........................ . .......... 1. Numerals 2. Plurals ) . Thlilizen ..................... .. .. . ...... . Selecton . . .... . ............ . ....... . 2. A4nominals .............. . ......... ..... .... ... 2. ConJoined nominal phrases .. ... .. ........ . ........ 2. Verb phrases .......................... . . ...... I. Ne,alion ................... .............. . . ....... 2. Adverbs ........................... . ......
10. Simple propo$lllons ...... . . ....... .......... ........... I. Syntactic structure .................... . ..... l. Events . .... .... . . .... . .. ........ ... . . ...... 2. Plrticipants ......... . .. : ... .......... . . ........ 2. Thematic structure .... . ............ . ..... 11. Compkll pnl$!.05ltlons ... . .... .. ... ..... ........... I. Conjoined prOJl'O$itions ........................... . 2. Nomi naliza lion ............................ .. .. .. ...... 1. The nominalizers .... .. .... ............ . . ... . 2. Nominal itt.d propositions as heads ........................ 3. Nominaliled ptoJl'O$ilions IS modirlers ........ .. . . . . ...... J. Re131ive oonSlnK1ions . .... ..... ...... ... : . 2. Com plement oonstruct iqns .... ...... : .. . . ..........

191 191 19' 204 204 204 204 206 206 206 206 1JI1 21.
218

220 221 230 230 232

234

,.0

242 242

,..

,.,
2n

252 252 252

282

'" '" '" ""

302

J09

334

SUMMARY OF CoNTENTS 12. SalIC_ ....... . ......... . .... . .......... ..... .......
1.

ix

Perfonn.ancc. p"nlclc:s ...... . .. . . ...... ... . . . ........ 2. Modal performali...u ........ ........ . ....... .. ...... lSI 3. SlalemenUi .............. . . . . . .. ..... . , ..... '52 4. Qucstions ... ........... .. . . . l56 S. Commands . ...... . ... . ........ l62 6. Vocatives ........ . ... . . 370 13. .,.....
Ute

", ",

ICIIUnoe ........... . ..... ...... ... ... ....... 383

1. Eu:iamatioas . .............. . . . . . .. ..... 383 2. CoDIXCtive$ . . ..... . . ...... ... 385

3. SeDICDOtS U pttieDU ....... . . . .... 390

4. Fipret or lpeccb ..................... . ........ . ..... . ..... ... 400 S. Metrics .................... . ..... .. . . . ............ . . . ...... 408
14. BlbI.Iocr-ph,. ......... ... .. . .... . . . . ....... . . . . . ......

'"

Contents
DrdiC(l(;1JIt
For~"'(Jfd

.. . .. . ... . . . . . . Y
Mllllh~'"

by

IWpsu'u,

Ptt{uu
I. Introd ....1iun

. . ... u:f ....... . . .......... mil

,. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . I

2.

lhonsll~",I'on

. .. .. . . . . . ...... ..... ...... ) . . . . . . . . .. ....... . . . . ....... 3 ....... . . . . . .... ... . . .... 3 2. Digtaplls and diacritics . .... ... . . ..... ... . .... ... . ... .. . 4 J. Other symbob . .
I. Pl'IOnemic symbols

... Other I. n,uap

.... . .. .. . ..... . . ...... . ... ' . S

..... ... ........ 7

. . . . ............... 7 I. Ddining Tibetan .... .. . . . ....... . ... . .... . ........... 8 l Tibel2n and relaled langllJges . . ............. . . ............ 10 1. Tibetan and Chinese .. . 2. Tibe tan and Burmese .............. .. . ........ . . . ...... . .. 11 3. Tibetan and the H imala~n \angllap ..... .. .. . .......... 14 4. Tibetan and the Western Barhilrians . . .. ... . ....... . .. . .... 16 3. Variation in Tibetan ... . .. .. .. . .... . .... . . ....... .. . ...... . 18 I. Variation in New Tibetan . . ... . . .. . ........ . ....... 19 I. The pal;lIaiiZilltion of \abials ... .. . ... . . . . . ..... . ... .. 22 2. 5ume southern isoglosses ... . .... . ........... .... . . 24 3. Elcpllt bre.:illhincss .............. . ... . .. ..... ......... . 26 2. Varilllkln in Old Tibetan .... ... .. . . . .. ... .. .. ..... . ......... 28
L__ _ .. . ~

. .... . ... . ........... . .. . . . .... ...... 4. The pro blem of tl\c preiniliab .................. .......... 4. Defining clUsical Tibetan ... . ..... .. ... . . . .. .... . ...... .... ..

2. Manuscript varilltklns . . . . . .

3. RCQ)llStrllcted va riation$ . . . . . . . . . . . .

31 33

34
36

4. 'The 1I'T'ItI", ' 1sklll .... . . . ........ . .. ...... . .... 39 I . Graph and sollnd .... . 2. The invenlio./l of Wl'iting ....... . . ... . ....... . . . . . ....... ~ 3. The writing $ystem . .. . ... .. . ....... 42 4. The IoCript ................. ... . . . . . .

S. Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... . .... . ........ ... .. .... ... I. ArticulalOry descriptions ........ . .. .. .... . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .... I. Vowels. . . . . .. . .. . .. . .......... . ....... 2. ConsonanlS .......... ..... .......... ........... .........

" "
SS

S5 55
S7

xii
1. Place . .

THE Cl.AssICAL TIBETAN LANOUAGE

2. Oosllre .... .................... .. ...... . . .. .. . ..

3. Voice onset time ........ .... .... .. .. .. .. . ... . .... ...

,. "
fj()

... Nasality .................. ..... .. .. ..... .. .... 62 2. Aooustlc de5criptknls ............... . ..... . .... . .. .. . . .. . .. 6J I. Gnavlt)' . ........ .... . .. . .. . .. ..... ..... . .. . . ....... 6J 2. Sonorance . .... ... .. ......... . ...... . . . ....... . .... .. .... . . 64 3. The phonemic inventory . . . . ... .. . ... ........ .. ........ 65
6. S),U.D6a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... . . .... .. I. Leugtb ronsuainu ........... .. .... . ... . . . . .............. 2. Slot filler ronstraints ............. . ...... .... ... ... . .. 1. Are ./. and w postinitla1s1 ....... . . . ................ ... ... . 3. Co-oocurrence rons u'ainu .......... ....... . ..... ...... .. ... I. Constraints on postinitials . .... . .. ... '.... _ . ........ .. ... . 1 P05linitial _y_ . ..... . . ... .. . ......... 2. Poslinitial .,.............. .. . .... . . . .... ......... 2. Consualnts on preinilials . .... , . . . .... , . ..... .. , ...... 3. Stackin, ronslT.lnu ...... . . .......... ' ... .. .. . ..... ... Disyllabic stress ,roups , ........ . ,., ... .. . ', . . ......... , I.Qips ..... , ........... . . ..... . . . ... , . . ..... . . . ... ,. J. Word clips , .. , . .... . , . . . ,' , . , ....... .. ,., ...... .... , 2. Nominal clips .. ,., .... ....... . ... ...... . . .. . " . 3. Phrase clips ... . ... , .... , ...... , .. . .... . ,. , ..... . ... 1. Coordinate clips .. .. .. . ... ... . ...... , . . ... . ........ 2. Mllominai clips . . . .... . . . . , . . . .... .. .. .. , 3. Relalive clips ... , ....... ....... . , ..... . . . ......... 4. Verb ..:lips ... .. . .... . . ... .. .. ...... . .. .. ... .. .. , 2. Syllabic cycles ... . ......... . ...... ...... ' . . . . . . .
7. WonIs ....... . . .... .. . .. .... .

6& 6& 71 7.. 81 81 81

84
87

89
90 92 92 9'l 93 9J
94 94

9S 9S

97 I. I'rcliminaries ... , , .... .. ....... . . . .. . .. . ..... . .... , ..... 97 I. The scope or morpnolOgy .. . ...... .. . .. ' . . . ...... , . 97 2. The "parIS or speech" . . . . . . .. . .... . .... ... ...... . ... 98
. .. . ... . _ . . . . . . . . . .... 9'iI

2. Lexical morphology " . .

1. ConstruC1ions .. , . . . . . . .. .. ... _ . .. .. ....... I. ComPOllnds . . . . . . . . .. ........ . . . . ..... . . .. .. . .. , I. Native rompounds ........ , . , ... , , . ' " ... . . . ' ........ I. NOUN + NOUN - NOUN .... . .... . .. , . .. .. . , ... 2. ADJECY'IV + NOUN"'" NOUN ................ .. . ... .. . 3. NOUN + ADJEcnvE ..... NOUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ... ADJECIlVE + AOJEcnvE ..... NOUN ....... . , . . . . . . .. S. NOUN. + VERB - VERB ,. . . ,.. . . . . . . . . .... 2. Ttanslation rompouDds ... ,., . ............... . .......... . I . ADJEcnVE + AOJEC'7lVE ..... NOUN .... ... . ' .... ,.

102 103 103 103

104 104

I~
106

10'7 107

xiii
1. NOUN + VI!JlA ). 1N11!.HStF11!A
~

NOUN ... . lOS

VERB 110

VERB -

DcriYaOOIli ... , , ' , HI

1. IlUICt dutvalloa .......................... ........ 1. Chlnae olledal caleaory ........ . ....... .. ......... . 2. Vok:tlll aad lBMltMry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ). 1lM: IonIIadvc In' "H0t40It.1FK:" . . . 4. llIe 1IonDItie In , " HlIMAN IK)()Y rAk1"' ........ ...... . , . llIe fonnIllYe , . " AHIMAL
R .................... . ... .....

111 111 112

II I

114
11'

6. 1k foJmlltlYe , . '"nVoHsmvl!" ............... ....... 116 7. The foraatM -4 "NOMINAl." . . . . . 117 a. Tbe fonnItM ~ "NOMtNAI." ..... 117
9. 1lIc IonaIli'I'IC ., "'ttoMIHAI.'o' . . . 118 . 119 2. 0u11Cl ckriYIl lotli . . . . 119

to. 'The formattYe '-4-'~ "1tI1UH1l' c:ou..tt'11VI!"

1. Sylllbk formatha ............. . .... .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. The fonnItM lIid "NESS" ...... . ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Tbe formatfve 'pG "'EJUON HAV!NO TO DO wmi" . . . . . . . . . ' ). The formative -mkJo.M "SJuu.EO IN" 4. 1'be Ionutfve ,mo-d/w " 810 OCD Of" .' ...............

119

Jl9 120 120 12 1 5. 1k fonnalive -lUll "POSSESSIHO" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 121 6. 1lIe fotmatte .ytU "LESS" . . . . 122 7. 1be ronutive -h-. (I "OIMtNtmVE" . . ... 122

a. Sa fonIWIliel

. .. .. ... ' 123

I. The tonN.ltva __ "fEMAl.." aad 'pbo"MALE" . .. ..... 1. An'-l ~ ton!IatiWI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3. 1'be formIltva __ Ind __ " F1!MAl" . 4. Nlma ......... .. ......... . ................
5. OCOVlpby ............. . ............ . . ...... 9. 1lIe formative ,l'Ho " ADJECT1VFlACarr" .... 10. Tbe forClUltive ' 111 " I'UCE WHfJl" .................. 11. Tbe formative /III " NONll'lAL" .. : ... 12. The forlllltive ' E "ADlI,ClT\IE" ............ ' ........ 13. 'The torl'Dltie -4/r.4-.k#-.p " NOIJ1ll" .
.~.~~ ....

121
124 125

126
127
127

129 130 131

133
~

. . . . . . . . . . . ......

1. Nominal reduplictl ioa .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Verb tcduplkaooll ................................ 1. Word familia ........... .. .... . ....... . . ........ 2. 8oJl'O'lriaI .................. . ....... . . .... . . . ..... 1. 'lhlIsfm ................ .. ...... ,.. ...... . . . .......

134

1
117 138 139 142 142 143 145

2. ReproductioN ............ ........... , . . . . . . . . . . . ..

1. to.lI tralUlltlona ................... ,..... . ........ 2. Loaa aatiolll .. .. . .... .. .... .... ..... ..... ). MIIc4 fonIII ............. .. ...... ... . ...............

.. BKlfonIU .. . ... . ... .... , . . .. .. ... . . ... ...... .. ........ .

..

3. ImltatloDl . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 I. lAtefjecdolU ......... ...... ,., .. ...... , ., .. , .... . . 147 2. OnomatOpoeia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 147
3. Poetic word play . . . . . . . 148

4. HonoriHa .. .. .. . ........ .. ..... . .......... . .. ............ 1. The use of bonorifia ............ . . ....... . . . . ...... 2. ElepQOt and social vector ........ ... .... ..... . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Primary bollOtifia ....... . ...... . . ........ . . . . ...... 4. DelK>tation Ind connotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. , . E upbemisll!. ........ ... .. .... ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 6. Secundlry bonori~a . ........ . .. .. . . . . .... . . . . ...... 7. Kinship tenns .. . ........ . ..... ... . ........

1'2 1'2 1' 3 1S4 155 156 156 157

&. IIIIIcJaIonI ...... .. ........... . . 160 I . Innect lo n within sylla bles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 I. Ttnse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 161

2. Roou Ind Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 162

3. 1}-pcs o f innectlonal NJe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 162

4. 'O"ansitive Ind int ra nsitive verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 163

5. Plradipns ................... . ........... . . . . . .... . . 164

6. Aft"1lI Nics . . ..... ....... . . ........ .. . . .. . .. ... . . . 1. Tbe prerLll N . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. The preflll G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. The prefo b. . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . 4. Tbc , ufflJl: '$ ....... . . . .. ... . ... . . . .. ... . . . . ..... 7. Root rules .............. . .... . .... . . . . . ........ ...... I. \fQice dw im ila tio n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2. UnstoPpinl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1. ublal N ics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . ................ . ..... 8. TIle Pft5ent stem t:kl4rdt ... .. .. . . ... . ........ . . ..... 9. &ceptions Ind irrclularities . ... ........ . . . ........ ... .. 1. Scrib:ll erron . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .... .. . .. .......... . .. 2. Mllltiple ( !u.s mc mbenh ip ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. MUlti plc underlien .......... . . . . . ... . . 4. Connict of rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !Ii. $lIpplction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 6. RCJVilr irrc,uilrilies .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2. MorpbopboftC lDtI ICfOIoS syllablc& . . . . . . . . . . I. Articulato ry ISIlmilallo n ....... .... .... . . .. ... . . . . .... 2. Oravity dwimiialion ............... . .. .. ; . . . . . . 3. Sooorlnc::e ISSlmUltion .. . . ... . ........... .... .... .... ......
9. 166 167 167 168 168 169 170 171 173 175 176 177 181
182

III 184

185
186

116
117

1M

nr- ....... .. ............. ... . . .... . .. . . .... . . . . .... . ... . . .

1. PrcUmlaariel ..... ... ........ .. ...... . .... . . . . . ... 1. Syfttu l&d morpholol)' ..... ... 191

,., '"

2. Overview o f tile syntax .... ... . 1. The "Thlegl"f.m Principle ......... . 1. The eliminalion of redun4ancy 2. Old and new info rm.lio n ..... . 1. TIle o mission of role part k les ...... . ..... . . . ..... . . . . 2. Nominal5 ..... .... ......... . ...... . .......... . ........ . I. Definition ...................... ........ . ........ . . 2. Head Ind modifier ...... . 1. Basic patlems ..... 4. Enended pallern.s ........... . .... . . .. ..... . ... . 5. Adjeaives ......... . . ... . . . . ...... . . 6. Headless modifM:~ .. ... ... ..... ..... .. ....... . J . Phru.c:s ........... . I. Nomina l phrases . ........ .. . . . . .. . .... ... . I. Simple nomina l phrases .. . . .. . . . . ...... . . I. Specifiers . . .......... . . .. . . .. . I. Delimiters ..... . . . .. . .. . 1. Dete rminers . . . t. Definite dete rmine n 1. Spalial determiners ......... . . 2. Perso n.l dete rminers . . . I . U nma rked and specialized fo rms 2. Honorific delerminen ... J. Speaking roles 4. HumilirlC$ ..... . S. From humililie to personal determine r 6. Sex marked personal dete rminers . ... ....... . . 7. Personal delerminer taib . ......... . . . . 8. The archaic determine r 0-1,1 2. Indefinite determiners 1. Head less indefin ites 2. Indefinite adverbs . 2. Reflexives 2. Quanlifiers ............ . ......... . . I . Numerals 1. From o ne to ninely nine ...... .. .. 2. aipped numerall ....... . 3. Numerals as selecton ....... . 4. La rge numbers ................ . . S. Fra'tlQn~ . . . . ... 6. Collective no uns Ind adjectives . .. ... . . 7. Ordinall . . 8. Dis tributives .. 9. Weighl5 and measurcs . . 10. Paginatio n .. .

191
194 194

I"

""

199 199 199

200
100 201
203

.' " ,I
206

"" ""
2IJ.I
2f)4

'" 207

"" 2IU
112 112
2 1.'

".

' 14 ' 1< ' 16

216
2IK

22<l ' 21 ' 21 222 22.' 22-' 225 226 226 2Ui

'"

""

T HE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

2. PluDIs ................ . ....................... . J. 1b~ l iurs ....... . ...... . .................. . 4. Selectors .. ..... ............ ........ .. .. .... 2. AdnomiNiIs ..................... .. .............. I. Basic modification patle rru . .. ..... ........ ..... 2. lfpes of modifica tion .... .......... ..... .......... J. Recursion ....................................... 4. Headless adnomiNils ..... . . . . ................... 2. Conjoined no mina l phrases ........... .............. ..... 2. Verb ph rua .................... . ... ....... .. .... I . NegatiOD ... . .................... ..................... I . 1brm negations .......................... . ..... 2. An idiom with MED ..... . .. . 3. Universal nela tion .... .. ... .... . .. .................. 4. Double negation .................. .................. 2. Adverbs. . . . . .. .... .. ..... .... .. ......

2J() 2J()

232

234 234
2J5 236

23'
240 242

'" '"
246
247 248

'"

10. Simple pt'Oposllions .. ..... . . .. ......... 252

l. Syntactic st ructure .................... . . .............. 1. EventS .............................. .. ... . . ... . ... I. Equations ............. . . ............ .... ...... 2. lhnsitive and intrlfls itive verbs .......... . . .. ... J. Ergat ivity ..... .. .................... ... . . . .......
4 ...'Ttns.e"

252 252

25S

.. .... . .................... . . . ..... 26'

I. The lem.e system . ....... . . . . ..... . . .... ...... 2. Periph rastic forlllS ....... ........... . ........ 2. Panicipa nl5 . . . . . . . . . ... ....... . . ...... I. The patient role ............. . .............. . ....... 2. The lIgency role ............. . ...... ... . ..... J. The locus and source roles .... ............. . .... ...... 4. The acoo mpa niment role . ...... ..... . . ... . . . ... .. 2. Thematic SUuctu re . . .... ... .. ..... . .. . ....... .. .. ...... I . Par ticipant o rder . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ......... ... .. . '..... 2. Thpics ............ . .......... ...... . .. .. . . ..... 1. The tOpica lizer IIi . ....... . ........... . .. ... ...... 2. The panicle -Ill as topica lizer .................... . . ...... J. Iden tmcaHon and definitio n wil ~ -STt . . _ . ..
I I . Co.pln pl'OJlO"iltions

,.,

258 25'

,.2
263 263
2M 267

270 272 272

m
m
278

2'"

................. .. . ... ...... 1. Conjoined propos itions . . ... . . . . . . . . ...... . ... . 1. Conjunctions. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . .. ... ... . . . . 1. The alternative conjunction ... ...... '1.. The adven.ative conjunction '.. . . . .. . . . .. . I. Dialect varionts ... .. , . . . .. . . . . 1. The wonJinative conjl.lllctio:l . .. . ' . .... . . . . ..

.... ... . . . ... .

xvii
1. Simultaneous and periphrastic con.muaions 2. Dialect variants .................... .. ..... .. . ... 2. Gapping .............................. " ....... . ... .... 2. Nomililiution ..... . ................. ........... .... ...... 1. The nominali:o.eR ............ ..... . ........................ . 1. Paticnt-ntcrcd nominalizeR ........................... _... 1. 1be nominalizer -~ "rATIEHT OF rRorosmor-l 2. The nomililizeR -O-dog/-dgu/-u1uJd "ALL rATIEHTS OF PROl'O$mOr-r" .......... .... ................. 3. The nomililizer .1>Iphro "REMAINDER OF PATIENT OF rRoros mON" ... . ..... .. ....................... 2. Ploposilion-o:nterc4 nominalizen ....... ... , ................ 1. The nomllilizer -hi ....... 2. The nominalizer sa "ruo.CE WHERE rRorosmoN" ............ 3. The nominalizer -grog:J '"liEU wml rROl'OSmON" ............ 4. The nomililizeR mkJuuJ/-mi '"PERSON INVOLVED IN rROPOsmON" ....... . ....... ............ ...... 2. Nominalized propositions as heads ........... .. .......... . .... I. Multiple embedding .................. . ............. 2. 1be o mission or1'O .................... . ....... ..... . 3. Propositional adverbs ............. , ... . . , .. ...... 3. Nominalized propositions as modifien ............. ........... 1. Relative construc.:1ions ................... .. . .. ... .. .... 1. Discunus on English relativiution ............... . ..... . 2. Rclalive prop<:l$itions after the head ............... ...... 3. Relative propositions berore the head ...... .... . . .... . Relativized propositions and adjectives ...... . . . .......... 5. Dummy role particle carrieR ... . ... . ..... ...... 6. Headless relatives ...................... . ........... 7. States and proa:s.scs . . . . . ........... . ........... 8. Multiple embedding ................. . .. . ..... 9. Balanced relatives ....................... . ........... 10. ComplCl: re1ativized propositions .. ... . ... .... ...... 2. Complemtnt oonstructlons ~ . ............... ..... ..... 1. Complement heads ... .. ... ............. ... .... ....... 2. Nominal complements .................. .... .. ..... 3. Verb oomplements ..................... . .......... I. "JYpes of oomplement conuruction ........ . ........... 1. "Type I complement oonstructions ..... . .... ... 2. 'tYpe 2 complement oonstructions ..... . ........... 3. 'tYpe J complement oonstructiOns ....... .. .... .. .. . of. 'tYpe of oomplemcnl constructions ....... ........... 2. Complex complements. '............. ... . ........ '.' 3. The omission of1'O ... ......... ..... .......... . Equative oomplemenu ....... , , , ...... ......... .
H

290

,..
29S
296 296

291 293

m
298 299 299 300 301 301 302 303 lOS 307 308 309 310 312 316 317 318 325 327 329 332 334 334 335 335 337 338 339 341 342 342
J40f

344
J4.4

xviii
S. On translltint Sanskrit vcrbs 1. Simple fo rms .... 2. Pe riphr u tie fornu

TilE ClASSiCAl TIB ETAN LANGUAGE

,..,
35 ' 35'

146 348

12. Smtrncu 1. Pe rformance ~rticlcs 2. Modal pcrrormativc:s . ) . Sta te menu ............. . I. The $Iatement panicle .. . 2. RIunc1Jncy ). n..: promise ~nicle 1OU ...... . . 4. The WoIrnin, ~rticle A-re _ . ... ... . . 4. Questions _ .. ............. . . 1. The qLICStio n panicle _ .. . 2. Questions and alternat ives . . _ ... .. ..... . . . .. . ). Info rmat io n questions 4. 'The doubt particles .... . S. O lmmand.5 ......... . I. The command ~rticle . . 2. Polite a nd elepnt command! .. 3. Impersonal oommands ..... . 4. Requesu ........ . S. Linked imperatives 6. 'The info rma l comma nd part ic le 6. Vucal ives .... . . . . .. .. . . . 1. Inilial and fina l vocalives . . . . . . ... . .... .. 2. Titles or rcspct't ............ __ . . ) . Othe r voca tive aprw iOns ... . 4. The structure or Tibelan namC$ ....... _ . 1: Personal names . . 2. ~pcs of personal names . ........ . J. Gro,raphk:al and family na mes 4. Epithe ts ... S. Namcs and epithets in vocative phra.ses
13. ~ 1M Kftt(1K'C . . . . . . . . . . I . Exelamatio ll5 .... . . _ ........ _ . . .

3 " m
m
m
353

'"
356 357

'"

358

36' 362 363 36' 366 367 368

,.,
370

370
371
373 373

374

'"
38'
383 383 383

377 379

...... . . I . Hypolhelical e.prcssions 2. Hypothetica l e llip5i5 ... ) . ElIelamatioll5 in PtJlo 4. ElId3matio ns in -rr - ... 2. Co nne<:live5 \ . The co nnective Yn ..l 2. Doo..un.c co nnectives ) . Ph rasal ronna;tives ... . ..... .. . .

"" "" 3 " '" 387 '"

388.

4. yan in IIIe K lling 51 01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ;\lUI 5. Proposiliomll oonnccliyu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lllO .l. Senlences as pallcnu ........... .. ............. . ...... . . . ... .'QO

I. Quote openet5 ................ . . . ..............

.'ul

2. 11M: quote clalcr TkJ ... ........... ...... .......... .'<)1 3. Queliions as pallcnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'07 4. Figure. of spcc:dl ... ... ... . .. .... . ..... 4Al I . Metapllof ........ ..... . . .. . .... . . ... . . . 4f'O 2. Similes ..................... .. .. ... ........ . ...... 40S

5. Metrics ............. .. ......... ........ ....... .. ....... 44'lIl

I. 2. 3. 4. Definitions ........ .......... . ..... . . ...... .
~ic:
UlIj.

mappin l ............................ ............. 40Q Synalcpl'lll .... . ... ... .. 41 0

Catak:xis ........ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ ........ 41)

5. Aperiodical mctet5 . . .............. . .. . . ..... ..... 415

6. U nstrcucd syllables in Jtronl positions ........... ...... ...... 41 9 7. VJril tion in the laS! root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ............ 422 14. BlblMlip1Ipb" . . .. .. . .... . . .. ... I . Cultural backuound. ...... .......... . . . ....... . .......... 2. Bibliograph ies '. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Gra mm:.,", ................ . ...... .... ... . . .. .. . 4. Dictklnarlcs .......... .. ..... .. ........ ........ .. ... ... S. GklMarie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ... . . .. . . . 6. Place names .... . 7. LcDcoVlphk: Stud ic$ ................. ......... ........ 8. Tibetan IQU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . ....... . .. 9. Tibetan U11 M lliions rrom Sanskril .. . .. ..... . .. 10. Writing ........... ..... ........... . ........ ........ 1 I. LanfUIgc: clauificatioll$ ....... ...... .... .. ... 12. Related lanlUJIP ............... .. . . .. ....... . . 13. Co mparisons Ind rtronstruet ions . . . .. ...... 14. Wo rd ramllies ..... . IS. New Tibetan dialts .................. . . ... . 16. Morp1'lolozy and SynlU ...... .... .. .. ...... . ....... . 17. History o r TIbe ta n ...... .. ....... . ... ... .. .... .. . .... 18. Utera'Y .tlldie5 ... .. ........ . . . . .. . . . ..... . . 19. Literl lure in motion ............ . . ..... . .. ... . . . ... 2O.' 1lIc TIbcllln gram marians ................. . ..... .... 2 1. Tibetan hermeneut ics ........ . ......... . ...... ...... 22. Tibetan p*mmar in oontext ..... ... .. ... . . .. .. . 42,1 424

425
425 41.6

42R . W

... . .
",

.. ,.
4.'1

" 2

"1 ' 56
457

.,. "'"
411

"'" ....
4Q.'

...

23. lbnual criticis m ... .. ... .. ...... ... . . . . ... ..... .

24. ltanslatioll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... ..... . .. ... . . .

25. Ethnopoella ............... .... . . . . ..... . . 26. 0d45 altd eDds .. . . .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

"'" ,., '" .""

Foreword
The year 1959 marks an abrupt turning point in the history of Tibet. The night of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to India, where he was followed by close to a hundred thousand of his fellow Tibetans, created a nation in exile dedicated above all to the preservation of the unique cultural institutions of its homeland. Not surprising, then, that during the past three decades the

-academic study of Tibet has been radically transformed. No longer the special
preserve of adventurer-scholars able to mount expeditions to the Land of Snows. or of philologically oriented "buddhologists.," whose: Tibetan reo searches were almost exclusively confined to the translations of Sanskrit texts, Tibetan studies increasingly came to focus upon the indigenous Tibetan tradilions of religion. learning and art that are the primary interests of Tibetans themselves.
Prominent among those whose scholarship reflected the changed conditions for research during the first two decades of Tibetan exile was a specialist in the field of Buddhist Studies. Stephan Beyer, then of the University of Wisconsin, whose superb contribution to the documentation and interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist ritual, The Cull of Tara, marked the first fruits of his wide-ranging researches. After the late seventies. however, Steve increasingly devoted his energies to a ~reer in law, having completely abandoned-or so it was widely rumored-his work in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. 1 was therefore surprised and delight(!d to learn, after I joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1986. thai Steve was both in Chicago (with the firm of Sidley &. Austin) and that in his spare time he had remarkably completed a grammar of literary Tibetan, which he had begun at the University of California-Berkeley some ten years before. In 1988 Steve sent me a copy of the manuscript I immediately felt it to be an extremely exciting work, renecling throughout the author's wide-ranging knowledge of Tibetan literature, in its many genres and forms, anciern and recent. A distinctive feature of Steve's approach to the Tibetan language is his almost complete abandonment of the morphological and syntactic categories. barr.owed from Indo-European grammars, that have traditionally informed textbooks of Tibetan. The "canonical" status of this mismatching was reinforced both by indigenous Tibetan grammatical tradition, which derived its own analytic and descriptive categories from India, and by the emphasis,

xxii

TIfE CiAssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

in Western philological circles, nn the study of literary Tibetan primarily as an adjunct to the study of Sanskrit Buddhist texts. For those who were inclined to direct their attention primarily to work.!; of Tibetan authorshipepic. history, biography, poetry, and so forth-it has long been clear that Indo-European models were both inadequate and misleading. but the effort to correct the powerful disposition to continue to adhere to them was largely limited, as it was in Jacques Bacot's still useful Grammtlin, to the enumeration of the S<H:8l1ed "particles," And while it is true that linguists specializing in Tibeto-Burman have generally avoided the sanskritizing inclinations of the philologists., they have by-and-targe not addressed their work to those who study Tibetan in order to actually read Tibetan literature, The C/os.sical 1ibelan Langua~, therefore, calls for the student of literary Tibetan to rethink the Tibetan language fundamentaily. In tenns of its extraordinllrily thorough treatment of the phenomena one encounten in literary Tibetan, and the insights that mark vinually every page, The Classical Tibetan Language is a work without precedent. It is my belief that the rethinking it calls for is essential for the realization of the creative potentialities of contemporary Tibetan studies, and that such controversy as it will perhaps arouse will significantly contribute to the creative growth of the field. Steve gives us a tantalizing glimpse of some possible Jines of exploration in his deeply penetrating, yet appropriately playful, remarks on Tibetan poetry and poetics, Our rethinking of the Tibetan language is not to be a linguistic exercise plain and simple: we must inquire into the manner in which Tibetan writers used and thus continually rethought their own language, forming of it a unique medium for a distinctively Tibetan heritage of learning, insight and wit.
MATllIEW KAPsn::IN

CollllDbia Unfvc:lShy Vesat: 1991

Preface
In 1975, I accc:pted an appointment u a visiting associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and I looked around (or a nice portable project to " take with me. It is" a measure of my innocence that t decided to start writing a grammar of classical Tibetan. Now, more titan fifteen years later, tbe project is about as finished as I am ever going to make it. During

those

fiftee~

years, I returned to the University of Wisconsin at Madison,

abandoned "my tenured appointment, and began a career as a trial lawyer with the firm of Sidley &. Austin in Oiicago. During fuat time., too, it would be (air to say that my work on this grammar was sporadic. Yet somehow, during !Ill those odd moments, a stadt of handwritten notes about two feet high--examples from the classical literature, attempu at theorizing. jumbles of cross-referenceJ-bccame the product you now have before you. My motive was simple-to move the Tibetan language from my head to paper. I hope someone finds the result useful. I am not a Tibeto-Burman linguist; but I believe that the reader of classical Tibetan texts should have some sense of the place of the language in the speech communities of the world. References in this text to Tibeto-Burman languages other than Tibetan are based on. several secondary sources, chief of which is Paul K. Benedict, Sitw-1'ibetan: A Conspru.s (Cambridge: Cambridge Unive rsity Press, 1912), as edited and annotaled by James Matisoff, and David Bradley, ProtoL%ish, Scandinavian Institute of Asian StudieJ Monograph Series No. 39 (London: Curzon Press, 1979). Comparative citalions of Tibeto-Burman forms are largely taken from these two remarkable compilations. In addition, I have relied on the stream of works produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics on the languages of Nepa~ in partir.ular the various works of Warren W. Glover on Gurung and the works in the four volumes of Austin Hale and David E. Watters, Clause, sernence, and ducour.'iI~ patterns ill u/teted /onguogfi o{ Nepal, Summer Institute of unguistics Publications in linguistics and Related Fields 40 (Kathmandu: Summer Institute of linguistics and Tribhuvan University, 1973). In the bibliography at the end of the text, I have tried 10 include not only the texts upon which I have relied but also the texts Ihat the literary scholar might find enlightening. In all my reading on the classical Tibetan language, 1 have returned again and

TUE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN UNGUAGE

again to the works of three scholarly pioneers of Tibetan studies-Berthold Laufer, Gb.a Uray, and Rolf Stein. They_represent the best scholarship to which I could aspire, and I cannot put forward this book without acknowledging the debt I owe them. I also cannot forebear from mentioning the name of E. Gene Smith, whose work is scattered in inlroductions and prefaces to the works of others: the collection of these into a single and accessible volume is a scholarly desideratum which is, unfortunately, not likely to occur soon. I owe a great personal debt to Professor Matthew Kapstein of Columbia University, for his friendship, encouragement, good sense, and extraordinary knowledge of the Tibetan language. No writer could hope for a better or more thorough reader, or for a more discerning critic. Thanks, too, to Professors lames Malisoff of the Universiry of California and F. K. Lehman of the University of Illinois for their ge nerow help, encouragement, a nd suggestions. Finally, I want to thank my friends and law partners Mike Davis. Bill Richmond, and Doug Fuson. Their friendship and support helped me write this book, even though they did not know it. One final note. If you want to learn classical Tibetan, you can do no better than to sit down and read A TibetalJ-English Dictionary by H.A. Uschke, o riginally published in 1881 and reprinted several times thereafter. laschke was a Moravian missionary in Ladakh, and I do not think that any other scholar of Tibetan has ever equalled the linguistic insight exhibited in this dictionary. And if you want to learn how to nttNK ABOUT classical Tibetan, you should sit d~ and read-twice-James A. Mati50ff, Variational Semllnlia in Tibeto-Bunnon, Occasional Papers of the WoUenden Society on Tibeto-Bunnan linguist.ics 6 (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978), which is simultaneowly one of the most sensible and sensitive books on doing Tibeto-Burman linguistics I have ever read.

"' May

....

STEPHAN

V.

BEYER

1991

Introduction

This book is intended to describe the reading of texts in the classical Tibetan language. It is nal a complete survey of all aspects of Tibetan grammar,

although I have tried to include everything I thought it was imponant to

know. It is intended to describe the READING of classical Tibetan; therefore it will nOl anempt to teach the reader to speak either Old Tibetan or some:

modem Tibetan dialect. I Rather my aim has been to provide procedures for the understanding of 1eXTS....... that is, coherent discourses with literary o r philosophical content, whose authors ustd the resources of their language to convey meaning.
Moreover, this book describes the reading of CI..A$SICAI.. Tibetan. I have

excluded from systematic consideration the modern newspaper language at one end and the language of translated Indie texts at the other. This leaves a sufficiently immense corpus of written Tibetan material for us to work from. 1

I This limitation bas made tbe descriptive wk much easier. A RECOGNmON (lRA,MMAR sud! as this need not incorponte the ou tput oonstn ints required in I rRooucnoN GRAMMAR, under the as.sllmption UtilI II reader limply will not encounter synlatlical1y ill formed seqllCllCai, wbereas I beginninl spea ke r mly wdl produce them. For eumpJe, production pmmar of English WOuld require bolb I role to produce the sequencesgoodntSl .Dd (orTfft1ltn . nd I oonsnaint on tbe 5I1nC rille to 'prevent tbe sequences '!tnJtMSS or '!1froII&MSS (as opposed 10 tnJlh or srrmgrh). Bull tcoopilion lramntlr wollld need only a role IJklwinl such sequences IS roodntSl o r conut1ltS$ 10 be interpreted wben e ncountered. It tnJtnaI Of stroftpwn should lurn up in a len, Ibey could be procc:ss.ed by IIIe same ru le; if ItOt, tbe qllCSlion does not arise.. 1 Ilbink it Is flir 10 say thlt Ihe translated materials have bun more intensively studied lbIn works origin.aJIy oompo$Cd in Tibetan, because of the primlrily Indololicai Interests of II\IJIy scboJ.n of Tibetan; mosl cxblinl textbooks reflt this interesl. 1bere can be no cSoubl, 01 course, lhat tbe cllssical ian&uage, as here defined. Is closely reJ.ted 10 the tnlnslllioQ Ianpaae. BUI il is cleat 100 ttlall'e language of the lranslalions exhibits ilS own pccul.ilriliQ, including ()l;Qlionally opaque attempts It reprod~n& Sanskril synlU. "TheK pcculilrilks, I firmly believe. Ire best Inllylcd from the point of view of Ihe glmmar of utM TIbetan works, rather !ban lhe olher .... y around.

TilE CLASSICAL TIBETAN t....o.NOUAO E

Finally, I hope to introduce classical Tibetan as a LANGUAGE, with a history,

with a range of styles., and with ongoing processes of creation and change.

Too often the Tibetan language is seen either as a poor substitute for un fortunately vanished Sanskrit texts, or as a spiritual code whose valu.c lies solely in the message it conceals-with the result that the language itself is neglected as a medium of great range, power, subtlety, and humor. I hope to rescue Tibetan from its subordination 10 lndie criteria, and to help the reader
proceed not only with some grammatical confidence but also with an aware ness of the individuality and literary potential of the language. I hope to provide the reader with conceptual tools for an intelligent and critical reading of Tibetan texts. I hope to share some of my affection for the Tibetan language.

'1.ransliteration
I. PHONEMIC SYMBOLS

In this book I will use the following inventory of symbols to transcribe Tibetan of all periods:

STUPS OLOlTAL

FRICATIVES

SONORANI'S

h
g

VElAR PALATAL
RETROFLEX

z
f

'1

<

r
p

4
d

,
I

"
n

DENTAL

,.....IAL

, ,

r
w

Tabk 1. 7hvu/i(mltion of COtlS(JNJIW

FROI<I'
HIGH
j

BACK
U

,
t
LOW

>
, ,

Z. DIGRAPHS AND DIACRITICS

Combinations of symbols will be used 10 represent AFFRICA11'.S (such as ll, dz,

TIlE ClASS[(".A1. TmETA.~ LANGUAGE

pf), ASP IRATES (such as kh, bh. ISh), PALAT....Ul.ED COt-lSOl'IANTS (such as klly, zy. my), and similar modifications. A small subscript circle will indica te that a normally voiced phoneme is VOICEl[.<>S, as in New Tibetan (Lhasa) Ja "god" as opposed to /a "mountain pass." An umlaut will indicate that the marked vowel is articulated at the end of the mouth other Ihan the usual one - that is, thaI a normally back rou nded vowel is a FRONT ROUNDED vowel at the same height, as in New Tibttan (Lhasa) Iii "tell," where the vowel is rronted as opposed to Iu "sit" and rounded as opposed to Jj "destroy"; or Ihat a normally from spread vowel is a HACK SPRFAD vowd al the same height. 35 in New Tibetan (Amda) .f iji "field," where the vowel is backed as opposed 10 Jill "cloud" and spread as opposed to !uii "protection." llte symbol 1 will represent a voiced murmured lateral, as in New Tibetan (Ladnkh) lama "i;lma," 1a "god," lu "song." I will use the symbol N to indic.lle Ooth NASAI.li'ATION of a prcct:ding vowel. as in New Tibetan (Ohus) gUN "grape;' and PRI'N/\SAI.!7.A'1l0N of a following consonant, as in Ngil "move."

3. OTHER SYMBOLS
I will use an asterisk tn mark an IJNATrES'Il'.n funn which has het:n historically reconstructed, as in Proto-Tibetan gryah "throw." I will use ;in interrogative 10 mark a DlSALI.OWED form which is precluded by the sym:hronic rules of the language, as in Old Tibetan '!l1a-mol1lsdag as opposed III l1a-dfIK-mams "horses." Quotation marks will em:lose GI.OSSES, as in Old Tihetan I1Q "horse," in order to identify forms and constructions, not 10 provide their central meaning or best possible lranslation, <tlthough I must confess I think my translations are often quile clevel : capitali1.ed glosses are SEMANTlC, as in Old Tibetan -ling "MOTt E lllAN ONE." The sign> means "changes into" and <: mea ns "develops from," as when Proto-Tibetan -gryah " throw" > Old Tibetan 'KIph > New Tibe lan (Lh'lsa) c~p. The sign - means "varies with," as when Old Tibetan me-tog - mell-/og "flower." The sign __ in glosst:s means "is lexic:llized as," as in Old TihetHIl rdo-riii "long stone .... monument," New Tibetan (Obus) meNW "firc arrow - . gun." Angle brackets enclose uw,APJIS, as when 1 indicate that New Tibetan (Lhasa) SONCC "Buddha" has the wrinen form <saia.s-rgyas>. The graph called a-tJhufi "little a" by the Tihetan grammarians will be transcribed, for ex~si tory purposes only, by a slash, as when discussing the written form <b~/u> for O ld Tibetan heu "cal f," but will nnt otherwise be transcribed, for

TIVJoISLITERATION

reasons that will be made clear in the main body of the text-thus, normally, Ok! Tibetan 00 <00> "light" rather than </00>, beu <beu> "caW' rather than <belu>, and mda <mda> "arrow" rather than <mdal>. hyphen will be used 10 indicate that the syllables which it connects ronstitute a single WORD, as in Old Tibetan Ndfignen "world," or a single snSS GROUP, as in Old Tibetan pod-dkilr "white lotus." It will also be used to indicate that a morpheme is BOUND and must occur with some other form either preceding, as in Old Tibetan -dag "MORE THAN ONE," or following, as in Old Tibetan ml- "NEGATIVE." A hyphen may also indicate the POSmON of a phoneme in a Tibetan syllable: thus f indicates a leftmost f, as in tgu, r indicates a medial f, as in gru, and f indicates a final f, as in gur.
A

J will use a period to distinguish a stop preinitial followed by an initial glide, as in Old Tibetan g.ron "left" > New Tibeta n (Ulasa) yON, from a stop initial followed by a postinitial glide. as in Old Tibetan gyoii "loss" > New Tibetan (I1lasa) ChON.
Capitalization of a phoneme will indicate that it undergoes regular MORPHOPHONEMIC CHANGES according to phonological environment. Such an environ ment may be across a syllable boundary, as when the Old Tibetan nominal izer .I'Q becomes ba after preceding final .n,. ' f , -/ and vowels, and po elsewhere; or within a syllable, as when the Old Tibetan future tense prefix G- becomes g. before acute consonant initials and d before grave consonant initials. Verb R()()n will be entirely capitalized, followed, where appropriate, in parentheses, by the tense stems of that root, present and past in the case of intransitive verbs, and present, past., future, and imperative in the case of transitive verbs-for example, I(JIUM (Nkhumlkhums) "become shrunkell," TU (Nthu./btuslbtu/lhw) "gather," S LAlJ (sloblbs/obslbs/obls/obs) "teach." Using thts convention, we will show the derivation of, say, the present and past stems of GAD "laugh" as dgod < G-GAD "'aughs" and bgad < bGAJ)-s "laughed." The Tibetan vertical stroke or lod, marking a reading pause, will be transcribed with a comma.

4. OTHER LANGUAGES
Words in New Chinese, as well as Chinese place names, book titles, and other non-linguistic citations, will hf:c given i .. Wade-Giles transcription, about

THE CUssICAL TlBETAN I..J.NOUAOE

which I am sentimental. Reconstructed forms in Old and Middle Cltinese-Karlgren's "Archaic" and "Ancient" Otinese--have been taken from Bernhard Karlgren's Gml'MUlIQ Serico Rmsa, with several Uberties taken with his transcription. Sanskrit is transcnDed in the traditional manner, as are, more or less. Mongolian and Bunnese. Those familiar with these languap should have no difficulty recognizing the forms. There is nothing even approaching a generally accepted tradition for transcn'bing the ~ wellknown Tibc:to-Burman languages; I have followed, as best I could, the transcriptions of the various aulhon to whose works I have referred. and I have attemptcd-probably with little success-to forte some consistency upon the varioUi systems.

Fip,t 2 Ch.tJmr 10 bind d.tmotll

Tibetan

In

Context

I. DEFINING TIBETAN
TIBETAN is a language spoken primarily on the: high plateau north of the Himalayas. It is related to a number of Himalayan languages, such as Gurung and Magar, whose speakers were a traditional source of recruits for the British Gurkha forces. It is- also related to several languages, such as Rgyarong and Minyag, spoken on the peat nonhem plains by nomadic tribes traditionally called ''western barbarians" by the Chinese. 1 Tibetan is morc distantly related to Burmese; even more distantly to languages spoken by Naked Nagas and other hill tribes of Assam; and more distantly still to Chinese. Tibetan has had a writing system since the seventh century, borrowed from an Indian prototype. India, in fact, has had a massive cultural impact on Tibet; but Tibetan itself is unrelated to Sanskrit or any o ther Indie

language.
We can define Tibetan as that language in which we find the word bdun "seven" and its cognates-particularly as opposed to the word and ils cognates found everywhere else among the Tibeto-Burman languages. For example, we find Rgyarong snyis, Horpa zn~, Kanauri stU, Garo sni, Kachin sMlil, Burmese Iuults. Sgaw nwi, Taungthu nOt, Gurung iii, the ancient Zhang. zhung snis, and perhaps even Old Chinese uhy~1 "seven. "Z None of these

-,S/1"

I M;ddJe OIincse -w.y...1111 "barNrian" may in faa be a kl.anword from Old TIbelan bOIl "sumank: reUlion" or I relaled word ift one of Itle lUiflft lInlup,
l Anolher Ipp.arenl inlKMuion in TIbelin is the word kJtyod "you" 1M iu ~lIIld. IS opposed 10 ~ ')Ou" Ind iu oolnlld found ift other reilled lInlUlges-for eumple'. OIeP"'nl/Sall, Kx'hin /WI, Burmese /SaIl, Lushei nail. Spw lUI, Pwo lUI, Dhimal lUI, Nun; lUI, PhuDOt .l1.li"" Sisu IWI, Akha .l1.li10', Mpi nmI. RlYlfon& no, Minyal IIA, lad perhaps Old ChiJlele "iI>" and -;(iQ ')Ou," Compare Old Tibcl2n itid ')01,1 (elepnl)'" New Tibeta n (Sbewe) iIipo dtd.po> ''you.''

IlteratinllY, loolher Ipparent Tibelloll inllOYlllon is na Mbo;,e" and iu 001lUl1d, IS oppoKd 10 'sraII-rrvaII found elsewllere-for eumple, OIepan& s...a.II, Kachin hmll'aJI.
7

THE ClASSICAL TliJETAN l..ANGUAGE

languages is a Tibetan dialect, however closely related it may o therwise be to Tibetan. But whe n we find Balli Mun, Purig rdun, Ladakh dun, Golok wdan., Amda aUt, and Lhasa City IUN "seven," we know we are dealing with a series of D1A1.ECT'S within the: Tibetan language.

2. TIBETAN AND RELATED LANGUAGES

When we say Tibetan is related to another language--say, Burmese or Chinese_I: mean that the languages are both desce ndanls of an earlier
language no longe r in existence:. Frequently such a hypothetica l ancestor is proposed to account for many such offspring; this common ancestor is then often named a fter those two of its descendants with the oldest written

records-for example, Proto-Tibeto-Burman, which is the hypothetical

language from which all Tibeto-Burman languages have come, or Proto-SinoTibetan, which is the hypothetical language from which have come not only

the Tibeto-Burman languages but Chinese as welL When comparing languages to see if they are related, random correspondences of words of course prove nothing. The apparent cognates could just be accidental: compllre Tibetan ~al "king" with English royal-regaL More frequently such apparent cugnates are loan .....ords, in one direction or the

BllrlllCSC ruroil, lUnaliri roii, Manehali IIraii. Bllnan !roiU, Han raii. Us li oruu, Phllnoi "'ON, Bis ll ?tI"'Jft, Akha malt, Mpi "')'!Iii. Rgyaro~g bra - rubIa, and perhaps Old Chinese O m ;} " hone." However, in ~ra l archaic tClt\Ji (rom Cen tral Asia, we Ond, to Ollr delight, alongside Old Tibe tan no 'borsc," Ihe word ,",aol, which apparently means so mething very mIlCh lite "hone"-for eum ple, in a myt hological tat from Ihe ~ves near Tun-huang, in the couplct no-slwd IIi rsll~ruhtr, mulitslwd IIi rshtrrshff "In hone language, yes,lllltruhtr! in 51004 language, yes, tshtr1sMrf' Of in Ihe collplet no blup iii tplo",10 blup, mla'; blup iii dguif..lo btup''11lc hone ~1Is, ycs, dwel ls in Ihe sky; the SIted dwells, yes, dwells in the heayens," o r, agai n, no IIi log-po dllt, mwii iii mJcJtriJ.po fjh~ '1'be horse, yes. his revulsion was Iteat; Ihe 3lted, yes, his bile wu Ireal." In tile adminis trlll ive co rrespondell<"' . t recovered froUl the Tibetan ga rrisons in Central Asia, v.e find, as we might expect, freq ue nt references to h-o~, bu t almost always as no. Still, the wor<! mrait lingers in the COllocation mraiirags " \'lO ne a\lendant .... groom," and, perhaps, in the proper name mllOitsOyil! "Horse Giver : By the lime of the classical ICJctS Ihe word mI<l1l has disappeut(, entirely. It seems clea r thai th is Old Tibetan mr<lll is rcl~\e(.! !O ProtoT ibcto-Burman mraii ' bone," and was replattd by Old Tib<!l:m no 'horst" dlring tile ~c~en ; h oe.ll lty- in effect, before o ur eyes.

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

other: this might be the case with words such as classical Tibetan dIa Middle Chinese -jha "tea," or classical Tibetan dlag Middle Chinese -dzhMc "robbery," where, as one Sinologist has put it, too close a likeness is even more suspect than too distant a one. But what makes it likely thaI, say. Tibetan and Chinese are related languages is a SYSTEMATIC correspondence among their words-for example, the faci that in both languages the word for "I" (Old Tibetan na, Old Chinese -iia) and "five" (Old Tibetan liUJ, Old Chinese -no) both have velar nasal initials, or the word for "three" (Old Tibetang-sum, Old Chinese -mn) and "kill" (Old Tibetan ~ Old Chinese -sal) both begin with a dental fricative. It is only on such a systematic basis that we are justified in assuming thaI Tibetan and Chinese derive from a common ancestor. Technically speaking. the only way actually to demonstrate that two or mort! languages are cognate descendants of a common ancestral language is to reconstruct the common language fmm which Ihey desce nded. Such reconstructions have been cited as the most triumphal vindication of IndoEuropean comparative linguistics. Yet similar attempts 10 reconstruct earlier stages of Tibetan and related languages have encountered serious difficulties.

You know tk, that in ftmtte r( speche is ehtumgt Withinnt a thouJAmi ytr, a,ui JV{J1'IUI tho That hadden pryI now rwntkr nyee and rtraungt Us thtnktth hem, tmd yet they spuRr htm so, Ami sptdde 4S wei in love AI men now M.

-Geoffrey Chaucer, Troylus alld Criw:yde

For one thing, such reconstructions must take account of literally hundreds of related Janguages--overwhelmingly unwritten and, until recently. poorly recorded and described. For anOlher , the words which are heing compared in these language are remarkably compact. For example. we find classical Tibelan grog-rna, Burmese parwak "ant." Are thest! words cognate? Addi tional comparisons from other language!> do nOl ~eem immediately t::elpful: Rgyarong korok and Kiranti Idwrok seem rdate!.! 10 the Tibetan grog, while Lahu pu-,:)?, Lisu baw/aw, and Mpi pillo? sC'!m related 1 0 the Bu rmc!>e

JO
p~rw(Jk.

THE Q.ASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

S~r:J.

Yet we also find Miri mule, Dafla (orub, and Nung we to make of this?

What are

One proposed solution postulates a Tlbeto-Burman word rwak "ant," to which Lahu and Burmese added a prefix .p- related to the word for "insed' (compare, for example, classical Tibetan Nhu, Burmese pu~ Mpi pi "insect"); to which Tibetan, Rgyarong and KirallIi added a k- "ANIMAL" prefix; to which Nung added an s- "ANIMAL" prefix (compare, for example, Old Tibetan fwa, Burmese sa, Kachin fan, Nuns fa, Kannuri l'ya "deer"); and to which Miri and Dalla added a late d- prerIX of uncerlain signiflcalion. Now such explanations can quickly become uncomfonably ad hoc, and there is often an unexplained residue in any event; for example, we arc still left to account for Gurung lIabbm "anl.,,3 But such are the challenges faced by the Tibeto-Burman comparativist.

2.1. 1"IBETAN AND CHINESE

Scholars have long suspected that Tihctan is related to Chinese, and have postulated a Sino-Tibetan family of languages descended from a hypothetical Proto-Sino-Tibetan ancestor. The rdalionshi p between Tibetan amJ Chmesc, however, is cenainly nOI obvious if we compare contemporary Tibetan wilh contemporary Chinese. In Peking city the old word for "dog" is pronounced IJlliiulI but in Lhasa city is pronounced ch~ while a Peking fish is calkd yu but a Lhasa fish is called nn. But thanks to the extraordinary conservatism of Tibetan writing on the one hand, and the scholarly detective work or such Sinologists as Ikrnhard Karlgren on the other, we can reconstruct these same words in Old Tibetan and Old Chinese:~ when we compare Old Tibetan khyi with Old Chinese

] Unlike many won1s in Gu run&. /lobbn4 docs not Ippear 10 be I loan word from Nepali, where the word for anl" is ilmilo.. Nepali b an Indo-Aryan language nOI very dimnlly related to Hindi.
M

lAnruages Ire dated from tile first Ip~rance of writin,: thllS the earliesl Tibetan records Ire uid to be In Old Tibelln, and the Clrllc:st Chinese records in Old Chinese.. (Fornu reconuruttod for period prior to \.he appearance of writin, Ire said 10 be in the prolo-la nluaae-Proto-Tibelln, uy, or Prolo-Chinese.) But Chinese was first wril1en much earlier Ihan Tibetan 'NU, so Old Chinese is older than Old Tibetan: In fact, Otd Tibclan Is

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

It

-khywt!1I "dog" and Old Tibetan no (from an even older Proto-Tihetan -jjyo) ..ith Old Chinese -nyo "fish," Ihe similarities between the two languages ~come much more striking. In the same way, other correspondences have ~en proposed-for example, Old Tibetan iii Old Chinese -nyet "sun," Old Tibe18n mig Old Chinese -myo.lc "eye," Old Tibetan ma Old Chinese -ny~ "ear," Old Tibetan lUi Old Chinese -.!}'t'll "firewood," Old Tibetan Ina Old Chinese -no "fIVe," Old Tibetan gsum Old Chinese -S.mJ "three."

Let us assume, then, on the basis of such partial evidence, that Tibetan and Chinese are descended from a common ancestor. Is there any way of tdling how long ago il was Ihal Tibetan and Chinese were, in some sense, the same language? Archeological finds indicate Ihat human beings first appeared in northern China around 10,000 Be, in all likelihood having come eastward from the frozen tundras of Siberia, when: they had survived and adapted through the mosl recent of the recurrent ice ages; by 5.000 Be neolithic culture had appeared on the fertile northern plains of China, which the n developed with remarkable continuity and m herence directly into historical limes, with a language we have every reason to believe was already distinctively Chinese. These speakers of Chinese 'continued to spread from Ihc middle Yellow River area toward the southern and eastern c"lasts-an extension even now in progress. If Ihe Chinese language splil off from the common stock sumewhere t>ctwet:n 10,000 and 5,()(X) Be, the n Ihe Chi nese and TihetuBurman language gmups may simply have been separatt!d tuo lor,g. and their descend;tnts simply h;lv!: changed too much, to permit any com-incing reconstruction of their mrnmnn source; but a reconstruction of ?roto-Sino-Tibel<ln is so challenging <I pro;pect that such efforts arc not likely 1 0 stop.

2.2. TIBETAN AND BURMESE

The Burmese I<lnguage was firs t wrinen down, on inscriplions, using an adaptation of the Mon orthography, around II 12. This writing system was Imer replaced by a form of Sinhalese script, also derived from an Indic protOtype, and by about 1500 the Burmese writing system had taken on more
\-"ulemporanoous wilh MiUdle CbineM:, ~ Ihat we speak. say, or seven thcentury Midille Chine.'IC ....ords borrO>\'W into Old Tibetan. Here we oom~re Old Tilletan with Otd Chine~. ~ incc we want 10 oompare the earliest available rorlll$ in each ta n'\I~ge.

12

THE CL\ssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

or less its present form. The writing, like that of Tibetan. is conservative, and presumably reflects the phonological state of the language at about the time the orthography was fIXed; that language in turn differs in some significant ways from modem "standard" Burmese, spoken throughout the Irrawaddy plain and delta, in Upper and Lower Burma, by more than thirty million people.5 The relationship of Tibetan and Burmese-and closely related languages such as those grouped together as Lolo--is only slightly mort apparent than the relationship of Tibetan and Chinese. A dog in Rangoon is khwei, and, as we travel through Southeast Asia, we find Lahu kwe, Phunoi kha, Bisu kJt~ Altha alcu~ Mpi kJu, but in Lhasa city a dog is chi Similarly.a Rangoon fish is nat and we find Lahu na, Usu iiwa, Akha na, Mpi no, but in Lhasa city a fish is na-a nasal initial, but, apparently, in the wr~ng part or the mouth. However, when we compare the older wrillen rorms in Tibetan and Burmese, even a cursory inspection reveals systematic correspondences between the two languages much more extensive than those between either language and Chinese. Thlls we can, again, compare Old Tibetan khyi "dog" to Proto Burmese -khuy, and Proto-Tibetan -nya "fish" to Burmese nD. Among the many cognates that have been proposed, we may note Old Tibetan iii Burmese ne "sun," Old Tibetan myig Burme.~ myak "eye," Old Tibetan rna Burmese no "ear," Old Tibetan lUi Burmese sots "firewood," Old Tibetan Hia Burmese no "five," Old Tibetan gsum Burmese sum "three.'"

5 For Ihe divcr&eflCC of Ihe spoken .nd Wrillen forms, I'IOIe-ran40mly-mo4em slan<lard Bu1l1\C$(: m~i <mlWt> "snake," lwti <hrwf> "!Old;' an <laIP!> Kiron," myir <mrllU> "ri ve r," IMmin <hra1mllil> "cooked rice,~ Ihan <huan> "busked rice," Mi <nt?> "sun," myill <mrali ::- "horse," as well ufXU' <tHJI!> "nower," mi <mi> "fire," II<Z <110> "ur," hna <hila > "nose," IIwri <II~> ''silver.''
& -"p~ re nl cognlle5 in Old Tibetan ami Burmese are 1'101 hard. 10 find , A few minutes wfl h a dict ionary will IIltn up Old. Tibetan IShwll Burmese ISM "salt," Old T ibetan sku BUTml~\e /ali)' "body," Old Tibetan dgu Burmese leui "nine." Old Tibetan gri "knife" Burmese krt "copper," Old. Tibetan BORE ",row old." Burmese lui "be Veat," Old Tibetan byi Burm~ pwt " rat," Old Tibetan bya "bird" Bur_ pjIJ "bee," Old Tibetan grIig Burmese lalS "one," Old TilY.:lan iill BUlmese FUl "I," Old. Tibetan gnu Burmese lIn.:zu "fWO," Old. Tibetan 51l a Buo i'l est M '4l "nose," Old Tibeuin m)'t Burmese mi "fire,H Old Tibetan 5nty1lBurmese "':1)"11 $ "bamNIO," 014 Tibetan SAD Burmese 1(11 "kill," Old Tibetan pip Burmese sDIS "leopard," Old Tibetan lla Burmese la "moon," Old Tibellin ri " ~inlin,H BUflTl4'..se ri

"wr;tc."

TlBETAN IN CoNTEXT

13

There can be no doubt that Tibetan and Burmese are related, or that Burmese in tum is related to a number of other Southeast Asian languases. in what is commonly called the Tibeto-Burman family--here. once again, named after the two members of the family with the oldest written records. In this family, in addition to Tibetan and Burmese. there is in fact a vast complex of languages. stretching from the northern reaches of Assam and Burma westward along the Himalayas, eastward into southern China, and southward along the Salween and Irrawaddy Rivers to the Bay of Bengal. These regions constitute one of the most linguistically diverse areas of the world; it is still very difficult to get a dear picture of the relationships of the various languages and dialects, not only within the Tibeto-Burman family, but also in terms of the areal and boTTO'Aing relationships between the TibetoBurman languages and the unrelated Thai and Mon-Khmer languages with which they have long been in contact. The cultural diversity of this area is equally striking. Speakers of TibetoBurman languages include goat herders in the mountains of Nepal, former head hunters along the Indo-Burmese frontier, naked tribes in the jungle hills of Assam, as well as the Tibetans and Burmese, who built successful Buddhist kingdoms and literate cultures which have survived to the present day.' The

Some of these Tibetan and Burmese forfl\$ correspond even more t\osely ir we look I t tile orlho&raphy of the oldest dil ted Burmese illKfiption-the inscription or frina: fUjkum3r, elated 1112, often ailed the Myl1,edi Inscription bcx:ause it wu found on the mya lim "Emerald Pagoda." Here we find Burmese u "die" written <siy>, ri "water'" wrilten <riy>, and fN "give" written <piy>. Presumably Proto-Burmese '.iy > Burmese -I, Ind we can eom~re Old Tibetan iii "sun" wilh PrOloBufinese niy ralher than with Bunnest nt. Old . Tibetan gri " knife" wilh Proto Burmese Akriy rather th~n with Burmt:se len. Old Tibetan Ttl " die" with ProlOBurmese siy ratller than with. Burll\C:5e St, and Old Tibet. n gl7N "give" with ProlOBurmese 'piy rat her tllan with Burmese pt. Similarly, we find Burmese Ivwt "gold" written <hrur>. "''''t "nouri~h" wrillen <muy>, and 1at1~ ~ kin~ written < 1atJuy>. PresumaDly Proto-Burmese o,ur > Burmese ."'t, and we can com~re Old Tibetan dJlul "silver with ProloBurmese nuy rather than with Burmese 11-. Old Tibetan stm.1 ''snake'' with ProtoBurmese 'mf1ly rather than with Burmese mfWt. and Old Tibetan dgur "crooked" with ProtoBurmese klly rather than with Burmese low.
H

./ Other speakcrs of Tibeto-Burman Jan&uges also had n.les, primarily on tbe Hindu mooe], in the valleys 3round the edges of Soulh Asia-lbe Newari in Kathmandu; the Meithtei in Manipur; tile Lushci in the MilO area; the Tripuri in Tripur.; the I"y\I in Burma, a:mqllCred by tbe Burmese; and Ihe Bodo or lUellari In centr.1 Auam, conquered by the Oai Allum.

14

TilE eusslCAL rlBETAN LANGU ....GE

generally accepted picture is that this entire area was occupied by an originally southward movement ofTibeto-Burman-speaking peoples along the great Irrawaddy and Salween river basins, which carry the walers of the Himalayas to the sea. Such southward migrations, perhaps prompted by periodic dessication of the [nner Asian plains, presumably began from the same point from which another group had moved eastward into the fenile plains or north China; and from secondary diffusion centers along the way there occurred further migrations westward along the great arc of the Himalayas, southward deeper into Burma, and eastward into northern Thailand and laos, with the languages diverging, interacting, and borrowing from each other, and interacting as well with the unrelated Mon-Khmer and Thai languages whose speakers were both being displaced and migrating themselves.

2.3. TIBETAN AND THE HIMALAYAN LANGUAGES

Scattered along the arc of the Himalayas, like beads on a string, are a number of more or less related' languages, usually called-for want of any more informative name -the Himalayan languages. The relations among these: languages are not at all clear; for example, Newari, the historically important language of the old kings of Kathmandu, apparently cannot be grouped directly with any other of these Himalayan languages; and the remainder tend to be classified in primarily geographic groupings, with names like West Central Himalayish, on the assumption that human occupation of the Himalayan valleys proceeded linearly, from east to west, so that more closely related languages would tend to cluster geographically as well. I am not at all persuaded that this picture is correct; but I certainly have nothing bener to offer. s What does seem clear is that, among these Himalayan languages, some-Tamang, Gurung, Thakali, Magar, Kiranti-seem quite closely related to Tibetan.

speakers of 5e\"Clal of !hC5e Himalayan languages ha\"C Iraditionally been Ihe $OUICC of recruits for lhe Brillsh Gurkha forces. Nepali, the dominanl language of Nepal. alme to he lhe JinguQ francQ of the Gurkha forces at hriglde posl' of lhe lllliian Army Ihmughoul India and of the British Army in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Glover has nOied thai Gurung t hildren returning to Nepal from mililary posts al n a)1IVC:n.e ...i th Iheir village rc1ali~ only in Nepali while lhe 1 <l lIer a)nverse amonglhcmsclves in Gurung. Nepali i! a n Intlo-Ary.In language rclalod t() Hindi; Ind , 11II>ol,)gh unrelated to Ihe Himal3yan languages. Nepali loonwclfIls have tl>oro ughly infiltrated the Himalayan le~ia)ns .

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

15

In 1927, Sten Konow, of the Linguistic Survey of India. distinguished between "complex pronominalized" and "nonpronominalized" Himalayan languages. with the pronominalized languages further subdivided into eastern and western branches. The pronominalized languages fuse subject and object pronouns to the verb, whe re they appear as preflXes a,ld suffIXes. yielding in effect a verbal inflection for bolh subjecl and object: for example, in Umbu, the language of the principal tribal people of eastern Nepal, we find the verb forms hiptiUi "I hit him," hipnt " 1 hit you," khiplu "You hit him," hiptu "He hiu him," Ichipli "He hits you," iihiplUm "We hit him," Ichiplilm "You all hit him," and so on.' Konow believed that the pronominalized langunges had borrowed this syntactic device from neighboring speakers of the entirely unrelated Munda languages. Such syntactic borrowing is not in itself impossible; in this case, however, it seems unlikely, for two reasons. First, the Munda verbal inflection system is very different in its basic structure from that of the pronominalized Himalayan languages studied by Konow; one would expect a greater similarity in structure--even if not in contenl- if the syntactic device had in fact been borrowed. Second, the Himalayan verbal inflections are quite similar among themselves. even between geographically distant languages, to the point where it appears possihle to reconstruct a Proto-Himalayan verb system. lO Such a proposed reconstruction would presumably place the development of the proto-inflectional ~ystem prior to any cOnt~l<:t with Munda speakers. In any event, it seems both pos.~ ihl>;: (lnd pklusible that the dcvelopment was an internal one. Many of these Himalayan languages, such as Newari, do not at fi;st glance seem closely rela ted to Tibt;tan; others--especial1y those in the Tamang. GurungThakali group--appear strikingly similar not only in basic portions

, Thi$ aislinction eut~ across gcogr.Jphicat lines. EaStern pronominali7.ed languages intlude Limbu, Rat, Chepang, and ot her groups in easlern ana central Ne:pal; weSlern pronominalized languages such u IUnaur; are: spoken primarily in the: mountain areas of northwestern Il'IIIia OU15idc: KMhmir. NonrrOlKlminatized languages include: Ourllne, Mapr. Nc:wari, Ina l..c:pcha or Rong, lmong others; these: are: distributee! (rom the: north of weste:rn ccntnlll Ne:pat across to ta5tern Nepal and aej l cent areas of India. 10 Il'IIIeed, some: scholars have !One: so far as 10 suggest not thaI Ihe pronominalized Himalayan langulges Idiosyncratically .'qllired thei r inneetio ns, bllt rllher thll the no n pronominalized languages Io5t the inncclioru tllc:y once had.

16

THE ~ICAL TlSETAN lANOUAGE

of their wcabulary but in syntax as well. rOt example, compare Gurung khi~ uhami iiaoe lShai-lni piNon "Give your daughter to my son" with Old Tibetan 1chyod-kyi J.shQmo iiai tsIuJ14 sbyin New Tibetan (l..J\asa) IchOr.,; tshllmo iii; uhti-n ciN "Give your niece to my nephew...11 Nott too the following apparent cognates--old Tibetan ;u Kham nimi urnbu nom Gurilng din "suo," Old Tibetan mig Kham mi Limbu mik Gurung miN "eye," Old Tibetan rna Kham no Limbu nekho Gurung cuz "ear," Old Tibetan lUi Kham sin Limbu siiig GUNng siN "firewood," Old Tibetan pun Kham sohn Limbu sums; Gurona SON "three," Old Tibetan We Kham R Umbu ksot Gurong k "tongue.,,1l
Suet- cognates must, of course, be distinguiJhed--somehow--from loanwords. Thert is every reason to believe, for example, that Old Tibetan tIhos New Tibetan (Obus) tIhii "dharma" Gurung tlhyoe "religious book" is a relatively recent loan. Note also other apparent loans in the same cultural sphere-Old Tibetan bla-ma New Tibetan (Dbw) lama Gurung Ionula " lama" (compared to the apparently genuine cognate Old Tibetan bkl Gurung pia "soul"), Old Tibetan rluijr1a New Tibetan (Ohus) luiita Gurung /uiilo "prayer flag," Old Tibetan sRo New Tibetan (Obus) no "bless, pronounce benediction" Gurung no "blow upon a sick person (by religious officiant)," Old Tibetan rna New Tibetan (Obus) no Gurung.iia "shaman's drum,"

2.4. TIBETAN AND THE WESTERN BARBARIANS

The Chinese historical records speak of nomadic and harbarian inhabitants of the high plains to the west, called, first, khyan > ch'illng "sheepherders" (the graph represents a man fI.nd a sheep), and, later, hhywan > fan "barbarians," a word which may in fact have been borrowed [rom Old Tibetan bon "shamanic religion" or a related word in one of the Hsifan

II Glltuna uh.o "son" Old Tibel.ln ISM "nephew, grandchild" app!'..ar to be genul!lcly old Sino-Tibc:l.ln words: we rind, ror example, DI'nal 11411 ''son," 1\.anEiII UI-JQ "cllikl, bab)," Bllrmese UI "child," LusheJ til Hgi'andchikl, ttepllew," and ~rhaps also Ojd Chinese .uy~ "son, daughter, chikl." Note also Okl Tibelin an..t "bear, bring forth," and perhaps Old Chinese .~ which Karlgren interprets :IS ~vinll originally mea M "foet us,"

K1L1m (not to \lC oonfW>ot'id wilh the ](balt\ll dialecu or Tibell.nj i$ spoU:t. III ...esl by Map n of the Buc1a, Ohani, Pun, ar.d Rokha subnibcs; Umbu is spo..::n in cast Ne~l ; .nd OIolNnl is 'poken In the Oanc1aki zone in c:cft lral west Nepal.
t2
Ne~J

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

17

languages. The annals of the Han Dynasty note the e)[istence of o ne group of lchyan, located far from China, callel.! the pywarkhya;;', a term in which we may perhaps see a relationship with OIl.! Tibetan bod "Tibet.,,13 Later, during the Tang dynasty, the Chinese distinguished between the thobhywall > I'u-fan "agricultural barbarians," a term which ca me to be used regularly for the Tibetans, <Jnd the ~)I"rbhywulI > hs ifwJ "western barbarians," a loosely defined group of nomadic.: tribes ranging the: plains In what is now thc Amdo region,14 The Tibetans drew the same distinction hetwecn thcmselvcs and these other nomads, even though the ways of life (If Ihe Tibetan and Hsi fan nomads were basically the same; the Tibetans speak of the Horpa, the Minyag, the eighteen tribes of the Rgyarong as nut speaking the Tibetan language, although Ihe:ooe languages have clearly borrowed a large number of words from central Tibetan. In fact, the influence of central Tihetan on the:se languages has heen so great that they have' frequently been considercd to be Tihctan thentsclves; note, howe;.-er, Rgyarong sllyi~, Horpa ZIlt', Minyag !m! "seven" instead of Old Tibetan hdull "seven" and its New Tibctan retk)[cs, Rgyamng IW, Horpa IIi, Minyag na "you" inslt:al.! of Old Ti~lan khyod "you" and its New Tibetan reflexes, Rgyarong pram, Horpa pllnl.pllnl, Minyag ,Hln "white" instead of Okl Tibetan dkar "white" and its rdleKt:s. Tht: relation~hip betwt:en these languages and Tibetan. however. is cicarly a close one: for example , in the Rgyarong dialect of Lcngrtse, we finll Old Tihelan ma Rgy,mmg ma "ear," Old Tibetan !iii Rgyar\ln g.\yill.~ "fircw(Kld," DIll Tihetan mix Rgy<lrong mllyak "eye," Old Tibelan diw/ Rgyarong Ilgiy "silver." Old Tihet:ln !{Iris RgyllT(l(lg "i~ "two." But we must, a ~ always, he wilry of pnssihle loan word:oo, especially. here, from written Tihctan leKt~. A correspondence as dose a:oo Old Tibelan ldlnngu Rgyarnng Mlunku "green " is suffIcient In mm;se :oou.~picinn; hut
I~ I Ihink il IS prell ~ clear Ih~1 h, ~1 '"T,"'I." '",h~m"nl( rd'p"n," 110 '"ca ll "111. ny 0111," amI pcrh~i'" 1'1/0 '"~h~nJ;~ pl~ee. ml l:'~ I~:' ~I'O "'''111''''':. ,hifl. mic,ale," dhon /.'ihWI "<lcsccmJanl, nephew. granrkhi h.l ." 1\"1'11)"11 '"1:101:", ru~m aht,ul." f"rm whal we will lalcf in Ihis leXI <:all a \IomrJ famdy.
1< The Oil.! Tani! lIisl"IY ha, a .. haln"'i ,111 TII lan. and dies the rc,,"gni~ahl ~ Old Tih<.;ran .....,rds /"stU,./,,, king." Iran"n,h",~ a, M,<l<.lle Chinc..'<C ' /Siln.ph,,o, and h/on "miniMer," 1r00nSG,t>c<J .:1.' Mi<.l<llc (,h",cM' 'h"<"1I. a~ 1I:1I;\"e Tnfan WI"'.IS. The New Tang Hisrory. in its p~rallcl ( haplel on T .... tan . !!'''''-~ a mil le e.\ len,iw vtlcahu tary li.\1 of Tillelan &"vcrnmenl "frjdab. ~nu s,m,lar ly lIan 'cr""" Oh.! Tlh.:wn I>t.Mn.po " king"' a$ Mi<.ltlle Chinese 4/.wn ./m"/I an<.l Olll TII"':lan /,Ion " nlln"I0:'" as M"h.!Jc Chi n.:sc 'Iy-..rn. 1I>;ng Ille same Chinese .:h~. a':ler'; hUI lIere (he I"n~~"~.: " ... leU a.~ hdn): Iha l ur Ihe 'kh)"tIn.

"'m

18

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAJII l...;.]iGUAGE

when we find Old Tibetan slag t{gyarong Jehu" "tiger" but stak "tiger" in Ihe Lcog-rtse dialect, or Old Tibetan dbyar-ka Rgyarong lSQr "summer" but dbyar. Iu in the Chos-ki!l dialect, it is reasonable to believe we have found an informant with a literary education.

3. VARIATION IN TIBETAN
If Tibetans from different parts of Tibet are asked to give their word for "hair," a Tibetan from Purik will say sm, one from Amda will say Ikya, one from Kham will say lira, one from Tao-Cu will saY!(Ta. and one from Bhutan or Sikkim will say kya. Similarly, a ladakhi will say $fl. a rural Central Tibetan will say la, and an upper-class resident of Lhasa City will say !la, But jf these Tibetans aTe literate, and ate asked to write the word they had just spoken, they will all produce the same written form, which we here transcribe as <skIa >. And, if they are shown the written form <skro>, Ihey will. again, pronounce the word differently, but they will all recognize the form and agree that-however it is pronounced-it means " hair."
One reason for this is the remarkable conservatism of the Tibetan writing system. The written form <skra>. for example, with the same meaning "hair," can be found in manuscripts more than a thousand years old, preserved in the deserts of Central Asia, which can still be read-in some sense of that term-by any literate Tibetan. ls The written form has remained unchanged: the word represented by that form has come to be---or has continued 10 be--different in different dialects. The advantage of such uniform orthography is its transcendence of regionalism: all literate Tibetans sha n: a single written language, however different their spoken dialects may ~. The disadvantage is the divorce between the written and spoken languages, making literacy an incre,asingly difficult and elite accomplishment. Now when Tibetan was first fe.duced to writing, it seems reasonable 10' assume that the written form <slua> was, in fact, an attempt 10 render a word pronounced something very much like skra. We thus find variation in

IS For eu mple. in .1 mythic lext from Ihe caves near Tun.hllllng we find db,,wn bdun " . NbrtJgs:'n drt;kJs Msal4 ''The tiene! of the wastes, Dre.da, dem.anc1s seven hairs from his I\e.a<l." Again. in a prOYic admi nist rative memorandum from a Tibetan oasis

garrison in Central Asia,'reportinl on the colleaion of animal hair fo r rope making. we read
bla.gis phyugs I'Igd skrn srail phytd gyis ""Bkr has made 11 half'Tnii of hair of some animals,"

T I BHAN IN CoN"Il, XT

19

!.he Tibetan language along two dimensions. The language varies along a DI....CIlRON1C dimension, wherein a word pronounced skra i~ the nimh century has come to be pronounced, say, fa in the twentieth; and the language varies ,do ng a SYNCHRONIC dimension, wherein a word now pronuunced 1a ill Ladakh is pronounced lira in Kham, or pronounced la by a Lhasa City storekeept!r is pronounced l1a by a Lhasa C ity ariSlOcrat. 16

When we spt!ak of the history of the Tibelan language, we will use the term PROTO-TIBETAN to refer to the Tibetan language spoken before the existence of any written records. We will use the term OLD TIBETAN for the language spoken during the earliest pt!riod for which written records exist-that is, more or Jess arbitrarily, for the language.spoken, say, from the seventh to the tenth ccnturies, which is the language upon which those earliest wrillen teKts were based. The term MlilDU; TIILETAN will refer 10 the language sfXlkcn from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries, a pt!rioo .for which we have an awesome quantity of wrillen materials, but atxlut whose spoken language we can make only s(;attered inferences. Finally, the term NEW TIllt:TAN will refer to the spoken language fur which we have modern comemporaneous transcriptions and analyses, beginning in the nir)eteenth century with the fi rst European explorers and missionaries.J1 When we spea k of synchronic va riation, we will adopt the convention of citing forms by historical period followed by a parenthctical indication of dialect where such information is available-for eKample, Old T ibetan hdun but New Tibetan (Dbus) "UN "seven," Old Tibetan my; but Old Tibetan (Sumpa) mu "ma n."

3.1. VARIATION IN NEW TIBETAN

When a Tibetan from Ladakh and a Ti~lan from Lh~sa City go to the
16 Di.clnoni!: ""rjaliun. uf UJUfSC, I/<Xuffcd ;,.~ well beforc the alrlicst wrillen talS. Wherc we lind Kan~uri kra Ind Kactlin Urd, fur cumpk. we can hYPOlhoi1.e In earlier ProtoTibetan Okra hair," 10 wh ich was p,crOlcd th e formati"'e fa ANIMJI.l..... -thus PrOlu. /ua "ANIMAl.. ha i, " > skFa O td Tibetan skra ' tlair." And s)'TJI:hronk Tibc:lIn fa _ VlIIriatlon occurred at his to rical periods o the r th an th e mO<.lern. There is some lextllli evidenec. for example, thl, alongside Old Tibetan (Lhasa) myi man,' there was an Old Tibetan (Sumpa) mu "man" IS well. 17 Note thlt these lerms ;ire rcall ), methodological rather Ih;in properly linguistic, The clIu ification depel'<1s upon the fonuitous existence of wrillen rcc;ords on the one hand and modem tran5("riptions on the other. Middle Tibetan si mply includes everything in between:

20

TilE Cl.ASSICAL TIBETAN WaUAGE

market together to buy vegetables, the Ladakh; is shopping for tshodma but the Lhasan for tshc. If they buy spinach, the Ladakhi calls il paJak and Ihe Lhasan calls it poise. If they buy peas, the Ladakhi calls them lanma and the Lhasan calls them !cmna. When Ihey pay, the Ladakhi calls the rupee coin kyirmo and the Lhasan calls it bmo. Are they speaking Ihc same language? They will both say they 3rc speaking Tibetan; but Ihe Ladakh; will call the language po/skal and the Lhasan will caU it pMkc. Even if we look just al the lexicon, leaving grammar aside, the relationship between the two ,dialects is complex. For example, continuing with vegetables, we find Ladakhi [abuk and Uasa I~ "radish" < Old Tibetan laphug. where the word is recognizably the same in both dialects;18 and, similarly. we find Ladakh; IsOn and Lhasa LsOH "onion," although in this case the word gives every appearance of having come into Middle Tibetan from Middle Chinese tshuii "onion," rather than of being a nalive Tibetan word. On the other hand, we find Ladakh; ~a llma and Lhasa tv.ma "peas" < Old Tibetan sran-ma, where a common origin of the word in Old Tibetan is less obvious, but the differences in pronunciation are the result or more or less regular phonological changes in each dialect.19 Ladakhi gobi and Lhasa kopi "caulinower" appear alike not because the words have a common Old Tibetan origin, but because the two dialects have recently-and apparently independemly-borrowed the Hindi word pllUl Robhi "caulinower." The Lhasa dialect uses Ihe compound kONI<1pu <gwl fa.phug> "middle finger radish _ carrot," while Ladakhi uses the term soroklurmon "carrot," almost certainly borrowed in part from Urdu zamak "carrot.,,20

18 The rad is h-although cenain L y nOI a Iiteral Y~ tapLc-dOCli ~-rop up in so me genuinely ancient IQU. For example, a ninthcentury admjni~ llat i"c memorandum flom a Tibe~n ,arrOOn in Centlal Asia, wrillcn 0:1 :I strip of wood, apparcnlly LiSting expenses incurrcd. , includes sfNtU low s/aJblll 1(1u1-boi Ihaphug rin "ror the monkey year. the cost of radishes fOI enlenaining the nOblcs." t9 ThIlS we find not only Oid TfDelan S' (I...mtJ "peas" > New Tibe tan (I..ad.akh) ftJN1ItJ (lJIua) but also Old Tibetan skra "ha if" > New T ibeta n (Lada kll) fa (l.lIua ) fa, Olo;! Tibetan sprin "cloud" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) fill (Lhasa) {iN. Similarly, Old l1bela n skod wlanguage" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) sAm (Lhasa) /c.c, Old Tibetan lo/ " race > New TIbe t. n (Ladakll) 10/ (Lbasa) Je. Old Tibeu n mfShon 'n.. me" > New Tibetan (Lao;!akh ) tshon (Lh4ISa) uht:N.

'DImQ,

;zo The seoono;! half of ttle Ladalll'li sO' lllau/man canOl" is nOI $0 easy. My bc:$1 guess is Illal 11 is o;!erived fro m Urdu danntJn "nled icine," but Il'Ic scma nlics are ce rtainly not obvlous.

TiBETAN IN

CoN"ffiXT

21

It is thus clear that contemporary Tibetan is not monolithic; the languages ..-hich by OUT definition qualify as "Tibetan"-note Lhasa City rUN Ladakhi dun "seven"-are phonologically, lexically, and syntactically divergent. Such languages we call mALEcrs of New Tibetan?'

"Ever'body my1 wortls Riff"""," mid I.". ''ArkRnw folIu SAys 'em Iliff"",t, lind OHAhomy folJu lAyl 'em Riffmnt. And ..e uen Ii IIuJy from MAUa&hu.setts, lin' she mid 'em differentiSl of ail. CouIdn' hardly maU ()Nt ..hlit she"Ill lAyin '."
-John Sieinbeck,
711e Grapes of Wralh

Now what we really need is a genuine dialect map of Tibet, ma rked with ISOGLOSSES of significant linguistic features, such as diHerent pronunciations of the same word, or the use of different words for the same thing. For example, in traveling westward from Lhasa City to Ladakh, we find, al some point, that people have stopped saying (a "hair" and have started saying ~a, have stopped sayingpho "Tibet" a nd started saying pot, have stopped saying Icc "language" and started saying sleDl, and have stopped saying JcoNl~pu "carrot" and have started saying sarakturman. For each of these diffe rences, we can draw an isogloss: on one side of the line people say things one way; on the other side they say the same thing another way. Now of course the line between pho and pot may not coincide with the line between fa and fa,
11 The dislinclion berwec: n a dialect and a language is nOl ofte n clear, and tile distinClion
is frequenlly polilic;:al lalller tllan tinguislic: DUICIl, for aam ple, is a la nguage, bUI Yiddish

is otlen c:aUe4 II dia tea of Gelman, which prompled Uric! Weinreich 10 define II dialect as a la nguage without an army or nail)'. "Bhutanese:" may thllS be a ian&uage ral her lhan a diaJecI by virtue o r Ihe ract tha t the indepe nden t kingdom UsuC:$ il$ own postage sta mps. By the WlIIy, it is often the cue tll,l1 o ne dialt in a language is picked o ut as normalive and Olher dialccu stigmatized: in the cue of Tibelan, the speech o r Lhasa Ciay is frequent ly pUI forward as lhe prcstige dialect. It is nol 'lear 10 me tilat Ill is view is II all wides pread oUlSilk of Lhasa Ci ty; the view is, lIowcvc:r, fuund among lhose foreign ling uis ls wh ose informants Ire fro m Lhasa, I nd amon, those fo re igners whose work or sympalllie5 lie wlIh tile Lhasa poli ti<:a.l or rciigiollS eli:e.

22

Tilt:: CL\SSICAL Tm urAN lANG U.... GE

and the lines themselves may nOi be sharply drawn; along the isogloss, pM may fade: into pol through an intermed ia te ph6t, or some people may use both Conus but in different styles of speech, or people in one social class may use one form and those in a nother social class use the other. Thus, when such lines arc: drawn, they often show considerable cris:o;+crossi ng; when a number of isoglossc:s do more or less coi ncide, they an: ~id to ma rk a
DlALECf BOUNDARY,

Oearly we arc: far from evt:u apprua~ h illg such a dialect map of Tibet. But there arc: a few dialect feature s with which we can make a beginning, and which provide examples of Ihe .sons or questions that still re main 10 be asked. The follOwing sections will bric ily discuu three phonological feature s of th is sort ill New Tibetan- thc: palalaiizatlu!l of labials, p{J~tinitials a nd the fron ting of back vowels in the southern d i [lkc t ~ , and elegant brt:athincss in Lhasa City.22

3.1.1. The palatalization or labials

In central Tibet, Old Tibetan palatalized labiais such as by- and plly- have generally become palata] affricates- lor example, Old 'i'ibetan phyogs "side" > New Tibetan (Dbus) tlho (Lhasa) t.~/I:J, Old Tibetan bya "bird" > New Tibetan (Dhus) tIa (Lhasa) tJlla, Old Tibetan b)'un "nonh" > New Tibetan (Dbus) dan (Lhasa) tIlIUN. Old Tibetan byi -ba " rat" > New Tibetan (Dbus) lJiwQ (Lhasa) dhiw;. These same changes are found eastward as far as Chamdo City, located at the up per rcal;hes of what becomes, furthe r soulh, the Mekong River; but, as we move;: even further east, aaoss the Yangtze River to the city of Derge, we find that these same Old Tibetan palatalized

Zit These topicS werc Chosen becallse of lhc light they t h row~~n if indirCCl ly-on thc qUC5lion o f varia lion in O ld Tibetan. wnich we ...iII dilOCuss in lhc ntAI sectio n. Thus we ha~ not discussed the oe.oelopmenl of appa(enlly phonemic loncs in Lnasa City-both lonc REG IS1EI.S, with diffcrcnt tonc hClghts tI,,-velOplng trom votoed a nd YOil:eles.s OASCLS in Ohl Tibetan, a nd tone COtn'OURS, Wllh diffcl cn l lonal shapa; Ilt:VClOl'inr. tro m sy llabic final l'OWCis, sJ ides. and Stops in Old Tibetan. Phonemic lone, or O)UrK, is fOllnd in ma ny lanr.uagcs , C5pcdally in Sou tl'lC&S1 AsIa, wncre lOne has appa rently spread amonr. lan&wogC5 which arc nol ,cACtically related , bllt only in gco,rap htcal proXimity. Moreover, to nal s)'$tCIN haw; apparently appc:;trcd and di~ ppcan:d , and Ihcn appeared ap in, in panieular lan,uar.e fam ilies. Thcrc is no reaso n 10 believe Ihac Old Tib\:tl n had lones; if Prolo-Tibetan eYer ha4 phonemic lOnes, the systcm ltad dilappcarcd lo n, beforc historical timC5.

;,IBETAN IN \..ONlCXT

'J

!abials have become palatal fricatives- thus New Tibetan (Derge) Jo "side," Ia "bird," liwa "rat." We find these sa me palatal fricatives extending far to the nonheast, in the Amdo country, ..... here we find New Tibetan (Amdo) Jog "side," la "bird," Ian "nonh." Iii " rat." But if we had gone nonh from Derge, instead of no rtheast. and had entered the Golok country, we would have found that the Old Tibetan palatalized labials had become not palatal fricatives but rather labiopalatal rricatives-thus New Tibetan (Golok) pya "bird," fIan " north," fIyo "rat." And if we had instead gone southeast fro m Derge to the city of Tao-fu-the Tibetan Tau or Uao-we would have found that the Old Tibetan palatalized labials had become Iabiopalatal affricates before rounded v~els., but labial stops in front of spread VQ'IIiels-thus New Tibetan (Tlto-fu) pIa "sKle," pita "bird," piwo "rat." From the materials we have, these dialect differences a ppear fairly consistent- thus, for example. Old Tibetan phyjba " marmot" > New Tibetan (Dbus) tIhiwo (Derge) Jtwa (Arodo) lu (Golok)ftyo (Tao-fu) phipo. We can, apparently, draw fairly neat isogIos.ses for these features, separating Derge and Amdo from Tho-fu, fro m Golok, and from Chamdo and the central dialects. But it is not clear whether this neatness really exists in the material, o r is simply an anefact o f its paucity. Let us look at the same change elsewhere. In western Tibet, we find the same change as in central Tibet-palatalized labials becoming palatal affricates-in the dialect of Ladakh, but not in the otherwise closely related dialects of Balti or Purik-thu5, for example, Old Tibetan byo "bird" > New Tibetan (Balti) bya (Purik) biIJ, but (Ladakh) tIa (Obus) tIa (Utasa) tIha, Old Tibetan ph)'O&f "side" > New Tibetan (Balti) phyox, but (Ladaldl) tIhoJcs (Dbus) tIho (Uuua) tIh3. We would therefore want to draw a n isogIoss grouping the western dialect of Ladakh with the central Tibetan dialects with regard to this o ne feature . But the picture is even more complicated. In ladakh-as opposed to the central dialects-Qld Tibetan palatalized labials have fa iled to become palatal affricates before front vowels-thus Old Tibetan phye " nour" > New Tibetan (Balti) ph< (Punk) ph< (Ladakh) I'M, but (Dbus) tJIoe (Lh..a) tJIoe, Old Tibetan ~ "hair' > New Tibetan (Balti) pMd (Purik) pM! (ladakh) phyet. but (Dbus) Lfh.t (Lhasa) tim. Note also that Old Tibetan phyi-mo " grandmother" > New Tibetan (Balti) -pi (Purik) -pi a nd Old Tibetan phyi "outside" > (Ladaldl) phi but (Dbus) tIhi(Lhasa) tlhL So our isoglou would group Ladakh with the central dialects with regard to the development or palatalized labials onlv in svllables with hadr vowr.lt in tvll~hl.._ c wilh rrnnl

24

THE CL\SSICAL TIBETAN L\NOUAGE

vowels, Ladakhi would remain with the other western dialects of Balti and Purik. Finally, in Ladakh we find particular words-such as tIindilk <sbyilt-bdag> "patron" and t!hin4n <phyi-bsrulfI> ''breakfast''-that appear to be exceptions 10 this laner rule, and in which palatalized labial. have become palatal affricates before front voweb. Why is this? There are several possibilties, and no conclusions: it may be thaI the change from palatalized labial to palatal affricate is continuing 10 spread into syllables with front vowels., and that these few words are the first such lexical items to undergo this change. with more to come in the future; it may-perhaps more plausibly---be that these few lexical items are in ract loan words into Ladakhi from a prestige central Tibetan dialect.

3.1.2. Some southern isoglosses

The southern dialects of Sikkim and Bhutan show a change of Old Tibetan postinitial -r- to po5tinitiai -y- after grave-that is., velar and Jabial--initia1s; the neighboring Sherpa dialect shows instead the same retroflex stops shown by the dialects of Cennal Tibet to the north: Thus we find Old Tibetan skra "hair" > New Tibetan (Groma) kyo (Bhutan) kyo (Sikkim) kyo, but (Sherpa) {a (Obus) fa (Uaasa) fa, Old Tibetan khrtlg "blood" > New Tibetan (Gromo) khyag (Bhutan) thyak (Sikkim) khyag, but (Sherpa) ,Iulk (Dbus) {'Iak (Lhasa) lila, Old Tibetan sbtul "snake" > New Tibetan (Gromo) bill (Bhutan) beu (Sikkim) biu. bUI (Sherpa) tjrul (Dbus) 4U (Lhasa),a. Presumably an isogloss for this feature could be drawn around the southern dialects. wilh Sherpa and the northern dialects on one side and the southern dialec:ts on Ihe other. Where, in Ihe southern dialects, this change has not occulTed-as when Old Tibetan Nbron "wild yak" is represented by New Tibetan (Gromo) 40;i (Sikkimese) 40n (Dbus) 40n (Lhasa) tON-it is reasonable to suspect thai the word has in fact been borrowed by the southern dialects from one or more of the central dialects. This is especially so where the word denOles an item in the central, but not the southern, cultural repenoire.2)

2.1 or COllfSC, Ih is dislilldion is nO! .lways dear. III Chamdo City. for eumple, _lind Old Tibetan i'ibras 'rice" > New Tibetan (Cbmdo) mbri but Old Tibetall JbnU '"suke" > New Tibetan (Ouimdo) driL 1 have no ooubt that tbe Chamdo City word drQ "lUke" wa borrowed from a ocntl1l! Tibetan di.IecC-compare, for eumple, New nbetall (Dbua) 4il (Lhasa) [il"sn'ke. ~ Bllt why in tile -ot1d would ChaIllOO City borrow tbe word """kef

TIBETAN IN CONTEXT

z,

But. again, things are really more complicated. In Ihe cenlral Tibetan dialects, denial syllable finals have largely disappeared. When such dental syllable finals existed, they caused preceding back vowels to move to the front of the mouth, presumably in anticipation of the following dental consonant. Any such front rounded vowels were without linguistic significance in Old Tibetan; but such vowels acquired significance in the central dialects as the dental finals that had caused them began to be lost. Thus, in these dialects, before what had been Old Tibetan dental finals, the back rounded vowels 0 and u have becOme, respectively, the front rounded vowels a and ii-thus, for example, Old Tibetan nos "side" > New Tibetan (Dbus) no (Lhas.a.) no, Old Tibetan lu.s "body" > New Tibetan (Obus) Iii (Lhasa) til. Similarly, the back spread vowel a has become either the front spread vowel ~, or a new, somewhat lower, front spread vowel t, depending on the dialect- Ihus, for example, Old Tibetan las "work" > New Tibetan (Obus) Ie (lhasa) It:. Sherpa is different. In common wilh other southern dialects, Sherpa has not developed fronl rounded vowels before de ntal finals, bUI has re taine~ the Old Tibetan back rounded vowels-thus, for example, Old Tibetan YOD "exist" > New Tibetan (Bhutan) yOi (Sherpa) yOI, but (Dbus) yO (lhasa) yO, Old Tibetan dnuJ "silver" > New Tibetan (Sikkim) nul (Sherpa) nul, bUI (Dbus) nii (Lhas.a.) nii, Old Tibetan khyod "yuu" > New Tibetan (Bhutan) khyot (Sherpa) khyod, but (Dbus) ahii (lhasa) cho, Old Tibetan yul "country" > New Tibetan (Sikkim) yul (Sherpa) yul, but (Dbus) yu (lhasa) yii, Old Tibetan bdun "seven" > New Tibetan (Bhutan) dun (Sherpa) dun, hut (Dbus) dUll (Lhasa) tUN. An isogloss for front rounded vowels would thus run along a diffe rent route than would the isogloss for -T- > -y- aher grave initials: the first isogloss would run nonh and west of the Sherpa settlemcnts in Nepal, linking Sherpa wilh dialects to the easl a nd west; the second isogloss would run easl of the Sherpa country, linking Sherpa with dialects to the north. BUI, again, there is more. In the southern dialects, as in the central dialects, the back spread vowel a does become fronted hefore dental finals, as opposed, say, to the western dialects, where such fr onting does not occurfor example. Old Tibetan brgyad "eight " > New Tibetan (Bhutan) gyet (Sikkim) gy~ (Sherpa) gye (Dbus) dIe (lhasa) cc, but (ladakh) rgyat (Balti) bgyad (Purik) 'KYat, Old Tibetan skad "speech" > New Tibetan (Sikkim) k~ (Sherpa) ked (Dbus) ke (lhasa) Iu:, but (ladakh) skill (Balti) skilt (Purik) skat. Thus the isogloss for the fronting of a before dental finals would follow

26

Tin,

ClASSICAl. TIBETAN I..J\NGUAGE

yet another route, linking together both the ce ntral and southern dialects, and separating them from the dialects to the west. And we are not dum: yet. Bhutan appears generally to follow the southern pattern, with no front rounded vowels before dental syllable finals-thus New Tibetan (Shc rpa) 4rui (Bhutan) beu "snake," (Sherpa) yot (Bhutan) yot "exist"; but note the exceptions-New Tibetan lSherpa) nul (Sikkim) nul, but (Bhutan) nu "sitver," (Sherpa ) yul (Sikkim) yul, but (Bhutan,u "country." Once again we 3TC left to wonder whether these exceptions are the first signs of a change beginning to spread through Ihis portion of Ihe lexicon, or loan words from a prestige central Tibetan dialect.

3.1.3. Elegant breathiness

Righi around Lhasa City there should be an isogloss separating New Tibetan (Lhasa) ka from (Dbus)ga <dga> "joy," (Lhasa) tQ from (Dbus) da <mda> "arrow," (Lha~a) pu from (Obus) bu <Nbu> "worm"; presumably this isogloss would pretty much coincide with the one separating New Tibetan (Lhasa) /.:hur from (Dhus) kur <gur> "tent," (Lhasa) rllep from (Dbus) tep <deb> "book," (Lhasa ) plio from (Dhus) pO <bod> "Tibet." In other words, in Dbus, the Ne .... Tibetan reflexes of Old Tibetan voiced initials-but only those originally without preinitials-have had their voice onset time delayed until they have fallen togdhcr with the New Tibetan voiceless initials. Such DEVOI CII'IG is, in fact, found in several f'e ..... Tibetan dialects, although more sporadicAlly than in central Tibet: compare, for example. Old Tibetan gur "tent" > New Tibetan (eolok) kur (Amdo) ki"r (Ladakh) kur (Dbus) kur, but Old Tibetan mgo "hciid" > New Tibetan (Oolok) go (Amda) go (Ladakh) go (Dbus) gO.2A

:u This dcvoi(:ing apparCnlly began wilh Ihe Uljl'ed flK-atives and ylilillally spreall 10 O1hel parts of the lellco n, The hislt) rian Nlos lo ~ ba Gzonnu-dpat, in hi! lXb lhrr Jno... po, quotcs a teller from a Nepalese scholar addlcssin& BuMtlR (1290-1364) I$la/u pa~irll, ratner than the correct latfl ptllJl/ila, p,csllmahty Wliling tile term as I:e had healll it pronounced" Gton.nu-dpal himself. writing in 1478, noted that in his day ta III Ja-dilii mlhulI'ptJ " " . za IIi $a-diJiI mlAull'/J6 "'th~ graph <I> is pronounad tile same as <I> ... and tbe " ... ph <z" > is pronounad ItK :;allle as <$>.'" TIle Si. tu mah:lpal}~ita. in his monumental ,rammatiell COmmenlary MldlOupoi ",gul''JJ)'Un mw.tig phrdmdus, prob.:lbly to be: dated in 1744, simply listed I and z as sgramtt! ''Voicel~'" sounds alon, wilh J ind s"

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

27

In LlIasa City, however, the process has gone much farther than in other dialects: the New Tibetan reflexes of Old Tibetan voiced initials with preinitials have fallen together with the New Tibetan voiceless initials, and those without preinitials have had their voice onset time delayed even more, until they have rallen together with the New Tibetan aspirated initials-thus Okt Tibetan mgo "head" > New Tibetan (Obus) go but (LlIasa) leo, Old Tibetan mda "arrow" > New Tibetan (Dbus) da but (Uasa) ta, Old Tibetan flU "tent" > New Tibetan (Obus) hu but (Uasa) khur, Old Tibetan da "now" > New Tibetan (Obus) ta but (Uasa) tho.

This "breathiness" is apparently perceived as characteristic of the prestige L1lasa City dialect. It is thus not surprising that, within that dialect, speakers seek to achieve elegance by being even breathier.2S For such speakers, the New Tibetan reflexes of all originally voiced initials have fallen together with originally aspirated initials-thus Old Tibetan mgo "head" > New Tibetan (Dbus) go (l..liasa) leo (Lhasa elegant) ki10, Old Tibetan rdo "stone" > New Tibetan (Obus) do (Uasa) to (Lhasa elegant) tho, Old Tibetan mdliii "neck" > New Tibetan (Dbus) dtm (Uasa) tIiii (l..1lasa elegant) tJhiii. We must thus draw an additional isogloss, to separate New Tibetan (Lhasa) to from (Lhasa ekgant) Icho "head" and (Uasa) to from (l..1lasa elegant) tho "stone"-but this isogloss must be drawn through social rather than through geographical space. This social isogloss will probably coincide with several others, thus forming a social--rather than a spatial--dialecI boundary. One such additional social isogIoss will separate speakers who articulate unreleased nondental finals from those who do not, with those who do not articulate these finals being the more elegant-thus Old Tibetan myig "eye" > New Tibetan (Golok)
Note tbat the process or de-.ooicin, atrlS only tl\o$e initials that were origi~lIy voked in Old Tibelan. and IUs had no cITect on Old Tibclan un voiced initi:.llls- Ibus, for example. Old Tibelan Iwba Mpiflar" > New Tibelan (AITIdo) ~af/cilba (Dbus) /cilwa (Lhua) ~a, Old Tibetan dkMpo .....hitc .. > NewTibelan (Golok) Juuwo (Amdo) Juuo (Ladakh) ~rpq (Obl.lS)

""Pc (""">_

2S It is probably 'WOr1h nOlinsthat a Ue.l1 d~1 o r Amcrica n schol:.llrship o n the Lhasa dillect is based on tbe speech of a sin&le inrorma nt , N3wang Norn:.llng. supplemented by the Ipcccb of other l..b.as.a aristOQ'lU. Mr. Notnang is c.tucmc ly charming. lilcr3tc. and anlculate, and thereforc a pleasure 10 'WOrk with; but he is also tbc speakcr of an unusu311y depot !)'pC of Uasa Oty 4iaka. An cntire JCIICration of Amcrican studcnts IUs thcrdorc lcamod 10 speak tbe Tibetan cquMicnl or Bonon brahmin English.

28

TUE CussICAL TIBETAN lANOUAGE

?ffik (Amdo) ")t1;"-xiii1c (Balli) mile (Ladakh) mile (Dhus) miJc-mi? (Lhasa)

mile-mi7 but (Lhasa elegant) m~ Old Tibetan nub "west" > New Tibetan (Golok) nup (Balli) nup (ladakh) nup (Obus) nup (Lhasa) nup but (Lhasa elegant) fill. Old Tibetan KUr "tent" > New Tibetan (Golok) leur (Arodo) Icir (Ladakh) leur (Obus) leur (Lhasa) khur but (Lhasa elegant) khu.. Another social isogloss will separate speakers f('l whom Old Tibetan stop initials with

1.,,', ...", 16 UJiJe IJ"'U"""'T, I...,., tD tAl!

liJte lRdy.

-George Bernard Shaw,

Pygmalion

, postinitials are retroflex SlOps from those for whom they arc r~troflex affricates, with the laller again being the morc elegant-thus Old Tibetan skro "hair" > (l9lam) lIra (Tao-fu) 1fTa (Purik) skro (ladakh) IQ (Obus) to (Lhasa) 10 bUI (Lhasa degam) lio, Old Tibetan gri "knife" > New Tibetan (Tao-fu) gri (Khams) 4; (Obus) {i (Lhasa) Ihi bul (Lhasa elegant) #h~ Old Tibetan SprUl "cloud" > New Tibetan (Derge) trim (Purik) sprin (Lada\th)IUa (Dbus) {in (Lhasa) {iN hut (Lhasa elegant) Old Tibetan Nbras "rice" > New Tibetan (Balti) bros (Ladakh) 40$ (Dbus) 4t (Lhasa) Ie but (I...hasa elegant) IIII. In sum, if this analysis is correct.. the social dialect boundary in Lhasa City separates speakers of a breathier, more fricative, Ie" stopped manner of speech from speakers of a voicier, less fricative. more stopped manner of speech. This is, in fact. a discernible difference among speakers of the lhasa dialect, and depends on social class or the efforts of the speaker to sound elegant and aristocratic.

"iN.

3.2. VARIATION IN OW TIBETAN

I can say without hesitation that similar sorts of variation existed in Old Tibetan as well. The problem is that-aside from 8 conviction that such variation existed in Old Tibetan. as it exists in every language---we simply do not know much about it. The period of Old Tibetan we may take to be more or less coextensive with

TIBETAl'I IN CoNTEXT

the age of the centra! Tibetan Yar-lui'i dynasty, from the seventh 10 the ninth c:cnturies-the era of Tibet's greatest military expansion and the time when the foundations of Tibetan culture were laid, including Ute language we are bere calling classical Tibetan. This was the time when terrifying Tibetan hordes, with their faces painted red, conquered and occupied the strategic c.ses of Central Asia, and on one occasion even captured and briefly held Ct'ang-an, the capital of Olina. For these two centuries. Tibet was the dominant power in Inner Asia.

By the middle of the eighth century at the latest, the barbarian warriors of Tibet had developed a uniform writing system, based on an Indian mode~ which they used on huge monolithic pillars to record their vic10riCJ and in correspondence among the military outposts of their empire. By the reign of Khri Sron-lde-btsan (742-797), who founded the monastery of Bsam-yas and invited the Indian academicians Santaraiq;ita and KamaJaJ.ila to Tibet, this ""ting system had begun 10 be applied to the production of Buddhist texts. By the beginning of the ninth cenlury it seems a need was felt to standardize the language of these translations., whether from religious or imperial. impulse it is difficuiJ to say; in any event, the language standardization project was begun under Khri Lde-sroii-btsan (776-815) and completed under his son Khri Gtsug-lde-btsan (805-836). 'The result was a dictionary, the ,Bye-bragru rwgspar byedpa, perhaps better known under its Sanskrit~d titfe.MahiiryUl ptuti, and a commentary, the Sgra-sbyor bam.po giiispa, Widi tlie sanskrit title MtJdhyavyulpatti, which served as a treatise on translation theory and practice. Translations that had already been completed were revised by the central translation committee, and, as the historian Bu,slon says., s/cJJd-gsa' btJad.kyis gf(ln1a phab "The new language was established by decree." The result was a series of canonical translation eqUivalents for Buddhist texts, in officially sanctioned spellings.

3.2.1. Sources
There are three primary sources of written evidence for dialect variation in Ol~ Tibetan during this period. One source is the collection of manuscripts recovered from the famous walled-up library in one of the shrines constituting the settlement at Ch'ien(o-tung, near Thnhuang, in western Kan"u, the caravanserai which marks the end of China and the beginning of the desert. The sealed cave 'Yielded an immense hoard of Tibetan manuscripts rrom the eighth and ninth centuries, including historical records. translations, myths,

30

TilE CussICAl.. TIBETAN l...ANOUAGE

rituals, divination manuals, and collections of proverbs. The spelling of words in these lexts is the most direct available evidence of dialect variation among the scribes who wrote them down,liS

Another source consists of documents, written primarily on thin strips of

wood held together with Siring, or on coarse, unglazed paper, left behind by the Tibetan garrisons al the oasis cities of Chinese Turkestan, primarily {orts at Miran and at Maziir-Tagh in Khotan. These oases had long had their own

vibrant culture-their garden walls adorned with frescoes and stucco reliefs _hen they were occupied and garrisoned by Tibetan troops, who Jeft behind in their storerooms the identity cards of soldiers, address labels for military and administrative corresponde nce, military reports. administralive memoranda, and letters to superiors from harried commanders in need of supplies. Like the Tun-huang texts, these more prosaic documents give us spellings a nd vocabulary that may reflect di<l.lect variations among their authors. A third source is found in the several inscriptions on monumental pillars e rected in and near Lhasa City. These inscriptions include the earliest extant dated Tibetan writing, the pillar at 2.0~ erected by Nan-lam stag-sgra klugon in 767 to memorialize his services to the king and his victories over the Chinese. For the purposes of phonological reconstruction-that is. when we try to figure out what Tibetan actually sounded like in Ulasa City-the most importa nt of these pillar inscriptions is that of the Sino-Tibetan treaty of 821, which contains 1;1 bilingual versions the names of both the Chinese and Tibetan officials who participated in the conclusion of the treaty, with Tibetan translitera tions of Chinese names and Chinese transliterations of Tibetan names. Again, since there are independent reconstructions of Middle Chinese phonOlOgy, the Chinese transcriptions of Tibetan names can tell us~thin the limits of the ability of written Chinese to transliterate anything--what the Tihetan of Lbilsa City actually sounded like to the Chinese scribes. We find

21> A few o( tlH.:$e maflu:o;cri pts. too, turned ou t 10 be Chi nese: Buddhist texiS transliterated inlO Tibetan, presumably !oO tll.al they could be reci ted by Tibetan tra~de~ Ulitenlte in Chinese but JlCrll.ap5 wilh some knowled~ of the spoken language.. Since we have indc(ltnden, ao;:a.s to tbe Chincs.e tCXIS thllS transliterated, and independent rtCOnstruc1ions o f their Middle ChilK$C phonology, such tcxu. ca n provide signifICant dues 10 the phonolopc.i va lues of the Tibetan I raphs wed to IfJl\SClibe Ihem. We will tum 10 tllcK ICKIS (or help whe n we discuss the Tibetan '-'Till nl sys tem.

TIBETAN IN CoNTEXT

31

similar Chinese transliterations of several Tibetan government titles and royal names in the Chinese historical records dealing with Inner Asian political affairs.

3.2.2. Manuscript variations

Even with these sources, it is difficult to form any consistent geographical picture of Old Tibetan dialect variation. We can, of course, detect fragments of dialects. One ten from the TIm-huang library, for example, consists of proverbs attributed to ma sum-po "Mother Sum-pa/the Sum-pa mother." In this text we find <mu> written consistently for Old Tibetan my; "man," and appareOlly intended to represent the form mu "man" in the dialect of the author. Thai this dialect was thai of a Sum-pa people is indicated not only by the title of the text but also by the fact that the Sum-pa were apparently a distinctive Tibetan group.v We are probably justified in believing that we have here found a genuine Old Tibetan dialect variant-Qld Tibetan (Sumpal mu "man," as opposed, say. to the Old Tibetan (Lhasa) my; > m; "man" attested on the contemporaneous monumental pillars erected around Lhasa City. Similarly, another Tun-huang manuscript, this time dealing with divination, presents what seem to be consistent dialect features, writing <sill> for Old Tibetan z/Q "moon" and <slogs> for Old Tibetan zlogs "reversed," and <IMm-Iad> for Old Tibetan lhams-dad "all" and <urn-Ian> for Old Tibetan sems-t1an "sentient creature." Again, these spellings would seem to reflect genuine Old Tibetan dialect variants; unfortunately, we do nOI know where they are from. But the variants are sufficiently systematic that the

71 The SlIm.pa ptay ... rote in both tl\c Old Tibeu.n Chronicles and l~ DIU Tibetan Ann.als: tbey were .lOquercd by Myaft Maft.po.rd1.e taft -$na ll, the mipister of Sroftbtsan sa-m-po: there were Sum.pa in Rtya -ror. and Mdo-$ rnad. The New rang History reports tbit Su.g-$gta, a prince of tbe Sum.p'. derectod fro m Tibet and $u rrendcrcd to the Cbi~. Tbc term --fNJ abo appears as a geographical designalion in proper namcs-for CDmplc, the otbuwise IInknown Sum-pi Qsu_slcbs, mentionod in a ninth-ccnlury fragment of ad!lli.usuatlvc ~ncspondcncc from the Tibcl.ln fon at Mlrln. l..ater tbe term _.po came to mu to tbc MopJ'lOf, wtIo came to the Kokonor region laler on; the author S;tm-pa Yelea dpll-Nbyor was probably among lbe talter. At lca$t OJIC WOfd-list of New TIbetan, first pubtiJhcd by the South Manchuriap Railw3y in 1943. reports the form I'IU map" from t!le area oc ubrullQ Am4o, allhougll this Is pl"obabty an aue mpl to rel'ldcr the lOon m1.
M

J2

manuscript seems to represent a particular dialect, in which the zI of. say, s~ and -$oil is represented by ! Using the manuscript designation as the provenance of tht! linguistic (orms. therefore. we are probably justified in proposing Old Tibetan (Stein ms. 73 IV 38) slo "moon," as opposed to Old Tibetan (Uiasa) zla "moon," and Old 'Tibetan (Stein tnI. 73 IV 38) tMm-/ad "all," as opposed to Old Tibetan (Lhasa)

Lhasa City is represented by

thams-dad "all," with the Uasa Conns as attested on the Sino-Tibetan treaty
pillar of 821.
Again, we fllld a Thn-huang mythological manuscript apparently perWnina: to a ~gendary time of woe in tbe Skyi counuy, although the provenance of the manuscript itself is uncertain. The manuscript lUna to reOcct. at leut in some portions, a dialect which did not have---o"f wu in the procell of l,?,ing-the distinction between palatal and dental affricates found elsewhere in Old Tibetan. Thus we find. in this manuscript, both .<khri-lJog> and <Icltri-tsog>. both <gUii-bran tJeu> and <gliii-bron tseu>, and both <be-M tlhog-po> and <be-ne tshag-po>, written apparently indiscriminately. What is interesting and puzzling, however, is that these are all proper names, and proper names that are, as far as I know, peculiar to this text. We do not ftnd such variation in other parts of the lexicon: Old Tibetan mtfhog "best" is written consistently as <mtIhog>, and Old Tibetan "t.fhab "water" is written consistently as <tIhab>. One hypothesis is that the manuscript in fact represents a dialect in which there is no distinctio~r no longer a distinction--between dental and palatal affricates; where the scnbe writes 8 word in common use, he writes it according to the speillng rule he has learned; where the scribe has no rule to follow, as when he is writing a proper name he has never seen spelled elsewhere, he improvises its spelling inconsistently, since the different graphs for palatal and dental affricates do not reflect a distinction in his own speech. We do not know, of course, whether in this dialect the palatal affricates have fall~n together with the dental, or the denial wilh the palatal; but such a dialect would dearly be different from that recorded, ~y, on the pillar inSCriptions at Lhasa City.2I

28 Tbe Central Alian manusaipU-botb from Tlul-buaniand Kholaa-6llowoo~ vuiation In their lpcllinl or those vamfIUI1k:a1 panidcl wblcb uaderao lIIOrpbOpbOaotopcd changes aa;:ordin, 10 lhe final or poiIllinal of \be prcc:edin, I)'lIabk. So _ _'"lImp" WId 10 aencl'llHu a 'lap form of svth a ~nide-rOf call1pie. 1!:Ie 01c:cd ~lataliKd for1Il, wrilinl .". _n wllCre lhe morpbopbonoklpcal ""lei would __ 10 caU for ..,. or ... Other manusaipl$ may avoid paJalalillCd fo~ a1lOtdbet. and lK ~ II11allCSled po5looG50lLInlal IOI1n5 .; and ..ti, u ill <IUIM-i> UId <ytIb-.tl>. wberc _

uWt, ..

TIBETAN IN Cof'fTEXT

33

3.2.3. Reconstructed variations

Sometimes we can reconstruct earlier variation where New Tibetan dialect variants do not reflect a single Old Tibetan source. The word for "knee," for example, is pus-mo in the classical texts, with the high back vowel u and a final -s. But it is clear that this fonn is only one of several earlier Tibetan words with the same meaning. Some of these variants apparently go back to earlier fonns with the same vowel but a velar final cluster: in western Tibet we find New Tibetan (Balti) buxnw (Purik) puksmo. which indicate an earlier fonn -pugs-mo. But we also find fonns with the same finals or clusters but a high front vowel i instead of a high back vowellL We find (Ladakh) pUma, indicating an earlier fonn 'pis-mo, and (Lahuli) pismo. of uncertain ancestry, but possibly from -pig-rno or -pi.gs-nw. At the other end of Tibet, in the far nonheast, we find (Arndo) wiXmo-iXmo, which could have come from any of the four earlier forms 'pig--pigs--pug.-pugs-mo. and (Golok) wigo. which seems to indicate an earlier 'pig-mo. And in central Tibet we find (Dbus) pimo. which looks like it came from -pis-rna, and (Lhasa) pilmu, which is so clearly related to an earlier form 'pus-mo that one suspects that it is in fact a reading pronunciation of the written form <pus-rna>. And we also find in Lhasa City a form pemf}, whose vowel ~instead of .c--and long high level tone on the first syllable suggest an earlier form 'pel-fTUJ. There is, thus, no one earlier form that can accoun! for all these New Tibetan variants, and we must reconstruct at least four--ot possibly five-precursor forms-'pis-mo. 'pig--pigs-mo. 'pus-mo. 'pug--pugs-mo. and, perhaps, 'pel-mo. Contemporary forms help confirm other variations in Old Tibetan. At one time, nain Old Tibetan words with a labial initial and a front vowel had been written with the bottom graph <y>, both in the Central Asian manuscripts and on the Lhasa inscriptions, indicating that the labial initial had been palatalized-for example, myi "man," myUi "name," mye "fire," "l)'Q "grandfather," dpyes "copy." Other words with a labial initial and a front vowel were apparently not so palatalized, and were written without the <y>-for example, mUi "brother," mt-tog-men-tog "nower," dpen "useful." After the language refonns of the early ninth century, the bottom graph <y> was eliminated from all such words, and the words officially became mi
IIIOfJIbopboDOlo&kaJ. nalet would sccm 10 all (or -k)' Ofgi II is very dlfTlaall 10 draw any OOIIdusioof from s\ldl l'ariltion. DOl OCiIy because of Its iftCOlI$istcncy _II within a .inpe ~..aipt, bill abo bccallK these SpctlillP may in fact rcrJca sporadic ancmpts al pboAclllkWnl the writiDI of tbcte pIIni<:1c$. .

34

TilE CLASS ICAL TIBETAN l..J.NGU .... GE

"man," min "name," m~ "fire," mes "grandfather," dpe "copy," presumably because that is the way the nobles in Lhasa City pronounced them . . In the far northwest, however, labials before front vowels in these words conlinued to be palatalized. How do we know? As a general rule, Old Tibetan my > New Tibetan ii, as when, say, Old Tibetan myug " reed" > New Tibetan (Obus) iiuk, or Old Tibetan dmyal.ba > New Tibetan (Uasa) nala. Thus, when we find, among Ihe northwestern dialects, New Tibetan (Amda) iii (Dpari) mni (Qolok) mno "man," 85 opposed to New Tibetan (Obus) mi (Lhasa) mi in central Tibet. and New Tibetan (Amda) ne (Han-niu) miii (Qolok) wiie "fire," 85 opposed to New Tibetan (Obus) me (Lhasa) me, we can hypothesize the norlhwestern forms are in fact descended from an earlier -myi "man" and -mye "fire," respectively. while the central Tibetan forms are descended from the Old Tibetan mi and me recorded in the texts after the spelling reform. Words that were not written as palatalized before the spelling reform do not have palatalized descendants in any dialect-thus, for example, Old Tibetan me-log "flower" > New Tibetan (Amdo) met07(Lhasa) meto.

3.2.4. The problem or the prtinitials

A striking feature both of the manuscripts and of the inscriptions is the variability of preinitials. In the Central Asian manuscript material, whether from Khotan or Tun-huang, the scribes sporadically weaken or omit preinitial consonants in complex syllable onset clusters: they write both <rIcon> and <dkon> for dkOll "rare," both <f8Il> and <dgu> for dgu "nine," both <kar> and <dkar> for dkar "white," both <go> and <mgo> for mgo "head," both <poll> and <dpolI> fordpon "lord," both <Ih4> and <mtha> for milia "end," both <tsall> and "<blSan> for blSan "king," both <tsis> and <rtsis> for rtsis "reckoned," both <Ion> and <blon> for biOI! "minister." both <sar> and <gsar> for gsar "new:' Similarly, on the Sino-Tibetan treaty pillar of 821, we find Old Tibetan <bka> "command" transliterated as Middle Chinese ~hya, Old Tibetan <rgan> "old" as Middle Chinese -leon, Old Tibetan <grogs> "attached" as Middle Chinese -rwok, Old Tibetan <Ita> "sees" as Middle Chinese -tlul, Old Tibetan <11JYOi> "king" as Middle Oinese -Icye, Old Tibetan <bt1on> "firm" as Middle Chinese -tan. Old Tibetan <nna> "name of a district" as Middle Chinese -mwa, Old Tibetan <bla> "high" as Middle Chinese

TUH, rAN IN CoNTEXT

35

-tn-but Old Tibetan <.bzaii> "gO(xf' as both Middle Chinesl! -dzhuii and -b-dzhaii <.-bhwn-dzhaii>, Old Tibetan <klu> "serpent deity" as both Middle Chinese -1M.4 and -k-Iy~ <. -Icyu-Iy~p>. Nonslopped and nasal prl!initials were apparently still articulated clearly e nough for the Chinese scrim: to catch: Old Tibetan <slaii> "IIONoRIFIe Al'llX TO PEHSONAL NAMES" is transliterated as Middle Chinese -slan <-syer-wii>, Old Tibetan <.fllum> "wool" as Middle Chinl!se -SlIam <-syel-nam>, Old Tibetan <Ndus> "assembled" as Middle Chinese -nus <,-nwo-syel>. We find similar Chinese transliterations in the Tang dynastic histories. In the Annals of the Later Tang we find what we can presume is Old Tibetan blSan "king" IranSlileTilled as Middle Chinese -/Jan, Old Tibetan blon "minister" as Middle Chinese -/yw.wz, but Old Tibetan spyan "eye" as Middle Chinese -spyen <. -sye/-pyel! >. Synchronically, it is clear that the speakers of the dialects reflected in tht!sc texts were not articuJating--or were not consistently articulating--earlier stopped nonnasal preinitials, and were weakening them or dropping them completely. It is equally clear, however, thai, at Ihe same time. the spc!'lkers of the Lhasa City dialect were wriling their words with the prdnil ials indicated, right on the same pillar as the Chinese transcriptions, and .....I!rc giving those spellings the official sanction of their Buddhist translation commission. And in other dialects these preinitials apparently continued 10 be articulated: note, for example, Old Tibetan dgu "nine" > New Tibetan (Khams) dgu, Old Tibetan bdun "seven" > New Tibetan (Khams) bdull, Old Tibetan gram "story" > New Tibetan (Khams) gtam, Old Tibetan sgo "d(xn" > New Tibetan (Khams) sgO.29 This is all very puuling. I believe it is pla usible to suggest that we are dealing
29 Loan words are nOI much hClp unlC$!; we know JUSt where Iml when !he loan took ptace. When Mongol IauJni "musk" was borrowed into Tibelan a" skubtUrigs. or wilen Mo ngot ba4J.J, ''Warrior'' was borrowed as dfHl ' /Jdud, 01 wilen Middle Cllinoc 0/...,.00 "dragon" is wriuen in Tibelan as bolll ,/u;; ''Wind'' and kJu;; "fi.'cr" in Ille oompuund ,Iu;; na-Idu;;na "d ragon lIorse ... prayer nag." we can guC\s Ihal. ~I Ihat lime and pl~ce. Ihe preinilials were n<ll being articulaled as Ihey were wrillen; we jU>1 oJu nut know where or when Ihat was. BUI somelimes we can gel dose. For eumple. on tile smaller of the two DlUyunr;-kuln inKr iptions. wrillen in Mongot ian. in Nphags-pa scripl. probably in the late thirteenth or <:;irly fourteenth centu')', we find Tibeun rabgnas "oorlSralion" as Mungol arabniU. Tibetan bl3ma " lama" as Mongol lema. and Tibetan d~-bju "profcuor" as Mongol ~bji. This inscription is, of o;:ourse. I long lime afle r and a lo ng distance from the Sino-Tibetan trealy inscriptio n. bUI it prcsum~bly still represents the speech of such educated Tibetans as might have acc;c.<.S 10 Ihe Mongol OOUrt.

36

TilE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

here with a social rather than a geographic dialect-a social dialect that includes both the officials at Lhasa City and 'the administrators and scribes of their Central Asian garrisons. JO But if preinitials tended to be elided in the prestige dialect, why were they made part of the official spellings? And if-as I prefer 10 hypothesize-preiniliais te nded to be articulated in the prestige dialect in slow or elevated speech, but elided when talking rapidly or conversationally, why we re they not nOled by the Chinese scnbes who transliterated Ihe Tibetan words-presumably pronounced slowly and carefully for them-4)n the treaty inscription?

4. DEFINING CLASSICAL TIBETAN

I will use the term ClASSI CAL TIBETAN to refer to the language of written Tibetan teXiS , with the exception of the canonicallranslalions, primarily from Sanskrit,)] and' the language of modern newspapers and similar printed

)fl Assignment to an ad miniuralive post al o ne of the beautiful and civilized oasis cilia uf Cen tral A~ia woulu nOI necessa ri ly be a hn(!Ship posl, althou gh there were cerlainly some gMri~uns Ihat were ulRsidcrably k:.~ allraclive,

~I Translations of Blllluhist and OIher lell! began dllring the first half of the eighth c.cRlu ry; Il!; we have nut ed, Ihc vflcahu lary and style of the translation language were Ihnruughly rc~ul a ril_cU lIuring the carly part nf thc ninth ce ntury, under King Khri Gtsugkk-ht .... n. With the pmmulga liun of Iranstali.. n rules by Ihe royal com miss io n, stand.ardi/ltion of rende ring becamc a pr im~ry vinue: as Ilne cummcnia tor has no ted, many of the tramlalions of Ihe niRlh Ihmugh Ih e early twelflh ce nturies appear to be Ihe work o r lin imaginaliv.: hack!;. Tli is mechanical renderin g nf equivalents, however, hll!; oOen been deemed a vi rtue by modern .~ holars who vi L ..... Tibetan only as a mea ns 10 " reconstruct" IO!>I Sanskrit le_~IS- lha l is, 10 engage in Ihe [M!culiar elercise of translati ng Tibe tan tnu into Saltskrit.

One of Ihc pruh lc ms was Ihe uirrlCully of per~ uading q ualified indian teac hers to travel to Tibel, a place percelvcU as ho rr id ~ nd harl'llr ic hy any ur ba ne Ind ian academic; anOlher pruh lcm was the ha/alu- famine. thievel>. strange di!oC<lses-whieh attended any trip to India hy a Tibetan in sC3rch uf a teache r. Ther(! werc cxccptions, or course: the rndian Smrtijnlna. kIlli came III T ibel in the lauer half of Ihe tenlh ce ntury, 5earching for his transmigraling mother, who had been reborn as an insed i~ Rla.na g, and Ihe greal DTparrkara!rTjn:lna, l:iIllcd AtT~ "Lord uf lords," arrived in Ihe carly part of the eleven th century. But il was unly with the MUSlim eu nqll CSt nf NOllh In<lia_Bcnares and Biluror fell to the forces of QUlbuu Din in 11 '1.' , and Ihe greal monastic univcDily of Vikramillia was burned to the ,,,, und in 1206- thal Indian sc holaD ned 10 Tibel in any great numbe D, bringing with them Ihc firM leal undcr.;t~r.dinl!. the Tihoela ns hau [If San~kril l ilerary culture. TIle KhaUhe pa~

37

material ]2' The remainder--the vast corpus of written Tibetan material ranging in date from the eighth century to the present day--is written in a
language recognizably the same, and all morc: or less accessible 10 the literate Tibetan. 1 use the: term in conscious imitation of similar usage in Olinese literary study, where the: term "classical Otinese" refers to the written language: as a whole. from bronze inscriptions to novels, all of whi<:b is the province of the: literate scholar. but with the similar exelusion of translations from Sanskrit and the written Chinese of newspapers and magazines.

Classical Tibetan, unlike many written languages, is in many ways independent of the spoken Tibetan language. For example, the basic phonological distinctions underlying the: clusicallanguagc have remai~hroughout its history-those of Old Tibetan. Even today, a writer of classical Tibetan will WRITE. the: form <sgrub> for the: prcsent stem, <bsgrubs> for the past stem, and <bsgrub> for the future: stem of the verb SGRUB "accomplish," even when all three forms arc PRONOUNCED identically in his spoken language-for example. New Tibetan (Lhasa) /Up. Similarly, a writer of classical Tibetan will write the past stem of SAG "gather" as <bsa!$>. with an -s suffix, and the past stem of SAD "kill" as <bsad>. \\oithout an -s SUrrlX, because of an Old Tibetan syllable structure constraint. even when his spoken language no longer has syllable-final consonant clusters in any event. In both these examples, classical Tibetan is WRIlTEN according to the phonological rules of Old Tibetan.)'}

tJheD $nyaJrlbhadn. IrriYcd wilb retinue of nine pal)4ilS in 1206; by tbe second balf of tbe tIlirtCIcntb CUtury, Soa-ston Rdo-rdtc rC)'llI-muban was working with uqmTkara to tn.UIaIC SatlStrit drama, puctry,lDd ucatiscson poetical theory. And tbac rdugcc scholars came with tbelr boots: the bulk of Sanskrit man\lSCfipu preserved in Tibet date from tbe IIllrICCAlb cenlury.
II Neowspapc:r Tibetan b.as been called "modern literary Tibetan" by anthropologist Mcl\IyD. OokIItein,'allboup its uses .ppear to me to be far from litcrary. ansal Tibetan, of c:owse. continues 10 be wrillen to tbis !lay, as tbe language of learned discourse, aDd even u the laapp of popullr culture; wtlcttlcr newspaper Tibetan will become a vebicle for a teGuloc colloquial lilCnlturc rcmahu: 10 be SOClI, .'tbougb arty signs are encouraling.
Is found In Chinese poetry: words which once rhymed in older of tbe lanpaJC conlinued 10 be used as rhymes, even when tbey no IonJCr rhymed III tbe apekca laDpaJC of the pact, witb special diclionaries compiled to tell the writer whk:b wordiWCfC supposed 10 be considercc1 rhymes I nd whith wcre not.

:n A pt.ralld llllIIlioII

Sl.lp

38

THE CtAssICAL TIBETAN l.....\NOUAGE

This is not to say, of course, that clanical Tibetan has never been influenced by the spoken language. Such influences can certainly be found. For example, the firteenlh-century Guan-smyan he-ru-ka, in his famous biography of the clcventh-century poet Mi-Ia ras-pa, consistently used the Middle Tibetan conjunction -nUi "RuT' in his own prose, in contrast to the Old Tibetan conjunction Yon ''BUT'' found consistently in the genuinely older songs attributed to Mila which he quotes. Similarly, dialect pronunciations have been given an Old Tibetan orthography and borrowed back into the classi<'.allanguage~ for example, Nphyor-pa "pretty" as mtIhor-pa, and sk.yuii-ta "jackdaw" as flIuii-ka. The amount of Ihis influence, of course, varies with the author, the style, and the subject matter: clearly a text on logic theory written for candidates for advanced monastic acade mic degrees will show less influence from the contemporaneous dialect of its author than a book of popular maxims, even when written by the same writer.}t Once again. the parallel with classical Chinese is striking.

Figurr J.

lIIu,"i1Illl~d

book. ptJ~

}t In this reprd we should note a remar kable ,rollp of nineteenth and twen tlethDtllTy monk scholars in the ris.,"~d "edectic" ITIOYcment, be,lnnin, with Konsprul Karma ~a,. dNn yon tl n rl)'l mtsho, Ndtam..:lbya lls mkhyc n.brtscl dballpo. and Miptllm reyamtsllo of Khanu, who e mphuized the IInity of the Tibetan rdir;iollS tr~ i tio n, .nd who initiated lu tin, inte rest in oral litera tllre and the ep~ trad itio n.

The Writing System

1. GRAPH AND SOUND

It is important 10 distinguish between a linguistically functional sound and the written sign--or ORAPH_hich represents that sound. This distinction was blurred among the Tibetan grammarians. who used the term yi-ge indiscriminately to mean both a sound and the graph used to write that sound. Such usage can be misleading. The script does make some graphic distinctions that reneel significant phonological distInctions: fo r example, stopped preinitiais

It is 8lnerRliy ASIUltUd 'hilt tbt spoim JPOrtJ came before the "';nm FOrd. I su!J!Jen ,hilt the l[IOIt~n IIPQrtl as we know it 'lUlU lifter the ..,ittm 1fJ(Wr/. .. My bam theory is thRt the "";tten FOrd was "'lUaU) " nM4S that made the spokm word pmsibk. -William S. Burroughs. nit l ob

are written as left graphs and nonstopped preinitials arc written 35 lOp graphs. But the writing system fails 1 0 reflect other and eq ually significant phonological distinctio ns: for example, in both zla " moon" and s/a "t hin" the -/. is wrillen as a bottom graph; but in zla it is apparently an Old Tibetan postinitial, while in s/a it is undoubtedly the initial. I

I Thus, 100, lhe

ric!

tllal 1M Kquences <VOP> and <grogs> are wrillen with the

same

G~H IC oonYc:ftlions

docs nO! mean they Ire PItOI'<lOL.OO ICAI.J.Y equivalent_and , indocd, (here is reason 10 bellCYt that Old Tibetan grOjp " ra me" > New Tibeta n (Lhasa) [lID ....a! pllollOlot;iall1y distillC( rrom O ld Tibeta n grup " he lper" > New Tibetu (Lhasa) n, dcspile

lbeir ,rlphic similarily,

THE CussICAL TtBETAN l...ANOU ....GE Moreover, it must be remembered that the writing system has remained virtually unchanged for a thousand years, while the spoken language has undergone change in several ways. The wrinen form <sgrub>, originally representing Old Tibetan sgrub "accomplishes" < NSGRUB, now represents, say, New 1.'ibetan (Lhasa) {Up. Now phonological change has been sufficienlly regular, in most cases, that a literate Lhasa city reader can process <sgrub> as representing {Up; but the same person, as writer, cannOl with similar assurance transcribe {UP as <sgrub>, instead of, say, <Nbrub> or <Ndrub>, which also represent New Tibetan (Lhasa) {Up. Rather, it must be leam~d that {Up "accomplishes" is written <sgrub>, that !up "overflows" is written <Nbrub>, and that {Up "sews" is written <Ndrub>.l The gi'owing divorce between writing and speech leads to another occasional anomaly--the fact, not only that Til?ttans are generally terrible spellers, but alsO that a Tibetan ca" say things he dOt:s not know how to write at all. Such a com mon expression as New Tibetan (Lhasa) (;Hi; "last year" seems to have no written form; it is represented graphically where necessary by the unrelated sequence <na,"iii>.l

2. THE INVENTION OF WRITING

The traditional accoUnt of the invention of the Tibetan writing system is set t'orth in the ecclesiastical history of Buston (129Q.1364). There we are told that Thonmi Anuibu was sent to India by king Sronbtsan sgampo (who ruled from about 627 to 650) along with sixteen companions in order to study writing; he studied with a pal}"ita named Lha-rig-pai senge, created the Tibetan alphabet based on a Kashmiri prototype, and composed eight works on writing and grammar. This bare account is progressiydy elaborated in tht: later historical te"ts, which add circun::stantial details to the story. The name Thon-mi-Thu-mi-Mtho-mi becomes associated with twO earlier-and prob

1 ColUCrvativc writing systcms represe nting t.:hanging lallguages IIlclcforc aspire 10 thc oondition of Chinese, with the relation~hip betwC(:n graptl ~nd sound becoming increasingly ~rbillary and , eventually. :he subjt of shotr mcmori1.ation.
1 Note tOO that one can, ofoourse, wril( II graphi(: s-rquencc rep resen tin g a ~y!l3bh: whi(:h is nOI allowed by the phonologicat rules of thc langu age. nlll!J the graphic sequence </lrlel"/I> can be interpreted as .cpresenting a syllabic ?brkJub. whkh is not II pcrmiU C<i syllable, ju:ot u th e ~uence <bsgrob> an IX interpretC<J 3.\ reprcsc nl in): Ihe syllatlle b.grub, whiCh is.

THE WRmNo SYSTEM

41

ably composite--grammatical works, the Sum-Lfu-pa and the Rtags-kyi NdtugptL

We should note, however, that the earliest, and simplest, account was written seven hundred yean after the events it purports to describe, and that Fr'luineiy ancient Tibetan historical records from Central Asia- unavailable 10 Bu-ston and his successors-appear to contain no mention of Thonmi at
oil

Considerable doubt can thus be cast on the traditional account of the invention of Tibetan writing, and there are cunsiderable difficultIes concerning even the historicity of its putative inventor. Moreover, an Indian inSCription on baked bricks from Gopalpur, written in a script virtually identical with the Tibetan, has been independently dated to around 50(1 Such evidence gives reason to believe that any purported invention was, if anything, a sta ndardization of Indic scripts already in circulation for as long as a century. Such standardization presumably would have rlXed the graphS for phonemes which are found in Old Tibetan but not in Sansktit-prenasalization, voiced fricatives. and one series of affricates, as well as ! mooth vocalic ingressprimarily through the modification o f existing graphs. 4
The development of a writing system wa~ apparently due to admmistrutivc ralher than religious needs, al least at the beginning. One o f the eallicst references 10 writing is in the ancient anuals discove red at the caves ne:lr Tun-huang, which brieny describe the principal evenls of e ar.h year from tte death of Sroii-btsan sgam-po in 6.50 through 747. The entry for the yetlr 655 reads buan.po mer-Iche-na blugs-.rut, b/on-IIhe slon ISO!; lfjlf JoIgOr-tir b ka-/;.im.., kyi yi-Ce bris "The King stayed at Me: i.:hc, and prime mir"!i5t Ci" Stoii- Isan wrote the text of his commands t.) ~g.)r- li ." ~ T he earlics! ext J ro t dated Tibetan writing is found on a pillar erected at 2 01 anti dat.:d 7(.7. T ~e piliar was crccted by the powerful minister Nan- I~lIn S!::g-sgrtl klu-r,()r" n-cvr l.lir.g his services to the king, including victories over the Chinese, and lhl: n;wanls h(~ received. The pillar makes no mention of iluudhislIl .

For eumple, Ihe graphs for Ihe denIal affricalcs ih, rJ, 1.111 are Iho; .... mo:: a.\ Ihe &,aph~ for Ihe palatal affriOUe5 dl, /1. 11h wilh $m. 1I hook added; Ih-e gr~ph for l is Ille grllp h f(u .u backwards; Ihe graph for 1 is, perh.aps. deriV{'J fro m tI.e guph fur ii. The urigir. r.f Ihe V.ph called QdhuJi "Iiule 0" hy the TIbo::um gram!narian~ ~~ a m~IIC I or rnuch ,JiSpu lc

S Note the impliQllion Ihal the king hinudf wu

iII ile.;,!'!.

42

THE C1..Ass1CAJ.. nSETAN LANGUAGE

3. THE WRITING SYSTEM

The principles of the Tibetan writing system are easily descnbed. The original

technical problem was that of taking a syllabic script used for the predominantly open Indie syllabic and adapting it to the complex onset clusters and closed syllables of Tibetan. The key to the adaptation is a small raised dot called tsheg "dot," which defines the boundaries of the syllable: everything between two dots constitutes onc syllabic. The word "syllabic" in Tibetan is tshegbar "between the dots."
The following table shows the graphic structure of the Tibet9n syllable, which we will discuss in the following paragraphs; the GRAPHIC structure of the syllable must, of course, be kept conceptually distinct from its PifONOLOO1CAt structure. The numbers in the table indicate the sequence in which the graphs

a re processed.

I LEFr

I I II I I
Tab/~

5 VOWEL

HOP
CEI'rIl:R

.. BOTTOM

5 VOWEL

I I Ii I I

'RIGHT

II

7 FAR RI GHT

J. Graphk. smwuu of flu Old

Tj~ftJ1l syllabf~

The minimum graphiC sequence consists of one CENTER ORAPH and one VOWEl. GRAPH either above or below the center graph. This sequence is processed as an open syllable, with the vowel last; a vowel graph cannot be written indeoendently of 0. center graph. The center graph may be any one of the 29 graphs representing the consonants g. Ie. Ich, d, t, tho h, Po ph, dl, I!, tlh, dz. ts, tsh, ii, if, fI, In, I, I, z, 5, y, r, ~ W, 7, and h. Ir the syllabIc: being

43
represented has no initial consonant, but rathe r begins with a vowel, the center graph position is st ill filled, with what we will here call the PLACEHOLDING GRAPH, called a-dhun " lillie Q " by the Tibetan grammarians.'

(0

JIIQ gra ph Qf tile Tibc:lall writing 5}'$IUt Iw been as diKussed and rontr()Y(rted as

"Iittle a." For tile Tibetan grammlrians, Q-dlruil "little a" stood in ronU''&St to 1tHJMfI "bil D" or lhe glottal SlOp 1. This .seems to be precisely Ihe s.amc dislinc1ion as thai between Chinese)ll "smoot h YOCalic inlreM" and yin, "gloll.ll SlOp" knOW1I to lbe andent CIIincse phonelici3ns and reconstructed (or lbe la nluaJe of the swl! century AD. Fo r some ruson , however, the T ibetan plKlnclicians idenliflCd lbeir pollal SlOp 1 wilh tile onse t of ~;lShi l syllab les wrinen wil/loll\ initial consona nt IflIphs. Now Indic descriptions of Ihis o nsc t are puv.ling; but perhaps in conlempora neous Sanskrit pronuncia tio n a predictabLe and hena:: nonphonemic gloua l ~I Op did in raci precede ew: ry vowe l IvjliMlut OIher consonani onloel, jlUl as in prese nl -day E nglish-compare. for cumple. English hrwr <hour> wilh Fre nch (I#" <hturt>. Th is is eenainly true in modern Hindi; a Hindi speaker will read the \'QWCI <a>, for eumple. as hi. 111115 the Tibelan yaph <1> for Ihe g!otlll stoP? is derived from and identified with the Indic graph <a>, which was presumably pro. no unted 70. And il WI$ lhe plaeeholding graph adhuft lillie a." represe nt ing as nter graph a smOOl h vuc:alic ingress-a graph nOI found in Sa nskrit-that Ihe Tibetln o rlhograpllcrs oo nsidcrcd th~i r own innOYali()n.

lltal is the reason Ng05 lotsJba G l_on. nu.dpal n011;:$ ~rtieularly IIIaI the Sanskrit .Iphabet was adapted to Tibetan by includin, the smOOlh voea lic; ingress ' mo n, the OOnloOnants: /'1)'11' garla mtdkyan bodla la-daft la dan am anu dgos. Now the ,Ioltal SlOp b, of course, pho nemi c in Tibetan, as in such lIlin imal pairs as Of "underpan M l'I:lf "neck," and lhe Tilletan gramma rians remained pUl.1.1ed as to why lhe Sanskrit ,rammarians considered the ,lcm.1 StOp to be a vowel; slill, in imiUltion of the presti,ious Indian model, l!'ley used the ,raph < 1> wilen discussing vowels, and thus would .pparenlly speak of "the vowel 11:1" or Ihe vowe l 11:1:' iosle;od of the vowel a' o r "Ihe vowel 0:' mUCh 10 the confusion of e-.ery one involved.
0 " is' used to write 1llE ABSENCE 01' A When this ,raph-whic;h I will re pre5Cnt in this footnote wilh the phonetically IIclillal symbol < I>-'ppurs in the <:.enter ,raph posilion, it indicale. lhe .bsenoe of an INmAL to nSO nanl: Ihat is. it re presents a IInooth vocalic ;nlrcu, IS in Of </of> or IV <fur>, a.~ opposed, $.lIy, to ?og <?og> or ~r <au,>. In p05lvocalie position, It indicate. Ihe abscn<:.e of an INTERVOCALIC consonant: thai is, It represents th.at the vowel which follOW$ is tile second member of I diphthong. u inpai <pol;> or bni <~/U> . And, in the righl grap h pos ition, it ind icates the absen<:.e of. FlNAL COnloOnanl: that is, it Indicates that Ihe righlmrnot o f the consonant 'flphs is the <:.enler Iraph, as in dto <qat> or ~ <'II iial >. 1$ opposed, $.lIy, 10 dog <dag> or Maii <maA>.

~ntially, lhe pla<:.e. holding , raph Qdhun "lillie

~{) N SON",,",.

44

This place.bolding flinClion-indiallinl the absence of a consonant-is clearly tbe function ,o f tbe graph in tbe early Tibelan manv.scripl transcriptions of OIinese Buddhist 101$. II marks tbe absence of a CQlISOnanl onset ""her transcribing lbe Middle C'bille$C: $moolh vocalic ingress: Middle Chinese OJ is IfllU(7ibcd as <Ii>, Middle Chinese ')wd as </14 >, and Middle Chinese ')'WM as <fun >. Similarly, I~ graph marks 1M .b5eM'C of an inlervocalk:
eonso~nl

when 'rall5Cfibing Middle Cbinesc: diphlnonp: Mkklle Chinese -ayo. is transcribed as <tJi/U>, Middle OIinese ~ as <*Ii>, MicSdle Olinese "myaI as <Nbyt/U>, Middle CbiDclc '"dhyri as <rkJi>, Mkklic OIincsc ~ as <11:;/11>, Middle: Cbiocse 0/dry1f4 as <tJry.ttu >. MiIWIc Cbiocse -,.m IS <NIV/i> 1Id Middle Cbincse "/)'de IS < fi/U >. And .pin, tbe If.ph mUD (be .b5eQU of OOllSOlllnl c:odI in transcribing Middle OIinese open syllables: Middle Chinese ~ is \f.nsmbe4 as <114/>, Middle Chinese "rio as <.:la/>, Middle ChitlC5e -,II,) as <NgfJ/>, Middle: Chinese ~ as <Hgi/>, and Middle: " Chinese iii u <Hgil>.
Similar examples art found in tile Sino- Tibeun Ifelly in5Cliption of 821, where the placeholding Q.llJwil marks the.bseIK:e of intervocalic oonsonanlS in MI4dIe OIinese diphthonp: MiddJe Chinese .jhyaJ. is Iranscribed as <IU/ll>, Middle Chinese "IraN as. <kn/u.> or <kciu>, Middle Chinese "lull as <kJuJk>, Middle OIinese "'IIy~ as <.vgi/ll>, Middle C hinese ":UI14 a.~ <M/U>, Middle Chinese "Iy;u as <N/Il>, M)ddle -Chinese ~hyt;u as <JJ~/U>, Middle Ch inese "Ihal a5 <Ihali> or <IIKk>, and Middle Chinese "JyilCol as <~jJlI> or <filu>. Si nce: the place-holding graph represents the absence of a oonsonant, it is unambiguously transliterated into English script as the abscnoe of I oonsonanl-for eumple, III il\Slead of, lilly, /uf, ~II instead of, say, bt/ll, I nd dga instead of, say, dp/, Such ,ransliteralion will be our practice: tbro ugholll Ihis text, exce:pl where, as aboVe, the graphic a-/Ihuil is cxplieilJy rendere4 a., <I> for expo5itory purposes.

It is intemiling to note lhat the Korean scr ipt, invenle4 in Ihe fifteenlh ce:nlury, IOOOrding to tradition, by King Scjon".lso oonlains a place-hold ing graph. This plll<lC-holding graph oontr:u:s wJt h a g101U1 I stop graph, despite the fael lhat Korean has no distinction belWCCD smoot h vroca lic and glollaJ StOp onselS; ralher, the grapM were created 10 provide distinct 'pellin~ for thC$C OPSeU when they OQ;\IrTed in Chinese loanwords-for ~mple, Middle Cbinese 0; N. rb:\rian" as opposed to 01j " physician." The graph for the gIolUlI stop wa.' 500n given up, and only the gn ph fOI smooth vocalic ingress was retained. ThaI tir.ph is still IJSor:d in j('Jrean writing. because_jusl as in libetan-the orthographiC: rvlc$ requirc: thaI eac:h syllabk begin wil h a ooPSOlI2nt graph: and. if the syllable begins with a vowel-for example, the ~d sylla llie in stul 'Seoul"_the place.holding graph is used.
There is, in fael, some reason 10 believe that King Sejong knew tlK: TIbetan writing 5)'!i tem, at lca.u ir. the form il loo k in Ch ina to write Monsol during IIIe VllIn dynasty-the writint called HIe ~~.agJ-pa scri pt, from the name of iu inventor, tile Nphap-pa Blncros rl)'lll Int.sn:tn, II !:.askya monk at the COllrt o r Khllbilai Khan , ....110 declared il Ihe omcial script

THE WRmNO SYSTEM

4S

As in other Indie scripts, the v~el 0 is signalled by the AB.'iF..NCE of an overt vowel graph; we may say, conventionally, that the vowel graph <0> for the vowel 0 is the ZERO GRAPH.' A center graph with no other accompanying overt vowel graph necessarily has the invisible zero graph, and thus the syllable nucleus must be o. Therefore, just as a vowel graph cannot occur independently of a center graph, a center graph cannot occur independently

What is ..nNe" is btuetl 1m PNm-moremmr: .,hen 1 ..nte, ",., body 40u 1fOt mqn in unison ";rb the flo-' of 7I'01'ds. .... WIllu is will, 1m tbe umlT"". um1fOt be upilrtuetl from body mo,*",. The JPOim 'KIOrd "';w itself 1f01 (m/y in body porturlJ ... but tUso in the tUnwt
snnaphorie glJtJlreJ of the Ipleeh lUI.

-Edouard Glissanl, Free und ForcM Poetics

of a vowel graph. Vowels other than a are written, on the Indie model, by vowel grllphs written above (~ e, 0) or below (u) the center graph.' For example, the syllable IUJ i~ written with the graph <k> and the zero graph <0> followed by a dot to show the end of the syllable; the syllable "i is

of the empire In 1269. This script was also ucd to lransliter:ate Chinese, ~nd it made the $3Tf\C IRphic distinction bcl'wCCn glOtLIII $lOp and smooth ingress; it may be the source from whicb Kln. Scjon. borrowed the ume distinction into his invention. 1 This distinction must be borne in mind: the ZERO GRAI'II represcnu the rresenu: or a pbonemc by the absence of a graph; the PI.... a , llOU)ING ORAI'll represents the absence ,)f a pboneme by ihe prescnce of a graph. , The Tibelan .rammlrUos have given t~ vowel graplls-and thus the vowels themr.elvcs -fandfill names based on their Shipes above and below the tenter graph: they call < i:> gi. p "curve," <II> labskyu "foot t,ook," <t> Ngff1!..t>u "upright," and <0> 11010 " II~ bol'1\S." Note th~ n the name ror each vowel contains that vowel. Note. too, that the term /100-10 is, strictly sllUklng. meaningless; it is interpretcJ by the ,rammlriaM as either m<lIo " cars" or S/IoO ru " r.ose hOrns." The graph <a>, of course, has no shape. beill, invisible; thus the TibeLlln uammariJlns sometimes speak of there bein . only four vowels Ind a 1!.a-bo "Inherent" a in each consonant .raph. This 'Qy of spea king is probably not helpful.

46

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN l...ANGUAGE

written with the graph <g> plus the vowel graph <i> written above the center graph, followed by a dot; the syllabic u is written with the place-holding a.t]huii, to indic31e the absence of an initial consonant, plus Ihe vowel graph <u> written below the center graph, followed by a dot: and so on.

Above Ihe center graph-but below any superscript vowel graph-may be written one of three TOP GRAPHS, which are reduced (orms of Ihe center graphS for r. I, and s. Below the center graph-but above any subscript vowel graph-may be written one of four BOITOM GRAPIIS, which are reduced forms of the graphs for y, r, ~ and w. All consonant graphs stacked on the same vertical axis represent a single onset cluster and aTC proces.scd from top to bottom, with the vowel graph processed last: thus a lOp graph <r>, a center graph <8>, a bouom graph <y>, and a zero vowel graph <a> is processed as <rg}'a>, representing the syllable rgya; a lOp graph <s>, a cenler graph <k>, and a vowel graph <u> is processed as <slw>. representing the syllable sku; a center graph <h>. a bouom graph <r>. and a vowel graph <;> is processed as <bri>. represenling the syUabk bn; and so on.'
To the left of the center graph may' be written one of fIVe LEFT GRAPHS, wh ich are the fult forms of the graphs for g, d, b. m, and a-t!hun "Iiule a," which in this position represerats the prenaSalization of a following stopped

, One issuc dc.'iCI>>C$ hrief mcntion hefc. In the cl~ical TIbetan writin, s)'Stem we find the digraphs <Ih> and <hr>- that is. a center ,mph <II> with a top ,raph <I>. and a ctnle r graph <II> with a bottom graph <r>. In !lCVtfal New Tibetan dialects these digraphs represent the VOKI'LESS GLIDES! and !, with such minimal pairs as New Tibetan (Ulas.a) !Il < Ihll> "goo" /11 <in> "rnount ~in pus," /ok. <lhDg> "Spccl~J" Ink <log> "hand," .ril <hrul> " ragged" rU <",I> "ro ue n." Could these digraphs have represented such voiceles.s glides in Old Til>clan as well! This seems unl ikcly: we find. for example. such classical douhlets liS IhurI-Klim patch: /J/Oo-Gr,OO 'rdu: lhog-gllJK "ulcer," ULA/)-GUO-SUD "~dulle rate," hril-gril 'round:' and hmn-groii "COld." Note also New Tibetan (udak h) 10 <IIUI> "gild , [Il <glu> "song:' lans <Jla;u> 'a rise:' wilen: O ld Tibelan fh ellangc:s hi~luricaJly jusl like OIl! Tibetan gl or sl inlo New Tibelan (Ladakh) 1 .1 voiced murmured 1~lcfal. OIe digraphs thus seem likely 10 ha\c represen ted genuine clWiter5 of glollal (rialtive plij$ ,Iide; but olher t.\plan~ti()ns are surely possible. Anomalously. on the Sino-Tibetan IIt:.1ly pillar of ~21. we find the clWiler III lranM:ribcd by Chinese characlers whose initial has heen independenlly rcoonsrrijcrc:d as Middlc Olincsc "lit. Thus Old Tlbet.an /JtQ is trall$Cl"ibcd ;is Middle Chin c.'iC "till> o r "Ihl>nt, and Old Tibetan lho as Middle Chinese "Ihuo. I do nol know why Ihis i~.

47
consonant.10 A left graph is processed first, followed by top-la-bottom
10 11Icre are several lines of evidence Ih al tl'le Qllhuli "Iiule a" in kft ,raph po5ilion in be represented prena.sal iza tion of I following5loppcd consonanl. FiRl, as early as the ninth Qetllury. OD the Sino-Tibetan treaty pillar of 821, we find independe ntly Tct'()tI5lruaed MiOdle OlinCie nasal initial$ transcribed by what Illen mllSl nave been Old TIbetan prcnasaliud dOpf-fOr cumple, Middle Chincsc '"IiI.oo as <HgO>, Middle Chinese '"II)'m as <Ngin>, MMidle Chinese "1tywo as <"'P>, Middle Chinese -m)'l as <Nbv>, Ind Middle Chinese "M)w;lft as <Mnui >. Similar n a nsaiplio ll5 are found in (he Tibetan Il'lInslileralions. of OIi_ Buddbist prlyer tau diswYere4 nur Tun~Wln,-ror cumple. Middle ClIincse "II....u as <~>, Middle Chinese ~wo as <HgO>, Middle: ChineK e.;!yt as <1'8i>, MiOdlc: OIinc:K -lUi as <~>, and Middle Chinese "nywo as <Hdli>. Second, look: loanwords iD Old Tibetan are occasionally written with QtJluli'I in ler! graph position to represc:nl I prccoc1in& nasal. For wmplc. in an early Tibetan-Chi nese manuscripl YOCabubry IiSl-1 50rI 0( IrlY<:ler', diaiomlry fo und nur lhe Tun -lluan& ca ravanserai-we find <u-Ngt> inslead 0( Ihe Ialer 51anllard onlMlgraphy <st;j~> fo r $t;j.~ "lion" < SanskIillilphD, Apabhrarpb JiitrJw-sUJUw. Elsewhere in Ihe cla.uicallcxU we: find bol h <stNdu-rtJ> Ind <sindJul-ftJ> lor lindJw-rtJ ''vcnni lio n'' < Sanskrit sindiJra, Apabhraf]'l$<l sindilru. Hindi stNdur. Third, in tbe archaic e;&IIlh. and nintti-a:ntury manuscript male rial from CcntT1lI Asia, we nol infrequently find tJr.fhull in lert ,raph posilio n wriue n idiosyncratically (o llowing a prCding limit 11IS31; for aample, we lind <mii-NXI> where ,Ihe standard OrllMlJrlphy woukl have <1U1I.gi>, <NbytJm ' NXI> for <NbytJm .~>, <omNbu> for <om-bu>, <Jkyin,~> lOr <14yin-dall>, aflll <uil."",> for <stil -~>, Fourth, we find doublets In the classical "n&use where a_I.flwii in left ,raph posi tion alternate!> with <m> in left graph positionlor aample, NTSJfR-M1"Sm'/I "gricv~," fo7l10l.-MTlfOL "confc:sst MIhiJI -bu-mtlhiJI-lHl "'puriollS &' s ;ewel," Mdo.ii-mdaii "fune ra l," wgal-pa-mgaJpa "billet of wood," NIduu. bo-mkharbtJ "staff," Fifth, loanwords from Middle Tibetan into Monguor_a dialect of Mon lOlian--4ate (rom the thinC(:nth ce ntury: these Ioanwor!ls show prenasa.lLution wbere tbe corrc:sponding Tibetan written forms sboW a I.f./luit in left grapt, position-Mongual Ndworlo "circle" < Middle Tibt:tan "N/chor-/o </IkJIor,/o> , Mon,oor NIogoIII " meeting bowc" < Middle Tibetan Ndu_kJuJit <MJuIcJwil>, Mon guor m~m " IOO,{X))" < Middle Tibetan "..mum <,;bum>, Mo nguor moo "s ti pe nd" < Midd le Tibetan ". <1#bog3>,

Wby was this prc nasa liutlon represented by tJl.fhuii, the place-lMlkling , raph? It is instructive to compare pren~lization with ... hlt oo.'lI fS in Tibetan ehanl: bere tbe si nge r attempts 10 maintain an uninterrupted leve l ofsoun.d while articulating the worQs Y<:ry slowly and with variollS melodic embellishmenl5_a singin, technique Which, in il5 striking similarity to Japanes.e Shingon chant, apparen tly deriva (ro m ring dynasty Chinese Buddhist 5Ouroc:s, In this chanting style, as the articulators move: into position fo r each SlOpped OOnlOna nt, Ihe singer briefly lowers his velum 10 allow the now of air to contin ue unimpcckd, yielding a prenasaliution of each Slopped consonant in the ehanl_for eumple. New Tibetan (U.~) fOf,f~phamo <fdo.rdlt pIulg-mo> " Diamond Sow Ooddc:" is 'hanted &$ IOIItltttpMmo. and New Tibetan (Lha.sa) ~poIkN'Cli <HpluJgs-ptllp)'flnras'pigf> "Noble Avalokitdvara" is chanted as p/ItJNpoNtJeHrtJi The point is this; there is a close relation apparent to a Tibetan

48

TilE ClASSICAL TIBETAN i..J.NOUAOE

processing of the top. center, and bottom graphs., with the vowel graph processed last: thus a left graph <d>, a center graph <g>, a txmom graph <r>, and a zero vowel graph <a> is processed as <dgra>. representing the
syllabic dgra; a left graph <b>, a top graph <r>, a center graph <tiz>, and a vowel grap h <u> is processed as <brdzu>, representing the syllable brdzu; a left graph a-I.fhuii "little a," a center graph <g>, a bottom graph <y>. and a vowel graph <e> is processed as <Hgye>, represeOling the syllable :lgYe;
" and so on.

To the right of the center graph may be:: written ont of ten RIGtIT GRAPII$, which 8rc full forms of the graphs for &. ii, d, n, b, In, r, ~ S, and a-tIhuii., which in this position represents the absence of a syllable-final consonant, just as, in the center graph position, it represents the absence of a syllable-initial consona nt. 1I A right graph is processed last, after the vowel graph: thus a

belween sucll prenasali1.ation a nd a prcocding ope n syllable- tllat is, 1M absence of oonsonant.1t is not ~lIl plising 10 find Ih e QtJlu..fi used 10 mark Ihis onset. II An overt vowel grap h, o r a lOp 01 bollom graph, unambiguously identifies Ihe center graph in a graphic sequence. However, wilen Illere is no 0V1:r1 vowel Vlph - that is ..... Ilen Illele is the uro vowc l grapll _a nd no top o r boll o m gta pll, tllen tile localion of the center graph (:In be ambiguous; for example, tile sequence <dg> could be p roec:sscd ei lher as <diJg>, wilh <d> read a.s Ille cen let graph, or a.s <dga>, wilh <8> read as the centcr grap h. BUI. wilh Q /lltufi in Ille righl grap h posilion, the sequence &an o nly be procc:ssocl as <.dga>. since it shows tllal Ihere is no syllablefinal consonant in the syllable wllich lhe .o;cq uence repre:senl5. Thus Ihe graphic co nve ntion is used only when OIlier m~ns arc lack ing ullambigUOU5ly 10 nag whicll o f IWO con\.eC\ltive consonan t paphS is in ract Ihe cenler graph: the place.holding graph is unncccss.ary-and \ln~-when a n oven vowel gra ph idenlifies the ce nter graph, as in <dgu> o( <dgt>, or when a top or botto m graph idc ntiflC5 the ce nler graph , as in <brda > 01 <bus> . . Int erestingly, this convention allows such inlerences o nly lrom gra p hic SIrUCIUre, nOI I((lm sylla Me Sif tltl ul e. The i5Cq uence <g;r> is graphically ambiguous bl:rwecn lhe readinp <p:> and <8tU >. bul Ihe syllable gIQ is a pos.'ible Iyllable, while lhe syllable ?gaz is nol; still, Ihe writing syste m marks <z> as the ce nlcr graph by pUll ing Q.r!lulli in Ihe rip l gra ph p05ition, 10 resolve Ihe GRAI'HIC ambiguity. and a llowing no inference concern ing the center gaph 10 be made from Ihe fact thaI Ihe sequence 001.11<1 nOi ' UONOU>GICALLV be prOCCSCd as

?gaz..
In fatl, il took.some time lo r Illis grap hic conve nt io n to ta ke hold. In the arelurie manuscript material h o m Central Asia. we find the a-lJhuii sporadica lly in rigbt !l:flpb position eYen ""Ilc re the cent er !,raph is ol herwise IInambiguollS. as in tile lylLablCl!i Ndn <Mud>, btl

TH E W a n1NG SVSIB1

49

center graph <b >, a zero graph <U>, and a right graph <r> is processed as <bar>, representing the syllabic bor; a top graph <r>, a center graph <d>, a vowel graph <U>, and a right grllph <ii> is processed as <rriuii>, representing the syllabic rdUlI; a left graph <d>, a center gra ph <g>, a vowel graph <0>, and a right graph <n> is processed as <dgon>, representing the syllabic dWm; and so on. To the right of Ihe right graph may be written one of two FAN. RIGHT GRAPIIS, which arc full forms of the graphs for $ and d ,l2 A far right graph is

<but>. o r ma </'I'UJ/>: and sporadiCally omitted fro m rig,h t gapk position wkere ,raphk: ambi,uity (Xl ncerning thes~:n)er graph could be resolved pho nologically, as in the syllablcs ' bJul <bk>, mlha <mlh >, or mkJl<J <mkh >. S~ch inconsistencies were presumahly eradica ted in the ninth -GCntul)' language rdorms oT King KIIri Gtsu,Ldebtsan.
l1tc place.hol ding graph in righl.graph position also allows the writing of diphtho ngs- for eumrle, htu <bt/u>, paan <palan>. mao <malo>. In this posi tion. atJlwli in cffect represents smooth voca lic ingress inl n Ihe IoCCOnu "'OWel o( the diphtbong. but wilhin a single: sylla hle. si nce Ihe: graphs arc not se paraled try- the syllahlemarking dot I1htg. Here again it apparently look some: time to cstahlis h the ennve nt ion: in the archa ic manUKripLS we s.poradically find diphlbongs wrilt en as two \)"l1ables. and sporadically as well we find such graphic )C(j uentcS a.~ <pi> and <hi> reprc.<.enting what mUSt su rely have bcc:n the syllables poi ,nd baL Oncc agai n. Ihe ]ingQistic standardil.atlon of the ninlh centul)' app,uenl ly intended 1 0 establish II un;vc.-,;al cl)n''Cnlion ia thi~ regald. ahhough it is doubtful thallhere .-as in facl any dfecti,'C stllndardil,a.iun prim to .he f'Criod o( .he Saskya hegemony. l1tc Wfiting of such di phthongs-with aI.lhu;; marking the abse nce o( (XlnSOnanl o nSCI o( Ihe seoond vowel-a pparently und er lies the convenlion of ....Til ing nt/hun as a ~OlTOM GRAPII \0 indicate long vowels in the tra nsli terat ion u( SanSkrit. Such lang "(lWCls .....cre in ~lIlikeliJt.ood hCllrd ,u equivalent 10 Tibc.lan gcmi nal c vowels-Sanskrit /til as Titlelan lUIa, Sanskril kt as Tillelan ki~ Sanskrit kii 3S Tille tan kuu. An adhun in the boltom graph posi tio n, with the appfop riate vowcl graph ovc r Of under Ihe ecn ter graph. would he a convenicl\1 ahbreviation for such recurrin g gtmi nat e diphthongs, inS lcad "f wriling {j.IJhuii in right graph posi.ion 4nd repeal ing the SlIme vo.....eI graph; such an ahhreviation In... i~ consislent with Ihe conventions (o r graphic abhreviation u.~ elsewhere in Ih c langu3)!, That Ih is ...... ,jS in faetlhe origin of the translite ration convenlion is indicalcd by the fa"1 Ihal il is used 10 ind icate lengt h in SanS kr it vuwels o nly where length i~ in fac t quanlilaliv;:. a.' in If or " bUI not where the socalled tong \'Owel is qualita tively different fmm its sh,)" cquival<:nl, as in ai or au, wherc an<llhcr convention-writing the "lWei grap h twicc-is u.~ inslcad. 12 The graph <<1> in far right posilion, IcprCM:nting a pos t(, nal -d or datUl1g "~ Irongd, " is fou nd in some ar(haic manuscripts rceovc ,,;u (rom Celliral A~ia; in !.Orne Wes t Tihcllln

50

THE Cu.ssICAL T18ETAN lANOUAGl:.

processed after the preceding right graph: thus a center graph <g>, a bottom graph <y>, a vowel graph <14>, a right graph <r>, and a faT right graph <d> is processed as <gyurd>. representing the syllable gyurd; a left graph

Primitive J()(iuiu are orai, not buauu they lIuk grAphu expresrWn, but on the C()t1trary buause their /paphic exprtMilm iJ iniUpeniUnt from the PCice, """iling signs on human bodUl in answer UJ POke, but autQtfQm()UJ/y. and not aligned on POUt;

rofJVeruiy, barblJMAn civilizatlMu "re uriprurtJ, not for loss of roUe, but because the graphie system h41/ost in indtpeniknce
and proper dimuuWtIS, hAS Rli,gmd ilul[ an itself to it ...

wi". subordinated

-Gilles Ddcuzc and Felix GU3ltari,

Ami-Oedipus

<d>, a center graph <g>, a vowel graph <0>, a right graph <n>, and a far right gr~fh <.J> is processed as <dgoiis>. representing the syllable dgons;
and so on.

materials as la IC il$ tile IlIinccnill o,;c:nlury: and in lilt wrilings of lilt Tibetan grammarians. wllere il is an alillpllone o f Ille pasl lense SUm)[ -, .
IJ There sliII remalA a few sequences of wru.onanl graplls wllicll, art ambiguous wlltre Ihere is n(J nven vl.lwd gr~ph _ llla l j~. ""'lIere there is Ille zero vowe l vaph-and no lOp or t'"lwm graph IU id~nllr}" Ihe '.~ ''' I grapll. a~d which cannUl be disambigwlled by Ille u..<oe uf .lIc pla<.:c Ii<,liJmj: j:'''ph ,,.,11,,,,;. r ot eumplc. Ille sequence <dgs> is ambiguous bclwocn Ihe Ica<.hngs <J.~M > :.n<.l <tlml' >. a nd. similally. Ihe sequence <diU> could be ptocesSCIJ as ciltla <J..." t> 01 <<I" ~.,,, (o r ellurse, Ille sequence <d~'OI> can only be read one W3y. since the graph <0> sits unambiguu usly o n 101' of tile ce nter graph <g>. jU!1 as in <dogs> the graph < II> sils unamhigu"u~ ly o n top uf Ille centCT graph <d>. ) These: ambiguous scquencc\ ale "ftcn Ilis;amhigua'cd hy yet anllther u'nvcnliun: if Ihe sequence is 10 be pnl>l:C:iSCU lLl> rcprc,": n1ing a syllllhle ""'illl no pl.:.:inilial. Ihen Ihe cenle r graph is idcl1Iificd hy writing a phunul"llic.ally nunluncho nal < ,., > as Ihe bOllom graph beneath ;1. ThIU Ihc sequence < <lg~ > is rC:Jd unly as <d/llll> . re prcscnting the syllahlc dg(lJ. The syllable w'KJ b repre:Kn\ciJ in~t~1l I')' Ihe unamhiguoLU graphic sequence <d,.,agJ >. although the use o f this con''Cnt;"n i~ in fXI highly irregular.

THE WRmNG 5YSlCM

SI

4. THE SCRIPT
The Tibetan script is., I believe, esthetically one of the most pleasing of the Indic scripts; the following brief discussion can do little more than briefly indicate the styles of handwriting. without exploration of details. Equivalent to our hand printing are the graphs called dbu-tJQrl "with a head," referring 10 the horiwntal line at the top of many of the graphs. Figure 4 shows two different folio sides from a manuscript written in the dbu-t.farl script; note the section headings and instructions written in smaller script. The dbu-tJQ/1 writing is also that generally used in books printed from carved woodblocks, as in Figure S.

Equivalent to our cursive are the graphs called dbu-m~d headless." Cursive writing in tum may be either the relatively careful dpe.yig "book writing." or the Jl10re rapid NkJJYUg-yig "running writing," used. for instance, in personal correspondence. The last two examples, in Figure 6, are from two different dbu-mtd manuscripts, both of which use dpeyig in the body of the text but Hkhyug-yig for the section headings and instructions. There is, pract~calJy speaking, only a single Tibetan punctuation mark-the llJd or vertical stroke. This should not be confused with our period or comma: it is not so much a syntactic signal as it is an indication of where the

52

TIlE CUssICAL TIHETAN LANGUAGE

reader -and all Tibetans fead our loudu----can pause and ta ke a breath. Thus the lad is often but not necessarily fo und after major syntactic units such as sentences; and II occurs nOI o nly after such units, but anywhere a reader might pause-the end of every line of poetry, after a vocative, and between individual items in a long list.

There are vario us types of $(ld, lxJ;h plilin <.iml omar.,l:ntal. A single vertical siroke is called tJhig.fad UI rky an-Slld, a douole stroke is called His-lad, and lwO double strokes sepaml<!o hy;' SP;ICC ilfe called bliJad. A ijis .~ad can be .seen starling a new section on the last line of the scl:ond foho III Figure 4; a blj Jad .::un be seen cnding :hc te~ t and ;he cdophon (Ill the Jast two lillcs of the second folio in Figure 5. When <l htiJad is used In mark the end of

I~ ~ l'adi n g aloud rathe, th~n :,\ icml y a[lpw,~ tt) Ilc (he "mm in h \l h\~n bistory. Jorge Luis Burge.... ir. lIi5 c.....<.:Iy "On th e C~I I " I !looks." ~ Ihc transi tion 10 'llndcrnily in "1111.' pTcllom inllnu; of Ine Wfllh; U wnu: Uv<:' lhe spoken one,"' and nOles lh e precise ins u~.nt th'$ pmccs, bega n in WC$lc rn bis:ury _ wllc n Sl. Amblc1>e. Bishop of M il~n. _ obse rved by hlS d i!oCiple St. Augus lint til read wil h "his t yes mov\ ing \ OYe r the ~ges, and his so:..: lM: ncU~I\in g \ the h\r..an' ng, wil huul his uill.'lI ng a wor4 or movi ng his longue:' Tb.a l mo me'l l was $liII re membered tllincc n ye," 's I:ller , in 300k SU of lhe C""f~IJinns, when, as Borgf.$ says. taa l si nlll,lla t "p&Clacie mil tWI,IlIloo ~irn: a Tnilll m a mom, wilh a boo t . ' '"..tiling "';1110111 n licl,llating thc W imU."

TilE WRmNG SVSTI:M

chapters in a book, we occasionally find the chapler number wrinen in the space between the pairs of vertical strokes.

Figur~

0. Two UDmpltJ of nwnllscripu U. dbllmnl writing

A special gter.fad-two small circles, one above the other, separated by a short horizontal Iine t ' -is used in writing gterma or "hidden treasures," texts supposedly hidden by Padmasambhava in the eighth century and then discovered, centuries later, by a special class of seers called gtcrs/OI\ "revealers of hidden ueaure." The two manuscripts shown in Figure 6 art". both gferma, and the gtufad can be seen after each line of verse. In addition, we also find a variety of ornamental uhcgfad "strokes with dots," such as the one marking the end of the section on the lasl line of the second fo lio in Figure 4. We might also mention here the ornamental mgo.yig "head leners" often found on the recto of each folio in a Tibetan book. The most common type of mgoyig can be seen, in dbu,'Jan, in the upper left corner of the first fol ios

II Tho: WUffe of llle grtrJtJd is obscure, bill in number of cigtllh .nd ninth-oc:nlu ry manuscr ipll ftom tbe caves near Tunhuing we find, $poradicaUy , II va riety of /JMr formect wilh IWO sm.1I ci rtles, one .bove tile olber, in w.rioU5 oombinations .... ilh ..-cnical and Iloriwnul lines. My ,uCM-and iL i5 a &uC$I:""is Ihat the grtrlad is originally. Yilphk imilation of the ~nskril ,ua.oga. jUllI as tile tJhig.!ad ind iiuJaJ derive {ro m Ihe Sanskrit si ngle and double ~~

54

THE CtAssICAi.. TIBETAN LANGUAGE

in Figure 4 and Figure 5, and, in dbu-med. in the upper left corner of the second folio in Figure 6. In gter-ma the mgo-yig often takes other forms, as in the upper left corner of the first folio in Figure 6.
An ellipsis in the text-for example, where the text gives just the first few words of a repeated chorus or a we\J.known praycI""-is marked with the sign called kun ~.J./Ul-kolUkha-sku-TU-kha &SW" < sku-ru "paddlewhcel," or sometimes witl ,;, .i':k of three short horizontallineSi the latter device can be seen marking a repeated chorus in the" first, second, and fourth lines of

xxx.

the first folio in Figure 5.

Figun 7. ChDmI /0 lad:

l~

moulh

of sliuvkT

Sounds
way the sounds aTe produced by the ARTICULATORY o rgans of lips. and glottis; and by describing the physical ACOUSTIC properties

1bc:rc are two ways we can characterize the sounds of a language-by

describing the
~

of the sound those organs produce. Our aim here is to describe the sounds of Old Tibetan in a way that will shed light on other questions as well-for aample, that will help w understand why we ftnd the present stem st!t7U < N-$AN-D "thinks," or the fulure stem dgum < G-GUM "will !cill." In Tibetan, it is interesting to note, such questions require both articulatory and acoustic

ONWO".
\. ARTICULATORY DESCRIPTIONS
1.1. VOWELS
Old Tibetan vowels are phonemes that may function as syllabic nuclei. Pm another way, vowels are phonemes that may by themselves constitute a syllable. In Ok! Tibetan luJ and a are both possible syllables, while ?k and 1r are not. A syllabic phoneme such as Q is therefore a VOWEL; a no nsyllabic phoneme such as k and r is a consonant.

BbbbblJlJlbbblblodKhbg?

-James Joyce,

UIy""
1bere are five vowels in Old Tibeta~ 0, a, ~ and e. These five vowels are distinguished according to the position or the tongue as either BACK or fRONT; accordinS to Ole height of the tongue as either HIGH or LOW; and according to the lhape of the lips as either ROUNDED or SPREAD. The vowel u is a IUGH

"

56

TUE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

BACK ROU,.OEO vowel; the 'lowe) 0 is a WW BACK ROUNDED vowel; the vowel

a is

8 LOW BACK SPREAD vowel; the vowel i is a IUGH FRONT SPREAD vowel; and the vowel e is a LOW FRONT SPREAD VOWEl... These three descriptions Cdl8ustively characterize Ihe Old Tibetan vowels. The vowel e, for example, is completely specified by its description as the Old Tibetan low front spread vowel.

Note that in Old Tibetan there are no front rounded vowels (although fronl rounded vowels such as u and jj do appear in some New Tibetan dialects and, pfelumably, t., some degree in Middle Tibetan as weU). This asymmetry may
be expressed as a phoneme structure constraint-Ihat is, a rule which
put~

constraints on the internal structure of Old Tibetan phonemes-as follows:

RULE i. AU front vowels must be spread.

Thi$ conslra int is a rule about possible phonemes. No derivation in Old Tibetan can yield a front rounded vowel, since every front vowel automafical. ly is a spread vowel. For example, the Old Tibetan present stem inflectional suffIX -0 moves preceding back vowels to Ihe front of the mouth. Thus, in the presencl~ of this suffix, t ~e low back spread vowel (I becomes the low front spread vowel e (for example, Ngrd < NGMI .-D "expla ins"); but the high back rounded vowel u beCGrnes the high front spread vowel j and not the high front rounded vowel '!ii (for example, .w ilill < N-J)ZuN-n "grasps," rather than ?Ndzun), because, as Rule 1 describes. in any derivation the high front rounded vowel 'W automatically becomes the high from spread vowel i. Indeed, the \OS!l of this rule, and the concomitant development of phonemic front rounded vowels, characterizes the development of several New Tibetan dialecls, where we find, for example, New Tilx:tan (Lhasa) Jehu <gus> "faith" Jeho <gos> "clothes," Ihii. <dud> "smoke" tho <dod> "substitute."1

I Of course, O ld Tibetan may MYe had a SOUND 5Omelhin, like II or tI-say. wben lhe vowel It or 0 occurred berore lhe denial finals -d Of . , __ but thee Illal sound did -ot couill II belnl OIFFERENT from It or 0. It was only ....ben ItUIi .. iffereacc bepn 10 collnl, probably around tile time Ihe final -d or .J was otI5inl 10 be pronounced, lilat we can "y Ibere c:merled pilonc:mie front rounded voweb-IhI' Is., .... hen, Inslead of conuwtin, '1\'11 willi 'X)'UI ": Slrina.- tbe LanlU.se contrasted 'l)U wltll TA Of, instead or contrll5tinl bw Heran" willi bzod "patience," Ihe Lanpase contrasted bzo with bw.

-ao_-

SouNOS

57
1.2. CONSONANTS

1.2.1. Place
Old Tibetan consonants can be distinguished according to the Pu.cE OF ART1CULATION as being labial, dental, retroflex. palatal. velar. or glottal. These distinctions are, of course, structural: the actual position of the articulators in Old Tibetan is. 35 one might expect, probably impossible to recover. We can, however, assign Old Tibetan consonants to the general area of their articulation in the mouth-the lABIA1.. consonants b, p, ph, m, and w presumably articulated by the lips; the DENTAl. consonants d, I, Ih, n, dz, u, uh, 1, $, and I presumably articulated by the tongue placed somewhere behind the upper teeth; the single RE11l0REX consonant r presumably articulated with the tongue tip curled up and back;2 the PAlATAL consonants if, tit, 11, tJh, t, I, and y presumably articulated by the tongue placed somewhere on or near the hard palate; the VELAR consonants g. Ie. kh, and n presumably aniculated with the back part of the tongue touching the soft palate; and the GlOTTAl.. consonants 1 and h presumably aniculated by the glottis or vocal cards alone?
2 At least historically a postinital consonant r moYQ;i a preceding SlOp into such a retroOc:l position_for eumple, Old Tibetan drv, ''six'' > New Tibetan (Dpui) dna" (OOlok) drvk (Ladakh) ~k (Dbus) (Uk (Lhasa) (Lhasa aristocratic) ,fIw, Old TIbetan sprin -cloud" > New Tibetan (Pu rik) sprin ([)erIC) I1"im (Dbus) fbi (K'ang.ting) 1pr:11 (Lhasa) fiN (Lhasa aristocratic) !fiN (La4akh) liIL

,Iw

] There are several lines of evidence lcadin, to the conclllSion thai the Ok! Tibetan uaph <,> represented I gIollal stop Ind tile graph <h> represented I gloual fricative. Firsl, there is the vif\WlI unanimity of Ihe New Tibetan diak:cu., where we tiftd gloual SlOps oonsistently where Old Tibetan presumably had a glottal stop as well_for eumple, Old Tibetan 'la-mD "molher" > New Tibetan (U4akh) NmD (Dbus) 7amQ (Khams) Pama, Old nbelln N/J~ "olaer sister" > New Tibetln (ladakh) 'latl~ (Balli) hJk (Dbus) PrUIM, Old Tibetan 1Og-~ "beard"' > New Tibetart (La4akh) ~ (Dbus) 1OIcja. We also tiftd luch classical doubleu 15 1'OI-/u}-lu)l-/u}-ko-s/u} "chin" I nd 1Og-mD-lkog-ntll " throat," wbich certainly seem 10 place the phoneme reprc:stnted by the graph <,> in the back of the throal. In thil reprd the renuru of Ihe Tibelln uamnuriaM are of interest. Following tbe Sanskrit tr.ditioll, they grOlip I5piralCl, friat/ves, and YOWeIs logelber II 1TOf-'U~" "breath1 (nuJJiapriJl}<tl)," II opposed to all tile other pbonemes, whicb are 1TOf-dltWt "DOn-breathy (~~)_" OiYen all kliosynetasy of the Tibetan QescripliYe apparatus, tbe poual SlOp 1 is grouped wilh the vowels, Ind il becomes r.eotIIIty 10 accounl I'of it. 51-lu nuhlPl94ft..-

58

THE CLASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

Such distinctions of place can have morphological significance. For example, there cannot be two labial consonants in the same syllable onset: there can be no syllables with the form ?brma or ?mpho parallel to brtfn or mtho. Thus we find such regular tense stems as bris < b-BRH "wrote," bod < b-HOCH "called," and nnos < b-lUtI().s "ploughed," with the inOectional past stem prefIX b- omitted in accordance with this constraint. Again, we find place assimilations in severaJ verb stems, where the inflectional present stem 5UfrtX -D moves both back vowels and velar nasals to the front of the mouth-for example, sbtd < H-SM-D "conceals," ul < N-SAL-D "clears away," Ndren < NORAN-D "'eads." and Ndzin < N-ozuR-D "grasps."

wrilln, i.D 17-44, makes tbe followinl interesting distinctio n: mgrin-fHl gda/iHUU brdlod dgos_ poi phyiT Ia-", _."op-poi m)f-tJlwrt-fj'i "~moms phyt-tHli nsolbo-dorl-daii, 1o-yig mpfKllM-phyt-lHlT bnIlod.poi pIrji1 buuffl.pai nsol-bD-t1DJ1 "Since Ibcy mllSl be pronounced wilb

tlle thrOll wide open. lbe brealhy phonemes olher lhan 7 are called OPEN ARTICULATIONS; but lince 7 mldt be pronounced wilh the lhroal closed il is called a CLOSED ARTICULATION,"

Further evkknc:e Is providc:d by Tibetan uansaiplions of Chinese words, wllere Ihe Inpb < 7> Is 0GSISiueJI11y used 10 transcribe wbu have been illlkpendenlly reconstructed as Middle Oliacse lionaillops.. For example, on Ihe Sino-Tibetan treaty pillar of 821, Middle Chiacse -'Y"'O Is lraascribcd as <21:.1>. Similarly, in a series of manuscripts from Cenlral Asia., we find Chinese 8\1ddblsl lens transliterated inlo Tibetan, presumably 50 Ihey could be recited by TIbeaaa traVeIen; where slICh fralments have been idenlirlCd and Impared witb lbeir Chinese ori&inals, we find Middle Chinese "tok lranscribed as <tag>, Middle au_ "Mi as <II!> Of <Iii>, Middle Chinew; "l'ytn as < i'in>, Mi<klle Chinese "'tWo as <10>, and Middle Oainese ""'MI as <1IUf>: Similar evidence k.ads to tbe oonchuion-perbap' Ic:s.s firm-thai Old Tibetan had a corrapoadln, J1o'tal rricalM II, wrillca with lbe Inph <h>, Apin, we find New Tibelan JIo"al fricuives represenlin, what were preswnably Old Tibetan liollal fricative initials-for example, Old Titlelan /uN "MonlO'" > Ncw Tibetan (Ocrge) hex (Lhasa) b In the daMica! lanllilBt we rWld sl.IClI doublets as hriJ-Bri1 Mround" and Ihall-glOil "patCh," and we m~y nole lbe spellinl <hfNndo> fOf Ihe c\assia.l place name ?a-II!dQ "Amoo," allCSIOO in Ihc Drb~ sIiOfIpo of G20n.nu-dpal. wrilten in 1478. Finally, on Ihe Sino-Tibetan treaty pillar of 821, T'lbetan <II> is used 10 lrallSCribe, indiscriminately. bolh tile voiced and voiceless velar frktoltva; 7 hid x ill4epelllknlly reconstrucle4 for Middle Chinese. We find Middle Cbinex ~ tr&ftICf'Ibcd as <lui>, Middle OIinese *)I0Il as <Ium>, Middle Chinese '")owo as <Ito>, hid Middle Chinese "mu as <110>; similMlrly, on IMI ~me pillar, Old Tibetan IuIb Is lransen'bcd by lhe ehuacter representinl Middle Chi nese ~,

Somms

5'1

1.2.2. Closure
It is useful to distinguish three degrees of CI.OSURE between the arliculators of a phoneme-between the tongue and the palate, for example. o r between the two lips, o r between the lower lip and the upper teeth. In STOPl'l'Jl phonemes the a rticulators are pressed IOgether sufficiently to cut orf the airstream comple tely; in NARROWED phonemes the aniculators are closed sufficie ntly to produce a hissing turbulence in the airstream; and in OI'EN phonemes the articulators a re not closed sufficiently to disturb the airstream at all.

Using these distinctions we can characterize four types of consonant in Old Tibetan. STOI'S are phonemes, such as Ie, b, or n, which are stopped but not narrowed; mICA11vES . are phonemes, such as /. l or s, which are narrowed bul not stopped; APPROXlMANTS are phonemes, such 8S I, loY, or Q, which neithe r stoppca nor narrowed-that is, which are open; a nd AFFRICA1E'i are phon~mes, such as PI. IS, or df, which are both stopped and narrowed- thaI is, which begin as stops and end as fricatives. Note that a pproximant5 5uch as a, u. or t , which can fun ction as syllabic nuclei, are, of 'course, VOWELS; approlimanl5 such as y, r, or I, which cannot function as syllabic nuclei, we will call aUDIOS. There were thus in Old Tibetan the STO PS " & Ie, kh, d, I, th, h, p, ph, .ii, .ii, II, and m, the Afl'RICAll '$ dl, I!, IIIz, dz, IS, and llh, the FRI CATIVES h, t, J, z, and s, and the GI.II)I ~'i y, r, I, and w. Tibetan makes a significa nt distinction between consonants with a stopped component and consonants without a stopped compont:nt. Such STOl'l'l!n consonants are stops and affricates; U/o!STOPPED consonants are fricative s a nd approximants. For example, in Old Tibetan only stopped consonants can he pre nasalized; again, in Old Tibetan only unstopped preinitial consonants can be prt:cedt:d by the past a nd future stem b prefIX. Affricates frequently alternate with their cmre sponding rri(il tivcs. For example, in verbal inn(!;tion the intransitive rool oZt..'(; "e nter " forms the past S\(~m lugs < 8 /J'J.u(";j; the intransitive root 07.AG " trid.le" forms the past ste m ZQRJ < 8-07..4(";J ; tht: transitive rool 01..18 "suck" forms the past stem blib$ < bnJ.IR-J; and the transitive root DZAR "hang up" fo rms the past s.tem bZQr < b-07..4Rs, In the changt: from dt to l or dz to z, a stopped consonant changes into a consonant of t:xactly the same description except that now it

60

THE CLAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

is not stopped. This process we will call UNSTOPPING,

1.2.3. Voice onset time

It is common to descnbe Tibetan consonants according to the traditional categorieJ of Saos,krit phonology, wherein oonsonants are either voiced or voiceless and either aspirated or urwpirated; Old Tibetan, with a threeway distinction of consonanfs, then appears rather like a defective venion of the Sanskrit fourfold system, with voiced aspirated stops such as gh and bh

somehow omitted.

4 UtOPpinl Is a "utural~ process In Tibetan, which seems willin, to chanse an .riQue into the amupondln, fricative nol only infloctionally bUI historically as _n. Old TIbc...n 'iJ-JDp-j7Q "and 10 on" Is found Millen in archak Central Asbn manuscripts as <ws-nop'/tuuop-la-stsogJ>, indica!in, Prolo-Tibetan *uog:I",roup" " Old Tibctansop; pre5umabty as well Proto-Tibetan -,;tU-brJu "twenty" " Old Tibelan N1u, UnslOPpinl Is also found In dialect variations. For cumple. we find Olel Tibetan uhobo "l'Iepbew" " New Tibetan (GOlok) sawo, Old Tibetan uhuill "lon, IIfc" > New Tibetan (Oolok) s~ Old Tibetan /Shop "uscmbly" > New Tibetan (Oolok) lOA:; or, similarly, Old Tibetan mdZug "~iI" > New Tibetan (Balti) Old Tibetan J.ttigs - rear~ > New Tibetan (o.ltl);fi& Old Tibetan m4lIIb Kfinacr" > New Tibetan (Balti) til, Old Tibetan md;:o "yak hybrid" > New Tibet3n (Balli) to. In the Mil3dle Tibetan di;\kQ from which Monguor bofTO'Ned Its Tibct3n Joanwords. Old Tibetan ISh > Middle Tibetan 1, as In Old Tibetan /SM-mo K niooe" > Monluor lamo, Old Tibetan /Sh~ -po "lTICrcunt" > Monluor so,llwa, Old Tibetan tshtriiI "lonl lifc" > Monluor stnUl, Old Tibetan uMISM "JOOd luck du.rm" > Monguor JaJa. Similar.diaJect.a1 unstopping is found as well in the archaic rnanuscrlpt material from Central Asia; in one manuscript we oonslstcntly find <1h4m-1ad> for 014 Tibetan thams-tJad "all" and <Stml4ut > for Old Tibetan ItmS-l1an "senllent creature"; in another we OOll5istcnlly find <u> for Old Tibetan rut "peak" and <;fug> for Old Tibetan md:fug "tail." Finally, in tbe clas5icallanluaae iuelfwe find such doublets as Ntt-sa -ft-sa " honorifIC e:xpression~ a nd w1.N-ZEN "pcneuale." and such word families as T1UM "shrink, shud4Cir," SUM ''weep, tremble," DtUM "shudder, shrink, oonlraCl," tum-po "fear, dismay."

tu,

IncSecd, comparalive dau allow us 10 rOCOPSINCI Prolo-Tibetan affricales lhat had bco;)me unstopped by tbe time of Old Tibetan. For example, we find o.hin, d:fa, Naprl d:fyrI, BIII"1IIC$t WI, Gato 11M "eat" but Old Tibeun ZA "eat, Karen dtOfl, Burmese lSi, Usu dzi, Akb.I dli "rkk:" but Old TibeUin UJN " riOe an animal," Bahln, dli-4lim, AklIa dlimdi "frQh (_ter)," BumlC:$C (Shim "delicious," but Old Tibetan fim "JOOd tauinl-" Thus we Cln rcconslT\lCl ProlO-Tibet3n Odza "eal" > Old Tibeun ZA. Proto-Tibetan .~ > "dfon "riCSC" > Old Tibetan toN, and Proto-Tibetaa 0dqim > dlim "good tutin," > Old Tibetan ,;",.
H

61
Aaually, the term VOICE refers to the stale of the glottis: the vocal cords may cilber be touching along their entire length, 50 that air passing between them causes regular vibrations; or else they may be separated, so that such regular 't"lbralions do not occur. The term ASPIRATION does nOl refer to some phenomenon distinct from voice; rather the term refers to a period of "Oicelessness during and after the release of an articulation. Instead of wiewing voice and aspiration as two independently varying phenomena, it

makes morc sense, as far as Old Tibetan is concerned, to view the consonants
as lying along the single rnultivalued dimension of VOICE ONSET TIME.

For example, al a particular moment, the two articulators of a SlOp consonant-the two lips, or the tongue and the top of the (rant teeth, or the tongue and velum-move apart sufficiently to let air pass out through the mouth. The vocal cords may begin vibrating BEfORE this release of closure, SDo4ULTANEOUSLY with the release, or some time AFTlOR the release: in the first case we have a VOICED stop, in the second a VOICELESS stop, and in the third an ASPIRATED stop.'
Thus Old Tibetan distinguishes, in Ihe timing of onset of voice, tne VOICED consonants g. d, b, dt, dz, I, I, n, n, n, m, y, r, I, and w from the VOICELESS consonants k, I, P, tI, IS, I, and s, and from the ASPIRATED consonants kh, Ih, ph, tIh, and Ish. Note that the gloual stOp 1 and glottal fricative h do not have any value for voice onset time, since they are articulated by the glottis itself. Note too that only STOPPED consonants-that is, stops and affricates--can be
, Simi~rly,. rriClltive mly be Icoomp2nie4 by vibfllion of Ihe YOCII cords from the slin
of its . nklliition: or tbe vibration mlr begin II tbe moment tbe .rlicu~IOrs separate to

form a foUowin, vowel; or the vibration may begin 50me time after the aniculaton have ~parllcd. Here .gain we have a VOICO, VOiCELESS, Ind ASPIRATED fricative, rt$pcaivcly.
1be timine or tbe onset of this vibration in milliseconds varies fro m languge to language: different IanJlllgel choose different points alon, this continuum in forming opposll' .... ;\S amon, oonsolllnts, just as la0luages choose different numbers of oppositions to form. Old Tibelln makes I three-Wly distinctio n amon~s10ppcd nonnasal coO$Onants. but only I twoWly distinction amonl fricatives: New TibelJn (LII~) makes only I two_way distinction amon, Slopped nonnual consonants, and w only voic:eleM fricatives. Enllisb Ind New Tibetan (Lhua) bolh make a two-way dislinCiion between more-voiced and k:ss-voiQed stopped non-naul consonants; bllt lhe morevoicc4 consonants in EnClish are voiced prior to rek.ue, Ind the more-voiced consonants in Lhasa til)' I re voioeod only al release.

62

THE a......sstCAL TmETAN Lo.NOUAOE

aspirated: fricatives may be voiced or voicek:sl, but Old Tibetan apparently had no phonemes of the fonn 'lJh or 1m' We can exprcu this asymmetry as a second phoneme structure constraint:

This rule then constitutes a derivational constraint on the inflectional proc:esa

of UNSTOPPING: when the inflectional rule operates on the aspirated affricates 1111 and TSII, it yields the aspirated fricatives ?Ih and ?sh, which, under Rule 2, immediately become the corre~ponding arfricates tJh and uh.
Morphologically, in Old Tibetan we find a strong tendency to voice dissimilation: that is, where a stopped initial in a verb root is preceded by an intleclin nal prefIX, and the resuiting stem must be adjusted to conform with syllable struclUre constraints, the rOOI initial is adjusted to a form where iu voice onset time is as DlSSIMII.AR as possible to the voice onset time of the prerlX: For example, we find Hthor < NTOR "scatters." NkJuoi < NKROL "rings," ,.'uhf) < N- no " no urishes," Indeed, this tendency is sufficiently strong that, in the case of the past tense b- prefIX, it operates even on syllable~ !hat <Ire nthe rwise acceptable-for example, bkrof < bGROLJ "rang." briiis < b H/N-J "scattered," hl.o;ugs < bDZUG$ "pierced,"

1.2.4. Nasality
A N/\.'i"l. pho ne me is produced with a lowered velum, or $Oft palate, allowing " ir III pass out th ro ugh the nose : a non-nasal or ORAl. phoneme is produced with the velum T<li ~ ed to form a ve lie closure in the upper pharynx, blocking Ihe pijS~ .. ge o f alf to the nose, In a nasal SlOp the articulators block the mo uth cntirely unt il release, while air flows out through the nose; it is hc:cause o f this air fl ow, wit h thc mouth acting as' a variously shaped resonati ng chambe r, thaI nasals sha re with approximants the acoustic property often O!tI\!'I CI'.. In O ld T ihctan, the velar, palatal, dental, and labial places edict! 'iON of ;,nil:ulalinn c:lch has a correspo nding nasal stop--the VEL\R NASAL,ii, the

" In a<.hJ UlOn. n;l.'il I~ ~nd J:lidcs were appue~lly all voiced in Old Tibetan, wlIicb is, of ~ I ~ 11 unusual: YOicdCSii w noranLS arc relatively rare in the Ian,u.l1tI of the "~"I<l . Thi, a~ym mc u)' - u nl i kc l he lac k of aspirated frialivcs-Is nol morpholo,;ally "I!n,fi c.,nl .
..:()ur>c. n<>,

63
r;.L\TAl. NASAL

n,

the

DENTAL NASAL II, and the lABlAL I'IASAL m. '

In addition. Old Tibetan oral stopped consonants--that is. non-nasal stop and frica~uld be PRENASAUZE>. In prenasalization, there is a brief lowering of the velum before release of the stop, aliowing air to pass out through the nose momentarily before the stop is articulated. Prenaslllization it an important inflectional praceSi in Old Tibetan. marking the present stem of a large number of verbs-for example, Nkhum < N-KHUAI "shrinks," as opposed to khums < KJ/UM-S "shrank," Ntiud < N:OOD "bends.tt as ppposed 10 blUd < bDUIH "bent," /'Ithub < NTUS "chops." as opposed to btubs < BTUB-S "chopped."

2. ACOUSTIC DESCRIPTIONS
The descriptions given so rar exhaustively characterize the phonemes ot Old Tibetan: thus the phoneme e is completely characterized as the Old Tibetan LOW FRO"" VOWEl.. (since we know, from Rule 1. that it is SPREAD as well); and the phoneme dt is completely characterized as the Old Tibetan VOICED OENTAL AFFRICAlC. Some morphophonemic rules in Tibetan, however, require acoustic as well as such articulatory des~nt- ; kms: some sound changes seem to be conditioned not by the position and movement of the articulatory organs but rather by the auditory properties of the sounds themselveS.

2.1. GRAVITY
It can be observed that the re are considerable similarities between sounds made in the back of the mouth and sounds made in the front of the mouth, as opposed to sounds made with some part of the tongue raised in the

1 Vowels, of course, can .Iso be NASALIZED-l hal is, articulaled wilh lowered velum so tbal .ir pIUC& out through both nose: and moulh. There is little evidence thai Old TIbelan had nualized vowels, bUI, in some dialecu of New Tibetan, many Old TIbetan I)'llab\cs with final l1l$.I1 SlOp' h.ave become sy\bblcs with nas.a lil.ed vowels_for cumple, Old TIbel.ln)'Ofl/aII ''vinlle'' > New Tibetan (Lhas.a)YOHtCR, Old TIbetan ftlulum "name" > New Tibel.ln (Ulasa) ~ Old TIbetan snambu "woolen Clot h" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) 1I~NpU. Old TIbel.ln IIIuJIt "beer" > New Tibetan (Lhas.a) IJMN. In Olher words, In such syllables, tile syilable. fin.lton&ue or lip Icsture has ceased to be made, but the Iowennl of the velum has oonlinued.

64

THE CtAssICAl.. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

middle of the mouth. s It is easy to see thai both velar and labial sounds are produced with the mouth acting as a single large resonating charober. while dental and fricative sounds arc produced with the tongue dividing the mo uth into two smaller chambers. Sounds made with a constriction al either end of the mouth have most of their acoustic energy al a lower pitch than corresponding sounds made in the middle of the mouth: hence ~c find that k and p actually sound more alike than do p and I. Velar and labial consonants, based on this acoustic phenomenon, are called GRAVE, and dental and labial
consonants are called ACUTE.

This acoustic description culS across the articulatory description of place and allows us to express some common dissimilation patterns in Old Tibetan. For example. preinitial g- and d- are in compleme ntary distribution: the grave pre initial g- occurs only before acute in itial consonants; the acute preinitial d- occurs only befnr!! grave initial consona nts. Similarly. the acute posttinal -s occurs only afte:r grave: final consonants; the Old T ibetan acute present stem inflectional surfix of) disappears after acute final consonants and appears as the acute allomorph -s only after grave finals. This process of GRAVTn' DISSIMILATION is characle: ris\ic of the cla~sical lang uage.

2.2. SONORANCE
In many languages. n:,~als and glides form a group with the vowels.' Nasals. glides and v(lwds art: arollsti(;ally SO NOI(I\NT. as oppose:d to other stops. affricates and fr iwtivcs. wlw: h an: called OIISTHLJENT. The acoustic description cuts a(;TOSS the arl i(;ulatmy dcsrriplions of closure and nasality, just as acoustic gravity wts [KrOSS articulatory descriptions of place. SonnTanlS h:lve
III

comrnull a resonant quality that arises fro m their having

K Fur cumplc. nHl, II",... III.: vdar In ca live in "kox "cHugh" (compare O ld English (""hlwl.", ,lu'UI: MIJJlc IAI'" Germ3n ku,'"11 "cough," Midd le High German hJch~1I "cxh~ Ic-) "'.."m'~~ ~ 1"la";:.1 11I",.live In b[ <cough >. Note. 1 00. Ihal a \'e nlriloquiSI will 5u"q ilUl e vd~I u,",..r. :mt.' I", [hc lahlaJ cumnnanl$ he a nnol makc bccaU5C his lips would movc .

~ In En gli'h. f"1 ,,-"m pk." .,a]s 311d glidC$ are ~y llllbic_ jusl like YOWCls-aficr a SlOp or fri .... " vc. a.~ i n ''''''h l"" ~yll .. hle ..... 'r<b a., prizm <prism >. hilldr <hilWhr >. $NiIt <JUdiUlI >.
'll If') "hi

< /<11>:.. ....

SoUNDS

65

a relatively large amount of acoustic energy within a clearly defined ovenClne structure. In other words, the sonorants are "tone-like" sounds, while the obstruents are "noise-like" sounds. Thus, too, sonorants are normally voiced lOunds; voiceless nasals, for example, are quite rare in the world's languages compared to voiced nasals. lo Tibetan syllable codas are either sonoranl or obstruenl. The sonorance of the coda has morphophonological erfects on some following panicles: in several c:aKs, the initial of a particle is voiced after preceding sonorants and voiceless after preceding obstruents. For example, the coordinative conjunction -~iii WAND" takes the voiced form -lUi after preceding sonorant finals, but takes the unvoiced form -,lin and lin after preceding obstruent finals . Similarly,

Are ",usilRJ so,mas to olher JQUnds AS hlMi lind white is to lOlour? ... Co/qurr IIrt not to objects one leU AS a sound quality to sounds cme hears. Or lire they? -Christia n Wolff, Prose Collection

in the archaic texts, the adversative conjunction -KYan "BlJT" is found to take

the voiced form -gyan after preceding sonorant finals but the voiceless form -kyQii after preceding obstruent finals; in laler Old Tibetan, the same adverso ative conjunction takes the voiced forln .yan after sonorants and retains the unvoiced form -kyan after obstruenlS. Such changes seem related to the acoustic rather than the articulatory nature of the preceding syllable final.

3. THE PHONEMIC INVENTORY

In summary, the following appears 1 0 have been the phonemic inventory of Old Tibetan:

10 Voiceless sonoranl5, slldl as ,. t. and ~ Ire, however, found in seveflll New Tibetan dialects 1M In many TIbeto-Burman languages..

66

FROf'IT

BACK

Spread Round

HIGH

LOW
TrJbJ~

'IIOWtis

4. Tht Old TiMttlll

STOPS Oral
CL01TAL
VELAR
N~ I

AFFRICATES

FRICATIVES GLiOES

10

K k kl,

PAl.ATAL RETROFLEX

n n

dl 11
d,

1110

l!

,
I>

Y
I
w

DENTAL
LABIAL

II,

"

1>10

, ,

h P ph m
TolJlt 5. Tht Old Tibflllfl

COILJOtIaII/J

The following MI"IIM,\L ..... ms may be cited to' show that the distinctions discussed :Jhovc ,Ire in fact phonemic-thai is, functional in the language. For vowels, we notc, for cllampk. /Un "proper" rOn " ravine" ran "self' rin "long" rei; "stiff:' and niX "P('13!O" rug "black" rag "depends" rig "knowledge" reR
" I, " kfl "1c;lIhcr" kilO " he" no " face," khan "house" gon "ful],' nan "nature," k1w/ " hunkn" gal "importance" iial "fa tigue," nan "had" -fIan "POSSESSING,"
(.<I/f

"' o uches." Fur

C\lnSOni.mt~,

we note, fo r example, JuJ "pillar" kJta "mouth" no

" .\ Inlullanc()us" l.clwr "rain," iies "su re" l!e.1 "QUOTAnON" I!he.1 "grown h ig," IJ/IIl "port ion" d!a "lea" iia "fish," t!hag "broken" dtag "robbery" nag "not\;h," iio): "I.liny" wi: "cap button," tiii "cup" thiii "scatter!" nul "sleeps"

SoUNDS

67

tat "quick" that "dust," thUT "down" dIU cemetery," thug ",soup" dug "poison," duJ "time" nlU "is able," don "meaning" non "presses," nag "black" pag Hbrick" phag "pig" bag "concem," bug "hole" mug "worm," par "printing block" phar "away" bar "middle" mar "butter," mi "man" lsi "mouse," ts~ Mbasket" tsh~ "life," Hfshag "sq ueezes" Ntizag "trickles," Hfsh~m "sews" Ndzem M shuns," tsh~r "thornbush" ser "hailstorm" ze, says," tshoii "commerce" son M wenl" zon "merchandise," sub "covers" Iub "whispers," lUi "firewood" liii

"field," su "who" Iu "abscess" Iu "asks," sol "coal" lot "throat," sog Mshoulderblade" log "neck," sor "gimlet" hor "Mongol." Note particularly the follov.ing minimal pairs of words with glottal stop initial, g10ual rricative initial, and smooth vocalic insress--ol "clover" 101 "throat," og "underpart" log "neck," hor "Mongol" or "dropsy," .hUT "alertness" ur "BUZ2JNG NOtSE," lar.po "thief' harpo "hole," larpo "fieldworker" harpo "shining." Finally, minimal pairs with and without pre nasalization include NgfO "goes" gTO "wheat," Nbu "insect" bu ",son," Ntshe "hurts" /she "time," Ndug "stays" dug "poison."

Syllables

In Proto-Tibetan the syllable seems to have been differently structured in several respeCts Ihan in Old Tibetan: fo r ex:ample, we can reconstruct ProtoTibetan syllables such as -gry!Ul"string" and -rIuuln "net" which cannOl occur in Old Tibetan. But we can do little more at this lime than make sporadic hypotheses about the nature of these differences, and the discussion here will center on the structure of the syllable in Old Tibetan. This structure is defined by specific constraints on possible syllables. These constraints are of three sortS-length constraints, s lot-filler constraints, and co-occurrcnce constraints. LENO'1ll CONSTRAINTS define the number of phoneme slols
available in the syllabic; SLOT-FlLl.ER CONSTRAINTS define what phonemes may occur in each sial; l:O-OCCUIUl.ENCE a)N~"){AJ~ define what phonemes in one slot can occur together with other phonemes in other slots.

I. LENGTH CONSTRAINTS
The Tibetan syllable consists of three parts--ONSET, NUCLEUS, and CODA. The nucleus of the syllabI\! in Old Tibetan is always a single vowel. 1 The minimum

I While in OLd Tibeliln Ihe syllabic nucle~ always oontains a Single vowel, it sccms we must rCCQgni~ 1\10'0 COMPLD< I'IUCLEI in some PIOloTibetan syllables, both of which had simpurle4 inw single vowels by the time the language was written down. ThU$ in many cases where we find a classical Tibetu 0 we m~t reconSlruC1 a ProloTibetan nuelelL!i we wilt wlite conventionally as "IIa, and in many cases wllCre we find a cla$Si~' Tibetan ~ we musl reconstruct a ProloTibetan nucleus we will write conventionally as -ja. This convention is u$Cd 10 indiclle tltat tile syllable contains a complCJ[ nucleus Dlher lhan an onset duster with a postinilial ,Iide. The convenlion thus distinguishes, for example, between Prolo Tibetan -TlIIAM :> Old Tihc:tan TIICM "com plete," on the one hand, and ProtoTihc:tan TlfYAM :> Old Tibetan tllUM "a,ree," on I~C Oilier. For eumple. given Burmese phwam "rat" and Lushei PU{Jrl1 "swollen," we may postuLate ProtoTibetan sbuam :> Old Tibetan sbom "Ihick." Similarly, ,iven Nun, pa and Lis u f"'a "put on dOIlies," we may postulate ProtoTibetan "GVA :> Old Tibeliln BGO "pUI on (IOIIIC5," given Burmese ,.,.,.aii and Tiddim Chin wilil"hole," we may postulale PrOloTibeliln

68

SYUADLES

69

"dull"; :> O ld Tibeun doii "hole," and l iven Burm ese ptlrwllk., Rgyaron, /cQaIc, and Ki ranli !:horok "ani," we may poslulale ProlO-Ti beu n ~og :> Old Tibcu n grog "ani," See abo Burmese: boll, ProtD-Tibe ta n "rlauVI :> O ld T ibe t.a n , kiR1 " net," Burmese tllwa, ProtoTibeun "mlhuo :> Old Tibe tan mlM "span," Burmese SWCl, PrOloTibetan "sun:> O ld

Tibeta n 50 " loot h," Burmcsc Il /wtlf, Proto. T ibetan "GI.fJAD :> O ld Tibel3n GLOD "loose n," aM pe rhaps eve n Burmese "",al "old, tou,h," ProtoTibetan "",ad :> Old Tibetan rod "stiff." Note also Sanskrit JvllhIJ "RtTlJA" l~a .J\MJI.nON' :> O ld Ti be tan "juahu <swllh/J:> :> New Tibeu n (Obus ) soha. Thi5 histo riCi I seq uence ProtoT ibeta n ~a :> Old Tibetan 0 mus t be disli nguis hed from the Jeq ucncc PrOIO-Tibeta n '"wa :> Old T ibe tan "'0 (a.s in Burmese 1$110, Pro to-Tibeta n "1$llwo :> Old Tibeta n 1$llwa " sa ltM ), and from the sequence PrOlo,T ibe tan '0 :> Old Tibelan 0 (a.s ill Burmese: IMU";' ProtoT ibetan ' S IO ;; > O ld Ti bela!! slO;; " tho u!WInd"). Thc.~ sequences may be diagrammed as follows:
PROTO l1 HETAN
"j loij

Ot D
'nnET AN
Sioft

UU RMES E

' IY I'

:>

OT

" tho usa nd" "$alt" "hole"

IIIou";

0 > 0

UM
Ihwa..;

"/Jh ..,o ".wan

uhwo

"'"

wa :> ..a ua :> 0

In the same way, gi~'e n Lt pch. grya we may postulate PIOIO Tihctan krUl :> "rkia :> O ld Tibetan flu "Iea n," giVC II Burmese lyap we may postulate ProlO-T ibeta n "'iab :> O ld Tibe tll n kb "nat," ,iV(:n Bahin, dynm "be straight," Bu rmese aWn! "waigh I lon, piece," and Nun, Jdom "nat," we may postulate ProtoT ibetan oidium :> O ld Tilletan Jdm l "s!(aight," and give n Bahi ng dyom, T idd im Chin dim. and Vayu dom "full," we may postulat e Prut oT il'lcla n on/lAM :> O ld Tibeta n n lf:f., "be ful l."
As above, Ihis historieal sequence Proto-Tibetan "ill :> Old Tibetan ~ mus! be di stingu ished fro m the seq uence Prolo-Tibe lan "yD :> Olt! Tibe tan ya (al> in Bu r~ pya " bee," ProlOTIbetan . bya :> Old T ibetall byo "bird"), and from the sclJucncc Proto-Tibe tan .~ :> Old Tibetan e (as in Burmese II~ PIOtO Tibe tan "NE :> " NYt,' :> Old Tibe tan Nt: "be near ~) , (Remember, !oo, tha t a Proto-Ti be!a n dental 51 0p + ya :> O ld Tibcla n palata l arfr italc + Cl, as in PrOloT ibe tan " nfY AM :> O ld Tibeta n TSllAM "aglcc. ") These 5C(jucnccs may be summariud a.s fOllows:

PROTO
BU RM l:SE
l1UETAN

Ol.D
' 1IlETAN

PT :> OT

"near" "beetbird" "nat"

.,
",.

..,.
M

.,. "'
/,'

" ,
1">"
in :>
~

yop

"Iinb

70 syllable consists only of a

nud~us; (h~

TilE C I.ASS ICAI . TUlI'.TAN UN(;t}AGE

maximum syllable ronsisls o f an onset

cluster of four consonants befo re the nucleus and a coda c!usler of IWO

consonants after the nucleus. l Between these two extremes lie syllables of intermediate length, including syllables with a ((xla of a single vuwd. The historical change from Old to Middle to New Tibela n is characterized in part by a tendency to reduce the length of syllables from the maxim um cc:ccvcc:

or ccccvv syllables of Old Tibetan to Ihe

m:l.~imum

eve or cvv syllables of

many New Tibetan dialects. Table: 6 on the following page sum marizes Ihe possibh! syllable knglhs in the classic,,1 l:inguilgc. Two special cases are not included in the schc matiz<ltioll. First, there afe occasionally coda ciuslers of TWO vowels when it syllable with Ihe lexical form -w (invariably a diminulive such as hea "calf' or hyeu "lillie bird") occurs with the ad nominal panicle, as in heui "of the citlf," or before Ihe slatement particle, as in beuo "(It is) the calL" (Note also the ono matopoietic meaD

Western Tibetan dialocts

~m

to have preserved t'r Olo-Tibetan 'w where in Old TitlCtan

and other New Tibetan di alOCls Pro w ,Tibetan Oja has umlergtlne chan ge, Fo r example. l ive n New Tibetan (l.1d .. kh) I/lag "bea r" (Pu rik ) /II)'Og " Iiff' (Sa lti) Ih)'OJ;-po "patience:' we may

hypothesize Proto-Tibetan " n/IAG > Old Tibe tan TlIf:G "Iirl, bear," and liven New Tit>ctan (l.1dakh) /agJ-pa (Purik) .aromo (8ah~) Iyax,mo "gOOd," we may hypothcsi1.c Proto-Tibetan "LIAGS > Old Tibetan UGS "be gOtld:' We can thus proviue so mewhat more historical detail in o ut linin, this saunu change: , - - - ' Nl:. w TmnM (Balti, Purik)'O

r---

PROTO,TIfIETAN (WCSt)

'w
NEW TlRHAN

PROTO- TlS IITAN

Ow
Ol.D TIIIETAN

IL___

(l.1dakh) a

N E W TUWfAN

(Dbus, Lhasa ) t

2 One or the initial difficultics in studying cla ~~ ica l Tit>ct~n i., Ihe shock of encounl ering such COmplel onset cluslen as in u!,'ra "enemy" or OJ!,.'I'" "lIansl:l1ed," English is quile impove rished in onsct cluste rs: the muimum onset wnsis\.'l of a voiceless fricative plus II voiceless SlOp plus a glide, such as SIT in <S/n'ng>. spl in <SI'''",{,,1>. s kM< fn <Jquaft> . or sJcr in <skew>. On th e Ol her hand, we mi ght add, English i~ mud\ rkhcr Ihan claical Tibe ta n in cooa clu.stcn:.lhe maximum cooa cJu5 ter consists of four consu nanls, such :u JuIS in <lew>, lf6s in <twtlfllu>, mpSI in <gtimpsrd>. or lues in <sin/u> .

SYllABLES

71

"SOUND OF ... CAT.") A coda cluster of lltREE vowels is possible--bul not

often encountc:re<t-hen such a syllabic: occurs both with the adnominal particle: and before: the statement particle, as in :sprndo "(It is) the monkey's." Second, diphthongs in closed syllables are produced by two syntactic processes. The connective Yoii "AlSO" becomes -an after preceding vowels in
Ul\Jtrcssed syllables, yielding such synabic forms as -plan and -laa;;' And the conjunction -Am "OR" after preceding vowels Similarly yields such diphthongs as in rfQarn dream btuDm Hbriam "horse or donkey or calf or yak-cow or ... "

.
Co

...
v
0

c
ve

.cc
vee ons
evee bubs ccvee

v
vv

og
eve bod ccvc

oi
cvv

ev ka ccv 'l1o cccv

~o

beu

= =-

ccvv
byeu

rgud
cccvc
~ol

"",ns
cccvcc
~o&,

_i

cccvv

ccccv
b~o

ccccvc btgYal

ccccvcc

ccccvv
brgyai

brgyuns
tOfUtroilttr

Tcbk 6. 014 1UJ.tIMlyIklbk Imgrh

1. SLOT-FILLER CONSTRAINTS
Slot-flIlcr constraints prescribe which phonemes can occur in particular
positions in the .syllable. Indeed, we have already mentioned one such slot-

6ller constraint-the rule that the NUCLEUS of the syllable is always filled with vowel.

The ONSET of the syllable consists of four slots, each of which may e:ither be filled with single consonant or left empty-that is., filled with zero. We: will call these (our slots. from left to right, the PRE-PRElNrrw... PREINrrw... tNI11Al..

72

TilE ~ I CAL TUJETAN l...ANGUAGE

and POS1lNlllAL slots? The fillers of these slots are as fo llows.

(1)

When there is only one consonant in the onset, that consonant is in the INIllAl. sial. The initial slot may be filled by any consonantexcept, of course, the phoneme of nasalizatio n N. Thus in the syllable bod the initial slot is filled by b, and in the syllable thubs the initial sia l is filled by lit
When the initial slot has been fiUed, the rOSTINITlAL sial may also be
filled. The postinitiai slot can be filled ONLY by the glides, and y.4

(2)

Thus in the syllable grub the initial slot is filled by g and the postinitial slot by r, and in the syllabic byid the initial slot is filled by band the postini!ia] slot by y. j

3 We mUll be ca rdul. o f roUrK, no. 10 confuse these ~HONOU)GICAL slots, and the phonemes that can li lt them , with the GRAPHIC slOts I through 4 d iscussc4.bove. It is tI"UC, fo r eum ple, that the IN mAL_when there is one-is alWays in the center , raph position, a nd Ihat Ihe I'IlEPREINrT'tAL-when there is one -is always in t he left graph poshion. BUI afte r that, as we shall see, identification becomes Jess easy.

Th is statemenl is controversial, a nd will req uire so me ju.slirlClli'l n, which will be sllpplied in the fol lo'Ri n, section.

, An o n5(:1 cluster of stop plus ,Iide may in some uses be unambiguo~1y processed as a n inilial SlOp plus posti nit ia l glide: for eumplc, in kJvag " blood" Of' p/ry(Jg "harlCl the glide ca nno t be the inilial beca use:: Ihe aspira ted stops kh and ph canno l, under the sylla bic slot filler co nslrainl.\, be preinilial$; in SUQ "hai rH or dpytJ " Ial(" the gl ide cannot be the initial bcciI use the stops J: and p cannot, under Ihe syllable slot fiUer coM traints, be pre initial$, and because the consonants s an<! d cannot, under the syllable slm filler constra in ts, be pre preinitials.
H

However, where Ihe glide is preoeded by a single consona nt \\'hich could be ei tller n initial o r a preinitial, such 11$ g or b, it follows Ihal Ihe glide could in lurn be ei the r a postinitial o r a n inilial: for eumple. Ihe fo rm jD'tJiI mighi -wi lho ul furl her information- be proocssc:d cilher as a prcinitial g fo llowed by initial y or as an inilial g followed by postini t ia l y. Now thc Tibetan wriling s)'5 lem dislinguish<:s these IWO cases with regard 10 g I nd y. An ini tial y is wrille n as a CENTER graph, with prcinitia l gas. LEFf gr.pb ; .n initial g i~ "'rillen IIli a CENTER graph. wilh postin itia l y as a BOTTOM graph. But the wrili fl l systCJl! docs nOi ma ke si milar dislinClioM wilh regard 10 t he o ther gl ides: wilen precede l ' :I') lher oonsonanl, Ihc glides f, ~ and", are atwa)'$ WTitte n as oollom vaphl, .nd it is "l' l\ ' .:4u r.;al thai Ihcy arc therctore a ll pos liniti ais. Thai " no t nel;QSarily the case.

SYl.lAllLES (3)

73

When the initial slol has been filled, Ihe PKEtNrnAL sial may also ht: filled. The pre initial slot can he filled by r, I, $, g, d, b, m, and N. Thus in the syllable ode the initial SIOl is fitted by d and the preinitial .'0 101 hy b, and in the syllable 'ID'u the initial slot is filled by g, the postinitial slot by y, and thc preinit!al sIal by r. When the preinitial slot has heen filled by a NONSTOPPEH consonant

( ~)

r, I, or $ (note that this is actually a co-occurrcnee constraint), the PREl'REINI11AL slot may also he filled , The pre-pre initial slot can be filled ONLY by b. Thus in Ihe syllabI\! blw the initial slol is fi lled by I, tilt: preinitial slot by I, and the prepreinitial sIal by b. The CODA of the syllahle el)Osists of two slots. We will call these sIms, from Jeft 10 right, the RNAL and rOSTFlNAt. slots. (I) The l-lNAL slot may be filled with a single vowel (with the additional provisions discussed above), by 11 si ngle consonant, or lefl empty-that is, filled by zero. The final slot may be filled by the consonants d, II,

We will here II.'iC the following cll nvcntinn: a pr<:init.al oonwnant willl>c scpar~lcd from a following ini tial glide by a dOl (thu~ g.yan "blessing"), and an initial consonant followed by a postinitial glide will be left unm:ukc.J (thul Ki'iln "baked "ri.:l:'). Why does this distinClioll maile r'! Historic.;tl t:hangc.~ OCt:u r diffcrentty 10 init ialS anll -.si ng .. > !'lew Tibet~n (Lhas.a) )'<lii, but Old postini lials-for example, O td Tibetan g.run 1lI.... Tibeta n GYON "get dressed" > New Tibelan (Lhasa ) cM.v, Old Tibe l ~n g.yu "Iulquoi~" > NC'N T ibetan (Lhasa) yu, bUI Olu Tibelan f<i"Id "3 thleu:" > New Tibetan (Lha~ ) che. Old TIbelan g.yon "len siue" > NC'N Tibetan (Lha.. <.a) y6", bUI Old Tlhctan wus-po "fatherin-law" > NC'N Tibetan (Lhasllt) cMpo. Similar cumplcs C41n be found with uthcr glillC!>-- for example, O ld Tibeian g.rogs "hclper" > Ncw Tibetan (Lha.';a) r~ but Olf.! Tit>ctan grogJ "fame" > New Tibe tan (Lha.<.a) [ho. NOie also classical Tibetan IlRJ ..... ritc .. but rima "drawing," (;RJt. "be rolled u,," bUI ril.po - round," aRJD "grow dim" but ralt.rib "mist. dimncu," an d pe rhaps even S8RUM "make pregnanl" < " BRO.' " .. 0!)c "rcgnin!" but TIIm ''Womb,'' The sa me distinelio n may elil end back inlo ProloTibetan. We can distingUish, for example, berwccn ProtoTibetan s.ID " Ihi n" > Old Tille tan s.ID > New Tibetan (LhaS<l ) ID and Proto. Tibela n "sic "longue" > O ld Tibe tan ItIc > New Tibetan (Lha~a) Ik Similarly. given Bunan fOD-tpVlI, Cha mba Lah lili guo, and perhaps even Olu Chinese ,1111"'0 "(ox." wc can propose PrOlo_ Tibetan -g....a "f01" > Old Tibetan wa > New Tihctan (Lha~ ) '0.'/:. as opposed, for example, to Proto-Tibetan ......d "horn" > Old Tit>ctan .."'n > !'Ic... Tibetan (Lhasa) m.

14

THE Cv.ss1CAl. TlllETAN lANGUAGE

r, ~ S, g, b, and nI, or by any vowel. Thus in the syllable bod the final slot is filled by d, and in the syllable grogs the final slot is filled by g.
(2) When the final slot has been filled by a GRAVE consonant (nOle that this is a co-occurrence constraint), the POSlHNAL slot may be filled :IS well. The ~tfinal slot can be filled ONLY by 5, at least in the classical language. Thus in the syllable thobs the final sial is filled by b and the postfmal slot by 5.

n.

2.1. ARE 1 AND ow POSTlNITlALS?

When the glide 1 follows a consonant it is written as II bottom graph and alphabetized in native Tibetan dictionaries as if it were a poslinitial; but, wilh only one exception, the bottom graph <I> does nOI represent a poslinitial following an initial, represented by the center graph, but rather the initial of the syllable, with the center graph representing the preinitial. There are several reasons for reaching this conc1u~ion. Historically, the Tibetan preinitia] stops have tended to disappear in severa] New Tibetan dialects1-thus, for example, Old Tibetan giiid "sleep" > New

T,

III PrOlo-Tibelill. when the fi nal 51 01 of iI $yll:lble was filled by an AClJI'E ronsonantll. or l, the p-)Stfinal $IQ! wuld be filled by c1 Th is (lOlolfinal J-callod dCI-drflg "suon, d" by !he Title"n gr.mmarians-was apparentl)' a ptKJnoltl&ie.ally oonditioned allomorph of postfinal s. Poslfinal d had IWO sources-an infl<!l;liQnal surrIX D in the prC$Cnl slem of certain Yerm. and an infl(:("tional sum,,; s in Ihe past nem of all \'e lm, These: suffi:w; will be di!oClI~cd ;n the .l1;on on morphology.

1 This;$ a s;mple Slatement of a oompla phenomenon. Fint, nothing ever disappean willK)!.lt I nace, whkh is, I sup pose. a oomrorlinglhou,hl; in ~rtkular, pre/nilials whiCh ha~'e Ip~renl /y dis;Jppcared may be articulated afler pre0e4ing op~ n syllables in the !.arne slress ,ruup-for example, Old Tibetan bli "("ur" > New TibeLlin (Lhasa) Ii bll' Old Tibetan blJ,,bli "fourteen" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) tJiJpli. OW Tibetan pm " thrcc" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) JUm but Old Tibetan bt.fll-p1Im "thirteen" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) tloksom, O ld Tibetan mdull "front ~rt" > New TibeLlin (l..hua) 1ilH bill Old Tibetan sbimdl.ill "presence" > New Tibetan (Lha$.l) /wH!"QH, Old Tibetan,.v(J "similar" > New Tibelan (LhlWl) III but Old Tibelln Sku'Nth ''$Iallle" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) kuN!(J, Old Tibelan mUMII "si,n" > New Tibelan (Lha!..l) UM,N bllt Old Tlbelarr ~mlJh(ln "reason" > New Tibetan (Lhilsa) ("mUCH.

SYLlABLES

75

Tibetan (Ladakh) iiil (Lhasa) iii, Old Tibetan dge *'virtue" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) ge (Lhaj;a) Ice, Old Tibetan btk "joy" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) rrh (Lhasa) Ie, Old Tibetan dmQg-dpon "army commander" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) mokspon (Lhasa) malcpiiN. Postinitial glides, on the other hand, have tended to arreci the place of articulation of the precedin, initiaJ-for example, Old Tibetan sranma "peas" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) I'Innta

Second, twO different procc::sscs seelll to have bcea " M)rk slmlliCl.lleOUSIy oa 1lbetall preiniliais. sometimes mavins tbe syllable iI dirfercll! dlrectioaL 01l the OAe Jt.ucl, lbe preinitiais lend 10 WEAXf'/ over time: tlUlt il, tile deJUC ot doIllrc iD aniaaladllJ llIc preinilial decrea.sa; stopped. preinitiais become narrowed, u(rowcd prciJIlllals become opea. and open preinilia~ disappear- thus, over tim, and al different speeds ill dirfereJlt pans of the lexicon, stops > fricatives > Ilides > e. We ean note Ihil proocss at M)rk III Old Tibetan glum "three> New Tibetan (Oolok) ')'SlIm (Panaklll) InIm (Lbasa) nun, Ok! Tibetan bdlIn "seven" > New Tibetan (Balli) bdlIn (Khams) ...dun (plink) rdw! (Dbua) Old Tibetan brlu "ten" > New T ibeta n (KhaIllS) nhf (Plink) I/hl (GoIOI) ...tIM (Uwa) Iht. Note too such pronunciations as New Tibetan (DbUS) It:wdJlp <JJaj.,.tDb> "fall," tIWIp <brlu-dgu> "nineteen." d~~ <Ilk.> "Dc:r&e City," Ind luch doublets ia lhe clutk:a1 tats as dkiln-,kDn "palale." dgu-rp " nine," gdugu-ldu.p "brtoelel," .o..tR- JtD..C.t "rub," Jdor-rd "s pice," STVN -RTVN "make shorle r"; even Old TibetallsdoA NewTibetall (Tao-tu) JIM (Bal li) zdoli "tree Irllnk" was borrowed into MonllK)( from an ulIllnowft Tibetall dlakct:

a..

u""'"

On llie otller ha nd. the preinitials-panicularly nonstopped pteinitials-teod 10 A.SSIMJI.~1'E 10 Ihe Collowing inilial: tllal is, over time, Ind It diffe rent spcoc1s in different parIS of tile lexioon. voiced preiniliais lend to become voiee\eU beCore voioclas initi.als, and vok:deu prcinitilb tend 10 beromc voiced before voiced initials. We an note this procca 11 wort in Old Tibetan nll "tIorse" :> New Tibetan (plnakha) (Lad.akJI) I'" (Balli) h,,-SIII (Am40) nll - l ta, Old Tibetan JS" "sadd le" > New Tibetall (Oolok) 'P (Bahi) IF (Plink) 19l1 (Amdo) 'ill. Old Tibetan ~ " C OOl" > New Tibetan (LadakJt) ~ (Oolot) Jk.aII (Amdo) .rkd.

st"

Botll of I!lese proca.5eS are "nalural," in tbe sense tlUltllley are found operatinl IIOIOIlIy in Tibetan bill in a variety of olher b nldles. Sometimes lbe two pr0CdSC5 affcclinllhe preinitial$-weakeninl a nd assi milalion_are in connict. III Pau.kha, for eample. we find Ihal Old Tibetan J'I\ll "nose" > New Tibetan (Panalr.ha) "'" botb by weakenin& oC tile preinilialand by assimilation of the voke onset time of tbe preiaitial 10 lhal of the initial. Bill we find, 100, bolh IlUt Old Tibela n "horse" :> New Tibetan (Panaktta) Jta, where Ihe tenc1ency 10 asslmiLale predominales over tile leMency for preiniliab 10 weaten, Ind Ihll O ld Tibetan ~ ''body'' > New Tibel.ln (PanakJIl) fbi, wlle re IlIe lenderit)' 10 weaken predominalQ ove r lbe lendency for preinitills 10 assimilate in voice Onsel time 10 inillals. In IIIe same ..... y, Old llbetan ri:a.lI "lei" > New Tibetan (Golot) IW bllt Old Tibetan " Iiee r" > New Tibetan (Oolok) n"1

n"

st.,

76
(Lhasa) [alma, Old Tibetan gru "boat" > New Tibetan (ladillth) 4u (Lhasa ) rhu, Old Tibetan ,.;brug "dragon" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) t/uk (Lhasa ) !U, Old Tibeta n TXYab "back" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) rgyap (Lhasa) ('''p, Old Tibetan pliyogs "side" :> New Tibetan (Ladakh) tJllUks (Lhasa ) (.(1/(1, Old Tibetan spyan "eye" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) sUan (Lhasa) lIeN. With one exception, the stop preceding an I in an onset cluster behnvcs historically like a preinitial rather than like an initial-thus Old Tibetan gill "sting" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) [u (lhasa) Iu, Old Tibetan bla-ma " lama " > New Tibetan (Ladakh) lama-lama (Lhasa) lama, Old Tibetanslob-4poll "teacher" :> New Tibetan (Ladakh) Lappan (Lhasa) IOpON. Old Tibetan 'fuii "air" > New Tibelan (Ladakh) [uiUpo (Lhasa) tun. There are several synchronic phonological reasons as well. First, preinilial stops cannot be prenasalized, while initial slops followed by a postinitial can be prenasalized- thus, for example, Ndra but not '!Ndga, NgytJ but not ?Ngdo, Nbru but not ?Nbde. In every case, the stop preceding an f in an onset cluster behaves like a preinitial with regard to prenasalization- thus "'gfUh bUI not ?t;glub, Nbyo but not ?Nblo, Ngye but not ?Ngle. Second, initial stops are constrained by the rule of gravity dissimilat ion in the selection of preinitials but not in the selection of pastinitials- thus, for example. we filld both gro and dro, but o nly gso and not ?dso. and o nly d~ and not ?gpe. In every case, tbe I in .lin onset cluster beh:lVes like an initial constra ined in its selection of preinitial hy the rule of glavity dissimila tion-thus Kia btlt not ?dla.

!Whlit i raJ/ th: "lIudiwry

n~ }er.ii"g.
~,

(I.", rhythm. penetrRti"5 for below the ~ Inei! of thought

/1>",1 [urgotttn.

imif;Bi~~~J~ the ~eli"g for l]lJAble

,,,,d

invigorRtjng tv", JWrd; linking UJ the most primitive rerun/inlJ w tht origin bringing KJmtrhing Jetlt;nlJ the bfiJintling ami the end.
_ T. S. Eliot, The Use uf Poetry & the Use of Crilicifm

l_ _____.__.__ - - - - - --

-[hird, Li ;tiill ~ tops followed by a !lOslinitial glide can be preceded by a p rel T lIVDI, 8ud, where Ihal preinilial i~ not a stop, lhe preinilial can in turn be pn'Cl'c... '~::.y ' 1;:- nrc-prt!initi:ll b, while ti n initial pre<:eded by It preinilia l sto p

SYU.A.8I..ES

77

cannot be further prcced~d by any additional consonant-thus, for example, .JiVtI but not ?sgdo, dby~ but not ?dbge, bsgyur but not ?b.rgdur. In every case, the stop preceding an 1 in an onset cluster behaves like a preinitial with regard to further preinitia!s-Ihus spyu and spra but not ?spiu, sgyo and sgro but not ?sglo. bf1!O'O and bsgro but not ?bsglo.' Fourth, aspiratcd stops cannot be preinitials but can be initials followed by a po5tinitial-thus, for example, khru but not ?lchdu, pirro but not ?pligo. In every case, the 1 in an onset cluster behaves like an initial rather than a postinitia! in Ihis regard--Ihus khyu and khtu but not ?k1tlu. plrr a and pltra but not ?phla. There is, however, one case in which I appears 10 be a postinitial rather than an initial-in the initial cluster z/, which in turn behaves histnricalty in surprising ways.IO First of all, we find s\Jch curious classical Tihetan douhlets as zlum-Idum " round:' ZLOG-UXX} "turn away," ZLA-N/lA "pass," ZI.O-NIKJ "recite," ZLAG-IJlAG-NlJAG "lick." Further, we may note the unexpected New
"The inilial t!usler blcl is found (parallel 10 b/I:y- . nd bier. ) s pora.Jil-:.lly in the pa~1 anll runne nems of lhe verb K1.A G (kJoglk./IIRf - blc.lllgJlIWg-blclagllclog) rcall: hul Ihe<oC sct.m 10 be lile and .nlloJOus forms~ Ihere is no corresponding infleclion.1 \:Iusler t>gf- in ~ udl Yerb5 as GUB (gItblgltbs/Rftb) 'nallen" or GUN (g/onlg/rI1IlgIall) "mend. ra tc h ur."

9 A difrlcul ry fo r th is analysis i5 rli!;cd b)llhe onset clu~ lcr kJ found in a few common words such as kJu "s.crrcnt deity" . nd kJait ~expam.e. " The conMlna nt k. . (as "r~, fllr wmple, to lhe comonanl .(.) cannot be a. prtinilial, $0 it is IUrd It) sec. lin..... the I in the cluster could be the initial. However. the I ce rt ai nly bch;m~5 lIislorically like an in il i.l: we find Old Tibetan Icltl "serpent deit y" > Ne ..... Tibetan (Lhasa) N. [n flCI , in the Sino-Tibetan Heaty iO$(ript ion of 821 . Tibetan Idu is tllnscribed bolh 15 Middle Chinese "Icyu .!y. represcntin& all Inililillcl clu$ter. and as Midd le Chinese "IN, indicaling thaI, as early as lhe ninlh century, in Ihe speech of at least !lOme urban governmenl orrlt"ials. ProloTibetan . "'" lI.d already bcoomc Old Tibetan (Lhasa ) 0/u <kJu> . I do not know h,_ \11 rCc\Olvc tlli~ dirrlCUlty. ]0 Note that il is o nly in zl and nOI in II. tll.t the I appears \0 be postinitill; tile u cluster bel"llves jllli like oll"lo::r cl u$lcn will"l in ilia l I_for eumrle, Old Tibelan Ifoh .dptNI "teael"ler"' > New Tibetan (ladakh ) lOflfXH\ (Ll"la'-ll I0p6N, O ld Tibe tan SU :/I 'reacl"l" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) I' f (Lh a!ol) Itp. Nme tl"l. l, under tl"lis analysi~, bsla an1 bzln, .l1 l"1nu&1"I supc rncially pa rallel. differ in undcrl)'in, structu rc-a nd thus Old T ihclln bJIII "will weave" > New TL~ I !1n ( Lha~) Ill. hut Old T ihctan hzla 'Will recite" > :-.I(."W T ibe tan (Lhasa)"fo. In hila Il"Ie I " ,n,li.1. $0 Lhe h is tl"le r le prcinitial; in hz/a thc I b po!o tin it ial, SCI the b is the preinllial GIIIII Il.Ila and blld arc well.formed syllablQ under Ihe 5y\[able rule.

78

THE Ct...t.ssICAL TIBETAN l...ANGUAGE

Tibetan ret1exes of the z/ cluster-for example. Old Tibetan z/a "moon" > New Tibetan (Balti) all (ladakh) ldtJ (Chung-tien) Ndo (Obus) dll (Lhasa) til. One way to account for such phenomena is sequence of phonetic changes-(l) zl > lz by > Idy when followed by a front vowel, (4) Idy > MJ and Idl > Nd1, (6) in many New Tibetan to hypothesize the following metathesis, (2) lz > ld, (3) ld > ill by palatalization. (.5) 1d dialects Nd > d and ~ > dt

through regular loss of pre initials. We can diagram these changes as follows:
r-~

zl>lz>ld>--1

Idy > Id1 > Ndl > d1

/FRONT VOWEL

L.- - - - - _ . Nd

>d

/BACK VOWEL

This process apparently extends all the way back to Proto-Tibetan. For
c!xample. we find the classical Tibetan doublclldIiba-Ndli-ba "nea." On the

basis of fornu in other Tibeto-Burman languages, such as Nung s~i, Karen khillilwi-kJulai, Mikir tlikli, Lushei hi;' and Bunnese hie "flea," we can hypothesize a Proto-Tibetan -Z/i "flea" > Old Tibetan Wi > NdI~ with the intermediate steps -Zli > .lzj > .ldi > .ldyi > Wi > NdIi. II
II This ~~IIOC sugeslS thai postinitiailis not found in Old Tibeun in tlU5Ien oaher than zJ because everywhere else a n originally postinitiall had already meutbc:siud in Prota; Tibetan to preinitial L In other \Wrd!, at some time before o ur first writlen texts, ProtoT ibetan -(;1 ,. IC ~rywhere but in tile Cluster zJ. (P05tinitial r, as we will see, more $poradically did the s-ame thing-fof example, Burmese mra.\ Proto-Tibetan "mrall ,. Old Tibetan rmaii "l'Iorsc,~ Burmese khraii, Proto-Tibeun .b"aII ,. Old Tibetan rk4II "bone.") This wave o f t hange had not yet rutbcd zJ by the time the spelling of the clusler w ftxed in O ld Tibetan; but, as we haY( bypothcsiud, the cbanBC zJ ,. II evcnt\lally oYCrtoolt the o;l ust~.r !l as well. For eumple, given Karel! W. Garo sn, Dimasa StJUl4 Lcptha ;.U, BUfll'lC$C Ill!'l/. Kanauri k, V.yu Ii, I..4Ishei ki "tongue," we aa hypOlItcsil.c ProtO-TIbetaa "sic ,. "Is, ;, "flf ,. ltyt" Old Tibetan Id, "lOnluc," 15 an unvoiced parallcllO tlte vok:cd scqKnOc Pr" I,,Tibeun OW ,. ll; ,. 0Jdi ,. 0ldyf ,. Old Tibetan /dli "Oea." Thus, wbcre I_initial, no ch.nge toot place. as in Prolo-Tibetan OJiD ,. Ok! Tibetan lUI "tbin," bllt, where I was postinitial, ilS JDCtathesls triggered a chain of pl'lonetic ,banF, as in Proto-Tibetan slc > Old TibeLaD Ilk "tonpc." Similarly, given Kilen k.'I)4. Ouo khi, OIpro kJ44 Buf1l\eSe Idryt. Kanall" """" Bablnl khIi "aacmcnt," Lepdla ,Xli "entr.ib, lUts. m\lC\lS of entraib," we an hypotbcsizlc Proto-Tibetan -Jdi ,. olJci :> 0lk)i :> Old TIbcw Iai "dua,," For lOme reason, mcutbcsb in this /d_ duster appears to baY( stopped sbort of Iprcadin, tbrougbout the Iaicon, and is fOllnd only belore front OWCb; llt~ an rellll.iAla,1lbcW kl_ d~cn oa:ur only berore bact voweb,aM,ln lbcsc few remain in, syllables, an applrently po51inltial I has been reinterpreted pboooloJk:ally as u Inilial, as in Old Tibella Jdv ''serpeal deity" :> New Tibellil (lJIua) /u !lither than O/Jaj ,. O.b.&.

19
In some instances, Old Tibetan preserves the Proto-Tibetan ezl unchanged, while various New Tibetan dialects occupy differe nt positions along the hypothesized sequence of historical change. For Old Tibetan zw "moon" we can set up Proto-Tibetan -Zla on the basis of Nung s;Ha, Digaro h"'a-hlo, Vayu tI%, Burmese la, and 8ahing fa. We can hypothesize the sequence Old Tibetan zia > New Tibetan lu1 > Ida > Nda > dil, with Balti lza, Ladakh ida, Otuns-tien Ndo, Dbus da reflecting different stages of this change. We may similarly sec such classical Tibetan doublets asz/tun-Idum "round" and 'lLANa.t "pass" as reflections of the sequence zWm > lthun. and zl4 > -Ida > .tid4, with the older form preserved alongside the newer. Even where the sequence Ida > Nda is not attested in the texts, there is evidence for the change in some New Tibetan dialects, where we find, for example, New Tibetan (Lhasa) tNtJON <Nbras-Idfoiis> "Sikltim," tJ/gNti <phyag-lde> " key," kuNta <sku-zfa> "spouse," chima <klryi-zfa> "dog month." Another' apparent exception to the slot-filler constraint that only the glides 1 and r occur poslinitially is the occasional appearance in classical Tibetan words----such as fwa "hat"----(lf <w> written as a bottom graph, called wa-zur Mcorner w" by the Tibetan grammarians. This orthographic convention apparently distinguishes such pairs of words as .ria "fish" iiwa "leg muscle," fUll "root" ruwa "grass," Lf "eat" twa "nettle," ra "sheepfold" rwa "horn," III "mountain pass" fwa "woolen blanket," Ia "flesh" Iwa "deer," and TSIIA "be hot" uhwa "salt." But, at least after the ninth century, it is difficult to say what phonetic feature--if any at all--is reflected by this orthography.11. We find occasional classical doublets such as grwa-gru "edge" and rwa-tu " hom," but with little consistency. Nor does etymology seem to help our inquiry: a semantic relation between Ia "flesh" and Jwa "deer" seems apparent; between ra "sheepfold" and TWa "horn," or roa "root" and rtswa "grass.," seems poS5ible; but between fa " mountain paS5" and lwa ''woolen b\anket" seems remote at best. This apparent postinitiaJ w occurs only before the nucleus a in classical

12 In.1 leasl some instances lbe bottom Iraph <: ... > appears 10 be purely IfIphic <XnIYCftlion. 1ft ambilUOUS JllIphic sequences which IcprC$Cnl syllables willl lhe vowel '" ...tIere no oven vowellrapll marks tile oenler graph, as in <dgs> or <dAs>, a bollom graph < ... > will be used 10 Indicale the oenler ".ph-for example, oogs <d"'Dp> as opposed 10 ..,. or dDAJ <lfwDllf> as opposed 10 dIiDs.

80

THE CLA'iSICAL TlOcrAN WOUAGE

Tibetan, This skewed distribulion--that is, occurrence only before a back spread vowel--can be accounted for historically. First. postinitial w does not
seem 10 occur before rounded vowels in any Tibcto-Burman language, and therdore presumably did nOI occur before rounded vowels in Prolo-Tit>eto-

Burman; thus Tibetan would not have inherited any sequences of the form or -WIL Second, where postinitial HI occurs before front vowels in other Tibelo-Burman languages, we find poslinitial y in Tibetan-for example, Burmese pw~, Lushei bui, but Old Tibetan by; "rat." Burmest khwe, Lushei ui, Kanauri Jrui, Chepang kw;, Kachin gui, Mha aJrui, but Old Tibetan Ichyi "dog," Burmese /cywe, Trunggui, Chepanggoy, but Old Tibetan sky; "edible root." Thus we may hypothesize that PrOio-Tibetan bwi > Old Tibetan by; "rat," Prolo-Tibetan *khwi > Old Ti~lan khy; "dog. and Proto-Tibetan *slew; > Old Tibetan skyi "edible root," or, more generally, Proto:ribelan *-w- > Old Tibetan -y- poslinilially before a front vowel; thus Old Tibelan would no longer have any inherited sequences of Ihe form -wi or -we. This would leave postinilial w only in syllables with the nonrounded non front vowel a.
-WQ

In this position, in the ninlh centu!)" <w> in the bottom graph position apparently did represent somelhing very much like a postinilial w. On Ihe Sino-Tibetan treaty pillar of 821 we rind Middle Chinese *kwak transeribed in Tibetan writing as <kwag>, Middle Chinese *kwaii as <kwaii>, Middle Chinese *kuan as <kwan >, Middle Chinese ~an as <hwaii >. Middle Chinese *iiyw:1 as <Ngwall >, and Middle Chinese "ywc.ii as <)'Wen >. Other examples arc found in ninth-century manuscript Iranseriplions of Chinese Buddhist texts, where we find Middle Chinese *thua; transcribed as <,ilwa>, Middle Chinese *L')'WCII as <tIwnn>, Middle Chinese nuui as <Ngwe>, and Middle Chinese ~wi as <fw;>. The wa-zur continues 1 0 be written in what appears 10 be orloma lOpoeia as well. In the epic (If Ge-sar we fil.d, ior c:tample, khro-il!uii -gis yar mar bar gsum!a lew; swo 111'10 gsum byas "Khro-thufi said the three syllables kwi swo hwo upward, downward, and in between,"!) and khra-phug ni-ma ran Jar-la, khrapas kwi lewi zer!an',n, khmm!Js bswo bswo ler-sa rlas "In thl': Cave of

Il The cries would be iU.-ot..l\101U of Ihe fiul "g<lI.ls" the k..'u "$Crpcnt dcil!c$" below nd Ihe b'~4n "spir\lS" upon the ~lIrfa.;.c of lbe un h. raplivciy.

.boYe.

81
Hawks the sun rose: the male hawks cry kwi kw~ the female hawks cry bswo
b1WO "

However. at some point after the ninth century, the wa-zur, in its usual position after the vowel a, apparently ceased to reflect any phonetic feature of the syllable. and became a graphic device to distinguish cenain homophones. This certainly seems to be the situation throughout New Tibetan. For example. we find New Tibetan (Lhasa) Ia <1a> "moiSl\nc" Jo <:twa> "hat," tsa <rua> "TOOt"l.Sa <l'UWa> "grass," ra <ro> "sheepfold" TO <rwa> "hom," sa <zo> "cat" sa <zwa> "ncttle," tsha <lIha> "be hot" uha <tshwa> "salt." lho <gra> "preparation" rho <po> "corner." Nott also the alternative spellings of the same word bd da-Ichyi-fwa.lchyi> " hunting dog" and lhilfiJul' <daiikiJ-dwaiik.a> "appetite."

It is by their l)lliIbks thllt word! juxtRfOU in beauty, by these ptvri+kr of sounds lIS eletJrJy lIS by the unst of the rxw4s .,hi&h

they """/JClU . ... The jilUntSJ, and the praetite, lie hnoe, at

uu mi,,;mum anA suuree of Ipmh . ... I14Y the rjlJ4bk, kt'"i!, tuUI thlll it is spontlUW1Ul, this .,ay: the ".r, the tar .,hi,h hAS eoIJ,eetul, .,Jnt,h hIlS JiJwuJ, the ear, .,h"h is 10 elme UJ the mind that it is the ",i,ui'l, th.t it hlU the mind's Ipeed ...

-Charles Olson.

Projective Ven-e

3. CO.QCCURRENCE CONSTRAI NTS

3.1. CONSTRAINTS ON POSTlNITlALS

3.1.1 Postinltia) ..,.
Postinitial y is found in Old Tibetan only in the clusters gr, Icy. thy, by. py. pIry, and my. This distribution can be accoun'-ed for fairly simply by the following hypothC5is about Proto-Tibetan. Let us assume that the consonam inventory of Proto-Tibetan consisted just or velar. dentnl, and labial stops and

82

THE Cv.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

fricatives~-that is, ~ Ie, kh, ii, d, t, til, n, $, Z, b, Po ph. m-and, perhaps, the affricate clusters -dz, ts, Ish. Let us assume that every one of these consonants could be palatalized by postinitialy. And let us assume that, when such palatalization occurred, the following changes e\lentually took place--ny > n, -dy > dl, -ry > 8 , thy > ~h, -ny > n, -.1)' > I, "%)' > t, ~ > dl, -t.sy > tI, -uhy > 11h. These changes are nalural ones, and the hypothesis would account for two things-the fact that Old Tibetan has palatal affricates and fricatives; and the fact that, in Old Tibetan. the consonants tbat had undergone this change in Proto-Tibetan are precisely the ones that now can no longer be palatalit.ed.'4

There is some evidence to support this hypothesis. For example, we find Burmese s~ Vayu SU, Phunoi S1, Altha s~ Mpi 1,:), Garo masi "know," and we can hypothesize a PrOlo-Tibetan st's > Jyt's > Old Tibetan .fES "know." Similarly, we find Burmese sa, Phunoi sa, Bi5u ?aiisa, Mpi lasa, a5 well a5

14 1be hypolhe5ized changes are "natural" ones in IWO senses. First, a clulnge from a palatalized dental 10 a palatal affricate or fricative is flO( uncommonly found in a va rie ty of lan,,,,ges. Second, the hypothesized change seems 10 have continued into modern times, spreadin, from the dentals and velar nasals into the velars and ]abials -for example, Old Tibetan ~ ~ hundred ~ :>- New Tibcun (Galok) atyo (ObUS) dIa (Lhasa) CD, Old Tibetan trYO/.po " kin," :>- New Tibetan (Amdo) atyo ..-u (DbUJ) d1.tpo (Lhasa) a:po, Old Tibetan Irhyi "dog" :>- New Tibetan (Amdo) dh~ ([)bus) llhi (Lhasa) dJ~ Old Tibetan ltJryod "you" > New Tibetan (AmekI) 11110 (Oolot) Ilh)'O ([)bus) tJM (Lhasa) cM . Old Tibetan b)'Il " bird" :>- New Tibetan (Amdo) la (Golok) ft)'{J (Obu) 1/4 (Lhasa) 11M, Old Tibelan phyogs ''sIde'' :>- (Amdo) Jor (Uao) plo ( Dbus) 11110 (Lhasa) I1ho, Old Tibetan phyug_po "ric;h > New Tibetan (Derce) IuJqHJ (Llao) pJbp6 (Dbus) IIhulcpo (Lhasa) dhulcpu. Of COUI'SC, this devtlopmenl of palata l ooMOnanl$-stops (c, ch). fricatives (I, /1), and affricates (pl, Il, I.l'h) -does not OIXYr in t!'lt same way in uc;h dialecl, or, indted, in every word in uch dialtCl, For example, in Amdo we find Old Tibetan kilyi "oog" :>- New Tibetan (Alndo) dhll but Old Tibetan Ichyim "ho\l5C" > New Tibetan (Amdo) Ichytirl. Old Tibetan rgyoI-po "kin," > New Tibetan (Amdo) atyo_ but Old Tibelan bry;;;u " hundred" > New Tibetan (Am<JO) 1JO'Il. In Ladakh, patatalized labials have, ,enerally, booomt patatal affricatts, but palatalized velaD have not; we find Old Tibetan pllyop "side" > New Tibetan (La4akh) I1hoIu but Old Tibetan khyim "bo\l5C" :>- New Tibetan (Ladakh) khyim. Old TIbtun spyod "action" :>- New Tibetan (l.a4akh) l/ol bUI Old Tibtun Ikytnu "libation" :>- New Tibetan (Ladakh) skytrru, Old Tibtun b)WI "nonh" :>- New Tibttan (l...adath) aDII but Old Tibetan '!)'lUI "ornament" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) ~-yet compare Old Tibetan Ibyill "&ihH :>- New Tibetan (l.aukl'l ) dill with Old Tibel. n phyi "oul'lide" :>- New Tibeun (udakh)pIU. Dc::spile all this, lbe u;ndc:ncy remains clear, and palatalizatiol has ronlinued 10 spread both pilonolo,ically and, .PP'lrently, 1txka1ly.
H

83
Bahlng rye. Sangpang sya. Kanauri Jya, Magari miJia, Nung fa, Lushei la "meat," and we can hypothesize a Proto-Tibetan -.rya > Old Tibetan 10 "meat." Similar hypotheses can be made for some nasals-for example, Burmese iia, Lisu iiwd, Akha na, Mpi no, Lepcha no, Tsangla iia, Kachln na, Lushei hiia, Bodo na-no, Chepang iio-iia "fISh," and thus Proto-Tibetan -nya > Old Tibetan no "fish," and Burmese Ma, Lisu ,ijwa, Alma iia, Nung ,iiQ "borrow," and thus Proto-Tibetan nya > ,-iiya > -b-riiya > Old Tibetan BRNA "borrow." Similarly. given Burmest Ish~ Nung lsi, Kacbin diu. Dimasa si-di (dj "water"), Lahu dti "urine," we can hypothesize Proto-Tibetan -LSi > "-tsj > '"gt.Jyi > Old Tibetan 001 "urinate"; given Burmese ishii. Lisu tshi, Mha uui "pinch," we can perhaps hypothesize ProtoTibetan -Ishir > -uhyir > Old Tibetan rtlllR "squeeze"; giverr Burmese swan "pour out," Garo sol-an, Dimasa djsor (di "water"), Kechin Ion "flow," Lepcha dhor "the pouring of W'olter," we can hypot.hesize Prolo-Tibetan tsyuar > Old Tibetan 110R "overflow."
There are also a few examples that allow us to hypothesize Proto-Tibetan palatalized dental stops. We find Owags th4 Gurung ti., Zhang-zhung rig. Rgyarong k~iag, Chingtang thu, Rai thik-pu. Nung Ih4 Burmese tats "one," and thus Proto-Tibetan ~ig > ~ig > Old Tit>ctan gtJig "one"; we find I>-Nags then-bo, Gurung theN-ba, Rgyarong .klh4 Kukish de4 Kanauri Ie, Miju .ta4 Nung thl; Mikir the "big," and thus Proto-Tibetan the > thye > Old Tibetan 1111E "be big." There is, moreover, some indirect evidence for the hypothesis, which is, I think, in some ways more persuasive than the comparative evidence just out lined. In the classical lexicon we can find pairs of words with related-and occasionally identical-meani ngs wbich differ only in that one of the pair has an apparently palatalized initial and the other does not-for example, SKOR "surround, encircle, enclose, ride round" and SKYOR "repeat, recite by heart," CON "put on, wear" and GYaN "put on, wear," NPIIO "change place, shift, migrate" and NPllYO "range, roam about, gambol," 80 "pour out, spill over" and BYO "pour out, pour into another vessel," and perhaps even SI'O "remove from office, dismiss from employment" and SPl'O "blame, scold."u
Note also "'lIrn rOllnd, CO abo~' in a circle" and "reet, uauer, mw

I}

NKHOR

HKJrroR

",be targcl~ an~, perllaps, NKJfYAR "err, deviate, CO asltay," GA6 "cover, prolect~ and lKYAJI'

84

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

Whatevt:r the semantic function of this palataJization-and that is certainly rar from clear--we find the same pattern in alternating dental and palatal initials: thus, (Of example, where we find suI "funow, channel, groove" and IuJ "track, rut, furrow," parallel to NPHO "change place, migrate" and NPHYO "range, roam about," we can similarly. hypothesize!ul < Pro~Tibetan ~ Note the following pain 85 well--.t.4L "remove, clear away, cleanse" and 8ttL < -bsyol"rinse, wash of(, cleanse," zabs "depth" and labs < ~abs "bottom, lower end, foot," OZIGS "see, look at, regard" and aho < ~ "examine, search, try," DZUGS "stick into, pierce, insert, plant, set" and Dt.UG < .dzyug "inject, put into," THull "be short" and 'rlHuR < thyuii "be small," thun "gatherer" and tPwn-po < tttJ,yun-po "bunch, bundJc," THAG "grind, pulverize, mash" and TiHAG < thyag "become broken, be broken off," N71lAM "grasp, embrace, join, t o and f'{7i11AJl < Nthyam "accord, agree," gter "treasare" and mER < b~r "heap up, pile up," UlAG .'Iick" and Wags < e/dyags "tongue," GooNs "desire, long for, feel pain" and Ndtuiit-po < eNdyunr "avarice," MNAL "sleep" and HAL < enyaf "slt:ep," sne "end, extremity" and sne < esnye "spike of wheat," nar "oblong" and nar < enyur "oblong."

3.1.2. Postinitial -rThe distribution of )Xtinitial r is more complex than that of postinitial y. P05tinitial r is found only in the clusters kr, Ichr, gr. dr. pr, phr, br, and sr. In

"protect, defend, save," dbar "SOlitude, )onelines.s, IICplIllition" and dbyt'A d iscord," rlwil'JNl "(OOt" and RXYAN "strelcll forth, extend, 5tk:k out."

~difTerence.

schism.

In several of tl\e$e pairs we rind an altemation belWeen a vowel II in the unpalaUilized fonn and tbe vowel t in the palatalized form_for cump1e. SICAAt "be dry" and lX'YM "be thirsty," mkhmf "PERSON SItiUD IN':' and MKHY;EN "know." CM ''split, deave, divide" and Gl' "divide, scauer. disperse," GAL "load, lay on a burden, put on" al'Kl SGlU " put down, throw down, overturn" a nd Gl'U "ran, stumble;' 0G.4 "tejoicc" and DGl'S " rejoice.." It is possible, or muISe. Ihat in Ihese cases Ihe palaUilizalion is 5CCXlndary to the fronl vowel, and Ihe vowel alte rna tion is the prima,'Y proccs.s; It would be parsimoniollS, on the oll~r hand, 1 0 daim Ihat the front vowel is secondary to tile palaUiliudon, especially before a front tinal mllSOnant , In either case. the proccs.s was nol regular: under tbe tirst trypotbe:siS we would e.tpect to find emdM instead of the actWlI nliM "thumb"; unde r lhe second hypothes is we would ~t to find SKYE/J instead or the aClual SKYAB protect." In eitller cue, tile " nature o f tbe derivational pr0CU5 Is 1l0 t clear, l lllS tbe prote\S ilSelf apparelltly no Iollger productive by the time of Old Tibetan.

8S
FDCra!, postinitial r does not occur after nasais, and has aU but disappeared after fricatives,l' Actually. po5linitial r is in fact found after the nasals nand m, but very iDfrequendy. It is found after n only in the cluster snr and in only three words of extremely (are occurrence and specialized usc. The cluster snr occurs in me astronomical terms mron and sNUbs, which arc: translation of the Sanskrit -.mel of two--jyqrhQ and milhl--of the 28 NJlqIJtra "lunar mansions" of ~ic astronomy, and which are not commonly found even in Tibc':lln astronomical texts; and in the word snrel-g!i "topsy-turvy," a translation of Sanskrit yYIlIYaStO. the name of one of the subcontinents in Indian Buddhist speculative aeography. Postinitial r is found after m only in the cluster SrnT in just a single but common word SMRA "speak" and its derivatives, and even there it is quilt
I' P05tinllial r ts 100 found in Old TIbeUn in the cluster" in
~pie,

few loanwords-for

IJ'i-Ju Minde n," < Sanskrit Il'ifD/D-and in a Im.1I number of words, such as trom,. "toup" alld t70tI "diligence;" of uncertai n provenance. See also the onomatopoek Ihrig-

*ir "SOlJEAXlNO

OF SHOES_"

TDere Is reasoll to believe that, in I few cases, po5tinitial , . her stop initials Mel
_tathestz.o:l to prelnitial position before the time ~f Old Tibetan. As in many lanpagesbr cample, English ....lUp < Old English ....Sp- ....ot!'S < IndO-European ~I-wopl-this . . .thesis was sporadk: .nd laeme-spccirlc. For example, where we find Burme.f; mroli, ~roD' bro-mbto, ""chin bunroli, Mpi nI)U.II " lIorse," we caD hypothesize Proia-Tibetan ~ > Old Tibetan nn4R " hone" by mcu.thesis; si milarly, &Nen Burmese IcJaroA, Mildr ..tid\, lushei lhliA "marrow," we can hypothesiu ~rolo-Tibetan -A;Ta,II > Old TibeUin ItaIi ". .now," and, g.iven Burmese Ivou, Lusllci rial "cight," we can hypothesize PrOlD-Tibeun ~ > Old TibeUin bfJYOd "cight," In faa, Illis me talllc:sis appe.ars to have occurred in C\l'ery fueh preiniti.],., duster in PretD-T ibetan: we find Burmese krui, LUlihei hnJj "suinS," ad ItIw PralD-Tibetan ~ > Old Tibetan ~ ''suing''; . nd , using Lcpcha matcri.Is, Lepcha /Imp IDd thlD PrOID-TibeUin "Jryab > Old l'ib(:Uln ROY .... "throw," as well as Lcpcha "" .00 ItIus Pralo-Tibetan ~ > "rA:ia > 014 Tibetan ~ w lbin," Lcptha kryoIc .nd Illus Proto-Tibetan -lao > Old Tibetan rlco "hoc," and perhaps even Lcpcla Ia)'OiI "praise" .Ik thus Prolo- Tibetan ~ > Old Tibetan Rm'AN ''st retch, extend."

In !be dasslcal JeDoon too there are _fal word pairs lugestin, that such metatbe5is has tatea pIaoc-RG.C "be old" IIGRE < '"b-p Wgrow old," rdum-po "miimcd" GRIN " CUI off, k>p off," /lGAL "pass over, ClOSS, fOrd" SORA/. wcarry across, IralUpon." In at least one text 1 have found this last pair used in ""ttlt ap~n to be word play: instead of the usual lonDuialion of tbe bodhisalM YOW, in a.pter 29 of the Tibe~n translation of the KI1!rmMtullhlwe find bdag rJrll'fID$ ~all tgrol-IJjg " May I, bavin~ crossed aver, ClIfty albers

~'"

86

THe

Cl..AssJ:CAL TIBETAN

~OUAOE

unltable: it Ihifts to syllable final position. in SAWl "speak"; it metathesizel to premilia] position, in the doublet PrW-mags-nno-siiags "waiIin& lamentation"; and, historically, Old Tibetan SMRA "speak" > New Tibetan (Ladakh) pFUI (Khams) Ina (Dbus) rna (Ulasa) mil. In this word it ID8)' be that we have a single frozen remnant of an otherwise ICocral cbanJe of ProtoTibetan -mr > Old Tibetan br-----for example, lCanauri mnr. Bunncse "9'11 "much, many," and thus Proto-Tibetan .fI1IG > Old Tibetan MA:"'be mudl"; Burmese rnyui"seed," Kachin m)U-im)'U "kind, 1Ort, tnb;" and thus ProtoTibetan otmn. > Old TIbetan Nbtu " grain, seed."" There is also evidence lhal, at one time, postinitial , occurred after I as wen as after 'I, but that. by the time of Old Tibetan, the cluster ~ had simplified to I in every instance--for example. BURan lrig. Kanauri rik. Nuna Ii. Lisu hrrh "louse," and thus Proto-Tibetan -lrig > Old Tibetan Iig "Jouse"; Bunan
frog. Nung$N'Q, Burmese hrak, Mikir durak "shame," and thus Proto-Tibetan

-1mg > Old Tibetan .tw "confess. to The cluster

~,

on the other

h~

did

not similarly besin to change until after the time of Old Tibetan: we find Miri simtn, Kachin INam, Nung SNOm, Mik.ir urim "otter," and thus ProtoTibetan srom > Old Tibetan sram "otter"; Sunan lriiis, Manchati Chamba Lahuli hriN, Dhimal rima, Kanauri riiiz "sister," and thus Prot., Tibetan .triii > Old Tibetan sriiimo "sister."tl

ivin.

17 Apparelltly tbe metathesis mr > ",. exempted Proto-Tibetan -m.~ > Old TIbetal1
rmGiI Nborse" from tbis chance.

II Tbe writlen form <sriiI> Ippean In I remarkable ninlblIllIry manuscript from In on-lOtr 111 I prrison in Khalan, oontainin, the earliest OCC\IrrelM:e I haYC JCea of I well kAown epitbet-llal!.nU'e.po bJlnn 1Dn ~.'I)'OI'I J.Ift)OfI.tJ,g, 1riII"iO'O" IJUII- ",.,..UId.ptI "hlleriot" Minister Bltanlo-re Is a I;nIZY moll\erflKter, a s,isterfwcter, In Insatiable drunk. After tunber oommenlS on the minister's qllalincations, tbe wrilCr recommeocls his transfer 10 Sin.sall, apparently a Ie$s desirable post.
M

When the Old Tibetan cluster Jr did bc:&in LO cllanae-while, ot OlllrSo:, tbe "fIITillea fonD <sr> Olnlinucd IIl1chanJCd-it clllngcd in two tuDl1amentally differeal WII~ Fml. tile ctuster"Jr dcc:loped h' several dialOC\llnto a IlnCIe fric;atiYC. 111 c:cIIlral Tibet, for allaple. we find thai l' > J, parallel 10 the earlier -17 > .f -tlllll Old TIbetall. STIU "loa" > New Tibetan (Dblll) u. Old Tibc:l.In VOf "life" ;> New TIbetall ~) IDk. 0kI Tibetal1 POI " tradition " > New Tibellll ([)bus) IA In l...adakll we QOrIJIstc:ntiy ftQd l.bal sr ;> I-Ib... Otd Tibel.ln R"Of "life" > New Tibc:Llft (U4akll) I0Il:. Old Tibeta. "'" "lndltD" ;> New Tlbel.ln (UclakJI) 101. Old Tibeun JTGIH"" "peas" > New Tibe .... n ~k!I) ,."... AIId

SYlUBLES

87

3.2. CONSTRAINTS ON PREINITIALS

There are, in Ok! Tibetan, constraints which limit the co-occ:urtence of preinitials and initial$: we find, for example, Hph but not -mph, gt but not -sP, b/.s but not -b/.sh. The most general constraints on the C(K)CCurrence of preinitials and initials can be summarized in the following chart:

STOPPED

"'",,,,,,.
"MAL

O>W.
VOICED

UNVOICED

ASP1RA'JED

NONSTOPP ED
ORAL
STOPPED

+ + +

+ +

+ + +

"""AL

in AmOo We find., wilh some c:u:cptions. Iha! Jf :> 1, > I-thUS Old Tille.an srab "brldle" :> New Tibetan (Amdo) ]rtlp, Old Tibetan sruil "prole<,;t io n" ;> New Tibetan (ArntJo) lui\, Old Tibetan srtut,mo "peas" :> New Titlelan (Amdo) ul1I7Ia.

Second, and perhaps more intcrcuin&- in several dialccU the ,Juster JF developed an epc nlh.ctic t, and thUS, in these dialocll, sr :> 'IT- fo r (!(ample. Old Tibetan srin.rHO "siMer" :> New TIbetan (Purik) srriilmo (Balli) strinmo (Kllams) minmo, Old Tibcl~n STaIl rna "peas" :> New Tibetan (Khams) Sfranma, Old Tibelall srab "bridle" :> Nt:w Tit>elall (Pu rik ) slrap (Balti) mob.
have ~n before, however, Tibetan dialectology does not often yield lleat WIU IKlIlS. In Lhasa City, for aample, so me words, as 5poken by 50me speakcn. 5how tbe same c~ange sr :> s as found in Dbus-Ihus Old Tibela~ s,al "son" :> Nt.. ..... Tibeta n (Lhasa) st, Old Tibetan sral "tradilioll" > New Tibetan (Lhasa) so. Old Tibc:lan slid "dominion" > New presumably from the regular Tibelan (Lhasa) si. Some words show a consistent initial challle Sf > StT > {-thus Old Tibetlll Jrl21l'ln(J "pca$ " > New Tibc:tan (Lhasa) sIToonta :> !UIff14 And 50me words sllow I n Ii ternat ion-by spea ker? by wtiaJ .c l~? by formalily of speh Situalioll?-berween initial s Jnd initiJ I !-thus Old Tibc:~an STab "brid lc~ > New Tibelall (Lhasa) up-r < SITab, Old Tibeu ll sram "oller" :> Nt.."';' Tit>c:tan (Lhasa) sllm lam < stram, O ld Tibetln srasmo "daughter" > New Tibet;tn (Lhasa) scmo-Icmn < JfrasmOl, Old Tibetall SRQ "make ....arm~ > New Tibetan (Lha.u) SO-10 < f/fO.
As _

r.

88

TIII3 CI.ASSICAL Tlll e rA.N lANG U.... GE

Thus, as a general rule, the nonstopped preinitiais r, 1-, and s- a~e found before stopped initials of all classes except aspirated stops; but within those larger classes there are furthe r constraints on the nonstopped preiniliais which are idiosyncratic and appare ntly not governed by general rule: we find
~_.~_~

~m~

__

~_.~

__

m~

not slI, and so on. The following table summarizes these gaps in the application of the genera l rule:

, ,
" I, "

VQICEUSS

VOICE!)
G
~

"
Ik

" "
I"

NASAL
Dt "l! D'

ii
riO

N
riO

Ip

"'

I,

"

'P

'" "
Tn"lt 7. Vistribuli(HI

"' "" '" "" " " "

W
,d

"

"

5 '"

of Iht

11fH'.JI<JppW p'ciniriolJ r _ , '" lind s-

Similarly, as a general rule , the non-ntlsai ~ t {) rpcd prt:i nitials b-and G- occu r bdore initials of all dasst;S except a~p;ra1ed stops; btU the ir co-ocr.:urrem;c with particular initials within those <:lasses is governed l1y furthe r rult's. T he following tahle summarizes these co-occUirencc ~o n s cra i nl s:

,
I

VOICELESS

" " ", "" " '" " '"

~,

,
I

VQlCEll
G

dp J

"' , d, , b, ,

" gd

TobIt 8. DUrributiOtl of tht orol jfOPfHd pnillililllJ b and G-

" an '" , '" '" '" " " " "

Ii'
I I I

, ,

lJZ

, ,
,I

Fl<ICA Il Vr-

, ,

N,\.... AI.

N
1\;;

rim

The numbers in the unfilled .spaces on Table 8 indicate the following rules governing the e ~ ceptions to the general distribution of b and G preinitials: I Preinitia! G- undergoes GRAWn' acute initials and d- bef~1Te Krave initials.
D1~;SlMlu.nON

to become g. before

89 1 Prcinitial b and G- do not occur, for reasons I do not know, before dle voiced affricate initials d1 and dz.
3

1Wo IabiaJ COI'ISONUUI do not occur together in the same onset cluster.
OCCW'

" Pre initial b- does not

before nasal initials.

Similarly, . . . Jeneral rule. the nasal preinitials m and N- occur befofe aspirated. votced, and nasal initials; but, again, : their co-o;.::currcpcc with pu1icular initials within those classes is &ovemed by fianher odes. This diltribution illummarized in 18ble 9:

ASPIRATED

VOICED
I'H
G

...

"" ..... "" '" "" , .....

D'

'"'" .... .... ...

muh

. mg ",. HI
DiI~rioft

'... "'" "'"

TGbk P.

of 1M NUM prtiniliDlJ m IIItd N

""

.. . """

DZ

...

NASAL
N N

, "' "
~

Apin. the numbers in the unfilled spaces on this chart indicate the rules JO'ICmin& the: exceptions to the genenl distribution of rn- and N- preinlliais. Rule 3 is as gi~n above; and, in addition.

5 Nasals cannot be pre nasalized.

3.3. STACKING CONSTRAINTS

Finally, there: arc: two constraints on the: co-occurrc:nce of preinitials and poItinitialJ-the IJTIphic "stac"" of top, center, and bottom graphs. First, r doeJ not OCC\Ir .. both pre- and postinitial in the: I&IDC syllabic onset: thus we find, (or eumplc:. the onsets rky and skr but not ?rlu:. Second, the preinitial I doeJ not co-occur with any postinitial: thus we find, for example. II.: but not ?Iky or ?Ikr. If .

tt M DClf at I call ftpre, DOl OOlllllin& IIIe prollkmalic l)1b.bk:I willi

_..zw,

lhere are

90

THe Cv.ssICAL TIBETAN Lo.N'OUAOB

4. DISYlLABIC STRESS GROUPS

A striking feature in the development of Tibetan has been an increasing tendency toward DlSYllABlSM in word fonnation: there has developed .consid. crable analogic pressure in the language for words-and even common collocations ofwords-to constitute a single DlSYUABIC SJRESS OROUP, \lS\UlUy with the primary stress on"the first syDable. One result of this tendency was that NONSYLlABIC PORMATlVES seem early to have become less prodUClive
than SYI..u.BIC FORMATrVES, and what we here caU OlTTER DER[VA110N" re-

placed INNER DERIVATION as a means of creating new words. We thus find

cases in the classical language of two words with the same meaning derived from the same source, but one by inner and one by outcr derivation-for

example, from ZA' "eat" both the older monosyllabic zas "(ood" and the later disyllabic za-mJl "food," or from NA "be ill" both the older monosyllabic nad "illness" and the later disyllabic nQ-ba "illness. ,,20 There are several ways in which new disyllabic stress groups can come to be formed. A syllabic formative added to an existing monosyllabic word will yield a disyllabic stress grou~or example, md4 "arrow" md4-pa "archer," RG~ "be victorious" rxYoJ-po "king," lha "god"'ha-mo "goddess." Sometimes such syllabic formatives as these appear in Old Tibetan to have been added to an existing monosyllabic word with no semantic effect at all-that is, without

Ihus possible syllable Ol\SCts in the classical language, including the smooth YOCalic ingrCM Of absence of consonanl Ol\SCt; pouible syllable nuclei; and 1-4 possible syllable codas, co unting .11 optn syllables lIS o~c. ncre are thus 1-4,630 possible syllables in the classical lan,UlJC. only M>me of which are actually paired with meanings. We an Ihll$ distingllish between syllables such as b$1)W a nd mu'lO .... hk:h. are not ev<n potenlially Tibetan words. and syllables such u Nfib or dpyofp, .... hich Ire potentially Tibetln words, but which - fo rill itousiy-tlave not been laicalizcd IS part of the language.

rrve

20 There are , in addition, several $OurccS of TlI.ISY1..UJJISM In the cLwical lats. Much in Tibetan poetry is trisyllabic-for example, ~ru-rv "CAl..LlNO OF BIROS,N lcho-ro-fO " SU7.2ING OF BEES." gytH7IIl-8)II "RVSIUNG OF A RIVER,"II<,IIse-hdl ~MonON .OF A MOVtNG UORSE. N There arc also I few disyllabic fo rmarives which yiekl trisyillblcs- for example, I'JIO-dht "BIG KlND OF," lIS in me " fire" mt-bo-tJhc "connagration:' -E-N "ADJF.CI1VE," IS in GOO "bend" gug-~-/)(l " be.I.' And trisyllables arc produced when monosyllabic formaliveS art added 10 aisling disyllables-for example, gda-bu "nakcc!" gdrr-bu ptl " naked ascctic,Nd~sloli "monk" d~JloIi mtJ "nun."
onomatopoe~

or

SVIIAUIJ-,S

91

' h;tn~ing meaning- hut apPilrcnil y u li ly tu form a disyllabic stress group_21

SimihLrly. it disyllahi.: strc~s !,":roup may he for med hy the juxtaposition of two monosyllahic words. Sometimcs this jwtaposition crcates it ('"OMPOUND, which I~ a new strc~s !;:fOUp with a new meaning- fo r eKample, gtam "speech" dpe p;lth.:rn, lIlo11d" J.:llllndpt' 'proverh." mKo "hcad" SKOH "encircle" mgo-.~KnR ..lcccive"- JIIIl\" < f! -/:'iAi\"-.~ "awakencd" 'X}'as < 8 -/{Gy.~-s "expanded" salLf' ?,. .../iJ 'l3uo..ldha." [lut, again, sometimes such a juxtaposition is simply a ,'umhinalion of lWO synllnymous mnnosyllahlcs to form disy llable with no dis,ernihk rh angc ,If mc ani ng--fur t':xa mpk.dri "scent" bsun "scent" dri-bsuii "scent," .( /WJ "slrt':ngth" ,\ whs "stft':ngth " Sugt-stubs "strength:' sgra "sound, \'oirc" .~kl/ll "sll'JIlli, voirc" xgm-skud "s()und, vo;ct':," disyllalli( strcss group may he fnrmed . by the reduction of ptllysyllahil' wtl n.h allli l"\llltlCa t i'llls Ilf words 10 disyllabic stn::ss groups by the ol\lb~i{\n of unstrcsscd .~yl1a hlcs. Once again, this reduction may produce a ctllllpo und. a disyll;lhi, sa,s~ gr'lup sufficiently different from the sum of ils l"Olll lloncnts III h' ,1 ncw word-fur cKampk. glaii "ox" tJhen.po "big" Rluiil.(iI('I1 " ,k:phl1n[," I'kyt-.lm "hirth" dmmq}() " low" skye-dmQII "woman," riii -po "Iong" thw!ha "~h(lrt" nn tlllll! "le ng[h." Or Iht': Tt':ducliun may produce a
!-'i n;llIy , ;1

F<or cx;lmpk. "'e filld Ilurmc.....: "'(It. Lushci ,-ok. Mpi "(J, Phuntli WId, Ncwni pht, Ko"'hin ,,','? Mikil I>I,,,~, ~"d Ihu,' Pnll,,-Tlhoclall "phng :> 0 1": Til'lctan ph.:lg-pa "rig"; Ilurme><: I" NUll): .1.,111. B~hlll~ III, PhuII'" {JI(I, Di su hili. DigaJO hAa, a nd III LIli ProtoTihct;,& n ' d a :> (\'d T,ho.uII ,11I ' to" "' 11",,'n"'; BUrlllc.lc 11<', Lus hci ni, K.l~hin n~ Kanauri n~ N,:wa ri ~i. va", ni. Io\.;JrcII 11', Nu n/: 11;. ~lId lllu. I Pl lllll-Tlho.: l ~ 1I "11;:> '11'1:> "iii:> O ld Tibcllln iii 11'" " ,un" : RU/IIIO:",' "'''. Lu,hc" ~II<, Lui" n,'_ alld thus Pruto-l"Ih..:lan "nu :> Old Tihctan nu nlll " 'm-;", "; Burm<'~c "1'/1111, K.lI:h in I,hu, v~ru bu, Mikil phu, Lu~hci pu. and Ih u~ P'<)IIITlhclan 'pilI< :> Old T' ''''I~n plJu .bo "ollkr brOlher"; Burml."Se a.ral1, Lu~ hci lin.. Guru lIg SI. ". Siyill dll1. ()h im ~I ,,;;_ M'lu '11)<'''_ ami Ihu. PrOio-Tibetan ' un:> OLd Tioctan J ..,,11111 ring",n;"I."' II ",ha /a, rO:f ll';c II r su,'h atfixC' Ihal Ih(.), a r ~ ca~ ily dlo (l(l..:<1 ill ,.;"m(ltlum.is <II rllr nlh..:r pllm :ml~ rhy,hm'" rl'~s" "~-flll cumplc_lla.btJ "m"lln" bUI iii .Jla '".IU II ~nd m'~lfl"
anoJ :/" .,,,) " m'~>II II &h l:' 'm nlO '" fingc/n~i ' "

"

bUI labs u"

"\{)(lIai t " ~lIoJ

u" -/ ,,

' ''WhiIC

1111 lhc 1i1l)!crIlJ i t ."' A~ lIughl hoc CXpcclcd. lM grealci It,c M:malltic l!lad carrk:U hy affi~. 1110: 10.1 c..lsil~ j, II ,,, di",;;mlC<J .

~ lIeh

Spill an

Of ""ur,..:, ",u,1I 'Illfi . es ;..10: "" . "l'(~'ss~ flly pk"~JIlit cl"o:n "here thc ir runclion is o~lI rc : ""I" , r"r ~,;a"lpk. ,I',,;; '" maIm","' "UI , t(J;; '/JIJ '" r,,,,,:' .I1'''n ".IiMing" hUI Jpun.pa "charr," K'" " "".11" "UI ).'"""1<> "',It",,,,:' Jo.''''!N''' " r;"'lIIc" hUI !."'''1('''''' "~ nf." nl.-,:-pa "~Iep" bUI rd.-,:-po

"p JIII," ,,/

" Ii~hl"

" lit ,. ,.",,,

"":,m"'M ' ~ nd ' ~I -Jl"

"r""l<l."

92
di~yllabic

TilE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

stress group with no apparent change of meaning from its polysyllabic source-for example, sion-po "empty" -nitt "-NI;"~" lton.-nid "emptiness," pod-mo "lotus" dk4r-po "while" pod-dlwr "white lotus," byoFitIhub "enlightenment" sems "thought" byaFi-ut7U "thought of enlightenment ." Such reductions we will call c UPS.

4.1. CLIPS
CUPS are frequently encountered in Tibetan. Some clips operate within tht' boundaries of a single word: thus stoii-;iid < Sloi'i-poijjd "emptiness" is a wmm c up. Some clips operate across word boundaries, but Mill within a si ngle nominal: thus JXI~I-IJhen < par;uJifQ ((hen-po ' "great scholar" is a NOMINAL CUP. And some clips operate across a no minal phrase houndary hut still within a larger nominal or verbal phrase: thus byoii-sems < byanuhuhkyi .fCmf "thought of enlightenment" is a PIIRASE C:UP. What all Tibetan clips have in common is that they do nol cha nge meaning: a clipped wo rd or phrase has the same meaning as the word or phrase from which it is derived.

4.1.1. W()rd clips

WQlm ('1.lPS operate within the boundary of a single word.U: Here we find huth polysyllabic words reduced 10 disyllahles and disyllabic word~ red uced to monosyllables for incorpora tion into further clips. Thus we find Silch disylla bic wo rd clips as liii-NClzill < liii- iie-Ndzill "conte mpla tion," JlOii-iiid < slOii-pu-nid "emptiness." byQii-.~eTTU < byaij-tIhub .~e"udfl(1 "bodhisil ltva,"IcKsbIad < I~-par bIad-pu "aphorism," rob-gnas < ruh-tu gnas-po "consecratio n," bde-gIW < txJe-bar gJegs-pa " Well-gone One." t.~I!i~-hfIad < tshi/:HU hllad-po " poetry," myaij-Ndas < mya-nan-Ias ",das-po "nirvana," siiiii-iie < sijiii-doii iie-ba "friend," Where a disyllabic wo rd has been reduced to a monosyllable we often find not only the elimination of the unstressed .syllable but a lso incorporation of
22 A5 we will d iscuss later." word iJ. more or leM, " 5Cm"ntic.ally c l ucc ntr k unit whether si mlJle or compound. Th us nlJ " horse" is a word: $0 l\ m;ffiijt"'-/t1S ,..,1/>.<.po "ra!..~ in , h<.')'I.Jnd :s<'rrll' - n'Na na."

SYLlABLES

93

some of its phonetic material into the stressed syllable. Such monosyllabic word clips----or cmrrRAC11oNs-incluoe yig < yi-ge "writing," tIhog < tIho-ga 'ritual." myan < mya-iian "suffering," rdor < rdonilt "vajra," Itr < Its-rab "~;sdom," rag < ragan "hrass." bun < bufon "cash advance," tJhof < tIho10 "dice." Such contractions are oflen Ihen found as members of disyllabic stress groups-for example, ragan "brass" but rag-bum "brast vessel," tIho-lo "dice" but liii-r.fhoJ "wooden dice," buram "sugar" but bur-lIon "bale of sugar," bulon "cash advance" but buntho "register of debts."

4.1.2. Nominal clips

NOMINAL CLIPS operate across word boundaries but within a single nominal. Thus we find rdosbom < rdo shompo "heavy stone," pafJdhtn < paQ4iJa tIhtnpo "great scholar," ban-IKan < bon-dt IKanpo "old pries!," Sban.Nlu:lm < sbans slu:lm.po "dried dung," funstoR < fun-po ston-po "empty valley," gans-dlu:lr < gans dkllrpo "white glacier," dgun-sno < dguii snoba "blue heaven," phyag-tJhtn < phyag-rgya tIhtn.po "Great Symbol," lehan-gog < lehan.po gog.po "ruined house."

4.1.3~

Phrase clips

PIlRASE CUPS operate across one nominal phrase boundary but within the boundary of a larger nominal or verbal phrase. There are four types of phrase clip--cooRDINATE aJps' as in rifun < ri-dan fun-po "mountain and valley"; ADNOMINAL CUPS, as in rag-bwn < ra-gan'JO'i bum.pa "brass vessel"; REI.A1lVE cups, as in nor-Idan < nor4an /dan.po "possessing wealth"; and VERB CUps, as in Nbod-SKUL < Nbod-par SKUL "eidlort declaimingly." These fOUf types will be treated separately' in the following sections.

4.1.3.1. CoonJinale clips

CooRDINATE aJPS are disyllabic reductions of nominal phraseJ whicb are processed as having originally been joined by -dan "AND." Coordinate dips frequently tonsist o( two nouns which are, in some way, semantically coordinate as well-for example, gtlamla < gnam-daii sa "heaven and

94

Ttm

~ICAL TIBETAN

l...ANoUAGE

earth," Ia -tJhaii < Ja-dan. tIhaii "meat and beer," yon-ml/hod < yon-bdogdan. mtlhod-gnas "'ay patron and religious master," lo-pofJ. < lo-lSiiba4an pa')(/ua "translator and informant," skyabs-sems < skyabs-NgrO-dDii sems-skpd "going for refuge and awakening the thOl:ght of enlightenment." ~-bsod < uhe-dan bsod-nams "life and merit," rgyoJ-b/on < rgyal-po-daii b/on-po "king
and minister." Coordi nate clips occasionally consist of similarly coordinated adjeclives-for example, dkar-gsal < dkar-po-daii &Sal-po "while and dea!'"," ldlaii-gton < Idfaii-gu-dan gton-nu "green and fresh."n

4.1.3.2. Adnomina! clips

ADNOM1NAl cu}'s art: disyllabic reductions of nominal phrases which are

processed as having originally been joined by the subordinating adnominal particle -KYi. Adnominal clips frequently consi'st of two nouns of which the first modifies the scrond- for example, sen.phrug < sengei phrug.gu "!ion's cub," sog.lham < sogpoi Iham "Mongol boots," gserme < gsugyi me-tog "golden flower," gsusnad < gSIlS'pili nad "disease of the stomach," ItIags sgrog < ltIags-ky; sgrog "iron fetters," Nphren.mog < Hphrenbai mogpo "beads of a rosary." Adnominal dips also consist of an adjective modifying a following noun. Such adjectives may be primary-for example, blun-gtam < hiUlIpoi glam "foolish talk," dkar-zas < dkarpoi zas "white food," nagsran < /lag .poi sral,ma "black beans," blan-spyod < blan.poi spyodpa "good conduct," dkotl ," or < dko/lpoi lIor "precious wealth"; or they may be derived - fo r example, slie'Nbol < siieba; Nbol "pillow to rest o n," Nbrismyug < Nbri hai smyugma "writing pen," slonrkyen < slonboi rlcyen "instigating cause," Ndfu,slObl" < Ndtuboi Slobs "digestive power," Ndlug.sgo < Ndlug-pai sgo "e ntry door."

4.1.3.3. Relative clips

Rf:tATIVI, aJPS

are disyllabic reductions of nominal phrases which are pro-

21 While Clips usually select messed syLlables as their components, a rew coordinate dips tlcpa rt rrom thi s pattern - gsalsloi! <: odgsal-dtln sloi!pa;W "~r LiCht and Emptj~" (hut note b<Ustoi! <: tHk tJhm-dllii sloilpa iiid "Oreal Bliss and EmpliI\e:iloS bl/alMhllg <: IShiKSbl~tMtdaif Ihugma "poetry and prose." t!pOft-Slob <: slob-dpott-dDlt s/ob_ Mmaster.OO diKiple." bsagsbyail <: fshogsbsag-daii sdig'Jby<1n ",ainin, merit .nd c!eansln, si n."
M ),

95
cessed as baving originally been a proposition, with verb and one participant., relalivized by the nominalizing panicle Pa and functioning as the modifier of some head-for example, yid-myos < myos-pa "confused," t1'IIshon-gdeii < nwIton, grkii-ba "brandishing a weapon," sdig-yod < sdiB-pa-1I yod-pG "having sin," HtWd-mat < Hdod-pa-B med-pa "without desire," !dod-bral < Ndotij'tl-daii bral-bo "free from desire," nor-ldon < nor-dllii /dan-I'" "possessing wealth,.. NIcJwrb&s < Nkhor-ba-daii blJus-pa "along with a retinue," de-Ndra < de-daii NdrabtJ "like that," IIhanbz; < IIhaii-gis bzi-ba "drunk on beer," 'X)'M-blQb < rgya-s blab-pa "sealed with a sea~" siion-HgrO < .Jiion-du Hgro-ba "preliminary," rdIes-skya < rdIes-su skyt.s-pa "subsequent,"

,id-'

4.1.3.4.

~rb

clips

VERB CUPS are disyllabic reductions of verb phrases which are processed as having originally consisted of a verb modified adverbally by a preceding nominalized ver~ror example, Nichytr.oN < Nlchyer-bar oR "come carrying," nu-BOD < iiubQr BOD "exclaim while weeping," Nbog-nm < Hbog-par nlll "drop down dead," gsog-DUO < gsog-par DUO "put aside hoardingiy," NbodSKUL < Nbod-par SKUL "exhort declaimingly," rkyQI-/usE < rkyQI-bQr /USE "amuse oneself by swimming," gsod-mm < gsod-par tl,.w "cut down murderously."

4.2. SYLlABIC CYCLES

A5 we will see, there is reason to believe that some Tibetan syllables are in fact compressions of earlier disyllabic collocations-for example, Thebor bruJ, Magari bul, Burmese mrwt. Mikir phwui, Lushei rii~ Tangkhul ph~ "snake," but Proto-Tibetal) lQ-brul "ANIMAl.. snake" > s-bruJ > sbrul "snake"; Old Chinese syen "biner," Burmese ;nail, Kanauri lin, Miri ~lin. Kachin sin, Lushei thin "liver," but Proto-Tibetan myi-tIin "HUMAN BODY PART liver" > m-tIin > mtIhin "liver"; Proto-Tibetan bua-sa "bring forth place" > btsa-s > btsos "harvest," Some of these monosyllables then once again become disyllabic through affIXation or compounding-thus Proto-Tibetan sbrul > Old Tibetan sbrul "snake," but Proto-Tibetan mtlhin > Old Ti-

96

THe

ClAssICAL

TlBBTAN l.J.NoUAGe

betan mdhin-ptl "liver," and Proto-Tibetan *btsas > Old Tibetan btsas-ma "harvest."lo4 There is thus some evidence for the existence in Tibetan of a
CYCU!

of

syllabism, with words alternately compressed and expanded into monosyllabic and disyllabic forms. Note particularly, in this regard, Nung tJu:, Mikir 1M, Kanauri II!, Miju tQ; Kukish de; "hi,," Proto-Tibetan -myi-the "HUMAN BODY PART big" > ""-IM > -,"1m "thumb" > Old Tibetan t1ZIM-bo .. thumb" > mtMb "finger" in such contractions as mlMb-lJhuii "little finger." We might project, for example. such cyclic: lequences as Proto-Tibetan 'myi-din > *rnJJhin > Old Tibetan mdhin-po > New Tibetan (Uiasa) tJhitnJ > ?t1himp "liver," Proto-Tibetan myj,,~ > emJlu ?" Old Tibetan nllIu-bo > New Tibetan (Lhasa) Ihepo > ?thep "thumb," Proto-Tibetan buo.-SQ > *btsas > Old Tibetan btsasma > New Tibetan (Lhasa) tst:nUl > ?tsmI "harvest," Proto-Tibetan *la-bal > sbal > Old Tibetan stxJl-pa > New Tibetan (Lhasa) pcpa > ?pcp "frog." And, of course, such a cycle woukl presumably extend indefinitely into the past; it would be a chickenand-cgg question to ask whether monosyllabism or disyllabism was the older state of the language.

U Thus also BurmCK bhll rro,." but PrOloTibetan "JII .bal UAl'I1MAl. fro," > 1 btll > > Old TibeUn 1bnl.pn "frog"; LlI5hei ITt, Garo .rilI;, Leptha dik Hsco(pion," but ProloTibetan "JII -4ig "Al'ItMAL scorpionH > "1-4ig > "uti, > Old Tibetan 1dig.P/I "scorpioD H ; LlI.~hei /wI, Tiddim Chin /wI, Chepanggal, Kaike kJwl " kidney," but Proto-Tibetan "myi'kJw/ u HUJ>lAN BODY PAAT kidneyH > *tn.kJwf > "nlkhDl > Old Tibetan ntJcJuUtrUI " kidney" ; upcha kri "bitler,H Kacbin kJvi "Ki<:I, wut,H Burmese ~ "bile. - Diman Jchiri ''$Our,- but Proto,Tibo;:tan nryi.1dui.J " II U J>lAN BODY PART bile" > o",,1cIorU > mJdtris> Old Tibetan m/chris.P/I ubile,"
O jblll

Words
I. PRELIMINARI ES

1.1. THE SCOPE OF MORPHOLOGY

There: is a traditional and often useful distinction made between the MORPHOlOGY of a language and ils SYNTAX-roughly. betwe en the ways in which words in the language: come to assume thei r particular forms, and the ways in which these forms are strung together to make a gramma tical utte rance.
W ithi n morpho1ob'Y we can further distinguish two different types of process. There arc morphological p r(l(:esse~ thai CREATE new wo rds, and there art

morphological pmccsscs that M ODI FY words already in existence. Thus we may say Ihal child lind children arc differen t FOMMS of the sa me W ORD, since they have the ~:lmc semantic content and belong to the same grammatical category: hut child ami cliilthl"/! must he accounted different words altogethe r, al:hough clearly rela ted hy a relatively- ITlln~pare n t process of de rivation.

JVordf In'''~11 'Jlf(fl/i/~11 w birth {Jllli tJl(msdrn CI)1llain the mta'li,!q a.,. (III immilltnt pOjji!n'iiry btfure the pangs of j Ullrrum . T" tht jlldil1dlllllllrtiJl rhe U$l oJ"trordJ iJ IlII MrrlUlIl"t ;1/ dimll'''!; tlu imagilllltion is heuristic
IlIIIIJ'!q

tl".

II',,/"df

it " lo1l1iPll/lltfJ.

-R.I'. BI;jckmur,
'I1Ir EI"{Jl'lI.fe

of Greaml.'SS

In T ibe tan, simil<lrly, sdlld "j oi ns together"' and bsdus "joined togethe r" are diHcrent forms-prescnl and past stems-of the same word SDU "join IOgether," while NIJU "come together," mdud "knot," Ndun,mo "council," sdud "fold o f a garment," mrlwr-mu "wife," and TU "gather" a re differe nt words,

'n

98
although it is clear 100 that sou, NOU, arc closely related to each other.
TU, mdud, Ndun-ma.

sdud, and

mdUI/

1M

There arc Ihw two branches of morphology: we will use the term LEXICAl. MORPIIOLOOY for those processes that create words, and the term INH.I'C:I'IONAI. MORPHOLOGY for those pfoce~ses that change the form of words. It is imponant to keep these two kinds of morphology distinct, especially as the study of classical Tibetan see ms 10 have !>t.en long bedeviled by their

confusion.

1.2. THE "PAKTS OF SPEECH"

There arc two types of words in Tibetan-grammatical words and Jcxic:tl
words. A class of GRAMMAllCAL W ORDS, ' such as the conjum:tions, has relatively few members and is unlikely to be added to by the usual processes

of word formation: conjunctions form a closed class of words. On the other hand, a class of LEXICAL WORDS. such as th~ nouns, has relatively many members: one can choose a noun from a very large set of rxl~sihlc lIlIcrnatives. Only such a lexical class can be productive-that is, added to hy new l coinages with relative ease. Nouns form an open class of words.
Oassical Tibetan has three classes of lexical wordS-NouNS. ADJI,CfiYI'S, amJ VERBS. Each such pari of speech can in general be defined oy its on:urrencc and nonoccurrence in specific el;vironments. First we can distinguish tho:.c words thai may occur before thc determiner ,..di "llUS" (thus no "horsc" till Ndj "this horse," t!hell -po "great" IIIIt'fl.po Ndi "Ihis great one," .\f;rm "contemplate" but not ?sl;om Ndi) from those words that may occur helllrl: the conjunction rim ",'\101\)" (thus S(;OM "conlemplate" .worn-li,l "((1!ill: mplates and ...... no "horsc" but nOI ?rta-tiii. IJlren.po "great " hut not '.'1.011.'/1 , po-fm). Next we can distinguish thnse words Ihat may occur hefore an

I The dislinction bctwocn tc~icat and grllmmalic..1 wo r\l~ is prCl:i~ly rllill llr~wn h~ ., Chinese philologists between shihau, W'(lllls wilh a concrclc signifio::.ncc. ant.! hJu.lzu.:cml" :' words" Ihemse1ves empty of dcfinable meaning but indicating Ihc rclation~hip~ amnn!! .1,,: other worcb. SIKh empty or grammatical Vo-orus have gCllerally been Cilllcd , ... It"l"I(! ' s ttl Sino-Tibet."ln tingu~tics.ln dWie,11 Tilletan Such p~ll.dcs may---while lelical wClrds do nttl --under., morphophnnulogical chnl:CS wnd;(iunc4. aCloss syllahlc lI1lundMric.,. II~ Ihc 1:"'1 phoneme in Ihe immediately (lrcccding sy llabic. Tile Tilletan grammarians COlli ~ u..:h Sl'>/lidc' phttul, white IcKical words ~ rc lerme.! mrA.

WORDS

99

intensifier such as Iin-tu .....ery.. from those words that may not (thus tlhtn-po Ygreat" Iin-Iu tIhtn-po .....ery great," SGOM "contemplate" Iin-ru sgom. "really contemplate," no "horse" but not ?!in-tu no)_ These two intersecting distinctions define the three lexical classes in Tibetan. Such Words as no "horse" (no Ndj "this horse" but not ?Iin-tu no or ?rro-liii) we will call NOUNS. Such words as dIEm-po "greal" (tIhtn-po Ndi "this great one" and IjJl-tu tIhen-po .....ery great" bul not ?l1hen-po-liii) we will call ADJECl1VES. And such words as SGOM "contemplate" (Jin-tu sgom "really contemplates" and .fgom-ljij "contemplates and ... " but not ?sgom Ndl) we will call VERBS. Every Tibetan lexica l word belongs 10 one or other of these three classes?

2. LEXICAL MORPHOLOGY
AI any slage of a language we may distinguish between OLD WORDS inherited from earlier stages and NEW WORDS created in any of several ways. For example, Old Tibetan no "fish" was an old word 3 inherited from Proto1 There are, of COUI'SC. some aoeptiO ns and apparenl exa::plions 10 these genc: rati7.itions. An intensifier such as .Iift tu ' ..... ery" may plecede a noun in some few loan words-for eum pte. ~g 'pois()n" in linru dug 'Wolfwane. Sometim e<; in poetic composition a p.:mkipanl nomi nal phrase may be transposed between an inu::nsilicr and ilS verb- for cumpJe, in the well- kn ow n hymn Bf!om -kkm lfIkuma f611-4DgfH2r rdlOPfH2 s4l\s'l)'IU bstodpa gsuilsfH2 to the IwCn'Yone forms of the J:XIdess TlrJ, where we read rrag-par Jin ru od ni mdzad-ma "she who always truly creates light" And sometimes an intenslrled verbal phrase is nomi naUlC(! as a whole, crealing the illusio n of an intensified noun_for eumple, JiIIru dp -ba great joy." which must be anal~ not as (Jift .ru) (dgilba) hut rather as Jin ru 00A)1'tl), in jusl the sa me way as mi4ga.bjl unhappines.s must be analy7.ed not as (mi.) (dgaba) but rather as ((mfDGA)Pa) .
H H

3 The word iia "fish" is, 'pparenlly, a VitI)' old word. We find Burmese lIa, Kachin IIa, Tsangla.lta. Nung lia, Lepcha no. Chepa ng iIa-na, Pwo lIa, Sgaw nil, Lisu .It ...a, Akha iia, Mpi no. and Old Chinese n)O fish," so lhat Old Tibetan iia is, in some IoCnse, the same word as the hypothetically reconstructed ProloSinoTibetan llyo. On the other hand, the word nQ '1101$(:," not found elsewhere in Ihe SinoTibetan Ianguages, ..... ,IS appa rently a new word in TiMlin: I do nOt know where the word came from . Other words appear eq u~lly old, but have a more co mpla history. Old Cbinc:se .f)W: < JryM originally meanl somethin, like color the ,raph for Inc word consisu of the graph for ' man" above Ind th e graph for "seal, stamp below, 10 indicate printing ink. The term
M ;

lUO

Til E Cu,ssICAL TIHETAN t......NGU .... GE

Tibetan /Iya, but Old Tibetan sansrgyos "Buddha" was a new word created

10 fill a new lexical need. Similarly. New Tibetan (Lhasa) SOl'lC <sans-tgyos> " Buddha " is an old word inherited from Old Tibetan soii,s''XYos, but New Tibeta n (lhasa) kr.pa <skad-ptlf> "pho nograph" is a flew word created to fill a new lexical need.

New words in Tibetan have come fro m a vClrie ty of soun:es. A new word may
be a CONSTllUCll0N from existing old words-for example. Old Tibetan mye,do "fire stone -. flint " o r New Tibelall (Lhasa) meNlO "fire arrow'" gun." Or a new word may have been BOII.IWWEI) from outside the language-for example, Middle Tibetan bu-dur "warrior" < Mongol bcr yarur or New Tibetan (lhasa) peskop " movies" < English biiJSwpe. Or a new word may be an LMITAllON of a natural sound-for example, Old Tibetan pi-pi "flute" or New Tibetan (Lhasa) puklKJk "ma~hine gun.'"

oonlinues 10 mean si mply "color:' bUI ~Iso. ml.lII: specifically, tile oolor of tile face, and Illus, from early limes, "coulll(!nana:, I\Mlks, bcl!uty:' and C'o'e ntuall y, in Clines..:, " Iu.sl.lewdneu." In Tibelo-Burman, f~(!ill l w lo ring W"~s se ma nl ically sp....d alizoo in a differe nl direc tion: we find Bunan JrUK "sllame," Magari kha ruk "be ash~mc..L:' Nung SNa "sname," Burmcs.c hwk "be asha med, shy:' Mikil Ih..,ak "shame,disgJ~~(! : f>c asllamui. blUSh" In !'rotoTibeta n .... e CiOn rCOO nSlruel a verb O J,ag. prcsumably ... il:, a similar mea ning "be ali hamed"; in the o.l chll ngc:. the ve lb .uG "cunfess." classical la nguage we find, .... ith legu l~1 phonul"t:1 Fr"m lrag 100 we find a nnun 01""'1:$(1 ",hame place" :- Old Tibctan JUgJ, wit h 1.... 0 dive rgent meanin~. O n Itll.: one hand, the lam. "nen willi an honorific, ali in blw-Iug1mrJhid-Jugs - poI_lag1, appears ali early :as in Ihe nillln -ce ntury Ce ntral ASian manllSClipts witlllhe meaning "dispute, quarrel. maile r in w nlentiun"-for e.tample, .... here a leller fo und II I Tibe tan oasis garrison says thaI th e Min isle r at RIa-W I bkil-Jagl rhup-/a tJi dgofu-JXl gdDb "will decide: tile disput e as lie Ihinks brst." A~ an e~tellliion of Ihis meaning, the lerm apflllrenlly Wme5 \0 ~n "petilion, complaint. fo rmal SlalCmelll of a ClJ.'i.C"-for example, whUe a divination manual says that, as a resliit of a favorable allgury, gsol-lugs byIu-tIO &"'Iii "if you have made a pctilion, it .... iII be , ranled." And, as an CX1ension of th is meanin g. the term Jap a>mes to mun u well "conciloC Slillemenl, apho rism , adage"-for example, in a nlnlll-cc:ntr.IfY collection or proverbs enlillcd Sum-pa mu Jup IJMn -[N "The Bi, Book of Sayinp o( Mother Sum-pt.."' On the ol llel hand, we find a differenl oo nslellation of mean'np (or -J(og-so ''shame placc" > 01(1 Tibetan Jag!, .... here the term comes 10 mea n "ridku1e, safCUm, joke al the expcnse: or another"-fo r examr1e, Jags IJhc-bo ~d "insults mailciolloSly," fum _ logs "a ba(l joke."' 4 But when is a word a NEW WORD? Nott. for e.um ple. Iht old words rdo "Slone:' riJj _ptJ "Jong," and lbotr!-po "heavy." We might find the two exprCS5ions r<kJ_sbom " hCilvy sione-' and tdo _ riA "monument" in a Tibelan te~t . Both are singk: disyllabic: Stress groups. Whi ch

WORDS

101

II I aew word IDd wblda b nol? A proper mtcrion of Ieli<:ali:tllion 5bould cnlble lIS 10 *,emU.1IC WI lbe lIttcr is-Ind ItIc: former II DOt-I WORD in lbe TIbetan lInlu.&1CA \Qk:opapber IIIlpl In'o'Okc three a itcria \0 detcrminc wb:lhcr In exprealon bu been k:lkaJlzed in lbe Iincu.aac. Ant, I lexico&tap.cr mi&hl oonllider l11e fREQVEI'fCY ";111 wlt k lt IIIc c:rprcuion 0QC\In. U fto r-lIQII "poueuina wealtll" II word Ibil dQerva I laical entry, *- doa n41-daft " poI'eKlna bona" dcIeM one IOO? Dca pM,1kut M poac:ulal pip"? A k::dc:o&npbet allpt rcaotoe tbe diff lC\llty by DOtin, 111.11 lbe oolloClllioR ""," daft '"pOUaIIDi _1111" oc:alf5 in ItIc: texU wil' some frequcncy, while n41. t.faft " possessin, ~ .. Ippean .portdically 1\ besl_aDd pIIafaM "posseuina pip" docs not 10 my boWlc4fC oa:ur II 111. Wbere III apt'eaio!l is OIberwiK well formed bUI 0CCII11 in ItIc: !ilcnlurc wllll irtlutndelil frcqucnc:y-IS is tbe c::IK wllh pIIa,.aatt_ umkr Ihls crilerion lbe a;prculoa remaiRi unlcUc:aliud.

Sca:ntd, IIcdco"aptlc:r milhl oonsickr the QIV\MIroIATICAI. ~11WORY of Ihe ClIPf_ion, and """Wcr tbe aprCKioa to ilIvc been IClIic:alized wbere 1\$ Vlmmllical catelOry bu been

dluJOd la tbe COMIOIClion. Under Illb m luion, fo r cumplc. lhe -.:Ijecd'C Ndur.po "boInc" II I new wocd bcausc it b in a d ifferent JIlInulIIlial category Ihl n its sourcc 'Crb DZU "be boJIl1C," Ind tbe adjective mllf'~ " purulent" Is I IICW word bcc:ause it is in I
dirrerenl vamlllll ic::al ca legory lhin lIS $<Jllra: fIO un rM&' "pllS." Tblr4, I lcdc:opapber II'II"'t oolllickr lbe SEMANTIC COPn'EN'T of lbe CJlPfCUion. A broad 1ICRlo1i of Ibb ailCrion is 10 oonsickr In apreaion to have been JcQcalizod wberc iu ItCIMDIiC: ODnleDI hili been cilln,ed in its oollSlrllCtlon. Under Ibis criterion, for cumple, lhe DOua /1)'11- "fcm.1e bird" b I new word bccIlISC it bu I differenl 5CllIInlic COnlenl tban ill source DOIIII b)III " bir4," IDd the nolln ~ . . . "rillill l!lImpc! ft\adc from a 1111l1li11 tIlipboDc" II I _ word bcallSC il lias a difJcrenl 5C.IlII1l1iC: oonlCllt IhllI the slim o f iu compoDCDI DOIIIII rkd -pil "COOl, Ie,M and dun "conch shell.M

A .trk1cr 'Cnioa of this crilerion Is 10 consider In cxprCMlon 10 bIYe been IC1k:a.Uud where ill aNlleDl II SEMNmCAU.Y EXOCE/'I'nlC-thal b, _bcrc the _ ... Inl of lhe aprcalon is IIOt predklIb5e from ill c:omPOIICOU, and tile bead member of tbe coUocatioll callnot be ....d lllted for lbe wbo5e -M11Io1I1 ICrnalitic wnp. UlKkr thII crllcrloll., lot' cumpJc, lhe .oUD ,.,v-H "lMni creaturc" b I new word bcaUIC Ita meallial dlrrus from the clymOloJlc::aIly apectecI"&OCrM < NGMJ ",ot whl5e the DOualloll-INI "be1Pr" II DOl I new won! ~1ISoC III InUllinl II prcdlcllblc boG lu lOuroc 'Crb SJ.AR '"be,," Similarly, IInder thII c:rtlerion. !be WJUD mdaI " Inowbcld" III _ word bca_ iu .meallln, dlft'us rro. !be etymOkIf;IcaIJy crpcaed ~Unk IlTOW" < ... " Invw," wtlUe the DOIIII IJN " little ftlh" word bcallSoC lu meanlll, II prulictlbk from 11$ SOllrlZ DOlin 114 " fbh..':' II 11011 _ nil aiccriola caD be Ippllc4 weU to diIylllbic: wlloCllliou of ainllli worda. 1lIc .ltClt 1f'O'JP' ~ "while atoM." rrJo.ril " round stooc," and n-sbom " hcr.'y ltollC" Irt
1I01Ile:dcalizcd Ind ICmlnllcally cnOOccnlric:: Ihclr mtlnin, II predialblc, and In Iny context

102

THE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

2.1. CONSTRUCTIONS
The CONSTRUCTION of new words out of the existing stocle of the language

takes place Ihrough the two processes of compounding and dc.rivation.

CoMPOUNDING is the process whereby new words are created by the

juxtaposition of two existing words-for example, Old Tibetan Jiii-rtIJ ''wood

horse - cart" and New Tibetan (Lhasa) IcaNb <rlca"-Nkhor> "(oot wheel _
bicycle." DERIVA TION is the process whereby new words arc created from single existing words by afrlXing elements that are not themselves independent

(U( bll him wilh I ") lbe bead member may substiunc for lbe wbole roUocatioa. In slTia senK, such stress Sroups are not the amcern of I~ Ic:xk:on.al all, sinClC they are not sepa rate words.

On the Oilier hand, the S lress voups ~riiI "Ion, slone"" monyment" and r4D-rdle "noble MOlle _ vajr." Ire newwords. They Irc lokal iu4 and scmantlcallycxocentric: their manin, is unpredictablt. and in any oonlcn (" I hit him wllh _H) the head member may DOt substitute for the whole oollocation without chan,in, tbe meanin, or ... bat Is ISIertcd. h Is only such OOl1ocaliOM as these that would, ideally, be listc4 in the Jexieon.

Co mpare, also, rdo-nsi~ "slOne wall" and rdo-zom ''stone brldlCt which Ire semantiQIlly endoc::cntrk and prc4ict:tble, with >'doto "sto ne milk .... lim~~ Ind rdo-JtWm "1I0ne: oil .... petrOleum," which arc semantica lly cxoccntric and unprediCUblc. II must o f oo ursc be oonrcsse<l that this distinction is not alwa~ entirely c~r. It m.y be thlt the nol,ln JIon1ui "bewr"' is se manlically prcd icubJe from the souroe verb su.R "beg. ~ But we "Iso find the ClIprcssions J/otl.nt<l "female beggar" " nd 1{oI'I1PI(I ""Jms." Which of tbe$e is semantica lly prc4ictlble? Again, the colloCittion mtJhod_nt" "ofTerln, support .... JtIlptlI coirya'" sccms argl,lably IcxicalilCd under this Cli terion, but it is more difficult 10 decide "bout mdhod-1duJJi "orrering house .... temple .... Much seems 10 depend on I rllher pelJOnal SCII5C of what is sema ntically prodictable Ind what is nOl. MIlCh "Iso seems to dcpeod on tbc C1istenoe of similar ool\oc:alions: tile ~rcs.sion mrJhodkJwI/l "otrerin, bouse .... lempJc" klob oonsiderably morc endoctntric in the lilht 01 J/rulII_khoJI " medicine ho_ - lpotlloocuy," bzo-kJuJiI "erafillouse"" workshOp," Ind Jog_iJulJI "paper house _ sllopwbete paper is upt or manufaC1urcd. ~ In IU these cases, -JexieoVllphen mllSl inCYiubly make dimcult dt.dsioDs IS to whkb. ttJrc$sions Ire in faa lutrKienliy Ioiali~ to be considered 1WOrdI ill lbe IaJlpl&e;: tbe j\l- tgment Is complk::alod 100 by tncoretical considerations reprdin, tile distribution of fl,l IClions between the ",mmar and the lexicon in a proper dcsc:riptioD 0{ .laDJUIIC. A user 01 IcxicII resol,lKa also must remgllizc the pr(Jblem. th.al underlie lbe worb upon wtlidl. h. or sbe must rely. 'lbcre is no reason to believe Ih.at lhe followin, lCICtionl will 5" bstantially "IICYiate IIIe5c difficulties.

WORDS

103

words-for example, Old Tibetan nad-bu "disease" IUldbu-tJan "diseased" and New Tibetan (Lhasa) matsQ <marua> "capital" matsatJN <ma-roatlan > "capitalist."

2.1.1. Compounds

2.1.1.1. Nalie compounds

As part of its stock of Tibeto-Burman morphological devices, classical Tibetan

had available several ways of compounding old words to create new wordsfor example, modifying a noun with a preceding noun, as in meroo "fire stone _ flint," or modifying a noun with a following adjective, as in rdo-M "long stone _ monument," Indeed, these devices have remained productive throughout the history of the language; parallel to the two preceding examples. we find, for example, New Tibetan (Lhasa) me,,'!a <me-mila> "fire arrow _ gun" and pijiiCN <dpon.nan > "wicked lord - bureaucrat." However, with the massive influx of Buddhist terms in the ninth century, the language used additional devices, in part derived from Sanskrit models, in order to render these new terms in Tibetan-for example, compounding two adjectives, as insans-'XY'U "awakened expanded -- Buddha," or, prototypically, modifying a verb with a preceding intensifier, as in mampar 5ES "particularl y know ... perceive (~j-Jjn.ii). These latter devices tend to be found primarily in these loan creations from Sanskrit original~; such translation compounds win be treated separately.

1.1.1.1.1. NOUN

+ NOUN

-- NOUN

There arc four ways in which native compounds yield new nouns in the classical language-NouN + NOUN, ADJ(CIlVE + NOUN, NOUN + ADJ I~C Il VE, and ADJECllVE + ADJEcnvE.} In the firs t instance, a noun may be modified

, 1bcse four types of native noun compounds continue to be productive in New Tibetan. find., for oample, New Tibetan (Lhasa) ~ <nwmdo:I> "tire arrow ... lun," IS well IS k.aJl.b <rlc(JiI./iII:Juw> "fOOl wlleel ... bkyde." fUm~ <Jl'IV"VU> "sky boat -- airplane," l1aJdam <//!oplam> "iron mad. ... nllI_y,M kqNJ <1IuJd'por> "voice print .... phonograph," mff) <rt1l-SgyogJ> "fire catapull :-+ arlillery." ,htHn <groltshOfl> "advice uki'ilbly ... parliament," JUkl1N </I~orkull > "wo rk ItIlef ... scab." Amon, new NOUN + AOJECTlVE ... NOliN compounds we find., for example, New Tibetan (Lhasa) p6Fu:;N <dponnan> ''wil;ked. lord -- bureaucrat," as well as

AIDoDt: new NOUN + NOUN'" NOUN compo~nds _

104
with a preceding noun 10 yield a noun with a new meaning. Thus we find lagIubl "hand sheath _ glove," spu-gri "hair knife -- razor," diiul-Lfhu. "silver water ..... quicksilver," tIhu-mig "water eye -- well," mig-tJhu " eye water __ tears," dri-lJhu "odor wate r -- urine," byin-ritJbs "splendor wave"'" blessing," tlhru.gti "religion basis __ monastery," r/wii-duii "leg conch -- thighbone trumpet," sbran-rtsi "bee juice -- honey," gtQm-d~ "talk model __ prove rb," Iamdog "flesh color ..... complexion," rilchrod "mountain crowd -- wilderness," kh4-1pags "mouth skin -lip," b/w-babs "speech descent __ tradition," siiiiiruJ "heart bone -- courage," og-sgo "underpan door ..... anus." dur-spjUii "graveydfd wolf ..... jackal."

2.1.1.1.1:. ADJECTIVE + NOUN...:. NOUN

Similarly, a noun may be modified with a preceding adjective to yield a noun with a new meaning. Thus we find dben-inas "solitary place ..... hermitage," dJJm-uhig "holy word - V(NI," bUlii-spyod "good conduct ... bodhisattva deeds.," drag-JuI"violent leftover .... supernatural frightfulness," log-fta "invened view -- heresy," mrhun-rkyen "harmonious circumstance _ assistance," dmar-bJal "red diarrhea .... dysentery," ser-Nphren "yellow garland __ ecclesiastical procession," dlwr-phyogs "white direction .... good spiritt," nag-ph}'OgS "black direction -- bad spirits," tIhe-mi "large person .... adult," flan -phye "bad flour -00 roasted meal," iie-rigs "near lineage -- kinsman," drag-rigs "noble Iineage-aristocracy."

2.1.1.1.3. NOUN + ADJEcrIVE -- NOUN Or, again, a noun may be modified with a following adjective to yield a noun

uhoIa.fa <ulwp.tJhttl> ''bi, assembly -- plctluy 5eS6lon,~ r/lNliluH <,vaIlI.JJu.ll> '''mall number _ mInority," 1u(1ItlN <blo-m(N4n> ".grcc.able mInd -- comrade." AmonS new ADJECT1V + WOUN - NOUN compounds '\II't find, for example. ~ <mth.o-f"O'I> "hlp preNUtc - hl,h voltl&e" (IS in tIwtI6Ji /oIcQ <miho-gnM r'or-slcud> "hip pressutc 1I,lItnin, Ihre.! .... hlp voltl&e elocUlc wire"), MtJtI <mo-fdop> "sharp irnA -- Slc:d," ~ <1diAJFU> "noatln, boat ... airship," uudt <gstJr-bn1lt> "new cbanae - revolution," ~ <t/Ifulr-pod> "red killin, _ mawcrc. ~ Finally, IheokSer ADJECT1V + ADJECJTVI! - NOVM compounds continue to be use4_for tDmpk. New Tib.::Uln (l..hau) lliriII <Rt~> " near far - dlstlna:," rilltuN <riII.11u:Jl > "Ionl $hoil _ kn,th,~ (Uu <slyU.,m,,> "!tippy sad -SUindard of livin6-"

WORns

105

....jth a ntw mtaning. Thus .....l" findxluiitJlu'lI "grtat ox __ t:ltphant," dri- fIhl!ll "grtat odor -- txntmcnt," iio-Ishu " hot face __ shame," rdoriji " long stone-monument," hya rgud " .....ild hird __ vulture," hya-liag "black bird __ rave n," t ....a-nag "black hat __ sh,lman costume," miii'Nall " bad name -- infamy," migIhun "short eye __ nc:arsightt:dnt:ss," skyt'.Jmall " low binh - woman," I1hu-ser "yellow waler -- pus," Nllg-SIIIlII "s.....eet speech __ pDCtry," Iesrab "best knowledge -- wisdom."

2.1.1 ."4. ADJECnVE

+ r\l>JEcrIVE -- NOUN

l1VE -- ,..-OUN,

The fo urth type I)f na tive noun compound, of the form Al)Jt:CIlVE + AOJEC is productive only within a rdat ivt:ly restricted semantic range: he re two semantically opposed adjectivts yield an abstract noun of which the two adjectives are polar exemplars.o Thus wt: find riN-lhun "long short -length," tShel.UwII "hig link -- siZt~," swb- nrll!ug " thin thick -- density," graNdro "cold warm __ climate," lif.'-nil "ncar far -- djsUlnct::' bZllii-iill" "good bad . .. virtue," skllmrloll "dry wet - dampness," mflw.iJmall "high low - height," skyid-sdllg "happy sad -- ]ul'k," fJ/w-grllll "hot enid -- Itmperature," mll/wgumull "best worSt __ quali ty." umg.tll'l "Mrong weak __ pnwer.,,7
Thi$ tYJlC or cnmpounu is slrikingly rcmini:>(cnI of Chinese mUfpholo~.. " 'hieh uses the dl.",icc to (urm sUl'h ahs1fa(1 n\ll,ln~ - f'lr example, r,) shao "many few -- ql,la ntity:' fa Itsiaa "big lillie - ~ i ,.e: 1:.'0' /151<1 " hi!:h I, ..... -ljualitY:'.I1l<1I1.chin "far nellf -- distance," hon "'(11 "cold warm -- ",~a thc r . " Notc. lOti, that Ihc 'Hher th re..! t)1lC5 of noun Cl) mpounll oon~is l o( a il EAl) and eithcr a noun or allj ..'.:I,,,'; MOlll1'tER; Ihc AI)IEerr"'E AI )WC1WI' -- NOUN compound docs not ha"c a hcad,
~me

7 Such ADJECTIVE. ADJECIWE __ NOlJ)< cn mptlunds are not I,Incommon. fur elample, in thc Gesar CpM:: lIute 'I:"" 'K!QII "old young - agc" in "R"" .glQII gra/.gyi Ihob ~f(S ~TJ "Take your places in o rdef of age," )'Ug.An "plod bad __ qua lity" in las ylIgi!n b/m.tmi mig /1()A Ndra '1lIey :lrc like eycs that will $CC Ihc ql,lality of dcc45," andyllgnwg "&000 ugty buuryK and bzaiii\a" "good bad '" virtuc" in the cuu ptct yugrfSvg mig.lam Nbab./uf(S rrJ, blali .llatl stmskyi dpyad/ugs ,,,d "Be;.uty is the falling of a &la nce; ~inue is the detelmi na tion of the mind. No te he re the playful usc of the compounds mg)'OfS /JlJ{ "fut $Iow -speed," blallJI .." "JOOd bad _quality," !'god.!1J1I "stron, weak _ stren, lh," dM-lflld ",rowin, fallill, -- flucluat il:m," and 1110010' ......o n lost -- outcome" in paralkl 5tfUC!urCl:
K

nlJ11J '"JO'OP.hu/ urlNl.u "ub grJig rfSa/Jhu bu.IlMII yill pho/a tgOdIIJII zrrba d.t ilingdig rlu".na dorrgud JIll

106

THE ClASSlC.o.L TIBETAN LANGUAGE

1.1.1.1.5. NOUN + VERB - VERB

In addition to these four typeJ of noun compound, the classical language had

a native verb compound that linked a verb with a participant noun to yield

a verb with new meaning. Many such compounds consist of a transitive verb and its patient paitic:ipant functioning a5 a single semantic unit-for example. ,rgnr-SGYUJf "change words -- translate," dbaij-SKUR "transmit power -- initiate," tngO-DOH "hold up the head -- be proud," mgo-SKoR "encircle the head .....
deceive," mwI.t(l. "clear away darkness - illumine," khag-TIIEG "carry responsibility ..... guarantee," khru-sLOG "turn earth __ plough," fiO'~ES "know the face -- recognize," rhJfilJRAR "pull the foot __ disgrace," sna-DRAR "pull the nose -lead," f'lan-DRAR "pull the scat _ invite," mnaZA "eat a vaw ..... commit perjury, "lhugs-sRuR "sicken the heart -. be disagreeable," semsGSO "heal the mind ..... consoJe," iiaijTlluR "shorten the disposition .... lose one's temper," tJuJg-rfAD "cut the rope .... decide." Additionally, we find the preceding noun in other syntactic relations with the following verb-for example, bfo-s TAR "dismiss WIlli the mind .... renounce," iam.Ja KHYEIl "carry ON the road .... put to daily use," senu-/a SBYAR "take TO mind .... pay attention," mya-iian-laJ HIlA "pass BEVOND suffering .... enter nirvana," mdo-r SDU "compress INTO aphorisms .... summarize," lShigs-su run "cut INTO stanzas -- write poetry," snod-du RuR "be proper AS vessel .... be fit to receive teaChings." yid-du oN "come INTO the mind .... be pleasing." Where such compounds contain more than two syllables they are particularly liable to be clipped into disyllabic stress groups-for example, myan-HIlA < myaMn-las HIlA "pass beyond suffering .... enter nirvana," siiiii-Nf: < snin-dan N "be dose to the heart -- love," las-SBYAR < las-fa SBYAR "put to work -apply," yid-oR < yid-du oR "come into the mind ... be pleasing.'"

1fO'OIIl0 thob-Jor In'-ba lk dNli-,JulA ri-I7I0 gar-bTU yin

What is called the speed of I horse is tbe quality of one night'S feed: what is "lied the strength of II man Is the flow or onc diy's luck; what is called the outcome or a bet is the writing of the lines of destiny, Despitc the faC1lhllllhey all;: compound!, such ve,bs can he 5ynla~t ical1y discontinuous. 1lIC nCJolltivc panicle '111- "N0 1" IXCU", immediately before a ,-erba l tense stem, and thus

WORDS

107

2.1.1.2. TranslaJion compounds

1.1.1.2:.1. ADJECTIVE

+ ADJEcrJVE

NOUN

As new Buddhist terms from India sought entry imo the Tibetan lexicon, several additional types of compound were developed to express the: new ideas. One type of such 'TRANSlAnON COMPOUND is formed by combining two adjectives, functioning as headless modifiers, to yield a new noun, often based on Indie folk etymologies or Buddhist philosophical analysis; such compounds,
of course, differ from such nalive ADJEcnvE

+ ADJEcnVE -

NOUN compounds

Iher lhe IlOlin plnion of a NOUN + VERR _ VERB compound-thus, for eumple,trI,o-A1/0.ot "have the head encircled - become confllSC4"/drytd.k)' kho.sbyai! .,u iId m~mj-NkJior "We Ire 1101 LIken in by YO"" e loqucnce.~ Ol!ler propositional participanlS can.1so rome bcrwcen lhe IW() oomponnu of such verb compoundl.. [n " poem by Mi-1a las-pa, for example, we find the compounoJ.lIo.$CS "know the face _ rewgn iu" in di.ocontinuoUJ form in the line.l\01 iIo khyOd-kyiJ mll.Jn-no ''If)'Ou do not fcw,nize me .. : . Note tllat the strUClure of tllis proposition is not /Wi lIo-' khyod1cyiJ mal,.HIO ' If you do IlOl know my face . , :'; ratller the structure is equivalent 10 lIo' khyodkyis ~o-maJelno '"It)'Ou do 00\ face.know nw: ...
H

SocII NO UN + VERI!"" VERB compo unds somelimes provide &limpses ofTibeun pilue rn5 o f Illouglli. One croup of thC$C compoundS im;or poratts the patient participanl iio "facc" - for comple. as we have seen. nQ-SF.S "know lh e face .... remgni"U.. Bul FAa:.. in Tibet, is cl~,ly !lIore than the surface of a thin,. The face of some thin, is an indication of its true natu reIIIIIS 1I0l'flROD "meel the face .... knuw, u~denland, I~rn." iIoSI'ROD "C;ilUSC to fReetl inlroollCC the face .... lay upcn Ihe features of a Ihin" sllow iu naturt, leacll." The racc o f a pellOn, si milarly. is the l'Iarum e ler 01 Ihe innel scU-iio..... lI 'have the face fall .... lm ,e ooutage," iIo-TS11A "have Ihe race get wum ..... fcc1shame"; and the social face is II'IC marker of personal Yo'O lIh-iio-JSm: " have II'IC racc be hit -- be appreciated, rcco,niz.-:d , thanked: iiOSIWN "guard Ihc racc .... hil Y": regard rur Ihe opinion of o lhen," iio-STDD "elcYille the fa~ .... praise. naile r," fio -LCXi 'Iurn Ihe face .... d<:l>l:lI, abandon, opJlOS'C-"
H

We find a si milar ~ries uf tbese oompuumll iRl;mplll a ling the palicnl paflil:ip,,'1 '.' /-.1' "mind: The Tihelln mind changes in ~i/.c- fnr c&lmplc.yW,1m:" "have Ihc mimillc bl): - .. believe," yW-TlluN "ha....: thc minllhc shun ..... lit rash, uvcrhuty." yiNIRI "make Ihc mind Ic...s .... hal e, dislikc"; in Illis Ibc mind s h~rcs the ClIplI .. ily ur Ol her inu,'rn;tl organ~-!hu~ . '''in lSIIIIN h;tye Ihe l'learl he hllle ..... be ~[raid: nanTIIIlN have thc Ch3f;K1c r he shon ...... hi; impalient," IkJlI/UN ,. h~Vl,: thc ~hafaele r be lun, __ be forcbear ing.lon,sufferin&- ph klmat ic .. Erf(X;lS upon the mind ;trc the !><lUICclo uf eRiotionS_lhu~. yid/u fill. have Ihc mind ~uhduco.l .... be weary. IIOU:'1<;o:I, haras!ocd," yidPIIA.'1 'ha\c tbc mind be defeated -- he t.aM <.I".... n. dejccted, oJcpre:sscd: yid.I'IfHOG "steal the mind"" infalullle. fUoCinate, yid.StUN 'han: Ihe mind come out .... he wcary,<.IiM'Ontenled:'yid.nlJN make thc mind come OUI""" m~k~ weary, Clllse to be dixo nl cnlcd," )'I.'i11/) 'CUI Ihe mind .... despair."
M

lOS

THE ClASSICAl. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

as riii-dwii "long short _ size." Here, {or example, we find saiiHg)'4S "awakened expanded _ Buddha" combining sans-po < 'TSAR-s "awakened" and rgyas-pa < 8-RGYA-J "expanded," bsod-SMms "pleasing equal - alms rOT

moniu" combining bsod-pa <

N-BSOD

"pleasing" and siioms-pa <

N-sRoM-D

"evenly distributed," sdug-bsiuJl"affiicled exhausted _ suffering of-the round or rebirth" combining sdug-pa < N-SOOG "amicted, grieved., oppressed" and b.siinl-pa < N-BSR!u. "exhausted," Similarly, we find draii-sroil "straight upright

mcl to the rtf"_ We UJt them to push the rtlll, ih-tIe the
I(J

Man of my frinuts tilte 'tl'(lf'ds too .,U. ... War"

1m

.,btU

reaJ into the poem. They are whRt JIIe hold orI fllith, tJDthi"6 else. T1Jt;y Are I&J l'RJu4bu in .hmuel'PtS At rope "";th tWtbiriB to be md to.

-Jack Spicer, ulter to Federico Garcia Lorca

-- Vedic seer" combining drafi. -po "upright" with sroii.pa < G-sRAR "straighteRed," gonzag "full dripping _ person (pudga/a)" combining gaii-pa-gaii.pn "full" (compare GAN (I<'geiis/bkaii/dgoii/khoii) "fill") and -Zog-po " dripping" (compare DZAG (Ndzagjbzags/gzag) "make drip").

2.1.1.2.2. NOUN

+ VERB

.... NOUN

Another type of tra nslation compound is a nominalized pr0p05Jl10n fu nctioning as a headless modifier, le)(icalized primarily in dipped disyllabic form (as in lJllOsslcyoii < 8 {(lJlJos8 skyoii)-pa ) "(a deity) who protects the dharma").' Many such clipped disyllabic compounds Ihus appear 10 be of the fo r,n NOUN + VERB .... NOUN, with the noun often being Ihe patient participant

9 Lnan crea1ions such as these translatio n compounds arc idio:synaatialty Icxicali:w:l in disyllabic o r polysyllabic tornu. Thus. for example, amon, Ir.nslalions of S.nskril epilhelS ot various Budd~s listed in the ninlhnlury Mahihyurptllri dictionary, we find both rood m~d Mone ... ho Is without uncertai nty" and ainul mrdJ'f2 "one ... ho is without impurity," both Iis-mdziJd "one ... ho makes auspicious" and Ii-btu mdzDdpa "one ... tIo maka calm." and lhe tr',),llabic dgra.bt/om.pa "one ... ho conqucn Ihe enemy .... arhan."

WORDS

109

of a transitive or intransitive verb-fnr example, bdud-NduJ "one who conquers demons .... He Who Has Defeated the Evil One (marajil)," gnod. lbyin "one who bestows harm .... demon (yakia)," Lfhol-skyon "one who protects dharma _ guardian deity (dharmapiila)," dge-slon "one who begs alms ... monk (bhiJqu)," lku-blruFis "one who protects the body .... bodyguard (?tiilavarga)"; although in some ca.\es the participant role of the preceding noun may be oblique-for example, don-grub "one WJ-IOSE aim is accom plished ... Siddhartha," rtsodmed "one TO WHOM there is no uncertainty .... Resolute One (nirdvandlla) .,,10
)0 The Lh~ City alaleet of New TibeWl bas become hi&hJy DOmlnaliz.c4-thlt is, it tends to usc, instead uf a large number o r verbs, a large number of abstract nouns and a rela tively rew aWliliary verbs. It is therefore not surp rising that there arc nOI many NOUN + '<1::RR ... VERn compounds ill that dialect, ~o;cpt (or tllose, such as tlhiJ!t}! <tlhuNdrtIf> dra .... water"" irrigate," whiCh seem 10 be relatively old. lIutead, we find NOUN + VERB ... SltU N compounds, but these, agai n, diITer from the earlier translation compounds 01 the loame lorm. The tra nslation compoundS were clipped lleadles.5 modifiers denoting the agent or the verbal action-for eumplc. Old Tibelan gnod-sbyin "harm bestowing ... type of demon." The Lhasa Cily compounds, on Ille o tller lIand, yield absuact nouns denoling Ihe ,erbal actio n ilSClf as modified by ilS relation to the prcce4ing noun participant-ror example, !hila <dril-bsgrags> "hell ringing'" pro paganda," JuiiJi <g!uR.btts> "governmen t !.aking ... confisca tion." Iwtl~ <sgo-~> "dooropcning'" inauguration," ilamso <IIams gsa> "defecl repairing"" renovation," uh(lla <IJhodblla > "measure seeing .... experimen t,' lI.mnl.<naitrul> inslde rolling .... IIc.ason," dill," <bdilts-Ngf"oi> ~ (rccing trorn tellers"" lihcration." These abstracl no uns can Illen be used as verbs with appropriate auxiliaries, such a$ /Jht <b~d> "do," to}! <g/Oil> "send," op <~b> "act," and th eir honurific cquivalenu-thlL~, fur e.umple. /wIlt linN < sgo-MJytd RYlan> "gives door openi ng .... inaugurates," ilamso tJht <ilams-gso byrd> ''docs defect repairing'" renovales:' diit.fIllON < hdHi.f.}o,ogroi K'nii> "scnds rrecing from tellers .... liberates." Note the US(: of the same alixiliaries with olher nominall as wcll-lfam{ll ION <grwm.gru groll> "nics an airplane," mf'Nfa CIP < m t mdt! 'JO'Db> "fir5 a gun," ntCNIf(l dllt <sIf'Ia/f-bdos ~> 'provides medica l treatmen t," JIP!O c~P <labsbm rgyah> 'uoes a dancc."

Similarly. the Lhasa City dialcct is riclt in compou nds of the furm VERB + VEMU - NOUN, whe re tile twO ve rb sIems are combined to yield an abstract no un denoting tile in teo.tion 01 tile lwo-nlten more Of ICS$ synonymous_ve rb stertU. Fo r eumple, we find lodi <grQf"_ blig> 'scallering dC!>troying'" sabotage:' a!t }! <skytf-Ndnn> "alXOmpanying leading ... sllipring,' 'uns~ <b.rlON,bllftJ> "changing healing ... reforllU," uuJqiJ/'i <Joidl,.K$./ukn"l> '{"unding prod ucing .... de"o,;klpmen t," JuJo <bJu .giug> "stripping culling ... exploilation:' a~ well as rhJpJil < . Vfhab moti> 'figllting fight ing - struggle," siflru <zifl -Iokhrug> quarreling quarreling .... uprising:' fsoitu <tfmitul> cleansing dClllSing ... purge:' and cvt: n UiNSJ.'}! <1JdJ:u.bzuil > " lIoldin g lIulding ... arrest: combining tM present and pas t stem til Ihe s.:.mc verh. As ahovc. these ahMract nuuns can hoc u.SoCd as ve rbs wilh appropriate

110

TilE CI.ASS!CAL TIBETAN l....t.NGUAGE

2.1.1.2.3. INTENSIFIER

+ VERB

-+

VERB

Finally. a third type of translation compound, used in rendering Sanskrit verbs, is formed by combining a verb with II; preceding adverbal intensifier such as mlion-por "manifestly," yoiis-su "completely," yaii~g.par "perfectly," or rtUlm-por "panicularly." As the ninth-century translation guide Sgro.sbyor bam-po gnu-po said, stating the oCficiai government translation policy,

pa-ri-dan sam-daii u-po Ita-bu kA-sogs-It, rshig-gi phmd-daii 'X)'Qn

Ita-bur Hbyuii-bamafTU bSgyUNID don-daii mthun-liii Nbyor-bai lIMbs ni, yoiiHu Ie..tJm, }'Qii4og-pa le.am, fie-btl Its sgra Mindu. sgyur-tJig, don [hag-par sMp-pa med-pa-mllnLr ni tshig.gi

Ihad-kyis bsnon mi-dgrulcyis don btin-du ,hogs-lig

When Iranslating parliclt:s and t:mbellishnients s uch as pari-, sam-, upa-, and so {ln, the way 1 0 affIX them in accordance with their meaning is to. translate thtm with words like yo/u-su, yaiidag-po, and fie-ba. But transla te according to the meaning (of the expression as a whole) those that add nothing, because it is unnecessary to add supe rfl uo us words. Thus, for example, we find milon-par ~ES "manifestly know ..... perceive clairvoyantly (abh i-jjiiii)," miion-por HYUN "manifestly arise ..... leave hbme 1 0 become a monk (nLi-jkram)," mam-par ~S "particularly know ..... pc_ rceive (vij jiiii)," mam-par RIAG "particularly examine ..... impose conceptual construc ts (vi-jkfp)," so-sor IUAG " individually examine ..... know precisely (praty-avafilq)," so-sor MNAN " individually listen ..... answer (prQli-jlfU)," rab-Iu GNAS " highly place ..... consecra te (prarj-jslhii) ," rab-ru SHYAR " highly connect ..... practice (pra-jyuj)," rab-fa 8YU;' " highly arise - become a re ligious mendicant (pra-jvraj)," roles-su 8~ "consequently do ..... imitate (allu-jJq)," rdles-su D'LUN "consequently hold ..... favor (anu-jgrah)," rdl~-su ORAN "consequently rc=member ..... practice contemplative mindfulness (a na-jsmr)," iie-bar olAV "closely put - apply (apo -js/lra)." These verbal compounds are frequently nominalized; indeed, several such compounds. have elHc red the classical lexicon solely in their nominalized

:auxiliaries-ror coUmplc. u;ns" . . rjh~ </ldzinl/zuii byN> does lIold inllllotdin& ..... arrests." lido toN <bJu.gfog KIM> "scnds ~I ri f'f'in, cUll ing ..... CJploiu," U!~N dht <J~INdrtn ~d> "11<)0 accompa nying kallio& .... shi ps."

WORDS

111

forms-for example, so-sor tllUl-pa "individual liberation - ecclesiastical rules (priitimolqa)," rdles-su dpagpa "consequent weighing'" logical inference (anumana)," mum-par smin-pa "particular ripening ... karmic retribution (vipika)." All such nominalized intensifier-verb compounds are particularly liable to be clipped into disyllabic stress groups-thus mamles < mam-pal kS-pa "particular knowing ... perception (vijliiina)," mam-rtog < mampar rtogpo "particular examining ... imposition of conceptual constructs (vlkalpa )," ii~r-Ndtog < iiebar Ndlogpa "close pUlling ... application (upastha)," rab-grlQS < rob-tu gnaspo "high placing ... consecration {prati1!IIQ)," mnon-Ies < moon-par Ies-po "manifest knowing ... clairvoyance (abhijiiii)," as well as sor thar < sosorthar-pa "individual liberation ... ecclesiastical rules (prQ timolqa)," mamsmin < mam par smi" .pa "outward ripening - karmic rc;tribution (Vlpaka):' rdJesdpag "consequent weighing'" logica l infere nce (anuma/la),"

2.1.2. Derivations of new words from old are of two types, We will use the I~rm 1 0 refer to those processes of derivation tha t operate within the syllable, using such NON SYI.LAIlI C FOR MA11VES as prefixed s (as in RlN "be [ong" ,waN "make long"), suffixed -d (as in ORO "be warm" drod "warmth"), a nd infixed voicing (as in 11/0 N "emerge" DON "eject"). We will use the te rm OU11,R OERIVAnON tn rder to those processe~ of derivatiop that operate (lulsil.k the syllabic. llsin~ either such SY I.I.AII IC FORMAnVE-O;; as .pa "ONE II AVING TO IX) WI"IlI " (as in mdu "arrow" mda-pa "a rcher") or REOUf'LlCA'nON of the syllable a~ a Whllie (as in nlum .po " hright" nlam-riiam "dazzling").
DERIVAnONS HoNER 1)r: 'U VAnON

2.1.2. 1. IlIIltr derivation

2.1.2.1.1. ClIANCE OF LEXI CA L CATEGORY

One form or inner derivation creates verbs' frum nouns simply by taking che noun as a verb root-fur exampk. I!II" "wa ter" 1SIIU (Ntlhu/bl!uslhIJII ) "dnlw water, irrigatc." rgyml "ornament" IWYA N ('KYa nlbrgyalllhrgyan) "adorn:' sm b "bridle" SI(AIJ (srublhsrubslb.vah) " bridle a horse," /!hibs "horse" '/:~IIIIJ (,.,Ilribl bt.Mslb IJih ) "ride a horse." Itm "answer" f.AN (glolilblan/glu) " make rep[y," rlUII "moist ure" IN AN (r!rmlhrlulllbrftm ) "make WCI," .fmad "Iowef pllrt ,

112

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

low rank" SMAD (smod/smod/smad) "defame, blame, vilify."n Such deriva. tions are, in fact, relatively rare in Tibeta n; but, where they occur, we often find them involved in word play: note, in the archaic poetry from Central Asia, no Ichyod ni khDr srab-gyis srab "You, horse. arc bridled with a bridle in your mo uth," byoms-kyi Ian glan "I will answer an answer to his kindness," bgab-kyi f a Mas "He milked the milk in secret," and, throughout the classical literature, rgyan-lD'is brgyoll-pa "adorned with adornments."

2.1.2.1.2. VOICING AND TRANSITIVITY

In classical Tibt:lan we find $(!vt!ml pairs o f vcrh~. clearly relall:d i']n'llolpgi. cally and scmantically, whe re one pf the p:,ir lS ffimh..d;.ls transitiv\', ,111<1 II".: othe r as intransitive, by a difference: in the voice (lIlSc.:l time nt the Initial of the verb root. For example, in the verb pairs KilO') "~ placed, he Pl!t" (;(m "place. put:' tillUN "~ tamed. he suhcJued" OiL'N "tame. subdue." T//ON "come out, eme rge" DON " th row oul, ejec!." HI/UaS "take root. bccnme firm" DZUGS "pla nt, e~tablis h ." HI/Uf) "he put. cntcr" f)ZUIJ "put. lead" Ihe lTansitive verb is distinguished by a voiced initia l. U nforlunatdy , thc picture is far from simple. One complic~ltinn is that it set'm.~ equally the cast' that inlransitive ve rbs a re distinguished by voiced initials: nute the vcrh pairs GRit. "be twisted, he wrapped around" KRIf. "emhrace. clasp round," nu "wmctogether. assemble" TU "gather. collect," DOH "be scaHered. he dispe rsdl" rOR "scatter, cast away," /lU/) "go away. disappear" rUD "transfer. put apart."
Nor do the prohlems end there. In some verb pairs, initial voicing seems unre lated to transitivity al all- for example, KIIRlG "cohe re, st ick \(l~cTher" ( ;RIG "corresrond, fi t together." KUR UI . "wande r as tray" GRUI . "travel." In some verb pairs, initial voicing seems to have indica ted, at one tinll: or another, both transitivity and intra n~itiv ity: for example. Ihe roOiS rslfAG and fJ7.AG bUlh have hoth transitive and intransitive paradigms-that is, on the om: hand, 1S/lA G, (NtsJlQg//slwgJ) "drip, trickle" O7.JlG} (Ndzag/btsags/gzag) "came to !Tickle, strain, squeeze"; and, on the other hand, DZAG j (Ndzag/zags) "drip,

II See also.lug "sheep" LUG " be s hccp~ h . huddle togeT her." and-although I th ink thiS eumple unde rcut! my ana lysis o r innectional mo rphuklgy-to " mitk" oUJ (loId1ofMmlbll "milk an animal." In the case of rkll "furrow" RJ(O (rlUJ/brkru/brlco) dig. gouge. hoe." the verb appc:.rs to have gencra ti7.cd the 0 in the prC$Cnl stem rlw < "G- IIXA to all ~ tem5; in thai o r rd.t~ "lord. master" /U)lf."[l (,d1~dlb"Utdlbrd.tN) honor. reverclKC," the verb appears to have generali/.cd the prese nt stc m inncctiunal $UffUl -D 10 all s tem~.

WORDS

i13
10

trickle" TSHAG 1 (NUIwg!btJa~/bl.SlJg) "cause

trickle., strain,

sque~ ."

Finally, in too many verb pairs to be coincidental, the transitive verb is diJtinguished both by initial voicing and by use of the present stem inflection allu{ftx 'D, while the intransitive verb seems to be a backformation from the U ansitive verb, generalizing the present stem of the same Paradigm as the transitive member of the pair-for example, KHEGS (HIcJupIIcJup) "be hindered. be prohibited" Q.4G (,o,gep < NoGAGD{bk4g!dgag) "hinder, prohibit," IfJIERs (HkMiis/lcJWis) "be full" GAR (Ngeiis < N.aA!l.D/blcaiildgaii) "fln," KHElJ (NlchLb/kMbs) "be covered over" G,.(8 (Jo,~bs < N...c;,u..D{b/cab!dgab) "cover," KHEL (NkMl/kMf) "be put o n" CAL (,,~l < N.GAJ..O /bkill/dgof) "put on," KHYED (Nichyed/lclIyN) "be distributed" GYE (NgyM < NoGYED /~/bkye) "divide, scatter, disperse," mE.SS (lt1hebs/lhebs) "be thrown, be hit" DAB (Ndebs < NnABD Ibtablgdab} "throw, hit." There is every reason to believe that it is the intransitive verbs that are here late analogical developments from the transitive verbs. The process seems to have been to devoiee the present stem of the transitive verb-for exa mple, Q.4G "hinder" > NoGAGD > Ngeg.f "hinders" > Nlchegs "is hindered" > KJIGS " be hindered," GrE "distribute" > N.(JYE.D > Hf.YM "distributes" > Hkhyfti " is distributed" > KHYED "be distributed." If this hypothesis is correct, il would tend 10 indicate that-a t least at the time of the backformatioru-the associalion of voicing with transitivity was, in some sense, normati\'e; this would, Ilhink conform 10 the iniuition of modern speakers, but would be inconsistent with the pattern of other TibetoBurman languages,l2

2.1.2.1.3. nlE FORMATIVE "..

" 1I0~ORIt1C"

The preflX m- is found in a large number of words relating to the persons, property, and attributes I)f social and spiritual superiors. Note, for example, the nouns mlcha "heaven," mlchor "ca5tle," mgall-po " lord, protector," mgTOn "feast, banquet," mnn "might, dominion," mtJhad.pa "tomb, scpuk.hre," mtlhog "the best," mthu "s(rength, magic power," mila "arrow," rnduii "spear, lance," mdos "threadcross," mila "oalh," mtshun "offe rings for the ancestors,"

11 Compare, ror example, IUnauri bOI'I "be filled " pOfI "fill," bar HCllctI fire" pot ''sc t on fire," bAu "collapse" ph/us "knock down, " BahinU"" "be bentH leu! "make bent," BodOI'll "come loose" ~iI "loo5en," Va)'\l boo\: "be born" pole "Vwc birlb to:' Note lbo, In Tibetan, G~, ("P~I) "be divioed" alon&\idc GYf:1 (~J/bkyl') "divide,H and ct4L , (Npl/pf) "be in o pposition" a lon~ide GAL! (~/lbbJl,\:I~ "pu.t o n, put oYer."

114

THE CussICAL TIBETAN l...ANOUAGE

mtiuxJ "treasury, storehouse." Note too such honorifics as mtJhbf "sibling" for spun, mtUll"sleep" for g;iid. mull/In "name" for miii. Similarly, note such

verbs as these, denoting relations between superiors and inferiors-MR.1o "commission. charge, delegate," MTSHOD "honor, revere," MDtAL "meet a superior, pay onc's respects," MNOD "receive from a superior"; or these, denOling the qualities of the lofty-MKHO "be desirable, imponant." KnIO "be lofty," MT'SIW"be wondrous," MDZANS"be noble," MDZES "be beautifuJ." And note such honorifics as MKJIYEN "know" for SEl, lANA "possess" for YOD, MREL "become tired" for RA4 MNES "be pleased" for DGA, MNAB "put on clothes" for ('.oN, MD7.AD "do" for B~.
It is thus tempting to hypothesize the existence of a nonsyllabic formative m" 1I0NORIFlC," although the source of this formative is not at all clear. But the

hypothesis is consistent with several wo rd families-for example, NGRO "go" "IIONORII-1C travel NOMINAL" > mgron "feast, banquet," nag "speech" SNAG "praise, extol" snags "incantation" -mnag "1I0NORU'IC speech" > MNAG "commission, charge, delegate," K1lAR "be penned up, be confined" [)GAR "sepa rate, confine, pen up" Ngar-po--mo " type of cattle" sgar "camp, encampntt:nt" -mkhar "1I0NORlflC enclosure" > mkhar "castle, fort."
NWOS "gait" tvgron-po "guest" -m-gro-n

2.1.2.1.4. TilE fORMATrvE m- "HUMAN BODY PART"

It has long been noted that a surprisingly large number of Tibetan words denoting parts of the human body begin with an rn prerlX-for example, rnkhal-ma "kidney," mkllTig-pa "wrist," mkhrispa "bile," mgal "jaw," mgo "head," mgu'''throat,'' mgrill-fXl "neck," milal "womb," mtJhan "side of the breast," ml.fhj-ma "tears," mtIlu'n-pa "liver," ml.fhif-ma "saliva," ml!hu "Iip," ml.flier-pa "splcen." mdtiii-pa "neck," mdlug " bUllock," mdle "penis," mthan "lower pan of the hndy," mllte-bo " thumb," mlho "span of the hand," millOnR(I "chest," mduii~ "cnmph:xio n," mu/lall "genitals," mtshul-pa "lower parI of the fa ce," nllx/wg-rnu "fcmtanelle," rndzub-mo "finger," mdur-pa "wart," Note alM I .wJoms-mdom.J "pudenda," Idall-pa-mdall'pa "cheek," as well as mlhiJ "hottom part" in [ug-nllhi/"palm of the hand," rkan-rntl!il "sole of the foot," I1l1lri/-hti "the four bottnms ... palms and soles," It ca n he conjectured that this preinilial m- is in fact a nonsyllahic formative m < Prolo-lil)etan -myi- "tillMAN UclUY PART," clearly related to-but not identical with- Proto-Tibetan -myi "human being." For example, given Old

WORDS

115

Chinese syen "bitter," Burmese ~san, Kanauri lin. Miti nin, Kachin sin, Lushei Ihin "liver," we can hypothesize Proto-Tibetan -myi-Lfin "HUMAN BODY PART liver" > -m-uin > Old Tibetan mUllin-pa "liver," given Lushei Iwl, Tiddim . Chin Iw~ Chepang ga~ Kaike khal '~kidney," we can hypothesize PrOio-Tibetan -myi-khal "IIUMAN BODY PART kidney" > -m-khal > Old Tibetan michal-rna "kidney," and given Lepcha lui "bitter," Kachin khri "acid, sour," Burmese khre "bile," Dimasa kizin' "sour," we can hypothesize ProtoTibetan -myi-khris "HUMAN BODY PART bile" > em-kilns> Old TIOctan rnJcJuir-pa "bile." NOie how this human part forma tive functions in the context of the word family KlIRlG "cohere, stick together" GRlG "correspond, fit together" SORlG "put together" -m-JcJlrig "IIUMAN BODY PART joim" > mkllrigpo "wrist," or the word family GAI./ "be in opposition" GALl "put on, put over" RGAJ. "dispute, contend" em .gal "HUMAN BODY PART opposition" > mgal "jaw."

2.1.2.1.5. TilE FORMATIVE s- "ANIMAl."

A number of classical Tibetan words fo r animals ~gin with an s preinitialfor example, stag "tige r, ~ ' sdig-pa "scorpion." sdom "spider," spyaii "wolf," spra -spre "monkey," sbal-pu "frog," -fbllr-pa "beetle," sbraiibu "bee," sbrnl "snake," smig-bu "lizard," and perhaps also sder-nw "claw, talon," spor-ba "paw, claw," spu "hair, feather," sballs "dung of a large anima1." This preinitial s- may in fact be a nonsyllabi, formative s- < Proto-Tibetan -fo' "ANt MAL." clearly related to hut nlll identical with Proto-Tibetan '10 "animal," -Iwo "dct:r." This ANIMAL PH I ~I 1X ap parently dates back to PrOloTibeto-Burman, since il is found throughout th~ Tibeto-Burman languages, although in different languages it may he prdixt:d to different word~ . Fnr example, some of these language show an animal prdix where Tibetan has none: for example, we find Lushei SlHvm, Lt:pcha satllm, MiTi si/wn. hut Tibetan dom "ht:ar," and, similarly, Lushd sa/riifl but Ti~tan na "fish." Lushei sal'O but Tibetan bya 'bird." Conversely, somt:times Tibetan shows an animal prefix where other Tibeto-Burman languages do not-for example, Thebor brul. Magari but, Burmese m,....e, Mikir phuru/, Lushei ml, Tangkhul phHQ "snake," but Proto-Tibetan -Iabrul "ANIMAL snake" > ' s-brul > Old Tibetan sbrul "snake," Lushei Iii, Garo -til<, Lepcha dik "scorpion," hut Proto-Tibetan -!a-dik "A1-I IMAJ... scorpion" > -s-dig > Old Ti~ tan sdig-pa "$Corpion," Burmese bha "frog" but Proto-Tibetan fabal "ANIMA!. frog" > -s-bal > Old Tibetan sbal-ptJ "frog." Mikir leke " tiger" hut Proto-Tibellm -la-tag "A1-IIMAl. tiger" > s-lag > Old Tibetan Slag "tiger," Burmese blwii

116

TilE ClAssiCAL TIIIETAN WOUAGE

"ordure" but Prolo-Tibetan -la-baiis "ANIMA!. ordure" > s-bans > Old Tibetan shans "dung." Finally, we find the animal prefIX in some cases both in Tibetan and elsewhere-for example. Miri sw. Tibetan spre "monkey," Lushei salcLi, Tibetan stag "tiger."

1.1.1.1.6. THE FORMA'I1V s-

~RANS ITIVEtI

The nonsyllabic formative s- "lltANSlnVE" is found as a prefIX in many transitive verbs Ihat are clearly related, phonologically and sc:maruicaJly, 10 intransitive verbs without the prefix-for example. GUL "be agitated" SOUL "agiI8It," GYUR "change, become" SGYUIC "cause to change. transmute, translate," GYf'L "fall, tumble" SerEL "throw down, ovenurn," GlUC "be right, be suitable" SGRlG "put in order," GIUB "grow dim, get dark" SORIB "pollute, darken, obscure," GRiL "be twisted or wrapped around" SGRfL "wind or wrap around," GRUN "be finished , he made ready" SORUB "finish, accomplish," ORE "roll on the ground" SORt: "roll," OREN "stand" soRER "raise, erect," OROG "cry out" SGXOG "publish, proclaim, promulgate," OROL "be libentted," SOROL "save, rescue," Fm. "decay" SNII. "destroy," NUN "be little" sNuR "diminish, reduce," DUM "be rt:conci1cd" SDUM "rt:concile, conciliau!," NUll "sink, set" SNUB "suppress, abolish," NU R "movt:, change place" SHUR "remove, shift," NOR "err, be mistakt:n" SNOR "confuse, confound, mingle, mix," BIIO "be polluted" SMG "stain, defile," RAN "be soaked, macerated" SRAN "steep, soak," BAR "catch fire, burn" SIIAR "light, kindle," BUB "be upside down" SPUB "invert," BYAN "be clt:ilnsed" SHYAN "cleanst:," B~R "adhere" SH~R "fasten," 8Y1N "sink down" SPYIN "let down," BREJ. "cohere" SRREL "stitch together," RlN "be long" SRlN "streich," J.AN "rise" SUN "raise," I.AD "be weak, dull" SUf) "adulterate," In addition, note such pairs as KJIUM "shrink, cont ract oneself' SKUM "contract, draw in," KJIOR "turn around, go about in a circle" SKOR "encircle, enclose, [wist around," KJIOL "be hailing" SKOL "bring to a boil," J()(Y1L "be twisled, wind oneself' SA"Y1L "bend, twist," KIlYUR "be separated, divorced" SKYUR "throw ilwily, cast OUI," KlO'O "red, stagger" SKYOM "shake, agitate," TlIIM "be absorbed, dissolve, evaporate" snM "enter, pervade," PHUR "fly" SPUR "make fly, frighlen <lway." PllfI. "become greater" SPEL "make greater," 1'110 "change place" SPQ "move, transfer," PlIYAR "hang down" SPYAN "suspend," PI/flO "proceed" Sl'HO "m<lke dispc=rse," PIIROD "be delivered, be

WORDS

117

transmitted" SPROD "bring together, introduce,',11

1.1.2.1.7. THE FORMATIVE -d "NOMINAL"

The nonsyllabic formative 4 "NOMI,.AL" is found in nouns derived from verbs-for cxamplc, ORO "become warm" drod "warmth," NA "be ill" nad "illness." sRE "'ean against" siied "crupper," KdH/"speak" mlJlUd "conversa-

tion." Often these derivatives are made into disyllabic stress groups by the addition of a pleonastic suffIX-for example, TSJIA "be hot" tshod-po "heat," wt.J "be heavy" Wid-po "weight," RGA "be old" rgad.po "old man," RKE "be lean" rlud-po "waist," LLt "look" lJad-mo "sight, scene, spectacle," BRO "taste, smel~ savor" brod-po "joy," fUSE "play" nseet-rno "game, span, toy," BLU "redeem, ransom" blud-po "ransom payment," filu "weep" nud-mo "sob," GOO "love" gdud.po "longing. desire."I.

1.1.1.1.8, THE FORMATIVE -n "NOMtNAL"

The nonsyllabic formative -n "NOMlliAl.." is found in nouns derived from verbs-for example, SKYO "be weary, vexed" skyon "fault, harm, deect," Raw "move, wander" IXYWI "flow, liurrent, stream," Gtll "urinate" gtJin "urine," filE "be near" iien "kinsman," Gll4 "~ there" gdan "scat, position, abode," IWZU "give a deccptive representation" rdzun "falschood," 2'A "cat" zan "food," Often these derivatives arc made into disyllabic stress groups by the addition of a pleonastic suffIX-for example, RKU "rob, steal" rkun-ma "thief, theft," SKYr"borrow" skyin-po "thing borrowed," NORO "go" NgroII-po "guest," RNA "mow, cut, reap" man-po "reward, hire, wages," NDU "come together, meet, assemble" Ndun-mtJ "counci~ consultation, advicc," NDRE "be mixed" Ndren-mtJ "mixture," NPHYO "roam about, gambol" Nphyon-ma "prostitute," Bto "milk" bton-ma "milk cow," Iu "peel, strip orr' fun-po "the peel."

13 Note abo NHAM"be equal, kvel H sNO/ll"lI\IIlte level, eqlllllt.e,H lINAN "slink" $NAN "Imdl," f'I1)It "tie mfxcd" JR "mix. H 14 Of CXHaJX. lbe DOmlullzlnl rormatt\oe 4 mllSl be diJllnplsbccS from tbe prt:Se.Qt stem iIlfIecUouI.ullk _4 II.. kw cues _ find noun doublelllllCb. U 1'UlJ-N-rtuId "root" .nd . . . . --dud-ptt "smoke," wbcre there are fonns botb wilb .nd willM;\ut 4 but DO obvious ICNI\lC w:rb. 1110 GOt ~ why tlUa b so.

118

TilE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

2.1.2.1.9. TIlE FORMATIVE

oS

"NOMINAL"

The nonsyllabic formative -.I "NOMINAl" is found in nouns derived from verbs -for example, SKYAB "protect" skyabs "protection," SIO'EM "be thinty" .skyems
"beverage, beer, libatio n, " KJIRU "bathe" khrus "bath," GRAN "count" gram

"number," NORD "go" Ngros "motion, travel," RD'lE. "change, shirt" rdfes "track, trace," Lli4 "look" lIas "omen, sign, prodigy," NDOM "come together" Ndoms "genitals," SPU "dc:coralc" spus "beauty," sro "change, shift" spos "incense," PlfYUG " be rich" phyugs "cattle," N80 "swell up" NOOs " boil, tumor, swelling," SBUG "pierce" sbugs "hole," RTSI"count, calculate" nsif "counting, numeration. astrology," RDZON "dismiss, expedite" rdzons "act of esconing, fcc for safe conduct, dowry," G'lA "ma ke jokes, play games" gtas "joke, game," ZA "eat" zas "food," ZAn "be deep" labs "depth," LOG "return, lurn around" logs "side, direction, region," SoiJ "remove, e mpty, carry away" Jom "pit, excavation, valley," BSO "pour out" bJos " food offering to the gods," SRUB "stir, rake, rub" stubs "cleft, slit, rent, wound," SLOIJ "learn, teach" slobs "exe rcise, practice, experience",,15 There is some (eason to believe tha t this derivat ional -s is the remains of an earlie r Proto-Tibetan - sa "P I.ACE." The following derivations. for example, an: not implausible-NAG "he black" -"ag.sa "da rk place" > nags "forest," l.AR "be deep" -zab-sa "deep place" > labs "depth," N80 "swell" - lObo-sa "swelling place" > Nhos "boil, tUl:noT," LTA "look" -lla-sa "looking place" > {tas "omen, sign," soiJ "excavate" -Joilsa "excavating place" > Jofu "excava ti on""l~ Such a derivation is less plausible- but certainly still possible
t5 Note also KG... "be olu"' rgas_kll "old age,~ NORJ:: '"be mixed"' Ndns nuJ " mixture, mcd h":y,"" lI1:tA '"belir, bring forth " bIJQs-",~ '"barvest,"" IWlU '"givt: a dccc:ptive rep resentation"' H nu.us"'tl "something coumer fcil, fe igned, dissembled,"" Uf "twist, ptait, braid IMsmQ ""braid, wickerwork , twi~ t ed pastry"" Th~ ~eriv~lions should be di5lingul\hcd from the nnminalil..ation with -I'(J of past tense SIems which have an inf\e(:tionai su ffIX - $, a proccs..~ .... hich co nt inued In he proouctive in tile ClaloSic..a1 Jang\l~ge- for eample, SIO'l:- "be:: born H sl.:yu-PIl ""ma n, male perso n," CHAO "cry, shoul '" grQgs .pt:I "fame,'"11If1B " mount, ride" flhibspt:I " ho~," S'HO '"go 01.11, spread , incline l oward "" spros"pa "bu$;ne$$, activi ty." 16 There are a few examples ....here Ihis PrOlo-Tihetan o_so .. n ....CEH > -J .ppc.an 10 derive nnuns frum nouns u ....dl - Ihus ,v,u.ot '"hole, pil, cavityH okJurflJ(J "hole pl~ ce" > khuns ""mine," Ichaii " the in~i lJe'" khoiiJQ "'inside place'" > ,v,oiaJ "middle, mid!t,H ilo "face" ' ';(J "Sti "" face place'" > ;ins '"siue, dirC(tion, surface,"' dbl4 " hClld"" dbu'JO "h~d place" > dbu.s ""mrlJ<.Il e:" The words phYop '"side, diroctlOn" and '''1;$ "~ ide" diroc tion" I re sufficiently similar III cac h or her in meaning, ~nu 1 0 pIIY(Jg "hand" and wg "hand" in phonetic Shape,

WORDS

119

_herc thc derived noun slands 10 the source verb as something other than a patient. as in SKYE.M "be thirsty" skytms "beer" or I'lfYUG "be rich" phyugs "callie."; and some of these derivations appear simply idiosyncratic, such as SPO "change, shift" lfXJS "incense."

2.1.2.1.10. THE FORMATIVE swd-s'" <iIONSIlIP COlLECTIVE"

Thc nonsyllabic formative Hi or sn "KINSHIP COU.ECIlVF." is found in a very Jcw words dcnoting kinship groups. wherc its function is apparently to cxpand the rangc of refercncc of thc source noun-for examplc, pIII1 "fathcr" plla. spad "father and childrcn," ma "mothcr" ma-smad "molher and childrcn," phu "cldcr brothcr" spun "siblings" span-spun "brothcrs. relatives," kllu "unclc" skudpo "brothcr-inlaw. father-inlaw," tsha "grandchild, ncphcw" khu-tshan "uncle and nephcw."

2.1.2.2. Outer du;valion

2.l.2.2.1. SYLLABIC FORMATIVES
2.1.1.2.1.1. TilE FORMATIVE nUl "NESS"

Thc syllabic formativc iiid "'NESS" is suffixed to adjectives to yield ahstract nouns-for examplc, lla-ba "easy" slabanid "casiness," dka-ba "difficult" dluJ-banid "difficulty," sra-ba "hard" sra-ba-iiid "hardness," nag-po "black" nag-ponid "blackness," tshaba "hot" tshabanid "heat," bzaiiba "good" bzaii-banid "goodness." Such forms are primarily metaphysical in connotation: srabaiiid "hardncss," for example. is a lerm for a quality characteristic of all material substancc. Similarly, bzanbanid "grxxtncss" refers to goodness considered in the abstract; goodness considered as a matter of degree would be expressed ~ the ADJECTIVE + ADJECDVE _ NOUN compound bzaniian "good bad _ virtue." The formativc iiid "'NESS" is thus primarily productive in the area of Buddhist philosophical abstraction. We find slon.po "empty" slon.po.iiid "cmptiness," lies-po "certain" nes.pa.iiid "reality," debIin "such" debIiniiUl
10 5Ugeslll'lc derivation phyagllog "bandM:>o phyog_llog_sQ " band plaf;:eM clirct1ion.M
:>0 phyop/fop

"side,

120

THE ClAssiCAL. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

"suchncu," rniiam-ptJ "alike" miiam-pa-ijid "sameness," In this semantic field 8S well, such philosophical abstractions can also be derived frum nounsmulum "sign" muJuzn-Rid "defining mark," no-be "thing" no-bo-nUl "nature," saijsrgyas "Buddha" sans-rgyas-ifid "S"ddhahood,"

2.1.2.2.1.2. 11IE FORMATIVE -po "PERSON HAYING TO 00 WITH"

The syllabic formative -pa "PERSON HAVING TO 00 WlTII"-which musl be clearly disting~ished {rom the nominalizer -Pa-is extremely productive in classical Tibe~n. and it is 5ufflXCd to nominals of all types to yield new nouns. Thus we find mdJJ "arrow" mdtl-pa "archer," tin "field" tiii-pa "farmer," na "horse" no-pa "horseman," small "medicine" sman-pa "doctor," tJhu "water" tIhu-pa "waler carrier," gar "dance" gar-pa "dancer," khyinz "house" Jchyim-pa "householder," grwo "school" grwa-pa "scholar," ma/-Nbyor "yoga" mal-Nbyor-pa "yogin," ka-kha "ABC" kakhapa "schoolchild," lha-sa "Lhasa City"lha-sa-pa "resident of Uasa City," bod "Tibet" bodpo "Tibetan," ri-bo "mountain" ri-bo-pa "highlander," dpyodpa "examination" d!I)',Id-pu-pu "examiner." Similarly, we find .pa suffiXed to adjectives, as in gtIer-b14 "naked" gtJer-bu-pa "naked ascetic," and tocomplex nominals, as in las dan po "first work _ beginning" /as-dafi-po.po "beginner," rkan Wlif "two fect" rkaii-gfiir.pa "biped," bye-brag-ru smf/l-ba "vibha~" bye-bragtu .rmra ba.pa
"Vaibh8~ika."

2.1.2.2./.J. THE FORMATIVE mfdum "SJULLED IN"

The form -mkhan "SKILLED IN" appears in several collocations after nounsfOf example, sa "COUlltry" sa-mkhan "guide," lam "pa th" /am -mkhan "guide," Ijjj "wood" Jiii-mkhan "carpenter," gar "dance" gaf-mkhan "dancer," gtu "bow" gtumJchan "bowmaker," bzo "handicraft" bzo-mkhan artisan," The fOfm mkhan is clearly related to a number of lexical items with similar meanings: notc MKJIYEN "know," mkhan-po "scholar, abbot," mkhas-pa "knowledgeable," mJchllJ-PO "learned person." It is nOl clear to me, however, whether -mJchan is better described ilS a syllabic formative-that is, a form that is not itself a word, although perhaps etymologically related to a word, such as mfdlan-po "scholar, abbol"-nf instead as a clipped word fUllcl i:nirp, as the second member of a compound. No matte rs of great momcnl t. ; '.

WORDS

121

this distinction; but the WObkm is offert:d here to illustrate the insistent . intractibility of language.

2.1.2.2.1.4. TilE FORMATIVE

'1'I1O-t.fJ~

"BIG JUNO 01-'"

The disyllabic formative l'lIo /Jhe " UI(; KtND 0 1-"" is commonly suCrlXed 1 0 noun~ 10 yield new nouns with an inlt:llsivc or emphatic sense. Thus we find sk4d "voice" skad.po-tIhe "Ioud voice," OlD "nose" ma-bolJ/ie "big nosc," me " fire" mebolJhe "conflagra tion," od "light" od-po-l$ht " brilliance," phal "commoll people" pllOl,po-l$l.e "crowd," sdig "sin" sdigpo-rlhe "vile sinm:r," glun "ox" glan-po."f/le "elephant," na "h6rse" nu-bo /Ihe "divine horse," millu "power" mfhubOfIh e "migh ty po wer," n'" "value" rill-po- /Ihe "jewel."

2.J .2.2.1.5. TilE FORMATIVE

I.~tm

" POSSESSING"

The syllahic formativ e -tIun "I'OSSE'~tN(j" is suffixed to nouns 10 create adjectives. This formative is very pmtJu( tive in the classic:t l la nguage, ;15 in )(fum -pu "swamp" Kmm-patIan "swampy," g(JTI5 "snow" gaTIS./Jan "snowy," /S/u:rm(J "thorn" /S/1I:rmU IJUII "Ihmny," nor "wea lth" nor/Ial! "wealthy," spod "spice" spod./Jun " spicy," mllg "pus" mug.tIUlI " purulent," .wra "sound" swu -Wm "sonorous," n'" "val ue" fin /Jull valuahk." gduK'PU "poison" ?fluX ' pa-dull "poisonous," "'KYur.hlJ, "change" f<:{yur-/! u tJulI " mutable." iiur "liard m:ss" "ar IJufl " tt:mpered," Idtid :'w::ight" (dtid'IJul! "heavy:' khy/JI/ " difference" klzyud. ,.{lJ/1 spcl:ia!." kfud " modesIY " khref- I!an "mnJest," 81vs "aJ vicc" groSLJUlI "cautious," .~JiK " sir' " JdiKI.(tUl ., infu l," lUI "wt) ~ k " /uJ -l.((m "industrious," .'ifl/h.. " strength" J Wb.N ;VIl " stmnt~: ' dbali "powe r"' dbU/i -IJl/n " powt:rful," rlled-rno "play" nsedrr.o ,f(lll "mcrry," smg "life" .mlg- t rwl "living," serns "mind" snns' IJm ! "sclltient ," ltd "lx)(ly" [us-d (1II " emlxx.i i,:d," blo-grus "intellect" b(O-grOl'- I$UII "JuJ id()us," dXebu "virt ue" dKt -ba tJu" "virtuous," nnrgyal " pride" nawul'.!on "proud," miii "name" m jiz ' .{(111 "famous," mi "sap" (fsi/!",! viscid."

11 Co mpa/<: word~ lhal ~im d~rty end WIlh hdng - ro r eUIllpl<:, IcJt lliH><4Jg "ma'ler nl Ille 1l0w.e." su bdllg "masle r uf Ihe canll .... In,r... 1 ocl l y." ~iWDg "ma~te l u l the SUI' ..... !'Joa! t deity:' Jbyi,,bdag "maSler or 'Irl\ .... pauu n:' n :nlJbdag "lfIaSler uf do minl' ,n - .. ru tcr ," n il bd<Jg "maste r o f men .... kin,:' Sud"! II< urds arc Icad ily CI 'ncclvcd III be o" ml,,-,umls ,,'ull thf. ~hpp<.'<.1 5CUln d mcmbcr MIlK'po " m;os< cf : ' It is hardn. ; oc lie"t, In ~CC, !o.'~ Jii mJtIr,m ':..HperllC( dCfivc<.l In 'hc s~m~ ~ llaigt' l rm.... a (d way fmm mkhn" .pa " sc h" lar, ahl>o!.

122

TilE CLt.ssICAl TIBETAN WGUAOE

We must distinguish constructions using this FORMATIVE dan "POSSESSING" from clipped relalive constructions with the VERBS UJAN .. ~ endowed" and nrlAs "be accompanied," which bear a surface similarity. Both verbs occur with patient and accompaniment participants-for example,so;;'HKYOS yon-ton dan Idan "The Buddha is endowed with excellence," rgyo/-po Nkhor.tfaii btJas "The king is accompanied by his retinue." Relativized forms of these verbs are arlen found modifying no uns, as in rgyal-mo bu-dun. Man-po "the queen with a child," bla-rna rig.pa-dan. /Jan -po "a lama possessed of wisdom," rgyol. po ral-gri-dnii btJas-pa "the king ",;th his sword," dgesloii g/egs-bam-dan blJuspo "the monk who has the books," Such collocations are particularly liable to be clipped. Thus we find mdvg "color" and both mdog-tJan and mdogldan < mdog-daii lJanpa "colored," gltod "harm" and both gnodtJan and g7lodbt!as < gnoddan btJaspo "harmful," sdig "sin" and both sdig.tJan and sdig bt!as < sdig-daii bt!aspa "sinful," nor "wealth" and both norl!an and 1I0r bl!as < nordan hl!aspo "wealthy."

2.1.2.2.1.6. TilE FORMATIVE -yas "LESS"

The syllabic formative yas "-LESS" is suffixed to nouns 10 create adjectives with a privative meaning. II is, in this sense, the se mu nlic opposite of the syllable formative l!an "POSSESSING," but its scope is much mme restricted. The formative yas "u.ss" is found only with nouns denoting extent-thus, for example, hgran "number" bgruii-yas "numberless," mIlia "end, border, limit" mlha-yas "endless," dptJg " measure" dpagyas "measureless," gta! "weight, measure" gIal.yas 'infinite."

2.1 .J.2. 1.7. TilE FORMATIVE -bu--u "DIMINUTIVE"

Another produc!!Ye syllabic formative is -bu-UD1MINU11VE"-dearly related to but not identical with the noun bu "child"-suffixed lO nouns to yield new nouns. The form bu is suffIXed to syllables with consonant finals-for ex~mple, lam "kettle" laiisbu "POt," glegs " table" g/~-bu "tablet," khuii "hole" Ichuflbu "pore," gzer "nail" gzer oJU "lack," lor "sickle" lorbu "chopper," phad "sack" pilad.bu "handbag," glan "ox" glaiibu "calf," dom "bear" dom,bu "bear cub" !in "wood" !iFi-bu "piece of wood " rn>r "wealth" nor-bu "gem." In disyllables the' formative bu replaces unst~essed PO and Pllo-thus kJJaii-pa "house" khan-bu "coual;e," sJon-po "tree trunk" sdoiibu

WORDS

123

"stick.," bum-pa "jar" bum-bu "small W3Icrpol," tIhag-pa "bunch of flowers" t/h4g-bu "small bunch of flowers."

Afler a preceding open syllabic we find the form u. and in such cases too the preceding low back vowels Q and () become the low fronl vowel e-thus riia "drum" meu "small drum," mda "arrow" mdeu "arrowhead," bo "cow"

bell "calf," ra "goat" reu "kid," Ita "horse" rtN "foal," bya "bird" byeu "little
bird," M "fuh" nell. "small fish," so "tooth" stu "small tooth," rnLSho "lake" mJSluu "pond," khyo "man" Ich~u ''youth,'' rdo "stone" rchu "pebble," sgo "door" .rgeu "little door," mtho "hammer" mtheu "little hammer." Front vowels are unaffected by a following -u-thus mi "man" miu "dwarf," khyi "dog" Ichyiu "puppy," d,e "mule" lIreu "young mule," rdte "lord" rd1eu
"princeling,"

In many cases the -u form has been generalized to replace the form bu after consonants as well as vowels, with frequent variation in spelling-for example, pag "brick" pag-bu-pag-gu "brick," gzn- "nail" gzer-bu-gu-ru "tack," gdub "bracelet" gdub-bu -gdu-bu "bracelet," riJ-po "globule" riJ-bu-ri-lu "pill," thig "cord" thig-gu-thi-gu "string." phrug "child" phrug-gu-phru-gu "child," wg "sheep" lug-gu-lu-gu "Iamb," dbyug-pa "stick" dbyug-gu-dbyu-gu "wand," smyug-ma "bamboo" smyug-gu-smyu-gu "reed pen_"

2.1.2.2.1.8. SEX FORMATIYES

1.1.1.1.1.8.1. The fonn.tives -mo "'FEMALE" and -plw "MALE"

Several syllabic formatives in the classical language function to specify the sex of nominals with animate reerents. Many Tibetan ani""'lte nouns are unmarked for sex: they refer vaguely to beings of either sex. Where there is a need to specify the sex of the reeTent, the sex formatives -mo "FEMAlE" and -pho "MALE" .yield nauru with' this additional informaHoO! Thus we find bran "servant" but bran-mo "maidservant" bran-plio "manservant," we "demon" but ftIdrt-mo "female demon" ftIdrt-pho "male demon," Ia "deer" but Io-mo "doc" Io-pho "buck," ra "goat" but ra-mo "nanny goat" ra-phD "billy goat," bra "bird" but bya-mo "hen" bya-phD "cock." lug "sheep" but lug-mo "e~" lug-pho "ram," Ita "horse" butlta-mo "mare" Ita-pho "stallion,"

124

TIlE CLAssICAL.,TmETAN lANOUAGE

khyi "dog" but khyi-mo -"bitch" khyi-phn "male dog," tire "mule" but tire-mo "jenny" dre-pho "male mule."

2.1.2.2.1.8.2. Animpl sex fonnalivu Nouns referring to animals form several interesting lexical fields in Tibewn. Unmarked and sex-marked animate: nouns combine with their respective diminutives to constitute the following semantic array:
UNMARKED FEMALE
MALE

YOUNG

"horse" "deer"
"goal"

na fa m

"dog"

khyi
bya

"bird" " mule" "sheep"

d"
lug

l'1amo Iamo ramo khyi-mo bya-rno dremo tllgrno

r1a-pho !a.pIw ra-pho khy;pho bya-pho dre-pho lug-pho

,reu
feu "u

Jehyiu byeu
dreu

tug.gu

Moreover, a further distinction of sex is often drawn between castrated and uncastrattd domestic animals, where the uncastrated form is marked with the syllabic formative pha- "UNCASTRA1W" and the castrated form is either unmarked or mnrked with the syllabic formative pho. "CASTRATED." Thus we find glan "ox" phagtan "bull," ra-plw "goat" phlJ.ra "buck goat," pho-r1a "gelding" pha-r1a "stallion," pho-phag "gelded boar" phaphDg "boar," pho. g.yag "gelded yak" pha-g.yag "bull yak." Note the resulting distnoution of te rms-na "horse (male or fema le)," r1a-pho "male horse (gckled or ungelded)," pllor1a "gelded horse," pllar1a "stallio:l," The females of such domestic animals often have nonderived names (thus ba
"cow" rather than ?glan.mo, Nbrimo "female yak" rather than ?g.yog-mtJ, and

rgod.mtJ "mare" alongside r1a-mo), or names derived with the syllabic formative mo "OOMESllC FEMALE" in parallel with pho- "CASTRATED," Again note the distribution of terms-lta "horse (male or fema~)," r1a-mo "female horse (wild or domestic)," mO-r1a "domestic female horse;' Note too that we therefore find slag-rno "tigress" but not ?mo-stag and sen-,e.mo "lioness" bu\ not ?mosenge. Domestic animals tilus constitute a lexical field much like the following:

WORDS

125
UNCASTRATED CASTItATED
glan

F1!MALE

"ox" "yak" "goat" "horse" "pig"

pha-glan pha-g.yag pha-ra pha-rta pha-phag

pho-g_yag ",-pho
plw-rta

ba Nbri-mo
ra-mo

pho-phog
and

mo""" mo-plwg

2_1.2.1.1.8.3. The formauvu

-m/}

-1M

"fEMALE"

Many other Tibetan animate nouns-and generally all nominal. with human rderents-refer vaguely both to males and to beings of either sex. Where there is a need to specify the referent as female the syllabic formative. -mo "FEMALE" and -rna ""EMALE" yield nouns with the additional information. A source nominal that ends in -PrJ or .pa will generally derive iu sex-marked form with ma, one that ends in -PliO will generally derive iu sex-marked form with -mp, and one that ends in neither will idiosyncratically select one formative or the other, although there appears to be some tendency for native Tibelan words 10 select mo and for borrowed expres.siotIJ and neologisms to select ma. In this last case we find the sex formative -rna selected in such nominals as mi "human being, man" mi-rno "woman," 100 "deity, god" lOO-mo "goddess,"

bu "child, $On" bu-rno "daughter," rdle "noble person, lord" rdle-mo "lady," klu "serpent deity, serpent god" Idumo "serpent goddes.s," gnod-sbyin "demon, male demon" gnod-sbyin.mo "female demon." pho-na "messenger, male messenger" pho-na-mo "female messenger," Slag "tiger. male tiger" slagmo "tigress," grulburn "ghoul, male ghoul" grut-bum-mo "female ghoul," and we find the sex formative rna selected in such nominals as dge-sloii "cenobite, monk" dge-sloii-ma "nun," rdte-btsuff' ''reverend person, reverend sir" rdle btsun-ma "reverend madam," dbaii-phyug "mighty one, k>rd" dboii-phyug.rna " lady," mkho.NgrO "celestial spirit, 4iika" mkha-HgrO-rna ""ik.iOi," gloo-nu "young person, youth" glonnu-ma "maid."
Among nominals whose unmarked forms end~n -I'D or -pa we find bod-pa "Tibetan, male Tibetarr" bod-Wla "female Tilx!tan," gar-po "dancer, male dancer" gar-mn "remale dancer," tJhospo "religious person, monk" tIhos-ma "nun," mal'Nbyor.pa "pra~tilioner of yoga, yogin" maf-Nbyor-mo "yogini," 10gilis-pa " two-year-old. two-year-old boy" logiiis-ma "two-year-old girl." Nphogs-

126
po "noble person, nobleman"

TilE Ci..AssICAL TIBETAN l..J.NouAoE

Nphags-ma "noblewoman," Nphrog-pa "thief, male thier' Nphrog-ma "female thief," nor-ldan-pa "rich person, rich man" nor-ldan-nuJ "rich woman," sosor Nbran-po "follower. male devotee" so-sor Nbran-ma "Cemale devotee."
Amo ng nominals whose unmark.ed forms end in PIIO we find tsha-bo

"grandchild, grandson" tshamQ "granddaughter," g.yog-po "servant., man servant" g.yog-mo "maidservant." grogs-po "friend, male friend" grogs-rna "female friend," rgyal-po "royalty, king" rgyol-ma "queen," glan-po "elephant, male elephant" glon-mo "female elephant," NgOii-po "demon, male demon" "8On.mo "Cemale demon," dboij-po "sovereign, male sovereign" dboiimo "female sovcrcign," gtso-bo "chief, fim lord" gtso-mQ "first lady," tJh~/1.po "great one, great man" dllen-mo "great lady," dkar-po "while one, white male" dlwr-mo "white female."

2.1.2.2.1.8.4. Names

In some cases too the formative s -mo "FEMALE" or -ma "FEMALE" may replace the -1'110 or -fa or -po suffIX of some nominals to yield nouns denoting a special kind or particular example of the class denoted by the source nominal-a specification of the son often rendered in English by initial capitalization. Thus we find riiiii-pa "old" but riiiii-ma "Old Sect," gsar-po "new" but gsar-ma "New Sect," dbw "middle" but dbu-ma "Madhyamaka School," gter "treasure" bUlgter-rna "Hidden Text," bluJ "sacred teaching" but bluJ-rna "the Teaching of the Old Sect," grum-po "heat" but grum-mo "Mystic Heat," t.sJwd "measure" butlShod-ma "Science of Logic." Thus too zans rubti "four-handled pot" refers to any such pot; but zans ru-bti-ma refers to a specific design of four-handled pol, or even to a specific pot, perhaps noted for its design or workmanship. The same specificity may be seen in book titles: the term rgyud-NgreI Lfhen-po "great tanlric commemary" denotes any such work, but the term rgyud-NgnJ tIlllm-mo refers specifically to a particular tantric commentary, the VunaIaprabhii commentary on the Kiilaca!ualamra. Similarly, lam-rim Lfhen-po "great sequemial teaching" could refer to any such teaching, but the term kim-rim Lfhen-mo refers specifically to the Rim-po IhomNIod tshaii -bar Slon-po; byaiiLfhub klm~ rim-po by Tsoii-kha-pa. Again, leu bdun-ma "the seven chapters" refers to the seven-<:hapter hidden text of Padmasambhava, the term y;-ge drug-rna "the six syllables" refers to the six-syllable mantra of

WORDS

127

Avalok.ite1vara, and the term lor gans-n-ma "the eastern snow mountain" refers to a poc:m by the first Dalai urna Dge-Ndun-grub, which begins with the line lar sans-n tiJclJr-poi /1.re-mo-na "On the peak of the white eastern IOOW mountain ... " And, although blo-sbyoii don-bdun "seven points of mind training" could refer to any such set of teachings, bJo..Jbyon don-bdunma refers to the specific technique said to have been taught in Tibet by AtUa around the year 1050. 2.1.2.2.1.8.5, Gqrapby To the Tibetans, both mountains and plains apparently tend to be reminine, In the archaic manuscripts rrom Central Asia we find mention of such lhan "plains" as mon-mo than, bal-mo than, lllomo than, rgyamo than, rgyal-mo than, and dbyar-mo than-this last, for example, presumably the same as the ,.yu-mo-g.yar-mo-yar-mo than or modern travelers, and presumably the same as the dbyar-mo than mentioned on the Potala pillar inscription of 764, recounting the Tibetan victories m'er the Chinese. Note Iho-mo lhan "southern plain" < /110 "south," bal-rno than "Nepalese plain" < ba/-yuJ "Nepal," rgya-rno than "Chinese plain" < rgya-nag "China," and man-rno t/uJii "Man Plain," < rnon "people living between Tibet and India, including Assam, Bhutan, and Lahul," where it seems reasonable to view the -mo suffIX as a proper mIme marker, as in the preceding section. Moreover, whatever Freud might say, mountains seem indisputably feminine, and are called la-ne "aunt" or dlo-rno "lady," as in the mountain names dlo-mo Jeha-nag "Lady Black-mouth" or dIo-mo llla-n "Lady God-mountain."

1.1.1.1./.9. THE FORMATIVE -PlIO "ADJECTfJIE/AGENT"

One of the primary functions of the formative -PlIO is the derivation of adjectives from stative verbs. We find DKA "he difficult" dluJ-bo "difficult," DXAR "be white" dluJr-po "white," SKYlO "be happy" skyid-po "happy," HDUR "be hoarse" Mizer-po "hoarse," MTIIUN"be in agreement" mthun-po "affable," lUSUS "be rough" rtsub-po "rough," MOD "be abundant" mod-po "plentirul," MAR "be many" man-po "many," 8TSA.N "be strong" btsan-po "powerful," RlAG "be permanent" /tag-po "lasting," OOA "be happy" dga-bo "happy," D&!GS "be intense" drags-po "violent," DGU "be bent" dgu-po "crooked." Verb roots which do not have a final consonant very often lake an additional -n surf"1X before the syllabic formative-thus tiH "be great" dhen-po "great." DIttA "be

128

THE OAssICAL TIBETAN l...ANoUAGE

low" dma,,-po "low," MTHO "he high" mIhan-po " high," RGA: "be old" rgan-fXJ "old," RHO "be sharp" mon-po "sharp," sRo "become green" siion.po "blue."
Such deriva livc.i occasionally and idiosyncratically select the formative -rna instead of PHD-thus SKYO "be weary" skyo-mo "weary," SCII.E "be naked" sgnn11tQ "naked," lu "melt" lunmo "mollen," ORO "be warm" drrm'mo "warm," as well as dga-rna "happy" alongside dgo-bo, dgu-mo "crooked" alongside dgu-bo. siion-rna "bluc" alongside siion-p:1. Such forms, of course, are not marked for sex; they must be distinguished from such sex-marlted forms as rgan-po "old' - 'Ban-mo "old woman;' tIh~n.po "great" tfMn-mo "great lady," dkar-po "white" dkar-mo "white lady." Note, too, that the re seems to be no principle by which open syllables select the suffIX -n. We find DGA "be happy" dga-bo "happy" bUI DMA "be low" dman.po "Iow-," and we find such doublelS as TSHA "be hot" uha-mo-Ishan;"o "hOi," SNI "be sofl" siii-bo-snj.mo-siiin.po "soft."

The derivation of adjectives in PlIO had largely ceased to be productive by the time of Old Tibetan; the vasl majority of adjectives in the classical texts are derived instead from verbs nominalized with .PQ and used in relative constructions. We may thus note a continuing tendency in the classical language to supplement older adjectives in -PHO with adjectives in PO de rived from the same verbs. Thus we find such doublets as dkabo-dkaba "difficult," skyid-po-skyid.pa "happy," rtag-po-rtagpa "lasting," dgabo-dga ba "happy," srabo-sra-ba "hard," mthunpo-mthunpa "affable," gsor-pogsar-ba "new," bZflIl-po-bz(lijba "virtuous," gtumpo-gtum-pa "furious." Certain common adjectives in -1'110 remained largely in their earlier formsdilen-po "great," mali-po "many," dkar-po ''white,'' dmar.po "red," and 50 o n. The change from 'Pflo to ora was also blocked whe re the source verb had meanwhile been lost from the language, as with dam-po "tight" from a lost verb -DAM "-be bound" (compare SlN(M "bind''), or where the source verb was, unusually, tra nsitiv~ rather than slalive, as with nRAN "pull" draijpo "straight.,,18 The formative -1'110 also occurs in the derivation of nouns with animatc or human referents from inanimate and frequently abstract nouns. These sourcc
II In I few cases, the newer rorm in ./'rJ was k:liCaIiUd willi Ih.c: older sum. 11 intaccthus SMYO "be: cnr.zy~ Jmyon-pil "clazy,~ RJ.U "be wounded" m"mpil ''wounde4." In SIKh casc:s too apparenlly Ihe older forms -such as Jmyon-po and .,.,.,.Q1I.po_lLavc: been entirely re placed.

WORDS

129

nouns may themselves be either primary or derived. In the first case we find luch examples as gnas "place, abode, dwelling" gnas-po "host. landlord. head of house," blOll "advice. counsel" blOll-po "minister, couraelor," mgron "Ceast. banquet" mgron-po "guest." bon ''Tibetan religion" bon-po "follower oC Tibetan religion," dpa "bravery, strength" dpa-bo "hero, dbaii "power, might" dboii-po "lord. ruler, sovereign," bzo "~rk., craft" bzo-bo "crafUiman, aniJan," mlJw "power. strength" rJw-bo "chid, elder brother." In the second case the source noun is a nominalized verb-for example, SBYJN "give" sbyill-po "gift" sbyin-pa-po "donor, patron," SCRUB "perform, achieve" sgrub-pa "meditation" sgrub-pa-po "meditator," SGROL "save" sgrol-ba "salvation" sgro/-btl-po ",savior," ,t.W "kin" gsod-pa "murder" pod-po-po "murderer."I' Note also NU "suck" nu-ba-po "suckling," GSO "heal" gsn-ba-pa "physician," D1.o "milk" Ndto-ba-po "cowherd." The formative -PliO is also found in similar animate and human nouns derived directly from verh steT'ls-for el''lmple, Rm;tL "be victorious" rgyal-po "king." SKYAR "repeat, rt'x il(' ~y heart" skyar-po "snipe. woodcock, duck.," SX: "be born" skye-bo "pefS' Il. human being," BTSUN "be noble" buUIt-po "nobleman." BYlJR "arise, emerge. corne out" Nbyuii-po "being, creature, evil spirit." LOR "be blind" /o;;po "blind person." NU "suck" nu-bo "man's younger brother."w

2.1.2.2.1.10. TilE FORMATWE -sa "PUCE WHERE"

The syllabic formative -sa "PLACE WHERH"-c1early related to but nOI identical with the noun sa "place"-is suffIXed to verb stems to yield nouns. For example. we find NDA "pass over" Nda-sa '~place where an archer stands to shoot in a contest." SKAM "be dry" skom-sa "shore," KTSHER "be afraid" NtSlier-sa "deserted village." GOL "pan, separate" Ngol-sa "place where two
I' Such de livalions are common in Bw(Jhisl psychology and philosophy-for eumple, !s "knoW' /u -pa "knowlc4gc" hJpapo "kAowcr." TSHOR "perceive" uhu-txJ "selUation" uhor-bapo "perQl:ivert BYA "do" tTftd-pa "aC1ion" byfiJ.pa.po "acent," lrITHoN "_" rnJhoII
bapo ''1l1bjca of the act of seeing." NOt) "CO" HgFOba po "JOel."
20 In I fc:w c:ases we lind novns in PlIO I nd mo with nonanimale or ab$tract rcterenlS apparently derived fro m verbs and COlICTclc as well as ab$tract novns-fot eumple, ,nill "heart" sftill.po "main pan, _nee." dilos'''(fIVIY'' dAru;po " thfnj. 'nilurat body. $1Ib$t.l1ICC. SllItI'," R.OL "enjoy sensually" fDi_mo "m\l$ic," mCRs '"be fllU" kMM-po' '' fOOd prodl.lCinl nalvknot. ..

130

THE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

roads separate," NOU "meet. come together" Ntius-sa "meeting place," NGRlM ''wander'' Ngrim-sa "abode," BROS "l1ee," ,mros-SQ "place of refuge," SFO "change place" spo-sa "nomad camp," THAR "be saved" thor-sa "sanctuary," RE "hope" rt-SQ "that whereon the hopes arc set." NDUG "remain" Ndug-sa "residence," NGRO "go" NgT'O-SQ "destination," ND2JGS "be afraid" Ndfip-sa "dangerous region," DBEN "be solitary" dben-sa "hermitage," grru-/'lDRJ "ask advice" grru-Ndrisa "oracle." Occasionally we find the formative in the form -so-for example. RAN "be bad" nan-so "hell," NKlfIWL "be mistaken" NkhruIso "wrong way, peril," GTAJ) "lean upon" grad-so "resource, store.,,21

2.1.2.2.1.11. THE FORMATWE -I'G "NOMI,YAL"

The syllabic formative

.1'a "NOMINAl" is by far the most productive formative in the language. II is found in a vcry large number of nouns derived from verb stems: for example, from verbal present stems we find NKHOR "turn about" NichOl-bo "the round of rebirth," NKJfRJ "wind, twist, coil oneself' Nkhri-ba "fondness, auachment," NORO "go" Ngro-ba "living being," SGRJB " make dark" sgrib.po "sin," SCOM "contemplate" sgom-po "contemplation," rx;os "be necessary" dgos.po "necessity," tllflR "bind" Nt!hiiiba "shackles," obG "destroy" Ndlig-po "destruction," NolIGS "be afraid" Ndtigs-pa "fear," D'l.UG "set out" Ndlugpo "beginning," NDtOL "hang down" Ndfolba "trail, train, retinue," ~F:. "get" riiedpa "property," SRAM"think" siiom-pa "thought," SNOM "make level" siiom.pa "equanimity," BRRAs "despise" briias-pa "contempt," LTA "look" ltaba "opinicn," BDUG "burn incense" bdug-po "the burning of incense," BDN "he true" bdefl-po "truth," DOL "tame, subdue" NduJba "ecclesiastica l rules of conducl," SooM "fasten" mompo "vow," BDOG "store, put away, keep" bdag-po "weahh," BOE "be happy" bdeba "happiness," NooD "desire, long for" Ndodpa "lust, longing," NA "be sick" fIQ-ba "disease," NUS "be able" flUJ-PO "ability," NOR "err" nor-ba "error," sHAN "appear" sflaiiba "appearance," Sf'YAl) "perform" spyod-po "activity," PUf. "give" Nbulba "gift," KTSOL "endeavor" rtsolba "diligence," 1.1 "be calm" Iiba "tranquility," ZA "cal" zaba "food," RJG "know" rig.po "knowledge.,".tW "kill" gsodpo "murder," GSON "live" KSOfl-PO "m~lime."

11 Occasionally 10-SO is lOllnd allcr nOllrlS_for cumplc, HbcI "tarJel" " " 1 0 "plaCe where lhe tar&el is SCI up in .n . rchcry conlol," IlItu "wilIer" IIIw.so "urinary orp.... " S\K:h Instances $CCIm beller described as NOUN + NOUN _ NOUN compoulMSl, wllb 1M KC:OQCI member so-so "place," Itlan as dcriYllIKtns wilb syllabic lonrullivc.

WORDS

131

The formative -PQ also no minalizes verbal stems o ther than the presem: we find nouns derived from paSt stems in SKYJ:: "be born" skyes-pa "man, male person," GRAG "shout. cry-' grogs-po "fame," NI'II.AG "be raised" Nphags-pa "noble person," SI'RO "make go out, cause to spread" spros-pa "business, employmem, activity," and from future ste ms in IUOG "cxiimine" brtog-po "inquiry," STAN "show" bSlon-po "doctrine," SLAB "learn, teach" bs/ob-pa "doctrine," BY"" "do" byo-bo "deed, aclion, work." In all these cases, we can discern a wide variety of semantic relationships between the verb and its no minal deri"ative-for example, NGRO "go" Ng'I'O-ba "SUBJECf OF GOING -- living being," l.A "eat" za-bo "OBJECT OF EATING ..... food," NKJIOR "turn around" Nkhor- ba "STAn OF nJRNtNG AROUND _ the round of retlinh," SAD " kill" gsod-po "ACT Of KlI.I.I/'IG -- murder," limN "bind" t/hiiibo "INSllUJMENT.OI' IiIN[)Il'lG ..... shackles," SNOM "make level" siiom-pa "RESULT 0" MAKING I.EVEI. -- equanimity." This semantic exocentricity is characteristic wo rd construction processes: no te, for exa mple, STAN "show" slonpo "PERSOI'I WilD snows - tcacher" but ORAL "explain" Ngrl'/.pa "TI liNG WI/le ll EXPI,AINS .... commentary,',ll

of

In many cases, verbs-primarily stative but occ<lsionaJly transitive as wellnuminalized with PQ have been kllica lized as adjectives: we find, for example, DKON "be rare" dkwl -po " rare," !JAN " be bad" nan-po "bad," TJIIUN "be little" IIhunbo "little," G.'iAN " be secret" g.mii-ba "secret," RHO "be sharp" moba "sharp," HNIN "be old" niiiiba "olll," /lSOI) "be pleased, take ddight" bsod-po " pleasing." fUN "be long" rili ba " long," llJ'SUN "he noble" blsun-po "noble," NUN "be few" iiuii-ba "few," SKAM "milke dry" skem-po "dried up." Such adjectives are formed nOI only from prl!sent stems but also from past stems, as in NDA "pass" Ndas-pa " Pilst," HGYA "grow greater" rgyas-pa "extended, expanded," and eve n, rarely, from future stems, as in D7.AR "hang down" gzor ba "stee p, rugged, precipitous."

2.1.1.2.1./2. TilE FORMATIYE _ "ADJECTIVE"

The syllabic formative

"ADJEcnVE" primarily produces adjectives from

22 Comp,arc En&lish prisOfl ImJ jDil, whicb arc pracl ically synonymous; bill I prisonu is o ne who is kept in a pr iso n. anll a jDi/rr is 11K: one who keeps him Ihere. NOle also s!IoCk ICJ:ica lil.alion5 as ROYA l . "t>c vietllri()us" f1.:Ytl1 po "kinS" bu l rrro'bQ "jina (epilhel of lhe
Bullllha)."

132

'filE ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

phyan.iie

ve rbs-for example, iII~EH "stare" L<iler-re "staring," NPINAN "hang down" "hanging," BRiS "despise" bn"j"s-se "contemptuous," NDZUM-8$VM "smile" semme "smiling," LOG "be iuvcrted" log-ge "false," NVWL "hang down " Ndtof-le-tIol-le " hanging," foIKlIRJ" "stick together" Ichrigs-se "plentifu l," GRAM "sprinkle, sca tl e r"lchrom -m ~ "sparkling," IlREM "swell up" hum-me "swollen," DeUR- HGUR-SGUR "bem!. ..... rilhe. be crooked" f8U.~ "crooked," I./lOb-Gl.Ol) "rdax" Ihod-de "rdaxed." ;.AR "be lame" lo-re "damaged," nUL "pass by" lila/-Ie "SIr-dight 0 11.,,23

Some timt!s Wt! rilu.I simililr derivativt:~: wi th the for ma tive -E-Pa-for exampk, GUG "beno" b'U.gge-ba "bent," NAN ..c :)'1I.l" nan-nt-ba "bad," YOM "swing" yom-me-ba "swinging," RDl.ION "be naked" rdlen-lie-ba "obvious," Occasiona lly we find derivatives in both - and --I'a from the same source verb: note such pairs as in TOR "scalier" tllOr-fe-lho-fe-ba "scatte red," RlN "be lo ng" riiis-seriii-ne-ba "cominua l," G,~IG "put IOgetlier" Jigs-se "relaxed, rocking" /ig-ge-ba "trembling," as well as yam-me-yam-me-ba "coarse, rough," whose source verb I have bct:n unable to identify. In a ft: w DISCS, however, we find tha t the form in -f, is <1 11 adjective but thl: :';m in -f:-I'O is an abstract noun-for exam ple, KIiH " n1j.~e" ke-re "crect" k.l -re-ba ";"tcl of standing erect," NCRi,",' "stand " Mi/(ON "be straight" han-;; t ' ~t:1 I1 ding" kron -iie-ba "upright posture," SIlUr. "be attractive" sdu1:-ge "good" sdug-ge-ba "stale of being pleased," UlAG "exceed, surpass" Ihag-ge "projec[ing" IIlOg-ge-ba "excess amount.,,24

II 1I"s h<,.:n

~J>(:cu t:&lcd

111;11

oJc r ;\"d"' t,;..~

in f: lIrc

a~t ual1y

Mi;JoJlc TibculIl

tOIfIl~

hor f( 'wcd tnl(J Ih(; (' [:I$$i\<l l l:t ngu age, bas.:d plimarily n n 11le obscrv:allon that t ile <lcriva liYC.~ arc lr""lue nlt; ":1~ '''1l prC1l1ill.:l [~_ h,r '~IO.;or, I I~e, Il~r.rt "staring" < nrlt.R "Slare," Jrrn mt "smiling" < H.IUM ",nule." Jigs :., 'f\lo.:~i ltg" < t;;i(j "pUI IOgetIlCr"-jUlit a.~ Olle migh t expect in any u f .-;.cvcra[ diate!:15 where the.-;.c I",:inllia[s were in Ihe process of being Iosi. Howcve r, tllCM: same IOllns lIpp<:ar as carly as thc nimn t:enlury, in manuscriplS fro m the cava nell r Tun.lIllang: we l ind, for nample, slllFi.nt "Staltled" < SUN "cal.l$(: 10 risc: , CUiUI t to ao.:t ion" in ~yo .~/tlii-iit Idiii ''The hirds, ~ Iin led, mar," dbnl/k "tull Cn" < HUL-VlWL "WI, hc:come tOllen" in /Jgrllm'rlil dl/nltlt " rotlen ... hen sullcrcd"- even lJ/ler < dlttT-rt "sllIT i nc" < BT$f:R "Slale" In spyun rJltt r t~J ,'{,igl "He ga/.o.:d with sla ring eyes."
2-4 Adjectives in -t.' rcadil)" ({)1m adyCrh~-ror cumple, ilulm.mtr "d ist inctly" < Iltum mt "disllnel," tholl -lllT "elCl1rl~" < Ihoii-'It~ -I/lullllt-/J(l "clea r," JIl/-irr "brilliantly" < Jol.lt-boWsu//, ba "br illiant" < SAL "o:;lCllnsc" (l';,o(L be c lear," fjhll"'lmtr " q"ielly" < -IJlltm'"'t "'Illief' tJht",mt_/Jtl "~li1tncss" 110",-",' "qule," Itham-mt ~-pl'>ommtb(l "slow,"

WOR.OS

133
2.1.2.2.1.lJ. THE FORMATWE .kJuJ-.hJ-.ga "/tIOUTH"

The suffIX kha-/(Q -ga appears iil a variety of nouns whicb apparently have little in common; in many cases the suffIX does not appear to be derivational, although it does re('ur in panicular contexts. For example, the suffIX appears in words fOT times of the day and seasons of the year-dgunka "winter,' dgoiiska "evening." ston1eD "autumn," dpyidka "spring." dbyarka "summer, rainy season," logska "morning." sos/u1-soka '!spring, hot season." It alsp appears in a few color words, such as ldton-kho (for the more commo': ldlan.gu) "green," iiurka "bright red," and in mthiii-ka "blue" and mthon-Iw "azure, sky blue," where one might suspect a connection with mkhti "heaven." And it appears in a few words faT body paru-sniiiga "hean," thugs.ka "hean," mlhon.ga "chest," loFi-ka "inrestincs." In several words, however, it is possibl~ to discern a relationship between the suffIX -kha-.ka--ga and the noun kilo "mouth," in any of three extended senses-refe rring te hoks or openings, to the edges of things, and to surfaces. Thus we find 1:/,' ,kha "ornamental cut or nOlch in wood," tIhago "hem. edge, border," 11Oij ka "notch, depression, indentation," IllOd/w "the direction straight ahead," phal-/W "indemation, incision, notch," bu-ga - bug-Iw "hole, opening." wakha "water channel, gutler," seroka "cleft, slit, fissure, crevice." Note the. . folloY/ine flat surfaces-lten.-lea-/denka "pool, pond," stcnka "terrace," than1ea " painting," naklla "meadow," as well as len.-kila "breadth, Width." A relation with kha "mouth" in these extended senses seems clear in gru "boat" gru-kha "ferry landing," thah "he:lTlh" Ihab-Iea "fireplace," mtlio/IS "smoke hole" m:!;O'I$-ka "gallery or platform on a roof," lOr "weapon" zor kJUJ "edge of a weapon," fa "mountain pass" fakha "highest puim of a pa~, " and is less clear in lam "road"lam-ka "route, roadside," gfi " residence" gtis ka "native counlr~." In any case, it is r,ot obvious that the process here is bener described a.~ derivation with a syllabic fo rmative or as compounding with kha "mouth" as a second member. AJI of this still leaw:s a residue of nouns with no obvious sources, such as s/uu-ka "iadder, " kyaf-ka "joke," skya-ka "magpie," l!ho-ga "ritual," iitJga "steelyard," star-Jca "wa lnut," danga "appetite," don-ka "medicinal plant," btrka "staff, SliCk," ya /-ga "branch," srub-ka "medicinal grain.," and just.a few instances where thc suffIX looks rather like a nominal izer, with a preference for prcducing abstract nouns-for example, NKJIO "desire, think to be valuable" mkho-ba "dt".sirable" Nkhos-Jro "worth, value, imponance," OllER "ul.ke care of, provide for, lake pains with" giier.pa

134

TilE Cl..AssICAL TIBETAN WOUAGE

"steward" gijD'.kJuJ "attention, care," DAM "choose, select" Ntiam-iaJ "choice. option.," cOER "raise, brandish, flourish" gddis.!Cil "expanded hood of the cobra,"2S

1.1.2.2.2. REDUPLICATION
2.1.2.2.2.1. NOMINAL REDUPUCATION Another form of outer derivation is REDUPUo.TION, which, in nominals, can be either simple or what we will call alternating reduplication. SIMPLE

REDUPUCATION produces adjectives from adjectives, with the derivative having an intensive or iterative sense-for c!tamplc:. thib.po "dense" thib-thib "very dark," Nkhyog.po "crooked" Nkhyog'Nkhyog "to~tuous." Nth~,po "glossy" NtherNtho "polished," zimbu "thin" zim-lim "fine as a hair," mum-po "bright" riiam-n"iam "dazzling," Item.po "full"/um/tem "overflowing," than-po "dense" ,Iwnthaii "strained to the utmost," skyur-po "sour" skyur-skyur "very sour," kum-po "crooked" kum-kum "shriveled up," llcu&f-po "stupid" llwg:t-11aAg! "very stupid." Note a lso Ntllor-ba "strewn" Nthor-Nthor "drizzling," Nbal-ba "disheveled" Nbal-Nbal "shaggy," sgreii-ba "erected" sgreii-sgrdj "well flXed," ldir-ba "distended" Idir-Idir "full to the brim," loii-ba "rising" lon-Ioii "rising in waves, bulging out."
Such reduplications are sometimes used to great poetic effect in the epic of Ge-sar-for example,
kllra-mo gliii-gi mdQ-tfllln-mafflS la-Ia smug-po phyur-pllyur red thad-Ia rgya-khra Nf1llur-Nphur red thur-Ia rbab-rgod yar-ya r red

The great sponed horses of Olin are a swirling fog upon the passes, are soaring hawks upon the plain, are a leaping avalanche as they descend_

23 The diSCIWion of Ihrec: $yJlabk: rormaliva.whk:h OIXUr wjlh adjectives-yd- M NORE, ': rile- M "(QR E,~ I nd .los '"MOSl"-is deferred 1 0 the section on IIdjOC1iVCI, where tbey Ire brieny reviewed.

WORDS

AL11!JlNA11HO REDUPUCATION yields disyllabic stress lJOups with the first syllable always having the vowel a. Where the sou" Tee of the reduplicated form has a vowel other than a, that vowel is retained in the second syllable; where the source hu the vowel a, the second syllable has a back rounded vowe~ either 0 or IL As with simple reduplicatio n, this process creates derivatives with an intensive or iterative sense. Thus. from source syllables with the vowel a, we find such examples as ld!lm-po "lazy" ldom-Idum " pitiful." Mn-po "bad" iiDn-lion "miserable"; and, from source syllablcs with vowels other than a, we find such examples as glen-po "stupid" gllm-gltn ''very .stupid," "crooked" kltamJchwn "with uneven ridge,," Nkhrug-pa ~disturbcd" IchrogkJuug "tumultuous," Nkhol-ba "insensible" kJuJl-khoi "stunned." Ndzog-pa "heaped together" HdzagNdzog "jumbled up."

Ichum.rio

In addition, altt:rnating reduplication is found in. several nouns-similarly intensive or iterative in meaning-derived from both nouns a nd adjectives. From nouns we find, for example, IdorlS "uneven place" fdaiift.coii "broken country," JOii-gJon "mounlain ridge, pit, valley" Ian Ioii-gJaii.gJoii "craggy rugged country," siio " plant" siiasiio "vegetables," rdzab "mud" rdzabrdzub "mire," rdzub "deceit" rdzabrdzuh " imposture"; and from adjectives we find , for example, riiiii-pa "old" nian-niiii "worn-out clothes, rags," sob "hollow, vain" sabsob "something rolte n," thQgspa "impeded" thags-tlwgs "impediment." rlon-pa "wet" rlan-rlon "liquid," Idib.pa " unintelligible" ldabldib "idle chalter." .

1./ .1.1.1.1. VERB REDUPLICATION

We also occasionally find ve rb stems reduplicated in the classical texU, with two different senses. The fi rst is a cOnlinuatjve or iterative sense: this construction is old in Tibetan, and is found in the archaic Central Asian manuscripts-for example, srin go.phus rbeg-ga meg-Ii fags s,iam-ste blab-blab "The demon Go-ehu kept creeping up, thinking, 'This is Rbeg-ga rbeg-!i." bu-mo tsdi-Nfi mo-ga lug who g.yan .sJcyon-du mdhi-mLfhi "The girl Tsen-Ngi rba-ga was going about pasturing the sheep and guarding the lambs." b~ siiUiul-du son-son "The little birds kept going into the snare," nnal-lUi blwlbluJl blwl-lii! blu-blu blu-lUi branbran bran-lUi bdog-bd4g " She plucked it and spun it again and again, she spun it and made thread of it again and again, she made thread of it and tied it again and again, she tied it and wove it again and again." Reduplicated constructions with this sense are fOU.ld in later texts as well-for example, from the epic of Ge-sar,

136
d~

TilE QASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

bsum-fui blon-po ma-bsdad

on

lam thag-riii Iog-skya bsgriJ-bsgril byas sa '1O'us-mcd skyi-su o/i-on byas

Thus thinking, the ministc=r did not larry but came: He kept his pale wings bt=aling on the long rood, He kepi his ydlow hide moving in the unfamiliar country.

Mi-Ia ras-pa uses such reduplicated verbs as a repealed device in one of his ~ungs, which he sings when reproached (or dressiug immodestly in only a strip of cloth, and of which the following are a fc:w verses:
"11.~ rt(lji-1II mi-Y141 Ngn'm-"'grim-nas (wi yul ;iUlI-Kif hrdfed-de tflal

I have! heen conti nually wandering the tanh and h,lve just naturally gone and forgutten my home.

gllig-pur ri-k.hrod ",'Xnm -/lgrim.mls gmii-yu/ iillii-gif brdldJ-d/! thai

I have been wandering the mountains alone and hav~ just naturally gone: and rorgo ttcn inhabited places.
lus/u gll/mm/) sharsnar"lUs IUS-Ko.~ iillii'XiJ fml!t'd-de tl",!

I have been kindling thc mystic heat in my body and have just n;Jlurillly gone ilnd forgott!!n my clothes,
.It'/IU!11

Xlliinywl nyuJ,nya.H lGs

JI,a-g.wii IIIIII'Xis hrrltt'd-Je thai

I h,I\'c tl<.:c n p;lying hccd to whau!ver ilrises in my mind and have Just naturally gone and forgo tlen my penis.
Xaig-pur hIlX-),o,i . I'f,}'(/(l-w)'ad./las iio-lJlw iiu/I-Ki~ nrJteJ-dr lhu t

[ have tl<:cn practidng mOdesty in solitude and havc just Ili1turaUy gone and fo rgotlen my shame.

WORDS

137

Such reduplicated constructions have another sense as well-one of completion, of the action of the verb having already been accomplished. Gtsafi-smyon heruks, in his biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa. often uses nominalized reduplicated verbs with this sense-for example, blamai bka-Iog ltar byas-paiyi-ge rum'lO'is SMIUU mdzadmdzadpa-fig Ndug "There was a lener, made to resemble a communication from my lama, which my lady had already made," rob-gnas palJtIlun nJ-ros grub-grub-pa-lig yin "This consecra tion is one that the great scholar Naropa has already done," nna gsospos-par bsdad "I will stay until the wound has finished healing," bsamblo yan btan btan-ba yin "I have thought about it already."

2.1.2.3. Word families

It is not hard to find, in Tibetan, groups of words that appear to be phonologically and semantically related, although the exact nature of that relationship is not entirely clear-for example. SKOR "encircle, surround. enclose," SooR "tum on a lathe," KHOR "turn around. go about in a circle," slcor "circle," NJchor "circle, circumference, retinue, anendants," sgor-mo "ball, disc. coin, rupee," korkor "round," kl1ora "circumference, fence, wall," gor 1M "stones, rubble, boulders." In Sino-Tibetan linguistics such a group of words has traditionally been called a WORD FAMilY. We may define a Tibetan word family as a group of lexical items sharing H semantic nuclew and related through processes of inner and ou ter derivation. Such word families can provide unt:xpected light on the Tibetan semantic world. It is clear, for example, that su "be thin" is 10 SI.A "he easy" as SK.-( "be thick" is to DKA "be difficult." Related to NPHYO "roam about, gambol' we find both Nphyos-ma "bride price" and Nphyon -ma "p;ostitute.'lbe word c/Qd "equivalent" (as in bu-dod "son equivale nt _ adopted son," skud-dod ''word equivalent _ synonym") is in the same word family as don "meaning": in jwt the same way, srid "dominion, government, world" is in the same family as both SM'PO "demon' and srinbu "wo rm." Underlying such word families we can sometimes discern. the single semantic nuclew common to all the members: for example, RAN "hea r," nama "disciple," and giiabo "witness, surety" are all related through the semantic nuclew RA "HEAR"; related to that nucleus through $ ' preflX:llion is the nucleus sRA "CAUSE TO HEAR," which unde rlies th~ family S/iiAi) "relate, report," sRAN "be sweet-sounding," snad "malicious or fa lse accu~a t ion, ' ~n,m

138

nlE CLllSSICAL TiBETAN lANGUAGE

"ear," snan-pa "fame, praise, glory, renown," SROD "tell. relate," SN(JN "assert
falsely, disavow dishonestly." The search for such semantic nuclei can lead down some intriguing paths. For
example, a semantic nucleus NA "SE PRESSED, BE BURDENE,D" lics together
NA

"be ill," 'lad "illness," nat! "urging, pressure, importunity," IIUI1-lan "exertion, applicalion, earneslness," and rdates these words in turn to SNAf)

"hurt, harm, injure,"

NAN

"press, oppress, conquer," and

GNOD

(apparently a

generalized G- present stem) "damage. injure, hurt." The semantic nucleus

o f pressure from above brings still further words into the family: thus with Ihe honorific prefix m- we find MNOD "receive favors or punishment from a superio r," M NAR "suffer, be tormented," MNA "oath," and perhaps even mnarn a "daughter-in-law, bride residing with her husband's family." In the Tibetan semantic universe, therefore, an oath and II disease are linked through the conc.:: pt o f pr~ssure, and the same concept links together an injury and a favor from a superior. This word fami ly in fact extends into o ther SinoTibe~an l:.mguagcs as well. Thus we find Burmese fla "be ill," Lahu no "be ill," Lushei nat "be in pain, ache," Old Chinese -nan "difficulty, suffering," with a further extension-Burmese l1at, Mha neh, Lahu fie, Lisu n~ all meaning "deity. spirit," and Old Chinese -nor "expd demons." The SinoTihetan concept of pressure thus rca ~he s from demons to daughters-in-law, and from oaths to injuries, all cxlcnding outwa rd from the nucleus -NA.

2.2. BORROWING
In additilln tn .its inberiteq stock (If native words, the classical Tibetan lexicon is rich in words borrowed from every language of polyglot Inner Asia. The study of such borrowing is especially interesting because linguistic borrowing frequently accompanies cultural bonowing: for example, the Tibetan word dta "tea" was borrowed from Middle Chinese jha just as Tibetan tea was borrowed from China. Further. choice of linguistic form can reflect attitudes to\\,srd the donnr culture. In Tibel, for example, New Tibetan (Lhasa)pukop " movies" < English bjoscope has been replaced by lonCN <glog-briian> "electric image .... movies" < Ne .... Chinese lienying. Similarly, Ne .... Tibetan (Lhasa) jana "China" < Old Tibetan 'KYanag "black expanse .... China," with alJ of its ancient cosmological associations, has been replaced with the transfer {uNko <kruii-go> "China" < Ne .... Chinese chung-kuo "Central Kingdom."

WORDS

139

2.2.1.1fansrers
One type of oorrowing ;s the process we will call 11!.ANSFER, whereby a foreign word or phrase is simply incorporated wholesale into the lexiron, with more or less adaptation to native. phonology and orthography. Indeed, in Tibetan some transfers have been rendered into an Qrthography indistinguishable from that of native words. For example, sku-Me-rigs "musk" is actually a transfer of Mongol kudcri in highly Tibetanized orthography.u Such transfers may be analyzed by native speakers as if they were Tibetan, and enter into clips as if they. were native words. Thus ,ham-lea "seal" is a Iransfer of the Uighur tam-ya " brand mark," but is treated as a Tibetan (arm in -lea, yielding clips like rgjal-tham "royal seal." Similarly, pGd-ma "lotus" < Sanskrit padma is analyzed as a native form in -ma, and enters into such clips as pad-dkar "white lotus." Such Tibetaniz.ed transfers may even become the subject of elaoorate word play. The Tibetan ba-dur-ba-Ndur-dpo-bdud "warrior" is a transfer from MongOl ba-yatur-badur. In the epic of Ge-sar, the King of Hor-Mongoliaexhorts his warriors to fight against Gliii-Tibet-in the words glin wa-moi Nfhab-ya mabyuii-na, hor ba-Ndur ma-red khyi-Ndur red "If you do not fight against the fox.es of Glin, you are not Mongol warriors (ba-Ndur) but running dogs (khyiNdur}!" Elsewhere in the epic, eighty warriors of Glin are introduced asgliTi-dkardpa-bdud brgyad-tIumams "eighty warriors (dpG-bdud) of White Olin." A warrior of Hor then defies Ihese warriors of Glin and calls them gliii-gi khyi-bdud brgyad.t!u Je "those eighty dog-demons (khyi-bdud) of Glin."
As in many languages, transfers in Tibetan turn up in unexpected places. We find, for example, mig-gi miu "little man of the eye _ pupil," with explanations that relate miu "little man" to the reflection of oneself in the eye of a person one is spea king with; but the word is, simply, a transfer of Middle Chinese myOJU "pupil." Similarly, the epic hero of TIbet is Ge-sar, usually said to be king of Glin, but sometimes said to be king as well of a la nd called Khrom or Phrom. In the word khrom -p/" om we can recognize R.ome or rUm,

26 The nalive Tibelln word tor musk" is g/(lbo. The compound J/cubtkrigs wo uld normally mea n someillinl like 'specit$ of body lIappineM," and was prc:5umably created witb a se man tic rela tionsh ip 10 " mU5k~ in mind: Note that Ihe transfer must have occuned at a ti me Ind in a dialect of Middle Tibetan where preinilials and fina15 were no Ionler pronouneed-lhllS Middle Tibeta n kutkri <slalb<k-rigs>.

140 th ro ugh an easlern Ira nian form

Till, CI.ASSICAJ. TI8El'AN l....ANOUAGE

/rom-hrom.

from which we find as well the

Middle Chinese word for Rome. phrom-from < pllywat.lyam >. Ro me here
mea ns, likdy, not Rome itself but Byzantium; and in the word ge-sor we can

recognize also Latin cresar or perhaps ils Greek or Byzantine equiva lent kaisur, which is also the source of the Russia n czar. There is an enormous
amount of history in the simple fael that the epic hcro of Tibet bears a name

derived from that of Caesar of Rome,v The classical Tibetan lexicon has many such transfers from a wide range of
source languages. To give some idea of the scope of such borrowing, we may note a fe w examples. From PERSIAN we find gur-gum "saffron" < Persian kwkum and deb-fher "document" < Persian dd}/l:r.~ From ARABIc we find 'la -rag "barky liquor" <: Arahic ?arug "dale palm sap," from TUkKiSIl we find dhu-pa "robe" <: Turkish juba, from MANCIIU we find ?am-ba ll "Chinese re presentalivl!: in Lhasa Cily" <: Manchu um ban " minister," and from an unknown hut prubahly KIIOTANESE original we find pi-wan "lute," Inmsferred inderendcnlly into Middle Chi nt:se as pyi_pa.29 Most Tihelan transfers, howevt: r, come from four source languages of cult ura l
27 Sueh horHlwing. nf euu~, wmks in I'I<llh dirlXlions. 1llc Ruman Calholie Chu rch al o nc time com mcmo ralcd a Saini JUs.lIphal nn Novcmhc r 27; Ihe G rce k Church commemor:lIed Ihe samc :'Iainl un Augusl 26, undcr Ihe namc loar.aph; ,lnQ Ihe Georgian Q rlhrxiox Ch ur~h c<>mme murale'" Ihe Blessc'" 1O<J~sa ph on May 19. All II'Ie Ch riMia n slories of Ihis holy man derive ffUm a Grttk vcrsiiln IIf his life; bul Ihe re: IrC also parallel Arabic ICxtS of his SlUry, in which he is tailed YO,lsaf-Yiidtlsar-Bud hlsaf. He is II'Ie 50n of a king. kepi imprisoned ill a \>c:.Iutifu\ city MJ he cou\'" 11111 see old age or ~icknc:M o r dealh. Wr.cn he docs ~ 11Ic,<;.t Ih in~, /l.c sues in sea rch of Ih c elerlla l, which he finds in Jesus Christ; evenlually IIc conve rts Ind ia 1U Cll r i~liani l y. If IhclC il hislOry in Ihe rcla tion.\ hip or Tibeta n Ger.a l and Roman au,~.ar, Iherc is hiMllry as well in Ihc faci thai ro r ma ny c.enl uries Ihe Bndhi.sall\lll was a Chr ~"i~n sainI. VI The Per~ian ku,lam/ "saffron" ma y iliM: lf be a tran$fer fro m a Semit ic language: co mpare Hcllrcw k(lrktH/', Aramaic /w,kilmll, Alallie /a4,Iwm. Si mila rly, Pcnian tUb/a "documc nt" may in lurn come cilhe:r frum O ld Pcrsian dipi "'WrilingH Ot (rom Grak diphfMIlJ "parchmenl." [n Ihe laller ca.'\(:, Ihe Tihctan MIIlllt, would be rellted In the Engli~h dif'hl"~'ill, a di~~ 50 named IX:cau.o;c uf Ihe parchmcn tlike covcring, lhal forms o n Ihe ski n.
{"''''(lii "\uIC" is a vcry clu ly Iransfer, already lisled in thc lIilllh-a: nlu ry with the "clar naSl!1 nnal apparently indicaling a Khula noe so urce. Sec also Japanese /)'''''', Mongol IIillll, Mancllu film.
Malli:hyUlfX1II~

1'f . Tibetan

WORDS

141

and political imponance in lnner Asia. From UIGHUR we find pag-li "teacher" < Uighur bakl~ lem-t!hi " physician" < Uighur DnC~ and dor "silt" < Uighur tOr)U-terms which indicate the culture achieved by speakers of Uighur in their Central Asian oasis civilization,lO From MONGOL we find, for example, lawi "ocean" < Mongol dllfu~ as in liiwi bla-ma "Dalai lama," and tNt-ni "precious stone" < Mongol mimi, as in pa,,-tIhm -Itni "Panchen Lama." as well as such te rms as ba-dur-ba-Ntiur-dpa-bdud ''warrior'' < Mongol ba?Otur-badur, discussed above, and beg-t.K "coat of

m.aiVname of the God of War" < Mongol. btgder. 31

-PUl, spar-kh.a "the eight par-spar-dpar "printing block" < Middle Chinese epwan, gi-wan -giu-waij -Ngiaii -Ngi-sbaii "bezoar" < Middle Chinese -iiyO'U-/'Wan, don-1St "copper coin. money" < Middle Chinese -dhuiiui-evcn the word for such a culturany common item as ldog-IU "table" <
From CHINESE we find dta "tea" < Middle Chinese
pwal-kwa~

lrigrams" < Middle Chinese

Middle Chinese cok-tsi. n And there are, finally, many transfers from INDI C lANGUAGES, We find, for example, lSan-dan "sandal-wood" < Sanskrit

lO The UIsJlur bak..fi may i~1r be a Irans fer fro m Middle Chineae "wIOdy-versed leacher," II is inleresling to note tllat words (or "~Uk" In many Innet Asian Ian,lIIIJC$ apparendy corne from Uighur ralller Illan from Chinese-for exa mple, JapUlI ton;a. Koihal 'tNgtJ, Mongol ,mtml. Qata-klloja dilrp: "Kalihgar sUt."
31 The nalive Tibetan equiVlllenl of, Mongol dalo.i is rg)'Q-".uho "oce.an," and tile word rg)'Q-muho has been an clemen\ in the personll names of lhe last lourteen DIll! Lamas. The

.,.-#

'Tibellln ~-tJhtn tNt-ni "Panellen Lama" consists of a lransfet of MOllZOI admi "prodous stone," ..... lI iell in turn is a na llSf.:r into Mongol of the Sanskrit NltnD "predous jewel," used IS tile loan translalion of Tibelan riII 'po-I/ht, combinCiJ wilh clip consislin, of. trlnster of Sanskrit p<l1}4iro. "scllolar" and Tibetan tlflm ,po "yeat"- . Ihreebn&uaJC collocalion! NOIe .Iso Illal MongOl b~, "coal of mail" may ilKlf derive originally from Penian bagltu "armor," n New T ibelII n Continues tile proccs.s of transfer from a number o( modern IlnlUIIgcs, as in New Tibetan (lhasa) fI(lflplo. "Pravda," pulisi " police." nllii "mile." However, trlllders from Chinese lI;1ive bocome particularly prominent: for cumple, in Tibetan ncwsp.1lpc:n we find <lj-t1un> "bacteria" < New Chinese Asichlln, <,lIi1!> "depllrtmcnt,orrlCe" < New Chinese r'iI1g. <.wLl> "degree, kiiowatl hOll r~ < New Chineu N, <tan > "dislrk\" < Nt,:w Chinese hs~n, <tJi!U'lcJvu> "aLltomobile" < r.tew Chinese eh 'j-ch 't, <Ihq.fo.ilis> "traclO," < New Chinese t'o w-chi. Transfen (rom Chinese are, as one milllt expcc!, often (l'Jl\tXrnoo ";tll political as well lIS witlltecllnololical mailers-for CM mp1e, <p~ -lcJvjlll > "CommllniM" < New Chineselcung-cll 'an, <pn-Ichf/ln kni~4byaii > "Central Committee of tile Communist Party" < New Chinese kung.ch 'an 'hung_yong.

142

THE Cl..Ass1CAl. TIBETAN Lo\NoUAGE

candlJna, bai-<lu-I)'Q-bai-tjur " lapis lazuli" < Sanskrit vai4Utya, mar-gad-margad " emerald" < Sanskrit nwrakata, st!ii-~ "lion" < Samkrit siJrtIul or Apabbramla liiighu-su,mu, byi-la "cat" < Sanskrit bi4Qla-vi4Q1Il through a Pram! -hila (compare, for example, Hindi billl), mu-Iig "pearl" . < Sanskrit mukJif,-mulcIikii through a Prauit -muui/(Q-nwtik (compare, for example, Apabhram!a mottiyau, H indi motf).fKJ-ti "book" < Sanskritpusw-pwlQlw, se-Ndu-ra-sindJw-ra '\lcrmilion" < Sanskrit silu:Wra,13

2.2.2. Reproductions
While transfers are simply imponcd into the lexicon along with the foreign cultural items they name, REPRODUcnONS attempt to convey the semantic

content of the foreign word by using. nalive te rms. We can distinguish two
types of repr~uction. A LOAN TRANSU110N conveys the semantic content of a foreign word by translating its components inlO nalive terms-for example, German Ft!nlSfXecher "far speaker" < E nglish telephone: 'A LOAN CREATION conveys the semantic content of a fo reign word by creating an entirely origina l word out of native elements to express the foreign concept-for example, New Chinese tUn-hua "electric speech" < English telephone.

2.2.2.1. Loan IransliJlions

The classical Tibetan lexicon is poorer in loan translations than in either transfers o r loan creations. Occasionally transfers and loan translations of the same term occur simultaneously: bui NtSJw-ba " life of the child - a tree whose nuts are strung by parents and hung around their children's necks as protection" i.~ a loan translation of Sanskrit pUlrajlva " life of the child," a term that ~ also transferred into T ibetan in the naturalized onhography Nbo-de-tsi. Most loan translations in Ihe classical lexicon come from Chinese sources. We fi nd sgrog-rw "chain bone - collar bone" < Chinese so-tzu-ku, rdo-snum "slo ne oil - petrole um" < Chinese shih-yu, mgo-nog "black-headed - the
3.1 Bolli India n sandaJw004 ~nd Sans kr it ctlltdOlw /\ave e ntered the CIIltlires of IIIe world: we find Penla n candivt-ciJNkJ4 Gree k $t1~_-I(lIIralon, Arabii ic l tlNlaJ, Medieval ulin .fanda/um_Jan/a/u"," Middle Chinese: rJymdJItVl. The native: Tibetan word Cor ''ve nnilion i$ li.khri, indicat in g l/\at vermil ion was fint k~own from Ii "KlloUin. ~
M

WORDS

:43

peoplc" < Chinese lj-min, iii-og "under the sun .... thc wholc world" < Chincse ('un-ll5ia, gser-yig "golden writing -00 leiter of a great personage" < Chincsc chin-p'a; -chin-Is 'e-chin-shu-tzu. Note cspecially rra.Jdad "hom brain .... agate" < Chinese ma-llao "agate," but with Chinese folk. etymology interpreting the source term as derived from rna-llao "horse brain," and the Tibetan loan lTanslation thcn semantically regularized from na-klad "horse brain .... agatc" into rdo-kJad "stone brain .... agatc.,,:M

2_2.2.2. Loan creations

Tibetan has been most rcsourceful in cojning new terms for foreign cultural items. Some of these have been morc or lcss spontaneous-for cxample, dkar-yoJ "whitc pottery .... porcelain," rg)'a-lShK'a "Chincse !Oalt -+ sal ammoniac." During the first half of the ninth century, however, a remarkable lTanslation project set out deliberately to coin a Vilst number of loan creations to deal with the new Buddhist cultural terminology coming from India. Traditionally, a Tibetan lotsii-ba "translator" would learn cnough Sanskrit to understand isolated words, simple texts, and cvcntually oral cxplanations. He would then find an Indian pa~u!ila who would explain a text to him word by word. II was apparcntly 'the lack of swndardization in thcse early laborious translations that led King Khri Lde!Oron-btsan-also called Sad-na-legs-to commission a pand ~f Indian paryl,lita5 and Tibetan translators to compile a dictionary of technical equivalenls amI \{l sel forth rules for the translation of Sanskrit inlo Tibetan. After Ihe death of the king, his son Khri Gtsug-Ideblsan-also called Ral-pa-t~an-continued the project, finally producing two works. One was a dictionary, Ihe By('-bmg-lu nags-par byed-pa, better known undtr its San~kritiu:d tit It Muhiil'}"Wp(llli. Tht': othtr was a commentary, the Sgra -sbyor bam.po gliir-pa, with the Sanskrit lit Ie Madhya''Yutpalt~ which [unctions as a trtalise on translation theory and practice. T'he latter contained Ihe ttxt of the royal edict selling forth the general findings of the commission, and a detailed account of the etymoJogits undalying the loan creations entered in the dictionary. For example, the word huddha is rtndered by Tibetan saflS'XYQ.f "awaktntd expanded" on the basis of two diffc:rc:nt Sanskrit etymological glosscs~ UJOin HOi nslOilions from Chinese slill riJUl their wOiy inlo Tihct3n_ror eumplc. Nt:w Tibc.tOin ( Lhasa) lJ"kJ"m <ltlogJ' /lIm> "iron road .... rOiitway" < New Chinese I j~h.lu, N(w TihctOin (Lhasa) tootH <U,,/:.briTol1> "clectric image -00 movies" < Nc .... ~ liM.yil1,.

144

TilE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

mohanidriipagamat prabuddJItl 'purufa ~'al "He is like a man who has awakened (prabuddJUJ) because his sleep of delusion has vanished," and buddher vikasaniid buddJw~ vibuddhapadmaval " He is Buddha because his mind (buddJu) has opened up like a lotus thai has expanded (vibuddha)."

Often it is a doctrinal point that determines the form of a loan crealio:l. In the case of bluJgavafl "Blessed One," the usual gloss of bhaga as Tibetan legs "blessing" is rejected in favor of the etymology bhagnamiiractl tUfrayarviid blulgaviin "He is bhagavaf! because he has conquered (bhagna) the fo urfold Evil One." Thus bhaga is rendered nol by Tibetan legs but rather by bLfom "conquest," which-with Tibeta n 11Wf "be endowed" rendering the Sanskrit possessive .lIOnl-yields bt!omldan "possessing conquest." To this collocation is then added the adjective Ndas < O-NDA-S "passed beyond," to differentiate a Ndtig-T1etl-[as Ndas-pa "transcendent" < Sanskrit [okOl(afa conqueror from an ordinary one who has not conquered the Evil One-thus officially rende ring bilagavatl hy the loan creation baom-Idan-Ndas. Reliance o n Sanskrit folk etymologies leads occasiona lly to idiosyncta tic loan translations. This f1i "seer" is rendered by draii-sron "straight upright" on the basis of the folk e tymology kiiyovagmanobhir riu~ Jete iti ffi~1 " He is ffi beca use he rests uprigh t (rju.jfi) with body, speech, and mind." Similarly, we find pudgaJa "person" given as gan-zag " rull d ripping" based on the scholastic gloss piiryatc guiale caiva PW!tgaia .. It is pudgaia because il is tilled (/piir) and then leaks away (jgal)." Again. arhatl " Worthy One" i~ re ndered by dgrabtIom-pa " he who has conquered his enemies" on the basis of the etymolOgy kldiiiin IUI/aviin arMll " He is arhan because he has demoyed (/ll all ) h i~ enemies (an) the defile ments ." The following di~cussi()n from the Sgra.sbyor bam-po gtiis-pa on the proper equivaknt for :W~Ilf{l "Well-gone One" is in many ways typical of the Tihctan loan ere.tlion process : the one hand: JohhullugQ (Q/.t suga(a~l .funipaval "Iit.! is Jugulll (kg~ -par g.kgs-pu) because he has become beautiful. like olle of hcautifuJ form," upullariivrftyiigala~l sU8ala~lslll!(j.~!a jV(lf(lval " He is .W~{/1cI ({('got-pur gSegs-pa) beca use he has gone neve r to return, like a fever which is well cured," yiivadWlllwvyagumu lliJ t JU}i{/fa~1 Jllpjin.wgilu!(lv(I( " He is sugata (It'RJ-fH1r gJegs.pa) because he has gone as far as he Clln go, like a jar which is well filled:'
SIl~U /(I-On

WORDS

145

On the other hand: we read in the DlrarmusluJ/lolta, sugula ili sukhilo bllaguviin svargatab avyalhiwdlwnllasarnallviigat/J~1 lad ucrale SU8a(a~ "The Blessed One has become blissful and is possessed of the bliss of heaven; he is without affliction and is possessed of the quality of nonamiction." Hence we may render the term as bde-bar gJegs-pa " he who has gone 10 bliss" or Me-bar bnies-pa "he who has gained bliss." Here we will fIX the cquivalent as bde-har g!egs-pa because it is traditional and conforms to the lext of the Dharmask(llu/ha.

2.2.3. Mixed rorms

Occasionally a foreign word or phrast: i~ rl!n(krcd in Tibetan as a MIXED fORM combining a twnsfer and a translation. For eXi"lmple, we find Tibetan Ndzam-bu gJiii "jamhudvipa ..... the inhabited world," combining a transfer of Sa nskrit jarnbu and native Tibetan gliii "island" as a loa n translatio!l of Sanskrit dvlpa. Again, we find Tihewn IlwjrdJe "lord" < Chinese I 'al-sltill "G rand Preceptor," combining a transfer or Chinese I 'ai "great" and a loan translation of Chinese shill "tl!lIc hcr" by Tihetan rdte "master." Even more interesting is Tibeuln rluii -nll "wind hurse ..... prayer nag" < Chinese IUllg-rna "dragon horse," which mixes a Tibetanizcd transft:r of Chinese /ullg "dragon" as rluii "wind"- somdimcs also written kiwi "river"-with a loan translation of Chinese rna "horsc" by Tihcwn nu. Another type of mixed form comhincs a transfer with a native glol>s on the meaning of the tr;msft:rred clcment-for cxample, mw-bya "pt:acock" < Sanskrit miiYllra plus Tibetan hya "bird," n(J-zarn "post station" < Mongol zarn "post stage, pm! horse" plus Tibetan na "horse," Ju-ra-k!wii "pit" < Sanskrit slllU;i.~a I' trench, mine, pit" through a Prakril Juraii~a (compare Hindi sumiig. Be ngali .fwlaii~ ) plus Tihclan khwl .. pit. ..\S
l.'i Such mixed fnrm s ale nOI unu.mmlln i~ Nn'" T.N:tan. Fur ex.aml'!c. in lh~ Lh:l~a C" lI Y ncwsp3pcrli we fino.! <puuI;h,,;; > minislry' < N ~'W C hinc."C pu "mi ni~ l ry' rlus N~ .... T,t>cl:W (Ula.\.a) k)",it <k)",it> ' huusc." 1I~ in </duII'/"'" 11U1ltlm;; > Mini~ lry "f R~i t .....;.ys: ..... hKh fUrlller ,()m"jnc.~ Ihe mixed r,'rm ""ilh the I"an l r"".'I ~ liu n 1 .lnU"", <W"/:.f/UI/I> iron ..... ra il .... ay" < Ne .... Chi nc.' " I k ll /It. NUle al", <",rk K"' hti > S<.i"'~I~ mile' < Engli~1I mil, plu. \ N~"W TitJ.clan (LhJ~) !"I,.li <}.'ru .1>/1 > 'I"uI u,rne r .... squar~: <}.'/o)!duu:. 'kU"",:m lIo ... r ul clc.:lridly < New Chinc.<;.c". "e!:I~-":. ki lu""Jl\ 1I" ... r ~ New Til>o:TJn (Lila,;;,) '"' <glog> 'ligIlTnin g .... e!cc lrk ily: <dllljAI"..,. 1 . 1 "";; .I.lIIu;;:. lillle car .... jcc,, < Nc ....

",:,tI

,,! . .

146

THE ClASSICAL. TlllcTAN LANOU .....Gfo;

2.2.4. BackCorms
Two further processes of word forma tion should be mentioned here, which h.ave in common what we can call the recycling of lexical items. We find DWCT BORROWING where a word, already in the classical lexicon. is borrowed back into the classical language in a Middle Tibetan dialect form (as in English varmint from a dialect pronunciation of vermin)-for example, /duiikil "jackdaw" from skyuiika, ItIam "rafter" from playam, mdhorpo "pretty" from Nphyor.po, RDUN "be naked" from saRiJ, tOR "be joined together" from BYOR. Sometimes such a borrowing can be detected through spelling doublets which imply that new classical forms have been created to account for the borrowed word-for example, the doublet GRIM-BRIM "distribute" renects alternative attempts to provide a" classical source for a Middle Tibetan word presumably pronounced *Ndrim or *drim or *qim, just as the doublet Nkhyos-pa - Nphyos-pa "gift" reflects similar attempts to naturalize in a suitably classical way a Middle Tibetan word pronounced *NtJhospo or *tJh ospa or even *chopa"

In BACKfORMAllON a new word is created analogically as the source fo~ an existing word-for example, given the noun saiif-r;ID'as "Buddha," there is eventually created a verb TSAR-ROYA "become a Buddha" as its presumed source, just as, in English, the verb sculpl was created as the presumed source of the noun sculptor" Such backformalions are found particularly where the original derivational process has dropped out of use: where the derivation rgan-po "old" < RGA "be old" or mtllOn-po "high" < ,,"110 "be high" has become opaque, we find the backformation of the new verbs forms ROAN "be old" and ,,"HON "be high" as the presumed sources of the adjectives" Again, in the formati on of diminutives, original low back vowels become the tow front vowel e" When this phonological change no longer seems a natural one, we find, for eX<lmple, sle:po "axe" as a backformation from-that is, a presumed source for-Sleu "hatChet," which actually comes from sfa-n"-sfa-gri "axe," and perhaps, in the same way, even [(e-ba "navel" < lfeu < Ito-ba "belly" and sne "extremity, end" < sneu < sna "nose."

~'lItomobile" plus New Tibetan (LIIasa) I!hu;tl/uil </Jhl4i1.l!huil> ""$mall," <,dMl"phran JOOm> "atom bomb" < English bomb plus New Tibetan (Lhasa) ra(CN <,dul pltran> "tiny partide -- atom:'

OIlnesc ell "i<h"t

WORDS

147

2.3. IMITATIONS

2.3.1. Interjections
A third source of new words in Tibetan is the IMITATION of natural sounds. The most d irectly imitative wo rds are those tha t attempt to reproduce spontaneous INTERJECTIONS-for exam ple, Icyt "hey!" haJw "wow!" he-he "hahal" le-le "a ha !" UONSOS "uk Uk." The classical language also makes use of an INTERJECTION FORMATIVE la- in such interjections as la-la-Ia "INTERJECTION OF DEUmIT," la-ha-ha "lNTERJECllON OF PlEASURE," la-ua " INTERJECTION OF PITY," la-Ie "'Nn;.RJECllON OF SURPRISE," la-su "IN'TERJECTlON OF SEXUAL SA1lSFAcnON," la-ui "1!'rffiRJEcnON OF WONDER," la-ra " INTERJECTION OF I'IIYSICAI.. PAIN," and so on.
Some inte rjections with la- appea r to derive from o the r fo rms-thus MTSllAR "be beautiful" la-m lshar "I!'rffiIUECllON OF WONDER," NA "be sic k" la-na-lana-tul "INTERJECTION OF GR tEF," ' KJlAG "be rotten" la-khag - ?a-kha-kha "INTERJECTION OFCONiEMPT," TSltA "be ho t" la-rs/la- la -uha-uha " INTI:RJOC1l0N OF PAIN OCCASIONED BY IlEAT." Such derivation is not always clear: for example, 7a-/lIu-la-/Jllu- //lu " INTE RJ ECTION OF PAIN oq:A.<;IONED BY COLD" may have a d istant semantic relatio n with r.fll u " wa te r," o r may be pure sound imitation, as in English ah-choo! We may note that the Tibetan name fo r o ne o f the cold he lls is la-tIllu zer-pa "where people say la-tIhu."

2.3.2. Onomatopoeia
One step away from representing human sounds is re presenting non-huma n Sounds. There are several words in the classical lexicon that a re clearly ONOMATOPOElc- kllrumkhrum "CRUNCIUNG OF A PESTLE," tJag-tJag "SMACKINO OF TIlE UPS," r.for-dor "Fl7J'JNO OF BEER," tJllem -fIll em "CRASIII NG OF TIIUND(;R," fllrig-fllrig "SOUEAKI NG 0 1' slIor,," si-s; "SOUND OF WIIISTLING," urur " 1 1lJ77JNG SOUN!)," iiar-jiur " 1I0ARSE WHEEZING SOUND," meao "SOUND OF A CAT." A ft:w of thest: forms may ultimately derive from re duplicated ve rbs: for example, compart: GYF.R "move back and fo rth" with yenyen "SOUND OF STRUGGLE," KIWI. " ring, resound" with Ichrol-khrol "SOUN D OF cv.NGINO METAL." IlRAL '' rip up, tear to pieces" with hrul-llrul "SOUND OF IUPPINO OR TEARINO," a nd 0118 "suck" with tJib-t!jb "SLURPING OR SUCK.lNO NOISE," in the fo llowing verses, fo und in two archaic Central Asian manuscripts: .

148

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN LANGU ....GE

gnam-dan sa Nthab yen-yen dam-dam Idhags-dafl tails Nthab k1lrol-kllrol siJ-siJ Earth fought with sky, )'tn-yen dam-dam Copper fought with iron, khrol-khrol sil-siJ
Ia bra

zo ni hrul-hrul khrag sa Nfhuii ni lJibt!ib

rus-pa gle MIha ni khrum-khmm mgo-spu rdzis khyer Tli him-ban
His His His His flesh the birds eat yes: IIm/-hrul blood the earth drink.~ yes: tJib-/!ib bones the bouldl!rs gnaw yes: klrrum-khrum hair the wind carries away yes: ban-ban

Such onomatopoeic terms also enter into compounds-for example, ku-sgra

"the soundku .... clamor," tsheg-sgra "the sound lSheg .... crackling." si-sgra "the soundsi - whistling," ur-rdo "stone that goes ur .... slingshot," fiar-slead "the cry nar .... roar of a lion." Onomatopoeic terms are alsn used 10 signify the beings or objects Ihal make the particular sound-thus rt$irt$i -IS;IS; "mouse," pi-pi "flute," ku-Iwsgrogs "grey duck." Perhaps also in this class are naii-pa "goose" and krufi-krunkhruii-Ichruii "crane," but the !atter seems related as well to Sanskrit krauiica. Often the o nomatopoeia is lexicalized with a verb-thus tseg-tseg B~ " make the sound lug-lSeg .... rustle like dry leaves," sugsug ROOD " laugh sugsug __ laugh loudly," nan-nan 7.ER "say fiaij/laii .... cackJe like a goose," tun-tun BYA "make the sound tuiituii .... bow repeatedly like a pigeon," hub-hub B~ "make the sound hubhub -. gulp dow n in large drafts," hab-Iwb 7A -ha-be ho-be ZA "eat habhob _ gobble greedily."

2.3.3. Poetic word play

Of panicular interest is a set of stereotyped onomatopoeic terms used in Tibetan poetry from very early times. For example. in the archaic chronicle found near Tun-huang. we find a song sung by the Queen Sad-mar-kar, which we can partially reconstruct and tran~I;lte as follows:

WORDS

149
Nearer yes: nearer Yar-pa yes: ;s near the sky Stars of the sky yes: siJj-/i Nearer yes: nearer Gla-skat yes: is near the rocks Slars of the rock yes: sili-/i Nearer yes: nearer Sfiur-ba yes: is near the waler The otter yes: pyo-Ia-Ia Nearer yes: nearer Ncn.kat yes: is near the fields The six grains yes: 5i-/i-1i Nearer yes: nearer Mal-Ira yeS: is near to K1um The colc wind yes: SJXHIHU

dte-iit ni dIe-ne-na
yar-po ni dguii.aan iiI! dguii-sluu ni si/j/i

dte-ne ni dIe-fie-no.
gto-sluJ, ni brag-dafi iiI!

brag-slcar ni si-/ili
dIe-& ni dIent-fIil

snur-ba ni tJhab-4aii iit

1)'UT-sram ni pyo-fa./a

dIe-iiI! ni dIe-ne-na ;un-Ita, ni dog-daii iiI!

NbrtlJ4rug 'Ii $;-1;-1;

dIe-;u ni d!e-iie-na
mal-rro ni klum-daii iie

slcyibur ni spu-ru-ru

This type of onomatopoeia ;n the form A-B-B (where 8 is -fi--Iu--fu--ri.ro--ru--u) is most likely pure sound play. The following is a partial list of the forms encountered-zi-ri-n' "DROI'ING OF BEes OR TIlE WIND," diri-ri
" HOWUNG OF WIND, LOWING OFCATnE."
nNU "GASP OF WONDER, HORROR, OR CONRJSION."

Jdi-n'-ri "RATnIN G OF THUNDER," hukyi-li-/i "HASIIING OF A

RAINBOW OR UGIt"rnING," kyu-ru-ru "SOUND OF lAUGHTER OR SONG, CALUNG OF BIRDS," khyi-/i-/i "ROLUNG OF WAVES," kJlra-Ja-la "SOUND OF HOOVES," mert-rt "MURMUR OF A CROWD, ROAR OF WAVF5.," the-ra-ra "NOISE Of ASSEMBLED WARRIORS, ROLLING OF CLOUOS OR WATERS." pu-ru-ru "SOUND OF TROTnNG HORSES," zu-Iu/u "SlCPPING OF BOOTS," Ichrululu "TINKLIN G OF BELLS," pyota-la "SPlAStIING OF WATER," spu-ru-ru "BlAST Of ICY WIND," Ichororo "BUZZING OF BEES," /Jhi-/i/i "SOUND OF SNIFFING wrrn TIlE NOSE," ururu "SOUND OF BUZZING OR WHIRRING," si-/i/i "DRUMMING OF RAIN, FUCKERING OF UGHTNlNG, SOUND OF A CYMBAL.,,)6

Another type of poetic: word play apparently origimlles from archaic. constructions of the form VERB-E-VERB. Compare the following archaic verse
36 Note, In addition 10 $iIi-1i, such wo,~ as sil-rna "'inkling or cymbals," sil-sila" "'he
10,,04 Iii -.

cymbal." Ju-dhDb "JU wale r ... ,urglln, WlIlen."

150

THE CLt.ss1CAJ.. TlBETAH J....vrtOUAOE

from a Central Asian manuscript with the similar verse given above:

Ia Ht1a n1 hral-te hrtJld pags bIu ni ldfjb-be ldIib

Carving the flesh yes: rip rip

Stripping the skin yes: slurp .slurp

Or this verse; again from an archaic Central Asian manuscript:

ri bwr-tt bzur-na smri bZur-te bzur span /deb-be ldeb-rt(J siii-span /deb-be ldeb
In winding winding mountains
Si'ij

mounlains wind and wind

In bending bending meadows Si'li meadows bend and bend

This convention seems early to have become stereotyped into onomatopoeia of the form A-se-A, where the element A frequently appears to be related to a verb. This type of onomatopoeia is found primarily in archaizing poetic styles, as in the following stanzas from the classical text KJu-Nbum bsdus-pai slifij.po, where A-St-A forms are used in parallel with ABB forms such as si-liIi'

ba-dmar glaii-dmar djri-ri

nan-iiu, man-po ltIoiis-se-llJons

nna-bya spu-sdug lhIlbs-s~-lhnb roJ-mo si/-snan sj./j-li ...

Red cows red oxen di-ri-ri . Many geese and ducks [tIofu-s~-hIoiis Brighl-fealhered peacocks lhabs-s~-lhnb Music and cymbals siIUi ...

JcJu-mgo man-po kyu-ru-ru sbrul-mgo mali-po ron'st-ron g.yu-mtsho siionmo lamstlam

WORDS Manyheaded serpents kyu-nNU Manyheaded snakes roii-se-ron Blue turquo ise waters lam-se-Iam

151

These onomatopoeic terms appear 10 constitute a peculiarly Tibetan ONOMATOPOElA OF MOTION_ These terms may be partially listed as followsIigs-se-ligs "ROCKING OR WAVING MonON (as of trees moved by the wind)" (compare Iigs-se "relaxed, rocking," Ijg-ge-ba "trembling, toltering," Dha "fall to pieces, decay"), tun-se-tun "MOllON OF A MOVING HORSE" (compare tuntun B~ "bow or nod repeatedly"), llIoiis-se-ltIon "AGITATED OR SHAKiNG MOllON" (compare LTSOG "be agitated, tremble, shake," and perhaps also gtIog-skDd "wailing, lamentation," TloR "cry out, lament," tJ.ho.ne "lamen tation, dirge"), lhabs-se-lhabs-Ihub-st-Ihub "MonON OF FlUlTERtNO TO AND FRO" (compare lhab/hub "wide, flowing," /(LUB "cover or drape the body"), liii-se-liii "FLOATING OR FlYlNG M onON" (compare liii-ne "dangling, waving, floating," WlR "float, soar, swim"), foii-se-ron "BACK AND FORnI MOllON" (compare ron narrow passage, defile, cleft in a hill"). /amIt-/am "SIIIMMERING OR FLICKERING MonON" (compare /duo-lam-me "flickering in many colors," lam-lam ByuR "appear shining or flashing")_ A similar onomatopoeia of motio n in the form Ama-A is also encountered in Tibetan poetry. Such constructions apparently date back-as do the A-It-A constructions-to very early poetic conventions. In the archaic Central Asian manuscripts., for example. we find such verses as the following:
sJ1}'an rlaii-ma-rliii

ltIhags ldab-ma-ldib 'hugs nnoii-ma-nnoii

Eyes moist moist Tongue stulter stutter Heart despair despair

As with the A-se-A forms, this type of onomatopoeia is found primarily in archaizing poetic styles. In the following stanzas from Mi-Ia ras-pa we can see how the A-ma-A forms are used in parallel with both A-se-A and A-B-B constructions:
.fteli-na Iho-spriJI kllOr-ma-khor

og-na gtsaii-llhab [i'J'a-mQ-gyu

bar-I/a rgod.po /aii-ma-/ili

152

TIlI~ CtAssICAL TIBETAN l...ANGUAOE

nsilUi sng-ts/lOgs ban-rna-bun

Won-lUi gar-slabs Jigs-se-figs bw"i-ba glu-Ien kJlO-ro-ro me-log dri-nad Lfhi/ili bya-nwf1U skud-snan khyu-ru-ru

Southern clouds above me k.hor-mQ-kJior

Pure waters below me gya-ma-gyu Condors in between fan-mao/iii All manner 9 fruit trees bun-rna-bull The dancing of trees JigJ-se-ligs The singing of bees kho-ro-ro The smell of flowers t!hi-/i-fi
The sweet sound of birds kyu-ru-ru

In both the ancienl verses and the later archaizing poetry, where the vowel in the first A element differs from the vowel in the second A element, we find generally that the vowel of the second A element is primary and that this primary vowel is replaced by Q in the first A element-a pattern strikingly similar to that found in ahernaling reduplication. We may gloss the A-mQ -A rorms given above as rollows-k}wr-ma-khar "CIRCLING OR llJRNING MOllON" (compare NKJIOR "turn around in a circle," skar "surround, encircle," Nkhor "circle, circumference"), gya-ma-gyu "RUSIIING tl.OW Of A RIVER" (compare NGYU "move quickly," NKlfYU "run," RGYV "walk, move"), lan -ma-liii "t1.Y1NG OR FLOATING MOllON" (compare fiii-se-liii "R.Y1NG OR FLOATING MOllON," LDliiJ "float, soar, swim"), ban-rna-bun "MOllON OF CROWDING TOOE11IER" (compare na-bun "rag. thick mist," bud "darkening of [he air, 85 by a dustcloud or snO'WStorm," spun-pa-sbun-pa "husks, charC')_

2.4. HONORIFICS

2.4.1. The use or honorifics

HOIIIORIFlCS in classical Tibetan form an intcresting part of the 1t:xir. .. r1 Observe the following pairs of propositions-4mag-mi rta-Ia Ion "The dli!~, rides on a horse" df1U1g-dpon I1hibs-la MJllibs "The general rides on a horse," lUi-pas zan za "The farmer eats food" spru/-skus bJos gsol "The incarnation eats rood," khol-pos l1/iu-la lelia Nlellrud "The servant wa~hes his face In water" rgyal-pos Lfhab-Ia lal bsil "The k.ing. washes his r"'lC in water. "

WORDS

153

In the classical lexicon we find certain pairs of words-such as rta/t.fhibs "horse," rIliu/rIhob "water," Icha/tal "face," tON/'rtIB "ride," ZA/OSOI. "eat"that are denotatively synonymous save only that one of the pair is honorific: words that are marked as honorific aTe used to refer respectfully to the person and possessions of those of higher social or spiritual rank, while words unmarked as honorific are used in reference to the person and possessions of those of equal or lower ranlr.. There is considerable variation in the use of such honorific words: the frequency and distribution of honorifics in fact constitutes part of the register of a piece of writing and the style of a particular author. The studied and frequent usc of appropriate honorifics is characteristic of foonal, urbane, and literary registers, while minimal use signals registers that are informal. folk, and colloquial. No classical text, however, will eschew honorifics entirely. As early as in the ninth-century translation guide: Sgra-sbyor bam-po gnis-po we read that fe-sa "honorific words" must always be: used in translating from Sanskrit any reference to the: Buddha. That Ihis rule was thenceforth followed can be seen by comparing the old Khotane:se manuscript Iranslation of the: Saddllarmapw.u!anluJ with the revised canonical version: the revisers of the text took care to replace such verbs as the older SKYF: "be born" with its honorific equivalent l.1:AM, the older BOYI "do" with the honorific MDZAD, the older MYED < ma-YOD "be without" with the honorific mj-MNA.

2.4.2. Elegance and social vector

It is important to distinguish such honorific.~ from both EI.CGANT srCECIi and SOCIAL VECTOR VERIlS. In the first case we find thllt several words of common Ql;currence are paired with wards that are synonymous except fo r being EI.EGANT-Ihat is, they constitute an indicator of refined or elevated speech, ilS in lA GS instead of YIN "be," MnlJlS instead of YOD "exist," G~ instead of NOu<; "slay," M'Jj1ll instead of NGRO "go," BeYI instead of BYA "do, bdu.,< instead of na "I." Thus when the young Mi-la first meel~ his future maste r Mar-pa, he declares bfama rin-po-tJne bdag sludkyi mj sdigpo-rIhe-tig .Ir;,~. "0 precious lama, I am a man from the west who is a great sinner," using ll n elevated lexical pattern lhat Mar-pa quickiy punctures with indifference' the author has used his lexical resources to teil us something about the ~ t ' u ng protagonist's personality and attitudes.

154

TIfE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN l...ANmJAGl:

In the second case we find verbs that have

SOCIAL

VECTORS as part of their

semantic content. Thus the verb

PUL

means "give from below upwards -

offer" a nd GNAiJ means "give from above downwards _ bestow," while TAN "give" is unmarked for social veclor; we may add that the nondirectional verb TAR "give" has the honorific equivalent STIAL Similarly, tu means "speak from below upwa rds," GsuR means "speak from above downwards," and 8YA means "speak horizontally." In texts that recount conversations belwet:1I inte rlocutors of unequal ra nk, it is possible to keep track of who is talking not only by the presence of absence of honorifics but also by the social vector of the verbs of speak.ing: for example, Mila will tu to Mar-pa a nd his wife, Mar-pa will GsuR to his wife and to Mila, his wife will tu 10 Mar-pa but GsuFJ to Mi-Ia, and Mila will Br-t to shepherd boys.

2.4.3. Primary honorifics

We can distinguish two types of honorific: a PRIMARY 1I0NORnlC is a \exical item usually unrelated etymologically to the corresponding nonhonorific bUI marked as its honorific equivalent through a gradual process of semllntic specialization; a SECONDARY HONORtFIC is a collocation consisting of a lexical item marked as honorific preceding an unma rked lexical item to yield a form which is honorific as a whole. To illustrate primary honorifics we may list-with the honorific lexic;ll items second-5uth noun pa irs as Ius/sku "body," mgo/dhu " head," mig/spy(jIl "cye," rus/gduii "bone," m a/siiQlI "ear," sfla/IaflS "nose," kha/Zal "face:' ,.,.dtiJilmgrin "neck," /agJpllyag "hand," rkaiiltabs "foot," flIe/Wags "tongue," khrag/mtslwJ "blood," yUllthugs "mind:' siiiiilthugs "heart," pltalyab " ra ther," malyum "mother," bu/sras "son," Ichuii/kltyim "house," rtaltIhibs "horse," Mhu/II/lab "water," gtamlblca "discourse"; such verb pairs as NDllG/BtUGS "stay," YlN/I.AGS "be," YOD/ME "exist," BYA! MD7.AD "do," o N/rUF.lJ "come," NORO/PI/EB "go," 5ESI MKJfYEN "know," M1110N/G7JGS "see," tON/15tS " ride"; and such personal determiner pairs as iia{iied "I," khyodlkhyed "you," kholkhon "he," A lexical item may thus have both an elegant and an honorific equivalentfor example, the unmarked iia ")" with both the honorific equivalenty ned and the elegant equivalent Mag. We can list some examples as follows:

WORDS UNMARKED

155

ELEGANT
GU< UGS

HONORIFIC

"stay"
"be"

NOOG YIN

BtUOS
UGS

"exist" "go" "do" "die"

")"

YOD
NORD .J:<

mills
MT1111

",N.
PilES

BOn
GUN

"'DZAD
GRoR

7'<1

""

bdag

ned

2.4.4. Denotation and connotation

We have said that hqnorifics arc DENOTATIVElY synonymous with their nonhonorific equivalt:nts; honorifics may, however, differ CONNOTATIVELY from their corresponding nonhonorifics. Such connotative differences may ari~ simply as a result of honorific usage. The term bIos, for example, is the honorific equivalent of zan "food," and is used frequently in ritual to refer to food offered to the god; it thus comes to connote an offering, food given to a deity, even whe n it denotes simply the food of a socially superior person. Again, in contemplative contelrtS, where a meditator visualizes his body as that of a god, the non honorific term Ius "body" will be used to refer to the meditator's body and the honorific term sh4 "body" will be used to refer to the body of the god. Hence the former term acquires connotations of imperfection, actuality, and mutability, while the latter term acquires connotations of perfection, potentiality, and significance. Whether one chooses to TllANsv.n such terms denotatively or connotatively into English is of course another question. Connotative differences may also arise as a result of the extension of the honorific term. It is not infrequently the case that a single 1e1lical item serves as the honorific 'equivalent of several nonhonorifics: where this occurs the honoriiic term will assume a connotative breadth lacking in any single corresponding nonhonorific term. For example, Ihugs is the honorific equivalent of both yid "mind" and siiin "heart," and thus in either use carries something of the cognitive and affective connotations of both terms. Similarly, the honorific verb MKJfYN functi ons as the honorific equivalent of several nonhonorific verbs denoting menIal actions-.s'Es "know," RIG "perceive," GO "understand"-and is thus connotatively more broad than anyone of them .

156

THE ClAssJCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

The exclamation bla-ma mkhyen 'The lama knows'" is in a sense ineducible to anyone nonhonorific equivalent. Connotative differences may, finally, arise as a result of the derivation of the honorific term. The verb BSIL, for exalT.plc, has the original meaning "be 0001" (as in the paraphrase coordination bsi/liii gran "cool and cold"). and comes eventually to function as the honorific equivalent of the verb KRU "wash"-thus, oxymoronically, IJhab dronmo-/a sku bsil "He w.uhes his honorable body in warm water." The honorific term, even while denoting the same action as the nonhonorific term, still relains historical connotatiolU of refreshment and renewal. Similarly, the: nonhonorific expression ro SREG "burn a corpse" has the honorific equivalent spur DtV. which denotes precisely the same activity: yet the verb vtu retains its original sense of "melt, digest, dissolve," and connotatively suggests the ethereal insubstantiality of the honorable remains.

2.4.5. Euphemism
Such uses, we may note, pass easily over into EUPHEMISM. The unmarked verb rSl "die" has the elegant equivalent GUM and the honorific equivalent GRoR. Yet we also find the use of such euphemist ic equivalents as GJGS "depart." Me-bar oJGS "de pan to bliss," gllam-du GJGS "depart to heaven," Ii-bar eJGS " dt!part to peacc," Sku-NDA "transcend the body," dgoiis-pa RDZOGS "complete his intentions," and IUI-la PIIEB "go to the Buddhafield." A similar type of euphemism is used by the young Mi-la when speaking of his master Mar-pa. Where Mar-pa speaks of himself as tJhaii-gis bzi "getting drunk on beer," Mi-la speaks of him as p/llld-kyis ""bad "striving with drink offerings."

2.4.6. Secondary honorifics

A SECONUAAY IlQNO RII'l C is fo rmed by joining an unmarked lexical item with one mflrked as honorific to yield a form which is honorific as a whole. This process has bt!cn remarkably productive. Thus the honorific sku "body" may he prefixed to any number of unmarked lexical items referring 10 parts. stalc:s. and appurtenances of the body to produce compounds denotatively synonymous with the original lexical items except thai they are now honorific - thusslw-mkhar"castle," slat-(she "\ifetimt!," sku-dpuii "shoulder," sku-uhad "feve r, " .rku-ru.s "bone," sku-(sllab "representative," sku-rags "girdle," sku

WORDS

IS7

tJh4s "supplies," sku-khoms "health," sku-fa "flesh," sku-bsod "virt~e_" The honorific dbu "head" is similarly prefixed in dbuskTa "hair," dbu-riias "pillow," dbutlwd "cap," dburmog "helmet," dbu-Jwa " hat," the honorific pIlyag "hand" in phyag-Nkhor "staff," phyag-rgya "sea~" pllyag-nor ''wrist,'' phyag-mlheb "thumb," phyag-rttn "gift," ph)'Dg-dpe "book,", phyag-mdzub "finger," phyag-Nbris "writing." phyag-Ian "greeting," the honorific tabs "foot" in labs-gelan "carpet," labs-bro "dance," labssen "toenail," Jabs-lham "boot," and the honorific thugs "heart, mind" in thugs-iiDnu "spirit," thugssro "anger," thugs-bzod "patience," thu.gsNthad "pleasure," Ihugs-dgoiis "thought," thug:t-bnst "love,"
Similarly, when an honorific replaces a nonhonorific within an CXlStlflg compound, the entire compound becomes honorific: here we may list-with the honorific compounds second- such pairs as kJ.a-Itaflaf-fta "mouth view ... instructions," !'1ig-tJhulspyan-tihu "eye water ... tears," mig-llIibslspyan-ltJibs "eye covering ... eyelid," mig-Nbrastspyan'Nbras "eye fruit ... eyeball," yi-damf thugs-cklm "mi nd bond ... oath,"y;-mugltltugs-mug"mind darkness ... despair," yid-tJht$/thugs-tJhts "expanded mind -- belief," sniii-rusfthugs-rus "heart bone ... courage," sniii-rdl~/t1rugs-rdt~ "noble heart ... compassion,"'ag-tJholphyagIJha "hand thing ... implement," fag-phyisfphyag-phyis " hand cloth ... towel," lag-nagsfphyag-nag:t "hand sign ... fingerprint," lag-Imlphyag-len "hand taking -- practical experience," lag-mlllifJpllyag-mlhi/"hand bottom - palm," r/cQijmihiltlabs-millil "foot bottom ...... sole," rkaii-f)fUNllabsDRAN "pull the foot - . disgrace," The us~ of such honorifics again conslilUtes part of the style of an author; and many idiosyncratic secondary honorific compounds are not found in the current dictiuna ries, II is often hdpful to he able 10 translate the honoritic portions o f such CO/T,pounds hack in to their non honorific fo rms: these are the forms more hkdy to he listed, Thus a reader encountering a previously unattested fm m such as ,I11)'III!-.ler "yellow eye," but unable to find a dictionary entry for the term, ('an I!lok under its nonhonorific equivalent migser and there find the more helpful gloss "jaundice,"

2.4_1_ Kinship terms

!'.hetall kinship termimlhlgy c( lII.~ t i t utes" semantic field which illustrates some 1l1lcresting featur es of Ihe hnnorifil: system, Classical Tibetan kinship terms r" r OIsl:enu ing generations :lIe relatively slraighlforward-mes-po "grand-

1S8

TIlE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

father," nno-mo "grandmotht:r," plio-la-phD (honorificyab) "rather," mala-rna (honorific yum) "mother," kJw-bo-la-khu "father's brother," nt'n~ ma-lo-ne "falher's sister," loii -po -lalaii "mother's brother," SfU-mo-lo-sru

"mother's sisler," Here we can note the use of

l1VE. :n

PIIO

and -rna as sex

formatives and the use of the prefix la as an OLDER REI......nVE FORMA-

Kinship tt:rms for siblings. however, show a curious asymmelry. Here we !"llll1 mili.po (honorific draJ-po) "brother of a woman,",mli mQ (honorific (,Jamm a) "sister of a man," dlo-dto- 7tJ-d1.o (honorific gtJCII-po) "older brother,"
t!he-!.e-?a-tJlu! "older siSler," phu-bo "older brotht:r of a man," lIu -ho

(honorific gtJuii-po) "younger brOlhc r of a ma n," phu -mo "older siSler of a woman," tZU-trW ''younger sister of it woman." The distribution of honorific equivalents is skewed in a peculi<lr manner: why is there an honorific equivalent for "older brother" but nOI for "older siste r"? why is the re ,In honorific equivale nt for "yo unger brother of a man" .but not for "older brother of a mlm"'! It is clear that the terms dto-dto "older brot her" lind l!il e-fe "older siste r" belong togtther both by their meaning a~d by their morphology: both are reduplicated forms and both regularly occur with the la formative. Similarly. it is clear tha t the terms phu"'o "older brother of a man" and nu bo "younger brother of a man" (with their secondary derivatives phu.mo .'older siste r of a woman" and lIumo "younger sister of a wo man") also belong together semantically and detivationally: the term phu is etymologically related to pllluJ "first fruit" just as the teuT! nu is related to nud "suckling." Finally. the terms gtfell-po "older brother (honorific)" and gt!uii-po "younger

31 The older relative fnrm.uive la- is in fact quite productive. In New Tibeta n il is ncot infrequently prerlXoo to Ille n3mC$ of yogiru and olde r mo nks as a form of ~rrOCl io n3l C ro.:spcct: a )'Ogin named T!hos- kyi blo-grO$, for eumple, will be called not o nly Ily Ilis clipped named dhos-blo but al!.() by tile fo rm la-dhos "older re lativc T!llos." In tile e pic of Ge'!03r we find a friend addrcsscd as laTOg$ "older rdat ive fr iend:' and Ge,wl( himself-under tile name OlO ru _ is add fC55cd willi tile play on -...ords 16dlo "older bro ther/o lde r relative 01.0 IU" in such lines as 16410 dloflj rin po/Iht. We find tile fOlmative prefIXed to adjcct i"c.~ such as s/cyid-~ "Ilappy:' as when Oro11I is addrC5SCd as laskyid dlo-skyid rin ,po'fjh~, 01 t .... cn sii ....... mo "blue:" to fo rm la-';;"" "oh.lcr relativc blue o ne -. hcavc n, Mas in lasiiOll 1(MItIlo gtu rgyabno "if you bend your bol l'" at tile old blue sky." And, in the epic, we find the formative prefw:4 to animals as well - fo r example, spyan ~o ./hon yidgtad jo ./o grlJd. spyaii la-/Mll limpoi 10_/0 Ndzabs "Uncle Wolf SCI5 his mind o n nesh ... Uncle Wolf vs triVC5 for las ty nesh."

WORDS

159

brother of a man (honorific)" are clearly related to the adjectives IIllen-po "big" and tJhuiiba "little," so it seems that they 100 belong together. In fact, each kinship term appears to be a complex of four distinct semantic specifications: the term asserts that its referent is either MALE or FEMALE; either marked as HONORlflC or left unmarked; marked as OWER than ego,

marked as

YOUNGER

than ego, or left unmarked (or relative age; and marked

as being the SAME SEX as ego, marked as being a DIFfERENT SEX, or IcC!

unmarked for relative sex. No term is marked for more than three of these specifications. Each sibling term may thus be defined as a bundle of these specifications as (oUO'N$:
minpo
draJ-po
MALE MALE FEMALE FEMALE OLDER MALE FEMALE MALE MALE

DlFF SEX
D1FF SEX
HONORI FlC UONORtFlC

snn-ma
ltJam-mo
lQ~O

OUl ' SEX

DlFFSEX

la-tJhe

phubo nu-bo pIw-ma

nu-MO

OLDER OWER
YOUNGER

SAME SEX SAME SEX

SAME SEX

OLDER YOUNGER

fEMALE

FEMALE
MALE MALE

SAME SEX HONORIAC HONORIFlC

gt.!en-po gt.!un.po

OLDEIl YOUNGER

Under this analysis, the specification HONOlltFlC is an independent lexical variable. The term gtIen.po is thus an OLDER MALE HONORI}-1C sibling, and as such becomes associated as its honorific equivalent with the independent lexical item la-d!o, which is an OLDER. MALE sibling. We can see that gtIun. po, a YOUNGER MALE 1I0NORIFlC sibling, can correspond symmetrically to no other term: the semantic field contains no parallel entry specified only as a YOUNGER MALE sibling. Only one other entry is specified as both YOUNGER and MALE; and gtJun-po becomes an asymmetrical honorific equivalent of nubo, a YOUNGER MALE SAME SEX sibling.

Inflections

In some languages, some phonological changes take plac~ whenever the necessary conditions are present. In Sanskrit, for example, progressive voicing assimilation between comiguous words takes place regardless of the gram matical class of the word involved; thus we find both aSlt rajii > iisid raja "There was a king," where the final of a verb assimilates to the initial of a noun .. and viit bhriimyati > vag bhriimyati "The speech is excited," where the final of a noun assimilates to the initial of a verb. On the other hand, some conditioned phonological changes may take place only in particular clas.ses or subclasses of words; where a sQund change is phonologically conditioned, but the description of the change must contain morphological ' information, we speak of MORPIlOP)lONOLOGICAL change. Tibetan inflectional morphOlogy often involves such morphophonological changes.
For example, several Tibetan particles undergo sound changes conditiGned by the final or poslfinal of the immediately preceding syllable. Thus the coordinative conjunction ""1'11/' has the form Jjn afler preceding final or postfina] -s, the form -IJiii aftt:r any other preceding final obstruent, and the form -fin after any preceding final sonoranl; but the initials of such NOI1NS as lUI "field," Jiii "tree," and IJo;; "bell" remain unchanged regardless of what precedes them.' A dt:scription of the sound change would have to specify the grammatical cl3:.5 of the words which undergo it: hence the sound change is morphophonological. Phonemes which undergo morphophonologicaJ changes we will call MOKPIIOPHONEMES, and we will indicate such morphophonemt:s by writing them in capita l letters. For example, we will write the adversative conjunction "nur' as -KYoii, with the onset capitalized, to show-as opposed, say, to the noun kyo;; "witd donkey," without the capitalization-that the form undergoes

faCI Iha l Ihe ....u,<.I

1 The Til>Clan wouJ 1$(';; "1><:11" i~ burtnWC4 rrum Middle Chinese .,.l)'W<Nl --belL." The wa~ borrowed doc~ nlli. t I>CI 'evc. affeci its morphophonologiQlt $I~h,I$.

,w

INFLECTIONS

161

morphophonological change, and the morphophoneme in question is the onset cluster. Similarly, we will write the nominalizer -Pa with an initial C8pita~ since the initial is a morphophoneme which regularly becomes b after certain preceding syllable finals and p after others; the syllabic formative .po "PERSON HAVlNO TO DO wrnt" undergoes no such changes. Verbs also undergo morphophonological changes. The inflectional prefIX G~mes d- before grave initials in the verb root and g- before acute initials; similarly, a voiced stop initial in the verb root becomes voiceless after the inflectional prefIX b-; and the vowel ..t. in the verb root becomes 0 in the imperative stem. Those inflectional affIXes which undergo morphophonological changes we will. again, write in capitals; and we will write verb roots entirely in capitals as well. Not every part of every verb root, it is true, is a morphophoneme; but capitalizing the entire root will simultaneously prevent recurring typographical oddities and serve as a signal that the cited form is a hypothetical root rather than an attested stem. Thus, for example, an affricate initial. in a verb root may become the corresponding fricative in absolute initial position-that is, after the 'inflectional prefIX 8-, as in tugs < '-Dt.UG-S "entered." But the rule applies only to verb rools, as we have indicated by the capitalization: the past stem 8D1oos "entered" is lugs, but the noun dta "tea" does not thereby become -la, nor the noun dto-bo "lord" become ~o-bo.

1. INFLECTION WITHIN SYLLABLES

1.1. TENSE
When a verb is given a TENSE, the tense is indicated by various more or less regular changes in the phonological shape of the verb. Thesc morphophonological changes constitute the inflectional morphology of the Old Tibetan verb. A verb may have a maximum of four such distinct phonological shapes: for example, we find Nthu/btw/btu/lhus as the four forms of the verb we cite as TV "gather," and gtIod/btIadlgtlod/lIhod as the four forms of the verb we cite as Ji..w "cut." These four forms of the verb in its most complete paradigm have been named do-IIO "present," Ndaspa "past," mo-oiis-pa "future," and sJaE-uhig "imperative" by the Tibetan grammarians. We will use these terms as conventional designations of what arc commonly calledinaccurately-the four tenses of the Old Tibetan verb. .

162

TIlE ClASSICAl.. TIBETAN L\NOUAGE

1.2. ROOTS AND STEMS

A terminological distinction may be made between roots and stems. A :STEM is one of the tense forms thai a verb is observed to take; a ROOT is art underlying form thai is hypothesized 10 account most economically for the observed tense siems. For example, given the present stem Nkhro "is angry" and the past stem Ichros "was angry," we can postulate the underlying root KlIRO "be angry" from which the two stems are derived by prenasalization and -s suffixation respectively. This hypothetical underlying form carries with

Sjn&e '1l'(1r1is, when they wmtnUnjllUe, hint no effie', it dRwm on us that w, need II: society in whieh ccmmunuation is not pracnmi, in which IP(JrIis "twml nonseFlse &IS they do b,""un L7Pm, in which words be",",t what they urigjnniJy wert: trw and min Rnd the Ttlt ofpn'mn>aJ tn'Pirtmment. The dnniljtariZl'tWn of language: R lerWul murieal con,"",

-John Cage, The Furure of Music

it no necessary implication of actual hislOrical existence, except to the extent that one emhraces the interesting thesis that such internally reconstructed forms reflect the relll past of the language-a thesis that r will invoke herein from timl: to time.

1..1. n1'ES OF INFLECTIONAL RULE

These siems can he conceptualized as related to their underlying root through the lJppli(;lJlion of a se ries of inflectiona l rules. For example, in such a system, the P;lSt stem of a transitive vero is seen as formed by adding the prefIX b and the suffix .f 10 the ront; thl! present stem of an inlransitive verb is seen as forml:d by prl:nasalizing the root; the prese O! slem of cerlain transitive verhs is seen as formed hy adding the prefix G to the ,rool and rounding its vnwd. The rules that descrihe which chnnges are made 10 a rOOI 10 form particulilf stems we will call IU':J\lJ7.ATIOt\l RULES. Thus it is a realization rule

INFLUcnONS

163

that the present stem of an intransitive verb is formed by prenasalization-for example. the present stem Nkhro "is angry" fro m the root I(}IRO "be angry." Now it is clear that such ;ealization rules may produce syllables that violate syllable structure constraints. For example, the realization rule that the present stem of an intransitive verb is formed by pre nasalizing the root produces the present stem ?"'7I!ii from the intransitive root REN "be stirr." It is thus necessary to have ADJUSTMl:J\T RU LES whereby the stems produced by the realization rules can be adjusted into acceptable forms. For example, it is an adjustment rule that blocks prenasalization before nonstopped phone mes; thus the present stem ?Nreii is adjusted to the present stem ren "is stiff." Some adjustment rules operate as well on stems that are otherwise acceptable. Adjustment rules use two different processes to adjust into acceptable form the stems produced by the realization rules: when a realizational rule has added an inflectional affix, an adjustment rule may alter either the affix or the root. On the one hand, for example, prenasalizing the root REN "be stiff' produces the unacceptable syllable '!Nrcn as the present stem; an adjustment rule blocks the prenasalization to yield the acceptable syllable reii < N-REN. We will call such adjustment rules Al'l-1X RULES. On the othe r hand, for example, prenasalizing the root TU "gat her" produces the unacceptable syllable ?Ntu as the present stem: an adjustment rule then aspirates the initial of the root to yield the acceptable syllable ,,11114 < NTU. We will call such adjustment rules ROOT RU LES.

1.4. TRANS1TWE AND 1NTRANS1TWE VERBS

Throughout the grammar of Old Tibetan there is a pervasive distinction between TRAroISIlWE and INTRi\NSITIV ~ verbs. These verbs are distinguished semantically, syntactically, and derivationa lly. They are also distinguished inflectionally: intransitive verbs do not have future or imperative stems; intransitive verbs do not form the ir past stem with a b- prefIX. The distinction betwee n those verbs that form their past stem with a b prefIX-that is, transitive verbs-and those that do nOI form their past stem with a b- preflXthat is, intransitive verbs-is thus the primary distinction in verbal types. We may sepa rate b-preflXing verbs from 8-preflXing verbs as the fundamental division of the verbal system.

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1.5. PARADIGMS
When Ihe realization rules are set oul systematically they constitute what we can conveniently consider PARADIGMS for Old Tibetan verb inflection. IN'rnANsrnvE VERBS signal the present stem by prenasaiizalion and the past stem with the -s suffIX. We can therefo re set out Ihe following intransitive verb paradigm:
PRESENT
N_ _

PAST

The inflection of TRANSITIVE VEIWS in Old Tibelan is more complex than Ihat
of intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs have additional distinctive forms for future :lnd imperative siems; and there a re four difreren! transitive paradigms, depending on how the prescnt and future stems are formed. We can distinguish transitive verbs that signal the future stem with a b- prefIX from those that signal the future stem with 2 G- prefIX; we can distinguish transitive verbs that signal the present stem with a G- prerIX from those that signal the present stem with prenasalization, All transitive verbs signal the, past stem with a b- prerIX and -s sufrlX, The following <Ire thus the four Olt! Tibetan transitive verb paradigms:
PRESENT

PAST

FlIl1JRE

IMPERATIVE

CLASS C LASS CLASS CLASS

t 2 J 4

N N

G G

b_, b----.J b----.J b----.J

b
G

, ,

b
G

Transitive verbs have two additional realization rules: (1) ihe present stem of Class 3 and Class 4 incorporates a ROUNDING RULE which changes a spread vowel in the root into a rounded vowel in the stcm;2 and (2) the imperative

2 The ROUNDING RULE tllanges a $pr~<I vowel 10 I rounded ,vowel, luving _1\ OIlier fealurCii of Ille vowel tile $arne. The rule tllus does not arfect Ille BACX RO UNDED vowels It and 0. The rule does IUtel the FN.ONT SPKEAD vowels i and t, but the rcsulling FRONT ROUNDED vowels iI and" become: the FROI'O' SPREAD vowels j and t again by the operation of Rule I; $0 the $Ole vi~ib le effect o f tile rult is 10 change the IIACK SrRE.AD vowel a to the
!lACK t(DUNDED

V(lWel

0.

INFLECJ10NS

165

stem of all classes incorporates both tbe ROUNDING RULE and an ASPIRATION

Several considerations suppon the po5tulatioll of Ih is l1Iie as pan of lhe verbal paradigm. In many cues, nouns Ih.at Ire relaled 10 In Iffected verb bave the vowel Q ralher than the o of the prcs.ent stem of the verb; frequently coglUlle verbs in other Tibeto-Bunnan llnCWIJCI .bo have the YO'NeI Q rather tMin the 0 of the prcs.ent Item. For aampk, &fven the oomilUlls JJIuldpa " punishment" Ind JJ/uld.po "tom," and the intransitive verb TfHAD (HtJhodldluld) "be cut,H we can independently pOstul.te the trlll$ilive rool Jt.w "cu.IH lIn4erlying IX stems gtJodlbdsdfBdad/lJhJ, and .ttribute the YOWeI 0 In Ihe present a nd imperative SIems to the operallon of the rouading rule. This transitive verb Tf..tO can then also be compared wllh slIch forms as Lushei rIm "cut," Similarly, the transitive root 4D "kill" an be po5tlllated as underlying tbe ~ te lTl5 pod{bssd{bstJdlwd, and that root tbe n compared with such forms as Burmese Sal "kill.H In many cues, lhe present stem of a transit ive verb .ppears with an 0 vowcl, but the present stena (J. prefix has beell blocked by a n adjustment nile. For aample, we can postulate Ihe transitive root SXAN "fllifillH underlying the stems skoA{bslwJIs{bJ1wJllslwIis, with the present stem IkdI < G'skoo'I < OSXAN by all affix I1Ile; this root SXAN can tbell be compared with sudll 110111\$ II sksJItJD "satisfact ion." Similarly, we can postlliate the trans ilive TOOl RGYAN "stretch" underlying tile stems 'I)'OII/bfJ)'oJl.J{b~~, once 19ain with the present stem r,oIOII < G-~ < G/WY..,v by a regular ru le; and Ibis root RGYAN an then similarly be compared witb such nouns as ~mo "dbunce." It Is temptin, to IoCe the present stem prenx G- and tbe imperative stem slIlIblI as somehow pboGologically rQponsible for lbe roundinS of the YOWeI nucleus. Yet we find perfcaly accepuble syllables such as gdsII "IelIt,H dbaJ! Mpower,H and Mp "fores(H where the nucleus Q remains sprud despite Ihe presence of a preinilial G or postfilUll .s. Simn.,Iy, in lt1e fuillre stem CIas5 2 and. CIas5 -4 transit ive verbs we find perfectly aoocpLlble fulure stems Judi UJlIad < o.Jt.w "will cut," pod < GUJ) ''will kill ," dbTad < GBRAD ''wiIl5Cl'J,teb,'' aDd dbral < G-bral < G-PlIRAL "will separate," where the Q vowel remains spread despite lbe presence or an inflectional G- prer~ and, in all put "ems. _ find perfealy aot:eptable fonns slICb as bl/tyGp < bSKYA (J.I "spent" an~ btQP < bTAG-, "lfOuad," where the Q YO\IfeI mai spread despite the presence of an innectional '1 sufflJ:.

or

II b thlll probably t!llt lhat tbe rounding rule b no t phonoloJk:a11y conditioned, but applies indepenclently of sny atrlJ:. An alternative way of de.\Cfiblng tbe rule would be 10 poItulate phoneme of lip rounding W (much as N is phoneme of velum lowering) whleb rounds .ny ~I In tbe lime syllable. We could then propose ,"cb 4erivatioftl as Fod < G-Iod < '"Gw.s,.w for the present stem of the root ~ "kill," .nd SI'IIIW < 1II11'(H < SNRA1f'J for the Imperative "em of the root SIIII ",pett.H Similarly, where the o Of ., Is blocked by u IKljllltlDellt I1Ile, we could propose. sucllikrivations as Ikyob < Gskyob < '"Gw'sxyA!' (or the present Item or the ~t S.tl'Jt8 "protect," and Jod < sods < -.t.W-ws fo r the imp..'ral ive stem or the rool s,.w "kill"

\66

TtIE ClASSICAL. TIBETAN l...ANGU .... GE

RULE., which changes unaspirated oral stopped initials in the root into aspirated initials in the stem.)

1.6. AFFIX RULES

Under the realization rules, four afflXes are added to verb roots to form tense stems-the prerlXes b., G, and N (or prenasalization). and the SUfflX os. In some instances, the resulting stem needs virtually no adjustment to be acceptable under the syllable structure constraints: for example, from the intransitive root )(lIRO '.'be angry" we fiRd the present stem NIchro < N-KJIRO "is angry" and the past stem Ichros < KJIRO-s "was angry," from the Qass 3 transitive root SAG "gather" we find the present stemgsog < G-SAG "gathers,"

) TIle ....srJRATION RULE operates 10 .spirtle any verb root inilial .... hich can be aspirated without violating either phoneme or syllable structure conslraints. The rule applies only to oral s tOpped initia1:s without preinitia1:s-fo r c:umple, /Jws < lV-s ""pther!" IJlwnu < VZUM -s ''sh ut!"" khunu < GUMS " k.i1l! ~ pilip < "G-I "pie rce!" The rule docs not function to aspirate nonstopped or nasal consonants: thus we find zos < ZAS ""UlI!"" and not 1thtJ.s, lOS < s().s "feed!" and not ?shos, and ROIl < HAJ( S "listen!" and DOt 'rrI1wn. And Ihe ruk doc:!t not apply .... here there is a prcinitial before an otherwise .rfeaed TOOl initial: thus we find skyog:1 < SKYAG-s "spend!" and no t ?JIcJtyogs./ros < LTA-J "look!" and not ?Ilho" and dpogs < Dl'AG-J ""measure!" and not 1dp11op. Indeed, we c:vc:n find MiomJ < NOAN-S "choose!" instUid of the ot herwise: aoc:c:ptable syllable Nlhoms, and nuhod < ItiOZAl>-s ""do!" instead of the otherwise aoc:c:ptable syllable mllhod.
In addition, there are two further exceptions. The rule does not a pply to verb TOOlS ~th the initial cluster OR, since th~ would produce the unacceptable: output cluster 1w. Thus we find dIU < OIU-J ~ask!" Ind nOI '!lW, .as opposed, $Iy, 10 khroI < GROL-J ~relc:uel~ And, for reasons I do nol understand, the rule docs not .pply to any verb TOOt wilh initial a. Thus we find bQ, < BORJ "fling!" instead of the otherwise:. KCeptable: phor. b)t.Ip < irYOO1 " mois ten! " instead of the ot herwise acceplable pllyup, and bri.r < BRI-J ''Write!" instead of Ihe o therwise accc:ptable phris. Aparl from this lasl c:JIccption, it seems clear that the aspiralion rule: in some: sense looks forward to its output, and docs nol 3pply at . 11 .... here its output would require adjustment. It is, 'by the way. In attractive speculation that the aspiration of absolute syllable: inilial5 in imperative stems bas somethinl to do, phonologically, with tbe: emphasis normally givcn lhe c:JIpreuion o f a oommand; but J know of no evidence bearing one way or the other on that point. We mllht, rashly, propose somethlnl flke a phoneme of emphasis, parallel to the phoneme of lip roundinl -w, ....tllth is manifested phonellcally as aspiration in artain environments, and wlIidl is pari of the realbu ion rule for imperative siems.

INFLECllONS

the past stem bsags < b$.Aos "gathered," the future stem bsag < bSAO "will gather," and the imperative stem sogs < SAO'S "gather!" In many cases, however, the resulting stem requires adjustment into acceptable form. For example, prenasaliring the transitive root SUB "plug up" produces the unac ceptable 'present stem ?Hsub, which is adjusted, by blocking the prefIX, to the acceptable sub "plugs up," Similarly, adding the iriflectional prefIX b- and SUfrlX .$ to the transitive root NO "buy" produces the unacceptable past stem ?biWs, which is adjusted, by blocking the prefIX, to the acceptable nos "bought."

1.6.1. The prefix

Since pre nasalization can occur only before oral consonants, the prefIX N- is blocked before nasal initials in the verb root-for example, no < NNO "buys," mid < NMID "swallows," nu < NNU "sucks~" Similarly, since only stopped COlUOnants can be prenasalized, the preflX N is blocked before fricatives and glides-for example, Iud < N$UD "rubs," ta < NZA "eats," r~ii < N-Rl::R "is stiff," yon < N.YOFl"comes.'~ Finally, since only initials can be prenasalized, the prefIX N- is blocked before any pre initial-for example, rku < N-RXU "steals," mol < NSNOL "intertwines," Ita < NLTA "looks at."

1.6.2. The prenx cSince 0- cannot be a pre-preinitial, the prefIX o is blocked before any preinitial-for example, skoii < GsKA!J "fulfills," nog < C;f(J)tG "examines," slob < GSUB "teaches," dpog < G-OI'AG "measures," Most important, the prefIX G- undergoes GRAVITY DlSSIMI~nON according to the initial of the root he to which it is affIXed: before an AClTTE initial the prefIX G- becomes tGRAVE preinitial g-, and berore a GRAVE preinilial the prefIX o becomes the Act.rrE preinitial d-, Thus we find, for example, gtad < O-TAD "will deliver" but dJcroI < G-KROL "will ring," gdul < O-DUL "will tame" hut dgod .< (;-OOD "will array," gdud < O'DUO "will bend" but dbud < G-BUD "will blow."

H-LoN "i5

Note, however, in several verbs, 14 < HL-for example, 140il < HuN "arises," /don <: blind," /dl(g < HLlJG "poUB,H /dud < HLUD 'WaleB." We will discuss this rille laltr on in Illis c:l'ta pltr.

168

TUE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

1.6.3. The prefix bSince there cannot be two labial consonants in the same syllable onset, the prefLX b is blocked before any root with a labial initial-for example, bor < b-BOR-S "threw," bris < bBRH "wrote," myaiis < b-MYAiJS "lasted." Similarly, since preinitiai b- can occur only before oral consonants, the prefIX b is blocked before nasals-for example, nos < b-NG-S "bought," nO/is < bNoN-s "caused pain." Since preinilial b- can occur only before unaspirated consonants, the prefIX b- is blocked berore aspirated stops-for example, khur < b- KJIUR-s "carried," Jchrid < b-KJIR/CH "led." Finally, since pre-preinitial bcan occur only bef()re nonstopped preinitiais., the prefIX b- is blocked before any stopped preinitial-for example, gnaiis < b-GNAR-s "gave," dgar < b/X;AR s "confined," gtsis < bGTS/-S "summoned."s

1.6.4. The suffix -s

Posttinal -$, like preinitiai G, undergoes GRAVITY DlSSIMIL\llON; the acute postfinal -$ can occur only after grave finals and vowels. Thus, 100, Ihe inflectional suffix -s is blocked after acute fina ls in the verb rool-for eX'Jmple, brkus < b-RKU-S "stole" but bfad < b-1)(/H "delivered," bfags < b1)(G-$ "ground" but bto, < bTOR-$ "scattered.';(;

"'.1

S Actually, as one mighl expccl, Ihings are a liule more com plicaled Ihan Ihis. The prcfix b_ in1t;racIS wilh labial inilials in Ihe rool in complex wa~; and. although the prefIX b- is blocke4 before aspirated STOPS, Ihe prefLl interacts in com plex ways witll AFFRlCAIT ,s. as does the prenx G- as well. We will di~uss such inleraclions under Ihe adjuslmenl rulcs. In addilion. the prefIX b- is blocked before inilial DR in Ihe rool-for example, dtiJ < b-DRf-S "uked ," drubs < b-DRua$ "!iCWed," dnuJ. < bf)RVD-S "rubbed." 8uI uOle Ihe occasional byperconcci form-for example, bdral < b-DlUL-$ " lore apan" as well u Ihe exrcCled fo rm 6 The pasl leMe innCC1ional sum~ .J is in faci prescn'ed sporadiCally as d aflc r acutc finall in several ar<:haie manuscripts of lhe ei:' ~lh and ninlh cen lu rics, where we find such forms as /!)'IUd < OYIJR-S "became," btsafd < D-n/IAL-s "acquired,'" bzurd < bZUlH "made way," .nd hrold < /).flllALS "lore 10 picec:s.~ NOle, for cumple, the parallel verb!> in the following bit or archaic ~try from a Tunhuang manuscript-mdeurdu modmonJ, NpOiislcym Jo ma-Jdu.lms ''The lip of Ihe arrowhead did not become red, the skillful archer did not kill the deer," where dmOld < b-DNAR's "became rd," wilh .n acute final. is parallel IQ khums < .b-KHUM-S "kllLed," with a ,rave fi~1.

INFLECllONS

169

1.7. ROOT RULES

In many instances, the relationship between a hypothesized verb root and the observed tense stems is relatively transparent""':'for example, KlIRO (Nkhrol khros) "be angry," SIG (gsig/bsigslbsiglsig) "shake." Sometimes, as we have seen, inflectional affIXes may be regularly blocked-for example, in iiu < N-NU "weeps," khoI < KlIOL-S "was boiling." sdom < G-SDAM "fastens," nos < b-RaS "bought." And, sometimes, apparently inflectional affIXes may in fact be pan of the root-for example, NDRE (NdreINdres) "be mixed," GAS (NgaSlgas) "be split." But even in these C3.SCS the structure of the underlying root seems fairly clear. However, there are many instances where the interaction between prefIX and initial is much more complex-where the preflX is not blocked, and the verb root initial undergoes changes to accommodate it. These interactions will be discussed in the following sections.

This \I.SIge is continued in Ihe works of the Tibetan grammllrians. woo use this archaic po5tfinat .J. p.nicularly 10 distinguish the piSt stem of a transitive verb from I b- future st~m tlul would ot herwise be identical _ for example, bsgyurtl < bSCYVRS --translaled" as distinguished from bsgyur < b-SGYUR "will translate," bJland < b-STAN-s "ClIplained" as distinguished from bJ11lII < b-STAN ''Will ClIplain." This innectional postfinal .J. is tailed du draB ''strong d" by ttle TIbc:tan grammarians; when found as a marker of Ihe past stem after In acute final consonant, we will call postfiRal .J. the ~AST STEM da-41ag. Given that this past stem inflectional marker appc:an as -s after vowels-for oample, Ikyu < SKYE, ''was bom"_wc can hypothesize I Proto-Tibc:tan past stem suffIX -.S; whkh became _J after gravc finals and vowels and .J. after acute finals: in the ooune of the eiglllb century the -d Illomorph or "-5 disap p" .... rtd after acute finals, leaving only the _J lilomorph after grave . finals I nd vowels. The put stem diJ-410B musl be distingllished from what we will call the ~kESr:.HT $TEM dudrag_the infieaionaJ Slin-IX -d fOllnd in Ihe present stem or some transitive verbs, as in NUhcd < NnHO-O ~cooks," which likes the (orm -s after grave finals, IS in IOIpgs < NGUGo "ben4s,~ Ind, by the lime of Old Tibetan, had disappeared aher acute finals. Given Ihal tbb present stem ~neaional marker appeaB as -d after vowels-IS in IbM < N-S8.A -O "cono:.als"-owe can hypothesize I Prolo-TIbetan present stem sumll "-0, whkh beclme-4 Ifler acute flub and YOWeIs Ind -s ane'r arave finals: even before the carlies! written ICXU, the .J. Iliomorph ct --0 hid disappured after acu te finals, leaving the -4 aUomorph after vowels and !be .J allomorph after grave finals.

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1.7.1. Voice dissimilation

There are some verbs for which there seems good reason to postulate a root with an aspirated initial-Cor example, JO/uM (NJehumlkhums) "contract
oneself," TII/G (Nfhiglrhigs) "fall in drops," PIIEL (Hphel/phef) "grow greater," T.tHAG (NtJhag/t.Jhags) "be broken," TSlIAN (NtJhaii/tshaiis) "awaken." Similarly. there 8fC some verbs (or which there seems good reason to postulate a rool with a voiced initial-for example, GO (NgO/gQs) "become dirty," DRlL (Ndril/driI) "roll oneself up," &olB (Hbab/babs) "fall down." Are there, then. roots with voiceless initials?

Apparently so. Where we find such patterns as Nkhrollhkrol/dkrol/khrol "ring,"

or NtlwblbfUbslgtubllhubs "chop," it seems reasonable to posu.datc a root with a voiceless initial-that is, respeclively,kRoL "ring" and TUB "chop." However, when such roots are pre nasalized, they yield forms that require adjustment; and such adjustmenllakes place through aspirating I~e initial-thus Nkhrol < NKROL "rings," Nlllub < NTUB "chops." A narrow statement of this rule is that a voiceless stopped initial is aspiraled when prenasalized. But note that an equally acceptable form would have resulted from voicing the inilial, yielding NgTol and Ndub instead of Nkhrol and Nlllub. Thus a broader statement of the same rule is that a voiceless SlOpped initial DlSStMtLATE.~ in voice onset time when preceded by prenasalization. Such dissimilation is found elsewhere in the innectional system as well. We find such pallerns as NgOdlbkodldgodlkllOd "array" and Htlul/btul/gdul/lhul "tame." In such cases we can postulate a root with a voiced initial-.t hat is, respectively, GOD "array" and DUL "tame." In these cases, forms that in fact require no adjustment dissimilate in voice onset time when preceded by a b prenx-thus bkod < bGO~s "arrayed," btu! < bDUL-S "tamed," instead of the equally acceptable past stem forms -bgod and bdul. However, voice dissimil<ltion does not occur universally. Only STOPPED initials dissimil<ltc afler the b prefIX; we find, for example, bZas < bLIs "ate," bIus < btU-5 "digested." And'voice dissimilation docs not take place aCler the Gprer",; we find, for example, dgug < aGUG "will bend," gdtg < G-DEG "will raise." Nole, too, that the onsel cluster bg is both acceptable and not uncommon, as opposed, say, to a form such as 1M, so that manuscripts will contain occasional "incorrect" forms such as bgod < bGQlH "arrayed." In the ,face of the acceptabili;;y of bg and bd clusters, the tenacity of the dissimilation 10 bk and b! is in faci quite remarkable.

Il'I'fl.EcnONS

J1I

1.7.2. Unstopping
There a re some intransitive verbs'Tm which there seems good reason to postulate a root with a fricative initial-for examplr., ~UB (~ub/Iub$) "whisper," 1u (lu/ltLf) "ma ke a request," SUN (sun/sulI) "be weary," LtB (zab/ zabs) "be deep," where present stem prenasaiization is blocked by a regular adjustment rule. But we also find such intransitive patterns a! NtJ}wrIJor "slip Bway," NdtuF;llug.f "enter," NlSIIO/SOS "be alive," Ndzag/zags "trickle," where a fricative in the past stem alternates with an affricate in the present stem. In such cases we can postulate a root with an affricate initia1-that is, respectively, TSOR "slip away," DtUG "enter," TSO " be alive," DZAG "trickle"-with the additional rule that all such affricate root initials become UNSTOPPED in absolute initial position-thus Jo/" < g TSORS "slipped away," tugs < 8-otuo-s "entered," sos < 8-rsos " was alive," zags < 8-0ZAGs "trickled," Alongside such verbs we may note also such patte rns as NlJIJDg/t!hags "be broken," NlSllar/lsllar "be finished," where we can postulate a root with a n aspirated affricate initial-that is, respectively, TSHAG "be broken," TSIJAR "be finished"where unstopping is undone by our phonological Rule 2. Voiceless affricate i:litials regularly dissimilate in voice onset time and become aspirated whe n prenasalizcd-thus f,1Jhor < NT$OR "slips away," NlSho < N-TSO "is alive." Similarly, there are some transitive verbs for which there seems good reason to postulate a root with a fricative initial-for example, ~u (JU/blw/bJU/lus) "take off," tu (lu/bluslbtu/lus) "digest," SUB (sub/bsubs/bsublsubs) "stop up," ZA (za/bzas/bzalzas) "eat," where present stem prenasalization is blocked by a regular adjustment rule. But we also find such patterns as Nt,fhad/Madl blad/lod "explain," Ndloglbtogslbtogllogs "carve," Ntsholbsos/gwlsos "nourish," Ndzedlbudlbzedlzed "hold OUI," where a fricative in the past, future. and imperative stems alterna tes with a n affricate in the present stem. tn such cases we can postulate a root with an affricate initial-that is. r('spective ly. ruD "explain," v1.oo "carve," TSO H llourish," D7D "hold out"-with thl' additional rule that such affricate rom initial become unstopr~d not nnly ill absolute initial position but afte r the prefixes b and G- as well-thus hIad < bJ:t.tD-s "explained," btogs < bvzoos "carved," gso < Gno "will nourish," bud < bOZEV "will hold oul." Voiceless affricate initials regularly dissimilate in voice onset time and become aspirated when pre nasalized-thus Nlllwd < N-NAD "explains," NtSho < NTSO "nourishes." And the voiced MId voiceless affricate initir.!s, 35 we have see n, become unstopped in ahsolule initial position in the imptrative ste m.

172

We also find such patterns as HtJlliiilbdjiisl b(Jifl /l!hiiis " bind," :.1siljrlblSirlgtJirl Isllir "press." It is clear that any underlying root should have an affricate initial; the only affricate initial left is the aspirated affricate; a nd, indeed, postulating roots with aspirated affricate initials-that is, respectively, TSfIIR "bi nd," TSIIIR "press"-makes sense ill such cases. The aUrieate initial after the 8- prerlX in the imperative stem is what we wo uld now expect in the case of an aspirated affricat: initial. Mo reover, if Ihe b and G prefixes are not blocked before affricate aspirate initials, the resulting unacceptable clusters '!btIh, ?bull, ?gtJh, ?gtsll must be adjusted into acceptable fo rm ; unstopping would here only produce the equally unacceptable clusters ?Mh, ?bsh, ?g5h, ?gsll . Therefo re, VOICE D1SSIMIUr.110N applies, a nd the initial is adjusted to a voice onsct time as far as possible from that of the prefIX within an acceplable onset cluster-thus bl!iijs < b-rsIIIN-s "hound," btsir < h-TSllfR "pressed," gtsir < G-TSllfR "will press." Now it is clear that some prefixinitial clusters might be adjusted by more than one adjustment rule. A voiced affricate is, in effect, a hybrid between a fricative and a voiced stop, and the adjustment rules mighl treat a voiced affricate inilial as 'if it were eilher: a voiced affricate initial after the prefIX b might undergo either unstopping, as in bt < b-Dt, or, like other voiced stops, voice dissimilation, as in bil < b-Dt, parallel to bl < bo o. Similarly, a voiced affricate initial after the imperative prefix 8- might undergo either unstopping, as in t < B-ot, or, like other voiced stops, imperative rule aspiration, as in III, < 8 0;J~ parallel to III < 8-0. And, indeed, we find such patterns as Ndtugl htJuglgtuglllhugs "inject," NdzudlblSudlgzudllSlwd "lead." where the latter in fact appears to have happened.' One way of describing this pallern is to say that a voiced affricate root initial ca n, in effect, choose either unstopping or voice dissimilation, but nOl both, aqd either unstopping o r imperative aspiration, but nOl both; and Ihal each such verb root makes such a choice, which becomes part of its lexical enlry. Another way is to say that the adjustment rules and imperative rule apply to root initials in a particular orde r, with unstopping applied firs t; whe n a n initial has been unstopped, as we have seen, the remaining rules of voice

1 Since?p is, like ?btU, an unao;;cptable tlUSle r, so me adjust men l musl octur; bUI, unlike ?bdl, ttle dusler cannot be adjusted b~ voice dissimilat io n, wllitll occurs aftc r Ihe prefix b. bUI nOI afler the prer", G . Therclo n: Ille d uster can be adjusted o nty by unstopping. so Illal we fin4, in tllis pallcrn. gtug < G D1.UC '-wilt injcct:' gl ud < OD1;UO
.....iII lead."

INFLECllONS

173

dissimilation and imperative aspiration cannot apply, because those rules do not apply to fricative initials; but some verbs with voiced affricate initials have, as part of their lexical entry, an exception feature whereby the unstopping adjustment rule does not apply.

1.7.3. labial rule.

There are three patterns for which we postulate roots with labial initialsJJ.W) (Nbradlbradldbradlbrod) "scratch," FUD (Nbudlphudldbudlphud) "cast down," PHROO (NphrogJphrogsldbrog/phtOgs) "rob." The first thing we notice in such patterns is an adjustment rule whereby the inflectional prerlX G followed by ANY labial becomes the cluster db-thus dbrad < GBRAD ''will scratch," dbud < G'PUD "will cast down," dbrog < G-FHROG "will rob." Given such a rule, the inflection of rools postulated to have aspirated labial initials is perfectly regular, with, for example, phrogs < b'PHROG-S "robbed" by the bloclring of the inflectional prerlX b before an IUpirated stop initial. Similarly, the inflection of rools postulated to have voiced labial initials is perfectly regular, with, for example, brad < bBRAD-S "scratched" by the blocking of the inflectional prefIX b before a labial initial, with one exception: the initial b in a verb root is not subject to the imperative rule, and we find, for example, brod < 'BMD-S "scratch!" instead of the equally acceptable but nonoccurring fonn .phrod. For the remaining pattern we postulate an underlying root with a voiceless labial initial. There is a derivational basis for this choice as wen. We find several pairs of verbs in Tibetan where an intransitive verb with a voiced initial is clearly related, semantically and phonologically, to a transitive verb with a voiceless initial-for example, GRIL "be twisted, be wrapped around" KRlL "embrace, clasp round," DU "come together, assemble" 1V "collect, gather," OOR "be scattered. be dispersed" TOR "scatter, cast away." We find several such pain for which we can similarly postulate voiced and voiceless labial initials-for example, BUD.(Nbudlbud) "all down, leave, disappear" PUD (Nbudlphudldbud) "pull off, throw down, drive out," MB (Nbab/babs) "rail down" !'AB (NbebslphabldIxJblplwbs) "east down," BUB (Nbllblbubs) "be turned upside . down" PUB (Nbublphubsldbllb) "make into a roof," BOG (Nbogtbog) "become loose" FOG (Nbog/phog/dbogJphogr) "unload," BYE (Nbye/bye) "be;come open" m: (Nbyedlphyesldbye) "make open." Postulating a root with a voiceless labial initial underlying this pattern means

174

THE. Cu.ssJCAL TIBETAN l..A.NOUAGI!

that one additional adjustment rule is required, as weD as one exception to a n adjustment rule. First., for reasons that arc not clear to me. the unacceptable cluster ?bp < bp is adjusted to ph. Second, initial p in' a verb root doe$ not undergo voice dissimilation when pre nasalized, but rather Ulimi\ates in voice o nset time to yield the acceptable cluster Nb. 1bere seems to be in operation here. at least in part, a preference for b initials we can call ... PERSISTENCE-note db < G-P, db < G-fH, Nb <' H-P, and b < 6. in imperative stems-which overrides other more general rules we might otherwise expect.

We can now summarize the interactions of the inflectional prefilea with root initials under these adjustment rules as follows:

INfLECT10NAL PREFIX

ROOT
INITIAL
K
N-

bbk
kh

e;.

1-

/(JI
G

Hkh H kh
.g
Hlh Hlh Hd

dk

kh

kh
dg

kh
kh
Ih Ih Ih

bk bl
Ih

gt
Ih

m
D
P PII B

bl
ph ph

gd
db .db db
gf

Hb
Nph

Hb
HlJh HlJh

b
b!

ph ph b

n n/l
Di
n
nil

Hd1 Hd1
Msh HI,h

blI b' blI

bs

gtI
gf gf g< gu gz gz

, ,
,
Z

IIh

DZ

Hdz Hdz
Tab/~

bl< b. bl<

".

10. S'tm initiDlJ tlftn iIIfltioMl prtfiuJ

INFI..ECI10NS

175

I.S. THE PRESENT STEM da-dnzg

In the present stems of some transitive verbs we find an inflectional sufftx -0 preserved after open syllables. For example, given the stems NlShodlbtsoslbuo "cook" and Nbyed/phyesldbyt "make open," we can postulate the ufJderlying roots nlto "cook" and PYE "make open," respectively, with the additional D for the present stem. Transitive verbs which idiosynrealization rule cratically undergo this realization rule would be so marked in the lexicon.s

By the time of Old Tibetan this inflectional sufftx -0 had disappeared after acute final consonants and had become -s after grave final consonants. This process of gravity dissimilation accounts for the presence of postfinal -s in the present stem of several transitive verbs-for example, 1Id1ibs < NDt/B-D "sucks," NgUg1 < N-GUG-D "bends," Ndegs < N-DEG'D "raises." Niiloms < N DtoM'D "conquers."
Additionally, the inflectional suffIX -0 has an effect on both preceding vowels and prece~ing final nasals, moving them from the back of the mouth to the front in anticipatory assimilation to the following dental. Thus the low back spread ~el a becomes the low front spread vowel e before the inflectional suffIX -D. Compare the present and past stems sbed < NSlJAD "conceals" sbas < bslJAs "concealed," semr < NSAMD "thinks" bsams < b-SA/tl-s "thought," ~ms < N.(JRAAIO "displays" blaam < b-GRAM-S "displayed," Ndebs < N-f),(lJD'''throws'' btab < bOAB-S "threw," sel < NSA.L-O "clears away" bsal < bSALs "cleared away_'"

'The realization rule --.D for tbe presen t stem Ippean to oo-occur o nly with the realization rule N _ _ for the present stem: that is, we find tnnsitivc roolS with present ltema of tbe (orm N - J J but 001 of the (orm 0 ----1). lbe only CXQeption seenu to be a IoIt tnnsilivc verb -.fAa of ultCCnain meanin" which apparently underlies the pres.ent lleIIl prp < -a.fAqo generalized as the Intransitive rOOt oftGS 'rome. H Elsewhere the J"CnII nak lhal --.D oo-occun only with H_ _ Ippe.1ln 10 bOld tood- Thus a rool su.;h II SAM "thlnkH yields tl'lc present stem Jl/JU < N-SAM'O "thinks" rather than the pboQOIopc.lly acceptable but nonoccurring present stem -gsmu or epoms < GSAMD.
, This \OWe1 _imilation explains the ela/Dlo 'IOWe1 plllem In some verbs: where we poIlulate an ullol!erlying \OWe1 D in the rool, D < A in the imperative stem by the rounding rule, IDd, where there is present stem diuvDg, e < AD by _imilation. Note the pres.e nt a nd impenliYe "enu Ngd>J < N-GAB-D "coven" Idwbs < /I'GAB-J '-rover!" JtmJ < NSAM D "thlnu" _ < /ISAM, "think! " J~t < " SKYALD "brings" skyol < /ISKYAL-J "bring!"

..., <

N-GASC1 ''s plilS'' Ichos

<

'-GAS., -'spill!""

176

TilE CI.ASSlCAL TIBETAN L..vmUAGE

Further, before D a preceding velar nasal ii moves to the front of the mouth to become tI, in anticipatory assimilation to the following dental, after which the 0 disappears through gravity di$$imilation. 10 Compare the present and past stems Ndren < N-ORAN-O "leads" draiis < b-oRAH-s "led," len < N-uR-D "takes" blaiis < b-IAR-s "took," ,.;pIttll < N-NPIIAR-O "flings" Nf1haiis < bNPllAiJ'$ "flung."
FinaJiy, where a root fin,,1 ii is fronted to bicome n before inflectional-v, the high back rounded vowel u moves along with the nasal to the front of the mouth 10 become. under Rule 1, the high front spread vowel i Compare the preseot and past stems Ndzill < N-OZUN-O "grasps" bzuii < b-DzuR-s "grasped," Nbyin < H-pyuR-o "removes" phyuii < b-pyu;v-s "remoycd."u
As we have noted. the inflectional suffIX
-0 occurs in the present stem only in transitive verbs. In a number of cases where related transitive and intransitive verbs have homophonous underlying roots, the inflectional suffIX D-Or its remnants-may be the sole distinction between the transitive and intransitive present stems; indeed, this may be onc of the reasons why these remnants have been resistant to analogical leveling. Thus we find stlch pairs of present stems as skye "is born" skyed "produces," ""KYe "is divided" Ng)'ed "divides," tglo'u "moves" 'lO'ltd "transmits," Ndzu "enters" "yJzud "inserts." Similarly, we find such present stem pairs as ,.;gag "is hindered" ,.;gegs "hinders," Ngal "is cleft" "ges "cleaves," Nl!lias "is split" NtJhes "splits," Nbab "desce nds" Nbebs "lowers."

1.9. EXCEPTIONS AND IRREGULARITIES

The system set forth here attempts to explain Old Tibetan verb morphology by postulating a single underlying form for each verb and rules whereby that underlying form becomes each of the observable tense stems. aearly there is no unique 50lulion to the lask of setting up the roots and devising the rules; each proposed solution will attempt to balance often subjective jUdgments of simplicity, abstractness, naturalness, and elegance. Nor is Ihis
10 Fur !lOme reason this pr~ dQe$ not affect the root GAN "flll," whith hu the pres.enl SH:m "l.....ts < NC;AND 'fllls,' w1'K:re we would otherwise"UJIClCI "1\Il'1I.

"

Th~~

rille links IOgelher the

transitive verb l'YIJii "take out, remove" and

the

bo' I EC llONS

171

sort of systcm the only one possible: there are ways to describe morphology uthcr than oy rules and unique underliers. But any system will have holes in it-eKceptiuns and irregularities that must be accounted for, as it were, in foo tnotes. Some of these exceptions are apparently the result simply of erron in the texts; the rooting out of such scribal errors is, of course, the province of textual criticism. 1l Elsewhere. scribes-or authors-may have 8 choice of "correel" rorms that have come down to them from Old Tibetan; and elsewhere we find , as in other la nguages, verbs which are just regularly irregular. The following sections will discuss these holes in the system we have set up.

1.9." Scribal errors

Tibetan texts cont,lin errors; sometimes ve rb stems are just written incorrectly. Tibetan scrihes a re sometimes sleepy or distracted or hurried, just like any scribe-or typist-might be. But, in addition. the Tibetan language has changed phonologically over time; the wrillen language has preserved forms no longer in use in the spoke n language. For exa mple, in lhasa City-and the principle W(luld be the same thruughout central Tibet-the stems sgrub "accomplishes,:' b.fgrub.f "accomplished," and b.fgrub "will accomplish" arc all pronounced {uP, the stems Ndeg.f "lifts," b/f'gs "lined," a nd gdq "will lift" are all pronounced lek, and the stems Ngrol"sets free," bkrol"se t free," and dgrol "will set free" are (III pronounced to. The Old Tibelan innectional affixes are JUS! no longer functional; in lhasa City, what we afe here calli ng verbal tense is expressed in other ways.n

12 There is a d rcular ity lIert: the texts arc our primary sourcc for o ur knaw1ed&e of the tense stems; based on tllat knowledge we build. a sys tem wllieh we tt:e n IlSC 10 emend Ihe ll'xts. This is an clQmple of wtUIl has been called. Ille " lIermeneutic circte," whereby lhe whole can be understood on ty llIrou&h ils ~rIS. bUl Ihe parts ca n be undentood o nly .through the .... hole. Such a drete, one hopes, is in faci I spiral, with Itxl and. Wnccpl inte racting to yield increased undenla nding. UnfOrtunalely. h is fair to say t~1 111 the present time Ihere ale ~'ery few crilicall y cdited tuts in Tibe ran. 31 leas t as Ihe oonoept of textual critiCis m is applicd 10. say, Grcck or Latin ItxIS.
I) The 1 0$5 of in Oeell"";l1afnJl<!S has appa ren lly occurred in Tibelan al various lima and in different places. There is evide nce as ~tly as the ninlh cenlury. fur exa mple. Ihal poliltinar - J W35 more or 1"'');5 letub,'y elided, al .eul il Ihe spee<: h of Ihe urban nobles: o n the SinoTibetan Heaty pill;,r uf 82. at Lhar..o. we fino.! Old Titlel.n <(flOgs> lr~ruaibcd as Middle Chin ...'!;!: ",,,uk. Old Tihcl~n <mlj/Ji"u> a~ MidoJle Chin .... ~ o/hpm. Old Tit>clan <~> as MioJdle C h,ncl'<: 'hd.:. ~"d Old Tiocl.n <rii,,!:_' > as Middle Chinese ii.ok. Yd, fuur hundred

178

TilE CUssICAL TIBET..... '! l..ANGUAGE

What this means is Ihal scribes in various parts of Tibet have for centurie~ been unclear "about the function and form of the tense stems. Let us look ill several woodblock prints of the well-known biography of Mi-la ras-pa by Gtsaii-smyon he-ru-ka. In one episode. for example. we read bla-ma "Iog-pa gtJig-pur byon-nas ra-ma rgyabtu bsnomNe b/a-ma-la phu/ "Lama Rno:;-pa

years Iller, III edict of Khubilai Ktlan, is.~ued in 1269, lranscril!cs the name of [he Tibetan laml Npl'l3p-pa into China.e as po-sm-po. That ~me name is borrowed into Mongohan a~ baglupa. yet the wellknown Tibclan book enlilled lPuiiJbsdu, "anthology of magi, spo:lls:' is calk:d. In Mongolian, SIIAdl.I~ indicating thu -al tbe time tile word was bo rrowed , or in lhe dialect the WON was bonowed from-the postfinal -, in glIIiis "II\2I&lc Spell" was nOI beina prono\lnced. Manhcw Kapstein has conveyed 10 me an ineieJcnl in Ihe biography of lbe fourteentb~nlury IOoft.IShen.pa: whilc the lama is granling an initiation, a (emilIe dtsdple bc<::omes poue:r.sed by a mkha'Nf'O.ma spirit, who castigatcs him for pronouneing rip as rile, In a series of lUIS from wCStern China, ool1ccled by Roy Andrew Miller. Tibetan Vap " ramous -a frequent component of Tibetan personal names-is IranI-Cribed inlo Chinese as eh'j/a,s$u in 130) and eha,sslI in 1388, with poslfinal-r preserved, but u ta in 1518. wilh poslfinal ., elided; it is not clear, however, whether Ihis represents a s;equcnoc of hi$lorical change or simply a forluitous rcoord o f regional variation. What is clear is that, in New Tibetan, postfinal .J does , 'ary wilh geography: ""Ie the rollowing SCI o f dialt variants-Old Tibetan pap "skin" :>0 New TIbetan (Lada~) palc.r (Obus) pat (Lhasa) pa, Old Tibetan phyogs "direction" :>0 New Tibetan (La<1akh) IfhokJ (Dbus) tlhok (Lhasa) rfho, Old Tibetan ldar "iron" :>0 New Tibetan (Ladakh) tlakJ (Oblls) /Jal; (LhasJI) tIa, Old Tibetan labs "rOOt" :>0 New Tibetan (Ladakh) laps (Obus) lap (Lhasa) lap. Old Tibelan khrims "law" :>0 New Tibetan (udakh ) !hims (DblU) !him (Lhasa ) !him, Old Tibetan dgo;rs "idea :> New Tibetan (Ladakh) goils (Dbus) F:f}ii (Lhasa) 1;0 ;;'
H H

By the way, Ihe rollowing is a p3rtial Lhasa city paradigm for the ve rh rup "accomplish":
I'RUlONT flRST PERSONI IMMEOIA11; KNOwu;rx;" SECONDmD 'llURO PERSONI MEDIATE KNOW\..I,oot!

..".

H OURE

rupkiy6

rup~yiN

rup/dyi,v

!upti!u

ruplrr

,tuple;rt

NOle here Ihe interaction of the verb stcm .Il4p wilh the

p;a.~t{nonpasl

marken PI-I and

./d., respectively, and two intenc<:ting medial e/i,1'\mcdiatc knowledgc all~il iariC!-'flI a nd .)'lI

for med ia te or immediate knOWledge, respectively, of events h3ppening right now, and rt a nd yiN fo r mediale or immediate knOWledge, Icspcetively, uf even ls happening al a time other Ihan right now,

INfl.EcnoNs

179

went off by himself, took the goat upon his back, and gave it to th,e lama," All the verbs are, appropriately, in the past tense-BYOH (Nbyon!byon) "go, procced," SNAN (snom!bsnarrulbsnam ) "seize, take," PUL (NphullphuJldbui) "offer, give upward." The blockprint from Spo, in southeastern Tibet, however, has the anomalous reading snarru instead of bsnams < b'S,'M-S "took." There is no reason to take this panicular reading as anything other than a scribaJ error, made, in part, because there was no difference between the pronunciation of <Snorru> and <bsnams> in the dialect of the scribe. Moreover, in such a case, the error is unlikely to be caught and corrected by the usual Tibetan proofreading procedure, in which a copy is checked against its original by reading the original out loud to the scribe; clearly this procedure is ineffective when the error and the original are homophonous.l~
A" ttlitor of no jutJemt"r, ptrplNuuiy wnfronttd with Q. IOtlple MSS. to ehooJt [ram, ,."not but [tel in "try film of his beinB thtu he is tI tlimkey betlPten two bunllkJ of h",. Mal IhRJJ he dIJ n(JTtJ? Leavt (riri,iJm to eriNa, JOII mRJ IAJ, and betake himself to an] hqnm trade fur JPhUh be is less unfit. But he prefm tl more JIIIttering JOlurion: be wnfosedJ] i""'BintJ that if qne bundk of htl] is rmwretl he .,.;u wast to be tl dimity.

if

-A. E. Housman, Preface 10 M. Manilii Astronomicon Lib~r Primus

Similarly, in the same episode, Rfiogpa is trying to justify to his master Marpa why he had bestowed an unauthorized initiation on Mi-Ia. He says. in excuse, bk4 bsgrubs-pa Io~ "I obeyed your orders!" with the appropriate past stem of the verb.SGRuB (sgrublbsgrubslbsgrub) "accomplish. fulfill." But the print from Spufis.than, in Bhutan, has the future stem bsgrub instead of the past stem bsgrubs < b-SGRUBS "rulfilled," which, of course, makes no sense in the context, and which can only be a scribal error caused by the omission or an unpronounced affIX. And the blockprint from Spa once again omits the

hi .ddition. other entmal checla un the oonectl\C$S of lhe oopy, ,\Ida IS rllymt or 'IIIteration, .rt not fo\lnd In Tibetan littflllure nd meier annol serve as check .... hert tht 'l1IrUlion takes plate-IS bert-within lhe ,yllable.

"

180

Till;: Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN l..ANOUAGE

prefix past stem b prefix, yielding the anomalous form sgrubs-not a newly attested tense stem but, ralher, a mistake in transcription.

Clearly. the reader may be saying, the Spo print is just a bad text. Actually, however, there is no such thing as a bad lext; there are only bad readings in panicular texts, and each reading must be judged on its own merits. In this same episode, for example, the master Mar-pa, after a fit of temper, sits with his head wrapped up in his robe, pointedly ignoring everyone. The verb meaning "wrap up. put over, cover" is TUM, generally inflected as a Oass 1 verb, except that we also find a present stem gtum-thus TUM (Nthum-gtuml blums/blum) "wrap up." Despite this variation in the present stem, there is every reason to believe that the past stem remains the perfectly regular brums < bTUMs "wrapped up." Yet it is only the Spa print which gives the correct reading dbu bwmsnQs Mugs "He sat with his head wrapped up." The other prints-from Spuiisthaii in Bhutan, from Bstan.rgyas-glifi in Lhasa, and from Bkra~is Ihun-pa-all give the anomaloul! reading grums, which is not pan of a new paradigm, but a scribal error to be emended by the textual critic. IS
13 II could be argued that we arc here dealing with two roots-the ~rlier TVN and I syoonymous lat cr GT1.JM, the la tter a generaliled rorm of the prese nt ste m of the former; we would thc n hayc the perfectly reg ... lar grums <: b GfUM .J "wrapped ... p.~ The wholesale accc:plimcc of Such arguments WQuld 0 a long way toward legitimating ~ry scribal error cy.:r madc. So metimes, as we shall set, such an argument can be y~lid; bUI il Should be w.cd spar iugly. I sec no reason in the pre$cn! !;IS( 10 rc.::ogni~ an additional root rather than a scribal error, bearing in mind the ma:cim of tCJrIWlI criticism, thai wilnesses are 10 be ",-eighed, not counted. Sometimes, of OOUTSC, il is hard 10 know of S(VC ral tellual variants which is the co mXI one. In o ne epl'lOde. tile master Mar-pa is having the ob noxious young Mi-Ia build and then tear duwn a se ries uf Mone lowen, as pari of hi5 d iscipline. Mi-Ia is about' third of the way lowan.1 completin, his third towcr whcn Marpa approaches him and says, according 10 Ihe Bstan-rgyas-,Iill ~nd Bkra'is lhunpo tc~ts, mlhu/Jh~n. khyod bmigJJHli mkhar Ndi sui yin "Magieian, whose is thiS lOwe r you have built~:' The SpUI\s-lhallle~t is the same, except thai the verb is the future slcm bmig- Ihus "Whose is this tower you will build?" And the Spo tc.tt gives the present Slem mig-thus "Whose is this towcr you are building?" All three readings are morphologically oom:et, and all three make sense in Ihe conta!; my own preference would be for tile presenl stem il the Spo lat, but there is clear!) room for argument. Finally, all o f these scribal errors musl be disc ntangled-somehow-from idiOSyntT.tic spellings by the author .nd from systematit regional variations whiCh must be oonsiderOil part of the autograph. A tCJI:lual t ritic may in fact conclude thai the ~rliest versiol15 of tbe

INH .H:'110NS

181

1.9.2. Multiple class membership

Another source of verbal irregularities is the fact that verbs can belong to more than one inflectional class. For example, as we have seen, TUM "wrap up" lIprarently has IXJlh the present stem Nlhum < N-TUM and'grunt < G-TUM "wraps up"; thus, in the texts, TUM "wrap up" appears as both a Class I and " Class J verb. How docs this happen? A rapid survcy of O\'c r fnur hundred Tihelan tr;msitrve \'erhs ~hows that Cla~ s I is the largest class, conttlining al most 45 percent 01" the verbs; Class ~ fonows with approxirn,ueJy )0 percent; O:m 2 contains approxima tely 20 percent; and Class 4 conta ills approx imately 5 percent of the transitive verbs counted. This means that there are almost twice as many verbs with Npresent stems (65 percent) ;]5 there are with G- present stems (35 percent), and just about three times as many verbs with b- future stems (75 percent) as there are with G- future sIems (25 percent). While these numbers should nOI be given more weight than they can bear. they do indicate that there is considerable analogical pressure on transitive verbs to appear with N- as their present stem prefix and G- as Iheir future stem prefix; and we should not be surprised to find such analogical formations in 01lT texts alongside presumably older forms. l6 Thus from the root n(; "make drip" we find both present stems !>111ig < N-T/e; and gtig < G-1"/G "makes d rip." and from the root TUB "chop" we find hoth
rC~l ;ncorporarcd plcvio!.l~ ly un~lI cs rcd fo rms of rhc Language, o r may be "ble 10 Show Ihal forms in olher re ~l s- hy the same "!.I rho r or flOm the same region-prcviously lho ughl to be scritoal errors arc in fact ill Ihe form Ihe aut toor intellded.

l6 The now of this allalogiol change hn apparenrly been for Class 4 verbs (now 5 percelll of the tOlal) 10 become eirher Class 2 ve rbs (now 20 pcrccll t of the lotal). by innovating an N prese nt stem, or Class 3 verbs (now 30 pcrcenl of Ihe 10Ial). by inn~ling a b- fulure slem; and Ihen fur bulh Class 2 and Class 3 verbs to become Class I verb$ (now 45 pcrcenl of rhe tou.I), by inn~ting b future stems and N present stems respectively: Class ~ (5%

>-C

0 =3 IJO%)1
Class 2 (20% )

_
Class I (45%)

[n facl. il is probably reawnable to assume Ihal Ihe percentages we now see are the result of a long process of levelins: wtoich gOC$ tlack 10 Proto-Tibetan. where we call hypothesi?.!: an originally mo re equal distribulion of Iransitivc VCIb$ among Ihe four paradigm cl3!Ses.

182

present siems HI/lub < NTUB and gtub < a-TUB "chops." The verb TlO, with the future stem blig. thus appears 10 be moving from Oass 3 to Oass 1; the verb TUB, with the future stem gtub, similarly appears to be moving from Class 4 to Oass 2. In the same way, from the root DUD "bend" we find both future stems gdud < a-DUD and btud < b-DuV "will bend," and from the root .t.W "kill" we find both future stems gsad < G-SAD and bsad < b-SAJ) "will kill." The verb DUD, with the present stem Ndud, thus appears to be moving from Oass 2 to Oass 1; the root ..tV, with the present stem gsod, similarly appears to be moving from Oas5 4 to Class 3.

1.9.3. Multiple underliers

Another source of exceplions and irregularities is the fact thai a verb may change its underlying Carm. n For example, the archaic suffix -D as a sign of the present stem in certain transitive verbs was, by the time of Old Tibetan, found in the form -d only in open syllables; in open syllable roots, Ihis yielded a regular but unusual alternation between figal -d in the present stem and final -s in the past stem. In such cases, there is a tendency for the appare::nl anomaly to be leveled by reinte::rpreting the underlying root 1 0 incorporate the archaic inflectional suffix. Thus, from the root ME "obtain" we find, regularly, the pn:sent stem nied < /II-RNE-/) "obtains" alongside the:: past stem briics < b-RNE-s "obtaine::d." BUI, once such present stem da-drag has become opaque to speakers, the seemingly anomalous final -d in the present ste::m is accounted [or by reinterpreting the root as RN!-;D. Ami, from this new rool, we see the appearance of a new re::gularly formed pasl stem bnied < b-RR!-;D-.f "obtained" in addition to the older bnies. Underlying forms can be similarly reinterpreted to incorporate prefixes. From

t7 Alternatively, two different but lIomo f'honous roots can be ronnatod into a single seemingly anomalous paradigm. For example, alongside the present stem Ntlhab "hides" we lind two pan stems, tlMbs and btlabs "hid:' It 5IXms dcaT, however, Ihat we Ire here in facl dealing with two TOOts-an in tranSitive rOOt rtllABI (MJhabhJhabs) "hide onesclr' and a transitive root m/lllJ] (Ntlhabl bdabslbdllb/dhubJ) "ronceIIl. Similarly, we find Ihe pau stems uhags and blJags atonpide Ihe presen t stcm MshDgs, and the past siems Jor and blDr alo npide Ihe present Stem MJhor. Agair.. il stems clear Ihal the rel:nod roots TYllAG I (/ouhagflJhags) "trickle"" and. J'SJlAG1 (.vrshagflmagsfbuag/uhogs) "sqUCC7.e," amI the rel;rtod rootS TtOR I (MJhorflor) ""nee" and rlOR 2 (MJhorfbJorfgJur) "p ursuc." h:wc been con nated into a Single seem ingly irregu lar ~radigm .
M

hm.. ECTIONS

183

the Class 3 verb so "nourish" we find the regular stems gsolb$o$/bso/$o$, as well as the apparently irregular past stern gsO$. But the past stem gsO$ is regular if the verb root has been reinterpreted as GSa, as is the present stem gso as well-thus gso < H-GSO "nourishes," gsQ$ < bascH "nourished." But why reinterpret the root? Apparently the root was reinterpreted as part of a switch from Oass 3 to Oass I; in such a class switch. a root with a fricative Initial would yield the unramiliar present stem so < HSO "nourishes," rather than the familiar present stem gso. So the ramiliar present stem was retained, the verb treated as Oass 1, and the result was a reinterpretation of the underlying form to GW. Such Oass 1 verbs as GSOH "hear" and GsufJ "speak" may also originally have had fricative initials, but subjected to similar processes that in their case reached completion. IB

1.9.4. Connict of rules

A third source of irregularity in the verbal paradigms is the fact that morphophonemic rules change in the course of lime, and the fro7.en products of earlier rules may persist alongside the products of later rules. A good eKample is found in the case of roots with initial ,. It seems certain there was an early rule in the language whereby a prenasalized I became the cluster {d. Note, for eKamplc, the intransitive present and past stems /dail < fJ-u.R "a rises" and laiis < f-AN-S "arose," Ido;i < N-I.ON "is blind" loil < I..ON-S "was blind," and the transitive present and past stems Idug < HI.. ve; "pours" hllIgs < b-f.. UG-S "poured," ldud < 'M.UD "w;lters" blud < b-l..v~s "watered."
As this archaic rule ceased to he prodUl;tivc, some of tht apparently anomalous present stems it produced were accounted for hy reinterpreting the underlying root. Thus we find the variant past stems Idans "arose" and Idorl$ "was blind" alongside laiis and 1011, rctlecting a change of the underlying rools from UN 10 I.DAN and from toR to uXJN. Such transitive ro~s as UIAII "chew" and I.DAG "lick" <I n: quite likdy the results of !he same process: compare Tihetan LlNtG "lick" with Burmese /yak, Lu~' hci li(lk, Lisu Irp,hl'

II Simitarty:transitivc (0015 with aspir"t\ld SlOp initials arc 13rc in Ihe da!>.,i.:o.1 tanguage. and further have the properly or re gu tarly blocking the b- prefIX. which cannot occur before an upirated initial. ThIlS the tran~jtivc fOOllUlUH "carr)''' has the \juite regular p3~ 1 stem kJr"" < "IUIUHJ "ca rried." Comra1cd It! mOSI Han~ilive rOOI~. h~vcl. the past Slcm kJrur $C(:ms anomatous. Th~5, When we finll a past Slem bla., in a lc~1. the s urface conrormity or the put stem has been achievell by changing the unllerlying (Olll fro m IUIUH to KUH.

184

TilE ~ I CAl TIBFrAN lANGUAGE

"lick," and thus Proto-Tibetan -lag "lick," In classical Tibetan there is a lso the rule that glides cannot be prenasalized; that is, in verbal inflection the preflX fl is automatically blocked before any glide-for example,yjb < N-YlS "hides," rdi < N-REN "is stiff," In analogy with this majority pattern, Ihe minority pattern of initial I begins to change to conform to the pattern for the rest of the glides-thus lug < "'LUG "is meek" instead of /dug. lab < N-LAB "says" instead of -Idab.
Here 3 majority rule _ pattern, whereby I < tN., is in conflict wilh a minority rule pattern, whereby fd < N L. Given the root uN "arisc," the shape of the present stem-whethe r ian o r /dan-will de pend on whether the writer applies Ihe old minority rule or the ge neral rule .
As the ead ie( and archaic rule ceases to be productive, then, the verbal

system changes in three different ways. First, some verbs reinterpret their underlying forms to regularize the anomalous present stem produced by the minority rule: thus, where we find a past stem ldir " was distended," rather than -lir, we must postulate an underlying root LDiR "be distended," presumably from an earlier root -UR which is now lost. Second, some verbs follow the minority rule exclusively and some the general rule exclusively: thus the root LOO "turn around" has only the present stem /dog, and the root I.US "remain behind" has o nlt the present stem fus. Third, some verbs are unpredictably the subject of either rule: thus, from the rool U N "arise," we find in the tcxts the IWO preseO! stems Ion and fdan both i:ittested.

1.9.5. Suppletion
SUPPl.ETlOI'l occurs when one form in a paradigm is completely repltlced by a form from another paradigm, as in English golwetlf . In Tibetan we similarly find the present stem NgrO "goes" associated with a past stem son "went," of uncertain origin but almost certainly a completely dirrerent verb. In some New Tibetan dialects the past stem son has in lurn been replaced, for example, by New Tibetan (Lhasa) tJhis <pilyill> "went," clearly related to the classical verb I'IfY1N "move, proceed." We also find a form Jog "come!" regularly used as the imperative stem of the intransitive verb ON "come," which no rmally, of course, would nOI have a separate imperative stem at all. The form log may in fact be the imperative stem of a lost ve rb - SAG, of uncertain meaning; the present stem of the same verb may perhaps be found

INR.ECllONS

185

frozen in the intransitive verb GSEGS "come," which functions in the classical language as the honorific equivalent of oR "come," and which seems to have &eneralized a present stem gIegs < -G-!AG-D.

1.9.6. Regular irregularities

Finally, there are some verbs that, as a regular malter, simply deviate from the verbal P'lradigms we have proposed_ J:t. few such verbs are regularly inflected without one or other prefIX in the present stem-thus t!he "grows great" instead of the expected -NtJhe < NnlfE, pheb "goes" instead of the expected -Npheb < N-PIIElJ., myoii "tastes" instead of the expected -dmytNi < G-MYAfJ. More common are verbs that seem to be regularly inflected without the inflectional afflxs in the past stem-for example, byuii "occurred" instead of the expected -byuiis < BYURs, na ''was sick" instead of the expected -nas < NAS, blaii "sent" instead of the expected -blaiis < b-TAR-5. Such regularly irregular verbs would be marked in the lexicon as exceptions to particular realization rules. Note, however, that the -5 suffIX as a sign of the past stem is, in fact, REDUNDANT in intransitive verbs and in Oass 2 and Oass 4 of transitive verbs. In intransitive verbs, the absence of prenasalitation distinguishes the past stem from the prenasalized present stem; in Oan 2 and Oass 4 transitive verbs, the presence of a b prefIX distinguishes the past stem from the G prefIXed future stem. And it is, indeed, extremely rare for the -s suffix to be regularly absent where it is not thus redundant. Where the surrlX serves to differentiate a b-----s past stem from a b _ _ future stem it is, as far as I can tell, invariably preserved in the paradigm. \9 It appears to be a rule of the language that only 8 prefIXing inlransitive verbs, Rnd only transitive verbs that signal the future stem with a G- prefIX, can regularly eliminate the past stem -s sufflX. lO

19 It also seems tcnculty true tltat. amonl Qus 2 .nd OW "verbs. tbe pasttcnse surr .. II more likel), to be missin, when the present stem shows tbe trKCI of I " earlier Inflectionat surrlX D-thus nzuN (...will,1llU"'~"') "yasp.M nuN (...o,M~"',Idb)'I ... ) "rcmovc.
1
M

20 We am also nOle the similar redundancy of the _I surr .. i" NItJ ialperaliw: stems. which Ire lareet)' differentiated from the othcr stems throup tbe opcNltioa or tbe roundint nile .nd aspiralion rule. Imperatives are sufflCientl), rare in tile. Iexts. howeYer, tbat It II hard

186

Till, ClASS ICAl. TmlOTAN LAN GUAGE

2. MORPIIOPIIONEMES ACROSS SYLLABLES

Some Tibetan PARTICLES-or grammatical words-undergo morphophonological changes conditioned, across syllable boundaries, by Ihe final or poslfinal of the immediately preceding syllahle. In this text we write such morphophonemes as a capitalized portinn of the syllabk-for exampk, -KYaii, -ST~, -Am, -1U. The capitalization indicates that the morphophuneme chunges its phonetic shape according to certain fules, depending on Whill precedes il. There are three phonological processes which govern these ch(lngcscomplete or partial articulatory. assimilation; sanorance assimilation ; and gravity dissimilation. 21 These general processes-and how they affect the Tibetan particles-will he discuued in the following sections.

2.1. ARTICULATORY ASSIMILATION

In COMPl.ETf. articulatory assimilation, a morphophoneme becomes the same as the final or postfinal of the immediately preceding syllable. Fo r exam pic:, after preceding final .cJ the particle w becomes du and the part icle -fire becomes first -T~ and then .J~. Similarly, .1lI hecomcs su after preceding final or postfinal '5, and -KYi becomes 'Ki after preceding final .g. In PARllAl articulatory assimilation, a morphnphonemc becomes, in some articulatory feature, more similar than it was before to the final o r postfinal of the immediately preceding syllable. f or example, after a preceding final or poslfinal fricative -5, the affricate pa rticle rSiij partially assimilates in CI.OSURE to become -.fiii, with a fr icative rather than an affricate initial. Similarly, after a preceding final velar ii, the p<Jhllalize d part icle .KYi partially as.~imilates in PIACI, to become .g~ dro ppiny the palatal co mponent of the initial. As we will see, with these p<Jrticlcs, such articulatory assimilations :lfe
to say whether the IoCCmin,ly spo rad ic e l imin~li,," "r th e .J suffix from the im perative ste m is l':llllS islCIll enough ill the u.sc of pa rticula r ver~ 10 ulnstitutc ~ regular irregularity.
21 TWo additio nal rnorphopl'lonem($ will not be disclI~ here al any lenglh. Thc molpl'lophonernc "H, fou nd in the de rivatio nat afrlxC$ PIIO a nd .rllo t1h~, bccomcs, lathel straightforwardly, b arter preceding Open ~yllablcs and .p after any preceding consonant final or poslfinal-lhllS, for eumple, b!Qft.po, PQJpo, but dpD'bo, /lU OO. The mOlphopholleme 1', found ill Ihe derivational afru .I'D, ba;omC$ b after preceding filial .n, r, ./ a nd open syllolbl~, and becomes p afler plcccd i ll~ fina l g. .d, .", .b. m, alld final or poslfinal 'I- thu~ JIlDII.bo, /lO#"ba, HtJ..1.ba, Ita .ba, but riX'pa, gnJd pa. lHMl1 .pa, sgrib.ptI, sdom.ptJ, /lUs,pa. I an make no phOllOlogigl 5f: nsc OUI of Ih is distribution.

bm..EC110NS

187

sporadic; they are, in fact, exceptions to other more general patterns we will discuss below. One pattern of complete assimilation is perfectly regular, however: we find such patterns as dog-go, riii-iio, yod-do, yin-tiD, thub ..bo, Npham-mo, sgyur-ro, NbuJ./o, and lags-so, as well as dgao, Nbrio, rgyuo, dgto, and NgI'OO. Here a vowel morphophoneme, which remains a vowel after a preceding open syllable, prefIXes to itself the final or postfinal consonant of a pn:ceding closed syllable. We will write the morphophonemes that follow this pattern as capitalized vowell;-thus -Am, -U, -E, or, in the series above, -0. For example, we find not only dag-go < dag-o but also sgyur-rom < .JX)'UT-Am, smyig-gu < smyig.. u, and briias-se < bmas-E. In the oldest manuscripts, dating from the eighth and ninth centuries, there is lillie consistency in the writing of these forms. Thus we find, for example. <Ndfao>, <Ndfa-<J>, <gyuf-fO>, <khof-o>, <tshul-lo>, and <g:saro>-all within the same manuscript. Such variations suggest that these particles were simple vowels in Proto-Tibetan. as indicated by such archaic manuscript spellings as <rlag-o> and <rtilc-<J>, and that they became morphophonemes. completely al;similating lo preceding consonants, only in Old Tibetan. u

2.2. GRAVJ1Y DISSIMILATION

The coordinative conjunction -sn "A, 'm:' becomes -sie after preceding final -g, .ii, .b, m, and open syllables; becomes -re after preceding final on, or, .1 , and s; and becomes -de after preceding final -d. Interestingly, the early grammatical treatise Sum-/!u-pa, traditionally allribuled to Thon-mi Sam12 In lhe archaic ~nuscripts from Central Asia, we sometimes lind complete assimilations lO poS\,t'inal OOllSOnants which .re not writLen-for example, <rtlzo,tso> for ,dzopw, <buug.Jo> for bISUpIO, an4, presumably, <Nuhol.JQ> for NUIuJId-OO.. Also, in these manllscripts an4 in seU-conscioll$ty arc~aizin, classicat tellU, we fin4 tbe forau '/0 and '(am, apparenlly only after final'II, -I, and -,-for eumple, .fmDtllo, .,.kJIyfII.rDll1, rftJl'IO, /{)'U" 10. dwtom. This may originally have been I form of partial assimilation to an IInwriLlen postfinai .d, bill why in this cue the assimilation WI$ partial ralher than oomplete I do not knOW; one is tempted to say that these forms mntinue to renect the Proto-TIbelln renell ./ of the morphophoneme Or after a precedinl final -d, rather than the mmpktely assimilauxl 014 Tibetan rerkJ: d. Note, in Ihis regard, tile rCllllu OCCIIrrence or the fr01x:n rt>rm~ kull IU < okJmdru (never ?.but-du) "completely" an4 pho,a/ru < plloroIdru (ncvt,:r ?plla .rrJIdJl) "beyon4.H

188

THE Cu..ss1CAl. TIBETAN I...ANOUAGE

bhola. in verse 13, seems to know o nly the fonn -sle, and not -te or -de, while in the archaic manuscripts from Central Asia we find forms such as <STabsIe>, <babste>, and <bab-slt>, apparently indiscriminately. In fact, the mo rphophonological changes undergone by ST, as they finally appear in the classical texts.. are primarily a form of ORAvrn' dissimilation: S becomes s after an immediately preceding grave. fina l; and it disappean, leaving behind T, after an immediately preceding acute final or pottfinal, just 8$, for example, the innectional past stem suffIX oj does within the syllable. Then this relatively straightforward dissimilation is complicated somewhat by the fact that the resulting T becomes t everywhere except after immediately preceding fina l 4, whe re it completely assimilates to d. We can diagram this development as in the following table, with the changes from the Pro to-Tibetan to the Old Tibetan system indicated by boldface type:

ORAVE

ACUTE

8 .g
ST
Sl Sl

n
Sl

b m
Sl Sl

-d n

.,

./

s
t

PROTOTIBETAN

GRAVE

ACUTE

.g
Sl

n
Sl

b m
Sl
M

-d n
d
t

.,

./

S
t

ST

Sl

O LD TIBETAN
Tabl~

11. Grnviry di.uilmi(lfion in lhe

marphophoM~

sr

2.3. SONORANCE ASSIMILATION

rng,

Four morphophonemes-TS, KY, Y. and 1; which occur in the panicles .rliii, -Kraii, .KYit, .KYi, .ru, and raii-are generally governed by a rule of assimilation to the SONORANCE of the final or postfinal of the immediately preceding syllable: they become voiced after preceding sonorants and become unvoiced after preceding obstruents. There is some reason to believe that, in

bm.EcnoNs

189

Proto-Tibetan, the rule was just that simple: there were just the three morphophonemes -rl, KY, and T, which took the forms -t!, ky, and t after the preceding fmai obstruenu --& -d, -b, and OS, and the forms ~ gr. and d after open syllables and the preceding final sonoranU -n, .n, m, .r, and ./. l)
OBSTRUENT .g
T$

SONORANT

b -d s

n n
~

KY
T

II II II II ky ky ky ky

,,,,,,
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

.,

./

, ,

'PROTO-TIBETAN

OBSTRUENT

SONORANT

.g T$ KY Y
T

-d s
I ky ky

.;; n m
g

II If ky ky g ky ky ky d
If

,,,,,,
y d
~ J
~

.,
J

./

8
J

Y d

OLD TIBETAN
Tallit 12 Sonor'In(t rmimilatian in 1M mlNphophontmt$

71.. KY, r alld T

This straightforward pattern apparemly became complicated by several addi tional articulatory a~imilations. The allophone -d! of the morphophoneme T$ became, by the time of Old Tibetan, unstopped to I in all environments; after immediately preceding final or postfinal os, the morphophoneme TS panially twimilated in closure and took the form of the fricative I. The morphophoneme T completely twimilated 10 become d aCler immediately preceding final or postfinal .d and become s after immediately preceding final or postfinal -so Interestingly, it also partially assimilated in closure to a pre
13 The .rchalc manllKripts from Cclllr.l Asia )l\ow sporadic and inconsistenl \Ise5 or forms SIKh IS -dlill, -4tig. lnd -~ wblch lie pouibly remnanll or th is older, hypothe tical I)'Slem.

190

Tim Ci..AssICAL TIBETAN l...ANOUAGE

ceding vowel, changing from a stop to the glide r. which presumably was the glide c10seSI in place to the original dental stop. The morphophoneme KY split into two different forms. One of these, which we write as the morphophoneme Y, occurs only in the unbound connective Yan, which becomes kyaii after all immediately preceding obsuuents, and becomes yan-presumably from PrOio-Tibetan egyan-after all immediau~ly preceding sonorants. The OIher, which we write as the morphophoneme KY, occurs in the bound particles -KYaii, .Klis", and -Kri, where we find complete assimilation to g after preceding final -g, and partial assimilation to g after preceding final -ii. And . interestingly, the morphophoneme partially assimilated in closure to a preceding vowel, changing from a palatalized stop to the palatal glide y. We can diagram this development as in Table 12, with the Changes from the ProtoTibetan to the Old Tibetan system again indicated by boldface type. After preceding ope n syllables, the morphophonemes KY and T, which partially assimilate 10 become the glides y and r, and the morphophoneme Y, which norm" ally takes the form y after any sonora nt, can also take contracted forms which can be counted metrically as part of the preceding syllable.2A Thus from the particle .1U we find, for example, both mtha-ru and mtllar, hde-ru and bder, 'lO'u-ru and rgyur, from the particle -.01 both bla-yi and bla~ Wyi-yi and spyii, blo-yi and hloi, from the particle -JOis both rgyal.po-yis and 'K>'alpos, hlu-yis and birl.f, dgcyis and dges, and from the particles -KYaii and YQli both dga-yaii ilnd dgaaii, Nhriymi and .'lbriaii, Ndre-yan and Ndrean,

201 AHernatjon uf initi~l y. and g. is not unusua l in Tibetan: note, for eumple, yug.pa_ ufNHl "oats," yud'p<1-udp(l '"mome nt,"yobp1l-Qbpa "ditth," YON-oN "come." In 111 these

cases. given the hasic disyllabit rhylhm of nit lanllll,e, contrlcted forms Ire muth more
likt ly to be found after unstrCS5Qd syllables, and the full syllabit forlTl5-ll\enudve:s un"r~~-3ftcr Slr~ syllables.

Phrases
1. PRELIMINARIES
1.1. SYNTAX AND MORPHOLOGY

As. we have said, the SYNTAX of classical Tibetan describes the ways that the words of Ihe language are strung together to make grammatical sequences. Thus ;1 is WORDS from the lexicon that' (onn the input 10 the syntax: l the syntax descrihes how these words are meaningfully collocated-how they become, not isolated words, hut functioning units in a s~nte nce. Thus rgyal-po "king." dgra "enemy," and SAl> "kill" are words; arranged meaningfully Ihey become, say, (rgya l-f'OAGfNCY dgrap,tT/EHT SADpAST)OUCSTION "Did the king kill
the enemy?" The SYNTAX describes how the functions of each word are

expressed: it gives the rule, for example, that the agency of a participant is realized as the particle -Kl'is, that the completion of the event is realized as the prefix b- a nd sufrtx "-s, and that the inter rogativity of the sentence is
rea lized as the final particle -Am. Thus the output of the syntax in this example would be rg,'al-po-KYis dgrafJ b-SAl>-S -Am. It is the IN ~'.lcnONAl . MOIUIIOLOGY of the language that then adjusts the rOIl.MS of the words in the sentence to become, finally, the recognizahle: classical Tibetan sequence 'KYalpos dgra bsad-dllm "Did the king kiJIthe enemy?"

1.2. OVERVlEIY OF THE SYNTAX

The highest h:vel discussed in the syntax is the DISCOURSE. The discourse will

I Words a re Ihw; primil ives in Ihe syntactic system, atthough, as we have SoCCn. le.ieal wolds_ noulll. adjectiVe!, vc rbs_may themselves be dcrivationaliy comple . For eu mplc , thC WQrd~,JnriF! 'kmg s tone -- monu me nt" anll m/l", .po' $n"panieular ly know - perccive" are bot h internally comp lc. but, as ...mus, arc primitives 10 the symu. Note, howeve r, Iha l 11K: syntu docs rccognile inlernal struClu re in wo rus: rOI example, the negative ~l1icle m I "l'Ioy" always immedial(:ly precedes the infltell vc rb Slcm evt: n in an inlcrna ll~ comple~ v"II_lhus mamfHlr ItliJu "He d()c.~ nnl perceivc" antI nOI ?ltli-mam .JXlr In
191

192

THE Cu.ssICAL TIDETAN LANGUAGE

remain undefined, except to say Ihal a discourse consists of one or more SENnNCES, and that such a discourse possesses a coherence unpossessed by a random collocation of sentences. The syntax postulates a discourse level because we find, within sentences, both connectives and omissions with extrasenlenlial referents.

senlence, in turn, consists of a PRoposmON rollowed by a PERFORMANCE PARTICLE. The proposition contains the propositional content of the sentence; the performance particle indicates ..... hether that content is intended as a statement, question, or command. For example, the sentences rgyo/-pos dgra mlhon-no "The king sees the enemy," rgyal-pos dgro mlhon-nom "Does the king see the enemy?" and rgyat-pos dgra mlhoii-fig "Let the king see the enemy!" are different performances of the same proposition rgya/-pos dgra
A

mlhoii. 2

'TJmw bRSt mort rrairorowiy Uln"Upted the youth of the realm in eruring II grRmmAr-uhool ... It wiJJ be prt1Jled to thy face that thou htut men IIbout thee that UJuaJiy tallt of a noun Rnd R verb, Rnd tuch abominable words as no ChristiRn ear ean endure to hear.
-William Shakespeare, Jlenry IV, Port Two

Propositions can be combined in two different ways. Two or more proposi'.ions can be connected together on the same level with any of several CONJU NCTIONS-such as "AND," -.~m "OR," -Yon "llUT"-to form a single

-ni"

Z Oa:asionally further performance particles aprCS$ nuances o{lhreal. warning. or doub!. Moreover. a sentence-as opposed to a pfUpo$ltion-m.ay be prcccdc4 or followed by a vOC\T1VE. A vocalive docs not CJ[prcss I poirticipant in the event asserted by the propo$ition, bUI rather indicates the peoon 10 whom the sentence is addressed; the vocative b thus nOI part of the propositional content of the sentence. A voca tive is an unmarked nominal phrase whose funclion as I vocative is indicated by il$ posilion and semanlic content. Finally, in da.uical Tibetan there Ire also suc!) "minor scntences" or scntence fralments~ as will here be called EXCl.AMATlONS. An cxclartUltion is I partial sentence that {unctions IS an IUIOnomoU5 unil and can take the place of a senlena: in I discoun.e or embedded in a proposition.

193
proposition; sucb a complex proposition may then become a sentence by the addition of a performance particle. Or one proposition can be embedded al a lower level within another proposition by being NOMINAUZED-that is, turned into a nominal by the affixation of any of several nominalizing particles. For example, the proposition blameu bgegs btu} "The lama lamed the demon" can be nominalized by the nominalizing particle . PQ to become blamas bgegs bru/ba "the taming of the demon by the lama." Such a nominalized proposition can then occur anywhere a nominal can occur. It can be the head of a nominal, as in 'KYa/-pos (blu-mas bgegs blu/ba I mrkoii "The king saw the taming of the demon by the lama"; or it can be a COMPLEMENT that modifies a nominal or verbal head, as in (bla-mas bgegs btuJba)j sgmfi "the tale of the taming of the demon by the lama," or a RELATIVE that modifies a nominal head, as in [blQ .mas 9geg5 bfUfbQ)j bgegs "demo n which the lama tamed. "

A proposilion consists of an EVf::/!lT preceded by Ihe various PARllCIPAN1S in that event. The event is what happened; the participants are those to whom it happened; who made it happen, where it happened, with what or with whom it happened, and so on. The event is expressed as a VERB PHRASE carrying its TENSE; each participant is expressed as a NOMINAL PHRASE with a following ROLE PARllCLE to indicate the particular participant role it plays in the proposilion. For example, in Ihe proposition nagsfa rxtalpos liiitJ btubs "The king chopped wood in the iorest," the factthnt the asserted event is now PAST is signaled by the past teose affixes b and s altached to the vero TUB "chop." Similarly, the participant nags "forest" is signaled as toe I.OCUS of the event by the role particle fa, the participant rxta/po " killg" is signaled as the AOENCY of the event by the role particle s, and the participant lUi is signaled as the PAnENT of the event by the role particle 8. There are five primary participant roles in the classical language-rAIlENT, AGENCY, LOCUS, SOURCE. and ACCOMPANIMENT.
NOMINAL specifier of a verb in a verb phrase is the optional NEGATION, expressed by the negation particle mi "NOT"; the sr.;cifiers of a nominal in a no minal phrase are DEUMITERS and QUANTlFlERS. The modifier of a verb in a verb phrase ) There are two different types of delimiler in Ihe classical leXI$-DF.ffiRMINERS and REFlX1VES. Either or both may occur. hUI. ",here bo lh OCCll r, tWO conditiOI\$ mllM he met: Ihe determ iner mllst precede Ihe re nc~ ive, and the determiner mll~1 be lhe Iype o f
A VERB PHRASE is a verh with its optional specifiers and modifiers; a PHRASE is a nominal with its optional specifiers and modifiers. The

194

TilE ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANOU ....GE

we will call an ADVERD; the modifier of a no minal in a nominal phrase we will call an ADNOMINAl... Nominals o ther than nominalized propositions consist of various combinations of adjective phrases and nouns. An ADJECIlVE PIlIlASE consists of an adjective and its o ptional INTENSIflER. such as Iin-tu "very." Verbs, adjectives, and nouns are primitives in the lexicon.

Adverbs and adnominals are themselves nominal phrases, followed, respectively, by the adverb particle -TU and the adnominal particle -JOi This means that, in both cases, successive embeddings can take place-for exe mple. mgyogs-po-i rta "fast horse" f'irjal-po-i mgyogs-po-i rra "the king's fast horse" rgya-nag-gi 'KY0/-po-; mgyogs-po-i rta " the king of China's fast horse," and mgyog,r-po-r SI.FJJ "arrive quickly" naii-pa-r mgyogs-po-r SUB "arrive quickly in the morning" spyi-r naii-pa-r mgyogs-po-r SU:B "generally arrive quickly in the morning_" Intensifiers, such as Iin -tu "very" or yons-su "completely" are a special subset of adverbs.
The fo llowing sections will describe the syntax of classical T ibetan from the bottom up-that is, first describing nominals, then phrases. then simple propositions, then complex proposi tions, then sentences, and finally some portions of the syntax beyond the sentence level.

1.3. THE TELEGRAM PRINCIPLE

1.3.1. The eliminalion of redundancy

Classical Tibetan is abovc a ll a written rather than a spoken language; freed from the constraints imposed by the transie nce and noise of spoken messages, it can be highly elliptic, rather li~e an English telegram; it is, like a telegram, a shortened form of what would otherwise be a more redundant communication. For example, the telegram 1ol11! anivill8 airport 1IJ.esday sefid car achieves

c1eterminer we c.a ll a defin it e lIeterminer. Simitarly. we find in the classical le ...'1 four different types o f qua ntifier: the nom inal and it$ delimiter may be fo llowed by o ne NUMr:If.AJ ~ o ne 't.U RAl ~ one TOTAl...I7.ER. a~d o ne. SElCTOR- il lways in thl t order. For example, in the numinal phrase blllmll /k-dDg lam "I111hose lamu," Ihe nom inal bill-mil "lama" is followed by th e determiner <k "11li\T," th e plural -dog "MORE TIIAN ONE," and the selector Ju." .. AI .......; in the nominal phrllt "KYfI1.po.olD gilis ''We two kings," the nomina l rgyal.po "king" is fullowed by th e dete rmine r nil "fiRST PERSON~ a lld Ihe nume ra l gilis
t.... O...

195
hn:vily hy eliminating the parenthesizl!d redundancies from the more normal
)01111 (is) amOving (a/ tile) airport (011) 'TUesday (so) Ulld (a) car (to mut

him

tllt'fe), Similarly, we propose a classical Tibetan TELtGRAM PRINCIPLE:

H:dundant clements of the mess3ge may be-and frequently are-omitted. This principle may override syntactic rules of the language.

1.3.2. Old arid new information

A proposition may contain a number of difkren t sorts of info rmation: it may refer to entities intrnduced for the firsl time into the discourse; or e ntities which could he inferred from a discourse entity already introduced; or entities which are obviously part of the discourse situation, although not previously mentioned; or entities which were already introduced into the discourse and an: now being referred to again, either immediately or afler some stretch of intervening text. We will not discuss these distinctions in detail; let it suffice 10 say that these different sorts oi information are points on a continuum that ranges, simply, from OLD tNI'DRMA'noN to NEW INFORMATION. Old info rmation is rt:coverahle-from the preceding text, from inference, from knowledge of the world. Under the Tdegram Principle, old information may, depending on ilS recoverabiliry. be sufficiently redundant to be omitted. Any participant or group of paTlicipants can be old news in a propmition. In a discourse abou t a king, for example. the paft ~cipanl 'ID'ot-po "king" might he inferable-and thus redundant-in any such propoSition as ItGYAL-PO-8 nat "1111'. KING sleeps," ItGYAL-pO'J dgro bmd ",lIE KJNG slew the enemy," dgro-J RC;YAI.-po-8 bJod "The enemy siew 111E KING," ItGYAI.-po-la Nplm.l.l-gyi rol-gri-8 ynd "'nll, KJNG has a magic sword," and so on. Under the Telegram Principle. anything recoverable-old information, the thettle of a proposition-can be left out, for the reader to supply from the preceding text o r from general knowledge. Thus a proposition may consist only of the rheme, with the Iheme considered redundant and omitled. Take, for examrle. the two propositions 0..'\'C/I-pO$ hgegJ 8Jod "The king slays

One I}PC o f "I<J inf",m;lliu n is of p~fI"' ul~r impullance. Ev.:ry proposilion is AliOUT the ~"melllUlg !h~1 a prnpmlliun i~ ~bou t we will ca ll ilS llHoMF- Whal is said aooUI !he themc _ Ih;: news Ihe speaker ~upplll$ aooul il-i$ lhe RItEME. A lh.:me may be CO IIS!anl a<;J()~~ ;lny numhcr of propos iliun~: nnce a Iheme bas beell established, it becomes, o f coursc. uld informali"n.
~melhing:

196

TilE ClASSICAL Tm ETAN lANGUAGI,

demons" and bw-mtU bgegs NduJ "The lama lames demons," and join Ihem together with the conjunction -Yan "BUT"-Ihu$ rgyal-pos bgegs gsod-kyaii bfamtu Hdul ''The king sla~ demons, but the lama tames tht.:m." Clearly, read

"WHEN TOU COME TOMORROW, BRlNG MY FOO11lA.LL 8001'S. ALSO,IF HUMANLY l'OSSI8LF ~ IlUS U IVA11'.A SPANlf'L VRGENT.

REGARru, TtJPrr. JJ

'''What tIo you mAlte of Ihflt, /UT'eJ?" "AI 1 interpret the docume"t, Iir, Mr. GImsop TPishes you, .,hm you come tomiJf"TOW, to bling his footb4ll boon. Aw, if hUmArUy possible, an Imh ~'lHer Jf'aniti. He hints that the mAtter is urgent, ami sauu hi! rrgardJ."
''Yes, that's huw I rmd it,
100.

-Po G. Wodehouse, 771e Ordeal of YOUllg Tuppy

together. what both propositions are about is how demons arc handled by different people. Thus the second appearance of bgegs "demon" is redundant; it is old information; it can be left out. In the English translation of the second conjoined propositio n, the pronoun them corresponds 10 the AIISENCE of a patient participant in Tibetan.

But note, conversely, that such omi~si() n s themselves convey information. Where a participant is omitted from a proposition, the ahsen.ce;: is processed as meaning thai the identity of the missing participant is old information, and hence recoverable from context; the omission is a signal to scan context or generallmowledge to supply what is missing.' In fact, it is jusl such omissions -among other devices-that differentiate a coherent series of propositions from a mere agglomeration of units. The constant back-reference of a text is part of what makes it cohesive. The skill of the author lies in pan in how he
, A paSNlCC or work we would describe a!i n:KSll contains I lignirlCant numt'ot.:r or sucb omissions.. Such. style may be experienced as difficult to process, since its rcatling requires constant back-refcrenr.;c 10 chcc;k lbe idenlity or missi ng I"ITlid~nts .

PHRASES

197

manipulates the cohesiveness of his text-the amount of backreference he requires, the old information he repeats, and the density of the new information he supplieJ. The skill of the reader lies in part in the ability to unravel what the author has thus knit up.

1.3.3. The omission

or ro'le particles

Every participant in a Tibetan proposition is marked in three ways fo r its particular participant role-by its role particle, by its positio n, and by its semantic content. For example, in the proposition rgyal.pru rdza-ma bllag '1'he king broke the POt," the participant 'KYa/po "king" is marked as the agency of the act of breaking by its leftward position in the proposition, by its role particle s, and by its semantic content-that is, a human capable of agency. The participant rdza-ma "pot" is ma rked as the patient of the act of breaking by its position just before the verb, by its role particle -8, and by its semantic content-that is, an inanimate object incapable of agency, but quite capable of being broken. But, under the Telegram Principle, redundant elements of the message may be-and frequently are-omitted. In the proposition rgyal-pru rdza-ma bf!ag "The king broke the POt," the role particle s is redundant, because il supplies information given as well by position and by semantic content. There is little ambiguity in the proposition 'KYal.po rdza -ma btJag. which must stiJIexcept under the most peculiar textual constraints-be processed as "The king broke the pot." Since: the role particle uniquely specifies the participant role of the partici pant, the role particle can be: the clearest marker for participant role. Whe n the role particle is omitted, the position and semantic cOnlent of the participant are clueJ to its role in the proposition; when the role pa nicle is presel,lt, the author may then mo re freely manipulate the other two markers for participant role-position and semantic content. Where panicipants arc: marked with their role particles, an author is free to change the ORDER in which these participants appear in the proposition. Such differences in participant order convey information about the place of particular participants in the discourse, with llIEMATIC panicipanu appearing for the first time shifted to the left of the other participants: compare, for

198

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN LANOUAGE

example, rgyaJ-pos rdza-ma btJag "The king broke the pot" with rduJ-ma rgyal-pos blJag "The pot-the king broke it.'"' Conversely, the agency through which an event occurs is often perceived as thematic, since what people talk ABOUT most often 8fC the actions of other peopk. Thus. where a participam is not marked with a role particle, the leftward participant is often processed as the agency, and the participant dosest 10 the verb as the patient, where semantically possible: the otherwise ambiguous rgyaf-po b/a-ma mlhon would normally be processed as "The king sees the lama" unless there are good textual reasons to read it otherwise.1 Where participants are unambiguously marked with their role particles, an
author has some freedom 10 manipulate their SEMANTIC CONTENT, either

through such figures of speech as metaphor or metonymy, or through the cr~alion of a world diff~rent from the normal one. Such a world might be created by, say, the proposition rdo-sku-s rgyal-po-8 mlhoii '"The stone image sees the king" in a discourse about a miraculously animated statue. When an author, under the Telegram Principle, deletes too much information from a proposition, that proposition becomes ambiguous. An ambiguous proposition offers a choice of readings. Ambiguity is thus the opposite of redundancy: ambiguity is an insufficiency of information, while redundancy is OJ surfeit . Such ambiguous propositions can sometimes be: disambiguated by f;;xtralinguislic knowledge of what is normal and expected in the world. In fact, someti mes more sophist icat~d knowledge is necessary. Whether the proposition sKrihpa srid-ra skyed should be read as "Ignorance creates the
~ Once such a Iheme is eslablished, of course, il bccoma old informal ion-I hal is. il is rcc;oV(: rable from contelt-and can be iel<:~raphically omitted, as in. SOIy, Nama rrbJ mkha,,gyis bws ~'QI,poJ blfag"AI; [or the pots, Ihe poUCI made them and the king broke Ihem."

, Anmher way of saying almost Ihe s.ame thing is 10 s.ay Ihal nO/mal Tibetan word order I\(jENCyrATU;NTVEKU. Dul nOle that scm~n!K: co ntent ~tm limi lS the reading of, say, rdc stu. '1(tll/.po mlhtNt to ~The king sees the Slone image," despite the order of hs participanls. excepl ' IInQer the most peculiar textual oonmainlli-thal is, MSumin& a normal work! of sightless Slone Statues unlc:;.s Ihe tex, insuucb \IS otherwise. Thus lhe proposition rdo blama bdng WQuld normally be processed as'"1lIc I~ma broke th e 510ne~ (or. perhaps beUer, '"TIle Slone-the I~ma broke il") dcipite the fact lhat the order of panicip.mts suggC$lli the reading "The slone broke the lama" (or "(Someone) broke Ib e lam, wil h a 510"e") ami ils aSMlCiatcd image I)f an unrortunate and pcrh3p~ rrolen lama.
i~

PIlH.ASES

199

world" or "Ignorance-the world creall!S it" turns on a fine point of theology; and it is a question of lite rary scholarshi p which reading the author intended,

2. NOMINALS 2.1. DEFINITION

A NOMINAl, is any kxical word or combination of words that can occur before a determiner such as fold; "'1 liS" in a nominal phrase, Nominals thus include nOI on ly NOUNS (no "horse" no ,.,'d; "this horse") and ADJECOVES (bzoii-po "virtuous" bzaii.po NIli "this virtue"), but also COMBINATIONS of nou ns a nd adjectives (no " horse" tIIl/m-po "great" no tIhenpo Ndi " Ihis great horse") and even entire NOM tN Al IZH) Plwposmm'l'S (rgyo /-pos no tJlu!II'po btu/"The king tames the great horse" IID'a f-pas no t!lI enpo bll.l/bo tid; " th is taming of the great horse by Ihe king"),

2.2. HEAD AND MODIFIER

A nomina l is gene ra lly proce~sed as having a IIEAD-the leftmost comronent of the nominal-followed by (me or more MOt>lI'tI'.KS,a Either a noun or an adjective can be the head of a nominal, and either a noun or an adjective can be the modifier of the hcad ,~

The

modir;~r

functions to remict the head in terms of S()nIe qualifying

a Th is St rllctllre is internal 10 Ihe nominal; the nomina l as a wMle ca n Ihen be a tIca(J modiflC4 by a prc:ccdins ,.tU)NOMINAL, which is i nominal ph rase with t1'lc: beul}(! ad nomina l panicle For ClI.Implc:, in Ihe no mina l phrase biD-WID dhtll -po lhi phnii -bD ts"-po " that , real lama', ) I'ltden rmary," th e NOMINIIJ , phft'iibD gS"'P" ",olden 1000ry-'-CQRSislin! o f the IIr:Jl.O phun ,/xl "rO$aryM ~nd its MOOIFlF,M p tr-po "golde n" -is in turn modified by th e pl~in, AONOMINIIJ._ bln-niD dhtll -f<! d(' "l h~1 !'tat lama"-a nominal pllIasc consisting of the nominal blD-mn IIMft ,po ",r~ 1 I~m~ " and the determi ncl M " n-IAT," and thc nominal bfD-mD rJlrm-p" ""e.1\ lama" CtlnSi~lins in Ilirn tlf Ihe head blD-mn " la ma" and its modifier dhtft-p" "sreal,"

,.01.\

9 We may nOl e thai a Til'lC ta n adjcctiv..: hca(J mUSt ,en~raJly be 1lU.NStATEO into EnSlish as an abstract n(llin - Ihu~ hl"ii-p" "virluous" Jill -Ill bw1!-po "very vinuolls" bWn,p" MJi ~ lhi1 vi rtue," K/""'-pt' " fur iu lIs" lift_Ill grum.po "wry furiolls" gTUm -p" lIdi "great fury_ " This is a peculiarity til Engli~h and nnt III Tihclan,

zoo

TilE CI.ASSICAL TI/IFTAN .LANGUAG[

feature: the mooifier answe.rs the question "What type of - ' ! " with refe rence to the head. All nominals rder \0 a scI of entities; the SCI designated by a modified head is thus a proper subset of the set designated by the head alone. For examp1c:, in the nominal bla-rna bzan-po "virtuous lama" the modifier bzaii-po "virtuo us" restricts the head bla-rna "Iama," and answers the question "What type of lama?" The modified head refers to the set of virtuous lamas-a pmper subset of the set designated by the head alone .

2.3. BASIC PAITERNS

(n Tibetan the lefllnosl component of the nominal is' generally proces...cd as the head and componelllS to the right as its modifier. Since a noun or adjective head car be followed by a noun or adjective modifier, the re arc fou r basic patterns of head and modifier. A NOUN can be modified by an A1)Jf.(..11VE, ,IS in siiags-p<l nag-po "htack magician"; a NOUN c;:tn be modified by a NOUN, as ill bta-ma snags-po "lama who is :l magician"; a n AOJEC11VE can be modified by an AVJECllVE. as in nag-po rJhen-po "greal blackness"; and-although certainly nO! common-an AUJECllVE can even be modified by a NOUN, as in nag-po sem .. "blackness which ;s his mind."

2.4. EXTENDED PATmRNS

Since a modified head is itself a nominal, a combined head and modifier may in-turn be a head or modifier wilhin a larger no minal, The processing of such larger nominals generally proceeds through successive hifurcations of head and modifier. For example, in the nominal blnma bzaii-po Lfhell-po "great virtuous lama" the nominal bla-ma bza'i-po "virtuous lama"-;Isclf a head and modifier-serves as a leflmost head modified by the adjective r!lIe/l -po "greal." Similarly, in the nominal bla-ma lShell-po spml.rku hza,,-po "great lama who is a virtuous incarnation" the nominal bla-rna rJltell-po "great lama" serves as a head modified by the nominal Sprul-.fku bzaii-po "virtuous
incarnation_ hlO

10 We may nOle here brieny that I naminal "tch as blu-mQ spruf-s/w bZQii-po is ambilllOlis bctwccn the allern:l\l~e readin!'." (bhr -mQ (Jpn4f-sJaJ bZQiI-po)) "lama who is a virtuous in,ca rnation" an<l !lfQ-mQ s,,",J-sla.) bUl" -po) -vin IIOIlS lama .who-is-an-i ntarnllion; wmpare the si milar ambir,lIi ly of English old men and ..-omtn. Such amhiguity arises, o f

PIlIV.SES

201

Such combinations of head and modifier can be expanded to the limits of stylistic tolerance. A nominal such as bla-rna bzan-po tJhen.po maI.Nbyorpa rnila raspo sprul-sku rinpo-tIlie "great virtuous lama who is the yogin the precious incarnation Mila the cotton-dad" perhaps approaches but does not exceed these limits. The nominal is thus the EXPANDABLE constituent of the nominal phrase: Ihe various specifiers that follow the nominal are added only after such expansion is complete.

2.5. >ADJECTIVES
An a=ljective-like a verb-may be preceded by one or more of several
IN"~N SIAERS, prima rily lin-tu "very" and ha-t!an "very," but including as well such adverbs as Ihag-por "especially," rab-tu "particularly," te'bor "really," yoiis-su "completely," rnl!!Jog-/u "extremely," kuntu "entirely."

Tibetan adjer.tive~ are not regularly innected for degree, as in English. Comparisons are made simply with the source role particle -Ilu, as in rgyal-polas tJhen-po "greater than the king," na-nmlas bzan-po "more beautiful than last year"; sometimes a particle -!'as, whose origin I do not know,lI is used instead of the sou rce particle -las to mark the Object of comparison, as in NbrasidlO1ibos graii.ba "colder than Sikkim," snamabas pllyug-pa "richer than before." In this, adjectives are not different from verbs; nole, for example, gtan-Ias NPllAG "be nobler than others," Tfa -bas nm; "be bigger than a horse." Again, in some texts, a formati~e yan- "STItl, YET, MORE" can give an adjective a comparative sense-thus tJhuii-ba "small" yan.tIltwi "still smaller," dga-ba " happy" yan-dga "yet happier," bzanpo "good" yan.bzan "even better." Thus, too, in Ihe epic, Ihe hero Gesar, in the lowly form of Dto-ru, sings rnanan NgOgmoj d1(>ru no, skyeijan naiilIo.J yon-nail red "I, Df.oru, of the miserable mother Ngog-mo, am among those of miserable birth yet more miserable."

COline, because the process ul hifuro.:.: uin" iOlIl ho.'ad and modifier can begin al eieher tlr e-..u places in Iht nominal.

II This comparalive particle

'NO MINAL.. plll$

.Pal is

.:crl~ inly not the $ame as

'I'O'J.

the rOTOIalive

.P(J

the agen')"

role panicle OlS.

202

TilE Cl.ASS ICAt TIIIETAN L\:-I (iLJAGE

A similar formalive, d1~- "MORE AND MOR~" IUrns a slativc verh stem expressing a particular quality into a stalive verb .;)(pressing the incTC=:lse of thai quality over time-Ihus MAN "be many" dteMAN "bt! more and more," GSAL "be clear" die-GSA!. "be ever more clear," fIJRA "be thin" dte-I'IIRA "be thinner and thinner," as in dte-gsal-du soii " It has become incrt:asingly dear," dIe-maii NgrO "They go on becoming more numerous." Such progressive comparatives are quite fn!4Uently reduplicated-thus dle-rlm: dIe rim: "be bigger and bigger," dle-M71IO dle-MTHO "be hig;lcr and higher," dte-BlA.~ dIe/J7AN "be better and better," and even dIe til/UN die-NUN "be smaller and

smaller," as in dIe-bzaii dle-bzaii-du son "She became ever more beautiful,"

Lfllu-pIU'l:m man-po dle-tIhe dtf!-tJlle'/1l rgyas "Maoy lillIe streams grew bigger and bigger, and became swollen," This formative is old in Tibetan; no te the following few verses, dating 10 the mid-seventh century and attributt::d to the queen Sad-markar, from an archaic chroniclt:: found nt::<Ir TUIlhuang:
dIelie Iii dlelie'lia

rur-po IIi dguli-daii lie dguTi.skar IIi sUi[j

d1.eiie ni dlene'ID siiurba IIi I.fllab-daii lie gyur-Jram Iii pyo-Iu.fa dlelie ni tileiiNw mal.up ni klurn-daii iiI!

Nearer yes: nearer Yar-pa yes: is near the sky Stars of the sky yes: si[j1i Neart::r yes: ncart::r Sfiur-ba yes: is ncar the water The otter yes: pyola-la Nearer yes: neaTcr Mal-lro yt::s: is near to K1um The cold wind yes: spururu

skyibser IIi spuru (U

Superlatives are formed in several ways, The Object of compa rison, marked with /as or -Pas, may simply be made very broad-thus tllamst!adfos rtsub rno "rougher than alVroughest of all," kUII'/os Nphagspo "nobler than alV noblest of a ll," Or the adjective may be applied to one member of a specified group-for example, dge-sIOli.gi naTi-nas bsod-po "pleasing from among the monks/most pleasing of the monks," Again, adjectives are here nOI different from verbs; note, for example, kun-/us MlJlS "be most beautiful of all," kungyi naii-mu BTSOG "be nastiest among them all," Alternatively, the formative Jos "MOST" gives an adjective a superlative sense-thus rgall-po "old" rganJos "oldest," mklw'~'IFJU "wise" mkhasJos "Wisest," rifj.po "long" fiJi -JO! "longest," tJlJ ebu "great" 1~1J(!JO.f "greatt::st,"

203
as in buun-mo /iiQbrgyai tJhuii-Ios "the youngest of the flYe hundred ladies," rtod tJhe-lm f8tld-fUJd "the greatest disease of all, which is the disease of old age." Finally, we should take note of the verb DRAGS "be too much," as in [Io-za-8 drag:s-na mtJ-Iu-baj NJd yon "If your food is excessive, there will be the di~ease of indige.stion." Where the patient or this verb is a nominal with an adjective head, - Ihe verb indicates an excessive amount of the quality expressed by the adjective, as when Sa-skya pal)qita writes, in his I...egs-par bJad-p.J rin-po-tIhLi gter, gnas ma-yin-pai dul drags-tiD, Ihams-tJad-kyis ni bkolbar ~ "If you are too gentle in the wrong circumstances you will be made a servant by everyone."

2.6. HEADLESS MODlFlERS

Sometimes a nominal is processed as a modifier without a "preceding head. Where the head of the nominal has been established by the context. it may CaU under the operation of the Telegram Principle and be omitted as redundant, leaving behind a headless modifier. In such cases English inserts a dummy head such as one, while Tibetan simply leaves the leftmost position vacant-thus dhtn-po "great horse" tJ dhen-po "great one," g.yu snoll'PO "blue turquoise" B snon-po "blue one," bla-ma bzaii-po dhen-po "great vinuous lama" 8 bzaii-po tJhen-po "great virtuous one." Similarly, a head can be omitted where it can be recovered not from the preceding text but from common assumptions about the world: in lIhen-pas sbyill-po gton "The great give gifts," or bzan-pos byamspa sgam " Virtuous people contemplate love," the nominals lIhen-po "great" and bzaii-po "virtuous" are read as headless modifiers whose absent head has an indefinite reference to people in general.

"0

This means, too, that a nominal such as gtum-po can be processed as being either an ADJECTIVE HEAD (thus "fury") or a HEADLESS ..... OJECTIVE MODIFIER (thus "rurious one"). Such structural ambiguity is disambiguated only by the context in which the nominal occurs. For example, compare the two propositions 'ID"l1-pos bzan-po dilen-po bsad ''The king slew the great virtuous one" and 'KYat.pos bzaii-po IIhell-po rhob "The king attained great virtue," where the verbs.$.([) "slay" and nlOB "attain"-requiring animate and abstract patients respectively--determine the reading of the nominal.

204

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

3. PHRASES
Events and thl!ir participants arc expressed, respectively, by verb and nominal PHRASES; it is these phrases which then carry the markers fo r tense and role. A NOMINAL PHRASE is a nominal with its optional specifiers and modifiers; a VERB PHRASE is a verb with its optional specifiers and modifiers. We will call the modifier of a nominal within the nominal phrase an ADNOMINAL, and the

modifier of a verb within the verb phrase an ADVERB.ll

3.1. NOMINAL PHRASES

3.1.1. Simple nominal phrases

3.1.1./. Specifiers
In a nominal phrase, a nominal may be followed by from zero to six A solitary nominal such as bla-rna "lama" or b1o-ma snags-pa nagpo lI/tcl/.po "lama who is a great black magician" refers vaguely to any or ali of the entities within the sel it defines. The specifier functions to SPECIFY TIlE SCOPE of Ihis reference, as in, say, bfarna ",di "nils lama," b!a-mafig "SOME
S "I~C\HERS.

lama," blQrna /iia "l'1VE lamas," bfama-dag " M ORE nlAN ONE lama," bfarna gaii "ANY lama," bla-rna kUII "N.L lamas."

Somt! spc!cifiers, such as rllis or rllal, specify WIllCH m~mber or members of Iht! sel denOled by Ihe nominal aTe rderred 10: we will call these DEUMITERS,

12 Adverhs and ad nominals arc interestin gly para11e! in Tibetan, They are both nominal phr3SCS, "f any leng th and compleulY, ma rked respectively wilh lilt. adverb or adnomi nal partide; adverbs and a..lnominals are IItIiS I>oth phrases embedded within phrasn_the adve rb willtin a verb phrase and lhe a..lnuminal wi tbin a nominal phrase-w the JerI of Ihe head wurd; in bollt ca'ICS $u!;ccSSivc cmbctlding.~ tan lake place 10 Ihe limiu of stylistic loleran". Compa re. fur cumple, mKl"'$$,po j rrd "[ast hll ~" tgytl/.po.j m~po-i rro "the king's fast hlllsc" rg)'o .n(lg.g1 '1(WIfpoj mgyogs,poi 1'/(1 "the ling of China's fast hOr5C" with mgyogspo, XU'/J "arrive qukkly" "aii'fN/" n.,:;yuf,JPO' I IX/J "arrive qui~kly in the mOlning" spyi' " oli, p'''' m~'Of,J'f'<J" SU :'S "g.;ncraU)' arri\"e quickly in Ihe morning." and so on, ScmanliQll1y bo.llh adverbs and adnllminals modify Iheir fullowing verb or numinal head, In 1I<..11t cases, 11K- modiri.;r limils o r qU31iries Ihc h.:ad hy adding informa tiOn about iI, and anSwCr.< Ihe qu~sli<1n "Wha! so rl uf_',' " .. ilh re ference to Ihe head. In bolh casa, Ihe ml>.Jified lte~oJ oJeSi,l!n~IC! a p"'pcr $ \lI'o:\<,'[ ('If Ihe ~I dc,o;ignalcoJ b~ Ihc head alone,

PIlRASES

205

Other specifiers, such as five o r som~, specify HOW MANY members ,of the set de noted by the nominal an: referred to : we will call these OUANllFlERS. In classical Tibetan, delimiters and quantifiers a re both optional parts of the nominal phrase; but where either or both occur, their order is fIXed as NOMINAL-DEUMITER-QUANllflEll.. There a re, furthermore. two different types of delimiter in the classical texuDETERMINERS and REFLEXIVES. Either or both may occur, but, where both occur, two conditions must be mel: the determiner must precede the reflexive, and the determiner mllst be a DEFlNITE determiner, as will be discussed below. Similarly, we find in the classical telCtS four different types of quan tifier: the no minal and its delimiter may be followed by one NUMERAL, one PLURA4 one TOTAliZER, and o ne sELEcroR-always in that order. The complete array of available specifiers may be diagrammed as follows: SPECIflER

t
DELIMITER

OUAI'fl1FlER

DETERMINER

Ii

REA.EXJVE
s~1f

NUMERAL

PLURAL

TOTALIZER

SELECl'OR

that any

on.
two

.,

just only

all
som~

~"

thm

Thus the minimum no minal phrase consists simply of a NOMINAL, while the maximum nominal phrase consists, at least theoretically, of the sequence NOMINAL-DETERMINER-REFLEXIVENUMERAL-PLURAL-TOTALIZER SELECTOR. Whether such a maximum sequence occurs (and I certainly have nOI seen it anywhere, or I would display it here proudly) is a matter of stylislic constraints o n syntax; but between these two extremes we fi nd nominal phrases with various combina tions of these constituents, which occur !n the o rde r set fo rth above-thus bla-rna Ndi-dag "!hese lamas" but not ?blama-dag Nd~ rta.dagmams " horses" but not ?rta mams-dag. rgyal-po rna-fig "some five kings" but not ?rgya lpo-fig lila, snags-po de-dag knn "aJlthose magicians" but

206

TilE Cv..ssICAL TIBETAN l..ANOUAOE

not ?.siiags-pa kun de-dog. mkhas-pa gonfig "any wise man" but not ?mkhtupo-fig gan.

The specifier is the last component of a nominal phrase. We therefore sometimes find a specifier-usually de "nlAT' or -rtig "oNE/s),4"-used simply as a PHRA'iE-Cl..OSER, 10 signal the end of a nominal phrase which has the invisible -8 role particle. especially wheT: that phrase, or the next, is long and complex. Conversely, we frequently find HEADLESS SPf!OFlERS, where the nominal head has been omitted by the Telegram Principle-for example, bltJn;1Q de-dag "'hose lamas" 8 dt-dag "those ones," dge-slon gan-liB "any monk" 8 ganlig "anyone," 'KYat-po khon "he the king" 8 Jchoij "he," dgon.pa ron "the same monastery" IJ ran "the same one," blwl-po gsum-tig "some three fools" D gsum-fig "some three ones," sems-/!an de-dag thoms-tIad "all those sentient creatures" D de-dag tllOmN!ad "all those ones." and so on.

3.1.1.1.1. DELIMITERS

3././.1.1.1. DETERMINERS
A nominal may be followed by a single DETERMINER which de1imilS its scope by specifying which of the named entities is referred to. Such specification in Tibelan m:ly. first. be either l>H1Nrn, or INIlEI'1NITE-that is, may specify the scope of the reference as some de terminate subset, as in sky~s-bu d~ "TIIAT person," or as some indeterminate subset, as in s~sbu gan "SOME/ANV person." Second. ddinite determiners may specify the scope of that determinate subset either in terms of its SPAT1A1. RELATION to the speaker, as in dgoll.pa ya gi "the mon(lstery liP TIIERE." or in terms of its SPf.AX.JNG ROLE in the discourse. as in maf'Nhyor.pa k/lyod "YOU the yogin." We therefore distinguish SI'Al' AL DE1H~MtNERS fr(lm PERSONAL DIITERMINERS. Both personal determiners and inddinite determiners, as we shall see, bear some resem hlance 10 English pronouns.

3.1.1.1.1.1.1. Definite delenniners

3././.1.1 .1.1.1. Spatial tUUrminus

dctermim:rs are (If two sorts. First. there are three VERTIC'.Al. determiners-ya .},'i "1)1' I1IEIH:. " maJ::i "DOWN 11IERE." and plla.gi "ACROSS
SI'''''I1I\1.

PIlRASES

W7

TIiERE 1I0RIZONTAlLY." These determiners delimit the preceding nominal ,in terms of its DECUNATION from the speaker-thus la ya-gi "the pass up there," fun ma-gi "the valley down there," sgaii pha-gi "the ridge over there."n There are two HORIZONTAl determiners-Hdi "nns" and de "THAT." These determiners delimit the preceding nominal in terms of ill NEARNESS to the speaker-thus blarna Ndi "this lama here," bla-rna de "that lama there_" Such nearness may be metaphorically extended to include temporal and textual proximity as well-for example, tslug lid; "this word (just spoken)."

3.1.1.1.1.1.1.2. Pef'UNl4l iletumiNfS

Classical Tibetan PERSONAl. OETToRMtNERS such as na "'" and khyod "you" can be seen 10 occur in exactly the same s9ntactic slots as such nonpersona! determiners as Ndi ''11I1S'' and de "lliAT"-for ' example, bla-rna de "that lama" bla-rna kll0n "he the lama," rni de-mams "those men" rni khyod-mams "you men," dge-slon Ndi ~iis "these two monks" dge-slon na ~lis "we two monks," mlllU-llhen yad-pa de "Ihe one who has magic power" .mthu-l1hell yod-pa na "I who have magic power." Personal determiners, however, are
I) The word ph.a "that ~ide" 15 usually paired semantically with the word tshu "Illis sKle"for eumple, pharoI "the other side' IJhu,o/ "tllis side. ~ pharoI-pG "adversaryH IIhuro/ptI "aUy." Similarly, ya " up" is semantically p~i red with Ina "down'_ror eumple, )'D ,mrJhu " upper lip' m(lmlJhu "lower lip:' )'Q'/Mnl "Iinlel" ma/h~m "sill," )'D./hog "ceiling" ma/hog " nom," YO'Tabs "upper eW!;" ma Tabs ' Io-.o;e/ c1U!:," yo-so "upper t:III" mil'SO "to..-et tuth." ror-no ''Waxing moon' mar.no "waning moon." This do uble opposilion may be: ehaned as rollows;

However, .. hen thL"SC Opposilions l Ie e.ploited as dete/minen, presumably tshu represents the position o( the speaker, and tile oppositions yield a three-way Y1:rtical distinction:
)'D'gr IJ' nmRE"

/Shu HOIE"
_SPEAKER

I
L ___ :

ph, . "ACRO" TI''''''

ma_gI "[)OWN TIlER""

208

THE ClA"SICAI. TIIlETAr4 I..J\NGUAG f;

syntactically defined as a class by their occurrence before the plural .'.faX (thus iia-dag "we" N(/i-dag " these," iia-tslto "we" NdilSho "these," nO.fJag "we" bul nOI ?N<1i-tJoj), as well as such forms as khoii.llag-mams "Ihcy" parallel to de-dog-mams "those"), although in the lale r classical texts personal determiners tend to be pluralized most frequently by the selector -manu.
3.1.1.1.I.l.1.2.1. UNMARKED AND SPECIALIZED mRMS

There are three personal determiners we can call UNMARKED-Ihe first person determiner iio

"I," thc second person determiner khyod "you," and the third person determiner k.llo "h~." Each one has a co~ res ponding 1I0NORI I1C-lhe firsl "person honQrific determiner ned, the second person honorific determiner kllyed. and the third person honorific determiner khon. In addition, we find the first person EI.EGANT determiner hdag and the second person elegant determiner 11id (and thus the plural forms bdug-l!ag and ;,id-dag). We can schematize these determiners as follows:
PERSON UNMARKED HONORIFIC ELEGANT

2
3

/10 klzyod

kilO

n.ed kllyed klzml

bdag
iiid

3_1.1.1.1.1.1 .2.2. IIONORlt' IC UETF.RMINERS

H ONORI I-lC I ) EI1 : II.MINI'.~S

an:

used to reft:r respectfully to peuons nf higher social or spiritual rank-thu~ till-po kflyod "you the farmer" but bla-ma khyed "you the lama."' The higher status may be n:llltive either to the speaker or the addressee: for e1wmp\t:, in the work o f Gtsan.smyun he-ru-ka we find that the maste r Mar-pa uses the third person honorific determiner kllOii "he" when speaking to Ihe young Mi la I\1I0tlT the l<1ma Rnog- pa and nlhtr senior disciples, hu t switchc~ In thc second person unmarked determiner khyod "you" when s peaking TO them. The first per~u n honorifi c Fwd ''I"' is used when a speaker expresses hilllsdf as honmed by some relationShip with a s uperior: for exa mple , ag;lio ia the work of Gtsan-smyon he-ru-ka, we find Mar-pOl's son saying iied-kyi plw-Ilto .\'()d "There is my lord fath er," we fin d thc yogin Mi -l" politdy saying iie(i:':li iudflfo khyed-kyis mi-oii "It docs not sui t yo u 10 imitate me," and we fin r: a rx-;Isant couple s.:cking t(l arJopt Ihe famous Mi-I;! wit h Ih.: wnrd.~ ikdkyi JIIld,H./ mdwd "Be our foster s{)n~" Wht:n Mi-la descrihcs how h.: ,I/lt! M;r: pas wife carried out 11 rJeception, hI! switches frum iI first persoll hOl1nrific rJeterminer to a firs t person unm;uk.:d lktl!rminl!r as .~o()n as he become.\ the snle ac tnt-iied gliisl..yis J:ms hYfI.I"-lIfIJ. ilU.f pft}'e-sK)'e lJhwl du-mrH!i).!"i kll(lr

PIiRASES

209

dpN.fha-dan tJ/uu phran.tshegs yod.pa sbrags "We (ned) counseled toge ther, and then J (na) piled the few books and possessions I had on lop of several small sacks of 00ur.'14
3. 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.3. SPEAKlNG ROlES

Personal determiners occur almost exclusively with nominals whose referents are human-thus, In the old texts, mi Icl!yod "you the man," rna na " I the mother," but nOl, for example, ?rd.o kJw "he the rock." Nonpersonal determiners, on the OIher hand. occur with nominals of any sort: bzan .po de can mean either "that virtue" or "that virtuous one," while bzaii.po khoii can only mean "he the virtuuus one." One way of looking at personal determiners is as specifying the preceding nominal in terms of its SPEAKI NG ROLL: in the discourse: a first person determiner would me~n "TIlE PERSON "'"OW SPEAKING," a second person determiner "TIlE PERSON NOW .... DDRFSSED," and a third person determiner ''TIlE PERSON NOW NemlER SPEAKIN G NOR .... DDRESSED." The identities of the spea~r and addressee are, of course, often 01.0 INFORMATION to the participants in a conversation, and thus quite often omi ued-for example, na iiu ''The person now speaking, whose identity you know. weeps/I weep," Ichyud iiu "The person 1 now address, whose identity you know, weepsfYou are weeping." Especially where this telegraphic ellipsis <l\;curs, we can see how convenient
it is to TRANSL\TE such personal determiners as English pronouns; but then:

are still significant differences betweerl the two forms. Persona] determiners in Tibetan are sim ply determiners that delimit or pick out a nominal in a particular way-in terms of speaking role, according to the description offered here-and behave syntactically just like other determiners. For example, a personal determiner ca n specify the speaking role even of a complex nominal, as when Mjla speaks of pha mtshanldan bfama kiron "'he my father .he excellent lama," or when Mar-pa shouts at a disciple nlog,slon 1!IrO$rdor zer bai mabl.fo/ba byedmkhan khyod "you who do what you are nOi supposed to do named Riiog,slOn t!hosrdor!" Further, personal determiners occur much less frequently than English pronouns in any given running length of
I. Then I,ain, the IInmarked penonal dcc ermi ne r k~yod ')'ou" may be used 1 0 eJprCS$ 1 0 an Ol\w:...... js.e superior addressee, as .... hen Mipnam, in I lilUrgy Iddrased < 0 tile Buddha ~~kyamuni, writes liildtJii dus Ndir ril1 'lh~11 mam.gJl.lm.g)"i. snaii .ba dIi.silfil K1{YOl)}';yi .vphrin/usilid " In this world and age, m thc CXlcnl the Three Jewets a ppur, it is JUSt TIIY doin&-"
intim~ wilh respect

210

THE Ct..AssICAt TIBETAN LANGUAGE

text: classical Tibetan tends to rely on ellipsiJ rather than on pronominaliza

tion as a device for back-reference, sc that personal det~rminers are to a large extent restricted to dialogue or correspondence, where it is important tenuaJIy to keep track of who is saying what to whom.
3.1.1.1.1.1:1.1.4. IIUMIUFlCS In classical Tibetan we not infrequenrJy find a nominal--such as a term of endearment, title of respect, or professional titleused with a personal determiner where in English we would expect either a pronoun or title bUI not both. For example, Ru-tJhun-pa addresses his master Mi-Ia with the words RDUBTSUN RlN-PO-nHE KHYEc>kyis gsuii-du g:sol "I pray that YOU lliE PRECIOUS REVEREND speak," and Mar-pa's wife speaks of her husband to Mi-la with the words BU-MA KHOR nas rgya-gar-nas blaiispai dlros Ndi-nl4ms setru-fIan-la phall-du rNlas blaiis-pa yin gsun. "HE THE lAMA says, These teaChings I brought from India were brought hoping to benefit sentient creatures." Less respectful terms ate also often found in this construction: when Mi-Ia is about to die, his disciple Ras~tJhun-pa is puzzled at the celestial portents. ard several goddesses rebuke him, saying SKYES-BU K1fYO~kyu mig-daii nla-ba bleag-llas sdod-pa yin-llam "Have YOU FELLOW been standing around blocking up your eyes and ears?" Sometimes, too, such nominals are used without personal determiners: fs>r example, Ras-t~huii-pa speaks directly to Mi-Ia with the words RDtE-BTSVNgyis tllOg-mar dku-V'Yod-doii sgruh-pa gmlS goii-du mdlad "In what plal!e did 'nlE REVEREND first practice austerity and meditation?" and, similarly, Mi-Ia is asked by some shepherd hays RlA-IllA-lo blugs-grogs med-pa lags-sam "Has TILE I..NA A no companion'!" Hert! too we nOl infrequently find kinship terms, as when Mar-pa asks /IV mlllOi'jiium yid 1111~s-s~m "Did MY SON see? do you believe?" o r when Ras-t~hun-pa dreams that a goddess takes his hand and says to him n/H-/lO-S go-bar Ndug " My NEPIIEW understands_to Simila rl y. nomina Is with humh1e or deprecatory connotations are found to occur with-or inste:ld uf-first person determiners: here we find such expressions ,IS iiull -bu "mise rahle fellow," plrrall "lowly person," mi-rgan "old man:' .fprml-po "heggar," gUs-II/ruii "one of little (aith," nanu-t1lluii "destitute nne:: gus ....bmls "faithful suhject," NbailS .t.fliuii -iiu " lowly subject," zag-pllun. "miscrahlt: lump." Such nomiOllls we may conveniently cal1 HUMllIncs (in contrast to liOI'lOlUncs). For example, in the work of Gtsan-smyon he-ru-ka, we find a black magician saying MI-RGAN !lAoS mtllu:gtad-su gswn-lig-Ia las byas " I 1111; OLD MAN have worked in magic, curses, and hai!storms," while Mi!a sings. in one of 'he songs anthologized over his name. sPRAR-PQ-i slcyid-

PHRASES

211

sdug kllyed-ran Ies "You know 1lilS Dl:GGAR'S happiness and sorrow," and, in the ancient siories found among the Central Asian manuscripts. we find RANBU ni bros-d~ rntIhis-so "TillS MISERAHL E ""LLOW ran away and came_"
Such humilifics are often found in correspondence: the Tibetan epistolary style delights in such nowery locutions as the following, in a Jetter 10 the

Dalai Lama:
skyobs-rngon tIh~n-poi thugs-roles gan-gi blca-drin-lD rtog-tu spyod-pai NBANS rSUN-NU 80AG /:yon gsar-slad rigs-rned tsam-nas labs-Ndegs-Ia lhag-bsom-gyi spoils-po Ndegs-btin-par gnas lags
By your compassion, great lord protector, to whose grace YOUR LOWLY SllIlJECT ev!!r have recours!!, I remain without new corruption daring to hope that I may serve you. Even in a rdatively informal leiter such as the following we find the humilific

phrall " 'owly person" where in English we would find a personal pronoun: Ngyur-bo med-pai yid-gtJugs /dOIl-pa tIe-khae lags-ky; druii-du, khyed-kyi gsuiis-hris ",blOr-bas fltRAN-daii PIlRAN.gyi zlo-bo K'iis dga-spro dpag-IU med-pa skyes byuii
To the honorable presence of our unwaveringly beloved Jack: Receipt of your honored leiter has made 1111S LOWLY PERSON and 1111S LOWLY !,ERSON'S wife both immeasurably happy. Something of this humilific style may occasionally be encountered in didactic prose as well, as when a philosophical writer says BLUN-PO BlJAG-gi nnoiisIS/wd Iiar-IIO ''In the ignorant opinion of nils fQOLlSII PERSON ME ... " or when even a grammarian can write 8WN-1'O RDAG IlAR-gi Nthad-pa /Jar-no "In MY OWN FOOUSH PERSON'S belief , . ," The classical texts contain some interesling humilifics. In Ihe epic of Ge-sar we find that a heroine will speak of herself as ser-rno "finger" and ,fetl-rna "fingernail," both perhaps in the sense of "appendage, dependent." Interestingly, some humilifies appear 10 have the OLDER REI .....TIVE I'OR MA11VE 7a- prefixed to them: for example, we' find 7o-ur-mo "old finger" alongside ser-rno "finger," The common expression 7a-bo-7a-pllo is a n affectionate

212

TilE CI.ASICAt TrUl;TAN lANGIJAGI'

prefIX 10 the names and epilh';!ts of lay persOIlS, as in 7a-bo mrJIII-IIJz(!1Z " Friend Magician," This term too is found as a humilific, as in 7abo iia "th is o ld fellow,"
3.1.1.1.1.I.1.2.S. FROM IIUMIIJnC TO PI-]tSONAI.urITERMINF.R We can see that a humilific such as pilTon "lowly person" can lose much of its deprecatory

connotation and behave SEMANTICALLY very much like an elegant first person dClerminer-lhus, for example,phrulI,'O'i z?a.bo " this lowly person's wife .... my wife," Indeed, it seems that some humilifics have come, at various limes, W behave SYNTACTlCAl.I.Y as personal determiners as well. For example, in an archaic mythological text from Central Asia, we find the humilific iianhu

" miserable fenow"-for example, in NAN-RU ni bms-de ml.fhis-so "Tills MISERADLE FE LLOW ran away and came" and NAN-flU phu-yab-ky; mlsllUtI Ilf/iide me-bJuu "Tills MIS EKAIILE ll;u .Ow's honorable falher's name is Lionde
me-bkru." This humilific is then pluralized with the personal determiner plural -tIug in the expression MYI .vANIIag SIJU/I gsum " WE M1S!;}I.AIII.I ' FE.LI.OWS, three brothers .. ." More recently, the term nos "side, direction" (as in FJos-ky; zlu-bo "TillS SIDE'S wife - my wife") is found in the plural form nos-tIug "wc"; the pn:scnt Dalai Lama, we may add, has written an autobiography entitled iios-kyi yul-dtlii jios-kyj m;-moii "My land and My People." In the case of /iclII-bu "mist:rablt: fellow" in the t:arly period and of nos "side" in the l.ner pcri(xl, a humillfic has come to behave syntactically as we ll as semantically as a first person determiner. It is tempting to st:e in such elegant determiners as bdag a similOlr history. with a similar intermediate phase of use as a humilific bdag "self." 3.1_1_1.1.1.1.2.6. SI-:X-MARKl-:n .. ERSONA \. n ETI-:R:\f)IIiERS Alongside na " I" even in the earliest archaic Central Asian texts we find the term klio-bo used with a first person rderence, as in Iu II; klrabos Htshal-do "As for the meat, I ate 11." The term persists through the classical language as a personal determiner: we find such terms l iS mi kllO-bo "] the man" as wt:11 all the plural form 1<11O-bo-IIog " we." Ye t we also find such syntactiC anomalies as khobo na, suggesting that the term still retained. for somt: writers. a Oa'lor of its presumably nomi nal origin, perhaps as a humi1ific rdated to the form khyo "person, man." In the classical texts, too, at least as C!arly as in the ninth-century translatio n of the Mdzuiir-blull tes byu-bai mdv from its Chinese original, there appears the innovative form kho-rno as the feminine equivalent of the earlier term; by the fourteenth century the first person semantic field had enlarged to include k"o-bo as a first person masculine de te rmine r, used by a male speaker to rder to himself, and kltom o as a first person feminine

PIiRASES

213

determiner, similarly used by a female speaker. Note the similarly sex-marked. derivatives khyo-ba "husband" and khyo-rna "wife" from kllyo "person, man." In classical texts influenced by Middle Tibetan the same process seems to be repealed with the noun rna "woman, female," which begins to function as a third person feminine determiner: for example, in tho:: biography of Mi-la raspa we find such phrases as rno-tgon mo "she the old mother," and such propositions as bu-mo de-Io IJlled-gner-gjis bskul-bo.~, M(l-s dun.-rdog bdun plml "They earnestly urged the girl, so SHE offered me seven small shells." Given such usage, we find the third-person semantic field shifting to accommodate the new term: the previo usly unmarked fo rm kho begins to be read as a third person masculine determiner. We <:an schemati7.e the resulting pattern of sex-specific determiners as follows:
PERSON UN MARKED MASCULINE 1-"EMIN1NE

na
kllyod

khobo kilo

kllO-rno
rno

2
3

3.1.1.1.1.1.1.2_7. PERSONAL Ot.."'~:RMINER TAILS Occasionally in more colloquial registers we find a personal determiner preceding rather than following the nominal head it delimits-for example, iied spun gsurn "we three brothers," Ichyed grwo-pa-moms "you monb," klt{)/l grogs-pomams "they my friends." We may perhaps best consider such constructions to be parenthetical idemifications of a personal determiner for purposes of clarification or emphasis: .the nominal following the determiner is ;n the nature of an afterthought or TAIL This analysis would seem to be supported hy the fact that in such constructions the persona l determiner and the nominal may occasionally be quantified separately-for example-, bdog-IJog IS/lOii-po-moms "we merchants," kho-mo-I!ag spun 8'iis "we two sisters." Thus we find an ancestor of Mi-Ia shouting na khyuii-po dIo-sros OIl-gin yod-do "It is I-Khyuiipo dfo..sras-who is coming!" and his mother crying out no myaii-tsho dkar'XYon-lo do-lanlos nams dgo-bo le-yoii llos-doii "Just see whether I-MyanISha dkar.rgyan-will ever feel happier than now!" And, in a song to his sister, Mi-Ia sings no; spyod-pa-lo bllasno smyonpa Ndra, khyod sriii-mos b/laskyill yi-mug skye "If you look at my behavior it is like a madman; you my sistedook upon it and despair."

214

TilE CtAssICAL TIBETAN l...ANOUAGE

3.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.8. 111 ARCIIAIC DETERMINER

0-"

We can here take note of

an archaic determiner 0-14 with a ""ide variety of written reflcltes. When pluralized with -tfag it appears to be a first person determiner: we find 0tJag-u-tJag-a-tIag-u-bu-tJag-yu-bu-tIag-yu-tJag ''we,'' as well as the forms Q-skol-u-slwl '"we," persisting from the earliest Central Asian manuscripts well into the nineteenth ccmury. In the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa. for example, we find the forms Q-skol (as in Q-skol-/o g.yu Ndi go-nas byuii "Where did we get this turquoise from?"), a-tIag (as in o-tIag bios ma-thom-pa min "It's not that he didn't forsake us"), and u-tJag (as in lcJwijtshoi mJhu-daii utJag-gi nUhu mjNdrao "Our magic is not the same 81 their magic"). Such
forms arc particularly liable to textual variation: for example, one occurrence is given as o-lJog by three blockprints of the Mi-Ia, but as u-tJag by the fourth. iS

3.1.1.1.1.1.1. Indefinite detenniners

Definite determiners specify the scope of rdeTence of the preceding 'nominal as extending to certain determinate members of the denominated set; INDEANI11! determiners specify that scope as extending potentially to every " member of that set. For example, in mi no "I the man," the definite determiner no "1"limi15 the reference of the nominal mi "man" to the person then speaking; but in mi goii "some man, any man," the indefinite determiner gaii "some, any" specifies that the reference extends potentially to any member of the set denominated by mi "man"-thus, for example, "in the chronicle Rgya{rabs gsol-boi mt-Ioii, suiir-rgyos GAN-gis kyoii n11l-btJogs-pa "not trodden by ANY Buddha." There are four \indefinite determiners in Tibetan---goii "'NDEFlNITE NOMINAli any, some, whatever," tIi "'NDEFlNITE NONANI"u,wany, some, whatever,".ru "INDEflNrIE HUMAN BEINo/any, some, whoever," nom "'NDEflNITE nME/any, some, whenever." As the definitions indicate, these determiners occur only with"certain types of nominal. The most general indefinite determiner is gon

IS It is 1'101 ,I .11 ~r whelher Ihis pcrson..1 dclerminer is lbe same as the ok! determiner 0 "Ihllt" preserved in sicreotyped ronncctNc$---o-na-m ~jn IlllIt _ well, now, but," on-k)'aJI "CYen in thai .... nevcnheless," Ottlt '"belnl in IMI .... on Inc other !uloo." It is perhaps Ihls lauer determiner whkh is 10 be compared wilh 0.lcpanI1\lw-1Ow, Garo-. BurmtSC llui, Dhimal II --thai." .

PlUlASES

215

''whatever,'' which can act as specifier of any type of head;" but tIi "whatever" occurs only with nominals that have nonanimate referents, su "whoever" only ,!"ith those that have human referents, and nom "whenever" only with those that refer generally or specifically to a period of time.

Q!4eJ pivot, j'enrends,. dam ees

umtTasteJ, J l'intelJigibiJiti? iJ faut une gUllranrieLa SynlfUt.

- Stephane Mallarme Le MYSfere dOlls les leftres

These four forms actually perform three different chores in the Tibetan language. First, as we have said, they can specify that the reference of a preceding nominal extends potentially to any ~ember of the se~ that nominal denominates, as in mi gaii bsad'lIa "Jf one has killed any man ... " Second, they can serve as dummy role particle carriers in a relative construction, as in mi gaii bsod.pa "The man whom one has killed ... " And, third, they can mark the queried participant in an information question, as in mi gun bsad "What man was killed?" These three uses are not as easily confused as might at first appear. It is true thai the sequence skye-bo gan by itself does not give us enough information to tell which function the gan is performing. But, as these examples show, there is seldom confusion when the sequence occurs in the context of particular syntactic construct ions-thus skye-bo gaii -gis saiis-'X)'Os mlhan-na "If/ when SOME PERSON sees the Buddha . . ." skye-bo gaii-gir saiis-tg)'as mtllOii-ha "the PERSON WHO sees the Buddha," skye-bo gan-gis saiis-fKYO.S mlhoii "Wl tAT PERSON sees the Buddha?" The last {\to'O uses-relative and interrogative-will be discussed in the appropriate sections later in this text.

16 The rorm pil is sometimes reduced to p. berore Ihe Iotll$ .nd achoerb panicles-ror eumple. in the Tibetan .translation of the KmmaJDIDkil, bdom-IdDIr-MIDs G,4./iJ blugJ-lt, bdag-IQ dgoi'u.lig.p MCouid Ihe Blessed O ne be dwcllin& SOMEWUEAE and Ihinkin& of me?"

216

TilE CLASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAG E

J.J .J.}.J ./.2.1. IItadhss indRfiniUs

Often it is perfectly clear from context or general knowledge what the nominal head of an indefinite determiner is supposed to be; in such a case, of course, the nominal head can be telegraphically omined, leaving a HEADLESS Il'IDEflNITF... For example, in khyod slior su-la yan gsol-ba rna-blahbam "Haven't you previously sent an invitation to ANYONE?" the determiner
su "'NDEf1NITE !lUMAN IlEiNG" is processed as the specifier of an omitted

nominal head such as mi "person"-Ihus "Haven't you previously sent an invitation to someJany/whoever (person)?:' In this example, 100, the fact that the referent of the- omitted nominal is to human beings-or gods o r spirits or demons, who are syntactically human-is given hy the determiner su, which specifies only such human nominals. t7 Headless indefinite constructions are not uncommon, and are Ihe means by which didactic authors make sweeping generalizations. For example, in the Legs-par bJad-po rin-pot/hei gter by Sa-skya pa~~ita, we read sems-lIan maspo sna-tsJiogs-pas, thoms-t!od mgu-bar su-s kyan dka "The pleasures of sentient creatures are varied, so it is hard for ANYONE to please them all," GAR-lig phun-sum-tsllOgs Ndod-no, de-yis Ndu-NgOd maii-du bya "If ANYONE desires excellence, he should mingle much with others," WlN-la blo-gros miIdon-na, bs(an-blIos legs-kyan sU-lig len " If SOMEONE ;s without intelligence, though a teaching be good, who accepts it?" Note, DS ;n these examples, that indefinite determiners frequently co-occur with the selector -tiig and the connective yan-thus su yan "anyone at all," gaii-lig "someone," nam yan "whenever."

3.1.1.1.1.1.2.2. Inthfiniu advtrbs

l.f~

The formative dli--which is apparently related 10 the indefinite determiner but is not the same-yields a special class of indefinite determiners which we will here call tNDEJ-1N1TE A.OVERIlS. t8 These are adverbs primarily or

11 And note the followin, cumpte, from an artliai~ CCntral Asian m:lli l.lS(:ript-uii-MI g'.lig-Ia gllig dmag drali'Jle, rrJ'NgQ SUj rgyn( Tts'Hga SUj pham har oijijo "Then they tell armies one against the Olber, and it came 10 be thaI somcl imes 0 ,"10 OF ntEM/WIIOI,V EII. woul<.l be victOfio\lS, and somctimes ONE OF TH EMfWllorlVEII. WOU lu be dcfealed." 18

Although tlie5C inacfinilc adverbs arc normally formc4 with Lhc dJ.i prefi~. we

PHRASES

217

manner and extent,19 which most frequently utilize the IOwlizers siied "no less than," lSam "as much as," srid "as long as," and the si mile-creating -blill " like, as," -Ita--Ita-hu--lla -ba "like, as"-thus, for example, dlj-lta-r "INDEFlNIll! MANNER/in whatever way, however," dti-srid-du "INDH1Nlll'. Exn:NT/ to whatever extent, however lo ng," Sinn: inddinite adverbs are distinctively marked with the dli- pn:flX, the adverh particle -1U is redundant, and is, accordingly, not infrequently omitted, espccia!ly under the constraints of meter. Note the following from the' Legs-pcr bJad-pa rill .po-t!/lei gter hy Sa-skya pat;tQita-dli-srid rail-stobs ma.rdzogs-TIO, de-yi bar-du dgra-mamr bkur "However long it takes to pcrfect one's own slTenglh, during that interval one honors one's enemies," rUIII-pa db-Ita, bt$()s gyur.yall, raJIblin bzail-po NhYllI1 misrid "However one may correct an evil person, it is impossible for him to have a good nature," Nbab-tshu db-Itar hzloK gyur-kyail, Ihur-du Nbabpa khonar Ndod "Any way you dam up a river, it still wants nothing hUI 10 flow downward," Sometimes an indefinite adverb of manner may as plausihly be read as an adverb of extent- for example, again from Sa-skya pat;tQita, dampa dlj/tar rgud gyur.kyail, sdig-dail Ndrn'-fX4; zal' mi-za "However impoverished a holy person becomes, he does not e:H food that is mi>.ed wilh sin," ,J/Ul n; db-ltar skol gyur-kyQJ1, mc-rn ,..har-ha mi-srid-do "However long yo u boil water, it still won't catch on fire," mkha.~-pa db-ltar rhabs brdugskyaii, hlull-po Ndlug-pai lam mj'Ngro "Huwever much a wise man may be witho ut means. he still will not go on the path taken by fools.,,20

someti mes find IIi substituted sporadically in some manuscripts: si milar as gnilblindu_are also occasional1)' tuuntl.
1'1

t<lrm~

wilh gnii _ sueh

dail sshadg1.al-bDla dli Ihob "The form dli

This is presumably what the Tibetan grdmmalians 3re re(erring 10 when th.:y say d~ olllain~ fm manner amI exten!." Aw,.3I1y. liIe lerm d~ mc.3ns "example. si mile," bUI here clcottly rcfc ~ 10 the ~i m i lc[fea1ing hlm and ,'ta, which, wiLh the dl;- prerLX, yield imkfinite atJvcrbs uf manner. The glamnm rian~ con tinue, by saying dCHIla I!; Ihob '"The form IIi obtains for the th ing itself," which, i: : understand it correctly, W(Il1ld seem 10 compo rl with the analysis given he re.

20 The prerlll dli. also 00:1115 more or ICM sporatJic.ally wi th terms ot her than Ihcs~ (, indeed. it seems to be able 10 make ~n indefinite adverb or manner or eXLent OUI nf :' " aboul anything. NUle, for e. l.1mplc, skad "spo.,<=c h, wurli.\" dlisknd du "in whatcvcr I"(W' hnwevcr it is said," I-F.C$ ""oc goo.r dlUtgs,tu "however may be g(lo<,l"-Ihus. (rum a i'" of archaic Ce nHal A~ian manuscripl currc.~pomk nce, dh i Itgsu nltUndpar snr<Jl1 /Jhiii no l; ' "1 pray that yuu do as yuu l hi nk hc~t , " An at!\'c ft>. in lhi~ oon[e ~[ . i~ lit)! necessarily li nlt

218

Tile ClASSICAL TmETAN l...ANOUAGE

3./.1 .1.1.2. REFLEXIVES

A DEHNlle determiner-but apparently nOI an indefinite determiner-can ~ followed by either of two REFLEXIVES-ran "'SELF, same" and nid "-SELF, same." These renexives specify Ihe scope of the nominal as limited 10 an entity or sct of entities already stated or implied in the preceding text 21 -for example, in the Tibetan translation of the Chinese Mdzafu-blun lts-byaboi milo. mi de ni 'KY0l-po ijid yin "Thai man is the KING I IlMSEl.l't lltAT SAME KING," and, in the LAgs-par bIad-po rin-po-t!hei gter by Sa-skya pa~q i ta. wo skyes rgya/-po' bskos-pa -yis, Nkhor sdug ran yan bsad des grogs "It is a well
known story that the EVIL A1TENDANTS were tormented by the fox they had

made the ir king and ll-lEY TIlEMSELVEstlll OSE SAME ONES kilkd him," blun-po
rafi-daii mtJul/I-pa.r dga "A FOOL is pleased by one who is like lIlMSELF."

This limitat ion may be simply to the immediately preceding nominal itselffor example, again from Sa-skya pal)l!ita, rla -Ia rgyan-du byas-pa de, bdag-po iiidJIJ m;mdussam " Is nOI what is done as an ornament 10 Ihe ho rse becoming to the MASTER mMSELF?" 7$al-po iiiflkyis ma-brrsis'lla, thamsdad Ip.s-paan bkur mi'Ng)'ur "If he is not so accounted by the lUNG IilMSEl.I', even o ne who is omniscient gets no respect," mkhas-pa ruii-gis Sf1}vd Ic.~-ky~ blunpo grugs-poi rdles-su Nbruii "The WISE TIIEM SELVES know how 10 act, but the foolis h follow what they hear." The difference between the two renexives seems to be this: the renexive iiUl occurs with nominals denoting-any type of e ntity- thus both, say, '1.O'ul.po nUl "that same king, the king himself' and'dus de nUl "that same time"; but the renexive ran occurs only with nominals denoting animate entities-thus rgyal. po rail "'hat same king, the king himself' but not '!dw de roii. Whether for that reason or not, it also seems to be the case that the reOexive ran is much more likely Ihan Ilid to be found in headless constructions.::2
10 rorms $pct:in(;!.lly .... illl Ihe adverb p;!.rtielc, bUI ap('"IrcRl ly can include othe r p3r1ieip<lnl rnlC$ runnioni ng scmantically to t~prw 1!'Ie manner or extenl of the event-thus, rOr el\.3mple, NUS "be: able"' dlj,"lIsk)u "10 Ihe uteRI one is able. tIowever o ne ean."

mo /h-/w "Ihal wome lama," mar-po ur-ba dr _ lui "Ihat S<l me ORC nameo.l

~1 The same spification is oceasionall)' malic .... ilh the formative /w "SAME." as in blo Mar-pa." IIMJ'/w

"the ume teac hing," 22 The derived form ranilUi "Cl" ESELI''' occurs, as (ar as I ean lell, eJlelusivcly in $uch headla$ ('.OlISlruclions. The form is nOI a nominal-we do nol lind, for eumple, '!roll-nUi

PHRASES

219

Such headless constructions with raii are found where the head of the reflexive is recoverable as referring to people in general, or to the addressee -thus. from Sa-skya pa04ita, raii.giJ nan-spyod mo-byas;na. b~byin-gyis kyaii smod minw "If ONE does not do bad things ONESElF, even the King of the Gods cannot slander one," raii-/Q blo-gros mi-kum-na, blo-lIMn glan1o lqr-par dris "If YOU do not YOURSElF have understanding, thoroughly question another who is wise," glan"9u tJuiizad gtsapai ISM. raii/Q bsam-pa IIi Nbyung soms "Think of the thoughts which arise in YOURSElF when another has harmed you even a little," ron-gis legspar .fa-no yan, bya-ba thanu-tJad gros-kyis sgrubs "Even though YOU YOURSElF know it well, accomplish all your deeds with counse~" raii-Ia dgospai bstan-btfos-mams, ;Umo re-Ia tshig"i zuiis "Each day learn one line from the treatises that are useful to YOURSELF," raijgi yontan letS gnaspa. skye-bo dIlm.pai IP1uhanifid yin ''To abide well in ONE'S OWN vinues is the sign of a holy person," bs/w rrHu Icho-bo draijno Its, raii1a bstodpa.s tIilig phan "What's the use of praising ONESELF, saying ' I a m honest,' after one has been fooled?" We also find such headless constructions in reflexive adnominal possessives, where the head of the reflexive; is recoverable from the preceding text-for example,in the Pad-rna thaii-rig. Ml des RAR.gi mo yin-par rig "The MAN perceived that it was illS OWN mother," in the Tibetan translation of the M4zoiisbhul Ia bya-ba; milo. tlHuR-1l,4 de-' RARgi lw1a tIhags "That WIfE

de-and we QD probably consider II a Specialized reOedYe IMt OCCUB in4ependently of a modll\cd DOmIru.L Note the followin& c:xampk::l from. Sa4kya p"94ila-~-bd pItyi__ bII-bd-yi, twr~ mJl.1fid let-po ...... N(SludylDI) is lite ONESELf" acuptlnl wullb wllidl is ttltl'\lStcd for a future lite,w don mlI.&"'b-pai bbuI.po "Po raII-liid "'flIP-it IClIli-bD yod "Some foob who ba\'C DOl aa:omplisbed their aim clKlte THEMSELVES and die," ~DII-lD 1uJ-/HU mit yo4 .tyGA, raII.llid IuJ'M me1oII dJOI MEYCD one who has eyes to see Ollie" needs mirror if lie is to see HIMSElF," p." dgrata ".00 .>God' 1Id, rd-liid )Ql-IM JdM-par b}'Il M lf)'Ou wisb 10 barm an enemy,)'OIl should acquire 'lllIue Y OURSELF,"
/NI./OfI lMg-mil dgra-boi Wd kNims /WI-m4IrU-daI! ,ramIiDII-daI! rip-rgyud 1iDII-daI! Jpyod.&m-rJUUfU mtI-spel-lKJrJDIt mIt-/fid ~I

The remainder of l debt, kfloYCr ellCmies,

bad laws, bad DeWS. a bad family, .ad bad OOnclllCl

ThlEMSE1.VES increase., with DO one Incrusin& :hem..

220

TilE Cu.sSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAOE

is in love with HER OWN tody," and, in the Legs-par bIDd-po rin-ptrdhei gte, by Sa-skya paQQita, MKHAS-PA-S byo-ba IIi byed kyon, RAR-gi brod-nams brtags-te bya "TilE WISE should do what deeds Ihey do with regard to THEIR OWN merit," MKHAS'PA RAR-gi yul-bas kyan, yuJ-klwms glan-du mLfhod-pa thob "The WISE gel more respect in other countries than in lltElR OWN land," GtuR-RAN gtan-gyi bka-drin-las, byuii-ba RAR-gi tJhe-bar bsgom "THE OBllJse view what

comes about Ihrough Ihe grace of others as 1llEIR OWN grealness.'U

3.1.1.1.2. QUANTIFIERS

A nominal-and its optional delimiters-may be followed by up to four QUAN-nflERS, which limit its reference by specifying 1I0W MANY entities the nominal head refers 10.1A These quantifiers are NUMERAlS, which specify the ~Iumber of enlilies referred to in the sel denoted by the nominal; PLURALS, which

II Such oollocalions or rllii "selr and gillll "other" are quite oommon both in Buddhist philoso phy and in Tibeta n writing generally: nOle, for example, Sanskrit nraJak4(11)(l/ parololqaf.l/l Tibelan roii _ gi muhon ,flidlgIan -g,; mIJMn-1fid "own<haracteristic/other-characle ristie," Sa nskrit svafllnrrafpor(l/anfTtJ Tibetan rf1il4baJlIg!Ml4/Jaii "own _power.lOtber_power," Sanskrit svapolqa/ptJrrlpolqa Tibetan rllii -gi phyopfgtall -fji phyogs "own oontenlion/Olber'S 1l1 ma .grub.palglan -Ia ma grubconlenl ion," Sa nskril SVlIIO '$iddha/an)'OlarlJ$iditha Tibetan rail _ pn "not prove n for oneself/not prove n for OIhe~, " No te the fo llowing ve rses from Sa-skya pa1)qita, firsl conlrasting rail and gfall_s!cyrs_ mlJhog raii _gl- $kyoII -la 1/(1, skyt -bo nan -po gfall-licyon uhol '''The noble look upon their own faullS; llie wicked s k o Ullhe faullS o the~." rail-dlN:lli thoms-lJtJd bdtblNlt, gflln-dbailthamsIJ,uJ sdug-bsiial yin " Everyone is happy who has power over himself; everyone sufJe~ who is in Ihe rower of Olhers," raii -don NbtJd-pas sgrub lidod-na, dt-yis tJaii-fKX FMI-don sgrub " If

or

onc wishes to strive and th us accompl is h o ne's aims, one sho uld first ao;:omplish the aims of 0 1hers"; and Ihc n groupin g raii and p an togelher-blun-po /Vbyof'-bar ~-UM)'Ilii, m odpa k!;a-nu) raii-gIall blUg " A foo l, even when he has become rich, consumes himself and OIh<: Tli wit h nmilin g bll t qua rrels," dam ,po duJ-bQ.J ran -pall sk)'o ii, iian -po rt1l.s-pas ran -pan sdul: "TlIe holy protCC t Ihermclvcs and olhen wilh soflness: the wicked lorment tbemsclvai and OI hers ""'Ih ha!dllcs.,," 1;'las'min ha-rJaii drllli -po-yaii. rail -pml sfli.r/(.a /Nll1g-pa yod "1110 u8h lie be q ui le upright , in Ihe wrong circumstances he will des troy both hirnKlf ind o thers,"
Z-l Since lh.,sc q uantifie rs occur after ;'I dele rminer. we can distinguish them fro m $lIcll fjuant l{yiilf, ,..,1),IJ'CflVt'$ as mail-po "ma ny; du-ma "several," I<'8ll ''some,' ma-/us -pn ''wilho ut nccp tio,," w:tir h a rc f(lund before a deter millel- for ex.amplc, mi mail-po dt "those many I1l<,: n," MiI -"''' ",,,_/us_po N<1i "ev<:1)' single one of th ese lam a~."

PHJV.SES

221

specify whether there is more than one entity referred to in the set denoted
by the nominal; TOTALIZERS, which specify the relation of the entities denoted

to some reference size or number; and SELF.CfORS, which 5{Kcify the range of entities referred to in the set denoted by the nominal. Where quantifiers occur, they occur in the order NUMERAL-PlURAL-TOTALIZER-SELECrOk; and, as a general rule, each of these four slots can be filled by only onc member
at a time.:U

3.1.1.1.2.1. NUMERALS

Immediately following the delimiters-and before any further quantifiersthere may occur a NUMERAL. such as gtJig "onc," gllis "two," gsum "three," and so on, which specifies the NUMBER of entities in the set designated by the nominal-thus mi gnis "two men," mi d~ gnu "those two men," mi phagi /ria "the five men over there.,,}4

3.1.1.1.2.1.1. From ODt to Ilintly-Diot

The Tibetan ltumerals are as follows-gtJig "one," gnu "two," g:rum "three," bI; "four," "Ina "five," drug "six," bdun "seven," b'8)lad "eight," dgu "nine," btJu. "ten," The numbers from eleven to nineteen are formed on the pauern TEN-ONE, TEN-NO, and so on-thus bIIu-gt!ig "eleven," btJu-gnis "twelve," bl!u-gsum "thirteen," bLfu-bii "fourteen," btJo;fiia "fifteen," bl!u-drug "sixteen," btJu-

lS Remember 11\.1.[ quantifien; Ire omONAI.. oonsli[\lents of I nomina] phrase: unlike EA&Jisb, eLusial Tibetan marks nominal phrases for quan tity only when there is good reason to do so. In English 'We must s.ay either hi",,, o r lamas, either sinl-ular o r plural; in Tibetan the tonn b4NI'Ul is simply UNtMRKED for quantity, and thus may mean eilher " lama" o r ~lamas"-pre5\1mably made dur from tile oonto.l. A phrase: $\ldl 11$ bl",,,a-dlig "MOII. ntAH ONE lam&/lamas"-wbieh is MARkEO tor qllan tity-will be used o nly when 511eh spedlll' information is tell 10 be necesury for undentand in&-

u. An o.ceptionlo Ihe: word order rule (:81 occasionally be found where I nume ral is pan of a oommon co!JocaIKn" and is fell 10 be pari of the nominal itseJr, rather Ihan I specifici of the nomilUll-for example. pMrot phyin.p4 dIllg i'di ~ lheK Six Perfections" as opposed 10 pMrot p/1yU1_p4 1Idi drvg "theK six pc:rfeaions," rgytJ/.po bti tk "those FO\lr Kings" as opposed 10 '1J'GI.po tk IJti "thO$( four kin"."

222

THE CLASSICAl. TIBETAN l...ANQUAGE

bdun "seventeen." blIo-brgyad "eighteen," bl!u-dgu "nineteen.,,:n

Multiples of ten from twenty to ninety are formed on the pattern nvo-TEN,
TIIREE-TEN, and so on-thus iii-Iu "twenty," sum-tIu "thirty," bfibtJu "forty," liia-bLfu "fifty," drug-du "sixty," fHfun-tJu "seventy," brgyad-tJu "eighty," dgu-

btlu "nincty.,,211
The numbers from twenty to ninety-nine regularly use the syllable -nsQ to separate tens from uniu-for example, iii-Iu-rtsa gtJig "twenty...Qne," iii-Iu-ma gtlis "twenty-two." iii-Iu-nsa gsum "twenty-three," sum-tIu-rtsa bli "thirty(our," bdun-tIu-rtsa ma "seventy-five." dgu-btIu-rrsa dgu "ninety-nine."

3.1.1.1.1.1.1. Clipped Dumerals Quite often the numerals from twenty-one to ninety-nine are found in peculiarly CLIPPED forms. We find ner < iiilu-nsa, and thw iier-gtJig "twenty-one," ner.gtl" "twenty-two," ncr-gsum "twenty-three"; so < sum-durtsa, and thus so-gtJig "thirty-one." sO-gliis "thirty-two," so-gsum "thirty-th!ee"; It! < bti-bLfu-ltSa, and thus It!-gtJig "forty-one"; no < liia-btIu-nsa, and thw iia-gtJig "fifty-one"; rt! < drug-tIu -rtsa, and thus re-gtJig "sixty-one"; don < bdun-tIu-rtsa, and thw don-gtJig "seventy-one"; gya < brgyad-tIu-rtsa, and thus gyu-gtJig "eighty-one"; and go < dgu-btIu-rtsa, and thw go-bdun "ninetyseven," go-brgyad "ninety-eighl," go-dgu "ninety-nine." These clipped numerals are invariably the rorms used in numbering the rolios or a Tibetan book. Such clipped numerals are also round, in classical texts influenced by Middle Tibetan, instead or -rtsa to separate tens rrom units-ror example, swn-tIu-so bdull instead or swn-tIu-/'UQ bdun "thirty-seven," bli-bt.fu-Ie drug instead of btibtIu-rtsa drug "forty-six," ma-btIu-iia liia instead of tno-btIu-nsa tno "fiftyV NOlc lhal lhe HIGH 8AO: vowel II of ~t1u "tCII" becomes tile LOW BACK vowel 0 o( blJo. when il is followed by the LOW BACK wwcl Q of the lIumcnll /ftQ "ftye" and brgyod cight." This chance b tbe only lonauc HEIGHT assimilation I bow of Ullhe IanJIUIgc..

211 II is remarUble 10 find ,fj.Ju "!wenl)'" instead of the apcctcd "IfJir-kJw, and nun-t1u "thirty" instead of tbe apcctcd -,pum-btJu. Funhcr, the preinitlal b. of bIJu "teD" b ckletcd aftcr prcoecllnl cIo5cd syllables bul rctained al'lcr preudilll Opel syllablcs-for cumple.WItH!" " (ony" but dfug-dv "sIny" instead of ~gbtJu.. This foreshadows similar dulnp throulhoul tbe k:ziooll III several New TIbetan dbJect.s; il is illtcreslilll thai these pbollOIolial c .... np bepn In tbe nllmber systcm beforc $preadinl cl5cwhcre.

223
five," drng-I!u-re bti instead of drng-/Ju-nsa bIi "sixty-four," bdUfItiu4011 gsum instead of bdwHJu-nsa gsum "se\'cnty-thn:e," brgyad-I!u-gya giiu instead of brgyad-t!u-rtsa giiir "eighty-two," dgu-btJu-go gtiig instead of dgu-bLfu -rtSQ gtlig "ninety-one." Only the twenties are exceptions: we find only ni-Iu-nsa and not ?,jj!u-ner. This usage is now standard in several New Tibetan
dialects. 29

3.1.1.1.2.1.3. Numerals as "Iedors

In some archaic manuscripts from Central Asia, the numeral dgu "nine" is used as a selector in the sense of "MANY" or "ALL" (for example, gnod-dgu "all harms," Iha-dgu "the many goos," dgra-dgu "all enemies"), a sense preserved in later texts in the use of.Jgu "A1.L" as a nominaiizer, as in Ndoddgu "all that one desires." In the same texts we also find tlie "numeral gsum "three" used as a selector in the sense of ""I.L" or "EVERY" both with common nouns (for example, lim-sum "every day," g_yan-sum "all good fortune") and with place names (for example, gtG/i-sum "all of Gtan," rgyalsum "the whole of Rgyal,"), a sense preserved in such seteotyped phrases of the later texts as miioll-sum "wholly manifest" and phun-sum "completely perfect." In Ihese laler texts too the numaal Nbum "hundred thousand" takes on the sense previously held by dgu " nine," and we find expressions such as gswi-Nbum "hundr:ed thousand sayings'" the complete works" and mgur-Nbum " hundred Ihousand songs ..... the comrle1e poems."

3.U.I.2.1.4. -Large numbers

The Tibetans inherited from the Indians not only their decimal system-which passed through Arab intermedia ries to Europe as well-but also a love of very large numbers and specific names for mllOY of them. Thus we find the

29 For cumplc. we find New Tibetan (Lhasa) SlIm/jll S:lSom (loHlilkb) SlImtlll S<1Jllm <Jllm./lIIJo pilI?! > "thirtylhroe." (Lllasa) 011" CNicu (Lallakll) 'XY'l"Ju gyogu <brgyod-l1l1IO"l dgu > "cightynine." Thll~. too. we find New Tibcliln (Lhasa) !fiJ" fJQIcsom (Ladakb) !filII rfSQks"m <!fiJ"rfSfJ p .. m > "twcnty. tllrcc" bllt not (Lllasa) Uipdll fJllSOtn (Ladilkh) ?lib,l" rfSfJks"m <blibd" rfSll p"m> "rortythree."
JO II li as plillisibly been sugC$\cd th,lI the Ind ia n love of large numbers oorrclalC$ wilh a n intense dislike for fractions: the relill ion! of largescale cycles such as planetary align.

224

TilE CI.A$SICAL TJI)ETAN lANOUAGE

the following names for the numbers from one hundred to one quintilJionbrgya "100." ston "1,000," khri "10,000," Nbum "100,000," sa-ya "1,000,000,"

bye-ba "10,000,000," duiiphyur"lOO,OOO,OOO," ther-Nbum "1,000,000,000," therNbum dilen-po "10,000,000,000," khrog.klm'g "100,000,000,000," khrag.kJuig tIhett-po " 1,000,000,000,000," rabbkram "10,000,000,000,000," rabbkram
Lfhen-po

"100,000,000,000,000," gtams ~ 1,000,000,000,000,000," gtams I!hen.po "10,000,000,000,000,000," dkrigs "100,000,000;000,000,000." and dlaigs l!hen.po "1,000,000,000,000,000,000." It should come as no surprise that these names
arc not used with complete consistency. Multiples of these larger numbers arc formed, like the multiples of ten, on the pattern ONE-HUNDRED, rwo-TIIOUSAND, nIREE-TEN-TI-lOUSAND. and so on -thus tJllig-b'l!:Yo or brgya "one hundred," ;jjbrgya "two hundred," sum.brgya

" three hundred," btibrgyu "four hundred," liia-brgya "five hundred"; tIlligsian or stem "one thousand," iii-stan "two thousand," sum-stan "three thousand," btj-sloii "four thousand," Ina-ston "five thousand"; tJhig-khri or khri "ten thousand," iii-khri "twenty thousand," brgyad-klm' "eighty thousand," dgu-khri "ninety thousand." Note the reduced forms tJhigfor gtIig "one," iii for gnu "two," and sum for gsum "three"; the other numerals are prerlXed in their full forms . Combinations of these numerals are straightforward if certain principles are borne in mind, The numbers from one to nineteen form a single unit over against those fom twenty to ninety-nine, An omitted number slot-that is, a zero-is optionally but frequently filled with the place marker -dan, except for the last empty slot: thus we find, for example, iii-bQfYa-daii gi'iis "two hundred and two" and btjston-daii /iia-btIu "four thousand and fifty" but bdun-b'8ya dgu -btIu "seven hundred ninety,,,)1 And a number such as "twenty-two thousand" is in Tibetan iiikliri iii-stan "two ten-thousands two thousands" rathe r than, as in English, ?ii j-Iu r1$a Kllis slOn_ Thus note the following-giiis "2," btJubli "14," dgu-btJu-r1$a bfi "(9 x 10) + 4 '" 94," brgya-D1R gtJig "(I x 100) + (0 X 10) + 1 '" 101," iij-brg}'Q bdun-tIu "(2 X 100) + (7 X 10) ... 0 '"

menu. woliid be: CJ:pr~ nOt as II proportion !lut rat her a5 the length of time required for the cycle 10 reac h its ~ta rtin& point a nd. say. the alignment to recur. l t In thi s regard nOle the atypical adjective rham 'fHl"full, round, ev.: n" (comp<ln: GTAM LTAM "be: rull~) which not on ly oecun afler numera~ bul occun exclusively aft er numerals-Jnd o nly nume rals Ihat are .mult iples o f len; thus we find, ror example, bdw /n(lm -pa "len:' 'grad/lw rluJm pa "a round eighty," brto'a 11I(lm-pa "a full hundred,"

PIlRA'>ES

225

270," dgu-brgya dgu-b/Iu-nsa drug "(9 X 1(0) + (9 x 10) + 6 .. 996," bti-stoii lii-brgya-OA.Fl brIo-Ilia "(4 x 1,000) + (2 X 1(0) + (0 X 10) + 15 ;; 4,215," drug-ston bdul1-brgyo dgu-btIu "(6 X 1,000) + (7 X 1(0) + (9 X 10) + 0 '" 6,790," dgtHtoii ni-brgya "(9 X 1,(00) + (2 X 1(0) + (0 X 10) + 0 "" 9,200," dgu-ston dgu-brgya dgu-b/Iu-rtsa bdun "(9 X 1,000) + (9 X 100) + (9 X 10) + 7 9,997," iii-kltri iii-ston bdUll-brgya dgu-bLIu "(2 X 10.000) + (2 X 1,000) + (7 X 100) + (9 X 10) + 0 '" 22,790," sum-Ichri-DAiJ cbug-brgya bciunt/u-nsa gtIig "(3 X 10,em) + (0 X 1,000) + (6 X 1(0) + (7 X 10) + 1 30,671," sumkhri bli-stoii-DAFl bLIu-gliis "(3 X 10,000) + (4 X 1,000) + (0 X 100) + (0 X 10)

12"" 34,012_"

3.1.1.1.2.1.5. Fractions

Tibetan fractions are constructed regularly with the formative -Llha "part," related to tJIJa "pan, portion, share." Thus we find gsum-tJha "third part," bli-tJha "fourth part," so-piu-/Iha "thirty-second part," btXYa-/Iha "hundredth part," stOtI-/Iha "thousandth part." Such resulting nouns may in tum be quantified by a numeral-thus gsum-t1ha gtJig "one third," gsum-lJha gnu "two thirds," bli-tIlla gsum "three fourths," brgyad-tJ/la liia "five eighths," brgya-tIha go-dgu "ninety-nine hundredths." The only fraction not regularly formed by this process is phyed "half." An interesting locution should here be noted_ On the one hand we find, expectedly, such combinations a5 gsum-daii phyed "three and a half," but, on the other hand, we find. with the fraction preceding the integer, such combinations as pllyed-daii brgyad "with a half makes eight - seven and a half." We can here mention the interesting expression ya-gt!ig "ONE OF lWO TIIINGS TItAT GO TOGETIIER IN A PAlR"-for eKample, fham ya-gtIig "one of a pair of boou, an odd boot." The expression is o ld in Tibetan; in an archaic manuscript -preserved in Central Asia we find fa -fa Islllg bdel/-po d~ IhOS-l1a yan, ma-ba ya-gtIig-tu Illos-l1a, ma-ba ya-gtIig-lu phyun "Even if someone heard that true word, it went in one ear and o ut the other." Similarly, in the fad-ma Ihan-yig we read mig ya-g/jig lon-ba "blind in one eye"; in the Tibetan translation of the Chinese MdzallS-bfuli tes-bya-bai mdo we find fagpo ya-gtIig-tu gs~r rhogs, lag-po ya-gt/ig-tu bu-mo khrid "'n one hand he held the gold, with the other hand he led his daughter."

226

Til E CI.ASSICAL TmETAN LANGUAG F.

3.1.1.1.2.1.6. Collectivt nfluns and adjectives

Tht': rormative -plvog "" SET OF" produces nouns from numerals-thus bLfu "ten" btJu.pllrag "decad," brgya "hundred" brgya.pllrag "centad," ston

"thousand" ston-phrag "chiliad," bdun "seven" bdun-pllrag 'week." Such nouns may (hernsc\vC$ be quantiried by a numeral-thus brgya-pllrag gtJig "one centad ..... 100," brgya-phrag K'iis "two centads ..... 200," brgya-phrag btl "ten centads ..... 1,000," ston-phrag blibtJu "rorty chiliads ..... 40,000." While a number such as ijjkhri ij;ston "22,000" cannot be expressed as ?iiergiiis ston,

we might well find such an expn:ssion as slOii-phrag ner-giiis "twenty-two chiliads ..... 22,000."
Such quantified collective nouns are sometimes used much as we usc: multiplication-for example, liia-btJu-phrag bdwl "seven fifties -0. 7 X 50," bflu-drog-phrag 'lj-Ju -rrsa dgu "twenty-nine sixteens ... 29 X 16." More 'often, however, they are used simply as elliptical expressions for numbers in common use-thus dgu-pllrag I:iiis " two nines ..... )8," btIu-gliis-phrag gsum " three dozen .... 36." In addition, the formative -po (and, lor the numerals one through three, -ka) produces collective adjectives from numerals-thus /plis,po-/plif-ka "the two. both," gsumpo-gsumka " the three, all three," bdull-po " the seven," dgu -po "the nine."

3.1.1.1.2.1.7.0nlinal$ Ordinal numbers are produced from numerals by the formative -po, as in
: Ii is-pa "second,"gsum-po "third," b[i-pa " fourth," l1er-gsum -pa "twenty-third," b'KYa-pa "hundredth." The only o rdinal nO! formed regularly by this process is daii .po " first."

3.1.1.1.2.1.8. Distributives The word n is sometimes found as a substitute (or gtlig "o ne"-for example, kllyed-/a bu re dgos " You need a son," 1011 re 1011 8'lis "one or two times," 1 0 re fso m "just one year," roSgo.f rkyQl1 re "o ne lone colton robe." More inte resti ngly, however, the: word functions as a SELECfOR, after numerals only,

227
with the distnbutive meaning "each"-for example, mi liia-lo lug tna "The fIVe men have: five sheep each.'.ll
ff!

yod

The distributive clCpression "gtJig r f! is invariably reduced 10 ff! "one each," 8J in mj liia-lo lug fe yod ''The five men have one sheep each" (and not ?m; 1iiIl-1o Jug gtJig rr yod). as opposed, say. to mi liIo-lo lug gtJig yod "The five men have one sheep collectively." Similarly, OOIC: such palterRS as mi Ina re-/o lug n yod "Each five men have one sheep," mi fela Jug fiUJ re yod "Each man has ~ sheep," mi re-ItJ lug re yod "Each man has one sheep" (and not ?m; rt-lQ lug gtJig yod). Thus too we: find such sentences as mi res lug liia re bsad "Each man hUed five five sheep" and "in n-Ia lug rf! gsod "He: kills a sheep each day,"

In addition, beginning with the earliest archaic tcxts, we: find distributives exprcssed by reduplication of the numeral-for example, in an administrative memorandum from a Central Asian garrison commander, li-tJen-monu kyon
log-Jog rug re ItJog btJu-btJui

than-ru

rgyob tJhod-gyis tJhod-por gtJado "Also,

the officers will punish them by flogging at a rale of ten lashes for each roll of paper,'.3l Hence in the later classical texu as well we encounter such distnoutive patterns as mi re-la lug lna fijQ yod "Each man has five sheep,"

:n The disuibutive selector Tr "EACH should be distinguishw (rom the't < "'rtS in the stercotype4 Clpressioa Trfig ~a liule while; ono: upon a time." In the archaic manuscripts (rom Central Asll, this laller Clpressioll Ippea n 10 be wrinen C01l$istently as Trllg. iodialtin, an orilin In an earlier fIOunselector col1()Q1fion "rts.!ig "one turn, one: lime, some time."1k un4erlying noun ru "time, tum, reby" is round, (or eumple, in an administrative IACaIOraDdum frOI!l .11 oais prrison commanckr, saying tki rtslo N/ug .Mdjnulr1u ~b bWr-tli I'I)i-IVII " It II not proper to tend bKk Ibc$e coats .nd sheep in lurn"; o r, in the nbc...." translation or the Chinese Mdl* ,WlII tts byaba; wrdo, da fItd bytd.pai rtJla /lab "'NOW'it he rome 10 be our tum 10 an" From there it is a shon step to, ror eumple, ,tlig rt~ldwr-N mdID dgu iii ~-1141 babslt "At one: time, one time, the snow bad rallen rro. lhe.ty lIiDe reet deep," found in a mythk: tat rrom the caves ~r Tun.huang: or, in uotbet telliftJ tile stoty or two mythical borlQ, da rt.Jig1ta rill ">'d'"'" rlIorbA7a!.dDII .t:hItJ-nM nnd-4Gr ,iJ.1cyU, naskad iii gMrrsMr, nnd.,kad iii u/ln.u/ltr Ito "N"," at otIe WAc die. )'Oullger brotber RkyillI.roll rr.og.btrl aM Kbug.ron IllUIn.4ar bolh saki, 1ft bone lanpagc. uII6-uh6, III need language, u~UIttr."
M

'c:n,

13

Paper - . or coune, I valuable IXImlOOdir:y on the Gentfll Aslin frolliler. 1M I

M

umber of

lQtak)rllIda Ire ~tcd to the 1ubjea. This ten, ill PIn. describes whli. will IIIppea 10 I JIUr.ptl ~quanemwtM wOO does IIOt fin bls piper qllOta. The rcduplk:atioa la Iof-JDf "pipet" Is Icdca):aDd not d"trib~tive 'The term /i./kA "offtoer Ippartntly a Middle Chi_ toinword, from Iyiywen ".,...cfnmellt offldal" or I 5imibr term.
"

228

THE ~ICAL TiBETAN LANGUAGE

instead of mi re-Ia lug Ina re yod. Sometimes the distributive re is itself reduplicated, as in the proverb mi re-re-/a bsam-pa n-re yod "Each man has his own thoughtffhere is no accounting fo r taste."

3.1.1.1.2.1.9. Weizbts and measures

Various weights and measures are found mentioned in the classical leXU. Many of these seem relativeJy informal-thus, do "8 load of --," sgam "8 box of --," kila "s piece of _;.34 Nbo "a basket of --." Other terms are apparently pari of measure systems: thus for I.ENGTII we find sorme "inch," mlilD "span," khru "cubit," Ndom "fathom"; for VOLUME we find bre "measure," kiwi "bushel/load = 20 bre"; for WEIGIIT we find slror-ma "one point on the steelyard," 10 "d ram = iO sknr-ma," sran "ounce ,. 1010. "J,5 Weights and measures arc defined syn tactically by occurrence not only with

gtJig "one" and gllis "two" but also orten with gan "a full --'" and do "a double --," as in mtho gan "one span," bre do "two measures," Ichru gan "a full cubit," sran do "a double ounce." Numerals greater than two appear in
regular form-thus gser gtoiis-pa gaii "a tubful or gold" but gser to sum-brgya "three hundred drams of go ld."

)4 In modern Tibetan, a kJrQ il; a $(juar<: of clo lh-Qf, put anolh<:f way, piece of cloth IS long IS that particular roll o f cloth is wide.

)S Money in Tibetan is o[t<:n e~prcsse4 as weights of sil\l<:f. The term for Mooin" or money genefally il;doil,u-doiifJh~-doii -ru~ < Middle Chinese -dJwllfJi. The Jeast ",,!\&able ooin in use was traditionally the ooppc:r kJta, which was wonh, in terms of silver, wei&ht o f abollt two and a h.M sJwrma. Thus IWO IchQ were equivalent 10 sJw,-nut /lUi " rive pllnu o n the steelyald," three JchD 10 s/w,nw phytdbrgyad "seven and a hair points," and four kJuJ to sluJr.mQ bt!u "I<:n points," which was the same as one fo "dram" or one-tenth dAul'lrali "silver :!"ra/i
H

Silo: kJrQ were equivalent to o ne (/ji,,/.lO'i doil -,~ "silver ruin" or !a'!lkll-diiuJ!a'!l < Sanskrit {Iliilwka (oomp.te Hindi taiigiJ) "stamped si ll'C"f coin." r""Orty /cha, of COline, equalled ten to o r o ne srllii of si lver. Firty silvcr srQ1! were the equivalent of a bar of silver buliioD, weichin, .haul fo ut pounds, widely used fo r nad illg ill Central Asia, and variously called rdi).1S1uJd "stonc. wdght." ffu""igma "horse. hOOf," ~nd ~m-bu "KlIlhmandu."

PHRASES

229
3.1.1.1.2.1.10. Pagination

In Tibetan books, VOLUME numbers are often expressed by letters in Tibetan alphabetical order (the equivalenl of our formalized Roman numerals for the same purpose )-thus leo =: I, Jc),a =: 2, ga :: 3, and so on through 7a :: 30; then lei through 7i :: 31 through 60, ku through 7u .= 61 through 90, and so on through 10 "" 150. Even larger numbers may be expressed using long vowels, written with subscript a-l1hun-thus Icii through 7iI :c 151 through ISO, kf through 7f "" 181 through 210, and so on through tii == 300.36 These numerals can be made into ordinals by suffIXing the formative -pathus luJ.pa "the Icn rA (volume) ... Volume I," Iei-pa "the ki dt (volume) ... Volume XXXI." These ordinals are often found with locus or adverb particles in footnotes, indices, and catalogues-for example, na-pa-Ia "in the norA ... in Volume IV," 7i-par "in the 7i llt ... in Volume LX." numbers are always written out and are invariably clipped. Each folio in a book is paginated separately, usuaUy along the left-hand margin of the recto; the left-hand margin of the vellO often contains the short title of the text. Where a distinction is made between sides of a folio, the reclO is called gon-ma "upper" and the veno is called ogma "lower"-thus re.gtJig gon.ma "folio 61a," sum-brgya gO-MUll og-ma "folio 397b"-or sometimes mtiun "front" and rgyab "back," respectively.
PAGE

Occasionally folios are paginated in the margin with volume number as wellfor example,ga don-drug "Volume III folio 76," klla gya-sum gon .ma "Volume II folio 83a." Where several independemly paginated texts have been collected into a single volume (for example, in a uniform edition of several different rituals for a particular deity), both volume and text may be given alongside the folio number-thus tu dJa iier-gtIig "Volume IX Work VII folio 21," tIa ua btJobrgyad "Volume V Work XVII folio 18." The final folio of a text is often marked by the word byOll "finished" after the folio number; where a text is only one folio long, that folio is sometimes paginated as gtJigpuo "solitary," but more oCten as bse-ru "rhinocerous," an animal that traditionally wanders alone.
)6 There are var~nts on this scheme_for example, ICJJ ... I. lei _ 2, leu _ 3, U _ 4, Iw - 5. kJia .. 6, and so on. Sometimes. Ilso. volume$ ilrc numbered by the use of stock phrases-thus, for eumple. 0'fI .. 1. /J~ _ 2. hfirra ... 3; or iii '" I, lIn .. 2; or t .. 1, warra ,.,

2,mQ -3,,..,. 4;and$O o n.

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TilE CLASSICAL. TmETAN lANGUAGE

3.1.1.1.2.2. PLURALS

The older PLURAl..s include -dag (perhaps the most common quantifier in the archaic Central Asian manuscripts), -1s11O (in the most ancient materials uhogs-NtShogs "mullitude"),l' and -dag (only after personal determiners even in the oldest texIs). All these plurals may be glossed, simply, as "MORE '11 1AN ONEil-thus, for example, bla-mo-dag "lamas," tshoii-pa-tsho "merchants," ned-tIag "we.,,)8 Fairly frequent in the Central Asian manuscriptsand completely absent in this usage in Ihe later material-is the plural -Qt!og--l!llOg; we find, for example, myw-tJog "people," srin.-no-tIhog "demons," IIloo-tJhog "gods," nam-ti-go-/Jog "Nam-tig folk,"l')

In the course of lime, these older plurals fell inio disuse, 10 be largely replaced by the newer SI::LECWR -mams. After the ninth century, the plural -dag is found, where it is used at all, primarily after numerals and determiners, sometimes in the collocation -dagmanu. Otherwise it is found only to translate the Sanskrit dual number and vocative plural, a specialization that is the mark of its demise. The plural -!slio similarly occurs, with decreasing frequency, primarily after determiners and numerals of 100,000 or larger; -dug continues to appear sporadically, Slill exclusively after personal determiners.

J.I .I.I .2.3. TOTALIZERS

TOTAU7.ERS

3re terms of extent that occur after a plural and before a selector-kllO-110 '" no more thnn," stied "no less than," LSam "as much as," srid "as long as." As these glosses indicate, these four totalizers compare the specified nominal to some stated or implied reference size or number. The totalizer kilO-lUI specifics the nominal as limited in quantity to that reference,
)1 For example. lus-.vtshcw "bodies," daJ}lshogs ''wishC5.~ NOie the many earty variati.ons in wh;o.t Ct)mt:!i la ter 10 he $tanoJa rdized as Ill-sagS'pa Mand so fonh"_fof uample, ID-JuopInshm'/.os-llIj.hSQ/,'S.pa -lus/.IlJI:S-whith, again, seem related to /Shogs -/ilshogs Mmultitu4c:."
)II

I.Iho-ii~d, 'J(lg '~";

NUle that 1111 of thCllC plurals can occur after personal dete:rminef$, as in ikd-4Dg-nnJ. it is just that .flllg OCCU[1 ONLY after personal determinef$.

:w Here -0 seems to he the same as the determiner Q discu55ed above; and /JOS-tJhog may be: related either to .rlag on th e one hand (compare the forms o-Ilag-w-Ilag ''"we,'' also di5CUS.'led above). or to IJhogS-MShogl "multitude" on che: other.

PHRASES

231

which may, of course, be either one or more than one-thussons4X)'4J JehO-IIO "the Buddha alone," sluld-tJig kho-na "no mort'. than a moment," sdig-pa Jehona "only sin." In the Tibetan translation of the AbhidliannalcolobhiilYo by Villubandhu we find dei p/iyir non-mons-pai sa rJhen-po-pa ni dlUg-po f(}io-NA-r NgtUb-bo, de-dtlg kyan nag-tu non-mons-pa-tJan-gyi sems KlIQ-NA-1o Nbyuii-gi gtan-du t1Ul-yin-no "Thus, the defiled elements are shown to be JUST the six; and they always occur ONLY in defiled consciousness, and not elsewhere"; Saskya paQqita, in his Legs-par bIad-pa rin-po-tJhei gte" writes bde-spyod sdug bsiia/ KHQ-NA-i 'X)'U "The practice of pleasure is the cause of NOniiNG BUT suffering," bsad-noms KHo-NA phUll-tshogs 'XYU "Merit ALONE is the cause of perfection.'...o In contrast, the totalizer sned specifies the nominal as being at least the si%e of that reference if not more-ston siied "at least II thousand," YOIl-tan Ndi-siied "so many virtues." The totalizer (sam specifies the nominal as being just the same as-or, at least, just about the same as-the reference in siz.e or number-thus Ina /Jam "jusl five," mi Ndi tsom "this ma ny men," ri-rob tsam "the size of MOUn! Meru," yuns-Nbnt (sam "the size or a mustard seed." In the Tibetan translation ohhe Vajracchedika Prajniipiiromifii we find Sanskrit cOlU1piidikiim opi giitltiim udgmyo parebhyo de!ayet Tibetan tshig bti-pai tsltigs-su btIad-po TSAM bzuii-nos g!all-dag/a yon bIad-de "When one has grasped JUST lhis rour-line verse and taught it to others .. ."; Sa-skya paIJ4ila wriles bdog-niJ tIlie-lo phan btags-no, tJun-zad TSAM-faan Nbras-bu Nbyin "Ir one is helpul 10 a great being, it yidds its fruil even for JUST a smallihing"; and, in the biography of Mi-la ras-pa, when Mar-pa summons a magical army 10 subdue his kinsmen, they cry out mor-pa lo-tstshas dmog de .: n:.ut gon-/1DS bru-po-na "Whence could Mar-pa the Translator have summoned an army OF TIlAT SIZE?" And the totalizer SM specifies the nominal as being just the same as the rererence in length, with regard both
.0 The Tibetan JrammarUiIlS, followin& lhe Sanskrit tradition, make this distinct ion: the propositio n sallJ"l)'IU" kJw.fIQ )'OII-tan-daJI /dDt! Is a g!.lIf1./dmI f7IlII1I.gtlod "oompa ra live limitation (/III)'I1)'OglI-l?'IIIvllCcMalIr and ttlus means "The BlMldha hu virtue. and no one ebe," wbile the proposllion sllJls~ )IOf1 -IIUI-dlIft Idtm-J16 kho-NI ~ a mi1dlIn m/ll7l -gdotl "lIOlK"OmparltiYc lim ita tion (ayopvyavaccludiJr and thus melllS "The BlMldha has vinuc, and potbln, else."

NOle lOme: turtber examples (rom Si"kya pa~4ill-NNb-d'hu flli.1uu bUofP"J:)ao\ lhur-du
NblIb-ptl kJtD...Ntr IIdod

"HOWC'ier you dilm up a river, II 11111 Wlnts noillinl but 10 now

dowDwarcl," bbue_po Ibyor.pm P'-Ww yaII, nsod'!H' kho-/UU MIt-gUm bq "Ao foot, C\len wbeII be hal bca)me: rim, OOIlSUmc:s himself_tid others. with n<Xhinl bill qu.arrdst raA-don kJtD..NJ JfMIr bywt-pa. 4k-F Id-don ~ mi.srid " II is imposaible 10 KICOmpllsll one's own 11111 by plluln, one's 0W1II aim alone foremost."

232

TilE CLASSICAL TIBETAN' l...ANGUAGE

to sit.e and time, as in de srid-kyi bar-du "for so long a time."

1.1.1.1.2.4. SELEC1VRS
The SElECTORS found in the classical texu are -mams, -"rtig. thoms-dad, and Icun. Selectors, unlike plurals, do not specify simply that there is more than one entity referred to; instead, selectors spel,':ify what we can call the RANOE of entities referred to in the set denoted by the nominal, rather like English

one/a, SOTTU/mt, 41 alL

The selector -moms "SEPARATE U/'lrrs" is etymologically connected with the noun nuJm-pa "piece, part, scction, item, installment, individual,'''': and thus marks the nominal phrase as consisting of things or persons taken individually. and hence, by implication, as plural: we can compare odour mam-pa bli "four (separate) beams of light" with od-ur-mams "beams of light." mi mampo gnu "two (soru of) man" with mjmam.J "men," and Ial-zal mam-pa "the

separate dishes of a meal" with laf-zQl-mams "food/foods."

It should be borne in mind that -mams is not a plural: rdo-m1lms does not mean "rocks/more than one rock" so much as it means "rocks/pieces of rock," just as tdmu-marns means "portions of rice/grains of rice," tJhu-m1lml means "bowls of water/bodies of water," ba-mams means "head of cattle," -fog-bu-mams means "pieces of paper," and x-mams means "appropriate units of x." This reading is borne out by the archaic Central Asian manu-

~t In En&li5h we can distin,ui5h the: word SQmt in, say. Somt pwpIt art fltlltr sorisfiN [rom the word 1_(lm in, llay. Givt m~ sm bttr. II i5 thi5 latter somt whkh i5 oomparable to Tibetan selectors; the: former somt repraents the term "SOME/ANY" (note the re"te:([ question Art tvIy pwpk tl'tI' sOlisfitd?} and is expressed in Tibetan primarily by indefinite determiners. ~2 Amonlthe archaic Tibetan manuscripts found It ttle oasis larrisoM of Cenual Asia

we find. fOI example, sA",. pol-gi mtJhid-yig S~O, RNAM dumo -lig gsol'fla hm momlJhis "AJthoulh I luive previously sent respectful letters inquirinl about your illness on several OCCl\StONS, you hayc nol made reply," blon toI'I -gi polllhig MMI-dllig/4s btlag-gi phu-bo 1cJ,,-bttr kha,ua-IJhin rfliA_ptJi SloJl4potl MIhill tts pol "In one EXAMPLE of a pelilion by Minlster Kell be asks, 'Appoint my el~r brother Klu-bUr Commander~rtheThousand or Old Khar\SI.t!hin," 'IO'I'-god.kyi J1hYag-'f>'D RNAM grIhig Md-du pol "We ask 10 reiYe one authOrization for openses," myespoi mtJhid-4rill NtJi RNAM plisltu ma-mUhis "We have !lad only these: two PIECES of kind correspon~ncc as to our ,randrather."

PHRASES

233

scripts, where the relationship "units OF" is made explicit by the adnominal particle-for example, rgyud.Hph~uJ.lcyj moms "descendents," "phogs-poj moms "nobility," sgo-'"oj moms "personal gods," dbon-t/ulntJon-don gtan-liii-gi moms "ones with power and with fixed fields." Thus, too, we find nj-oggi rgyolkhams-fUl rgyo'phran mtIIW-poi moms sems myi-bd~-liJi srid Ior-du. dogspoi moms kyan sridlQ myi-dbab-tIiii s~ms bd~ "In the kingdoms of the west, even those who were lesser sovereigns, those who were unhappy and feared to lose their dominion, were not cast down from their dominion and are happy." The selector -T.ftg "ONE/St.!" (which becomes tJig after preceding final -g, -d, -b; becomes -lig after preceding fir,a l n, n, m, or, -I, and open syllables; and becomes .Jig after preceding final or postfina) os) is clearly related to the numeral gtIig "one," and it specifies the nomin~ l as consisting, not simply of one entity, but of one or more entilies taken as a single unit rather than individually-thus mj-lig "3 man/sm men/someone," Iiii lig "a tree/some firewood," mi moii-po-Ijg "(a group of) many men," mi bli-Ijg "(a group of) four men/some four men." Where the selector -moms implies internal differentiation or multiplicity, the selector -T$ig implies internal homogeneity or simplicity. Both ranges are inde pendent of plurality: we find both mi-dagmams "men" and-mi-dag.tlig "men." Note, too, the magic teacher's remark to Mi-Ia, mi.rga'i nas mlllu.gtadsu gsum-fig.la las byas "This old man has worked in three things-magic, curses, and hailstorms." The selectors kun and thamstJad ""u"!) specify the nominal phrase as consisting of the entirety of one or more things or persons, taken either individually or as a unit, rather than as consisting of fewer or less than the whole-thus Ius ,honu-tIad means "all bodies/the whole body," rgyalk.lwlns ku.n means "all kingdoms/the entire kingdom," dg~.sloFt tllomstIad means "all monks/each monk/every monk," dge~un leun means "all communities/the whole community/every community." Again, the notion of entirety is inde pen' dent of plurality-we find both mi ,ham.J-IJad-mi kun "all men" and mi-dag tha'ms-t!.od-mi-dag kun "all men."

o The word (/ulnr : IJa4 may be letaled 10 the verb GTAM -LrAM be full" and the speciaJiuA adjective Iham 'fNl full. round. cyen (of numerals)." In !.Qme archaic Central Asian manuscripts we find Ihe form Iham .1Ut.

234

3.1.1.2. Ad"ominau
An AONOM INAL is a nominal phrase with the ....ONOMINAI. PARTICLE KYi whil' h immediately precedes and modifies a nominal head-thus, for example, hyui sdermo "bird's claw," gser.gyi bum.pa "golden vessel," dka rpoi phren -btl "while rosary," rgyaf-po dllell-poi mdzod "treasury of the great king." h/a-nlll 1.~lJenpo sdi-mams kUII~'i bSoc/-llams " the me rit of aU these grt:at lamas," bfa-rna rgoll.poi siib1-rdIe tShen-poi miliu " the power of the old lama's greal campassion," This subordinate adnominal always limits or qualifies the heluJ in some way: the set designated by the modified head is a proper subset or the set designated by the head alone; the adnominal answers the question "What sort of --?" with reference to the head.

The adnominal pa rticle is -m The capitalizat ion indicates that the particle und ergoe~ regular morphophonemic Changes according to the final or postfinal of the preceding syllable. Thus -m becomes -gi after preceding final -g and -ri; becomes -kyi a fter preceding final -li, -b, -5; and becomes -gyi after prt:C<!dillg final -Ii, om, r, -i-thus bdag-gi, raii -gi, bod-Icy4 rab-k;'4 gas-Icyi, bOIl Kfi, lam-gyi, plllIr-ro>i, bul-gy;. A preceding open syllable beco mes a diphthong with -i-thus dgai, spyii, rgyu;, bdei, bfoi. In poe try, when an exira syllahlc is net:dec.! fo r metrical purposes, an open syllable may be foll owed by -y; instead of -i-thus dga-),i instead of dgai, spyi-yi instead of spyii, and so on, All forms in KY- undergo these same morphophonological cha nges,

3_ 1.1.2.1. BASIC MODIFICATION PATTERNS

Tln:re are fo ur basic adno minai modification patterns, where both head and modifier consist ot' a single nominal-(l) l'lotmKli NOUN, as in gser.gyi ri " mo untain of gold, golden mountain," ri; gsa "mountain gold, gold from the mountains," (2) ADJE<."VE-K' NOUN, as in dlwr-poi ph~iiba "rosary of white, white rosary," bZ'l,i-poi rg)'al-po "king of virtue, virtuous king" o r-if the adjective is read as a headless modifier-"king of the virtuous," (3) ADJECnVE' KYi ADJECIWE, as in bzaii-poi t1Iien.po "greatness of virt ue, virtuous grel:tnes5," or-read as a headless morlifie r-"greatness of the virtuous," dam pal bzaii-po "virtue of holiness, holy virtue," or-read as a headless modifier"virtue of the holy," and (4) NOUN-KYi ADJEcnvn, as in 'X>'al-poi IIlIen -po "greatness of the king, royal greatness," dgesloii.gi dam.po " holiness of the monk, cenobitic holiness."

PIiRASES

2'5

This last modification pattern is relatively rare, but it is a favorite device of the poet Pad-rna dkar-po, who often uses such phrases as snags-NtIhan-gi nagpo "blackness of sorcerors," rgya-slag-gi khra-bo "spottedness of the tiger," brag~r-gyi mthon-po "heights of the red rocks," g.yu-mtsho-yi snon-ma "blue of the turquoise lakes." ~ we will have occasion 10 note from time to time in Ihis text, Part of the interest of Pad-rna dkar-po as a poet lies in his willingness to utilize such previously unexploited Tibetan synlactic resourct:s.

3.1.1.2.2. 1YPES OF MODIFICATION

Where the head of Ihe modifying adnominal is a noun, the Tibetan grammarians traditionally distinguish four sorts of Nbrel-ba "co nne ction~" between that modifier and its head-yan-Iag-dan yon-lag-lIon "part and whole," as in Iiiigi yot-go "tree branch," byoi sder-mo "bird claws"; rtell-dOli bnen-po "residence and resident," as in gron-pai mi "village man," yul-gyi 1110 "local deity"; no-bo gtIig-po "identical substance," as in gser.gyi bum-po "golden vessel," tsan-don-gyi ka-bo "pillar of sandalwood"; and bdagpo-daii yuf"owner and Object," as in 'KYaf.poi mdzod "king's treasury," bfa-rna; phrei"iba "lama's rosary." The particular reading, of course, dept:nds on the semanlics of the nouns involved. Note that Inere is in Tibetan no SYNTACnC difference between, say, rgyaf-poi me-log and rii me-tog to rd1ect the fact that the adnominal is animate in one phrase but not in the other. In EngliSh, that fact can make a syntactic difference: we 'say kUlg's ftowen but nOl, generally, ?moun/ain's ftowen (but both royal flowers and mOUlllaul flowers); that wt: would TRA.NSlATE those phrases, respectively, as "flowers or tht: king" and "flowers ON the mountain" is simply a peculiarity of English. Note the paral1d with the propositions rgyal-po-u me-tog yod "The king li AS flowers" and ri-t.A me-tog yod "There are flowers ON the mountain."H

""' Note th.at adnominat modificalion is tke only way of exprcssin& such rclalKmsllif"' a~ pouc:s.sion and location wilhin a nominal phrase. The modil"icalion ot nolln by anmher no un in a nominal_tor example, bla-rna 1fNU/-skll-an be read only as nobo gtJig.pD "identical substance,H and thlll onty IS "~IN WHO IS an incarnal ion.HThus, 100, ~ can lind rii me/og "mou ntlin nowen" but nOI _l t least not in Lhe same ilCnsc-?mr.tog ri. Thl' 5emantlc relation -ot p<:I>55e5$ion seems 10 be relaled 10 lhe f,et Ihal a n adnomina l-bci n& a nominal phrase-an be quantified independently of its head, wherta$ a nominal mOlliflc r cannot. In bW'nul sfXII"~ "lama who is an incarnation" thcre are precisely as ma ny incarnaliolU ali there are Jamu; but in spru/sIa4i blarna the two desi&naled se LS may in fael be iden lical-and thus "lama who is an incarM lionH-or they may be quanlified $Cparalety.

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Tile Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN Lt.NOUACiE

3.1.1.1.3. RECURSION The adnominaJ may itself be a nominal phrase of any length and complexity, even one containing further adnominals. The modifying nominal phrase may

consist of a single nomina~ of a nominal plus determiner or quanimer, or a nominal preceded by an adnominal. This recursiveness allows for successive embeddings of adnominals within adnominab to the limits of stylistic tolerance-normally perhaps three adnominals in a row, and perhap$ fIVe at Ihe stylistic maximum-as in dgon-poi bla-mai gser-gyi phr6i-ba "the golden rosary of the monastery's lama," dgon-pai b/Q-maJ gur-gyi pIum-bai mJhu slobs-kyi Nbras-bu "the results of the magi<: power of the golden rosary of the
monastery's lama."

A Tibetan aulhor clearly has considerable liberty both in the extent to which he modifies the head nominals in his text and in the syntactic patterns he
may use to do so; such choices collecliveiy constitute what we can call the MODIFIER STYLE or a particular author. A primal}; choice is simply how much nominal modification there will be in the text. 5 Long modifier sequences

as in spru/.$1aJ grlig.gi b/a.m(l40g "the one inarnalioll" severalla-. ~ or sptW/o.Jb.mtIIfUk); b/(lm(l "the lallUl of the several incarnations." Only I modifyin, IIOmhw pbrase call be thus quantified independently of its head; IhllS il Is only the adnomiul modifier lbat can indicate possession.
4S In English literary history, we filKl periods when highly medira .tyles were felt to be "elevaled" or-as the eightunth<entury poets put It-~subUrne," u _II as oontrastin, periods when more sparsely modirled styles were admired u "plain.~ Orten too the individual style of I particular author can be related to prc40miupt ,,-uena of modifier and head: the followin, passage fro m D. H. lawrePOC's short Siory 1M IJarJkr LiM Is Characteristic or his modifier style:

The nat. grey. winlry landscape. plouahed fieldJ of yeyish earth that Socked as if they were compounded or the clay of dead men. Palik!. lark, tbla Ueel ~tood like wire beside stnighl. abstract roadl. A ruined (arm behlleCa a few more trees. And a disllUIl vilJace filed past. with smuhed housa like rottetl tu th between the straight rows ,o f the: vilia,e street, In this passage: there are eighteen adjectives 10 fifteen nouns; and we can fX)lUnsl Ibis sIyIe with the following similarly cb.aTKteristic pas.5llce from Ernest Hemillpay'l BiI ~IJrU4 Ri,,. which contain~ one modirlCfhe.ad combination to LawrellCJe" thirteen: Nick Slipped orr his paCk and Jay dO'Nll in the shade. He lay on his bad: and

PHRASES

237

easily become rhythmic and incantatory, whether adjectives (as in Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Earnest, eanhless, equal, attuneable, .vaulJY, voluminous,

kicked up Into the pine trccJ. His nccIr. and back and tbe uuU of bis beck rested as he stretched. The eartb felt aood aplnst his bact.. He kxlked ap at the sky, throup the bnmcbel., and then shut bls C)'CL He opened tbem and looked up Ipin. Similarly, we Cln cite the followinl stanza bom Robert 1..o\IIeU', "Ha"Mbomc." wbere the effect of slow dellberateocss iI created by Its pboftolopcal and I)'ZIIUCUc repetlUoa:

FOllow its lazy main street Ioungin, from the Ilms house to Gillows Hill lion, a flat, unvaried. surflCC coverc:d wilb wooden houses lzed by yellow drain like tbe unh~ltby bair of In Old dol . . .
Compare tbis stanUo witb tbe poem "Tbe Hope" by David lpalo., wboIe lin&Je modifier. held a>mbination arries, by its syntaaie Isolation as weU IS by iu final poIillon, I proportionately Ireater shire of the semantic bunSen of tbe poem: In the wood5 as the trees 'acie in the dusk I 1m unable to speak or 10 pture. 1 lie down to WlIrm m~1f apinst tbe ,round. U I live tbrough tbe nigbl I will be a species re laled to tbe tree and the cold dark. From the .rcbalc materials available to lIS, it appeart tb.t ~rly Tibetan poetry .nd prote '.vorel! "pbin" rather thin "eLevated" stylc$, and was sparin, in modifiers, allhou,h rich In simile. uter Tibetln poetry, on the otber lund, borr0wc4 In inacuin&IY ornate syle from its Sanskrit model$; Indlc handbooks of poetic ornament-particularly the JavyUllrlQ of Dat)4in-were translated Ind studie4, Ind tbeir complex Ind extended metaphors were ohen rendercdjo Tibetan IS bi,hly layered modirlCrt. This was especially lTue of acnrC5 borrowed from Sanskrit Buddblst devotional literature: TIbetan enanola, hymns, Ind pni)'el1 base both their VOCIbullry and syntax on such oa:aslonally florid works as the ~. cQl)'ilprtll;li4MNJ, th6- 8uddhoctJrilQ of AlYl,hob, the &utJptJllclJMM of MlI~" the JlJliJJuJmlJlI of ArydDrI, Ind the BodhicQl)'ilvtllllrtl of Yntideva. "The naliYe TIbe.lan poeCie ,enres-the repanee sonp Ind riddles, smoke offerln, riluals, Ind the epic of Qe.Slrwere less Iffectc:d by tile IOOie "Sublime. ud lOme Indie forms, Iud!. as tbe mystie IOn" were In fact effectively Tibelaniu.d and lS5imillted to llbecan folksong..

veal

stupe'ndous evening ... ") or adnominals (as in D.H. Lawrence's "The pulse of the:: blood of the teats of the cows beat into the pulse of the hands of the men"). Such literary effects are sought in Tibetan particularly in the ritual evocation of deities in contemplative texts. Thus, in the Siiaflbrgyud bskytdrim rgyospa of Pad-rna dkar-po-a ritual evocation of Cakrasarpvara-we find such highly layered adjective sequences as blfom-Idan-Ndas dpal rdo-rdJ.~ sems-dpa sku-mdog dkar-po ta/-gtJig phyaggfiis rdo-rdJ.e-dan. driJ-bu Ndzin-pas yum-Ia Nkhyud-pa "the blessed glorious white-colored one-headed Vajrasattva with two hands which hold vajra and bell embncing the Mother ... "; and such highly layered adnominal sequences as iiQ./cu byuii-bai zill-bai steii-du hii'!l.[as slcyes-pai roo-Idle "a vajra born from a hii'!t on top of a moon arisen from an ii~1 ___ " Another area of choice lies in the syntactic pattern of such modification_ A poet in English, for example, can choose between left-branching modifier seque nces (as in Matthew Arnold's "The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea") <1m.! right-branching modifier sequences (as in Robert Creeley's "I can see you, hairy, extended, vulnerable _ _ :). A poet in Tibetan can create often complex modifier structures as a syntactic skeleton which is then clothed with lexical flesh_ For example, Tson-kha-pa, in his Dgoiis-pa rab-gsa/ commentary on the Madhyarnakiivatiira of Candrak'irti, writes as follows:

""

Tlllo CLAssICAL TlSETAN U-NOUAGE

zab-lSii"j 'K)'a-lShei legs-b!ad kUII-gyi gter, Ndlig-nclI kun-gyi ma",-dris mdza-b!este, sagsum ""Emla /am-hzaij-m15lwlI .pai mig, thub-dbaii smrablli iiimas r1ag/u skyotl$
Treasure of all the deep broad maxims, Unasked friend of all the world, Eye which shows the good path to beings of the three realms, Sun of the master's teachings-ever prOlect us! This verse is huil! on the fourfold equation gter "neasure" "" mdza-blu " friend" = mig "eye" "" iiirna "sun_" Each of these four heads is modified by two preceding adnominals, explicitly in the first line and implicitly in three places ~n the following lines; the basic pattern of each of the four lines is thus MODlFlEN-Kyj MODII'IL:NKll IlEAD; and this reiterate~ syntactic symmetry underlit!s and reinforces the semantic parallelism of the metaphors expressed in tht! vers.:_

A more complex pallern is fuund in a song by Mi-Ia ras-pa, when he rebukes his wicked aunt-who sto le his lands from him-for her greed. The first few verses estahlish the following modifier panern:
.fkye.boi SO-ilam sdig-pai Ic.t

spyad.na iiUlIson.gi sdug.hstwl myoii

The husbandry of mankind is the doing of evil: if you do it, you taste the suffe:ing of evil destiny.
iie-dui gdwi-J" ems bdud-}..}'i mkhar bnsegs-lia me-obs-kyi IIcii.Ju tJlrud

The love of family is a castle of demons: if you build it, you fall into a pit o f flames. The basic pattcrn of each vcrs';: is thus
(MOI)II 1 ER-Kri m ,AD) = (MODJRE R-KYi I!I:AD) (NOMINAuzm VEHIl)(MOI)IF1EII.-KYi IIEAD) VERB).

These general moral propositions arc continued for several more verses, embodied in this repeated syntactic fnrm; and Ihis pattern is then applied, with con~iderahle rhetorical force , to the particular occasion:

WNW

la-IIcj fili-rill ser-sllai rolas y;.dwags-kyi gllQHU skye

My aunt's cost for the fields is the sluff of grc:ed: if you c:at it, you will he born among thc hungry ghosts.

3.1.1.2.4. HEADLESS ADNOMINALS When the nominal phrase head of an adnominal modifie r has been omitted, the remaining headicss adnominal may he a patient participa nt in an equative construction. For example, in the proposition Nbrus Ndi bla -rna; yill "This rice: is the lama's," the omitted head of the adnominal modifier bla-rnai is processed as coreferential with some prior element of the discOUi se. If what is being discussed is rice, the proposition would be processed as meaning "This rice is the lama's RICE." But if what is being discussed is, say, nm rice but offerings, the proposition would be read as "This rice is the lama 's

240

TME ClAsSiCAl TIBETAN LANGUAGE

OF'FERING." Where such ellipsis refers back to old information in the same proposition, that information too may be omitted under the Telegram Principle, and-depending on stylistic considerations of density-we might encounter such laconic constructions as bla-rnai yin "What we are talking aboul-that's the lama's," or even the minimal bla-maw.

3.1.2. Conjoined nominal phrases

A NOMINAL CONJUNcnO/'~ is a panicle that joins nominal phrases together. An indefinite number of nominAl phrases can be linked together by such con~unctions; this horizontal expansion can extend to the limits of styiislic tolerance. which in the classical language seem to be quite broad. Thus the series "PIiRASE and PHRASE and ... PHRASE" may reach some le ngth before it becomes a PARTICIPANT by the addilion of a role particle.

All phrases so conjoined, no matter how long or complex the conjunction, still constilute a single panicipanl-thus (b/o-mo.doii rgyal-po)-B NgrO ''The lamaand-king go," bla-mos (bgegs.doii Ndre)-B blu' "The lama lamed demons-andspirits," tJhru (ri.don lun-po )-10 dar "The dharma spread to mountain-andvalley," rgyol-pos (mduii-ijom rol-gri)-s dgro bsad "The king will slay the enemy with lance-or-sword." In the classical language the re arc two lYpes of nominal conjunctionALTERNATI VE ("PHRASE or ~IIRASE") and COORDINATIVE fPHRASE and PIlRASE"). The AL11:RNATIVE CONJUNc;nON PARTICLE is -Am. The hyphen indicates that thl: form is BOUND and occurs only with an immediately

preceding nominal. The capitalization indicates thai the vowel prefixes to itself the 1asl consonant of the preceding syllable coda-thus dag-gam, mdannom, skyid-dam, dben-nam, Ndab-bam, glum-mam, dar-ram, dal-Iam, and phyogs-som. A preceding open syllable becomes a diphthong-thus mdaam, khyitlm, rgyuom, d~am, and bloom. In the scansion of verse such diphthongs may occasionally be cou nted as two syllables for the purposes of meter. The alternative conjunction offers a choice between two or more possibilities,

" We win note here only bficny that this is clearly the same as the propositional conju nctio n Am and the sentencelinal question ~Tlicle -Am. We can hypothesize-and will, at ,reater len,th, later-thaI the Tibetan interro,ative is derived ultimately ffom an ullderlyinllhernative conjunction.

241
one or both of which may be truc"":'for example, 'K)'QI-poam bla-ma-s bgegs gdul "'lbc king or the lama will tame the demon." The conjoined noun phrucJ can be as long and complex as stylistic tolerance permiu--tgYol-po.t sm--gyi ral-gri tJhen-poom snags gsaii-ba-s bg~ gdul "The king will tame tht:

demon with a great golden sword or secret spell." The COORDINATIVE CONJUNCTION PARTICLE is -don..7 The coordinativc conjunction asserts two or morc possibilities., all of which are taken to be: true-for example, rgyal-po-daii bla-nul" os bgegs gduJ "the king and the lama wiD tame the demon." Again, the conjoined noun phrases can be as long and complex as stylistic tolerance permils-'XY0/-POs per-",; ral-gri tIhm-po-daii snags g:saii-ba-s bgegs gduJ "The -king will tame the demon with a great golden sword and a secret spell." In both types of conjunction it is expected-and in an extended sense perhaps even mandatory-for the conjoined phrases to have some theme in common; thus we can expect also 10 find thematic eleme nts o mitted from latter members of the conjunction, as in. for example, las dluJr-poam nag-po "gClOd deeds or bad," dge-slon giiis-sam gsurn "two or three monks," mi dbul-ba-daii phyug-po "men both rich and poor." In addition, we can find coordina!ions of some length-for example, g.fer-dan diiul-daii !tIags "gold and silver and iron," sa-daii I1hu-daii me-daii rluii "earth and water and fire and air." In such cases, all the conjunction particles can be omitted-thus. for example, skye 'Ka no NtJhi "birth and old age and sickness and death"; or one conjunction can be retained, just as in English, except that in Tibetan what is retained is generally the fint rather .than the last conjunction-thus, for example, sa-daii I1hu me rluii "earth, fire, water, and air." Such lists are often concluded with a summary numeral, as in IUJ nag yid gsum "the three: body, speech, and mind," dpc)II g.yog 8'1i.r "the two: master a.nd servant," bzan nan Nbriii glUm "the three: good, bad, and indifferent "; and then, too. the last conjunction may be retained, as in sa tIliu me rluii-daii bli "the four: earth, water, fire, and wind," mtllu ser brtad-dan gsum "the three: witchcraft and hailstorms and curses."

(1 1lIe nomInal phras.e oonjunction 4aii is tile same as the accompaniment role panicle -4aIL Thus l oolUtructlon $uch as b/D mD.dDFi rgyDl.po is $yntaaiclllly ambi!uous berwcea tbe CONJUNcnON readi ng (bID.mtl.4.:lil '1fj(1/po)-11 JOof:FO "The kin a-and_Jama go" and \be AccOMPANtM ENT readin! (b/D-mtl-dtlil) (rgyDl.po_8) "Wo "The kin! AtJeS .... illlthe lama:'

wo

0II11Ie olher band, (he oonstruction '1fj(1/-po b/D-mD4tl1i I) (014-19141-4411) ~ '"The kin S &oes .... ith I ~e lama:'

I>gM

can only be read as ('1O"'I-pa-

242

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN LAHOUAGE

3.2. VERB PHRASES 3.2.1. Negation

We will in this grammar consider the optional NEGATION 10 be tl)e specifier of the verb within a verb phrase. Negation is expressed by the negatM particle mI "NOT," The capitalization indicates that the vowel undergoes changes according, in this case, to the TENSE of the following verb: the negative particle mI becomes mi before the present and future stems of the verb, and it becomes mao before the past and imperative stems of the

verb.'" The hyphen indicates thzt the particle is BOUND and can occur, in this case, only immediately before a verb tense stem. The particle immediate-

ly precedes the stem even when the verb is morphologically complex-for example, n.4RRGl'.4 "become a Buddha" log-iloi sgo-nas NtShaii.mi'''DQ "One does nOI become a Buddha through wrong views," miion-par ~S "perceive Clairvoyantly" dgra-btJom-pas lUi kun milon-par mi-Ies "An arh811 does not clairvoyantly perceive all the Buddhafields," mgo-JOIOR "become confused" khyed-kyi kha.sbyangis ned mgo-mi'/'lkhor "We are not taken in by your elOlJuence ...
Two contractions should be noted. The equative verb Y1N "be," when negated, may optionally be contracted to min "is not" in addition to mayin. Interest ingly, the verb YrN seems to occur only with the ma- and not the mi form of the negative particle. In addition, the verb YOD "exist spatiotemporally" occurs in negated form only as med "not exist spatiotemporallylbe absent" and not as ?ma.yod." In Tibetan, the negative particle mI "NoT' can precede only verbs, and cannot precede nouns or adjectives; it is only the occurrence of an event that can be denied, not the identity of a thing or the extent of a quality. Thus, for example, the proposition 'KYa/-pos dgra ma-bsad "The king did not klll the

" The mo allomorph of the negative partkle prcc:edes the ume tense siems as arc marked with the inncaional sum.. 'l-anot!ICr indication I.... t paSl.nd impcfltM tense5 in Tibetan are perceived as shari ng some oommon fealure, whkh we have liken to be the specincllion o r tl'le event as either .ctually or polentially COMP1.EIl!D.

~ II is also intereslin& 10 note 1.... 1 11'Ie YeTb rN "be," like yin. seems 10 OCICIIr only wllh the mao form of the ne&alive parlklc, and Ihe Yerb ~I " be present" only w:ilb tile mi form, excepl in Ihe imperative. I do not know why this is $0.

243

enemy" denies that the killing took place. Other structures are available to deny a particular participant: for example, the proposition '1D'0I-po ni dgra bsad-pa ma.yin "It's not the king who ulled the enemy" denies the identification of the king as the enemy-killer. Similarly, one cannot say "Nobody goes"; one must say su-fig miNgrO ''Anyone does not go."

3.2.1.1. Term ruga/ions

Since the negative particle ml- "NOT" cannot precede nouns or adjectives. but only verb stems, we find the noun bram-u " brahman" but not ?mi-bram-u for "non-brahman," and the adjective dmar-po "red" but not ?mi-dmar.po for "nol-red.'- Similarly, we can find mi-/Illc-ba "not big" from the verb ITHE "be big," but nol a parallel ?m;tJhen-po from the adjective tJhen-po "big."$O

In Sanskrit, however, the: prefix a "NOT" can precede virtually any nominal. Without in the least straining the language, one can say both brahmo{lotr1l1o paIyoti "He does -not see a brahman" and obri1hmo{lQtr1 paIyati "He sees a non-brahman," To Buddhist philosophers, writing in Sanskrit, the first proposition was an example of prusQjyQprali~edlUl "proposition negatio n" or " verbally bound negatio n"; the secono was an example of paryudi1sQ "term negation" or " nominally bound negation." The proposition negation denies the seeing; the: torm negation denies the brahmanhood of the thing seen, and thus implies that something was ill fa ct seen-something that was not a brahman.'1 Such term negations are quite common in the Sanskrit lexicon, and the distinction between proposition negation and term negation became

so That it is the ~erb T1H " be bi&H t~t is negated in m idh~-ba "not bi,," mller than tile nominal dh~bD "big,H can be shown by noting that we find ma .rig_ pa "icnorance" < RIG H "lUIow bVI no t parallcJ 1ma''1O'I$ < '1)'1$ "itnowledce," and we find mjJkyidpa ~ untulppy" < SKYID " be happy" but not . paul1cJ ?mi-Jkyid-po < Jiryid-po "happy." We must thus interpre t such nominaliz.atiolU a.s ma .rig'pa "ignorance H as ltla .rig)-P'l) rather than as ?(mII-(rig-P'l, .nd rrrj'JIryid-ptI "unhappy" as ",jllcyid)po) rather thu as ?(",j.(slcyi4.po.
$1 IU AVlloltitavrlta CIlplilins in his PrnjllJp'adtpa[Tk.iJ, propos itio n negation gtall-f3i.r khas blw-pa gait yiIt .pa ~ dgagpa UIVn byttt.la dIIos-poi dtkh a-nlllVn dMspo mtd-paj~ JcJw..na Igrub.par mi.byrd.pa "docs no t imply the existence o r noncmtencc of .ny entity, bllt simply denies .... hat .nother has a.ucrtcd,M while term ne gation IShi, grJig.gis dAo$.po igrub. P'lr ~d.pa . . , rllitgi ISh jg.,u miSIQrIpa "implics an entity ..... ith 1I term ..... hich is not its own name.
M

244

TUE CL\ssICAl TI8ETAN UNGUAGE

quite importam in several areas of Buddhist thought.n Since Tibetan, unlike Sanskrit. has no nominally bound negation, three primary strategics were adopted to render Sanskrit term negations. One strategy was to ignore the negation altogether and adopt a translation without a negative particle-thus Sanskrit (J-mrta "immonal, imperishable -+ nectar of the gods" Tibetan bdud-nsi "demon juice," Sanskrit amogha "unerring. unfailing" Tibetan don yod.pa "effective. purposeful." Another strategy was to nominalize a negated verb stem and use it either as a nominal head (thus Sanskrit a-vidyiI Tibetan rna-rig-po "ignorance" < RIG "know," Sanskrit a-hu,uii Tibetan mi-NtShe-ba "nonviolence" < TSE: "injure," Sanskrit a-niJyalii Tibetan mi-rtag-pa "impermanence" < RTAG "persist") o r as the modifier of a nomina! head (thus Sanskrit an-ogata Tibetan ma-byuii-ba "unoriginated" < BWN "arise;' Sanskrit a-soma Tibetan mjmiiam-pa "unequalled" <: MNAM "be alike," Sanskrit a-bhriinro Tibetan monorba "unerring" < NOH. "be mis' taken"}.') A third strategy wa~ to find a nominal eq,uivalent for the affirmative part oC the Sanskrit term negation, deny the nominal with an appropriate verb (usually ma-nN-MIN "be not," but sometimes MED "have not," or even BRAL "lack, be bereft"), and nominalize the resulting proposition. The resulting relative construction could then be used either as a headless modifier (thus Sanskrit a-dhanna Tibetan Lfhosmin "(a teaching) which is not the dharma/ non-dharma," Sanskrit o-briihmo')o Tibetan bram-u ma.yin.pa "(a person) who is not a brahman/non-brahman," Sanskrit a.krrajnata Tibetan byaspa gzo-ba ma-yin-po "(something) which is not an acknowledgement oCwhat was done/ingratitude," Sanskrit a-madllyomapratjpad Tibetan dbu-moi lorn rna-yin-

n For eumple. il was importanl 10 dcciOe whelher ccrtain uadilionai d.cnial5 aboul lhe world-iballhillp "do nol arise from Il'Icmsclvcs" or Ihal things "arc empl)' of duality"-arc 'lCrbally or nomilllily bound. Bhllvavivcka, in his PrrlJ1tDpnufrpd. claims Ih" 'slid!. dellals mllSl be undcnlooo u propo$ilion ncsalkln.s, for olherwisc there would be tbe unaootptlble implication til" somethins like I n "unarisius IhinS" actWllly exis($. On Ille otber baQd, RatnlkaraSllltl, iD bis Pr0J1tlJplJromilOjKJdda, says thai the absellCC of dualily-whkb Is tbe biSbcst trulh--lnstitulCS I lerm neption, and that there is indeed $Omcthins real called "noDduality." .
'3 Sometimes fuller propo$ldons arc ncgJted and nominali7~, and enter the Ic.doon In tbeir n.&U form-for example, San.skrit Qcil1lya Tibetan bSQm .1s mikhyab-fXl "unpcrvadcd by thoupt - ineonccivable, ~ Sanskrit rlJastTaJ1trl Tibetan bSfrlll-btJol mi-Jn-(XI "i&nOranl of the commelliarics."

PIiRASf,S

245

po "(a teaching) which is not the Middle Path,"), or as a modifier (thus Sanskrit a-/Unya Tibetan stoii-min "non-empty," Sanskrit unutponna Tibetan skyeJ-po mil-yin "non-born," Sanskrit a-klina Tibetan iion-mo;u-t!an ma-yinpo "non-defiled," Sanskrit a-liHvata Tibetan rfag med-po "non-eternal"),
Note particularly the following idiomatic use of such term negations_SanSkrit tHtMno Tibetan gnas-min "(something) which is not a place/WRONG place/ impossibility," Sanskrit a-kala Tibetan dus-med "(something) which is not a time/WRONG time," Sanskrit a-vastu Tibetan don l1Ied-po "(something) which is not a thinglwoRTliLESS thing." Thus Sa-skya paQ4ita writes, in his Legs-par Mad-po rin-po-tJhei gter, iies-po miion-,fUnJ mthoii-na-yan, gnas-ma-yin-la smra mj-bya "Though you plainly see a sin, do not speak of it under inappropriate circumstances," gnus-min ha-tJan draij-po-yaii, ran-gIan giiis-ka briag-po yad "To be very honest under the wrong circumstances destroys both oneself and others," gnas ma-yin-pai dul drags-nu, Iharn.$-tJad-kyis ni bkol-bar Hgyur "U you are too gentle in the wrong circumstances you will be, made a servant by everyone."

3.2.1.2. An idiom with

MED

The classical literature has an idiom with 'MED which is worth pointing out. We have already noted native compounds of the form Al}JF...crtVE + ADJEC11VE -- NOUN, where the adjectives are opposite ends of a continuum, and the resulting noun is a statement of the continuum itself-thus, for example, ne-riii "near far __ distance" or bta/l-nlm "good bad -- virtue." When such an adjective pair is the patient of the verb MED "havt: not," howt:ver, the collocation means "make'no distinction between ADJECllVE or ADJEcnVE!have no regard for NOUN"-for example, iieriJl MED "make no distinction of near or farlbe without regard for distance," phyug-dbul MED "make no distinction of rich or poor/have no regard for wealth," guan-btsog MED "make no distinction of clean and dirtylbe slovenly, uncouth, rude"; and the same reading is given a similar collocation of MHO with semantically oppost:d no uns-for example, iiinmlshan MD ' "make no distinction of day or nightJbe without regard for the time of day," rgan:byis MED "make no distinction of old person or youth/have no regard for age," and even no-med lkog-med "making no distinction of face-that is, the public self-and secrecy/without regard for whether anyone is watching/acting in private as in public," Thus Mi-Ia ras-pa uses the term grQlI-dro "hot cold" in gran-dro med.pai ras-

246

Tw; ClAsSICAL

TmETAN J....\NGUAGE

kyaii Hdi "This single whatever-the-weather piece of cloth," and the term mgomdtug "head tail" in bandhe des naj mgo-mdlug med-pa-Ia yun riii-ba-/a bllas "That monk looked me over from head to tail for a long time/That monk looked over every bit of me without distinction for a long lime." In the epic of Ge-sar. we find the hero Ge-sar. in the ugly and despised form of llio-ru, saying gzl4gS-Ja bzoii-iian med-/e dgos, boiiJa riii-thuii med-le dgos, '8J'U.JQ phyug..dbuJ med-Ie dgos ''As to form-yoll should pay no heed to beauty; as to size-you should pay no heed to height; as to substance-you should pay no heed to wedlth."

3.2.1.3.

Unj~trsaJ

Mgalion

In English, we often form universal negations by using what we may caU

negative pronouns, as in No ONE went, NOTUfNG was there. or negative adverbs, as in I NEVER saw him. Tibetan, on the other hand, forms universal negations by using indefinite determiners with negative verbs-thus su-tig miNgTO "No one goes," gan yan mi-Ies "No one knows," IIi mi-Ies "He knows nothing," yon-tan IIi yan med "It has no qualities at all," de nam yan mamthon "I have never seen that." As these examples show, the indefinite
determiner in such construclions is very frequent ly followed by Ihe conneclive Yan "EVEN, ALSQ"--na-la IIi yaii ma-byuii "Nolhing happened to me," nom yaii lum-pa med "He is never wearied." The great historian Bu-ston says, in his. biography, gan-lig lIi-la yaii mi-sems, IIi }'an mi-bsam-pa de NIchor-ba-las yoiis-su tluJr-pa Ng)'w-ro "That one who Ihinks of nothing, intt:nds nothing, will become one completely freed from the ro und of rebirth"; an archaic mythological text from Central Asia, writing of a Time of Troubles for mankind, says dgod bro-bai tshig-t1ig byas-kyon sw kyon myi-bgad "Though someone told a joke, no one laughed." In fact, we oflen find the contraclion !Ian for IIi.ran in such constructions-ror example, tIaii mi-Ndug "Nothing was there," dan mi-Smrtl-bar gyur ''They became speechless," bdag-fa IIan dbuf-du m~ "We have n/lthing to give." Exceptions to such general negations are indicaled by marking the excepted participant .with the source particle -las, in this conten perhapS best read as "except for, save," as in Ichyod-la gw-pa-las lam gtan med "For you there is no other path save devotion," ras-yug gtIig-/as mi-bdog "He possesses nothing except a single piece of cloth." Such conslructions often translate well into English constructions with onry-thus zla-ba liia-Ias ini-sdod " I will stay only five months." brilas Nlchyer-ba-/as mi-yon "You will only come to despise me,"

247
F FW'1as rdIe-buun 17t(lmlhoii "We saw only a snow-leopard, nOI the Reverend Master," miphanliii gnod-pa-las med "It is useless. and does only harm," When Mi-Ia is building towers for his master Mar-pa, he develops a great sore on his back., but be is afraid 10 show it to Mar-pa, because, he says.. bltJ-ntQ-/a pigs phuJ-run blcyon-pa-Ias mi-yoii "Though I show it to the lama. I will only get a beating"; when Mi!a trics to meditate wit~ another teacher, without Mar-pats permission, I.hal teacher tdls him blD-mai bw rna groI-Nl yon-tan mjs~ba-las os mol "If you have not the leave of your lama, this is worth nothing other than that the qualities do not arise." Another way to indicate an exception to a general negation is to negate the excepted participant with mO-YlN-MfN "is not," nominalize the resulting proposition with -Pa, use it as a headless relative, and. often, specify the omitted head with an indefinite determiner-thus, for example, klu mIl-yin-po gtlJn. mj-thub "Anothcr (person) who is not a u:rpc:nt-god cannot do il/Only a serpent-aod can do it," san,Nxyas ma-yin-po sw /cyan mi-Ju "Any (peN-on) who is not a Buddha does not know itlOnly a Buddha kriows it," iias yud-gtJig min-po mi-bsdtld "I did n'ot wait (a time) which was not a momentII waitcd only a momcnt." When Mi-Ia first sludies black magic, yet finds his powcn still insufficient for his contemplated rcvenge, he thinks mJhui-lUlgf rna-lhonpar yuJ-du log-tuii la-mn ItJebs-te NtJhi-ba min-pa mi-yon "If I return withoul showing thc signs of magic power. aUlhat will happen is that my mother will commit suicide and die."s4

3.2.1.4. Double tUgtJlion

'This last-quoted construction is an example of one son of DOUBLE NEOATION in Tibetan. Double negativcs are oflen a favored rhetorical dcvice in the classical literaturc. When Mi-Ia wishes to return to his master Mar-pa aftcr running away, Mar-pa says of this change of heart, o-rIag bios ma-thofir-pa min, kho ran bios rna-thons-po yin "It's not that he's not renouncing us; it's that he's not rcnouncing himu:IC'; on another occasion Mar-pa encourages Mi-Ia by tcUing him Icha-pho mtd-pai tJhos mtd "I do not have a _ teaching that is without boast." When such doublc negatives occur with such Icnns as thabs ''way, mcam" or mJhu "power, ability," there is an implication of strong
NOIe, similarly,
mDgtop-pi1 "t:lcept

Sol

Ior <
M

GTOGS "belona. be pan, be

(Q)m~rc NDOGS "bIJld., fashion. atlaCh")-thu. for aampk"d gtIig-kI

f4J.p4

trttd "A maD has only two hanGs,M

"'i.t

Inctvded"
mll-grop

248 necessity: when Mi-Ia is commanded 10 send II haihtorm down upon some mountain bandits, he laments ser-ba mi-gtoii-baj thab! mi-Hdug 'There's no way not to send a hailstorm/l must send a hailstorm"; Mar-pa wonders at the lack of progress Mi-Ia is making, and thinks nai brgyud-pa Ndi-14 .. iiamsnogs.kyi yon-Ian myw-tbl mi-,IJcye-bai mlJw mal-po-lig yin ''This 'lineage of mine is one which cannot but produce quickly tbe qualities of mystic insightJ This lineage DC mine is onc which must produce quickly the qualities of mystic insight."

3.2.2. Adverbs
An ADVERB is a nominal phrase with the ADVERB PARTla.E -TIl which

precedes and modifies a verb head-thus, for example, gsoii-bar

RXU

"steal

secretly," miruiibar snw "behave inappropriately," yun riii-du SOAD "wait . for a long lime," khyim-du NGRO "go homeward," nan-par SUB "arrive in the morning," phyir LOG "Iurn back." This subordinate adverb always limits or qualifies the head in some way:"the event designated by the modified head is a proper subset o[ the event designated by the head alone; the adverb answers the question "What sort o[ - 1" with rderence to the head. The adverb particle is -1lL The capitalization indicates that the partidt undergoes regular morphophonemic changes according to the final or postfirial o[ the preceding syllable. -TU becomes -du after preceding final -n, -d, on, .m, -r, and -I; becomes -til after preceding final -g and -b; and becomes su afler preceding final os-thus dban-du, dhM-du. lan-du. rim-du, phyir-du. riJdu. Ulag-tu, rabtu, dus-su." A preceding open syllable becomes a closed syllable in or-thus dgar, spyir, 'YJ'UT, bd~r, bfor. In poetry, ', nen an eXIra syllable is needed [or metrical purposes, an open syllable mc:.y be followed by -ru instead of or_thus dga-tu instead of J,;ar, spyi-tu instead of spyv, and so on. Among the various ways of answering the question "What sort of --1" with rde rence to an event. we can conveniently distinguish its TIME. its PU-CE, its MANNER, and its EXTENT, Adverbs of time are regularly formed from temporal nouns-thus, for example, nan-po "morning" nan-par "in the morning," dgons "evening" dgoiis-su "in the evening," tshes-gnis "the second day of the month" tsh~Sgni.Nu "on the second day of the month." Adverbs of place are regularly
~s 8111 nOle (he slcreol)'pCd forms kun1I.< "complelclyK oc:: kwId-w and phlI-rol-Q4 " beyond" < phll _ told.tII .

PHRASES

249

fanned from location nouns-thus, for example, rgya-gar "'ndia" rgya-gar-du "tolin India," gro-bo luii "Red Valley" gro-bo lun-du "tolin Red Va'lIey"; or, indeed, from any nominal which is the site of a verb of location or the target of a verb of motion-thus, for example, blama dgon-pa Lfhenpor sltbs "The lama arrived at the great monastery," mtr mtlha blugs "It is in fire thai the Fire God dwells," Relator nouns are often found as the head nominal of such adverbs, Spatial relators include Jeha "surface," khons "middle," glm "proximity," gon "upper part," Ngram "side," mllui "end," druii "proximity," phyogs "direction," bar "interva~" fUa "vicinity," mtshantS "border," slad "hindpart," gstb "midst," dkyiJ "center," Nkhor "circumference," snon "front," rdltS "rear," mtiun "front," rgyab "back," sttii "lap," og "bottom," nan "inside," phyi "outside," g,yas "right," g,yon "Iefl," uhu "this side," pha "that side"; examples of adverbs with such spatial relators would thus include khan-poi nan-du "intol inside the house," yul dti phyogs-su "in the direction of thai country," 1iii Lfhtn.J?Oi druii-du "near the great tree," lamgyi bar.dJ.4 "in the middle of the road," mi lcun-gyi gstb-tu "in the midst of all the people," rgyal-po Nkhor-daii bt.faspai siion-du "in advance of the king and his relinue," sa; ogtu "beneath the eanh,"S6 Note also the benefit relators-don "sake, purpose," phyir "sake, purpose," Lfhtd "benefit, gain," and thus, again, such adverbs as Stnu .. dan thantS-dad.kyi doll-dU "for the sake of all sentient creatures," Adverbs of manner are regularly formed from adjectives, both primary and derived-thus, for example, mgyogspo "quick" mgyogspar "quickly," riiispa "hasty" rillS-par "hastily," dalba "gentle" dalbar "gently," gsaii-ba "secret" S6 E1sewllere we find spatial relators used meLapllorical1y for time.-tllu.s goA "upper p~rl ... lime preuding. man M(roru _ time prto:lding. mdIa "end __ oonclusion,- bar Minterval -time berwun," mUMIJIS "border -- junclure,8 or "bottom __ lime folJowinz," Jlad "lIindpaTl -- lime following." There are also Illree specifically temporal rtiators-skobJ "occasion," dus "time," ullr "time." Adverbs elpreuin, sucll lemporal relations consist Itmost exdu.sivcly of nominalilC4 propositionS_for example, ,,,,IIs''!)'4J,/ryiI dhos bJtld-pGi m,luu "Afler the Buddlla Iud taught Ille dlllrm. , , ,- bkl-mtu lJgtp mD-bll4l,Oai bDr-du "While tile lama 1Ia<! not yet limed Ille demon , , ," 'fY'01-po dp-pa-liJ Jltbs 'pGi dllJ-su "At tile time tile king arrived'l tile monaster)'. , ,"_and will be 4ealt witll in tile section on nominaliZllion, We can nole llere, bowtvtr, tllat tile d.elerminer 4 ''nIAT' is frequently uX4 as the specifier ot sucll I nominaliztd proposiliOn wilen Jucll I proposition can be understood from tile COnltxl and I\.a$ lllus been omitted under Ille Tele&ram Principle-Illus, frequentty, tki dMs,su "AI IlIlt time, , , ," 11ft rd1~J'''' "After 1hll, ' ,," ki mlJhom.s,,.. "Meanwhile. , , ," tki ml lul r "NeIl, ' , ," 11ft s";Oft4u "Before IlIal" , ."
8 8

250

Tne Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN l...ANOUAGE

gsan-bar "secretly," ruii-ba "appropriate" run-bar "appropriately," nan-Ian "earnest" 1I01l -1a tl -du "earnestly," bag-yod-pa "chaste" bag-yod-par "chastely," glol-po "clear" gsa/-per "clearly," and so on.!!1 Adverbs of manner can also be fo rmed from othe r nominals by means of the simile<reating -blin "like, as," and -/lo--lla -bu - -Ita-ba "like, as"_for example, tJhos "dharma" t.IIwsblill -du "in accord with the dharma," yid "mind" yid-blin-du "to heart's
cOlllem ," fun-STAN "prt::dict" Iuii-bsllm-pD-lttlr "as predicted," phyag B1:4 "ma ke a sal ute, pay reverence" pllyag byed-ptJ-llar "as if saluting." Adverbs of extent ca n be similarly formed [rom nominals by mea ns of the totalizers sned " no less than," tsa m "as much as," srid "as long as." Note, for example, in the Tibetan translation of the C hinese Mdzaiis-bJUII fu bya-boi mdo, bo-spu /dQiispo Isam-du skrags " He was so frighte ned his hair stood up," dum-bur btJud-po fsam-du sdug-bsiiaf-gyis gdufis "He suffered as much torment as being cut 10 pieces," bus rna mlhoii-ba uam -du dga "He wa'l as happy as a child seeing iu
m OlhtT."

Finally, there is a special class of adverbs we wi!! here call IN"reN S1A F.RS, The m o~ t common of these acc Iill -Iu. "very" af1d ha-lIan "very," but they include a~ well such adverbs as fhag-par "especially," rab -Iu "particula rly," It -bor "re.IUy," yon.s-su "comple tely," mtIhog-tu "extremely: 'ku.n-/u. "entirely," ikrpar " cena inly,"'egs-par "well." As we have seen, a numbe r of such inte nsifiers v.crc used to translate Sanskrit verb prefixes-for example, mum-par.fJ'.s " particuJ.uly know .... perceive (vijjilii)," mnon-por SI:."S "ma nifestly know .... perceive c(.,irvoyantly (ahhi-jjJiii)," so-sor ~G "i ndividually examine .... know precisely (prary-(JI'(J -jllq)," rob-Ill GN.~ .'i "highly place .... consecrate (prodjJlhii)." There is only one even! in each proposition, so, in each propositio n, there is,

or course, only one possihle head for any adverb. It is thus pos.~ ible to have

~1 The de riva tion al afrlllCo'i - /'{J and ./'I/l) a n also be droppcc1 in JU C" ~rb constructions- thus myurbll 'quick' myur-du ' quickly," ruil./)o "appropriate" nUI-boAT-tuJl-du appropriately: rfaS-pa "conlinua l" rfag-par - naSN "conl in ually," m/I(Nf-ptJ "ev1Iklll".m&In(XU- ,!lii(}ft.Ju --evid<:nt ly." In 11 fe .... cases, adve rbs of ma nne r appar 10 derive from nouns

rll he r Iha n adjectives-ror enmple, 'Xl-'III "m elm" 'X)'IUI--du "continuously," riIfI -pa " sericli rim -par "suC(".CSs ivc ly," diWs "reality" dAas,S\! ~ Iea lly" "The idea of .... hat constitutes the manner of an c.-c nl is no t nc;::es.'I-3rily co nglut n! in Tibetan and English; IIOte, for o;ample, from lin .m:haic Centrat As ian mythological lext, uiJIrdIe lIagfNJ . . . la rlon-du w, khrag r/OfI -du ~aJ, 1"'&1 rlon-du gyottd --The btllCk fiend lord .. ate flesh ra ...., drank blood ra...., dressed in s ki n~ ra ....:
M

PURASES

251

several adverbs modifying the same head-for example,gro-bo fuii-du nan-par sJebs "I arrived at Red Valley in the morning," bla-ma dgon-par nag-ru Mugs ''The lama always stays in the monastery," serns-tJan-kyj don-du bnson-par sgrubs "Meditate diligently for the sake of sentient creatures." Thus too, while an adnominal must immediately precede the head it modifies, an adverb is MOBILE; and adverbs-especially adverbs of time and place-can often be found appropriately in the setting slot of a proposition, while adverbs of manner-and especially intensifiers-tend more often to be found immediately to the left of the verb head.

J-i~rt

9. Charm

fQ

Iccl.: Iht mOlilh of slwuJu

10

Simple Propositions
I. SYNTACfIC STRUCfURE

In classical Tibetan, a PROPOSITION consists of an EVENT preceded by the various PAAllCIPANTS who take part in that even!. The event is what happened; the participants are those to whom the event happened, who made it happen, where it happened, when it happened, with what or with whom it happened, and so on. The part which the participant plays in the event can be called ils participant ROLE.

The \:vcnt is expressed by a VERB PIIRASE, which carries on the verb what Tibctn]ogisls have traditionally called TENSE. For example, the transitive verb TV/I "chllp" has four tense stems-the prese nt stem Nthub "chops," the past stem hluhs "chopped," the future stem btub "will chop," and the imperative stem lImbs "chop!" while the inlransilive verb KURO "be angry" has two",Him "is angry" and khros "was angry."
Each of the pllrticipants is expressed by a ~OMI~Al PHRASE; the participant rok which ij plays is indicated by a following ROLE PARTICLE. For example, in the PTOllOsition nags-fa rgyal-po-s fili-n btubs "The king chopped wood in the forest:' the participant nags "forest" is signaled as Ihe LOCUS of the event hy the mit: particle -la, the participant rgyal-po "king" is signaled as the A(',I'NCY of the event by the role panicle Os, and Ihe participant Jiii "wood" is signaled as the PAn[~T of the event by the role particle -8. There are five primal)' participant roles in the classical language-PATIENT, AGENCY, LOCUS, SOU RCE, and ACCOMPA1'I'IM ENT.

1.1. EVENTS
We can syntactica lly distinguish thre_ e types of event in Tibetan according 10 the participant roles which must accompany them in a proposition, whether Ihese p.!rticipants are expressed explicitly or are understood from the context. E\lCry event requires a PATIENT: that is, every event must HAPPE~ TO some-

SIMPLE PROPOSITIONS

253

body or something,) An INTRANSmVE VERB expresses an event that is not specified as taking place through any agency external to this patient: such a n event-bla-ma-fJ skyel "The lama is weary," bla-ma-IJ ~I "The lama fa lls down," bla-ma- I} ",bros "The la ma flees"-must be accompanied by its PATIENT participant but requires no AGENCY participant.

A "ffiANSI11VE VJW, o n the o ther hand, indicates that the event occurs through some age ncy other than its patient: such an event-bla-ma-s bgep-R btu/ "The lama tamed the demon," dug-gis rgya/-po-R bsad "Poison killed the king"- must be accompanied not o nly by its P ....TIENT participant but also by the ....OENCy participant whereby the event occurs,
For example, in IIlzu-fJ ",kllol "The water boils" Ihe event expressed by the intransitive verb KlIOL "be boiling" can simply HAPPEN TO the patient without a ny external agency; but in bla-ma-s fIfl lI -1} skoJ "The lama boiled the water" the event expressed by the transilive verb SKOL " make 'boiling" not only HAPPENS TO the patient but also must be CARRIED OlIT or IMPLEMENTED by some agency or instrumt: ntality, Finally, the EQU ....IWE VERB YIN- and later RD-- requires TWO patient participants: it expresses the equation or identification of two terms, both of which .u ~de~o that identification, as in bfa-ma 1} snags-poo R yin "The lama is a maglcmn,

forgy.

I In Tibelan Ihcre are thc refore no dllmmy slIbje<:IS like Ihe it in II is rommg or II is Ins t~d we find slich expressions as 1 1/10' IIbob " Rain IS falling" and flo-bun M/libs "Fog has gal hered." 2 The ve,b YIN "be" is the only equative verb in O ld Tibeta n, This verb sholiid nOI be confllSed wilh the intransil ive verb roo "be" which asserts Ihe spatiotempor.1 ens ten', of I singlc paticR! pankiplnl rath er than Ihe t qllition of IWO palient participants-thus bltl mo1I snagspo1 yin "The lama is (idcnt ified as) I magicia n" bill blomo,';-IIl rod "The lama is (spat iOlcmpo rally) on the hill,' Compa re, for eum ple, New Chinese shih "be (eq\iatcd)" and )N "be (spatiolcmporally)"; Ihe problem, of COlirse, is that English has collapsed_o r uprcsses homopho nollsly_lwo different OOl'lOepts. In some IItet lexu, beginning protn.bly in Ihe founeent h ce ntury, Such 1$ the epic of Oe-sar, Ihe Pud-mo IhtlA.)'.", Ind Ihe biography of Mila raspa, we find tbe Middle Tibe... n equalive ve rb RED-lhllS, lor cxa mple, in the epic, g/obtl mjbdl!n s,O'llmo rtd. '1lIe decs is 1101' real , it is In itlllSion," and, in Ihe biography of Mi la,ldr~d ph)NgJ-rdzi mo-mJ rdo-nJh smu-dfHu slUlil "YOli are nOI I herasman, bUI appear as V~j rasauva," The frequency of RED varies in

25'

Ti l E CI.ASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGIo

I NTH.ANSrTI VI '~ l1U.NSr!1vl'. and EQUAllV!! verbs are thus defintd not only SEMMfl.1CAI.LY by the sort of event they express-for example, "be boiling" as opposed 1 0 " make boiling"-but also SYJIlTACnCALLY by the participants which must :!ccompany them,J This threefold categorization is exhaustive:

every Tibetan "erb belongs 1 0 one and only one of these three categories.
whalcvC=T other participants the part icula r verb may require. 4

1()

the texts: Iht vcrb is quilt com mon in the epic, Iclati... cly rare in the Mila, and continues be ahscn l in lear ned Irc,UiSCli; inuccd. lhe tIurrcncc of RED in a classical leXI can be used (l$ an indc~ of cuU I>quial regisler.

The verb REO is uneve nly dimi bulcd in New Tibetan. It is nm fou nd in Ladakh, where)in olntinucs 10 be the only cqualillC "CIO. In Lh a.\a City, rt <: Middle Tibetan liED oas become tllc primary cqua tive vetil, willi }iN < O ld Titletan YIN almost enti rely res tricted 10 cerlai n oms tructions implying re po rta ge uf pe rso nal expe rience-tllus Ii Ihtp rtc "This is a hook" but nl)l ?ri Ihtp >;.v, but Ilut h khl) Ihrp I:lpJ rr " He read tile book" and iit: Ihlp bpI yi.v " I read the book."
J As we havt: discussell, uansitive anll inuansi live ,-crbs differ INfI.EcnmU\I,LY in T ibe tan as well: tra nsitive IlC lhs have (our stems, with the past stem marked wit h . b prefIX; int ransiti"e IlC rhs have t.w tense Slemi, .... ith the past ste m marked with a 8. pref ... Cum pare, fo r example. SOIUG "prodaim," .... ith the four stemssgroglbsgragslbsgraglsgrogs, and GRAG "rcsllumJ"' wilh the two ~lems ~7:'(lgZI,.,ags. Also. so me pain of transitillC and inlransitive ver lls wit h honwphonous rou ts differ inncctionally in the presc nt stem, wilh th e Ir~ru;il ive "crll showin! an adlliliunal am" .1). Com pare 'ID"~ < N-RGW "moves" and rg,.1U1 < NRGWO "transmib," .\},'<U < NGAS "becomes spli t" and ~~J < N_GASO "makes spli t." Addil ionally, as we hallC !iCCn. there arc 31$11 pain o( u ansitive and intransitive verbs, clearly relaled phonologically anll ~ma nl icatly, Ihat differ DER IVATI ONALLY, either by a u ansitivizing prefIX J. (fu r cum pic, UN " r i~ " sUN "raise," GRAG "resound" SGRAG "prOClaim") or by inil ial voicing (fo r example, TIION "emerge" DON "ejoel," DOli "be sca llered" TOR "scalie r").

4 Some verbs ca n be described as requ iri ng-in some sensc_additional partieijnlS. For example, the intransitive ve rb ,.,R;f "belong" req uires nOI o nly its patient pan ici pant but a LOCUS of possession as well_thus rgyalpo-In SrtlS8 mila "The king has a so n," but nOl_at leasl nOi OU I of a co ntexl providing Ihe miss ing 1ocU$-just ?sras 8 m ila. Similarly, the traMitive ycrb mUG "put" requires a loc us pallicipant; we might lind rgyal'pfH rdo. 811hulll bllug "The ki ng put the slone in Ihe waler," but not-again, at least not without a co ntexl in which the locw; is understoud_just ?7J!lIpoJ ,do9 b/Jug. Olher verbs require an ...CCOMI'-'NIMENT-for eumple, the inlla ns;Iive ycrb NDRA "be similar," as in bfa-ma 8 salls ~J-daii lOdra "The lama is lile a Buddha," but not ?b/a.ma- 8 lIMa, o r ttlc trlMilive ve rb rURAL "make M:parate, seve r." as in 'l-Y":'PfH dgra1J srogdtI i1 phral'"The king deprived the ene my o r his lire," but not ?rgy<Il-po. , dgra .B phral. And so me Y erbs seem to require I n

SIMPLE PROPOSIl10NS

255

1.1.1. Equations
As we have noted, the equative velh YIN-and Ialer XF.D-expresses the equation or identification of twO patient participants. Indeed, the presence of two patient parlicipants-for example, bla-ma-f} "lama" a nd mkllan-po-IJ "abbot" in bla-ma-IJ mkliulI-po-1J yill "The lama is an abbot"-uniquely identifies the verh as equative.' Even more, the verb YIN is unique in that it

addilfonallNSTRUME;NT ~r!ici~nt The verb SKRAG "be afraid" gives every evidence of being intransitive, yet we find I1:fiJ/po-11 sbru/gyiJ Jl:Tllg "The king is frightened of tbe snake," b",t not-outside an appropriate con lCJ(t-just ?'!;Jfl/po- H wilg. Similarly, we lind the transitive verb GAN "fill, make r",lI" in such constructions as '1:fiJ/,po-l bumPIl N dhu-I.o.gri.J ''1lIc king fills the put with wat er," bl,lt nOl ?rgyll/poJ bUn!ptlH Hb~fIs. Such required panicipOlRI$ frcql,lently fill Ihe co~1o p3Tlicipant slO1 in th e proposition, immediately prec.eding the: verb.

It is clear that

proposi t ion~

like ?blll.ma ""ira " ?The lama is si milar," and

?~/po-$

rdo- l1

btJug " ?The king put the ruc k," are pU1.lling; it i, not clel1r to me whether our puzzlement

is syn tactic, or semantic, or pragmatic. Wc alleviate ol,lr pU1.z]cment by searching the contex t
ror the missing participant; ...c are perhaps I~ PU1.l.led by, say, ?'1JYil/-po$ butrt-ptJ-1J ~fIs "?The king fills tile pol" because tile miss ing rarticipan t is more elIsily inferred from the CO ntal or, indeed, from our llener~l kno wledge of the world , and of Ihe $OrIS of things people usu ally fill potS with. Ir. ~ddilion, we can nClte here brieny IIIaI cellai n verhs appear to rcql,lire Ihat panicipOlnlS in certain roles have certain St;MANTtC propcn ics. It is 3 oommplacc to observe, for example, that tile patient of a verb such 3$ .t-40 "kill" mus! be animate, or a t lca.st will be read as animate in the COn tCJ(t of Ih e verb, Perhaps more intercs!ing,ly, we can observe !tIlIt !he verb RiiF; "gel, find, obtain" can occur with any son of patien!, ...hile the pa!ient o f the othcrwise appa rently synonymol,ls verb mOB "ge t, lind, Obtain" mUSt h-c atl!itraC'! _ thuS both IJhoJ riitd and IJhoJ Ihob "He gains the dharma" bl,lt riitd " lie finds a knife" and nOi ?gri Ihol>. Thus too an exp ression such as SIlIiJ.lX"'Il! Ihob will o rd inarily be relld as "He gains Buddhahood" and not as "He finds the B",<kIha," and rgytl/.po Ihob a~ " He bc(:omcs the king" and not u "He find5 the kin~"

,n

S The two patient partiCipants whicll thus undergo identificalio n can, of course, oonsist o f nominal phra.'ICS of any length and complelity. In a tClt, Ihc le f.mO!it of tll<:se t~ patient participants may be the TItEM": it ool,lld constitu te o ld infurma!i<ln recoverable from the text Under the Telegram Principle, such old information can be omiucd. For cxa.mple, in such prOpo$ilions as blomll yin "(The person .... e are dicuss ing) i~ a lama" o r blamll 'W111 -poi gs"-~ plvtnba yin " (That object we arc t al ~a ng about) is Ihe o ld lama's golden rosary," the rellder proccs,'\CS tile sbgle pa!lent participant as the RI IEME, and a!.S",mc:s Ihat the mis..~i ng patient participant is some prior elcment in the lext,

256

TilE CLASSICAL Tmrrt'AN LANGUAG l;

is often omined from the proposition entirely: since an equ3tive verb is uniquely defined by the presence of two patient participants, the verh itself becomes redundant in any proposition containing two patients. Under the Telegram Principle, such a redundant constituent can simply be left out.

The equative verb is ohen omilled in verbal complements, metrical verst. proverbs, and parallel poetry. Proverbs with the verb Y1N omitted at the end of the proposition include such examples as phag.pas blla.f-na phag-tshan gtal. yas-kJU2n "If a pig looks at it, a pigsty (is) a divine mansion," and pho-spun dgra..fU son-yon fUSpa per '"Though brothers turn enemies, yel family (is) gold." Such proverbs frequently make use of a proportional form A:B::C:D. with the verb YIN omitted in two para lid equ3tive constructions, Thus we find pha tsan-4an-Di Mon.po, bu l.fhu-.f;n.gi om-bu "The father-a sandalwood tree; the son-8 hollow reed," zasiian luslcyi dgra, miiiall yul-gyi dgra "Bad food-enemy of the body; bad men-'enemy of the land." The scholar Sa-skya paQ4ita would sometimes use such equative proverb forms in his didactic verse; we find, for example, smramai! iiu.pa Ndzul.poi 'KYIl, mismra iiespa spon.bai gIi ~'Much talk-why you get into trouble; no talk-how you Slay out of trouble."
The equative verb can also be omitted before the propositional conJunctinns -STe "ANn," -Am "OR," and yaii "BUT," leaving a proposition with twO patient

The fact that lhe tl'lcmatic ~Iienl pallicipanl can be omincd me:.lns Ihat !>Ome equ3tive col\5tructlons are amhiluoll5, For example, Ihe proposition blo-mo mkJumpo yin can be lUlU either as (lUo,mo.,., (mkJulnpo-1T) yill ''The lama is an abbot" or as bloma mkhonpo)B) yiJI "(The penon under di!oCUssion) is a Ilima.... hoisanabbol. Similarly. the proposition bfa lOla rgatf.po yin an be read ei ther as (bla-ma-') (rga"'po-I) yin "The lama is old/a n old one" or as lUamo rpt$'PO)'''' yin "(The o ne we're talkinl lbolll) is an old lama," In each case, Ihe (orm.er rcadinl assumes that both palienl panicipants are present, and the laller readinl a.uumes lhal a leftward palient has beer, leklraphically omilled,
M

The reason (or lhe ambiluily. 01 coum, is the fact lhal Ihe palient role particle ., is invisible, and Ihus cannol unambiluously lIlark the end of a no minal phrase. Now such ambiguity is noloflen a serious obstacle in Ihe proc:cssin& 01 a text, But, where an author does feci a need 1 0 disambi,'J.Ile such I proposilion, a speciner-oflen Ihe determiner /U ..1H....T"-a.n be llsed, no t (o r its se mantic w ntc:nl, bill jll5t 10 mark the end o( a leftward palienl participant. Thus bIn_mil /U rgDnpo yin can be read only as (bill-mil de- II) (rgan po') yin "'The lama is old/an old one," since the dC:lc:rm;lIer IInambiluoU5ly signals Ih e close of Ihe flnt nominal phrlSC in Ihe equal ion,

SIMPLE PROPOSmONS

257

participants, a conjunction, and no verb.' The following three didactic verses, from the LegJ.par bItJd-pa rin-po-tIhei gter by Sa-skya pa.,4ita, will illustrate the telegraphic omission of YIN before each of these three conjunctiom:
mkhas-pa gfon-lo blad-paAM yon-no li-boi nogs-su 19rub nor-bll lpyi-guUg rgyan-byed-paAM yon-no rgya-mtshoi gUn-no gnos

A wise man either (is) a teacher of others or else meditates in a peaceful forest; a gem either (is) one that adorns a crown or else stays on its island in the sea_

gnod-pd bred-po tIhllii-iiu-YAR mrllr~ blol-ba Ndlln-por bya yur-ba tIhuii-ijui rdIes lugs-neu od-pa tIhen-po ma-mlhan-nam
Though the harm one has done (is) small one should wish to remedy it quickly; have you not seen a great flood flowing through a small channel?
ha-tIan byanu-pa pen-Iaan min Iin-tu gnod-tJhen dgra-laan min pen-/a n-ba Nkhon-gfi-STE gnod-Ian Jcun -gyis ssrub-par sla

Too much friendliness is not even for kinsmen; very great harm is not even for enemies; relying on kinsmen (is) the cause of feuds and-anyone can easily pay back harm.

, Bill the equatiYC verb cannol be omitle<! before the propositional oonJuDaion -J1il1 "AHD." I do not knI;?w why this Ihollid be $0; but this nondeletability of YIN before -rliA is the primary syntact ic distinction between the conjunclions _71iii "AND" and -sn MAND"-I distinction that affecu the way the twO conjunction$ Ire used in making identifications. The ooftltrainlon 1M: omission or YIN before -tiiii is al$O willI allows OOCIIrrence before TJiJI to be ctiagD05lic of the kJdeal caletory of YCfbs.

258

THE ClAssiCAl. TIBETAN l...ANOUACiE

!n these verses we can note the parallel constructions mkhru-pa-IJ gfan-Ill bIad-po-a (Y1N)-Am ''A wise man (is) a teacher 10 others OR _ .. ," gnod-pa byed-pa-B /Jlluii-iiu-8 (YlN)-yaii "The harm one does ( is) small BUT ... ," and giien-Ia fe-bo- B Nkhon-gti-B (Y1N)-STe "Relying on kinsmen (is) the cause of
fcuds, ANO .. ,,,1

1.1.2. Transitive and Intransitive verbs

In a proposition with a transitive verb, either the agency or the patient can
be the theme, and S0, under the Telegram Principle, either can be omittedthus 'KYaf-po-s dgra-g bsad "The king slew the Cherny," 'KYaf-po-s bsad "The king slew (someone)," dgra-B bsad "(Someone) slew the enemy.',s Since much narrative concerns the activity of some particular acto r through whom

the events in the story take place, the agency is often the theme of the proposition; hence we not infrequently find a proposition with a transitive verb and a patient participant, looking very much like a proposition with an inlransilive verb and a patient participant-for example, nor spel "(Someone) increases the wealth " nor "'pilei "The wealth increases," tIhu skoJ "(Someone) boils the water" tJhu Nkhol "The wa ter is boiling," sgo Nby~d "(Someone) opens the door" sgo Nbyt "The door opens," Many such pairs of verbs exhibit an inte resting logical relationship: the transitive verb ENTA.lLS the intransitive verb, but the intransitive verb does not e ntail the transitive verb. Thus nor spel "(Someone) increases the wealth" is true only if flor NpIIEI "The wealth increases" is true, and tIhu skol "(Someone) is boiling the wale r" similarly entails t!hu Nkhol"Th e water is boiling."

7 Sometimes the statement pan icle 0 will mark the close o f I proposition from which the eq ualive ve rb lias been omiued-for eumple, fZUP sloIIfXlo "Form (is) emply," blD/Nl dt rganpoo "The taml (is) old ," mi1D blamao 'Mi., (is) I lima," And if Mi-lihas . lready bct; n Ihe suhjCCI of prior discussion, he may ~ telegraphically o mitted as well, leavin, tile minimal equallvc oonM fllClio n blamao " (The person we arc taikin, lbout) (is) I lama.
H

8 En,;lbh has a device for uprcssin, a transitive action while supprcssin& the specification o f its agency_a passive oolUtrut:tion without I by phrase. h Ihus makes some se nse [0 trlnslate, say, dgra8 bmd as "The ene my was slai n," as opposed 10 ~(SomeollC) slew [he enemy"; bllt convenience o r Iranslation doa not make the verb . nythin, other than If:lnSit ive in Tibeta n. Of course, in the con text or I discourse, the most likely tnnsll tion o r, say, dgro 8 bsod wuu lu be "HE ~Icw lhe enemy," si nce the En&lisb pronoun has tile same a nap hotic runclion as Ihe Ibse nce of I panicipanl does in TIbel,l.n.

SIMPLE PROPOSmONS

259

Again, sgo Nbyed "(Someone) opens the door" entails sgo Nbye "The door opens." and bya spur "(So~eone) scares away the birds" entails bya Nphur 'The birds fly away." On the other hand, sgo Nbye ''The door opens" does not entail sgo Nbyed "(Someone) opens the door": the door might be opening by itself.

A thouIJht is R prapositiMJ JPith R sense. ne torRJity ofpropofifionJ is liJngu"Be. ~l disguises th0t4ght.

-L Wiltgenstein,
Tractatus Logico.Philosop/ticw

Such pairs of verbs as SPEL "make increased" rUF:l. "become increased," SKOL "make .boiling" KJiOL "become boiling," PYE "make open" Btl: "become open," SPUR "make flyaway" PI/UR "fly awny" are thus quite closely relatedby logical entailment, by semantic content, and by phonetic shape. But we must bear in mind that propositions containing different members of such pairs auert quite different sorts of events. The transitive verb in effect claims that the event is the result of some outside agency acting upon the patient; the intransitive verb mak.es no such claim.

1.1.3, Ergativity
Intransitive verbs occur with a patient; transitive verbs occur with both a patient and an agency. Many languages-including Latin and Sanskrit and Chinese-syntactically identify the intransitive patient and the transitive agency. In Englis'h and Chinese, they are both put BEFORE TIlE VERB (as in English ThE 1F.ACHER griLv~s and THE 1F.ACIIER s~es tM pupil), and the transitive patient is put AFTER mE VERa (as in The pupil sus mE 1F.ACHER). In Sanskrit and Latin, they are both put in the NOMINAlTVE CASE (as in Sanskrit ACARYAI/locoli "THE lFACHER grieves" and AcARYAI/ Ji$yam paIyari ''THE l"EACHeR""SeeJ the pupil"), and the transitive patient is put in the ACCUSA11VE CASE (as in Sanskrit AColIIY..qt lqyatz paIyari "The pupil sees TIlE
TEACHER").

260

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

Other languages-including Basque and Eskimo and Tibetan-syntactically identify the intransitive and transitive patients. In Tibetan they arc both given the PATIENT ROLE PARTIClE ., (as in SLOS-DPON-' NgyOd ''TnE TEAOIEJI. grieves" and slob-lfUl-s SLOS-DPOH-' mlhoFi "The pupil sees TIlE TEACiER'). and the transitive agency is given the AGENCY ROLE PARTIClE -ms (as in SWB-DPOH-GYlS slob-ma-' mthoii "THE TEACHER sees the pupil"). In some descriptions or these languages the patient is said to be in the ABSOumVE CASE and the agency in the ERGATIVE CASE (from Greek irgates "work.er").
In an AOCUSAllVE lANGUAGE such as Sanskrit or English, the patient of a Iransitive verb is singled out 85 special and given a distinctive accusative form or position, while the other participants share a nominat~r unmarkedform or position. In an ERGATIVE L\NGUAGE such as Basque or Tibetan, the agency of a transitive verb is singled out as special and given a distinctive ergative form or posilion, while the patient participants share an absolutiveor unmarked-form or position.

We can observe that an ergative system such as Tibetan is patterned very much like the PASSIVE of an accusative system such as English. In the English passive, for example, the agency of a transiti.ve verb is given the distinctive marker by (compare English The pupil is seen BY THE TEACHER with Tibetan SLOB-OPON-GYIS slob-mo-8 mlhon), while the patient participants share the unmarked position before the verb (compare English ThE TF.ACHER griLva and n'E TE'.ACIIER is .seen by tilt pupil with Tibetan Sl..OB-DPON-' NgyOd and slob-mas SL08-DPON-8 mlhon). This is the reason for the assertion, common in older textbooks, that "all Tibetan conslructions are impersonal" or that "all Tibetan verbs are passive." In fact, Tibetan apparently lacks an~ syntactic structure corresponding to the passive of an accusative system; Tibetan transitive constructions can, of course, t}e TRANSU.TED by an English passive (for example, 'KY0/-po-s dgra-' bsad ''The king slew the enemy" or ''The enemy was slain by the king"), but this, again, is a peculiarity of English and not of Tibetan.

, III a number of er.allve langualC', we lind COll$trllClions tUI uve come to be callc4 ANTI'ASSIVES, with the transitive .agency in 1he unmarked absolutive case, the Inll5itivc patient in an oblique or DATTYE ease, and the ycrb in I dist inctive "antipassiYC" form. I havc DOl found a conYincin. example of such an anlipassiYe eomtruelion in Tibcun.

SIMPLE PR OPOS ITIONS

261
1.1.4. '''Thnse''

1.1.4.1. The tense system

Every Tibetan verb occurs in one of four tenses. The tense of the verb is signaled by various more or less regular changes in its phonetic shape-for example, Nthub "chops," btubs "chopped," btub "will chop," 'hubs "chop!" A verb may have a maximum of fo ur such distinct shapes-for example, from the root TU "gather" we find Ntlu.l./btwfb tufrhus. and from the root n llAD "cut" we find gtJodfbtJadlgtJadltJhod. These four forms of the verb have been denominated, by the native grammarians, t/alta-ba "present," Ndas-po "past," ma-oiispa "future," and skullSilig "imperative." It is evident that a simple linea r concept of tense- stretching from the past into the future-does not adequately account for the meanings of these four verb forms. Note too that the present a nd pa~t form a distinct entity as the two tenses shown by intransitive verbs, and the future and imperative as the two tenses peculiar to transitive verbs. Similarly, the present and future form a distinct entity as taking the mi- form of the negative particle, and the past and imperative as taking the rna form; the past and imperative, too, are both distinctively marked with the s- sufftx, while the present and future are not.
It thus seems plausible that these four tenses are in fact the product of two intersecting semantic specifications-an ASPEer specification of completeness a nd a MOOD specification of Potentiality. An eve nt specified as COMPUIE is finiShed, terminated, acco mplish e~ t the time of speaking; the event has a terminal boundary. An event speCified as PO'ffiNTIAL is one that is not fa ctual but is in some way expected to be !actual. In Tibetan, then, the present expresses an event not specified as being either complete or anticipatc:d, as in rgyalpos nor sgrub "The king gets/is getting wealth"; the past exprc:ssc$ an elle nt specified as completed but not as anticipated, as in 'KYalpm I/or hsgmh.f "The king got/has gOllen wealth"; the future expresses an event specific:d as anticipated but not as yet completcd, as in 'KYal.pm Iwr hsgruh "The king will gel wealth"; and the imperatille expresses an event specified as expectc:d to be completed, as in rgyalpos 1I0r !I:mbs "Let/may the king gel wealth!""

10 Similar interactions of mood and aspect are fo und in OIhc r lan cuages. For exa mple. in nga lo!. as in Tibe tan. the verb fOlm ind icating potentiality but no t co mpletio n is IIsed fo r o rd imuy future even ts. and the verb form ind ica ting both pOlentiality and completion is " sed for imperatives.

262

THE ClA'iSICAL TIBC"TAN WGtJAGE

The lenses we have characteri7.ed as indicating completion-Ihe transitive ane intransitive past stem a nd the tra nsitive imperative stem-are all signaled ~ the -s suffIX; the -s suffIX thus appears to be the inflectional marker for aspect. We may note, too, an interesting relationship between transitivity and potentiality: the fact that only transitive verbs can normally be specified as potential suggests tha i Ihe predicI3bility o f an event in Tibetan is connected with its occurring through some outside agency-paradigmatically an animate actor-rather than simply happening to the patient that undergoes it.

1.1.4.2. Periphrastic forms

In the earliest texts, such as the archaic rr.anuscripts discovered in Central Asia, verbal tense was expressed primarily through such inflectional modifications of the verb stem alone. In one such mythological text, for example, the horse Khug-ron rman-dar swears revenr.;: against Wild Yello.", Yak, who had killed his older brother, using the fl~ t ure tense of the verb5 Ttw "cut" and UN "repay," saying, sdan-gi siiiii g-.Jhado, Nbf(jii-g.yag skarbai siiiii gtJhado, byams-kyi Ian glan-no, phu. yid-Icyj gdafi-pyam-gi Ia n glan-no " ! will cut out the wrathful heart, I will cut out the heart of Wild Yellow Yak: 1 will repay the kindness, 1 will repay older brother Yid-kyi gdan-pyam." And, after the yak is slain, he exults, in the past tense, slaii-gi siiiii bt5had, byams-gi nj Ian blan "I have cut out the wrathful heart; his kindness, yes, have I repaid," Periphrastic constructions, in which the job of expressing tense is spread out over more than one verb stem in the sa me proposition, come from three sources. First, we find , even in the archaic Central Tibeta n manuscripts. CONJUNCflONS with the coordinating conjunction -'riiii > .kyin > -ky; > .gi and, to a lesser extent, STe "AND," as in siii-la nna byeu.-tig Ih ogs.~Ii~ "'DUG "A little peacock was there ta ngled in the snare," Second, we find NOMINALIZAllONS with -Pa, 8S in khyed.raii ni iiala dad-nas Oiis,PA YIN "You have come to me in faith, " Third, we find COMPLEMENT coNsllwcno Ns, again even in the earliest archaic texlS-ror example, ~a mgo nag-po de-Ia phyagNtshalliii des bkoJ-BAR oR-no "It came about that the Chinese masses paid homage to him, and were by him enslaved"; in the translation of Sanskrit texts, such complement constructions began to be used more frequently, in part, one supposes, to express the Sanskrit passive-for example. Sanskrit iijiiniit; Tibetan I~SPAR BYED "He knows," Sanskrit siidhyat~ Tibetan bsgruh-PAR BYA "It is proven"-but also in such conslruclions as me sreg-PAR 8YED "Fire

SIMPLE

PROPOSmONS

263

we find-for example, in the diaieci of Uasa City-that several of these

various periphrastic forms, from differenl syntactic sources, have formed a coherent inflectiona1 paradigm. I am not at all sure that such a development can be discerned in the classical texts; and these periphrastic constructions will be dealt with separately in Ihe appropriate seclions of Ihis text.

bums" and me sreg'1'AR NGYUR "Fire Viill burn." By the time of New Tibelan l

1.2. PAKI1CIPANTS
A proposition in Tibetan consists of an event and its participants; the event is the last constituent of the proposition, with its panicipants preceding it in various positions. A panicipant in turn is a nominal phrase marked with a following bound role panicle: the role particle signals the particular role or function of the panicipant in the stated even!. For example, in the proposition nags-la tgyal-pos dgra-11 bsad "The king slew the enemy in Ihe forest," the participant nags "forest" is signaled as the LOCUS of the event.by the role particle -la, the participant rgyal-po "king" is signaled as the AGENCY of the event by the role particle os, and the participant dgra "enemy" is signaled as the PATIEJO" of the event by the role particle -8. Similarly. in the proposition tgyal-po b/a-mll-don dgon -pa-nos byon "The king arrived from the monastery with the lama," the participant tgyal-po "king" is signaled as the PATIENT of the event by the role particle -8, the participant dgon.pa "monastery" is signaled as the SOURCE of the event by the role particle -nas, aDd the participant b/a-mo is signaled as the ACCOMPANIMENT of the event by the role particle -don.. There are five basic roles in the classical language-PATIENT, AGENCY, LOCUS, SOIJRCE, and ACXl)MPANIMENT. These roles-and the different meanings that they cany-will ~ disCussed in the following sections.

1.2.1. The patient role

The PATIEJO" of an event is the participant that suffers., endures, or undergoes the particular state, process, or action; the patient is the one the event HAPPENS TO. With verbs of motion the patient is that which undergoes the motion;' with verbs of location it is that whose location is asserted; with verbs of emotion it is the experiencer of the emotion. Whatever other participants event 'may have, it must always have a patient: in classical Tibetan every an "

264

TilE Cu.s.'~]CAl. lIBETAN lANOUAGE

proposition must have one patient participant either stated or understood; every event has to HAPPEN TO somebody or something. 1I And. with one

exception, any proposition can have only one patient panicipam; the
exception is a proposition containing an equative verb. which uniquely occurs with two patient participants. The role particle that signals the patient of the event is ZERO, which we write herein. when occasion demands, as -8. ThIs means that the patient role is signaled by the ABSENCE of any overt role particle: the proposition bla-ma nal "The lama sleeps" is conveniently conceptualized as bla-ma-JJ nal. This invisible panicle is just as functional as any o ther: the presence of ./J signals the pacitn! of the event just as surely a~, say, the presence of 10 signals its spatial or temporal locus. The zero particle sometimes causes problems in reading only because it is so hard to see.

1.2.2. The agency role

The patient of an event, we have said, is the participant that suffers, endures, or undergoes the particular state, process, or action: in bla-mo-IJ ~I "The lama fell down" the paiticipant blama "lama" is the patient of the process of falling; in bgq:skyis blama1J sgyef "The demon tripped the lama" the participant bla-tno "lama" is the patient of the action of tripping. The AGENCY of an event is the means or instrumentality whereby the event OCCiJrs: in dgra-s rgya/-po., bsad "The enemy killed the king" or serbas rgyalpo-IJ bsad "A hailstorm killed the king" the! participants dgra "enemy" and serba "hailstorm," respectively, are the agencies of the action of killing. The role particle that signals the' agency of an e"ent is :KYis, whose initial undergoes morphophonemic changes according tp the final or pDStfinal of the preceding syllable: Klir becomes .gis after preceding final .g and iii becomes

II When Ihe palicnl parlicipanl is nUl bci r ,! aCled upon by some agency o r inslrumen. lalily ulernallo ii, il can convenienlly be u:."slalcd as lhe English subJec1-lhus rf>Yl/poiJ itfl/''1lIe king sleeps." When it is being aCled upon by some exlernal agency o r jnmume;, talily, it ClIn be translaled into English either as the objecl in an active conslruc1ion (If It>" sulljccl in I passive one-thUS dgra l ~/.po . , bsad "The enemy slew Ihe king" or 'Tht'. 1.;.1r.g was slain by the enemy." Inleralingly, it seems Ihal cLlMial Tibe~n can be ,\llo roughly descr ibed without rC$()tlin& to Ihe nOlion of crammalial subjecl or Object al nil; it is, in Ihal sense, .... hal 5Omc: IinguL'LI have termed a ROLEDQMIr-;"TI;:O lal''!uage.

SIMPLE PROPOSmONS

265

-kyis after preceding final -d, -b, and -So' and becomes -gyis after preceding final -II, om, or, and -I-thus, for example, bdag-gis, raii-gis, bod-kyis, rab-kyis, gos-kyis, bon-gyis, lam-gyis, phur-gyis, bol-gyis. A preceding open syll<lhk becomes a closed syllable in os-thus, fo r example, dgas, SI'Yis, tgYus, bde.f, bios-although in archaic manuscripts and ancien! monumental inscriptions we encounter such forms as dgais and bdeis. In verse, when an extra syllable is needed for metrical pU'iXlses, we find -yir following an open syllable- for example, dga-yis instead of dgo-f.
The agency whereby an event takes place i quite often animate, although the initiator of an event can also ~ a natural force, an institutio n. or a magic spell: where we read an a~ency as being in some sense RI'.!'\ I'ONSIIlL.E for the event we can speak of an AGENT. On the other hand, the agency m ilY he some inanimate Object wielded by an agent, or in some other way not subject to its own inclination: where we read an agency as being is some sense NOT RF.s f'ON S1Ul .E for the even! we can speak of an INSTR UM ENT. Thus, in a proposition such as rgyol-pos tho-btu rdo bt!ag "The king broke the roc k with a hammer," there is little question that rgyal-po "king" is the agent and fho-ba "hammer" is tne instrumem, despite the fact that they are markcll with exactly the same role particle-except, pe rhaps, in the unlikely {:ontext of a story about, say, an animated hammer and a frozen king. Knowledge o f how the world usually works is often quite enough tu distinguish agents fr OITl insfruments, even in unexpected combinatio ns-for example, bta mas sbrul-gyi:. bgegs brduiis "The lama hit the demon with a snake," or bfa -mu-f siiuXJ-kyi.1 ,do bt!ag "The lama broke the rock wiih a magic spell .' Of course, where the proposition contains only o ne agency plitticipalll, one can argue whet her that participant is "really" an agent, or "rea lly" a n instrument with the ilgent telegraphically omitted : is the propositioll dUI:gif 'KYat-po bsad to be processed as "Poison killed the king" ("If as "(SOlllt:OIl<!) k.illed the king with'poison"? Such processing can bl..: ,-!uite cul ture-hound. T,) an American, the proposition st:rba~ 'KYa f-IX) h.md can only be processed as "A hailstorm killed the king"; a Tibetan would not [ule {)lIt :hl: reClJi l1~ "(Someone) killed the king with a hailstorm." A transitive verb a_ sserts that the event it expresses is the result of.HI out5:t:C agency acting upon the patient, and thus requires an agency particip<:m t:llhc r stated or understood. But agency panicip,lIIts can occur with intransitive ve llr.as well; compare, for example, Ihe proposit ions bfama-s bya -fl .~pw t ",

266

TilE CtA'iSICAL TIBETAN I...ANGUAGE

lama chased/frightened away the birds" and bfa-ma-s bra-S pIuu "The birds flew away/got frightened by/through/because of the lama." In the first proposition, the traruitive verb SPUR "frighten/make fly" asserts that an outside agency is responsible for what happened 10 the birds; in the second, the intransitive verb PIIUR "become frightened/flyaway" makes rio assertion thai the Slated agency controlJed or instigated the event. With an intransitive verb, the agency participant is still the means or instrumentality whereby the event occurred, but it is demoted in its responsibility. In fa cl, we collid set up a sequence of propositions as a RESPONSIBIUn' HIERARCHY with regard, say, to the frightening of a flock of birds, using the transitive verb SPUR "make fly/frighten away" and the intransitive verb PIIUR "fly away/be rrightened," and ranked rrom the clearest assignment or responsibility to the vaguest, like this:

MOST ASSIGNMENT OF RESPONSIBI LJ1T'

bfa-ma-s sgra l!henI)(H bya-S spur

''The lama rrightened away the birds with a loud noise." '"The birds got frightened away by the lama." "The loud noise frightened away the birds" OR "(Someone) frightened away the bi rd~ with a loud noise." --The birds got frightened away by a loud noise." "(Someone/something) frightened away the birds." "The birds got frightened away."

bfa-ma-s bya-S phur

sgra tlhen-pos
b.vQ -n spur

sgra l!ht'llpo-s
bya-e pllllr byo-IJ spur

bya-8 plwr

LEAST ASSIGNMENT OF RESPONSIBILm'

SIMPI.E PROPOSmONS

267

An instrument can be just about anything whereby or through which the evenl-including one expressed by an intransitive verb-takes place. 12 Mi-Ia, for example, mkhar-Ias-kyis mi-sdug "is/grows weary with tower work"; we find such propositions as hla-ma yon-tan duma-s NPhags "The lama is noble with many virtues," ri-bo nags-kyis mdzes "The mountain is beautiful with forests," bdag khyim-gyis skyo "I weary of the household lire," rgyal-po sbrulgyis Ndtigs "The king is scared of snakes." Dpal-sprul rin-po-t!he tells a story of how rganmo khy;so-s sans'X)'as "an old woman became a Buddha by means of a dog's tooth." And nole the proverb;

blo nse-gijislcyis don m;-HgfUb "hab nse-gijis-kyis Ntshem-bu milen

The goal is not reached with an unsteady mind; a stitch is not made with a two-pointed needle_ The notion of instrument is easily extended to include states of mind or other abstra'"ctions, yielding expressions that can be Iranslated adverbally in English -for example, tllugs-rdle-s "with compassion ... compassionately," tfhed-gijer. gyis "with purpose ..... purposefully," tUll1-tall-gyis "with earnestness ... assiduously," raiiblingyis "by its own nature - spontaneously."

1.2.3. The locus and source roles

There are two role particles, -la and -na, which signal the LOCUS of an event, and two Tole particles, -las and -nas, which signal its SOURCE. The locus of an event is the lime or place it occurs; the SOUTce of an event is the place or cause or material from or through which it takes place. With verbs of motion the locus is the goal of the motion, and the source is its departure point; a transfer takes place from a SOUTce to .a locus. With verbs of emotion the locus is that toward which the emotion is directed; with verbs of construction the source is that out of which the patient is built.

12 NOte che following inte rescing difference between che ]p./SlllUJr04ENT used by an agent and Ihe SOURce or ground of his action: I proposicion A-,ou lilg-OIS s-' tllldl m~ns chac A graspc4 A hy ,.s hand, while A,ou IIlg"'Al /)111.11 means thai A grasped. 9 by s's hand ; in che firs! case Ihe haml is !he iMlrUmen! uloOd by ..... and in the second cue !tIc hand is Ihe m3lerill1 ,round of the lelion of ,raspin,. ThIlS, 100, we find, unambi,uoll51y, A-K11s Jltra-"'As 116 bzu.ll "A ,rasped a by his hair,' bUI not, in mosl COnleJtS, ?A-K11s slaas 8-'/)11I11.

a-'

268

1'1110 CLASSICAL TIBETAN l..J.NGUAGF

It is clear that the two locus particles and two source particles are clos~ ly related. The locus particle -fa and the source particle -las both begin wi'h initiall, while the locus particle -na and the source particle -nas both begin ~ith initial n. The two source particles -las and -nas both end with final os, while the two locus particles Ia and -1111 both end with final -8. I)

11-

We can distinguish the t- locus from the n- locus, and the /- source from the source, by the concept of BOUNOEDNESS: an n locus participant or f1source participant is specified as constituting an ENCLOSED SPACE in or out of which the even! occurs. For example, when a person sits by the water, or fl oats on it, or goes toward it, so that the water is not specified as somehow CONTAINING the action, the n tile water is an J. locus; but when a person sits o r swims under the water, or dives into the water, or movcs within or through the water, so that the water is specified as a closed space relative to the action, thcn the water is an fl locus. Similarly, when a person emerges from the water, or a fish leaps up orf its surfacc, the water is an /- source; but when a person comes out from under the water, so that the wate r contains 14 some component of his observed motiqn, the water is an n- source. We

Il A5 10 Ihe n locus and source panicles, comparc the noun nan "inlerio r, inside. inner and _ lhough pcrhars un likety_Old Chinese '" w~b :> "nwJid "intcrior , inside, inner." II is templing tU hypolhcsi1.c a Proto-Tibetan panicle affilt '-s "SOURCE" as a formative in bOlh fh i: n- souru: and 1- source part;clcs; since the agency of an evt:nt is, in somc !lense. a sourtc tJf thr.! eycnt, the agency role panicle -I.')1's might be furmed with the sarno; "-s afrllt addctl III th e adnominal pa n icle m Indeed. the Tibetan grlm malic.al traditit)n has nou:d Ihe r clation~hip belween such proposilions a51;;;mkhan -gyis starts Ii;; brIM "The woodS man CUI Iho:: tree with an axe" and Iiii mkhan~ sta-us lUi brlad "The woodsman's axe CUI the !ree."
~n"

l~ The gencral rule is suhjeci to scyc ral conventio ns. The sou rce of a Hansfer- in fal,1, Ihe sourcc of mosl sorts of linear mOlion - is an n source: th us we find bluma Iha ,s(l nas pt'./J;ii .l(I Ngro "The lama goes' from Lha.\ a 10 Peking." Kuii .nas ";;"d "Where did you gel tha I frum?" The larget of an elll<ltion is an 1_ locu$-thus blama dhrula dga 'llte lama del ight~ in Ille d h3rm~," rwu1po 11010 gduii "The king yearns for food," ~ ~Ipo-Ia sdaii ''Tl!e demon ~,a l 6; Ille king. " Wilh verbs of oonsUlI(tion, th e material of which the objcct is made ;~ u_~ ualJ y an I source-Ih us phorpa gU T-Ius bras " lie made ~ bowl OUI of gold," m(Htilt diiu//IJs ~b "The vajra was made of silver": hut occasionally the m:uerial i~ e~prcs.wd 3S an n- sou rce-fur Cltample. k/rajjpa pha'f(U-nas brrsif{1 "He built a hou!le from bricks:' When an allima' e being is an owner ur recipienl of an object, the animale being is an I l",o,:u_~ fOf Illal (ll'tlcel _ th u5 blamn.la phrt iib(l gur.po)Od "The: lama hl\!; a golden rosary," sniiH70'aJ ' 10 d;:t J/oii -gis mrJhodpa phul"nlc monk ga\'e offe rin gs 10 the Buddha," mi maiipoi don 1 1l Jgtsl(Jii-~s (.tho$ bJad "Thc monk taughl th e dharma fur the sake of Ihe many:'

269
can thus diagram the four particles as follows:

l'IONBOUNDED
LOCUS
SOURCE

BOUNDED

-Ia
-las

-na -nas

These four particles do the same work as the whole array of English preposilions-to, at, in, on, for. through. and so on. One reason the)' can do so is because English prepositions are often cOnlextual1y determined. For example. English ust:s different prepositions for location and direction: we: say He fives AT Ille mOtUlSIery but H e goes TO tile monastery. in Tibetan, the same locus particles afC used with verbs of locatio n and verbs of motion. There is no confusion because, of course, the verbs 3TC different-thus dgcm-paL,A blugs "He lives AT the monastery" and dgon.po.-u NgrrJ "He goes TO the monastery"; the fact thai the locus panicle must be TRANSLATED differently when it indicates a site rather than a target is a peculiarity of English. Now such a site or targe t may be either animate or inanimate. The difference is important in EngliSh, where animate sites and targets may be given special syntactic treatment; again, Tibetan uses the same locus particle in either case, with apparently little confusion. tl For example. Tibetan expresses POSSESSION with the particle /a and the verb YOD "exist spatiotemporally"-thus b/a-mala phreii-ba yod "The lama has a rosary," Tgya/-po!a ralgri. yod "The king has a sword." The construction is the same as that for any assertion of spatiatemporal location- compare Tgya-mtsho-Ia na yod "There are fish in the ocean," liij-fa spreu yod "The monkey is in the tree."" The fact that an
IS Note the similarity 10 the reading or age nts .nd instrumenl5. Both .re m.rkod with the same panicle . .nis, but in any proposition-say, rgyal_po-I fal-gri' dgrtl bJOd ''The: king slew the e nemy with. sword'_lhe a ninuote . gency is more likely \0 be read as the agent and the inanimate agency as the instru menl. 14 Note, 100, assert ions o f location which in EngliSh c.an be exprc:sscd-mellphoric:ally'las posses.sion, .nd 1l5..!oCrlions of possession whiCh can be elprC5$Cd-politely1-as toc::alion: compare, for eumple, rila mt-wg yud "There are n~rs on the mounllin{T1le mou ntain has flowers" with Tgttllpo.lil 1t11iba yud "The king has neas/There are fleas o n the king." Simila rly, with verbs o f tra nsfer, English marks as recipients o r benertc:iaries those t.rgets o f Ihe tranMer capahlc o f I>c:ing affeCied by the thin, transferred-for eumple, Itlil.r-'g)'Iu.Ayis

270

TilE ClASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

animate site is orten best TRANS lATED as a possessor is a peculia rity of English. When locus or source particles alone are relt to be insufficient, an author may specify locus or source more precisely by using any of several REUr.TOR NOUNS. Such relator constructions are parallel to such English expr~ssions as on rhe fOp oJ. to the right oJ. or for rile sake of-for example, brag-gi kha-Ia "on top of Ihe rock," de; dus-na "during that time," rii og-nas "from under the mountain," dge-slon-g; gseb-nas "OUI of the midsl of the monks.',17

1.2,4, The accompaniment role

The I\CCOMPANIME."ITof an even! is the pan icipanl along with which the event occ urs. The particle which expresses the accompaniment rolc is -dan-thus,

" a(;,/a tJhO$ bJad '''The Budliha' taughl tile dha rma IN Ihe woods" bllt sans.tgYrls-.IcyU byIl./a dhos Mad ''The Buddlla tauglll tile dllarma TO tile bi rds"; note fillpas fill U tJhu dTa1U

''The far mer brought wate r TO/fOR the field." OaMical Tibetan does not_as the examples show-require su.c:b a distinction; .... bere 11 tllrEet must be specified as a beneficiary, 11 benefi t relator can be u.'oCd. 17 The followi ng are exa mples of the most commonly enrounl ered rela Mr nouns: SPATIAL KEU.TOkS include /cha "surface." /chon. "int erio r," ~oiiJ " midlile," gall "prOxi mity," goil "upper part," JoWam "side." 110 " face," thad "direction straight ahead," thog "uppermost pan," mtha "end," drun "proximity:' ph)'OKJ "direction," bar "interval," nsa ......icinity," mlshams "border," Jlad " hindpa n ," (;'~b "midst." Among spatial relaton may be included the compass points Jar "Wt," tho "souch," n~b ''WeSt.'' byaJi "nonh"; intermediate compass points are consistently read off dock""i~-thu5 Jar .tho "southeast," thQnub "southwest," ""b byan "northwest," byanl", "nor th ca~t . " NO! unexpectedly, many spatial relaton are seman tica lly paired---dkyir "ccnter" Nkhcw ''f,:i rcumferencc,'' slion " fro nt" rdfts "rear," mdun "front" rgyab "back," mgo " head" mdlug "llIi l," s/ti! "to p" og "botto m," nan "inside" phyi "outside," g.yw " right" &)'0'1 "left," I$hu "this side" pha " that side," pIw "the upper parI of an asce nding valley" mdo " the lower part of I valley .... here it merges into tile plain." There are three TEMPORAl_ relaton-Jkabs "oo::asio n," ~J "time," ts~ "time." Elsewhere we find spa,ial relalon used metaphorically fur li me-t hus goii " upper pan .... time preceding," snon "front .... lime preceding," mtho "end'" conclusion," bar "interval -- time between,- mt.sIIanu H bordcr -- junclure." og Hbouom .... time I'oIlowi ng," Jiad "hindpart __ lime lollowi ng." It is in terc:sting 10 note that lime is conccptualilCd as moving both from ahead to behind a"ld lrom above to below. Finally, there arc IIEl'If.I'rT REt.ATOKS----dOII "sake, purpose," phyir "sake, pu rpose," tJhfii "benefit, gai n."

SIMPLE PROPOSITIONS

271

for example, rgyal-po bla-ma-dan dgon-ptl-Ia slebs ''The king came 10 Ihe monaslery with the lama.,,18 A number of verbs, both transitive and inlransitive, take an accompaniment as a core panicipant. These include verbs of distance, such as RJN "be far" and NE "be near"; verbs of similarity and agreement, such as MTSHUN "be like, similar," NDRA "be similar, equal," MNAM "be like, the same," MfHUN "agree, be in harmony," STUN "make agree, harmonize"; verbs of meeting, joining, and mixing, such as MOlAL "meel," PURAD "meet, fall in with," SPRAD "bring together, make meet," SBl'ItR "join, connect," SM8 "join, unite," GROOS "be associated," DRlS "be accustomed, acq\Jainted," ULtN "be together," NDRE "be mixed, ": SRE "mix"; verbs of opposition, such as KHON "bear a grudge, be dissatiSfied," NTlWJ "fight, quarrel," GAL "be opposed," soo "bid defiance, bear up against, risk, venlure"; verbs of connection and separation, such as 8REL "be connected," SBREL "connect, make joined," BRAl.. "be separaled," PHRAl.. "separate, deprive"; and verbs of conversation, such as SMRA "speak," GROS "consult," LAB "talk. ,,19 Thus we find, for example, propositions such as gna.J Ndi gron-khyer-DAR riii "This place is far FROM town," dge-slon tlhos-DAR Nkhon ''The monk is dissatisfied wrrn/tire:d OF the dharma," bslu-baj mom-pas Ichyeu-DAR SmnlS "He spoke wrntIro the: youth in a seductive way," lus-srogDAR Jdo "He risks 8 his life," mal-Nbyor-pa khatshubDAfJ Nthab "The yogin struggles wmUAGAINST a hailstorm," sem5 mig-DAR bsdebs-nas Ita, maba-DAfJ bJdebsnas nan "The mind sees by joining WlTHlhe eye, and hears by joining WJTI-I the ear," naii-po-DAN (,aba mimlhun-poi dus-lig yon "A time will come of views hostile TO/not in accord wml Buddhism."

18 The accompaniment paniclc -dan is the samc as Ihe nominal phrase oonjlltlClion -dan. Note, therdore, that. ooll$\ruct ion SIKh as blama-dan rgyalpo Ng10 is syntaClk:alty ambiguous between Ihe phrasal oonjllnClion reading (bla-ma-dan rgyaf.po).' Ng10 "The king-and-' lama SO" and the accompanimenl read ing (bl/lma-dali) (rgyafpo-I) IoJFO "The king goes wilh the lama," .llbough such ambigllity seems seldom of much moment. The oonSiruClion '1fY'i1po bla_ma-<k>iI "WO, on the other hand, is unambigl.lOus: il an only be given Ihe lOCOmpanimcnl reading (rgyal_po. S) (bla ma-dail) Ngra "The king goes with Ihe lama." It Note particul3rly Ihe verb5 LDAN "be endowed, pos.seu,".nd BJ1,ts --be aooompanied,

posseu," as in Jails'K)'QS yrNt-/an-danldoll "The Buddha is endowed with excellellce," '1fY'il.po

H4hor-dDII brJ/lJ "TlIe king is accompanied. by his retinllC." These vtrb5 are disc\wod, with

InC lexical tormal ive -dall "POSSESSING," in the secllon on derivational morphology.

2n

THE CLAssiCAL TtBeTAN l..J..NOUA02

2. THEMATIC STRUCTURE
2.1. PAf(fICIPANT ORDER
When a participant is marked by its role particle, its function in the-proposition is signalled by the particle rather than-as in, say, English-its position relative to the other participants. It is not quile: accurate: to say that ''lORD ORDER is free in classical Tibetan; a change DC word order within a nominal phrase can change its meaning-for example, bla-mas I1hos bJad-pa "the teaching of dharma by the la ma" tJhOJ bla-mas blad-pa "the dharma that the Ian.a taught." But we am say that in classical Tibetan PARTICIPANT ORDER is free: the two proposit)ons bla-mas dhos bIad and tIhos bJa.mas blad have the same propositional content, at least in the sense that the: conditions under which the: two propositions would be true: or false arc exactly the same. But while the propositional conlent of these twO propositions is arguably the same, their TIIEMAllC structure is different. 2O The proposition bIDmas IJho.r bJad is ABOUT the lama; the proposition IJhQS bla-mas Mad is AIK>llT the dharma. Now the notion of "aboutness" is itself far from clear. But the proposition bla-mas tJlws bJad "The lama taught the dharma" is in sOme natural way a response to the question "What about the lama?" or a lead sentence in an essay about the lama; while the proposition tJho.r bla-1IUl.J Mad "The dharma-the lama taught it" is in the same natural way 8 response to the question "What about the dharma?" Of a lead sentence in an essay about the dharma.1 !

20 In this sense W(; can say 111011 Ihree kinds of information Ire encoded In I Tibellft proposition _ the tEXtCAI. informatiOn liven by e.1Iell word (~po.s dgrtJ. brdullJ "llle king lIil the enemy" con~ diffe rentlcxia,l informltion thin 'l\f6/.po.J b~ brdWIJ "The king lIil Ihe demun"); the SYI'o'TAC'nC in formatkln liven by role panicles and tense .fnllCS (rgyolIKI.J dxro8 brdu;;J "11M: kin, hit the enemy" conveys different $yn~lic information Illan d/."o $ ry;ya1po8 brdu;; '"1lIe e nemy will hit the king"); and tbe TI-lEM--.TIC in(orma lion (11nvt:ycd by Ihe position of (:JIch participant ('f:)'tlipo-s df?tJ. b/'duAJ '1ltc king hit Ille encmy" con~ different thematic in(o~I)on than dgra. rgyal.p(1-J brduilJ "The enemy_ the king hit him"). 2t When the pat ien t o f a tra nSitive verb is made the theme of I proposilion, the propos ilion may orten be cnl:venicnUy lllAHSUTIill by I n EnJlish pusive-for eumple, rd:i:o",o nba.",khQlt.gyis bIOS rgyolpos btlag '11Ie pol-the POlltf mlde it Ind tile kin, llroke itffhc pot _ malk by Ihe poller uJ broken by the ILin&-" This is. of CO Il rs.e. a fcailife of English a nd not of Tibetan.

SIMPLE PROPOSITIONS

273

Given the proposition bfa-mas tIlws bJad "The lama taugh~ the dharma," we would not be surprised to find the participant bla-rna "lama" telegraphically omitted in a following proposition-for example, bla-mas t1hru blad-t1iii bgegs btuJ "The lama taught the dharma and tamed demons"; gi~n the proposition dhru bla-mas bJad "The dharma-the lama taught it." we would not be surprised to find the participant dhru "dharma" telegraphically omitted in a following proposition-for example, tJhru bla-mas bJad-tIiii mkhan-pos bkrtlf 'The dharma-the lama taught it and the abbot explained it." In these cases, the missing participant in the second proposition is easily processed as being the same as the theme in the first proposition; the sequences are easy to read_ But a proposition such as bla-mas dhos bJad-din mlchan-pas bkml is harder to process-although it can certainly be figured out-because it defeats our thematic expectations: the apparent theme of the first proposition cannot be processed as being the same as the missing participant in the second. A proposition such as t1hos bla-mOJ blad-tIiij bgqs btul is thematically ambiguous between the readings "The lama taught the dharma and tiE tamed demons" and "The dharma was taught by !he lama and IT tamed demons." Note, again, that !he telegraphic omission of !hemes in Tibetan corresponds to pronominalization in English. The normal order of participants in a Tibetan proposition is as follows. The proposition consists first of a SI::n1NG for the rest of the proposition, which remainder is the AcnON; that action consists of a statement of the TIIEME, followed by whatever information the proposition supplies about that theme, which is called the RIIEME; that rheme consists of the PERIPIlERy-all the incidental participants in the event-followed by the NUCI.EUS; and that nucleus, finally, consists of the CORE participant in the proposition, followed by the EVENT. For example, in the proposition dei fsll~-/a rgya/-po-s ral-gri-s dgra-8 bsad "At that time, the king slew the enemy y,i th 3 sword," the locus participant de; fSfI~ "that time" is the ScrnNG of the proposition, while the remainder is its action; the agent participant 'ID'al-po "king" is the llIr:Mr: of the action, while the remainder is its rheme; the instrument participant ra/-gri "sword" is the PERIPHERY of the rheme, while the remainder is its nucleus; and the patient participant dgra "enemy" is the CORE of the nucleus, followed only by the event. The participant in the SETTII'lc, slot supplies the place, time, or circum5tances which place the event among other ev!!nls; such seuings might be spatial ("'In

274

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

Ihe woods ... "), temporal ("From that day onward ... "), logical ("Therefore .. ,"), or circumstantial ("Upon his arrival ... "). The selling slo t need nOl be filled; but, when it is, the occupant may be a locus (de; dus-fa "At that lime .. ,"), source (de-llus "After that . .. "), agency (de; /shig-gis "With those

The litera? ereRtar hIlI the right to distinugrau the primRJ maNer of rwrdJ Impaud on him by tatbooJu
and tiicrionariu.

He has the right to

l'}ntlUtj,a/ laR'I.

J(Je

word

of his uwn [lUhit:ming

and to dirrtgard existing gran/madcal and

-Eugene Jolas,
Proc/amaljnn

words .. ,"), accompaniment (bla-mtJ-dan "Along with the lama ... "), o r adverb (j:aii-xi rhyi,-du "For which reason ... "). As might be expected, locus panicipants are found frequently in the setting slot; in fact, in temporal expressions especially, the locus p,LTlicJe may be telegraphically omitted, as easily recoverahle, from such a panicipam-thus dei dw "AI that time," NgrOboi nile "When he lefl," dd son "On the day after that," slebs.pai do-nub "On the cn:ning of his arrivaL" Frequemly occurring selling collocations can also be clipped-for example , de-Jus "At that time," goii-phyir "For which reasOn_" The HI (:ME, as we have said, is what the proposition is about. Where one or more of the participants in the proposition is human, we normally expect the human participant-or, secondarily, any animate participant-to be the theme, simply hecause the dOings of people, pr animals, or spirits, are what peojlle often talk about. But any participant can be the theme of a proposition-for example, a source (dgon-po IIhenpo-nos dge-slun um "It was from the greal monastery that the monk came"), an instrument (ro/-gri Ndis 'KY0/-pos dgra bsod "It was with this sword that the king slew the enemy"), or a palient (rdzomo 'X)'uf-pos htIog 'The pot was broken by the king"),

SIMPLE PROPOSmONS

275

The COilE participant, immediately to Ihe lert of the event, is the participant semantically required for the complete statement of the event-that is, the participant thai "goes with" the verb, such as the site of a verb of location (dgo/1'pG.la btup "dwells in the monastery"), the target of a verb of motion (nags.la Ngro "goes to the woods"), the accompaniment of a verb of meeting (blil-ma~aij mdIal "meets the lama"), or the patient of a transitive verb (dgrg bsad "slew the enemy"), where the core participant has not been shifted leftward to become the theme. The PERtPHERAL participants are all the remaining participants-instruments, accompaniments, sources, loci-which are not setting, theme, or core.

2.2. TOPICS
A TOPIC is part of a proposition which is singled Out by one of several syntactic devices 95 TI-lAT WHICH IS TO BE TAI.Y.EO ABOUT. A topic-as opposed to a theme-is always announced; most propositions, in fact, do not have such an announced topic, although every proposition has a theme; the topic and the theme of a proposition mayor may nOl be the same. For example, in the proposition rgyalpos dgra ni bsad grogs /1; bslcyans the participant 'KYal-po "Icing" is the theme; but first dgra "enemy" and then grogs "friend" is signalled as the topic by the topicaliter n~ and we might translate "What the king did was this: enemies-he killed them; friends-he protected them." On the other hand a theme may be brought into greater prominence by being made the topic as well, as in na; mthw ni bgegs Ndul serba Nbebs, where the participant fuJi mthu "my magic power" is both theme and topic, and we might translate '"My magic power-it tames demons; it casts down hailstonns...

2.2.1. The I()picalizer n;

The TOPlCA.UZER ni may be placed anywhere in a proposition except in initial position or before a bound constituent; it signals thaI what precedes is Ihe topic-for example, Ichyod ni blo nor "You-your thought is in error," spon.bM byG-ba ni spo;is-lig "What you should renounce-renounce it'" mar-po ur' N iii yod sJcyes-ml1hog mar-po urba iii med "Someone called Mar-pa-there is one; someone called Saint Marpa-there isn't." The source of this topicalizer seems to be an archaic exclamatory particle ni that recurs regularly at the end of the first foot in every line of the ancient bardic poetry. For

276

TIm CLAssICAl TmF.I'AN lANoUAGe

example, in the archaic chronicle preserved at 'IUn-huang, which daiel to the mid-seventh century, we find the mighty Ndus-sroii, betrayed by h~ . vassal Mgar, singing the following song:
kye

gna-; ni thog-ma-ru
gle_; ni daii-po-w
dguii-sno nl ma-og-gi

dcg-mon ni yo-slens-no gtsug.gtsugs ni buugs-Iegs-II!

mthos-te ni dguii myj.rdib

dog-nwn ni sdiii myi-iiams dglln ./a ni giii Jor-ba

dro-dro ni sala dro sgro-btag:s ni btags-legH~ bUa-no ni dpal yan dpal Nplwiis-pa ni Ja yan khums Iakhum.s ni my; yon glOl f!Y< diriii 11; sanA/la-no dog-sriii ni shUT-bu.is bya-ltar ni btsos-buos-Je
gnam-du ni NfJhur-Ndod-kyaii

Nphur-du 11; Ndab ma-m1Shis tvphur-du 11; Ndab mJJhiskyaii dguii-siio ni phaii-rnthoNe sprin ni go my; "ius

ya-ru 11; dguii rna-slehs

mo-ru l1i dog ma-slebr

ma-mtho ni ma-dma-ste JehIQ-i 'Ii gzan-du gyurd

bya-pu 11; luii-tshuiis-na

Nbaij,s-lig ni rdlt-TU n
mgar-bu

ni rdft-ru

rt

sba/-po tli Hphur-du rr ...

Oh
at the beginning YES in the old times in the first days YES of-lhe past the b lue sky Y.'i below it

SIMPLE

PROPOSmON S the broad earth YES above it it was all laid out YES laid out well the sky was high YES did nOl fall the earth was deep YES did not crack in the sky YES the sun rose warmer warmer YES wann on the earth arrows feathered YES feathered well oh so fine YES fine 10 see Ihey were loosed YES slew the deer slain deer YES nourished the people Oh but today YES 1 look about me the beetle YES waits in the earth imitates YES imitates the birds in the 5ky YES wants to fly but has no wings YES to fly with even had he wings YES \0 fly with the blue sky YES is too high for him could not pass YES beyond the clouds could not reach YES the sky above could not reach YES the earth below not high enough YES nO( low enough he becomes food YES for the hawk in Ihis small valley YES in Byapu a V8SS&1 hopes YES to be }ord little Mgar hopes YES to be lord a frog hopes YES to fly ...

Another archaic manuscript. also preserved at Thnhuang, entitled The Proverbs of Mother Su.mpa, contains a series of aphorisms using the particle ni in a different and very effective way as a pure topicalizer. Here we read, (or example, pluwg-dogpai myi ni iNdDn m,Yt! ItDr Nbar-ro "An envious man -his hate bums like fire," mIl.;w.par bsad-pa ni sbnJ-gdug )'Dn siiiii4'dteo "1b kiD where there is no offense-evc:n a snake has more compassion,"'Juu mIl-bies-par wp bJasPo ni dmn NgYUN'O '1'0 slaughter a sheep not accepted by the gods-it becomes polluted," byuriian nadbut!an-ia ni yi~gs Jcyaii siiiiird1eo "For ~ sick fool-cven a demon feels sorry," "agm iies-pa IIi rnu. sula dgra yall myi-byed-do "Perpetual evil-even an enemy does not do it-lo anyone," mil Ndzaiis bu Ndzaiis-na ,.i ~r-la g.yu spm-la, rna ;w,. bu. iia,.na ni khoii-rul-du Iud spuii-pa..tfan Ndrao "I{ a mother is wise and the son is wise-it

278

TilE CLASSICAL TIDETAN lANGUAGE

is like turquoise set in gold; if a mother is wicked and the son is wicked-it is like dung piled in a rotten house."

The lopicalizer ni is also found in the translation literalUre rendering such Sanskrit particles as hi (as in Sanskrit 110 hidam Tibetan de ni ma-lagNo "That is nOi so," Sanskrit kleJii hi molqapriipler iillara~m Tibetan non-monspo-moms ni thor-po MllOh-po-la sgrib-pa "The defilements are impediments 10 obtaining enlightenment"), and tu (as in Sanskrit OYOI?1 tu lIi!qa~ Tibetan Ndi ni khyad-par yin "This is different," Sanskrit aku.Iale lu iihrikyam
anaparrapii Tibetan mi-dge-Ia ni khref-med-daii no-tsha-med-pao ''Among the

impurities arc immodesty and shamelessness").

In the classical texis the lopicalizer IIi has been adapted to a variety of uses. It sets off chapter titles and paragraph headings (as in leu daii-po ni "Chapter One," daii-po IJllol dar-bai Ishul ni "Part One: How the Dharma Spread"); it topicalizes the theme of an equation (as in mi-Ia ni mal-Nbyor-pa yin "Mila-he's a yogin," iia IIi bram-ze "Me-I'm a brahmin"); it topicalize5 elements embedded in larger syntactic struclUres (as in rgfa-mtsho ni tIhenpo-Io iio maii-po yod "The ocean-in it so vast are many fish," iii-mai ni odu r Nbor "The sun-the light of it blazes"); it sets off the key term in commentarial elaboration (as in bsiab-pa kun-gyj gIi Ndzi/t.#iii gsuns-te bslabpo ni Ihag-pa tshul-khrims-daii Ihag-pa sel7LJ-daii Ihag-po Ies~b-kyi bslab-po gsum-du naii-pa-Ia grogs-po " It is said: 'He holds the foundation of all teaChings.' Teachings-these 8rc \mown among Buddhists as the three teachings of morality and meditation and wisdom"). The topicalizer ni can, of course, be used excessively: in poetry especially it is sometimes used only as a convenient device for filling out the meter. An effective stylist uses it sparingly so that it can be most effective-for example, GtS3fi-smyon he-ru-ka, in whose biography of Mi-)a ras~pa we find tidi ni siiargyi de-ko yin "Why. this is the same one as before!" iiai tlhed-du $dig-po .JOBtu btoii-ba ni min "Well, I certainly didn't send you to accumulate sins for my sake'" lur.pai ni yab mi-gson ") told him, but my lord won't listen," kun Mig{Xl iii min "This is certainly not to lear down all of it," iied-kyis ni khyod-kyj gtis ph~-pa med "Well, it wasn't we who stole your inheritance!"

2.2.2. The particle la as topicalizer

A topic may also be placed in the setting slot of a proposition and be

SIMPLE PRoPOsmo","s

279

signaled with the locus particle -Ia. For example, we find the proverb lal-Ia pad-ma Ndab-brgyad, thup-la dug-HUhu $doiibu ''As for his mouth-an eightpctallotus; as for his heart-a thorny bush." The poet Pad-rna dkar-po uses such topicalization in the refrain of a lOng. where he repealS, at the end of each stanza, bar-lIad-/a mtd-do "As for hindrances-there aren't any'" When Mi-!a recounts the story of his life, he uses such topicaiizing constructions as gdult-gi mUMn-la mi-la Its grags-so "As for the name of my family-it is known u Mi-Ia," lUi-gi miii-l4 mtluuJ.~n-du lIhap ''And the name of that field-it came to be Lucky," brtsigl-pa dt-Ia noi gyad-rdor grogs-pa yin "As for that which I built-it is known u my Hero Stone." And Mar-pa', wife, puzzled by her hwband's behavior toward Mi-!a, says Sku-mdWl-dU khyilig byuiinUi lIhos pllii, Jchyod-la thupla 171;-Ndop "He teaches the dharma even should a dog appear before him; but as for you-he doe5 not take you to his heart." This topicalizer, like n~ is also used to set off Chapter titles and paragraph headings, as in 'X)'Ql-sa mi-iiagla !or-bai lo-rgyus-la ''As for the history of the loss of the kingdom to the Tanguts , , ,If or gliii-btii miii-la ''As for the names of the four continents. , ." Occasionally, too, the two topicalization devices are used together: Mother Sum-pa saY' myi phyug-po-la ni dbaii-po nor-dadlIan-gyis phuii-la, myi Ndzaits paola ni lIan-p4 phra-dog-tJangyis rlaggo "As for a rich man-the greedy powerful ruin him; as for a wise man-the envious wicked destrny him."

2.2.3. Identification and dennltlon with

-S1I

Seginning with the translation literature, we find constructions with the conjunction sn "AND" which approximate the topical constructions we have been discussing. The conjunction -STt "AND" can be used to conjoin two propositions with a common theme and with that theme telegraphically omitted in the iecond member of the conjunction-for example, bfama dgonpa-Ia byon-tt llhos bla.d "The lama came to the monastery and taught the dharma." Now one-or both-of these conjunctS can be an equative proposition, and that equative conjunct can frequently have the verb Y1N omitted; in such cases we will speak of an IDEtrrm"YINO construction. Some identifying constructions have the equative proposition as the ir SECONO

280

TIlE ClA'iSlCAl. TIBETAN U\NOUA(iE

member-for example, gzugs-kyi mom-por rig-po Nbyuii-ste phyii don-las yin "The perception of form occurs: (it) is from an e){ternsl object," yul de-na bram-ze Ndug-ste dbul-Hphoiis-po-lig-go "In that land dwelt a brahmin: (he) (was) a poor man," In such constructions the equative second member comments on or additionally characlcrizes the theme of the first member. 21 Other identifying constructions with -.'Ire have the equative proposition as their FlRST member, It is here that the first conjunct begins to look very much like a topic. Thus in the translation literature we find such constructions as Sanskrit ye j'allVii~ WQrge sambhutiis tajja", su/cha'!1 pratyanubhallanri Tibetan sems-dan gan-dag mlho-ns-/a Nbyuii-ba -dag-ste de-na yod-pai bde-ba so-sor myoii-iio "Sentient creatures who are born in heaven-they taste the bliss that is found there"; and in the classical literature we find such constructions as lilli na-ro marpa-SI< blama gon-ma-mams-kyis mamthar gsuiis "Tilli, Nilro, Mar.pa-the lamas of the past have told their life stories." Finally, we find highly stereotyped identifying coordinations with truncated equative propositions in BOTI-I members. These are found frequently in the classical texU, used to enumerate chapter titles and paragraph headings (as in rmabyai slcytJpai rabs1t skyupai rubs gnispa "The fable of the peacockthis is fable number two," tJlloskyi Nkhorlo bskorbai leuSle blJo-liia-pa "The chapter on turning the wheel of dharma-this is number fifteen"); to topicalizc a term being defined (as in saiisrgyaNe maTigpai gnid saiispao

22 One: widespread use of this constrllctio~ is to give the: REASON for the: assc:rtio n of the: former memher. In Sanskrit philosophical wri ti ng an a.ssc:nion is ofle:n followed by a nominal compound in tbe ablallve case giving the: reawn for tbe fact or event iS$Cned; the Tibetan Ir.Mlltors rendered such constructions using a conjunction with STt ""AND" whose second equative member was a nominal complement with the abs tract noun head phyiT "reason, cause, aCCOunt" and tbe tq"'tive verb Yl.V omitted. 1bc construction i,\ easier to read than 10 describe: we find Sanskrit MdJuuuvp siddJllJ'7I S\'(llumn(l"iplJklJdhiptltyllf Tibetan gnodptl IogrUbsle riJ/I.g. ftukyi smillptJi dbaJIgi phyirfO "p.in COmeli about: th b i$ because of the dominatint rorce or the ripening of personal karma," sanskrit lUI nlJr(l/(lJ yu,ryanu t(ll1 du~pr(ltisll'7l"tdaItlIf Tibetan woudllJl dmyGftnu mi.rip',l iUi sdugbslWl m' m)"Jl'l.boi pItyit,o "They cannoi be ronsidered to be in hell: th b is bea.usc: tiler do not experie:nce 115 surrerln,," Sanskrit "lIC41 til ~twun /ilqllYiJqlJptq(;" ,; ; 'ibetan IIlIggi ni uhig .sn\I'{lbar byd-bflUJ dlHz/I'P9./lid ml! .yiII.(t slob-pai khytJdparUJ 11 'lyi"'(l '"Language: is not the controlling force ohpeech: this is bcc:ausc: il requires a p. ;:.. ~ .,( I<AI ning proceu:' Such coIIStrvctions were: borrowed from the Hanslation lal':> ~ :'" " ,to the class~l lan guage, and mntirlcations of Ihis son are comnlo n stylistic feature of Tibetan philO5Oph~1 tlIposilion.

,,_t

SIWPLE PROPOSITIONS

281

"&ddha-he is one who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance," Ji-ra-sre mgo-bo fu bya-Ixlo ''The word Jiras-lhis means head"); and to summarize or identify lisla of terms (as in lus4iln srog4iln yid-dan btan-siioms-kyi dban po-dDg-su dbaii-po bl; ''The powers of body and life and mind and equanimity-these are the four powers," phyag-mlShan sabon sku-rdzogs-u rdo-rdle tIItog pum-po '"The emblem, the seed, and the perfected body-these are the three diamond rituals")_ '!Ie also find such identificatiofll combined with other topicalizc~-for example, t1hos IIi gnis-te Ndus-byas-chJn Hdus-ma-byas-so "Dharmas-thcy are of two sorts: to wit, caused and uncaused_"

--

1("

F~

10. Pdn of 1M GHar tpi.c, willi drawing! 0{ W dsDrocurJ by lilt wW

11

Complex Propositions

A1; we have said, propositions can be combined in twO different ways. TWo or more propositions can be connected together on the same level with any of several CONJUNcnONS-such as -tim "AND," -Am "OR," 'YD n "BuT'-to form 8 single complex proposition. Or one proposition can be e mbedded at tl lower level within another proposition by being NOMINALlZf.I)-that is, lurned into a nominal by the affIXation of any of several nominlllw ng particles. For example. the proposition bla-mlll bgegs btut "The lama tamed the demon" can be nominaliud by the nominaJizing panicle M 10 become blQ-mas bgegs hto.ll-ba "the taming of the demon by the lama." Such a no mina lizcd proposition can then occur anywhere a nominal can occur. It can be the head of a no minal, as in rgyal-pos [blo-ma! bgegs btu/-ba J-8 mthoii "The king saw the taming of the demon by the lama"; or it can be a CO MPI.E ME.NT that modifies a nominal or verbal head, as in {bfa-mas bgegr btu/-bal-j sgmn "the tale of the taming of the demon by the lama," (Jf a Jl.H.AnYl-: that modifies a nominal head, as in {bfa- mas ~ btu!-bal-j bgegs " c1~m{}n which the lama tamed."

The coordination of propositions by juxtap05ing them on the same level is mmetimcs called PARATAX IS; the subordinalion of propositions by embedding one proposition witt)in another is sometimes called llYI'OTAX1S. A para tactic construction thus relates a sequence; a hypotactic construction expresses a hierarChy. Hyputaxis may be more confusing, since the reader must still process the propositions sequemially and is thu~ often forced to store the beginning of one proposition while processing anothe r; on the other hand, parataxis may be more vague, since the reader q1US\ process the juxtaposed propusitions ofte'1 without overt syntactic clues to thdr relation. l

1 Sometimes the style of an author un Ix relaled to ~ predilection for one o r the o the r ,ramllIatiu! SlulCture. Th e fo llowing passage ffom Faulkner's shon no~et Th~ iJtor is bol h highly hypvtact ic and typically Faulknerian: ... a~d tne desk am! the shelf above ,l! o n ..... hieh ratOO the ledgers in ..... hieh McCaslin recordoo the ~10\\' o~t .... aTd tr ~ckle c~ rood and supplies and

282

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

283

equipment which returned each fan as eollon made and ginned and sold (twO threa<h frail as truth and impalpable as equatono yet CIIbJestrong to bind for life them who made the colton \0 the land their sweat fell on). and the older ledgeno clumsy and .rchaic in siu and sh.ilpe. On the yeUowed pages of which wcre reoorded . Here the cumulative hypotaxis (the slldf 0tI which .. /ht ftdgm ill which . t~ rrickJt 00 tht pogu of which . . ) serves to reinforce an oppressive mood of involuted relationships, and - perhaps even more-to subordinate the entire commercial process to McCaslin's desk and shelf. Compare thiS pa.ssage with the following highly p8ralaClic and similarly characteriStic description (rom John LeCarre's TIIIIu1', Toikr, So/ditr,
Spy:

wltit;h .. . thtm wlw ...

The finot bunot shot off a hack wheeJ and turned the car over. He saw the wheel Oyover the bonnetlli the car lOOk to the ditch on the Jert. The ditch might have been ten feet deep but tbe snow let him Gown kindly. The CIIr didn't burn SO he lay behind It and waited, facing across the track ' boping to get a shot at the machine-Bunner. The nUl bunot came from behind and threw him up against the car. Here the cumulative plraw;is (WId, bul, so, ond, 4IIId) achieves an effect of hurried but disjointed action: COhesion is ruinuined Ieli<:ally, rather than by explicit syntactic relationships, as key descriplive terms Ire repelted (bunt . .. whttf . .. Cdt, whttl ... car . dilcJr, dUe" .. mow, Ctv .. mDNM-PIIMr, bunt ... Ctv)' Similarly, compare the followinl hypotactk passage from Janel Rlnner's "At o.bicol CiI)I, Her honesty and haul)' from which, now thai she was well est.ablishcd in stren&t~'. were lite a rich endoWment from which she drew not only the apen.sive decoration of her grey fun tMt pve her grey eyes the \'to/ue of semi-prcciollS $Iones but also her special free attitude toward the COStly walls tluit housed her, the sum of all these apenses only being a titbe of what was her fund of fCSOurcefulness and aroplitude,
lire. sbe seemed 10 gather such

with Ute followins pauase from Slul Bellow's Humboldl's Cift: Wonderful thinp are done by womeo for their hushands. She Ic:Md a rxtking and .11owed bim to hold her ClptiYe in the countf)'. She sipped beer from a Pab$t can. The room was /ow-pitched. Husband and wife were l.arae. They sat tascther on the Castro sola. Tbere wasn't ellOush room 00 tbe wall for their Shadows. They overl1owcd onto the ceilinlAs in EnSll~h. any panicu"-r Tibetan tUi is irtevitabty a mixture of paraw;is and hypotIDS;

2""

TIU~ Cu.ssICAL TiBeTAN lANOUAGI!

1. CONJOINED PROPOSITIONS
1.1. CONJUNCTIONS
A CONJUNC1lON is a particle that joins propositions together paratactically; in classical Tibetan propositions are linked by conjunctions.. while sentences arc not. In the classical language there arc three types o f conjunction-ALlERI'iAT'
IV!; ("PItOPOSIllON

or

PROI'OSIllON

M ),

ADVERSATIVE

("PROPOSITION

bw

PIWPOSI110N") and COORDINATIVE C'PROPOSITION

and

PRoPOSmON,,).l

An indefinite number of proposlllOns can be linked togeth~r by such conjunctions. This horizontal expansion can extend to the limits of stylistic tolerance, which in the classical language seem to be quite broad. Thus the scries "PRoposmoN and ;>RoposmON and ... PRoposmON" may rear.h some
length ht!fore it becomes a SENTh:NCE by the addition of a performance

particle.

In all three

type~

of conjunction it is expected-and in an extended sense

rcrhilps even mandatory-for the conjoined propositions to have some theme

still. we can spea k of Tibetan syntacl!c styles. beari ng in mind Uti, these arc broad genCfa li7.i1tions. Ind ividual Altn!OIlS tend toward one o r Ihe other type of oonstruction: Grags-pll !gya l - m~'han and Gl.ul\ -s myon he-ru _u, for e.umple, Ire rypially parluctle, .hile TMJ i\-ktla -p3 or Ihe fifth Dalai Lama Bio-btall rgya-ml$ho arc: Iypially hypo.>laCtk:. Pntlcullr (', I-.NII.I'S as .... ell a n he distinguished syn tactically: historical and ftlrnlltiYe prole aenerally lend l0W3rd parataxis. while philosophical and tUhnial prose tends toward hypotub. Some lnl;- 3rC prcoomina ntly p,aralaClic; otbcrs- such u tbe: norid poeljj.: genres-SIKh as myst ic M and htghly SilMkritil.cd encomia Ihlll often prefac;e expository tens-a.!I be quile hypotaclk. Such hypnt:u.is also frequently !.elVes to m~r k an eleian, o r formal REG~: tbe loftS honnrifl<: Ulul1l ti!ln 111 lhe head !If a Til>etan leller is highly hypotactk, as o pposed 10 lhe pua(u i.~ that marks the ooll ...;uill l ur informal register o r slIeh a deliberately nonli terary Myli'l a.'! Dpal.srr ul NdJjglomcd l<hus-kyi dbll\po. I G cncrall~ speaking, we can characlcril.c Ihe conju nct ions by makin, two distinctions: the ~ltcfllati\'e conjunelion "OR" links pr uposi tio ns only o ne of.hielt is asserted to be 1nM,:, "'hlk I'nth the JdVCT~ l ivc cnnjunc;tion "mIT" and the: coordi ruol ive oonjuTIC1ion MANDM link P"'I''',ili\>n~ all of whkh are ass<:nCd 10 be t~ u e; the: adversa tive oonjuTIC1ion "BlIt" asserts lh;o. the 1""I"'~ i I K!Il' il Ijnb arc: in :\Ome way semantically or prallmalially o ppoecd, .hile lhe ..:"",<I,n", ;vc mniunctilln "",NO" a$!.erlS that Ihe: propositions il Jinks are in some way ...:man li..""Uy '" f"agmati<:.1lJy ..:ongr ucnt.

CoMPII:.X

PRoposmONS

2BS

in common; thus we can expect also to find thematic participants omit.ted from latter members of the conjunction, even to the extent of reducing such a proposition to the event alone.

l.t.t. The alternative conjunction

The Al..TERN....nve CONJUl'lcnON PARTlCLE is -Am. 3 The hyphen indicates that the form is BOUND and occurs only with an immediately preceding proposilion. The capit<ilizalion indicates that the vowel prefixes to itself the last consonant of the preceding syllable coda-thus dog-gam, nii-nam, yod4am, yin-nom, /hub-bam, t.phom-motn, sgyur-ram, NbuJ-lam, and Jags-sam. A preceding open syllable becomes a diphthong-thus dgaam, Nbriam, tgyUam, dgeam, and Ngroflm. In th(: scansion of verse such diphthongs may occasionally be counted as two syllable ~ for the purposes of meter. The alternative conjunction offers a choice between two or more possibilities, only nne of which is asserted to be true. On the one hand. the proposed alternatives may be-a~ with the adversative conjunction "BI.!f"-perceived as semantkally or pragmatically opposed to each other-thus mii rigs m/hoam mi; dgs dmall "Eitha a family is high or the family is lOW," nod-pa gsOl/-llam M-fhi "The sick person either lives or dies," sans-flD'as-kyis tIhos blad-dam rna-Mad "Buddhas have either taught the dharma or not," f1rYQ1-pOJ dJ711 gsod-J(lrn dJ.,'1'as gsod "Either the king kills the enemy or the enemy kills him. " On the other hand, the proposed alternatives may be-as with the coordinative conjunction "i\N o"-perceived as 5e mantically or pragmatically congruent, although it is sti ll a~sc rted that only one of the propositions is true for any single individual at anyone moment-thus mal-Nbyor-pa ri-Ia lidzeg-gam luli pa-Ia NgT"itns-$am pllug-pa-Ia blugs "A yogin asce nds the mountains or wanders in the valleys or ahides in a cave," bj{cg.t-malm-kyis serns-tIa/! skrag-gam Slladdam g.wd "D(:mons fr ighten or harm or kill sentient creatures," dge-slmi hzaliPO$ IS/W.t I/ws-.ram hsarn -mam worn "A VIrtuouS monk studies the dharma, or ponders it, or meditates upon it."

.l We will note here : o nl y hriefly tha t this is clearly tile s:oJme as tllc IoClltcllcc:fillal questio n JIlI"idc Am. Wc c;an_an4. I~t.r o n, we will-hypolhC5il.c that thc Tibetan int c rrogativc i~ IlcrivCiJ ultimately rrom an underlying alt ernal ive conjunction.

286

TilE Cu.sSlCAl. Tl aETAN l...ANGU ....GE

1.1.2. The adversative conJunclion

The ADVERSATIVE CONJUNcnON PARTICl.E is

.Yon, which becomes ./cyan after

preceding final -g. -d, b, and os; becomes -yan after preceding final -ii, on, -m,

r,

.~

and open stressed syllables; and becomes

-an

after preceding open

\Instressed syllables. The adversative conjunction links propositions all of which Bre asserted 1 0 be true. bul which are asserted to be in some way semantically or pragmatically dissonant: propositions so joined are in a relation of thesis and anlithesis.

Thus we find such

SEMANn c

dissonances as gdonpu dluJr-yafl bsam-pa /'lag

" His countenance is white but his thoughts are black," and such PRAOMATIC dissonances as rgyal-po btud-kyan khros "The king bowed down but was angry" and saru-rxras Ndlignen-Ia skyes-kyaii Ntiligrte/lgyis rnagos "The Buddha is born in the world but is not sullied by the world." The wit o f what we can call ADVERSA.TIVE PROVERBS o ft en lies in their pointing out An unexpected pragmatic" disso nance: for example, in the archaic Tun-huang manuscript entitled The Sayings of Mother Sum-pa we find Nbrogr1Sa bza;jyan rkaii.NgrOS dbyar rdlud-do "The pasture grass is good-but it tangles your feel in summer." . We can point out too that a conjunction such as gfOllnu yinlcyGii dbafj .po rn o "He is young bUI his faculties are -keen" embodies a presupposition that being yo ung and being sagacious are pragmatically dissonant, while a conjunction such as glOll-rlU yinlcyGii dbaiJpo mi-nIO "He is young but his fac ulties a re not keen" presupposes precisely the opposite. We may similarly no te the presuppositions embodied in such C(lnjunctions in smras-kyafi mjfion " He speaks but does not listen" or NtShal-yaii mjnled " He seeks but does nOI find;' which assume that speaking and listening or seeking and finding are pragmatically consonant.

4 This bound conjunction rd is clearly related to-but is not the same u-the connective rd "ALSO,H which is not bound but free. We can polnl out too Ihlllhe classical (orm YaA is the only (orm In Y .monllhe piIIrticles, .nd . ppurs in faa to der ive from. ProloTIbel.n form . ' KII\ which alone time unlkrwent the same morphophonololica[ chlnp II n1s.nd m By the classical period, however. Ihe 'oOk:ed form of the particleIhe (orm found 'fter prcced[n, IOnonnt finals_had become .)WI" nther Ihan Ihe expected -O'llll. .\thouah we ntu nnd the 'o01ced rorm .~.It spondlcally inslead of ')I'l.lt In Ihe arch.1c Old TIt>eln manusmpu prelel'VCd II Tunhu.na.

CoMPLEX PROPOSI110NS

287

Such presuppositional relations may be more remote. Thus, for example, we make the pragmatic assumption that enemies rejoice at our misfonunes rather than weep at them: hence Mi-Ia ras-pa, when he is starving in a cave, sings dgra sdaii-ba blras-kyaii mtIhi-ma HlJhar "Though a bitter enemy see me he would weep," linking the two antithetical propositions with the adversative conjunclion. Similarly, Mar-pa promises Mi-Ja that he will not have to lear down the tower he is to build, saying Ndi Mig-kya;; mi..Jgos "Though you tear this down it is not necessaryfYou can te,a r Ihis down, but you don't have 10," expressing the pragmatic assumption that people tear down what they build only when necessary. That this promise may most easily be lllANSLATEO into English simply as "You will not have to tear this one down" does not change its adversative character in Tibetan.'

1.1.2.1. Diakct variants

The adversative conjunction -Yan has twO DlALEt.i VARIANT'S. The older variant-apparently related 10 the Proto-Tibetan form -KYaii-is -KYi, which resembles the adnominal particle -Kyj but is almost certainly unrelated to it: thus we find uhig brdlod-kyi don mi-wel."He says the words bUI does not exrlain the meaning," bza-ba za-yi btw"j-ba mi-Ndod "I am eating the food but don't want anything to drink," tgya-muho-Ia mll-tig Hbyun-gi gser man-po mi Hbyuii "Pearls are found in the ocean but not much gold." This variant is fo und predominantly in earlier material, especially in translations from the Sansklit-for example, Sanskrit idam eva satya'!1- mollam anyam Tibetan Hdi ni bden.gyi gtan ni rrizun.pao "This is truth but the o ther is falsehood," Sanskril siifTI"'rtam trallaJqat;lafTI na piiramiirthikam Tibetan mlshan-iiid Hdj ni Iwnrdzobpo yin-gyi don-dampa ni mayin "This characteri stic is conventional rather Ihan absolute," Sanskrit k.at/lafTI lIayau va~a sadbhii\'a!l, Iraddhiinfyo qo 'rtho n iillumiinfya~1 Tibetan rluii-la Icha-dog dlj

, Interestingly. we find ca5e5 ""lIere IWO oonjOf ntd anlilllelical proposiliolU a re identical: here alt liner parlicipants are len OUI, leaving only tile verb. Suell propositions are found prc60mina ntly with 51111ve verbs, and h~ye I I intensive meaning; stmanlieally they seem to be asserting tha t there is no w;IIy the predk.at io n cou ld be o ppo$Cd-thus bhlma tlMaIt tJht ''T1'Ie lama b very &real,H bwmo mdz't.s.l.yallmdus "Oil bUI the &irl is beautiful," kim rii! .yaii rill ''The path Is so very lo n&." The OOnSIrUCIiOn is old in Tibclu. In the archaic ma nuscripts preserved in Central Asia. for exa mple. we rll'1d /mana ni dpalynir dfXl/" ll you loot IlflC'n It -how ,Io rious!"

288

TH E CLAssiCAl. TIBETAN l...ANOUAOE

ltar yod IlNUJ, don foIdi ni dad-par bya-ba yin-gyi rdleNu dpog-par bya-ba II; rna-yin-no "How can air have color? This is a matter for faith rather than for examination," Sanskrit vijMn~Q!ka", pravanate na tu Weid eko dr"af!osti Tibetan mom-par Its-po drug Nbyuii-gi Ito.bo.po gtJig.po med "The six

perceplions occur but there is no single perceiver." NOIe the following 35 well, from the Tibetan translatio n of toe Buddhist ecclesiastical 13WS-khyimdu Jehri-stan mlhon-po-10 Ntlug-par bya; der nolbar ni mjbyao "You may sit o n a high bed in a house, but you may nOI sleep there," dge-slon mgo-rtg Ndi dag ni tshod-tn(J ro sna-tshogs-dDn kkln-pa-dan. Nbras-tlhan za-bar os-po mayiII-gy~ nas lUI-po za-bar os-po yin-no "These shave-headed monks are not worthy to eat many-flavored dishes and boiled rice, but are worthy to eat roUen barley," khyod m rgyal-po, os lags-kyi hdag ni os ma-Iags-so " You are worthy to be king, but not I."
This variant is found too in the archaic chronicle preserved at Tun-huang: for example, we find yi-dags ma-bab-kyi /IO-sbyor-du nes-so "You have not bee n possessed by a demon, but surely you are hungry." As late as the thirteenth century, in the Leg.r-pa, Mud-po rin-po-tJ/lei gter of Sa-skya paryqita, we find such constructions as YOIl-lan-ldall'po YOI/-lall-/a dga-yi YOI/-lan-med-mams min "The virtuous delight in virtue, but not the unvirt uous," skye-bo dmoll-mams dam-pa-Ia khyad-gsod byed-Icyi dam-pas mill "Lowly persons despise holy persons, hut holy perso ns do not." From that point-perhaps frOIll the fourteenth century on-the frequency of this va riant diminishes markedly; its use tends to become restricted 10 the verbs YIN "be the case" and Mon "be true," and thc stereotyped expressionsyill-KYi-mod-kyi-yi/l-mod-kyi come to function almost exactly like -yali, especially in philosophical texts. The later dialect form is 'nln, found especially in the fifteenth-century COlloquial prose ofGtsan -~myon he-ru-ka, the crazy saint of Gtsan, Ihe author of Ihe famous biography of Mjla ras-pa and the redactor of his collected songs. Here we find such conjunctions as tes-fUn mi-Ies-pa Itar byed " He knows, bUI acts like one who does not know," sku-mdun-du kllyi-tig byuii-ruFi tJll(Js gsun "Though a dog appear before him he teaches dharma," thugs dgeJpo-lig byuFi-ruii rmi-lam-fa Nbyuii-sa med gswls " He was delighted, but said, 'Dreams have no meaning,'" sems-gso man-po m.dzadnul (slings-fa ro/-poi Ndutes S(O, "She comforted me greatly, but I had lost a ll thought o f enjoying the ritual food." Such constructions wilh -run are found in tht prose of Gtsansmyon, but in the songs attributed 10 Mi-I" himself-most of which in all likelihood conside rahly preda te their collection by Gtsan.smyon in the fifteenth century-we lind the consistent u~e of -Yail rather than ruil-for

CoNP1.EX PRorosrnoNs

289

example, Mi-Ia sings bsgonu-pas ma-groI-yan mi-med luii-$Ioii-<w Ntfhi-bar Jog -YOOugh I be not liberated by meditating, may I yet die in a lonely empty valley.-

1.1.3. The coordinative conjunctions

There are two coorriulluive conjunction particle!. The first is the coordinative conjunction .niij, which becomes -tIin after preceding final -g. -d, and -b; becomes -lUi after preceding -n, .n, .m, -r, -~ and open syllables; and becomes lUi after preceding final and postfinal os. The second is the coordinative conjunction 'STe, which becomes $Ie after preceding final .g, .ii, -b, om, and open syllables; becomes -Ie after preceding final -n, r, -/, and .f; and becomes -de after preceding final -d. These coordinative conjunctions link propositions all of which are asserted to be true, and which are asserted to be in some was semantically or pragmatically consonant. Thus-to use the same example as before-the adversative conjunction gton-nu yin-kyaii dbaii-po rna "He is young but his faculties are keen" embodies a presupposition opposite to that embodied in the coordinative conjunctiongtonnu yin-Ie dbaii .po mo "He is young and his faculties :ue keen," the former llMuming the pragmatic incongruence of youth and sagacity and the latter assuming their pragmatic congruence. congruences, we can group together what we can ..:all coordinations, where the second conjunct says pretty much the same thing as the first-for example, gnaa-tIUi HUhe "He hurts and harms," Ndtip-lUi $Jaags "He is frightened and terrified," b$i/-liii gran "It is cool and cold," mdzu-te sdug "She is lovely and beautiful." And we can distinguish those from what we can call PARAlLEL cooldinations, where the second conjunct adds tq the first conjunct additional information of the same typefor example, Ja-la za-lii'i khrag./a Nfhuii "They feed on nesh and gorge on blood," byoii-tJhub Ndi-/a$ Nbyuii.ste sans' fID1OS Ndi/a$ skye "Enlightenment comes from this, and Buddhas are born from this:' mig.gis gzugs-manu mi nuhoijliii yid-kyis tIhos-rnams mjIes " 'The eye docs not see Corms, nor does the mind perceive thoughLS," dmd. gnod-de b$jJba phan "Heat is harmful and cold beneficial.SEMANTIC

Among

PARAPHRASE

Similarly, among PRAGMATI C congruences, we can group together what we can call SEQUENTlAL coordinations, where, as a practical matter, the second

290

Till, ClAssiCAl... TIBETAN WOUAGE

conjunct happens after Ihe first-for example, Nbros-fUi gab "He runs away and hides," bu-mo Jiji-fa ",dzegs1iJi mNog Nfhogs "The girl climbed up the tree and picked the flower," and, from an archaic Central Asian manuscript, Ihe couplet 50 siiegHe ni sleb, "pans-It ni bIigs "He pursued the deer, yes, and caught it; he shot it, yes, and hil it." And we can distinguish those from what we can call SIMULTANEOUS coordinations, where, as a practical malter, the second conjunci happens at the same time as the first-for example, blama-daii mdlul-u tul mlllOii "He met the lama and saw his face," rgy<Jl-pos
dgra brdl.l.ns(e sgye/ "The king struck the enemy and threw him down." iia

HtJllOrtiii "'tsllO "They calch fish and make a living," NgugNe I; "He choked
and died:of>

I. J.J.l. Simultaneofls and periphrastic constructions

In many such simultaneous coordinations, it is ckar that the first conjunct is narro .....er in scupe th;m the second conjunct, and specifies a condition under which the second conjunct lakes place-for example, ske bsdams-Ie bS4d "He squeezed his throat and killed him/He strangled him," Ndtigs- te bros " He was frightened a nd ran a.....ayn-le ran a.....ay frightened," po-Ii lehrer-te soii "He carried his books and wentIHe went off carrying his books, t. rgyal-pos K-yogpos bskor-liii blQ-mai druii-du. byon ''The king wa~ surrounded hy his servants and came into the presence of the lama/fl,.;: king, surrounded by his servants, came intn the pH'scnct nf the lama," or, from an archaic manuscript preserved in Central A~ia. m9:-J?Q rbeg-!i rma byeu gtJltig-du Hphtul-nas Npltur1t
6 o r course, ~u(;h rocquent ial and simultaneous ooord inatioflli form a COIIlinuous scale, {rom the dearly 5eq u..,ot ia t ~I one end (such I.S b/Q-ma dgtNl pa/;!I bJkbJ-ft tlJtoI bJad ''1'bc: lama arrived at the mona~ t try and taught thc dharma") \0 ttlt dearly simultaneous &1 tbe other (such as ",, -tiij sdnd "He wccps and WlIi\5"), with. .rea in between, wllcrt the two types Shade into eat:h nthe r-for eumplc, gil< blaAs-tiA tQbs-bro 1PUIlad, wtl ich can be read eittler a.< "He 5.lI ng and (I hen) dancal" or as "He $IIn& and danced (at the sanv I' me)."

,rey

We can nOle here 1hat. when such conjOi ned verbs are ne,lted, the neplit panicle ml
"NoT"' precedes Ihe sond verb, as opposed. to English, wllcre the Kptit mart!'.r ~ the fiBI vtrh_lhut, from the Lrp-ptu blad-~ rin -po-rJhri gru by SI-ltya paQ4ita, m/tJIQJ -pa bruad.rliA mll-driJ .fId, Ik-yi ~-du griA mi-4pogJ "As lon, as one has not disputed Ind qut1lioned a wise man, o ne has not measured his depth," or. from the biop-aphy of MIt. fU- pi by GIHti -smyon he ru ka, yul.,,/1J dmlllf.)'llbJ-te mQ -bs#Jd-1Ul, l'Idis d.r:I..twI,..1 Ndi plwlt du Ndll<g " II ""'C do nOI call a host lrom the vilble and kill him, this one will ruin the village

even

more _ ~

CoMPLEX

PROPOSmONS

291

son "Rheg-ga rbeg-!i, having changed into a lillie peacock, went flying away."
In fact, we not infrequently find such constructions where the first conjunct functions almost adverbally to the second conjunct-for example, Ntsheiis-te snom ''was happy and thought/thought happily," gsan-ste brlcus "acted in secret and stole/stole secretly," bskyarte btan "repeated and ,sent/sent repeat~dly," Ntlwbpa medLfiii Ii ''was without struggle and died/died peacefully," bu Nkhrid-de oiis "brought his son and came/came with his son." Hphar-te NgI'O "flies and goes/goes flying," tsheg.sgra-dtJij bLfas-te NiJar "is possessed of a crackling sound and burnstburns with a crackling sound." When the verb in the second conjunct is one with the broadest possible scope, such as YOD "exist spatiotemporally" or NDVO "stay, abide, be there" (or their elegant forms MTSHIS and oru, respectively), the construction becomes PERIPHRASTIc-for example. from the same archaic Central Asian manuscript cited above, snila rma byeu-lig thogs.!Ui tJd~g "A little peacock was there tangled in the s~are," or, from the Ge-sar epic, ""bu rtsig-po plvugu Merno ligfa gyur-U yod ''The tiny worm was there become a beautiful child," or, from other archaic Central Asian manuscripts, snar phyug-t!jn phoiis-tt Ndug "He was rich before and was now poor," snn myig-mon-Icyis mlhon-stt myi brosle mtIhis "The sharp-eyed demon saw him, and the man was there fled away."

1.1.3.2. Diakel variants

Probably the most common of these periphrastic forms in the classical tew are -niii NOVG and --rnn YOD. Note the following examples from an archaic divination manual found in Central Asia-lha bzan-po-lig Ngo-lUi Ndug ''A good god is leading you," goon dragpo-ligyod-pas, gnod-par ums-lin Ntiug "A fierce demon who is there is intending to harm you," rno Ndi ni ... nad-pala btobno myi Iha-dan thtll-ron ston-lUi Ndug "If this lot has been cast for a sick person, then unavailing are men, gods, and demons," Ii-las lho des bskyabslUi Ndug "That god has been protecting you ftom death." Similarly, nOle these examples from the biography of Mi-la ras-pa--i1a gan to ur nu-lUi Ndug "'What shall I eat?' she said, crying," mthu-tlhtn los tIi bytd-LfUi Ndug "Great Magician, what work are you doing?" blo-ma riiog-pa grwa-pa man-polo brtaggnis Nt1had-tliii Ndug "Lama Riiog-pa was teaching the Hevajra Tantra to many manics."

292

THE ClAssiCAL TlBETAN lANGUAOE

As time goes on, the conjunction -ITiii in such constructions begins to take on different forms in Middle Tibetan, apparently in the sequence -rliii > -JCYin > -gin > -gi. 7 Thus, for example, in the archaizing chronicle Rgyal-rabs gsa/-bai me-loii we find bu-mo mdzes-ma-tJig rin-po-l!hei snod-no me-tog NtJwgin Ndug ''A beauliful girl was gathering flowers in a jeweled vase"; in the biography of Mi-Ia we find nor yod-dgu-tIog Nbul-bar 1ch~r-tlllS Nbyon-gyin yod "He has arrived bringing as an offering all the wealth he has." Apparently

the dirge disintegrRW to om Imd one IUUt

one alUl one

k~

the iJJumi1'J4tinB anRiyru of R umjunction ...

-Walter Lowenfels,
Apollifloin An Elqy

these various forms were more or Jess interchangeable. Among the blockprints of the biography of Mi-Ia, for e~ample, we find the reading ned-mIltm yon-lUI yod "We arc coming" in the Bslan-rgyas-glifi, Spo. and Bkra-Jis IhunpO prints, but ned-mo ms yon-gill yod in the Spuns-than print; and the prints give numerous examples of varia tion belween -gin and gi-thus bIig don m~-par bJig-gul Ndug "He is tearing it down without a reason for tearing it down" in the Spuns-than, Bstan-rgyas-glifi, and Bkra-Jis lhun-po prints, but ... blig-gi Ndug in the Spo prinl, na khyun -po dlo-.fras oii.giII yod " I, Khyufipo dto-sras, am coming" in the -Bstan-rgyasgliii, Spo, and Bkra-!is lhun-po prints, bUi ... on-gi yod in the Spuiis-Ihai'i pri~t.8

7 In conlemporary newspaper Tibetan we legularly find lhe form -Kl'ftI., as in lo -mul!ams 10 Hrhob-"s bytdlcyin yod ''They arc fighling on [he border,H rdu.1.phrtm nw,!ugl' bIO.gnwa.14 btd.TJOd-1cyin }'OIl "Atomic energy is being applied [0 induslty.H We find [he form -ri <-K'ri> regularly used in Central Tibet, as i. I\a 4ogi)'C <AD IfgTO-Icyi yod> " I am SOin,," /eM /d:o Iltgi duk <kMI 14J'/co fd-Icyi ~g> "He is work.in,," and ki <.Kl'f> re'\lLarly used in Lhau Ci ty, as in 11M sulci >'" <d.!o bJU;4 -kyi yod> -- I am churning the lea," dholMp 'h i siJd fIf <phyDg-deb ~ grigsle); ICIug> "He i$ sludying [h i$ book." 8 I have a fecli ng lhal [he pr in! from Spa. ,.,II Kh is in soll[lIcaslern Tibet, lends to ravor

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

293 /.2. GAPPING

We have seen numerous examples. under the Telegram Principle. of the baclcward-looking omission of a previously expressed participant. In the syntactic device we will call GAPPING, on the other hand, we find the forwardlooking omission, in a prio r conjunct, of some portion of the proposition, including the verb, which will be expressed in a later-and syn tactically paralld -conjunct. The omitted portion is optionally but frequently replaced with the phrasal conjunction -don. Note, for example, the proverb I!lron NlIrU/:-bo-lo miion-por dga-bai m; bdag-Ia pllan-daii gIan-la bde-a mi-nus ''A man who delights ill drinking beer is incapable of benefit to himself or happiness to others." This propositiun is processed as a conjunction of the CWu propositions 1!lIaii Ntlluiibala miit)n par dgo-bai mi bdag.fa phan-a mi-IIUS "A man who ddighu in drinking beer is incapable of benefit to him~elr' and I!haii Nlhunbala miion por dgo-bai mi gIal l.la bde-8 mi-nus ''A man who delights in drinking beer is incapable of happiness to others"; the participant IIliaii Nlhun-bola miioll'pur dga-bai mi "man who ddights in drinking beer" is-as we might expect-telegraphically omitted in the second conjunct; but, in addition, the patient particle, verb phrase, and conjunction particle O mi.nu.s(.1"Sin) have been omitted from the prior cunjunct and replaced ..... ith -dan, frum which they must he reconstructed by tht: reader. Of course. such n:conSlfuction is impossihle until the reader has reached the end of tht: second conjunct. llnd tht: inte rpretation of the proposition as a whole is held in reserve until that time-and thus the sen~e of 5uspension and resolution which can milkc a gapped conjunction an effective stylistic device. Similarly, note the proverh mkfws-pa fes rab-dtlii blul/-po (Iadptl; roles Nbraii.f "A ..... ise man f.,llows the track of .....isd()m. and a fl x)1 of credulity." Here. the adnpminal particle, patient participant. verh phrilse. and conjunction particle -KYj rdll!s-D Nbraiis(.1"Siii ) have been omitted from the prior conjunct and replaced with -duii, to bl! rcconstructed by the rcader. Alld , in the hiography of Mi-Ia T<lspa ......e find sa samuJ-daii roo rdumal-j/II skY(Jf-tig "Take thc

COMtructiOM wilh .gi. while Ihe Gellual Tibelall ami BhutanC!iC prints tern! h I ramr oon slructiOM wilh gin-for cumplc, ntIiidu Jog gJu;j.gir. toitlug " He saY!', 'Come <In in!'" in Ihc c ;n Ihe 'Spo SpulUthall, B5Ian-rgyas.ghll and BkraSis thunpo prints, bu l .,' pun.,..,; ....au. prinl,phadlo khf1l1Ioggifl yud "My lord ralher is phllJllhing" ill Ihe Spulls.lhal'J, B.~'an rgyas_ gliil and Bkr3Si~ lhun.po prints, bUI . . klag.g; yod ill the Spo prin'

294

THE CLo\SSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

earth back to where you gal the earth and the stone back to where you gal the stone!" and-without the phrasal conjunction -daii- bu skytl-Po-!a miii, t/han dram-pala glum bya.bar gda "When a son is born a naming ceremony, and when beer is offered a story, should be done," khan-pal' nan $Qtshub-daii ras gan, phyi iiu-Lfhoii.gis gaiiba d~ fW-,as mthoii "Pe-ta saw the inside of Ihe house filled with dust and corpses, and the outside fiI!ed with lamentation."

2. NOMINALlZATION
converts an entire proposition into 8 nominal by the addition of a final nominalizing particle: 9 for example, given the proposition bfa-mas bgegs btu/ "The lama tamed the demon," we could find the nominalized proposilio~s bla-mas bgegs blul-ba "the taming of the demon by the lama," bfamas bgegs bIUf,s(J "the place where the lama tamed the demon," bfamas bgegs btuftshuf"the way the lama tamed the demon," and 50 on..
NOMINALIZATION

A nominalized proposition-of any length and complexity-can occur anywhere that a nominal normally occurs. The syntactic distribution of, say, the nominal dgoll.po "monastery" is exactly the same as that of the nominal blamas bgegs btu/-sa "place where the lama tamed the demon"-for example, dgon-pa ri-Ia yod "The monastery is on the mountain" and bfa-mas bgegs btu/S:1 ri-fa yod "The place where the lama tamed the demon is on the moun tain," dgonpoi ljjjbkod "a map of the monastery" and bfa-mas bgegs btu/-sQj ljjjbkod "a map of the place where the lama tamed the demon." Such nominalizatjon is eJ(tremely common in classical Tibetan. Like many other Tibeto-Burrnan languages, Tibetan developed quile a number of nominalizing particles, often by the syntactic specialization of nominals. 1o

, Note Ihal only Ihru kinds of particle can lmmtdialely follow a verb in a Tibetan proposilion-pcrformalives, conjunctioru, .nd nominlliun. 10 We Cln tterc mcntion sevc ral such nominat!un wllleh will nOI be d[K'IISICd in morc dctail below- uhul......'y that PRuposmoN," U in b/IJ.l7U1 /O'f'U'.Uhul "ttte way that the lima wa[ks"; IIm "d.anlcr of PROPOS t1lON," U ia dntytJlbar "I"O,IIt'1I "thc 4ln,cr of JO[n, to ttetJ"; -dl.is "time Ittlt PRO~ OS ITtO,";' as in IJ~ult-,"a-la /". bfllu-dl.is "ttte time th.t hl5 wife bore I son"; Ttl "turn at PAoposmOl"," as in flhalt-Ia MhullftJ "a tUfn II drink!n, beer"; -Iup "mcthod of PAOmStnON," IS In I1JoM -ras I1ltAllup "Ihe method or bulldin, &.m-

CoMPlEX PROPOSmONS

295

However, the single most important nominalizer in the classical language is the nominalizer -Pa, which is the particle used not only for the most general and semantically neutral proposition-centered nominalization but also in the formation of complement and relative constructions. II Since the next several sections will deal with such constructions, found only with the nominalizer -pa, we will here first review a number of other nominalizers found in the classical texts.

2.1 . THE NOMINALIZERS

The Tibetan nominaJizers fall into two groups. Some nominalizers, including the nominalizer -Pa, yield nomina Is, as we might expect, expressing some aspect of the proposition as a whole: th us, for example, given rgya/-pos bgegs,a mda-g tg}'Qg "The king shot a n arrow at. the demon," we might find rgya/pos bgegs-/a nuia-g tg}'ag-pa "the shooting of a n arrow at the demon by the king," rgya/-pos bgegs-Ia mda-g rgyag-sa "the place whe re the king shot an arrow al the demon," rgyat-pos bgegs-Ia mda-g rgyag-grabs "the preparation for the lOng to shoot an arrow at the demon," and so on. We will call these PROPOSITION-CENlCREO NOMINALI7..ERS. Other nominalizers, however, y ield
yas"; tlulbs "opporlunily tor ~R(lI'OSmON." as in U:Jmlfj gtolflulbJ "a chance 10 dismoum on the ro,ad"; -grobJ "preparalio n ro r I'MOI'OSmON," as in Mi grOffS'PO IIlIII fog.Njro.grolu "prep<lralions tor all my rrienili to return," In all Ihese cases_a nd in ot hers I have unOOubtedly o mitted_we find thaI these nomina1izel"S at<;{) occur as Ihe head or nominal oomplemenlS-thus not only btsas-dus "the time nr living bi nh" bUI also "W".bai dUJ "the lime of lOinl." not o nly gtol ,lzobs "a chance to dismount" but also /lbrQS-pci I/labs ". chance to aca pe." not o nl y dmytlf./Iw' lo'gfo iI~/I "che danger or going 10 heU" but also srog-fa /JaT-tJ/uld ~iIbai iI~/I "the danger of there occuHing ~ Ihrea c 10 )"Our life," nOI o nly p .)d. grobs "prepa ration tor sia: ughu:r" but also "'gftrbai grobJ "preparation for leaving." In such cases we have whal can be called OIlASr-I'OMrN.-.LtZRS--that ii, wh ~ 1 are still clearly nomina ls COI Ugh l in the proces5 ot beoominl nominaliul"S. II Perluips the least m.rked u.'Ie of a nom m81iuf is .... here a verb is C rCOlted a:s a nomilllll like obJe<:t for pur poses ot melalinlujslic ci tation: jllSt as speakers or English cite verbs .... ilh the nominallzer /0. and th us spea k at " the ~crb /0 go." Ih e TibelaM invarialll), cite verbs with tbe nominalizer .I'll, and thus spea k o r "the ve rb 'Wobo. ,. This is the source of Ihe peculiar habit of listin, verbl in Tibetan dictionaries as nominaL~: a Iyp ical doubly nom inaliud entry would read. fo r example, "Ngrtr/Ja, /0 IV." Matisoff has noted Ihat. as a general rule of thumb. applicable th roughout the Ti be toBurRlan fimily. whenever one discovers the parti(le used in ve rb citation. such as 1'0 in Tibetan. one ca n be ~lIre of having dL\OO\" ercd Ihe mOSl importa nt nominalizer in the langua ge.

296

TilE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN WOUAGE

nominals expressing some aspect of the patient of the underlying proposition: for example, from rgyaf-pos bgqsla mda-8 IID'og "The king shot an arrow at the demon," we might find 'KYat-pas bg~.IQ mda-S rgyag-go-tJog "all the arrows the king shot allhe demon," 'KYo/-pas bgegs-ta mda-8 'KYag-Nphro " the unused portion of the arrows the king shot at the demon," and so on. We will call these PATIENT-CENTERED NOMINAJ-IZERS. Patient..centered nominalizers may seem unusual to a native speaker of English; they are, however, very common in Tibetan.

2.1.1. Patient-centered nomlnalizers

2.1.1.1. The nomifUllizer -rgyu
" PATIENT OF PROPOSITION"

The nominalizer -rgyu "PAnENT Of PRoPOsmON"-apparently related 10 the noun rgyu "mauer, substancc"-is the most general and semantically neutral of the patient-centered nominaliurs. It is interesting, therefore, to compare it with -Pa, the most general of the proposition-centered nominalizers-for example, khrom-fa khyug-pa8 MshOli "They are selling ice in the mark.el," khromfo. khyag-pa.g Nfshoiiba "the selling of ice in the market," khrom-Ia khyagpa-8 Mshoii-f1{l'u "ice for sale in the market," and thus khrom/a khyag pa.IJ Nlshoijba Nduggam "Are they selling ice in the: market?" but khromfa kllyag-fkJ-1J l>1Shon-rgyli Nduggam "Is there ice for sale in the market?" or kha IIhems8 blag "I have lefl a last testament," kha-llllerrl$8 btagpa "my leaving of a lasl testament," kha-llheTm8 blng-rgyu "a lasl testament to leave," and Ihus khn-t!/rCTm-8 blagpa med "I have nOIIe:ft a last testament" but Jcha-t!hemJ8 blag-rgyu med " I do not have a last testament to leave." In propositions with the equative verb YlN, the nominalizer rgyu forms what we can call QUASI-REUr.nVE constructions. parallel to the relative constructions formed with the. proposition.centered nominalizer -po-thus, for example, bftJma oii "The lama comes," bfamQ OIlba "the lama who comes," blarna oii'8}'U "the lama to come," and thus b1a-ma oii-ba yin "The lama ist has come" bul bla-rna oiirgyu yilt "The lama is to come," or, .similarly, dpe dlla nas Iclrjodfa gron " I am sending you a book," dpe.t!11ll nQS khyod.la grOfiba "a book which I send you," dpe-dha nas khyod.la groii.rgyu "8 book for me 10 send you," and thus dpetlha iias kltyod-/a gran-ba yin ''A book is beinglhas been sent you" but dpetIllQ na$ kllyodla gtonrxY.u yin "I am to send you

CoMPLEX PRorosmoNs

297

a book." Such constructions with -,u connote both futurity and obligation. 12 Where the patient partICipant in the prop(Itlon nominalizcd by -'X)'U is recoverable, either from context or from general knowledge, it may, of course, be omitted, leaving a quasiheadless quasi-relative construction. Such constructions with -rgyu are used, like their headless relative coumerparu with -Pa, to make statements about things in general-for example, na/lJ dgos "I need (something)" iia-ta dgos'1D'U "(something) for me to need" na/lJ dgos rgyu IJIuUi "My needs are few," smra "He says (something)" smra'XYu "(something) for him to say" smra-rgyu mabyun "There was nothing for him to say," wb "You say (something)" lab-rgyu "(something) for you to say" khyod-la gan lab-rgyu yod "What do you have to say?" khyod/a fab.'XYu yoddam "00 you have anr-hing to say?"

2./.1.2. Tht nomilUJ/izers -t;dogl-dgu/-1S1uul

PROPOSITION"

"ALL PATIENTS OF

The patient-centered nominalizer -O-I!og "Al.L PATIENTS OF PRorosmoN" is closely related to the archaic plural O-Llog--(Ihog. as in thaodog "gods." The nominalizer -G-rIog first appears in the translation literature-for example, from the Tibetan translation of the KarmaJa(aiw, bu-dan bu-mo buaodog NtIhi-bar Ngyur "All the sons and daughters she bears will die" (with bu-dan bu-ma buaorIog "all the sons and daughters she bears" < bu dan bumo bua "She bears sons and daughters"), de nas de; kJlyimbdag-pui gos-dan 'XYall bskon.no-(!og mi-snofi-bar gyur "The reupon all his householJer clothes and ornaments he had pUI on disappeared" (with de; khyim./xJag-pui gos-dofi 'lYon bskon.noIIog "all his householder clothes and ornaments he

12 We an here note an interesting fact of word order. Given, Sly, "liS dpttlhll tk khyod. 111,,011 ") 1m send in, you that book," , relat ive conmuclion formed with hJ and witll dpt_ /Jhll "book" as its head mu.sl read dptrlhll [(ilm ~ khyod'/II "OI1).OO[ tk "Ihal book .... hich 1 1m sending )'01,1," .... hile the qUllloi.relalive formed wilh .~ is under no sucll c.onstrainl-Illu.s either il4s dpNfhll tk khyod/II groil 'l!Y~ or dpNJhn tk';nJ Idlyod/a K'"fj. IJ)\I "thai book fo r me to $Cnll yo ...... And somelimes-very rarely. I tllink - In a n~ltlgy Willi these qua.sircll tivc.s, we find rel ative c.onstruClions willi what ap~r to be misplaced heath: Ihu.s we would find, fo r eumple, iMtC.ld of dpNJha [(blamlls ~ ,vId!>-tr)bal tk ".hat book wllich Ihe lama i5 arrying," the word order [(b/amlJ.J dptdha .vkh)'I'T)b<l1 tk. by analogy willi, !ioOIy, blamaJ dpt.dha tk .v/dr~"1J)\I "Illat book for tile lama to arry."

298

THE ClASSICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

put on" < de; Ich.yim-bdog-pai gos-daij rg)'Dn bskon "He put on his householder clothes and ornaments"), ;'in-dig blin-du ri-dags bzafi-fio-l!og hsad "Every day he killed all the deer who were good" (with ri-dags bzaR-no-dog "all the deer who were good" < ri-dagf bzaJ "The deer were good"), /eye.rna rgyal-po tIhen-po rrwm-thos-kyi bu gnod-sbyin IJhe-bar grags-so-tJog-dan Ihantfig-tu ii4 blta-bai phyir on-na "Oh, if only the great king Kubera. together with al1 the yalqas famed as great, came to see met" (with gnod-sbyin tJhebar grags-so-tlog "all the yaJqas who were famed as great" < gnod-sbyifl IIliebar grogs ''The yalqas were famed as great"). And note this quasi-headless collstrllction-du.s-g.sum rgyal-ba yin-no-tIog (Jig-dar Ndw "All who were the Buddhas oC the three times gathered together," with dus.gsum rgyal-ba yin-notIog "ttU those who arc Buddhas of the three times" < dus-gsum rgyaf-ba yin "(Some beings) are Buddhas of the three times." We also find the nominalizer -dgu, related both 10 the archaic selector -dgu, as in Jha-dgu "the many gods," and to the numeral dgu "nine," anti the nominaliur -tshad, apparently related to the noun tshad "measure," both of which are used in the same way as -o-tJog "All PATIENTS OF PR OPOS11l0N"thus, for example, Ndod-dgu "all one wants," nan-dgu "everything which is bad," .rnan-tshad "all that happens," tshog.r-tshad "everyone who gathered together," Ndir Idorn-bu -bo byun-tshad "all the beggars who appeared here." Note too the hybrid form -dgu-tJog in this passage from the biography of Mila ras-pa-g.rer g.yu-dan mdzo rto .rogs nor yod-dgu-t5og Nbuf-bor khyer-nas Hbyon-gyin yod "He is coming, bringing all the wealth he has-gold and turquoise, yaks and horses, and all-to give you."

2.1.1.3. The Mminaliur -Nphro "REMAINDER OF PATIENT Of' PROPOSITION"

The patient-centered nominalizer -"'phro (sometimes -Hpllros) "JU; MAlNO E,H. OF PATIENT OF PRoposmoN" is apparently related to the verb NPIfRO "proceed, spread, continue." A nominal in -Nphro denoles a remaining or uncompleted or leftover portion of the patient participanl in the nominalized proposition. i3 We find, tor example, khyod-ran-gi l!ho (hun "You drank your Ica"
U NOle, in lhe following cumples. 1hat t~e verb in the malrix propos ilion ,J~rly refers to lhe I'A11ENT in lhe embedded proposition and nol 10 ttle proposilion as a wtlole-Illus. for <::Dmple, ou rltu1i-i'IpiIrw /hun "I drank Ihe resl of lliE 11':A you were d rin king." )'l-O,&; I/briNpNos mrhoil HI $311>' an uncompleled LETr1:.R 5OmCOlle was wriling." Ibcle arc. tlowc~er.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

299

khyod-ran-gi tIluJ thuJj-Nphros "the rlCJt of the tea of yours you were drinking" ii4s khyod-ran-gi tIha lhuii-NJ1Iuw NtiJ' tJuUj-pa yin "I drank the rest of the tea you were drinking," yi-gt Nbri "(Someone) is writing a letter" yi-ge Nbri-Nphros "part of a letter that someone is writing" iias tfog-tsei gan-lo yi-ge Nbri-Hphros gtJiB mlhoii byuii "It happened that I saw a half-finished letter on the table,." khoii-gi Idstu slog "He was ploughing his eanh" Ichon.,; khru slog-Nphro "leftover pan of the earth he was ploughing" nas kyon JcJwii-gi khru slog-Hphro Ndi go-tIhod-tIig byed "And I finished off the rest of this earth of his he was ploughing." tJhos blKlUT 'They were translating the dharma" tIhos ~ Nphro "the remainder of the dharma they were translating" tJhos bsgyur-

Nphro-matru bskyur "They put aside tbe remainder of the dhanna they were translating_" Here, too, we find quasi-headless constructions-for example, referring to the pulse, Nphar-Nphro tJhad , "What remained of that which throbs came to an end,"

2.1.2. Proposition..c:tnttrtd nomlnalizers

2.1.2.1. 17u IIOmiNllit.tr-1'G

The single most important nominalizer in the classical language is the proposition-centered nominalizer -1'rl, which becomes -po after preceding final -g. -do -II, -b, om, and os, and becomes -bD after preceding final -ii, -r. -I. and open syllables. 14 The general nominalizer -Prl signalS only that the entire proposition is functioning as a nominal. and contributes nothing further to the

a few instances 'Wbere tbls interpretation d;oes QOt seem to hold -for aampk. NdIif-NpIaro bdAd '1'bey stopped tbe rest o( the destruction," mkJuu-gyi ttsig-,.,wo 101 "Put aside 'A'hJ,t Is left. of )'Our building of the tower," t4 In the epic of Ce-sar _ find I nomiulizcr -k I&Kd In ICYUlllOnp in a way entirely plrallelto tblt of Ihe nominaliz.er -/'a found elsewberc. 'There Is evef)' reason to believe lhat tbll -k Is a Kharns dialcct variant for .fa; note tbe (oliowiD, e:umpk:l~-~ rrwd-pai blD.mtJ_Zig. mdtoIi-Nl tlDd_ po oII-LE-Zig. md1aJ-IUl doII -/Io ~-LE-lig. pWllIIo.spo-tsaM-fYU voI-I.-Zir "a Jail'll who came out of nowhere; throuJh 'WOOm, if)'Ou see hlln, faith Irbes; 'Woo, II you meet blm, brin" fonh deYotion: by wbom. by Jillt beatin, hift1 ,peat. )'Ou Ire liberate4," pJ-tJhcI dotf-14 mllap-U)M. mtJbld4d ',)101-,0 oI'I-U: yitI "I ba-..e bce1I tent on a matter of veat Importance: )'Our servant hal oome witbout delay.~ p p_ 14 bw-.llwl medL dgN. boll'" riIl-lhu" mtd-U dgN. ~ _ID p/tyf4f-dbtd med-U: df:os .. ,.,. fOt' follll, you lOOlild make no distinctIon of beauty; IS fOT slze.)'Ou lOOukl InIke ItO distlnction of !lei",t; as for $Ubstlnce, )'Ou slKluld I1\.Ike no distlnetlon of 'Wealth."

300

THE 0Ass1CAl.. TIBETAN I...NIOUAOE

reading of the proposition-thus, for example. mtho-ris1tJ dgt-sloii' ~ '"The monk is born in heaven" mlho-rislo dge-sloii.-lJ slcye-ba "the birth of the monk ill heaven," saiis~kyis t!has-' bIad "The Buddha taught the dharma" .mns-rgyas-kyis ahos-' bIad-pa "the teaching of the dhanna by the BQddha, ..

dge-slon-gis sans-rgyas-ta mtIhod-pa-1J NbuJ ''The monk gives offerings to the Buddha" dgt:-sloii-gis saiiHg)'osla mtJhod-pa-8 Nbulba "the giving of offerings to the Buddha by the monk."

2.1.2.2. The nomitUJli:trsa "PUCE WHEB PMJ1"OSmON"

The proposition-centered nominalizer -sa "PlACE WHERE PRorosmoN" is ckarly rdated to-but is not the same as-the noun sa "earth, land, place." II is, next 10 ra, one of the mO$I commonly encountered of the nominaliurs; as illustration. note, fo r example, blD-ma nu "The lama weeps" bla-mtJ nu-J'a "the place where the lama weeps," sans-rgyas-kyis dhos Mad "The Buddha taught the dharma" saiis-rgyas-kyis lIlies Mad-sa "the place where the Buddha taught the dharma," Such nominals in -sa frequently function as heads of nominal phraseJ within source or locus participants-fo r example, miglall-gyis mthan-sa-to dg<-.Iloii-gis IJ/IOS Mad "The monk taught the dharma where others could see him," where Ihe locus participant mi glan-1D'is mlhon-.Ia "place where other people sec" is a nominalization of the proposition mi gtan-t:lis mthon "Other people .ICC (st)me: lhing)," Mi-Ia similarly nominalizcs the proposition Ms phyog-btsa/ ,. ] hawed down" when he says nas pltyag-btsaf-sa defa phyis phyag-whal sgandll grogf "That place where: I howed down-it later t>ecame knO'Nll as Bowing Do ..... n R idge." We: find the proposition sen-ges mdhofi.s "The lion leaps" Ilominaiized in Ihe prove rb sen-ges mttlio;u-sa-/a was mdhoiis rlud-pa HUhag " The fox k;)ps where: the lion k aps-and breaks his neck,"\!
The prnposilion-ce:nlered nominalizer -.to is also found, combined with the

p.,

h~, pul>h,hcti a TilM:tan map which purports to sllow the IOCItion ofvariouf, Ih. hlc u t the epi<: hcm Gcr.ar, The map oontainssllch IIOtllions \I"~\ ' ''' md., 'gl"llXJ/1 '" Iht pl~c<: where Gcsu shol an arrow II lhe demon:- wtkJIiuIpo~ "-'''X'' '-'/I ",he place ...here ,he youn, abbot siayed," tHWd 1cN-/k ri-~ bnd-UJ 11Ie pIKe ""heft ,he dcmtln KIIclk r; Ju WU oonqllCred:' khro-pm -r:tiJ p-SIII'-ltJ H Ille
I'
1<;_';0<.'111\'

,\<. nl ~ In

.,,SN-tyb_,

rl;u:.c whcl: KhrO"'um Uf) was h"rn:'

gave poi.wn 10 Gt-s.:ar,"

likJvuilssnj pho./Jrnl/ "Ihe

palKe where (Oc:-

.,IIlInrl-UJ

CoMPLEX PRorosmoNs

301

verb rmd < -ma-roo "be absent," with the broader sense "occasion, opportunity, possibility"-thus -,Sa nud "There is no way for PROPOSmON to happen." For example, we find gtan-du NgrO "He goes elsewhere" and thus gtan-du. NgrO-$Q ma:I "He has nowhere else to go," M gtan-1tJ ur "I speak to others" and thus M gtan-1tJ ur-sa med "I have no one else to turn to," Jus1tJ reg "I touch his body" and thus Iusta regsa ma:I "'There's no way I can get near him," nor-gyis blu " One ransoms with money" and thus nor-fJ'is bllNa mal "You can't buy yourself out of this."

2.1.2.3. The nomilllllizer -grogs

uHELI' WITH /'ROl'OSrrION"

The propositio n-ccntcred nominalizer -grogs "HELP WIllI PRorosmoN" is clearly related ' to-but is not the same as-the noun grogs "friend. "I' This nominalizer is often found in elegant or polite commands: the proposition expres.sing the requested actio n is nominalized with -grogs "HELP \oVlThI PRorosmoN", and used as the patient of the imperative stem of an elegant or honorific verb-for example, the imperative Item mdzod of the honorific verb ItIOZAD "do," or the (irregular) imperative stem gyi.s of the elegant verb BGYl"do." Thus., for example, Mar-pa's wife Bdag-med-ma asb her husband's disciples bltNttIJ riiog.pa Nkhor-btIas-kyis M; 1u-OO NbuJ-grogs mdzod-lJig "Let lama Rfiog-pa and his disciples help' me make my requestl" and Mar-pa says elegantly to Mi-Ia dar-1n(J mdo-w Nbogs-pai mkhar-tig mig-grogs fJ'is "Give a hand building a tower I can give to Dar-rna mdo-sde,"

2.1.2.4. 1M nominnJiurs mkhanlmi

/,ROl"O$rr'ON
JJ

"/'RSON INYOlYED IN

The proposition-ccntered nominalizer -mkhan "PERSON INVOLVED 1\11 PRorosmoN" is clearly related to the syllabic formative -mlchDn "SKILLED IN," which is suffixed to nouns. 11 The nominalizer -mkhan, on the other hand,

I' 11tc lIOftlipallza .".. perblpa. more properly wril1en .g.rop. As carly IS in lbe Pad ma tbaa-yl, we IIDd lbe aJtemaliYc fornu .~ Iltcslcd; !\OtC 100 tbe New nbclan !\OmlulUu oro "J!ELI WfI1( PROPOS maN," ucd with luch clcpnt or honorUIc verN IS di "do" UId MIl "beatOW"'-for example., New Tibetan (UwI) 1IakI14pro IJI <!lo41 Ulb-fOP "u:> "Pkale Icil mc." 1IakI.fIIIIro MIl <1l4I.1.1 ,puII.rap &MIl:> " Please lell me (boROriftc)."

u..

" NOie. for tamplc,.1IC.b OOIlOCllllons IS iii! "wood"IiII-mkNltt "atpenlcr,"/tDrI " path"

302

TIlF. ClAssiCAL TIBETAN I..ANOUAGE

is sufrlxed to-and makes a nominal from-entire propositions-for example.,

o-dod byas-kyan o;i-mkhufl med "Though I cried for help, there was no one

who came." Thus, 100, we find, in the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa by Gtsansm)'an he-ru-ka. niog-ston lJllos-rdor leT-ba; ma-bt!oI-ba byed-mkJulfI Ichyod

"you who do what you are not lold to do named Riiog-slon t!hos-rdor." Similarly for m~ as in Ihe following from the epic of Ge-sar-?a-rog zer-m; rho-rug yUI, ktJ-kwi Ian byed-m; brag-lJhar yin, Ius NgrO-rog by/-mi grib-mJJ yin "The one who caUs me old friend is the crow; ahe one who answen my cry is the echo; the one who accompanies my body is my shadow.""

2.2. NOMINALIZED PROPOSITIONS AS HEADS

A proposition that has been nominalized with -po can function-just like any nominal-either as Ihe nominal head or as the modifier of the head. When a nominalized proposition is the head of a nominal phrase. it can-jusl like any no minal-be modified by further nominals. specified by determiners and quantifiers. and so on. For example, from the nominalization dge-s/oij-gis sans'X\'as-Ja mtJJwdpa-8 NbuJ ha "the giving of offerings to the Buddha by the monk," we might find IdgesJDii.gU saiis-fID/tu-la mdhodpa-8 Nbu/-ba] HOI "TIllS giving of offerings to the Buddha by the monk," [dge-sIOii-gis .san.s-'X)Wla mfJ/lOd-pae Nbul-ba) N DI-RNAMS "Til ESE givings of offerings to the Buddha by the monk," Idge-sloii-gis saFurgyasla mfJhod-pll-8 NbuJ-ba) nHEN-f'O ''THE GItEAT givings of offerings 10 the Buddha by the monk," (dge-sloii-gir sans'XYQs-fu nlIJhod-pa-1J Nbu{baj TSJlENPO NDI-DAG KUN "Au. TIIESE GREAT givings of offerings to th~ Buddha by the monk."
Such a nominal phrase may then. in turn, play any participant role in the propositio n-for example. the PATI ENT. as in (saiis-'X)'tu-kyu tJhos-/J blad-pa]-8 sems-tJQ/I-lu pha/l "The teaching of dharma by the Buddha brings benefit to be ings." dJ{e-sloii-gis (sa'Lf-IID'uS.kyis tJllOs-8 bIad-paJ-B rhos "The monk heard

lammk}"lfI "J;lI,dc:' bw " hand icrafl" bw-,.,lho" "cr3ftsman." We also find IexiaIlized or semi- ICJ<lCllil.ed collocalions or ,,.,khan with a preccdin, verb stem, usually presenllense-for example. SHUN "proU:cl" JfUn ,,.,/JIOfl ",uardian," Rn.t.w' "compose, write" nsom-tnlrJulll "a",lhor," lJtD "Idli" gs(ld,mkJtofl "murderer,".t.tM "think" JtmJmJcMfI "'ntemltnl penon," lMG "bind" lltiogsmkltofl "one who blnd.\, " These u e .11 apparently nominalir.alkms of propos il ions which have been rcd",ced to Ihe event Ilone, witl\o"'t participants.

I~ Note Ill e pia)' on worcb-7lI-rog "old friend." plio-reg "crow," ~ "companion."

CoMPLEX PROP9SmONS

303

the teaching of dharma by the Buddha," or (san.NX)-,tlJ-kyis IIhos-' bJad-pa)-1J bslwl-pai gtsug-~n yin ''The teaching or dharma by the Buddha is the diadem of the age"; the AOEI'ICY, as in (sans-IX)W-kyir IIhos-1J bIad-pa)-KY7S senu-lIan Iharns..IJad-1J sgroi "The teaching of dharma by the Buddha saves all beings" or (saiis-'XYa.t-kyis t.!hos-' bJad-pa ]-KYlS dge-sloii-IJ mya-;um-la.t Ndas ''The monk entered nirvana because of .the teaching of dharma by the Buddha"; the LOCUS, as in (.ro;u-IX)-'a.t-kyis IIhos-' bIad-pa)-u serns-tIan IMrns-lIad-' dga "All beings rejoice in the teaching of dharma by the Buddha"; the SOURCE, as in (sa;u-'X)a.t-kyir tJ!.ws-' bJad-pal-HAS snns-dan IMms-dad-' NgrOI "All beings are saved through the teaching of dhanna by the Buddha"; or the ACCOMPANIMENT, as in {saiis-IX)'QS-kyir tIlws-' Mad-palDAR mu-Slegs-pa-' Ngal "Heretics oppose the teaching of dharma by the Buddha."

2,2,1. Multiple embedding

A proposition can contain, as one of its panicipants, a nominaliud proposition which itself contains a nominalized proposition as one of its participants, and so on; for example, note the following sequence of propositions~la-mar tIhos bJad "The lama taught the dhanna," (blama.t tJhos-bIad-pa)-HAS SDfUtItIn grot "Beings were saved through the teaching of dharma by the lama." Ubla.ma.t tlhos bJDd-pa]-ntlJ unu-tIan gro/-ba)-u tgYtIl-po dgd 'The king rejoiced at the saving of beings through the teaching of dhanna by the lama," (((bID-mas tlhos bJad-pa)-na.t serns-dall grot-balID rgyaI-po dga-ba)-a blorl-pos mlhoii ''The minister saw the rejoicing of the king at the saving of beinp through the teaching of dharma by the lama," [(((bla-rna,s tJhos bJad-paJ-nas senut!an grol-ba}/o rgya/-po dga-baJ- blon-pos mthoii-ba)-s mtIhod-pa phuJ ' 'The minister gave offerings because of his seeing the rejoicing of the king at the saving of beings through the teaching of dharma by the lama," t[([[blamas tIhos bJadpaj-nas s~m.s-dan grolba}-la 'KYa/-po dga-ba)-B blon-pos mlhonbal-s mtfhod-pa phulba)-DAR ryJJal-mo nan-po Nkhon 'The wicked queen was distressed at the giving of offerings by the minister because of his seeing the rejoicing of the king at the saving of beings through the teaChing of dharma by the lama."

When an appropriately role-marked nominalized proposition is in the setting slot of the matrix, such sequences can be given a paratactic reading as wellthus, for example, blamas tlilos Mod-po-HAS "From the teaching of the dharma by the lama/After the lama taught the dhar~a!fhe lama taught the

304

TilE cv.ssICAL TIBETAN LANOUAGE

dharma, and then ..." dge-sloii-gis t!hos thOl-pa-KYlS "By the hearing of the dharma by the monk/Bec8usc: the monk heard the dharma/I'he monk heard the dharma, and so ... " rgyaf-po-s dgra-8 mlhon-bo-lA ''At the seeing of the enemy by the kinglYlhen the !ting ~w the enc:myfThc: king saw the enemy,

and ... " Such co~tructions are processed by the Tibetan reader, I believe, as at least quasi-paratactic rather than hypotactic, despite the: " fact that structurally they can be embedded several layers deep; and they are thus read-and written-as if they were: parallel with conjunctions-for example, in the: Mkhas-pai mgul-rgyan mu-tig phrcii-mdus by the: grammarian Si-tu mahiipal)~ita, the: paraphrase coordination gsa/-tlR dwans-U drj-m4 rrud "clear AND pure AND unsullic:d," or, in the biography of Mi-la ras-pa by Gtsaii-smyon he-ru-ka, the simultaneous coordinations tIhos-lil gtad-NIlS yofu "He sought the dharma AND came," khru rem-liAS slog "I exerted myself AND ploughed."I'

Nominalized propositions in the setting slot can be marked as the medium, locus, source, or accompaniment of the event in the matrix proposition, or as an adverb which modifies Ihat event; they can be marked as either the nlocus or source or the I locus or source. The role panicles marking such nominalized propositions then carry much of Ihe same meaning as when marking a simple: nominal-thus PROPOSITION-PQ-Kl'ir "by PROPOSITION/because of PROPOSITION/PROPOSITION and 50 ... " PROPOSITION-PQ-lil "at PRoPOSmoN/ upon PROPOSITION/PROPOSITION and then . . ." PROPOSITION-PQ-na "in PROPOSITION/while: PROPOSITION/if PROPOsmON ... " PROPOSITION-falas "out of PROPOsmoN!because of PROPOSIllON . . ." PROPOSITION-PQ-nas "from PROPOSITION/through PROPOSITION/PROPOSITION and then ... " PROPOSITION-PQdan "with PROPOSITION/no sooner than PROPOSITION ... "

19 The$e oonstructions, with role marked nominalized propositions in the setting slot, are Ulremely oommon in the tlusk:al language: in fact, they are probably found more often than oonjunaion!. Tht5e COnstructions are sometimes called "oontlnUltiVCI,H and are treated-and tllnslated i(lto Englistl_rlther 11$ if ttley were Sanskrit gerunds in -)'It or ,..,D. It iii true thll these oonstruClions were oflen w.ed in Tibetu to render such Sanskrit gerllnd.s-for eumple, from tbe VujrocclKdikA 1'rrlj1fD~rDmifD, Sanskrit canqpl1dik4m apt fD'~'" u.dgrhyo Tibelln uhig bt/-pal uhip-sw tnJadpa-lumt b!~ _nDS ~ Having grasped Just th" four line stanu . . :. or, from the AbhidlwmaJwjDbhlJf)'It by VlI$ub,lindllu, Sanskrit j1vita_JNUil~ram dimvlJ Tibelln dgNbyoi1_gi NUho-bai yo.byad pll yollllJlI-bu phul-nDS "Having given ttle requisites whlcb are appropriate to mai nllin a monk ..." Bllt I am nOi sure ItllI tlli! is alWays a helpful characteriution of their struct ure.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

lOS
-PO

2.2.2. The omission or

The nominalizerPQ may be-and not infrequently is-omitted when it occurs between the tense stem of a verb and a bound role particle.'" In the archaic Central Asian manuscripts, we find .PQ retained in this position probably more frequently than we do in the later texts, altho ugh usage is certainly far from consistent-for example, slan~ phud-tIig btlulb-PA-U g.yu "al-Ie mJ.!hU ... sta-rt pud.l!ig bthabNA g.y" rga/tt mtIhis "He struck. the fint time with the axe, AND TIIEN G.yu crossed over ... WHEN he struck the first time with the axe, G .yu crossed over," mi khyod sgrinrna NdodPANA 1cJuJ.rog.par NdugNA bzaii-o "WHEN!tF you, man, desire prudence, it is good WHEf'I/JF you stay silent," drug t.lhtn.poi rgyalpol 10 bdunt.lu-rtlo gnis dar-to. 10 bdwIt.fu-rtsa gnis dar.PA-LMR, Iljma Jar/ogslcyi dru-~-dai1, ijjma nub-pa logsgyi drugu gfus Nfhabs "The king of the Greal Drug nourished for seventy-two yean; AS SOON AS he had nourished for seventy-two years, the Uttle Drug of tJ:te quarter where the sun sets fought with the little Drug of the quarter where the sun rises." In the classical texts, as a general rule, "'a is omitted before .ruu, often omitted before Ia a nd na, often teta ined before -Iw, and retained before -dan and .KYiJ".

1 heard words and words foU

of """,

aehing. Speech
is a mouth. -Robert Creeley, Tht LAnguagt

For example, note the use of these constructio ns, parallel with conjunctions. in the fo llowing from the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa by Gtsan-smyon he-ru-h:

20 Allhough Ihe urlmessed panicle -1'fJ appurs o rlen dispeTUable_ror eumpk. wilen new disyllabic stress groups Ire rorme4-it is probably n fe 10 ny in Ihis reprd ttiat we JCne~11y lind , ny, bolh ]iba-Ia and lila "died Ind ... " bill we find only libG1PWIIPU "ona who died" and no t ?limumJ.

306

Tile ClASSICAL TIBETAN ~GUAGE

de-nos yi-ge taii-poi lag-tu blag-NAs lam-gyis mihan-bar byaspAS, khon.17Wms-lcyi.t grO! NgyUT-TE, /ag-mthui bsam-sbyor bor-HAs, fiii or-nul gru-gsum yan la-khui lag-nos bloiis-TE la-ma-lo sprad Ndug
Then we put the letter in the ~nd of my maternal uncle, AND

he showed it to everybody, "..'m so they look counsel, AND

forsook their plan of revenge, AND took the field Or-rna Triangle from the hands of my paternal uncle, ..-.NO gave it to
my mOlher.

no de tWs 7a-ma..cfaii lon-J!ig phrad snom.PA-LAl', dgras Ndtigs-TE

myw-du bros-TE gna-nom bskor phyin-PA5, rkaii-pa-la khyis phugSTE NdzOffl-$llr dus-Ia ma-slebs
I then thought, " I will meet my mother one more time," .... ~D
was afraid of my enemies AND quickJy ran away AND circled around Gna-nam AND a dog bit me on the leg AND I did not

arrive on time at the meeting place.

gIon-pa-moms no-re, thos-pa-dga kho yin thog-tJhod, khos u-tJag mthon-ba med-PAs yul-nas dmag g.yabsn: ntlJ-bsad-NA, Ndis dadun yul Ndi phun-du Ndtug urtJR, log son-BA:-u, nai grogs-po na-re, khyod.rall snon- Ia son, Ras khyod-raii yin-pa-Itar byas-n: snm-tsltim btab-u on-gil zer

The younger ones said, "He is Thos-pa dga, certainly, He has not seen us, so IF we do not summon a host from the village AND kill him_ th is o ne will ruin our village even more," AND they turned h<lck, AND my friend said, "You go on ahead. I promise I will come WHEN I have acted as if I am yo u AND had some fu n." Gtsafi-smyon he-ru-ka often uses nominalizec! propositions marked with the accompaniment particle -dan in the selling slot to indicate an immcJiate succession of events- for example, ban-dJre de log-soii-ba-DAN, tJhaii llzag-rna Iw.par btuM "As SOON AS that monk went back, I drank the rest of Ihe beer," phyed-tsam fons-pa . DAiJ bla-ma byon "As SOON AS I had finished just half of it, the iamfl came," mlllu h.rgrubsnas 2ag bdulJ son-ba-OAP bfa -rna byon " I cast the spell, :md, AS SOON AS seven days had ",,'used, the lama came,"

CoMPLEX PROPOSITIONS

307

phyed-tsam lonH'A-~ yan kho-ran Mig-Iu bl!ug-NAS sa-fdomoms ran-gnas-su skyel-du Ndlug-gin Ndug. Ndi yan Mig yon mibJig-NA bsrun-bar l!hog bIig mi-bIig bltao zer-/iA-u, ma-blig-par mlchar-las nor-mar byas-PAS, bdun thog-tu sO;;'-/iA-OAR nai rIc,edpa-Iaan sgal-po-lig byun

They )aid, "As SOON AS it is just half done he has him tear it down AND has him take the earth and rocks to their original place. This one too will be torn dqwn. It will be enough for us to stop him WJIEN/IF it is nOl torn down. We will see if it is torn down or not," AND, not tearing it down, 1 worked on the tower without stopping. AND, AS SOOt'll AS I reached the seventh story, a sore developed on my back.

2_2.3. Propositional adverbs

Nominalized propositions marked with the adverb particle -lU may be found, orten in the setting slot of the matrix proposition, serving to modify the matrix event in terms of time, place, manner, or extent-for example, 10 manpo-lig ma-Ioll-par "Before many years had passed .. ." rgyal-pu dug-gi.r bsadsar "At the place where the king had been poisoned . . ." skad-t!jg kyaii sdodpai Ion med-par "Without waiting even for a moment . .. " dgon-po de-daii nebar "Near to thai monastery . . ." Relator nouns arc orten found as the head of such propositional adverbs"":'for example, sails-rgyas-kyis tJhos Mad-pai rnthar "Nter the Buddha had taught the dharma . .. " bla-mas b~s rna-btu/bai bar-du "While the lama had nOl yet tamed the demon/Until the lama had tamed the demon .. ." rgyat-po dgOiI-pa-la sltbs-pai dus-su ''At the time the king arrived at the monastery .....
L~-par Mad-pa rill -po-tJhei gter, Saskya paJ:l"ita writes nile-bas Nbails-Ia mi-g1lod-par, rig-poi las-kyis dpyo-morrtS bsdu "A lord should gather taxes in a wise way, without harming his subjects," rna-la dbyug-gus ma-bsnunpar, de-srid glim-dan khyud IIi yod "Without having hit the drum with a stick. how is it different from any other?" )'Ill gla/l legs.par ma-bnags-par, sija-mai gnas ni dor mi-bya "You should not abandon your former abode unless you have well examined the other place." In the biography of Mi-la by Gtsaiismyon he-ru-ka we find ma-gsan-par bla-rna byon "The lama left without listening," yum uha-ba Ndrtn-ciu byuii "My Laoy appeared, bringing hot food," mkilar-Ias mdzad-don med-par mdzad, Mig..tfon med-por Mig-gin Ndug "He is

Thus, in the

building towers without any reason to build the m, and destroying them

3Q8

THE ClASSICAl. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

without any reason to destroy them," bsam-po gfan-gyis ma..JJlwd-par bJa-madaii mdlal,e lal mlhan-bo-fig nom yon-no nom yoii-na bsam-lUi phyin "Uninterrupted by any other thought, I went along thinking, When oh when will I meet the lama and see his face?" tshe Ndi don-du gner-bai mi-dan Jab ma~-par sgrub-pa-kl Nbuiis-Jig "Without speaking to any person who is

concerned with this life, apply yourself to meditation!" rna-Mig-par mJchnrlas bras "Not tearing it down, I worked on Ihe tower unceasingly." And note these satiric verses, taken from a poem by Pad-rna dkar-po-sdug-btsirgyis bslab-sbyaiis-lig ma-dgos-JXlr, blo mo-tiii gsal-hoi mJchos-JXlr gyur "Without any need for strenuous study, I have become a scholar with mind sharp and clear," sdug-Nkhums-kyis sgo gsum ma-mflor-bar, grogs Nphags-ma-mams ~s. poi btsun-par gyur "Without oppressing my senses with hardship, I have become a reverend pleasing to my friends the Noble Ladies. ,,21
fIIU-mDr

2.3. NOMINALIZED PROPOSITIONS AS MODIFIERS

A proposition that has been nominaliz.ed with -PQ can functio n not only as the head of a nominal, as we have discussed, but also as the MODI FIER of the head. There are twO syntactic constructions in whic.b we find such a nominalized proposition acting as a modifier. First, in a RELATIVE conSlruction, the nominalized proposition-here called a relative propositio n-can modify any type of no minal head; and the relative proposition is processed as having within it an omitted participant which is in some sense identical with the nominal head it modifies: thus, for example, saiis-'XYQ$ mlhan-bai dgt;sloii "monk who saw the Buddha" is a relative constructio n. Second. in a COMPLEMENT construction, the nominalized proposition-here called a complement-can modify cither verh or nominal heads, but only certain types of verbs and nominais; and the complement is nOl processed as having any omitted panicipam coreferential with the head it modifies: thus, for example, ttge-sloli-gis safis-'XYQs m. lhon-bai /'Ibras-bu "result of the monk's seeing the Buddha" is a NOMINAL complement construction; and dgt-slon-gis safis-'XYas mlh.oll-bar run .. It is proper for the monk to see the Buddha" is a VEJlB complemen~ construction. This distinction is more easily pOinled to than descnbed; and the next seve ral sections will try to make these syntactic constructions clear.
11 Pad-ma dklr.po offen his poem as laso silmn sbrup(J-ishoi l'Illusmlln ", laxative
lor
.~

b10aled lboughl$" and. IS khoII blll;'por grogs-pu-uhoi bJcTu-smon "soap ro r those

famed u YiMUOUS."

309

2.3.1. Relative constructions

What makes
mAr~

mthoii-lHli dgNloii "monk who saw the Buddha" a

relative construction? The HEAD of the phrase is. clearly, ~-sJoii "monk." The MODIFIER of this head iI 1QIis-rgyas mlhoii-ba, which is in tum a nominalization of the proposition miir-rgyas-IJ mlhoii "(Someone) saw the

.,..,.SQ1U-rgytU-'

Buddha." with the agency participant unspecified. That unspecified participant is then processed as oorefercntial with tbe head; in response to the question "WHO saw the Buddha?" the answer can only be "The monk did." The reconltrUCtion of these relationships by the reader can be written as [( tnthoii)-J'a)-KYi ~-sloii "monk who saw the Buddha," with the braekc" idcntifyin8Jhc. embedded modifier and the strikeout indicating the deleted coreferenL It is the need for such processing that makes the naminatized proposition RELATIVE to iu head.

Relative constructions arc a characteristic and productive hypotactic device in the classical texU. Where a paratactic construction might rca~ saiis-rgas dgon-pa-la bfugr-tt, dge-slofi-gis mJhoii-tiii mlIhod-pa phuJ ''The Buddha dwelt in the monastery ANO a monk saw him AND he gave him offerings," a .typically hypotactic construction would be dge-slon [saiLJ-rxvas (dgon-pa-la blu,p-pa}-I mthoil-baJ-s mt!hod-pa-8 phuI"The monk WHO saw the Buddha WHO ' was dwellina: in the monastery gave him offerings." Such relative constructions occupy a central and distinctive place in Tibetan writing.

11 We will UK tbls Dlnatlon "lfhenevcr we need to indicate tb.at l n embedded panicipant am:(crent!afwith a panicipant in the matri:J: proposition_for cumplt.I(.we.- ~ bfuI)-H)-iWG-m.II "!aN wbo tamc4 the demo~" (blll.ma-.. ~b"'l}lHIJ.i ~ "ckmoa wbom tbc lama tamed," b4J-mo.' (~bgq:s-6 blUl}-baJ-I"oIIs "The lama ame 10 tame tbc 4emon." In each of tbest CIUtI. the embedded oortrerent is 4eleted. alonl witb Its role particle. or replaee4 by I OUMMY, in the form of an indtrinite determiner, wlIo5e on1y tuoaion Is to arry the rolt pankle of tile deleted partidpant. The embedded p:,posioon It alwJlys the onc buried inside the brackets; tile more bracketS tbere are, the more IkItply embedded tbe proposltloIL The DOmlnal head Is atways ooreferential willi a panicipanl in tlIe embedded proposition JUSI one layer benealh ii-for cumple, .-lIoit (dfr-..loII ~ T"1' {laIII-.yyar dgott.pa.w. blwp-paJ-' mrholl-ba).J mlIhodpa plwl, which betomes fiBt.s~ 1~-.lloII laIII '1I).u I~"* dgon_pa .", bluS"p<lJ" mrhoo'l-lHIJ.J MJJhodpa pIwl, and then ~-JIoII I~ laJI.r~ I~ ~., dgotlpa-Ia btugJ-paj-' mtholl-b4J-.r nuJhcd-/Nl ~ '1'be DlOnk who laW the Buddba wbo was dv.'ellinl in the monastery pvc him

otleriDp."

310

2.3.1.1. Discursw on English re/oJivizalion

To understand Tibetan relative constructions. it may be helpful to look briefly al relative constructions in English. The English proposition 1M IIlwyu who wrot~ this book is handsome is actually composed of two propositions that inlersect upon the single corderenl the lawyn-that is, the main or MATRIX
proposition The la~,

is handJome. and the embedded or MODIFYING PI"(>

position The Iowyer wrote Ihil book. The latter proposition is IU!l.AllVlZED -that is, embedded in the main proposition as the modifier of 8 nominal head-by the following three steps:
(I) the modifying proposition is inserted in the matrix proposition immediately foJlowing the coreferential nominal head it will modify- thus The lawyer [the lawyer wrote thil book} is lumdsume,

(2) the corderential participant is deleted from the modifying proposition-thus The lawyer [lite "'''ye'I'' wrote thu book) u hwidsome, and
(3) the appropriate 'relative pronoun replaces the deleted corderenlial participant-thus The lawyer [W1IO wrote this book) u handsome. Now the nominal head in the matrix proposition can have any panicipant role in that proposition: it can be the ~ ubject, as in the example above, or the object. as in / am uading the book which refute.r Darwin, which, again, is built from two propositions that intersect upon the single corderentthe book-that is, the main or matrill proposition J am rtading th~ book, and the embedded or modifying proposition The book refuu.r Darwin. Again, the laner proposi~ tion is relativized in three steps: (I) / am reading the book Ilhe book refules Darwin ). (2) / am reading the book
I~
iJtl1f1CII

refutes DalWin),

(3) / am reading fhe book

refUftS Darwin).

Similarly, the deleted panicipant in the MODlFYlNO proposition can have any panicipant role in that proposition: it can be the": subject, as in the example

CoMPU1.X PROPOSmONS

311

above, or the object, as in I am reading tM book which you rtCOm/PInu:kd. which. again, is built from two propositions that intersect upon the. single corderen! the book-that is, the main or matrix proposition I am reading the book, and the embedded or modifying proposition You rommendtd the book. In English. however. relativizing the latter proposition requires an extra step: the embedded coreferent is moved to the left-hand end or its proposition before being deleted: thus

(1) I am nading the book [you recommeQded the book1. (2) J am nading the book (the book you rtcommended].. (3) I am reading tM book [fhto h68k you recommended], (4) I am nading the book
(MilCH

you recommended].

The deleted partici~nt in the modifying proposition can have still other roles in that proposition;23 or one relative can be embedded within another, as 23 For eample, it can be the IocItion, as in 1M IwUI ill which ht Irayed was dism(ll, wbkti is blillt from tbe rwo proposiliol'lS 1M holt! wat dismal and He Jrl1)'tfi in me h(Ht~ as
follows:
(1)

7Jv Mulllv Iraytd in W holti} Wat diJmtlJ,

(4)

7Jv houi!u. WHICH Iv srayed) Wat disnlllL

Or die ckklCd p-nicpnt in tbe modilyin& proposition can be tbe sollrce panicipant, IS In ~ itrwadt4 tJv llIItII from whlds Iv CIllPlt, apin bllilt from the rwo propositions TMy IIIvad.ed tJv llIItIIand Ht aunt from ,~ wild, IS 10110\115:

(2)

~ IIIl'1/UW.w llIItII
~

un- w

IIlnd M came),

(3)

illlIad.ed 1M llIItII

t/hIm ~ M camt),

312

THe Ct.AsstCAl.. nBETAN lANOUAGE

in I am nading the book which the man who worlu in the bookstore m:om-

mmdJ. as follows:
(1) I am reading the book [Ihe t1UlIJ [Ihe man works in the bookSlOU] rrcof7&lMnded the book).
(2) J am reading the book [the boolc the man [the man works in tIu book.rtore] recol'nlnended],

(3) (a> I am reading the nook (the book Ih e man (lite ".." works in lhe bookstore) m:ommendtd),
(b) I am rrading the book [1M the booJcnore) m:omnundN),

e.

the man [lite ""lit works in

(4) (a> I am reading 1M book (lilt 888& the mQn (WHO works in the bookston) m:ommerukd), (b) J am reading the book (WHfCH the man [W7fO works in Ihe bookstoreI ncommended).

Rclativization in English, of course, is more complicated than this: for cumple, relative pronouns arc optional where thc ..omitted participant in the modifying proposition is the object, as in I am reading 1M book you recomnKtuUd, and we have not even mentioned such constructions as Thq invad~ the "md he came from. But t think this brief-and far from universally acccpted-description may help to shed some light on the parallel Tibetan
construction.

2J.l.2. IWlali .., proposiJiolU qfttr Ihe httul

Any modifier of a nominal can, as we have seen, follow the head which it modifteS.....for enmple, blQ-mo I!hen-p" "great lama," bltJ-mo mol-Nbyor-ptl "lama who is a yogin." Similarly, a f' ;.stive proposition can follow the head which it modifies-fof example, saiis-'X)'4S' dgo"-pa-ltJ btugs-pa "Buddha who dwells in the monastery," b~ bltJ-mcu bruJ-ba "demon ' which the lama lIImed."

The: Tibetan proposition

sa;u~as

dgan -pa-la btug1-pas I!hru bJad "The

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

313

Buddha who dwells in the monastery taught the dhanna" is actually composed of two propositions that intersect upon a single corcrerenl SUMlX}'as "Buddha"-that is, the main or MATRIX proposition suns-rgyas-kyis tIhos bJad "The Buddha taught the dharma," and the embedded or MODIFYING proposition sans-lfO'as-B dgofl-pa -la Mugs "The Buddha dwells in the monastery," The latter proposition is RELo\TIVlI'..ED-that is, embedded in the main proposition as the mcxlifier of a nominal head-in the fo llowing steps:

(I) the modifying proposition is nominalized with the nominalizer -1'Vl-thus (sans-lX)'us-B dgon -po-Ia blugs)-PaJ,
(2) this nominalized proposition is inserted in the malrix proposition immediately following sans,tXYas, the corcfcrential nominal head it will modiry, and, as in any Tibetan nominal phrase, before the attached role particle-thus saiir-'X)'t:U [(s<liif-'X)'as-B dgon-pa-Ia blugs)-PaJ-KYis tJhos Mad, and (3) the corderential participant, along with its attached role particle, i5 deleted from the modifying proposition-thus sunsrgyas ((Milt ~a" 8 dgon-pa-Ia blugs)-Pa J-KYis tJhos Mad, Under the appropriate rules of inflectional morphology, this proposition then becomes sans-'X)'as dgofl-pa-la Mugs-pas (.fhos Mad "The Buddha who dwells in the monaste ry taught the dharma," The modified nominal head in th~ M ....nux proposition can have any participant role in that proposition: it can be the agency, as in the example above, or the patient, as in dge-slon-gil sailS-IX)'{u (.fllOs bJad-pu hs(rxi "The monk praised the Buddha who taught the dharma," which, again, is built fro m two propositio ns that intersect upun the single coic:fereot saiir-'XY!ls "Buddha"-that is, the main or matrix proposition dge-slon-gis sofU-rgyas-8 bSltxi "The monk praised the Buddha," and the embedded or mcxlifying proposition safU-rgyas-kyis t.fhos Mad "The Buddha taught the dharma," Again, the latter proposition is relalivlzed in the follow ing steps: (1) the modifying proposition is nominalized with the nominalizer -Pa-thusJ(sans-'X)'os-KlU 1.fllOf b.fud)-I'oj. (2) this nominalized proposition i~ inserted in the matrix proposition immediately followingsulu-,Xt'(U, the cordcrcotial no minal

314

head it win modify, and, as in any Tibetan nominal phrase, before the ,attached role particle-thus dge-sloii.gis saiis-tgYaS (saiis-JXYOS-KYi.J tJhas blad}PaJ-B bstod, and (3) the ooreferential participant, along with its attached role partic1e,14 is deleted from the modifying propmition-thus ttgeslon.-gir .JOiiH'gYas (.HIM 'f3df leyi4l!hos blad}Pa)-' bstod. U nder the appropriate rules of inflectional morphology, this then becomes dge-slon-gis saiis-f8YQS l!hos bJad-pa bstod "The monk praised the Buddha who taught the dharma."
Similarly, the deleted participant in the MODlFYlNGproposition can have pMlidpant role in that proposition: in the fint example, above, the embedded
sllf u -rgyas "Buddha" was the patient of the intransitive verb Bt(lGS "dwell";

any

in the second example above, the embedded sans-1JYClS "Buddha" was the agency of the lransitive verb T.tw "teach." Or the deleted partic.ipant in the mO<iifyi ng proposition can be the patient of a transitive verb, as in dge-sloii-gis I.Utos saiis-tgyaskyir bladpa bstod "The monk praised the dharma which the Uud6ha taught," which, again, is built from two propositions that intersect upun the single coreferent IIhos "dharma"-that is, the main or matrix proposition dgNlon .gis IIhrulf bstod "The monk praised the dharma," and the embedded or modifying proposition sansrgyas-kyis IIhos-JJ Mad 'The
B uddha laughl Ihe dharma." Again, the latter proposition is relativized in the follCMing steps:

( 1) [(saiisrgyas-k}'ir tlhru1J blad)-Pfl),

14 Aaually, this step is bener described In two 51eps. FiB!, lhe oorderent nominal is deleted.. kavinC its role particle unging in the air, as in dge-sloll I(""""nu md/wd-po pJwI}I"l:lJ.m:s $CJ1ts~ mtIwA "'The monk who cave offennp 5aW tile Buddha. ~ 5eoond, either or two steps may be taken. The proposition an be used 15 is, Mlh the rules or inRcctionai morpbolol)' ,ulorIUIliCilly deleli., the hangin, role particle. yieldin, dgt-sw mdhod-po phu/.IHJ-s SQJU-~I m'/wI! '"The monk wbo pYe offerinp saw the Buddha"; or an indefinite detenniner Cln be. p1aocd in lhe now empty SIOI as dummy 10 Clny !be h'n"nl role panicle, as in .-JIoII/ f(GARrKN ""'hod-po po'ud)-hJ-$ UIIlI-IP'U mlIIoi\ whldl yiek1i ~-J/oll gmt-gil mlJ/Iod.ptl phul-lHu sQJU~ ~ "Tbe motlk t WHO; pw: onerinp uw the Buddha.... Tbc:se rwo s teps hive boca cuUapsc:d hi tbiS ponioa of lbe lQt for clarity ot eqIOSiliOn. NOIe the \lSC ot. Jubscriptlo IdenliIy !be CIOfduCllt oIll1e dummy role particle carrier.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

315
b~PQ}-' bnod,

(2) dgNJon-gis tfhos (sans-tgYas-kyis tJhos-B

(3) dge-sJon -gis lJhos (san.s-tgYa.r-k)ir IJItM--f blad}-Pa}-B bstod.

Under the appropriate rules of inflectional morphology, this then becomes

dge-sJon-gis tIhos .JQn.s-tgYa.r-fi'u blad-pa bstad ''The monk praised the dhanna

which the Buddha taught." The deleted participant in the modifying proposition can have still other roles in that proposition: it can be the locus, as in mal-Nbyor-pa nags-uMI ~-1Og bkTtl-ba-la b!ugs ''The yogin dwells in woods where flowers bJoom." _hlch is built from the two propositions mal-"byor-pa Mgs-tslull-/t.z blug:r ''The yogin dwells in the woods" and nags-tshal-lD me-tag bkra "Flowers bloom in the wcxxls," as follows:
(1) (l1Qgs-tshol-la me-tog bkra)-Pal,
(2) mal-Nbyor-pa 11Qg:r-tshal (nags-ahal-Ia me-tag bkra)-Pa1-1a btug:r,

(3) maJ-Nbyor-pa I1Qgs-tsho/(Mp #Mill HI me-lagblcra)-PaJ-iD btug:r,

which becomes mal-Nbyor-pa nags-uhal me-tag bJera-ba-la btug:r dwells in woods in which flowen bloom_"
''Th~

yogin

Similarly, the deleted participant in the modifying proposition can be the source participant, as in nam-mkha IcJwJ Nbab-pa-14 sprin Mg-po Nfhibs "Black clouds gather in the sky from which snow falls," which is built from the two propositions num-mkho-14 sprin nog-po Nfhibs "Black clouds gather in the sky" and nam-mkha-/a.r WID Nbab "Snow falls from the sky," as follows:
(1) (nam -mkha-Ios kha Nbab)-PaJ,
(2) nam-mkha r(nam -mkhll-Ja.r kha ....bab)-PaJ-la sprin nag-po Nlhiln, (3) nam-mkha (,.09". ".klta tM kha Nbab)-PaJ-la sprin nag-po Nlhibs.

U II is of alursoe pososible 10 T1V.l'ISU"Y1': sItCh a relative OOl\$trllChon, wt\ere the 'mbcdded axeferent is the palienl of a IrJnsitive verb, witll an Enllisll passivc-illlll, '"The IO nk pral$e.d tile dltarma IJUlht by the Buddlta. Thls capacity of Enllish doa nol leach anythin, aboul the $UIICIUre of Tibetan.
M

316

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANOUAGE

whicl
gathe.

)me5 nam-mkJuJ Icha Nbab-pa-/a sprin nag-po Nthibs "Black clouds It sky from which snow faDs."

2.3.1.3. RelDJi)'t propositions In/on 1M IutuJ

A modifier of a nominal can also precede. as an adno minal, the head which it modifies-for example, dktlr-poi phreii-ba "white rosary," snags-poi blama
" lama who is a magician." Similarly, a relative propositio n can precede, as an adnominal, the head which it modifies-for example, dgon.-ptl-la btUgf-pai sans-rgyas "Buddha who dwells in the monastery," bla-mas btul.bai bpgs "demon which the lama tamed."

Such adnominal relatives are derived just as we have discusseci above. For example. the proposition dgNJoii-gis dco.,,-pa.la blugs-poi saiis-rgytu bs.od "The monk praised the Buddha who dwells in the mo nastery" is. again, built fro m two propositions that intersect upon the single corderen! SIJiiJ-'K)'OS "Buddha"-that is, the main or matrix proposition dge-doii-gis saru-rgyas-' bsrod "The monk pra ised the Buddha," and the embedded or modifying proposition saiis-'X}'as dgon-pa-Ia blup "The Buddha dwells in the monastery." Here. though, the modifying proposition is inserted in the matrix BEFORE the head rather tha n after, and is ma rked with the adno minal Pilrticle, as follows:
(1) the modifying proposition is nominalized with the no minalizer -Pa-thus [(saiis-rgyas- 8 dgon-pa-/a btug.r)-PaJ,
(2) this nominalized proposition is inserted in the matrix proposition immediately before sans-rgyas, the corefere ntia l nominal head it will modify, and is marked with the adnominal particle XYi-thus dge-sloii-gis [(saiis-rxYas- 8 dgon-pa-la blugs)-I'aJ-Kri saiis-IXYas-D bSlod.
(3) tnc corcfercntial participant, along with its attached role part icle, is deleted from the modifying proposition-thus dge -

sfmi-gis
bSlod.

[(StH~8

dgon-pa-Ia btugs)-PaJ-Kri sar/S-rgyas-D

dg,:-.floij -gi~

Undc c the appropriate rules of inflec tio nal morphology, this then becomes dgon-pu-Ia Mllgs-pili saiis-rgyas bstod "The monk praised the

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

Buddha who dwells in the monastery." Similarly, the proposition rgyal..po bla-mas btul-bGi bgqs./cyir sIaut '''The, tina was 1C:~red of the demon the lama tamed" is. again. built from the two propolitions bla-mas bgegs btul "The lama tamed the demon" and rrfGI-po bgq!-JcyiJ sIcra,'The king was scared of the demon," as follows:

(I) b/a-""" b_-8 blUi)-"'].

(2) '1J"'1-po bla-nuu b_-' blUi)-"']-JOi b_-kyU 'kmf.

(3) '1J"'1-po b/a-"""

"-"* blUi)-"']-JOi bg<g<-kyU """"

which becomes 'KYal-po bla-mas btuJbai bgtgS-kyis slcTag 'The king is scared of the demon tl)e lama tamed."

2.3.1.4. RtlJJ/illized proposiliotU and a4li-,a

A proposition can, of course, consist of just an intransitive verb and its patient panicipant-for example, bla-IM skyid "The lama is happy," b/a'm4 nu "The lama weeps," bla-fM Ngytl "The lama falls down." U such a proposition is relativized, as in, say, bw-ma ('" RM ,nu}oN]. it beha"e11 just as if it were an adjecti"e. It occurs in the same en";ronment as an adjecti1le: compare, for example. bfarna tlhen-po "great lama" with bkl-fM slcyid-pt1 "happy lama," or dban-l!an.gyi bfafI1Q "powerful lama" with nu-bGi bla-ma "weeping lama." It can occur. like an adjecti"e, as a headless modifier: compare, for example, tlh ~n-po Ndi "this great one" with skyid-pt1 Ntii "this happy one." or dban-tJan-nwm5 "powerful ones" with NgyeI-bG-marns "the ones who fall down." It can, if it expresses a stale, occur, like an adjective, in a oompar ati"e degree: compare, for example, de-las tlhen.po "greater than that" with de-las skyidpt1 "happier than that." It can occur, like an adjecti1le. after an intensifier, but not before the conjunction tliii: compare, for example, blama Iin(u tlllen-po ""ery great lama" but not ?bkltnlJ tJMnpo-liii with bla rna Iin-iu nuba " lama really weeping" but not ?bla-rna nu-ba-lUi.
It is also possible for a proposition to consist of just a transitNe verb and its patient participant, C f just a transiti"e verb and its agency panicipant, where

one participant has been omitted because it is, presumably, reCO\"erable either from context or from general knowledge-for example, dgrtls gsod ''The

318 enemy kills (someone)," dgra-' &JOd "(Someone) kills the enemy." U.uch proposition is rclativized, the Teulting modifier is ambiguous: the form dIfrl gsod-pa could be either dgnI [(......, swd}-Pl:J) ..the enemy who kills (someone)lthe killing enemy" or dgra (tIgN-# pxl).m) "the enemy whom (someone) killed/the slain enemy." Similarly, for example, bstod-pa; irYal-po is ambiguous between the readings [("X)'tIl,., , bstod}-PQ)-Kli 'JYGl-po " the

king who praised (foOmeone)/the praising king" and (~JtM ,bstod)-l'a}-.oi rgial-po "the king whom (someone) praised/the king who was praised." Yet,
despite this ambiguity, the modifier still acts just like an adjective: it can be a headless modifier, as in bstod-pa Ndi "this praising one/praised onc"; it can occur after an intensifier, but not before the conjunction -niii. &I in lin,"," hs/od-po "really praised/praising" but not ?bslod-pa-liii

2.3.1.5. Dummy TiJU particu ClJrriers

When an embedded corderen! in a relative proposilion is deleted, jtJ role particle is deleted along with it. In many cases, the reader is able to process the relative construction without that information: the role of the embedded cbreferent is RECOVERABLE. This is particularly so where the embedded coreferent is the agent of the embedded verb and the patient is explicit, or where the embedded coreferent is the patient of the embedded verb and the agent is explicit: it is clear that dgra-B b~ad-paj '1!Ya1-po means "the king who slew the enemy" and comes from (('l'wtp6 j dgra-8 bsad)-J'a}Kl'i rgyol-po, just as it is clear that dgra.s bsad.pai '1!Yalpo means "the king whom the enemy slew" and , comes from ((dgras f'gyfIlfJ6 (J bsad)-Frl)m rgya/.po. Compare,
z.. "JkyiIJ'fNl ~ha ppy" really In adjective? Is /iuba ''wecpin,,'' or ~/.ba "r.lIin, down," o r podfNl "slayinglslai n" ? I Ihink we an say Ihey Ire Idjectives; tile qlM:ition Is wbctller they Ire WORDS, ral her lhan unJcxicali7.cd fragments or relaliYized propositions. I think it is fair to say that slcyidfNl ':happy" hu been Iexicali1.cd in claaic:ll Tibcun, aDd Wt, say, ~fba "ralling down " and podfNl "sJayint/Slain" hive not , A good cumple oCsuch 1cxX:a1 i1.alion ca n be found with regard to the transitive verb IRTSe "tove"-thus both soJII''I)'IU [("" ... , ~.., ., .. Stms/JQII . " lmst)/'QI > SQIls''8)W Jtf1U.dm! bnst1HJ ~11Ie Buddlla who loves creat ures" and SQ.o\s,>xrd' f(ltInslJtJlI ~IIM.r~" # bn.K}1'D1> SDJIs''I)W" UfJUr.ftue J!:!is b;/st bQ "Ihe Buddha .... hum erenures love." We would Ihen CJlpcc1 lbe nominali#d ph/ase' IQ.o\s.~s brutbtl to be ambiguous between "Ihe loving Buddha" QId "Ibe Iovc:d Buddha," Jus t as. say. "~fpo bstodpD is ambiguous belween K lhe praisin, tin," and "I)1,e praisod king." BUI bm c'JU U nol ambiguous; ilalways muns"lovin," rather lhall ~1oYcd. The ffllgmcnt of rclal ivizcd proposilion has been tuicalil.cd u a word willi Ju:st one or lIS possible meanings,

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

JI9

similarly, sans-rgyas mlhon-boi dge-slan "monk who saw the Buddha" with sons-rgyaskyis mllton-bai dge-sJoij "monk whom the Buddha saw," or blD-ma rig-snags bsgyel-bo "lama who thwarted the magic spell" with blD-ma rig-siiags. kyis bsgytl-bo "lama tripped up by the magic spell. ..27 To make !.he role of the deleted coreferent explicit. however, a further optional step may be taken. Let us recall the analysis of our first example, sansrgyas dgon-pa-Ia blugs-pw tIhos bIad "The Buddha who dwells in the monastery taught the dharma," as follows: (1) the modifying proposition is nominalized with the nominalizer -I'\:l-thus (sons-rgyas-8 dgon-pa./a bfugs)-Pa]. (2) this nominalized proposition is inserted in the matrix proposition immediately following saru-'XYas, the coreferenlial nominal head it will modify, and, as in any Tibetan nominal phrase, before the attached role particle-thussons-1X)IOJ (saiis-I8:)'QS-8 dgonpa-Ia bfugs).PaJ-KYir tIh os bIad, and (3) the coreferential nominal is deleted from the modifying proposition-thus sans-'XY"s (saM ~ 8 dgonpo-/a bfugs}I'\:l]-KYir tIhos Mad. 28 At this point an additional fourth step may be taken:

27 It is wilen BOUI me4ium and palienl participants are missin, Ihat the rebtivizcd proposition becomes ambi,uous. as AOte4 above-for example, bJlod'pGi TfG/.po "prilise41 praisinl kin&." dgro bUMlpG "enemy who slew/WaS sla in," Thus, too, compare, ror example, IIu Ndi s1cyd.poi pilllofflO "parenlS WHO bore this boay" with All Ndi Ik'ftl-ptli pho.nIQ MparenlS FROM WIIOM tllis body was born," or sprin-dkDr ifi-ma mi-sgrihspa "white clouas WHICH did not block tile , un Mwith sprin-dJuJr ifima mi-NgribJ-pG "white clouds BY WHICH M the sun was no t blocked. U He re we are makin, explicit tile intermediate step Wf! ~kipped over in tile description aboYc: the coreferent nominal is deleted , leavin, ilS role particle hanpng in tile lir, as in dgt-JIo., 1<.-.w-K11s m/Jilnd_pG plwf)-PaJJ Ja.ils~ mfholl "The mo nk woo gne oITerinp uw the Buddha." Here, instead of using the pfopmilion as is, with the Nles of inl\<x:_ tklnat morpholoKY automatically deletin g Ihe hanging role part ide, an indefinite determiner will be pbeed in the now empry slot as a d um my to carty Ihe hangin, role pankle, as in dgt.sloit, (GANrKMS mdhod-po p"uf)''''I-J J~.iIs-rxrtU mfiloi\, which ykld$ dgN/oit gaTigU mdhod.pa plud-blU saiiJ-rxrtU mlilon ''1lIe monk, WIIO; lave orrelinp saw tile Buddha."

320

THE 0Ass1CAl. TIBETAN" lANOUAGE

(of) an appropriate indennite detenniner is inserted. as a DUMMY to carry the role particle of the deleted oorderential participantthUi saru-rxrasl [(GAR;' dgon-pa-la biugs)-Pa}-n'is tllws bItld,
which yields., after the application of the inflectional rules, saru~1 GARj ' dgott-p"-lil blugJ-pas tIhos blad 'The Buddha, WHO, dwells in the monastery taught the dhanna_" Such an additional step would not usually be taken wben
the embedded participant was the patient, as in the present example; but, as the role of the missing participant becomes more oblique and difficult to recover, the use of such a dummy role particle carrier becomes more frequent-for example, mol-Nbyor-pa fUlgJ-uh4J j GARrLA ~-IOg bJem-ba-la blugs 'The yogin dwells in woods, IN WHIOI, flowen bloom," -analyzed as follows: (1) (nogs-tshal-Ja me-log bkra)-Pa],
(2) mol-Nbyor-pa fUlgs-tshal [(nags-tlhal-la me-togbkra)-Pa]-la blug3, (3) mal-Nbyor-pa nags-tsha! [C rt. alts! la rm-tog bkra)-Pa lola blug:s.

(4) mal-Nbyor-pa nags-tshal; I(GARrla 1M-tog bkra)-Prl)-la bIugs,

or fUlm-mkha; CAR,-LAS kha Nbab-pa-la sprin nag-po Nthibs "Black ~clouds gather in the sky; FROM WHICH I snow falls," analyzed as follows: (1) I(nam -mkha-/as kho Nbob}-ro],

(2) nam-mkho (nam -mkha-!as kho Nbob)-Pa )-/0 sprin nag-po Nthibs,
(3) nam-mJeho
(ItS",

",khs las Jcho Nbab }-Pa]-Ia sprin nag-po Nthibs,

(4) nam-mkha; ( GAnj/as kho Nbob)-Pa]-la sprin nag-po N/hibs.

There are apparently several factors that determine the likelihood that a dummy role particle carrier will be used 29 First is the relative ACCESSIBILIn'

2'J It musl be dearly borne in mind. thai lhe indefinile determiner in Ih is Q)lI5lruction is nol a delimiter of a preoe<lin r, llead, bill rather a ooreferenlial profo rm (or Illal liCK:. For eumple, the prOp<lSil ion AlIm mJt),a gaFl.las /eM ~ptJ.16 JpriIIltD,.po NlhibJ ~ Bl.ck clouds galher in Ibe sky trom .... hicll ~now raus' cannol be paned U ber,inninr, with (AlIm.mkhd

CoMPLEX PROPOSrnONS

321

of the role of the deleted panicipant: the more accessible the role, the less likely it is to be carried by a dummy indefinite determiner. In fact. there appean to be a fairly regular hierarchy of accessibility, with an agent most accessible, patient next most accessible, .and the various oblique roles-locus, source, instrument-least accessible .and therefore most likely to be carried by an indefinite determiner. 3D Second. it seems that a relative that PRECEDES

,wI)-lar .. "From some sty ..." but only as _.JCM ~.w ...) '1'be sty from wblcb ..." But, In any pankullr oonstruClio n, how can )'Ou leU wbelber 1he Indefialte 4elenllifter is a 4eUml~r o r a clummy role panide1"Jbe primary clue Is the preteDCe of ,. immec1ia1e1y &flU 1he vub l1em, as OppolCcllO a oonjullClion, Of a b;us or IOQrte pankk w:l1boIat a
nGmlnallzinl N belween il anclthe verb n e ll-thus. for cumple, skyebo pII.,u sa/IJ'I>'GI

mdtcA n; o r skye-bo fdlI -gi.r sdJ'l)'I1S mdwli-NA mUll be read as (skyr-bo fG."I)-,u ... aad
tbus, respectively, IS "'SoME PERSON' sees lhe Buddha Ill(! ..." a dd "1 ti'Whcn SON8 1'ERSON SCCIthe Bucldha .,.M while skyt.bo pJI.gi.r S41IlJ~ mtholl-JA must be read asskyebo ~ gi.r ,' .) and thus IS "a PERSON WHO sees Ihe Buddha." There is ambil uity rully only in IWO drtumsti nccs.. Fint, the syllable followtnl the vern or metrical reasons; fot cump\e. in tbe Tibetan translation of stem may hive been elided C the V"jr~ PrajitlJ~,ami~ we lincl Sa nskrit ye ma"t ~f,IIJ c1JdTlJlc.fur "" mI"t draJqyaNi te jQIt/J~ Tibetan gWI -4DI ful-14 rzup.Ju mlhol'i, skyt /Ioo d.t-4DI JIa mitItdf, whkll can be read, on Ihe one lland. as "I(fwben ANY look upon me IS form, those per10M do nol see me" or """SoME look upon me IS form, Ind those persons do not sec me," or. o n the otller hind, IS "'PERSONS WHO look upon me as fo rm do I'IOt sec me." In th is cue. _ cal I\IC5S from tile Sanskrit Ihl t the rela tive reail /nl was intended, but the structure o f the Tibetan iueif re mains ambllllOus. Second. where the head can be read IS rd eninl to a I...OCAn ON, in e ither space or IjlM, I oons trllCtion wi th 1I locus o r source pan icle becomes .mbiIUOUS; for example, gnas gaIlta bfugJ-fUI ClIn be read e ither as (&nos fdlI)-14 M I(fwhe a he lives SOME pv.ce. , .~ o r as pas (gaiI.ta ... ) "the PLJ.CE WHERE he lives." Of oourse, this sooond $Ource o f ambigui ty is not found where tbe verb ste m 15 followed by oonjuna ion; the exprc:s.sio n gnaJ gaII-ta bl ugHe can be read o nly as " He lives SONE P1-"CE. and . .. Ne ither of these two types of amb igui ty would a ppear to be par ticularly tro ublin!.
M

)II Of these obliqu-e roles, the locus seems gene rally mOSt aCCC:55ible; fo r example, the ptopcl5itions me I/b",-bai kJuVt-pa " ho use IN WHlo-t fire burns," srom ma -dgos.pai 14m "path ON' Wlllo-t mccli tation is not noc::essa ry" lire 1101 di rriCUlt 10 proocs.5. The I dnom inal ro le is the least I CCC:55 ible, and tbe lId nom ina l role pa rt icle MUST be ca rried by I dummy role part icle carrier 1 leas l whe n Ihe rda livi1.e.:l propos itio n precedes the head il mod irte5_ Ihus, fo r cumple, I(G..tN,-ri driII .gyis bdag sgrol)-ba l-; bI,, -ma I!he" 'po,- j l.abJ/iJ NdIul " 1 bow to the fec i o f Ihe I ' ea l lamll l WlIOSEi ! raee rcscuc:5 me,"' but 1'101 ? 1 <.Mo _ fI"- j drill fYis bd4lg sgrol)-ba l-j bla-rna Ilhm .poi tabs-ta lIdud, al though bot h b14-ma d hm .po, :ft]AN,-ri driII-fYis ... "Orea l la ma whose gnee . . ." Ind blnmll r!ht,, po I(AoIol_ .,~u ,e; drin /O'U . .. "Orea t I_rna "",hose gnee ... "' appear possi hle.

,e

322 its head is more likely to contain a dummy role particle carrier than .one that follows its head. There are probably good processing reasons (or thi!: among other things, the indefinite determiner in this position can both alert the reader that the proposition currently being processed is relative to an as yet unknown head, and serve as a place-holder for that head in shon-term memory. Finally, since Ihis construction appears similar to the relative construction in Sanskrit-relative pronouns in Sanskrit afC also basically dummy case.holders, and this construction seems to have first appeared in Tibet in the translation literalureJ1_its use can signal an ornate and
31 See, for example, in lhe trans lation of the SacJd.IuurM.~ Sal\Siril'~
)'0 "'.lima f(lkklmlJlW bhavtla bhiJtJQ mDmQ lIiN.r1asytJ p'aJdJJ~1 stllram idam hi loh 1111 cllpi

stJ",tryano '41)'0 kilci, Tibetan,llQ fli myaiiQfI-Ndas_fIIlS dgr-s(oiii I(GAN,-8 Jpyod-yul Ndi fli ,ab_ Sl"Un _tiii tU iii flam ~fi tllm-pa med)-JHlI-yiJ Ndlig_mfl-du )'Gil mdo Ndi rab-Jod-llig "After IlIave passed into nirvana, let the monk; WHO; keeps my rules of con4uct and is ever

Aa,.

unwuried therein prca(h th is scripture even in the world." Note, tOO, in the later tr.nslation period, Tro m the PrajilllJKadfpa/~ of AYalokitavratl, dgag-pa j I(GAR,.' don -(3is go-bQ SfOft) -hll-' ... dt fli ma_ytn_ptJ' dgagptJ)/iII "A ncg~tion; WHIOt ; states an impliQ.tion _ . . is term neption," gfafl-gyU kl!as-blaits-JHl i I(ClAN," yad)-JHlJ dt dgag-pa ~d "He den ies any tOunter-ass.ertion l wlllCtt; o ne has."

I think il is dear Ihat the use of indefinite determiners as dummy role particle carri.ers, although ~ perfectly Tibetan construction, became wide.spread in Tibetan through imitation of rclalive ro nmuctions in Sanskrit. In Sansluil, Ille relallvizod proposi tion usually precedes its maULl, and sometimes fo llows iI, but almosl never appears within it. Interestingly, when the rclal iym proposition precedes the matrix, Ihe ht<ld which it modifies Oln be moved Out of Ihe matrix to tile immedillle righl of tile relative pronoun, and t~ relative pronoun is normally echoed in Ille malrix by a demonstr.live pronoun-usWllly Ja~--as i\S "oonelaliye," mOM oflcn placc.4 al or nt<lr Ihe beginning of llle matrix_lllus both ya~ kartJrfl/ciJrori, Ja~ f'U1UIO~ tUvada{f~ nama and)'G~ punqaJ) kortJrfl Iuvori, Ja~ lkYad.ona~ ndma, bUI only JtI~ pu1Ula~ tUvadafra~ nama, y<I~ ko!1V!' JuuOO "TIle person WHO makes the ma t is named Devac1atta:' NOle, fo r example, with the rclatiye preceding the matrix. cll(l4iya-caMra_ gufH~ pu!/willf klJra~d yo "Wc/a Urpodyalt, sa lltytmriJw /I/wYari "The eo>l(lIn&emc nl between Clt)aJcya and Candragllpta WHICH arist:s from a strong cause is lasting~; and, with Ihe relative following tllc matrix, lqrapclf,fYG t ya IlalldallO, ~ priyiJn1 rdr/rtrl klJn1ayifjlOli "Really lucky is Nandana WHO will love such a beloved," rgy6 I" ..1l1cif!1 JcriyaIC, ya lUI dotdM "WiIat is dane wilh tllc CXlW WIIICH Is nOI a yielucr of milk ?"
As a mallcr of fact, thele seems to ha\'e been somc conflilion at finl abolll the proper translation of S~nskfit rela tives , and' some uncertai nty abollt the use of tllis dummy QO nstruction. We find ua dllmmy ro le particle carriers-for eumplc, In the truslation of thc Saddharmapu'J4tirl/w, Sans krit ~ IIj,y!,!~ ga~c/aflri IImc dJrarmc IlpJJJ~1) "Piolll laywomen ; 'NJIOj in tll is life sec k nirvana" but Tibetan dgr -bJilcfl-ma i I(GAH,-. uhe Hdi-Ia

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

323

Sanskritized literary register. Of course, the likelihood of finding a dumm,r role particle carrier increases when several of these factors occur at once.
' uhol}-ba)_ We find. conversely. dollble-beaded CODunlCtions-(or eu.mpk, in tbe translation of tbe M&lh~ of N:lglrjllDa, SaDskrit yasmiM ~II kf~ podDrtho jlIymt uumiM ~II t4fMli YinAl)oIIti "At JUSt lhat moment; WHEN! I tbinS lri$cI, II lbo Ibides Ind dislpptlrs~ bill Tibetan I~-diJ; (GAR J kJto-n.a-14 dItoI-po J/eyespdr~-pG'J-i Jbd-dir / de kJto-n.a-41 gnM-pa-daA NdliJ-p.tJ)VI-IIO. AAd, somelimes, mispi4ed litempts 10 t!"lnstale Sall$kril vene tiDe by Une make I bub 0111 0( Its rdltiYc: proposhionsfor eu.mple, in tbe translation of tbe ~ Ipin. Sanskrit yo /IotlIW1lltV1l ~ I idmp IIltTtMtI ptakJUttwrr .. I asmrurll~ Jucir bM>'ft "A bodbiJltMj WlIO I miaht wish . to teacb. thil scriptllre ... sboliid be undefiled IDd pute" but TIbetan nuto. Ide J>Idj ni In/IUI-pclr yoJI. byIIIIfllwb ums-dptl; (a..tN; M1od)-ptl)., ... Hdu-Mdzi med14 guDli I>/IT /IyQ, ill$lead 0( ~dhub ItmJ-dptl; ( GAN e ' mdo-uk Nth' /Ii bSflUl-pclr i'dod)-pIIJ., Hdu IW Wledfa pall-bar byo.

"I)'G--"wI Nda$-ptI GAR j

)l And, of COllrK, there are simply Ihe in ta ngibles of Slyle Ind personal preference. GlSlft-5myon be-nlka, in hil blogrlphy 0( Mi-ll ras-pa. IuIppUy dektes ooreferenu In oblique roles witOOlil providing I dllmmy role cauier-for eu.mpk:, IC......... bu.Jo ~ 'Jpu huI Jyo}ba)-i bcU~ "Joy FROM 'MIlCH IU lhe hairs on my body stood o n end," f("a'4 ~ db4II-grol-fa ldud)'pIIJ-i dball,.,.. " Initialio n fee WHEREBY you stand in tbe Initiltioll Une," I(M"""" mflllimll .>lkhnIg)-pII]-i mos,," " Flith FROM WHIOi lears flowed."

,M

Sa-5kya pa-04IL1. on the o lher IuInd, was fo nd of dllmm)' role pIonkk carriers, III III likellbooJ for metrical ftl30llS I ione, since he often used them where the ddeled oorefeulII Was I perfectly ac:c.asible IIt!!t panlcipant. Ind wbere the meier forced the omiMlon 0( the ro:e pankkntr In .n)' event-for eu.mple, Ini j GAR; mdza-~ mi-bnm)-pd! dt..doll Np'OpF N-tig "'" H Who can be friends wilh I man, WHO ; ckIc:s not SIiPpon his friencb?" mi; {(GAR/ b)w-po mi'llo}~1 de-' ni g!lIn.ltu rolI/D gnod HA man; WHO; is not gritetuillarnu himself more tluln Olben," Ind
mij

I(GAR; Jkyt-bo dDm .pa-dQA

dnuu!.p4U khyfJd.pclr k-gtJtNI(U de,;. byo-~ bJgrub kJ).pd]-' pIuln-swm uhop.pai &ii-tlMII yilt
A man, WHO, well knowslbc difference

berw1l nobk Ind base. and

knows how to ICaImplisb hil deed!,

is the foundation of excellence.

Note Ilso (OARr!ig nor-iGod)l Ikyt-bo; kyoI1I. tlMn lIid guo-bor b,vWIkr byo " Even I ptl'lOtlj WHO. dalra 1IIfta1lb looliid apecially gword the dlulrma," where lIdoJpai bas been miuct4 10 MkMI for reasons of meter.

324

TilE CLt.ssICAL TIBETAN lANOUAGE

Although we have been using the indefinite determiner gan in our examples so far, any appropriate indefinite de terminer can be used as a dummy carrier for the role particle of a deleted coreferent-thus not only. say, mj Nd!ig.pai tfhos l [(G.4Rr l1 Ndtig-por mi-,o,gyur}-ba ] h-gaI yod-dam "Is there some un-

perishing dharma, WHIOI; will no t perish?" but also, for example, ii4u rgya-po; [(sur la bu yod}-pa] de-' bstt n " I will serve the king, WlIO, has a son,"lchyod j

[(SUrD N8T0rbaJ-dag-, NgrOgS " Yo u; WHO, are going 8fe assembled," bdag-gis yod)-paJ-,s rgya-mtslwi tJJu" hLfw '" scooped the water of the sea with the strength, WHICH, I had .~ This is true as well where the relatiYized proposition precedes the head-thus not only, say, [(bdt-gIegs' GAR .-dIlsdi-ge Ita-bur gzims}-po]-yi gnDSi de-/a phyag-NUhal "I bow to that place, WliERE,lhe Well-Gone One slept like a lio n," but also, for example, [(slon-par NANj dUm} pa )-yi bar-dorla Ndtigs-pa-Ias skyob "He prOlcclS, from the terrors in the intermediate state; WIlEN ; one dissolves into emptiness."
mlhu/ [(Otli

Indefinite adverbs can also occur in relative propositions. Such indefinite adverbs can be corererential with an explicit head: note the parallel Slnlcture o f, say, tIhos OV-LTArr byun-bai tshuJ; "the way, HOW; the dharma arose" and tIhos GAR,-du byuii-bai gnusl "the place, WHERE, the dharma arose," tIhos HAM; byuii-bai dus; "the time, WHEN ; the dharma arose," and tJhos GAR,-F byuii-bai bla-ma i " the lama l BECAUSE OF WHOM, the dharma arose." Indefmite adverbs can also be-and, in fa ct, most oft en are-headless. In such headless constructions, the relative proposition is often then specified by such expressions as de -liar "in that way," de-srid "to that extent, for that long," de skDddu " in those words,,:l3 note the parallel structure of, say, (VV-l..1;(rr mi lamIa byams-pal de-Ilar r "1n 'that waYI HOW; one loves all men" and [GAR, mi Icun-la byams-pa l del "Thai one i wuo, loves all men," or (khyod-kyis W -SXAD,du smraJ'-pal de-skad,-du "In those words; IN WHICH I you spoke" and (khyodkyiJ cAR/,smraspa] de; "That l WH ICH I you spoke." In the Ugs-par bIiJd-pa rill- " po-Lfhei gter by Sa-skya pa~q.ita we find, for example, [VV-LTArr phD-rna bur byams-pa I de-Ita , r bu-Wtas pha-mar min "The son does not Jove his parents in the waYt HO W ; his parents love him,~ (VtJ.SRlD/ no-tsha yod gyW".pa 1de-srid; yonlall 'KYa/l-gy; m t!hog "Virtue is the best of ornaments to the extent l 10 WIIIClf i one has modesty, "~tJ-SIUD; raii-srobs rruJ-rdzogs-pa I de-yi bar,-du dgramal'lU bkw "One hOftors one's enemies in the interval l DURING WI-IIO li one's own strength is not perfected,"
lJ As we have noted before, these ate all perfectly TibeWl ronsttllCt~ bUI llIeIr . ....as undoubtedly innuenad by $\lCh Sanskrit pallCrN u ytJ/M " " . uuh/j "in fticb way

in that wayK al'Kl

)"a~D/" " , lilvllI

""to wh ich Cltent . " " 10 tha i

atent.~

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

[Dti-LTA Dti-LTA;r rdte-dpon-gyis

NIchor-la drin-~is bskyaiis gyur-pa] tk lJa tk ltarr g.yDg-Nkhor-mams

rdte-dpon-ijid-Icyi bya-ba sgrub

The retinue of a lord will accomplish his own deeds to the extent; TO WHICHI the lord cares for his tetinue with kindness.

2.3.1.6. HU!Iess nlo.livn

Just as adjectives cun appear without heads-for example, rta tJllen-po "great horse" 8 tIMn-po "great one," g.yu siion-po "blue turquoise" IJ siion-po "blue one," blu-ma bzan-po tJhen-po "great virtuous lama" II bran-po dilen-po "great virtuous one"-so too can relative propositions. For example, we might find na (mgyoss--por tg)'Ug.:r-pa] "horse that fUns swiftly" , (mgyog:s-por rgyugspal "one that runs swiftly," g.yu [/xyoIpos nos.pa ] "turquoise which the king bought" IJ [IXYal-pos nospa] "one bought by the king," blarna [dgon-pa-la tIhos blad-pa] "lama who taught the dharma in the' monastery" , (dgon-pa1o tlhos blad~pal "one who taught the dharma in the monastery...3'

:M A beadlcss relative can aJso be spctirlCd by.n inUtfinile determinef, IS in tbis vene from tbe 1Jhuj bS'aIlbdm by BknI-1is bla-nu VI, BIobuft thubbsl:ln tlhOs kyI rlim.:

lItall-~ /)de1Il plvOf-d~-fHli mi-lnod byo.b)!td rtsOfn-pdi GAil bye1JulJI 'lY'4p.pdi Lffu,khUI bfu.

rail .Rid iIa!ba uam-du Illd

SoME/ANYone who seu about tile unbearable work

of en")'in, tbe

~pplne5$

of olbers

is like I stre.m ",onin, in !he desert: just 'IoUryin, himself, be is lI5ed lip.

Tbe tint two Jinera:luld lbo be read IS I headless relative with tbe ga/l1S a dummy role particle carrier, rather tban IS I spedfier-tbus l&fan'Di ~ls phr(lI-4tJgp<3~ mjblod byoIrycwI mompa a.-tR]. Bill In tbls case the word order, I believe, suuau the reallin, siven .bove. or COUr1C, botb re.dinp would probably be TRANS1--\TED into En&lish in pfttty mud, the same way; but tblt d(N!'H "I01 rnu.n thl t Ihey 1ft not syntactically di:uinct in T ibel:ln.

326

Tile Cv.ssICAL TIBETAN WOUAOE

Such headless relatives are commonly found in Tibetan with dummy case particle: carriers; they are frequently used in general statements, where: the missing head is clearly, from the context, something like "person" or "place" or "thing"-8(GAN-8 gos Ndod)-paJ-lagos byuii "Clothes appeared for (those) WIIO wanted clolhes," saiiNKYas-J.yis B (GANn mj.Jes}-poj..dag-' b.s'afl '"The Buddha will teach (one) WIIO does nOI know," 8 ('XYalbu GAR..du UM NpIIOS)-pa]-Ja son "They went to (the place) WHERE the prince: had died," , I(NAM mgroll-po K>'t's)-pa]-Ia rgyal1f byon "The king arrived at (the time) WH EN the guests had departed." Sa-skya paQ"ita writes, in his lAgs-par Mad-pa rin -po-tJhei gter, !gan-tig iiuii-nUl tIhog It's-pa] de-yi loiiHpyod ZJJd mi-Ies "The: one: who knows that a lillie bit is enough will not know an end 1 0 abundance," (iies-po Ibag-r.f/wgs-dllii blJas-pa] gan-gis spans-palo' ~ sarlS-tg)'as- 6 "One who abandons sin with its traces is a perfect Buddha_" Dpal-sprul rin-po-tihe writes, in his Kun-bzllii bfa-ma; fa/-Iun, (gan -gir gwl-ba /oIdebs-poj de; dtuii-fla 'K}'ul-ba-iiid Mugs "The Buddha himself dwells near to one who prays." This sort of headless construction is o ften found in translations from the Sanskrit-for example, from the Vnjrace/l edikii, Sanskrit ya imafFI dharmaparyiiya",. dlliirayifyantj . _ . pa,om('~lo la iiJearye{la samanviigatii bhaviganri Tibetan (su-l;g II/IOS-ky; nlam-grartS Ndi /m-pa-dan Ndzin-paj de-6 no-muhDr rob-dan !dan-par Ng)'1lT "Those who take up and keep this scripture will become endowed with the highest wonders"; from the Saddlrannapu1J4anko, Sanskrit ye porvalt'!u t'va guiliinil'iIsi . te!ii'!l en valgil Jf7!.ule hi Jabdiin Tibetan (ri-dan plrug-lla gaii-8 KlIOS-pa] de-dag-maf1U-kyi sgra-snan /oIdir lhos "Here one hears the sweet sounds of those who live o n the hills and in the caves"; from the Miidll)'amjkakiirikii of Nagarjuna, Sanskrit yo dhDrma'!l palyot; sa buddha",. patyati Tibetan 15rH d1ros mthoiiba) des sarlS-rgyas mthoii

"He who sees the dharma secs the Buddha."

3$ NOle l!we foltowinl further eumpta-[su-yis dJN Ndi rhob-pd) IM-14 fin Ibyin '" will live tbe treasure 10 (Ihe person) wtlo fino:l.s Ihc book," f\Or-bu riI! _po-tJM I>IdiJ 1dtI.!dod-pdJ-' duJirutJl\Q.d IlhaI blin-du Nbtbl '"This preciollS gem makC:5 come 00wn like rail! (lite Iblnp) wbicb one wishea for," IbdDg-nid plt.ID mi-dgD_bD!_' gfDn14 kun 'N 1M ".;.bytl ~(Thal) wllieb one cIoe$ QOllike onaeif Ihould never be done 10 olhen,~ (-01.14 dDm _ ptJi rlItoI md/W-pa-l1 bdDI-lD nDfl UI (Ihe o ne) ....110 possesses Ihe holy dllanna leach il 10 me."
M

CoMPlEX PROPOSmONS

327

2.3.1.7. Slates and procesus

In an ADJECTIVE IOQU"TION, such as bla-ma 'Ban-po yin 'The lama is old/an old one," the adjective is read as a headless modifier: that is, the adjective 'Ban-po "old" is processed as the modifier of a redundant or recoverable head bla-ma "lama" which has been omitted under the Telegram Principle. We have also already noted a tendem:y for such adjectives to be related to intransitive verbs-for example, MAR "be many" man-po "many," DKA "be difficult" dka-bo "difficult," SKYO "be weary" lkyo-mo "weary," m/ "be great" IIhen-po "great," RGA "be old" 'Ban-po "old." Thus a writer can often choose between a verbal construction and an adjective equation-between bla-ma dhe and bla-ma dhen-po yin "The lama is grea.." between dge-sloii lkyo and dge-l/oii lkyo-mo yin "The monk is weary," and between sems-Lfan man and sems-lIan man-po yin "Senlient creatures are many." Now such intransitive verbs in Tibetan actually express what are both states and processes-thus blama rga "The lama is/grows ald." rgyalpo skyo "The king is/grows weary," na.rgyal tIhe "His pride is/grows gfeat." Thus the choice of an adjective equation serves to specify that the attribution is not a process but a state-for example, bla-ma rgan-po yin "The lama is old/an old one." rgya/-po llcyomo yin "The king is weary/a weary one," na-rgyal IIhen-po yin "His pride is great/a great one." When a writer thus chooses an adjective equation he specifies the amibution as in some sense abiding or chronic; when he chooses the corresponding intransitive verb construction he does not so specify, and the attribution may in fact be temporary or acute. The same choice obtains between an equation with a headless relative and the corresponding verb construction: for example,lIhol-rgyud Ndis lems-tJan-' 19rOi 'This religious tradition saves beings" states only that an event occurs; but tJhos-rgyud Ndi-8 {ums-lIan-8 sgrol-ba]-B yin "This religious tradition is one which saves beings" implies that the ability to save beings is inherent to the tradition, that it saves beings more or less regularly, that it is the sort of tradition whereby beings are usually saved. Similarly, rgyal-pos tJhaii-8 Nthuii ''The king drinks beer" states only that a particular event occurs; but rgyal-po8 {lIhaii-' NthWi-ba)-B yin "The king is one who drinks beer" implies lhallhe Icing is a beer-drinking person, thai he drinks beer more or less regularly, that he is the sort of person who drinks beer. Thus Mila ras-pa describes himself like this-gdon-bgeg.r-mamskyi la za khrag Ntltun-ba yin "I am one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of

3211

THE ClAsSICAL TIBETAN LANOUAGE

demons!!' Mar-pa's wife says of her husband, sku mdun-du Ichyi-lig byuii-ruii tlhos gsuii-liii mdIug briio-bas bsdud-pa-lig Ndug-pa yin "He is one who teaches dharma though it be a dog before him, and ends up by giving it his merit." And Pad-rna dor-po describes the son of person he is-na d~.phyir Ju-I'IIU Ntlhad-ptl yin. gtltJii-ba thob-nm rtsom-po yin, log-smra Ndug-nas roodpa yin " When I know something. I teach it; when I receive something given me, I write it down; when there is a mistake. I argue with it."

1lot wwll IE in E"B1ish cqnuUns, IU It p;rus umttuns, itJ prtNIU 1fUSSRRl 0{ dRm4at, fbI UlteBori&iU ;",pm.";'" ofpnnuanmt umAirion.

-William S. BurroughS, TIle Job

Such constructions arc similarly used to describe the character of things

rather than peopk. Mar-pa dreams that he must cleanse a tarnished vajra,
symbo1izinS the disciple Mi-Ia he would meet the next day, and-he is told, fXYOl-ba goii-nu2-mafftS mMs-liii umNIatl-mams mgu-bar byas-po yin-pas. rangtan-gyi don grub-pa yin-no "This is something that makes glad the Buddhas of the past and brings delight to sentient creatures, and so it i$ something that serves the aims of both oneself and others." Mar-pa says, nas rgya-gar-nas bJans-pai tIhos Ndi-mams semHJan-la phan-du rNull blans-pa yin '"These teachings I brought from India are what I brought in hope of benefit 1 0 sentient creatures." When Mi-Ia is unsuccessfully meditating with the lama Ri'iog-pa, he ~ told, iiai brgyud-pa Ndi . .. nams-nags-Icyi yon-tan myur-du mis~-lnli mthu med-po-fig yin ''This tradition of mine is o ne whereby o ne cannot but quickly attai.n the qualities of knowledge." And Mi-Ia, when he has himself become a teacher, sings

mi-w ras-pas gdams-nag bIad

rmons-pa kh4-NtJhal smra-ba-/a

de tJhu len tJhan-gis Ndla /-ba yin iian len bzan-gis bskor-ba yin
To the speaking of no nsense by fools Mi-Ia ras-pa has taught his leaching.

CoMPLEX

PROPOSmONS That is to get water and pay back beer; that is to get evil and return g()()(].

329

2.3.1.8. Mulliplt

~mbedding

It should be clear that a matrix proposition containing an embedded proposi. tion can itself be relativized and embedded within yet another proposition: for example, the proposition sans'ID"lS dgon.pa.fa btugs "The Buddha dwells in the monastery" can be relativized to modify the nominal head Joiisrgyas "Buddha" in the proposition d~.slon-gis saflS-rgyas mlhon "The mo nk saw the Buddha," which in tum can be relativized to modify the nominal head dge.don "monk" in the proposition dge-sloii-gis tJhos bstod "The mo nk praised the dhanna." This multiple embedding can take place in two ways: the term SELFEMBEDDINO will refer to the insenion of the modifying proposition AfTER the nominal head it modifies; the term LEFTBItANCIIINO will refer 10 the insenion of the modifying proposition as an adnominal BEFORE the no minal head it modifies. l6 If the three propositlonS are self.e mbedded, the result is:
l6 ScIt-cmbCiddinl can, tbcoretially. &0 on witboullimit: but it is cl~ r Iha t excessive ~Jr. embtGdift, puU 100 gut a Ura in o n tile una ided memory. In English, for eu mple. il is 1YI'~k:a11y pouillle 10 $I)' w cJutst IMt t~ tDt IMI th.r cot thot I~ dog bit dwsta tJlt -lhll ii, dI.t WtM 1!IIe tot (w CtJl Iw dog bit ___I chastd "'*-1 /lIt ~ t ~_tl bu.t it is Klltler a likely nor an easily IIndentood IImriince. We . re mLltb more likely 10 say W dog rNa btl w cot tJwJ thlualille rolllwu Olt tilt clw'~It-lllal is, lht dog l~ lIil I~ cot I~ .., Ui<utd IN rol f~ ott IIIe CMtStJJJ. 51ch rlghl-Ilranching construction could wily to 011 IndCftaitely.
1bc eboke between a xlr-cmbcd4ed Of branchinl constrLltlion is a choice of liter-II)' style. 1bc roUawinl Kntmoe (rom loeeph Conrad's ~ Xcltl Sluvu is largely righlbranching;
I wu in time 10 catcb an evanescenl glimpse of my ~bite bal lelt behind 10 mull the lpol ~bere IIIe SCCTCI shaler of my cabin .nd of my though ts. as llIoup be were my second self. tu.d lowered himself in tbe water to take 1111 punllluDtlll ...

tieIuJ' lame&. 011 tbe Olb hanel,

rroar. 7Jw I'Of'hil 0( a LItdy II probably mort dirflClllt 10 proce:as ttu.n tbe sentence .bove::
Hil companioD, _urllli the IeIlJlII of tile lawn befl4e him, wu or qulee another pattern. ~bo. aJtbollp be miJ.ht have exQled

Is chlracteristially KIf-c:mbcddinc; the fo llowin, sentence

a.rave curio-

penon

330

TUE ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

(1) (a) (saiis~llsl1 dgon-pa-Ia blugs)-N'] and (b) (dgN/oii-gis miis-'X)'Qs.g mlliofi)-Pa],

(2) dge-slon [(dge-.floii-gis saiis-rgyas l(saiis-tXYas dgon-pa-Ia Mugs). PIlJ-IJ mthoii)-PaJ-KYif llhos bstod.

(3) (a) dge-sloii [(dge-slan-giS' saiis-l8)'tlS

(:M;if '!)'tH

dgon-pa-ln

blugs)-raJ-tI mthoii)PaI-Klis tIhos bstod, and then

(b) dge -sloii (ag.e 516" gU sans-rgytu ((36''''' 'X)o1lf dgon-pa-la blugs)-PQJ-g mthoii)-Paj-/O'ir alios bSlod,
which bt':comcs dge-slon SOIIS-fKYO.J dgon-pa-Ia Mugs-po mrllOn-bas tIhos bstod "The monk who saw the Buddha who dwells in the monastery praised the dharma," If the three propositions are left-branching, the result is

( J) (a) [(san.f-'K)IQs-B dgon-pa-Ia btugs)-po) and

(b) ( dge-sloii-gis

sarl$~'XYQs.8 Inthoii)-Pa),

(2) I[ (.mils -'XYos -.8 dgon -po -Ia blugs } /'U ]-KYI' (dge-slon -gis sai"lS-rgyas-8 mlllOii )-I'OJ-KYi dge-slon-gis 1!lu)$ b.~lOd,
(3) (a) U(s6iif ''X)'tU 8 dgoll-pa .la blugs)-raJ-KYi (dge-slon-gis sansf],.'Yos-H mllwii)-f'oj-KYi dge-sloij -gis dh os bSlod, and then
(b) f[(.M iif tXrds 8 dgoll -pa-Ia blugs )-Pa J-.Kl-i (tlf::t: sl6ii tD sons'X},q.r- IJ mlhoii )-paJ-Kri dge-slon.-},ir IJll os bS lOd,

which beco m~ s dgo/l -pa-Io blugs-poi saiis-'XYos mlhon.pai dge-sloii-gis tJhos hstod "The monk who saw the Buddha who dwells in the monastery praised the dharma."

~ity,

would nOl, like the ot her, have provoked you 10 wish yourstlr, almost

blindly. in his place.

In Tibetan. thC alternative 10 self.embeddinc is nol riCln.branChin" IS In EnJllsh, bUI raltler [.EFT-BRANCHING. This is why nalive speake" 01 En&1is/t lend 10 feel lut cLusical Tibetan is somehow ~ckwarli5. In a rip l-branchinl OOlI$lrucllon, lilt bead 11 presented berore iu moditic,,: in a lefl-brloll(:hinl OlnStrUClion, the modifleB are preaenled before their bead. I will lave il to o thers 10 speculate as to how this rel<ltC$ eitner to C\llllIre or 10 psychololY.

CoMPlEX PROPOSmONS

331

Similarly, the proposition saiis4EYas.kyis mllhodpa dgeslon dgon.pa-Ia blugs pas phuJ-ba bIes "The Buddha accepted the offering which the monk who dwells in the monastery gave" consists of the three propositions saiis-rgyas-kyis mLfhodpa bIes "The Buddha accepled the offering," dgNlon.gis mtlhod-pa pllul"The monk gave the offering," and dgeslon dgon.pa-Ia Mugs "The monk dwells in the monastery" in the following SEI.F-EMBEPOEO form:
(1) (a) (dge-slon8 dgonpala bIugs )Pa J and (b) [(dge-sloiigil mtlhodpo-8 P/1I4/)PO],

(2) saiisrgyas-kyis mtIllodpo [(dgt'slon I(dgeslon dgon.pa.la Mugs) Pa].KYif mLfhodpa-8 phul}Pa]8 bIes,
(3) (a) saiisrgyaskyis mtIllOdpa [(dgeslon {(agt' jklii dganpala bIugs).I'ajAW mllhodpo/J phul)Pa]-8 bIu, and then
(b) saiistg)'askyis mllhodpa (dgeslon (age jklii dgDlIpala bIugr)PajKlis mt:f/too fM 9 phul)-pa)-8 bIes,

and the proposition sallSrgyaskyis dgem.pa-Ia Mugs-poi dgeslon-gis plJul-bai mtlhodpa bU.f "The Buddha accepted the' offering which the monk who dwells in the monastery gave" consists of the same three propositions in the following lEFrnRANCIiING form: (I) (a) [(dgesloii-IJ dgon-pa-Ia btugs).Pa] and (h) [(dge-sloii-gis mil/lOti-paR pltu/)-l'aJ.

(2)

saiu -'1O'os.kyis [( (dge-sloii 8dgoll-po -10 blugs )-PrlJ-Kl"l (dgNloii .giv

mtIllOd-po./J phul)PQJKri mtlhod-pa Mes,

(3) (a) saii.f-'1O'0.f-kyis [[(agt' skin 8 dgan.pa.la btugs)-pajKli (dge sloiigif mii/iod-poD phu/)'I'OJ-m ml!/lod-po bIes, and then
(b) saiisrgyos-kyis l[(a'gIr Jl6ii 8 dgonpa-/a bIugs).PaJ-Kri (dgeslvii'Kis ".5h8tJ fM 8 pllul)-pa )-m mll/IOO.po btl'S.

In such a leftbranching proposition, 100, we find all the modified nominal heads moved as far to the left as possible, to make the leftward branching both clearer and more symmetrical: thus, instead of saiis-~as-kyis dgan-po.la

332

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

blugs-poi dge-sloii-gis phuJ-bai mtJlwd-pa bles, we might find dgon-pa-lo

blugs-poi dge-sloii-gis pIud-bai mdlwd-pa saiLr-'1O'tu-Icyis bIt!! "The Buddha

accepted the offering which
th~

monk who dwells in the monastery gave," as

follows:
(1) (.) [(dg''/oIi' dgempa., b'up)I'a] .nd (b) [(dg,.,/oii'gir mtJhodpa. ph:J).I'a].
(2) (.) ,ans'!5YQSkyis n(dg''/oIi. dgon.pa ., b'u&<),I'a]'''; (dg"

sloii-gis mtJhod-pa-tJ phu/}-PaJ-ni

mdhod-~

bIts,

(b) (((dgN/on-8 dgon-pa-1Il blug:s}Pr'l]-.m' (dge-sJon.gi.r md/lQdpa-IJ phul)-Pa J-KYi mtJhod-ptl saiis-rgyas-kyis blu,
(3) (a) (f(dgt'sis" 1/ dgon-pa-Ia btugs)-Pa I-rn' (dgNloii-gis mJJhod-

pil-8 phul).Pa)-KYi ml!hod-pa Jlliis-rgytu-kyis Mes,

(b) f[(dgt'slot. 8 dgon-pa-Ia blug:s)-PaJ-KYi (dgNloii-gis ~ ptt-8 phul)-raJ-KYi mtI/iod-pa soiis-'ID'as-kyis bIu

2.3.1.9. BalJJnced relal;"es

It is possible 10 have several self-embedded relaljvjz.alions, all of which have the same corefercm J7 -for example, saiiNgyas tIhos bIad-po dgon-pa-Ia

37 Note, for example. Ihe double seU-embel.ldin& when Mar-pa tells Mi-" lol-gyi mlJm-poi khyams kn-ba bll~-giliJ yod_po blsan-lcJu1ii.da;i bdiU-po-lig nsigr "Bllikl , collrtyard in the form of an annex which Iw twelve pillars that is lilted with. tempk for the fierce deities." Hele the matrix proposition is lolgyi rruun-JHli kJrytlms-liS ruip "Bllikl , COllrtyard in the form of an a nnex"; then the head klIyams "courtyard" is modified by nominllizations of the two propositions klIyanu1D knba bllu-ptu yod '1be oollflylrd his twelve pillars" and klIyanu buan _ /chaii-4.Jii blJtlJ '11Ie courtyard is filted with a temple for the fieroc deities,"
1$

(ollows:
(I) (a) i(klIyanu.a bl$ankJIlIii-dil1l bIJtlJ)J'QJlnd (b) i(khyanu-ID kn-ba bllu-giliJ yod}-paJ,

(2)

to/-gyi mlJm-JHl; kJryoms (kJi}'GmS I(klIyams-/Q M-ba bllu-B'lis yod}-I'O)-.I blS(IlI-IcJIIlJI~ btltlJ)I'OJtig nsip.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

blugs-pa sgom ''The Buddha who taught the dharma who dwells in the monastery meditates.," which is made up of the matrix proposition.JQIIs-ffYGJ .rgom ''The Buddha meditates" and the two modifying propositions.JQIIs-.rpGI dgon-pa-Ja blug:r "The Buddha dwelb in the monastery" and saiis"f!J'GS-kyir tJhos bJad "The Buddha taught the dharma," as follows:

(1) (.) (w;U.'XY",.kyi< rJhos bIod}"'i.nd (b) (.Ja.1ir-'XYas-B dgon-pa-Ja blugs}Pa),

(2) sa.1ir-'XYas (.Ja.1ir-'XYa.J (saiis-IXYas-kyu tJhos b.fad}1'I2}-' dpIpa-/a blug.r)-Pa)-8 .Jgom,
(3) (a) .Jaiis-rgyo.J {(.JoiiJ-rgyas [(oMitf 'X)'d" kytI tJhos bJad)-1'I2}-'

dgon-pa-/o btugs)-Pa]-8 sgom, (b) .Joiis-'XY'u [(56ita '&Y4" [(56M~" kytJ tJhos bIad}I'I2) dgonpa-Io blugs)-POJ-O sgorn.
Such constructions are, of course, syntactically permitted; they cannot be recast into left-branching form, since only the self-embedding allows the reader to process both relative propositions as modifying the same coreferent; hut an alternative construction would be to place a relative proposition on both sides of the coreferent nominal head-for example, tIho.J bJQd-pai saiisrgyas dgon-pa-Ia btug:r-pa .Jgom "The Buddha who teaches the dharma who dwells in the monastery meditates," as follows: (1) (a) [(sans-rgyas-Jcyis tJho$ bIad} m] and

(b) ((sanHK)'as-8 dgon-JXl-la bJugs)-ml. (2) [(sans-rgyas-Jcyis tIhos bIad}Pu]-KYi saiis-'XYas dgon-pa-Ia blug:r)-raJ-8 sgom; (3) [(sans '&Y4" hy~ tIhos b!ad)-PaI-KYi sans-'ID'fU dgon-pa-Ia blugs}paJ-B sgom.
(saiis-~s-'

[($1tiiJ~"

(3)

(.) lolgyi mam-pai khyams [(khyams (WI, .... MIw_/NJ bIhl-lfIis )Ud)-N)-I' blStlllkJmll-dD1l bIItl.f}I'tlJ.lig mip. (b) loIt:J'i rrttlm _ ptli kJrytlms [(.w.,11I$tlllkhtlii-dDii blItl.f).Ptl)-tig migs.

1("">-'" kIJ-ba

bIhl-lflis )'Od}N[

334

TilE CU,SSICAl TIBETAN LANGUAGE

A balanced pair of relative propositio ns such as Ihis can provide a framework

for further embedding of parallel propositions-for example, lha-manu-kyis

hstodpai LfhOJ Mad-pai saiis-'XYQs dge-sloii-gis phuJ-bai mtIhod-pa bits-pa dgon-pa-la blugs "The Buddha who taught the dharma praised by the gods

who accepled the offering the monks gave dwells in the monaste ry." I will
Icave it as a n exercise to de ri ve Ihis proposition from its components.

2.3.1.10. Comple:c relatMud propositions

Conjoined propositions
aTC

themselves propositions which can be relativized

\0 modify a nominal head-th us, for e)lample, with -KYoij "OUT," med-kyafi

dgoS -IJUi khra/-b:.dud " tax which is necessary though one does not have it," or,
as thl! title of a politicaliraci hy Kun-bzaii dpal-Nbyor, bsregskyaii mjNtshigs PlI; bod "Tihct-burncd but no t consumed "; with Am "OR," tJhos tllossam
hvoaLtJam bSROm.{paj s~mS IJIlII "creatures who have heard or pondered or contemplated the dharma ," or saiisrgyas tJhos bJad-darn rna b!ad.po " the O<Jddha, whet her he has taught the dharma o r not"; wit h 'STi! "AND," 80S hkruHe dag.pa "dothes thai have been washed and are pure"; and with tim ""Nil," Ndrc Iala zafiii, khrala Nlhuiiba "demo ns who feed o n flesh and gorge on hlood ," Ndfignc/I.gyj khams dpag.,u m ed/Jm graiis medpa-dag "worldly rca 1m!> which lire measureless and wit hout number," or even slobrna dbus-XlSuII"a.{ yon'X;/I yod'Pfl "disciplcs who are coming from Dbus and G tsang." Similarly, propositions contai ni ng a nominalizcd proposition in the setting slot can also be rc1ativized to modify a nominal head-for example, tIhall pllall-/a tim-pa "beer which is refreShing and taS ty," nlllwlI'IIU sgroihai bla-rna "a h, ma who fre es yo u if you hut sec him." Thcse las t constructions strikc me as hcing vcry Tihctan.

2.3.2_ Comp lement constructions

In a complement const ruction, certain verh or nominill heads are modified a nominalized proposition, called a COMl'tn .H;I'H, whi,h is not relative to the hc~d it modifies. In a NOM tNN . complemcnt construction, the complement "D~O Mt N I\I .I.Y modifies certain types of noun head-thu~, for eXilmplc, saIlS' rxras-I.: y u tJlw.f hJlld-I'A1 ISlle "the time TItAT th~ Buddha taught the dharma." In a vmul :::omplcment construct ion, the complemenl "OVDU :lAl tY modifies certain types of verb head-thus. for example, saiis-'K)'Qsk)'u lJhos MadPAN grags ''It is well known TIIAT the Budtlha laughl the dharma."
by

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

335

2.3.2.1. Complement heads

One of the distinguishing features of complement constructions-as opposed to relative constructions-is that the complement can occur only with certain verb or nominal heads. (A relative, on the other hand, can occur with any nominal head.) NOMINAl. complement heads are always ABSTRACT NOUNSfor example, don "purpose," uhuJ "way," uhe "time," as in soiir-'X)IQS-kyis tJho.t Madpoi DON "the PURPOSE of Buddha having taught the dharma," safu~-kyis tIho.t blod.pai TSIIUL "the WAY that the Buddha taught the dhanna," saiis-'XYas-~ir tIhos blad-poi TSIIE "the TIME that the Buddha taught the dhanna:' VERB complement heads are verbs that: can occur with an ABSTRACT PATIENT-for example, DKA "be difficult" (thus both tJhos dJuJ "The dharma is difficult" and dge-slon-gis dhos blad-por dka "It is difficult for the monk to teach the dharma"), NAN " hear" (thus both Lfhos nan "He heard the dharma" and dge-slofi-gir sons-rgyas-kyis Lfhos Mad-par nan "He heard that the Buddha taught the dharma").

2.3.2.2. Nominal complements

In a nominal complement construction, a nominalized proposition adnominally modifies a nominal head that is not coreferential with any participant in the embedded proposition.- For example, given the proposition safis-rgyas-

]II Olller typk::al nominal romptement Pleads include shlbs "oc:casion." 'X)'Il cause.~ mIlia "cntt," muhan/tid "siln." Ittmu-bil "effect," IIIClbs "means:' phmI "bcne fit ,~ 'X)'Il.mIJMII "reason," bdoI-po "truth," rdzwI "ralsehood," HdodptJ "opinion." bIni-po "rontention,"/w 1M MOOctrine," IIdu-J~J "ronoept." dmigspa "idu." IO'~1 "history." sgruJls "tale," and so

0'.
19 Verb and nomlnal romplement GOlistruaions arc inlcrcst]n,l), parallel in Tibetan. jusl as adYert15 and adnominal5 arc interestingl)' parallel-thus mgyogs-poi na " fast hon.e" is to "'C!OPptK'I)'Il "runs rast" as tUl 'X)'Ilgs-poi I'D" "the reason the hon.e runs fast" is to nCl 1fYI4fP-fMT /nIhQII "!:Je s.ec:s that the hon.e runs rasl." In fatt, man)' of the ycrbs that LIke verb complcmenu become, when nominalized witlll'a, nominals that take nominat romplemenulOt" ezample, b1a_ ~ dgru "II Is ncoeuary for the lama 10 go" bkl.ma ,.",.,.bai dgospo "the necessity '.!Iat the "'ma go," bloma IWO-/)(lr dmigs "He visualizes thaI the lama JOCI" ""'_ ~j tlmigs_pa "the visualization that the lama goes," blJI-mo NJ'l'./JaT rt "He bopc:t tbat the lama goa" blJI/PIlJ NgI'O-bai ftba "the hope that the lama lOCS." 40 All DOm/1ll1 complement ronstructions and man)' relative conslrvctlons ronslst of

336

TtIE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN UNOUAOE

kyis tIhos Mad ''The Buddha taught the dhanna," we might find such nominal complement constructions as sans-rgyas-kyis Lfhos Mad-poi tslwl "the way that the Buddha taught the dharma," saiis-tgyOS.Jcyis t.fhos bItJd-pai librasbu "the result of the Buddha having taught the dharma," saiis-rgyas-lcyis dhos hIad-poi lo-rgyus "the hislory of the Buddha baving taught the dbJu'ma, SIIMrgyas-kyis tIhos Mad-poi bled-pa "the assertion that the Buddha taught the
dharma."

Such nominal phrases may then, of course, play any participant role in the proposition-for example, sansf'Das-kyis tIhos bJ4d-pai dus-IJ Nbab ''1be time for the Buddha to teach the dharma has come," soiis-rgyas.Jcyi.r tfhos bltJd-pai tshNJ4 bslebs "He arrived at the time that the Buddha was teaching the dharma," sans-rgyas-kyis l!hos blad-pai lta-ba-us ldog "He is oppose.d to the doctrine that the Buddha taught the dharma," saiis"-lXYas-kyis tIhru blad-pai Nbras-bu-lJAR /dan "He is endowed with the result of the Buddha's teaching of the dharma," sa;utg,YQJltyis tlhru bIad.pai bd~npas b~ kun li.Jnlr Jog "By the truth that the Buddha taught the dharma may all hindering demons be calmed!"

nominalized proposition adnominally modifying I followin& DOminal head. The ditrereDCe

is Ihis: a relative proposition is processed as having some omitted participant oorefercntlal with Ihe head it modifies-Ihus fit stJiir.rgyw.' nuhoII-bdi dgesloll "monk woo sea the Buddha." JtJii.r.rgyw.kyis 4tt 6'6; , mlhlMbai dgN/oiI "monk whom Ihe Bu~1Ia sea";

tift."

a oomplemenl proposition is nOI processcd as havinC any omilled participant ooreferential wilh the head il modirlCli - lhus dgtslo;!/)U so/tsrgyw' mdwitbai mulwvillid "the sip thaI Ihe monk sea Ihe Buddha," Stl;U~k)U dgNloII' mthoil-bDi muluUllIid "tbe Sip that Ihe Buddha sees the monk," Mo reover, lbe head of a relatl\'e may be eilher an abstract or concrete IIO\lD, wbik lbe hea4 of a nominal complement is always an abslfiCl noun. 1b\lS, where tbe head of a prOpoll. tional modifier is a ronerete noun, Ihe modifltr mU$I generally be prooessecl as I relative., no mailer how obliqlle lhe rcsuWn, readin~-lhllS not only lIimD sgrib.p<Ji sprin "do uds WlIIDI darken the 511n" bUI also ifinul lIgrib.ptJi sprill"cIolI4s WHEREBY Ibe 511ft pows dark." and nOI only 'ILl Ndi skytd' pDi phtHJlD "parenlS WHO bore this body" bill also bu IIdi squ pDi phanra "parents FROM WHOM Ihis body was born." Bllt whele the head is In abmlCl noun. lhe modifying proposition mllSt be JQDI\ed for missing panicipanlS: where none are (ound, Ihe Jeqllenc:c is read IS I oomplemenl oon~nw lion; where a par:iciplRt is missing from lbe lIodityinl proposilion. lbeoon.muctioa is 1m"' SIIOUS belween re!allve and oomplcmenl readings. TIllIS a leq1leDCe SlICti i t ~ ..t)V bltld'p<li btk"p<I is ambi,uous between the relative readiD& Mtbe tnalb whldl. lbe BlMSdha leachcs .nd Ihe cumpJemcnl read!ns "Ihe trvlb thai the BlMSdha teachc:l (sometblnJ}."
M

CoMPU!.X PaOPOSmONS

337

Such nominal complement constructions are frequently found with a temporal noun as the head, used in the setting slot of a proposition-for example, iia gro-bo Juii.1tJ slebpai do-nub-1tJ "On the eve of my arriving in Red Valley ... " tk-dl1n mdlal-bai tho-rans-1tJ "On the morning that I met him ... tt tJhos hIad-pai mlhar "Afler he had taught the dharma ... " l\vo idioms may he noted here as well. The word nan "nature, character," as head of a complement corutruction, can be used in the setting slot to indicate a mood or state of mind out of which the event occurs-for example, tlwgr 4g;esliii spro-btl-lig byuiibai nan.1UU, yum t.sJwba Ndren "With glad and joyous thoughts arising, the lAdy brought warm food," thugs-rgyal tJhuii-zad Nkhtuiis pai nannat mnal sad "She woke up with her pride growing a little." The word sgo "gate, door," as head of a (OOmplement construction, can be used in the selting slot to indicate the means 'whereby or the source from which the event occurs-for example, rgyatpas Ia sbyin-pai sgona$ phug-ron.gyi srog bILLS ''Through giving his flesh, the king ransomed the .Iife of the dove."

2.3.2.3.

~rb

compkmenls

In a verb complement construction, a nominalized proposition adverbally 41 modifies a verb head. 'For example, given the proposition blamas bgegs blUl "The ' lama tamed the demon," we might find such verb complement constructioru as bJa-mas bgegs btu/bar ""is "He dreamed that the lama lamed the demon," blamas bgep btll/bar grags "It is welllrnown that the lama tamed the demon," blamas bgep btu/bar bled "He maintains that the lama tamed the demon." Since every proposition nominalized with .PQ is abstract, every verb that can occur with such a nominalized proposition as its PATIENT can also occur with such a nominalized proposition as its COMPI.EMF.NT. Someti"mes this does not

U A verb oomplemcnl CQnuruction thus diffcrs from a nominalized proposition Simply

used as In adverb, usually in thc sellin, slot. Comp.lrc, for cumplc. the use of thc proposition sgam-po mi-4gos "Mcd.italion is not necessary" in Ihe OOIro4I'UiMENT ool\5tl"\lCllon bIIImAS sgom.po WIi-drWpar btnl '1bc lama maintains that meditation Ii not nea:sury" with lIS \1St as a simple ADVERB in blll.mas szornpo mi-4x<JSpor bMnpo mlholl '1be lama,

wltbout mc4itatlon bein, nccess.ary, SCC$ Ihr trlllh." In many cases, Ihc oorrect rcadin,_ wbelber oomplemcnt or simple adverb-will depend on the pallitular verb head-for example, aZED "maintain" as opposed to IflUoR "see"- and Ihe dislribl,llion of its

panidpants.

338

THE CLAssiCAL TIBETAN L\NOUAGE

seem to make much difference: compare, for example, [lX)'ol-pos yon Nbul-baJII dka ''The giving of gifts by the king was difficult" with (tgl'Ql-pos yon NbuJ ba J-, dka "It was difficult for the king to give gifu." or nm ['Ol-pas yon Nbul baJ' Ndod " I desire the giving of gifts by the king" with iias ('X)'QI-pos yon Nbul-baJ., Ndod " I desire that the king give gifts." With many verbs, however,
a patient construction seems to refer to an ACIlON, while 8 complement construction seems to refer to a FACT. Note the foUowing comparisons:
ACTION

FAcr
[tgyal-pos)'01l Nbul-baJ-,

['KYat-pas yon NbuJ-ba)-1

grags "The giving of gifts

by the king is well known."

grags "It is weU known

that the " king gives gifts."
Ms [IXYa[pru

nat {tgYo/-pos yon NbulbaJ-' brdled "I forgot the giving of gifts by the king."

yon Nbu./ ba Jr brdted "I forgot th~t the king gives gifts."

iias (/xya l-pos yon Nbu.l

baJ-8 nan " I heard the giving
of gifts by the king." nas I'ID'Q/-pos yon Nbulhal-n rig ". understand the giving o f gifts by the king."

nas (IXYal-pru yon Nbu.Jba]-r fum "I heard that the king gives gifts." nas (IXYal-pos yon N bu.JbaJ-r rig " I understand that the king gives gifts."

Note, too, that many verbs that occur with a complement cannot occur with a nominalized proposition as patieni-for example, (lUi NfJut-ba]-, Ngro "He 10es to gather wood" but not 111m Htllubaj8 NgrO, (lUi N1'hu-baJ-r &mI "I pray that you gather wood" but no t 1[Jiii Nfhuba}8 gsoi, [lUi NfhubaJr.rmrtU " He said tha t be gathers wood" but not ?Ilm NtlrubaJa smras.
2.3.2.3.1. lYPES OF COMPLEMENT CONSTRUcnON

There are fo ur types of ve rb complement construction, according to two intersecting distinctions. First, the verb head can be either transitive or intransitive; seco nd. the verb head can either require or nOl require that a participant in the complement be coreferenlial with its patient and be omitted from the: complement. An intransitive verb head without obligatory corefer

CoMPlEX PRorosmoNs

339

ence we will call TYPE I-for example, 8OE.N "be true" in blo-m4-s b~ btu/bar bthn "It is true that the lama tamed the demon"; an intransitive verb head with obligatory coreference we will call TypE 2-for example, oR "come" in bla-rna-B bgegs bnd-bar OM 'The lama came to tame the demon." Similarly, a transitive verb head without obligatory corderence: we will call TypE 3-for example, SGRA-O "proclaim" in blo-m4-s bgegs bnd-bar rgyal-pos bsgrags ''The king proclaimed that the lama tamed the demon"; a transitive verb with obligatory coreference we will call TYPE 4-for example, SKUL "appoint" in blo-m4-' bgegs bnd-bar 'KYa/-pas bslwl "The king appointed the lama to tame the demon.',",2

1.3.1.3.1.1. TYPE / COMPU.'MENT CONSTRUCTIONS

In a 'JYpc 1 complement construction, the complement replaces the patient of its intransitive verb head: in such a construction, the verb has no patient participanL 'JYpc 1 verb heads are, generally, what we can call STAllJS VERBS: they expres.s the epistemic status of the complement-for example, G,t..U. "be clear," /IIRON "be evident," BDI::N "be true," SRJD "be possible," RES ','be certain," ORA-OS "be well-known,"; or its evaluativt: status-for example, RuR "be proper," os "be appropriate in terms of status," DGOS "be necessary," BYA "be requisite",",3 DKA. "be difficult," SHAN "be sweet-sounding"; or its ontological status-for example, YIN "be the case," NDUG "be the cunent condition," YOD "be present," BwR "occur," GYVR "eventuate," oR "be coming," soN "have happened. ...

42 Note 1IuII Ihese Ire syntaClk distinaions, dependin& on Ibe number Ind nalure of the panlcipanu: whkh, in addition to 1!'Ie compkment, IIXOmpany 1!'Ie verb bead. If there turu out to be lelNlntic correlates 10 s\Kb synlltlk distinctions-for eumple, If "verbs of pen:epl1on" turn out to be laraely Type ) beld.$_then so much the beller.
4) 1be YCrb nA "be reqUisite" Is in fact tbe future stem b)'Q < b-6YA of tbe transitive verb .YA (l1yuI/byGs/bya/t1yosJ "make. 00." In complement consUllCtlons. this stem Is freqlleDtly OOrllUltive-tbus bl4 __ brtP pIul.bQr b)'d '"The lama should wrne tbe demoa," 'fYtl/-JH.1I bJdpIlT mi-byrl1'be kin, oupt DOtllay the eKmy." The IKlnnativity of tbeK IaStnactiom coma from tbdr ori,inal u.sc: u translations of Sanskrit future passiYe verb

.....

44 1be Yerb bead soR "bave Iuippc:nc:4" Is In fact what II usually considered to be the bl&hJy lneplu plSt stem of NORD "10,"

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN l.J.NoUAOE

Complement constructions with evaluative status verbs are often themselves nominalized and used as relative modifiers of a nominal head-thus. for example, bfa-ma mtJhod-por os-po "a lama wonhy of worship," b.rtall-btIos rig-pordka-ba "a treatise which is difficult 10 understand," uhig Ndlitfs-su runba "a word to be feared," dge-slon snod-du ruii-ba "a monk. worthy to be a disciple," b.rtan-po Ies-por bya-ba "a doctrine one should know." Even more important, ontological stalus verbs are widely found in PERIPHRASconstructions. Such constructions are old in tibetan-for example, in an archaic Central Asian manuscript, 'KYo mgo nag-po ck-la phyag-NtSluJl-1.iii des blrol-BAR oR-no "It came about thai the Chinese masses paid homage to him, and were by him enslaved. ,,.., In lhe later literature, note the following examples from the biography of Mi-la ras-pa-Nd'w-bya.r Ihams-tIad mi-rtagPAR NGYUR "All caused things are impermanent," bod mun-nag-gigliii-na .rlcynbu guns-Ia iii-rna Iarba Ndra-ba yan yod-I'AR NDUG' "Yet there are in this dark land of Tibet people like Ihe sun rising on the glaciers;" Taii-.rems tIhos-skur mthon-BAR NGYUR "You will see your own mind as the Dharma-body," Ndi IIi yin mi-Ies-PAR NDVO "I don't know what this is," bla-mas lJhos kyaii mi panTIC

.) In one Irchaic manuscript from Central Asil, disawin, a mythical we find the following pasuges:

A&e

of Sorrows,

djN' pha-mo gffislo bu-s~fI g1iis bdcg-na, tn. grJig-gis pIIo.log_ pa_1o fuUl4gw tIyGs.pas, flO' bmlld/e oilJ1\Q phama gRis.I:yaA bu d.ts nor IfItd MIzds-po lu bsrod-I'AR oRfIo, bu grJig drQA .mlcJvtlll I1Iu myi pIuJ-log-po.1o Ilall myi-byrd nO' myi rshold/t, grlllg./ag-gi myi IIi nan dtJ sniadI'AR oRito

For example, if father and mot her had two sons, and if one SOD did everything evil 10 others. and 50 pined weallb.. tile falher Ind I!IOlKt would prabe him. saying '"Tba,' son us found wealth, and is wise.." And if one son wa.s very uprigb!, and did not do evil 10 otber men, and did not gain we.tlh. this accomplished man would be reviled as evil.
myi dbt41.poi ':JUHIOS srid-Io pIulII-ptJi tshig bldpo bden'pdlig ut1Id .Jo'd ".,.iJGI'IA-tR oNfIo, 10-10 wig bdtll-pa d.t rhosIId)'4ll. tJUI ba Y"gdigf1Ilhosna, tJUI bQ Y"'I'Jig-11I p/I)'IIl'Jlt, yuMa myi.~-lWt oN-1Io, bdm Its 1IU ~ myiF!tuf myi-bstodI'AR oR1I.D
1\I.S .t)d

Thou&h I JOOd Ind IrtIC -..oro, benertci to Ufe. was spoken from lbe moulh of a poor man, no one would' listen. If someone beard Ihlt lrue word, it would SO in one e.r and OU1 tile olber, Ind he 1IIOukl nOI keep II in mind. No one would lislen .nd praiSe il as lrue.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS
lWR Gil.(

341

"Yet the lama does not bestow the dharma_" Similarly, note the following examples from the ugs-por bJad-po rin-po-dhei gter by Sa-skya pa1J4ita-iii-mai odour lar-ba-na, Nbyuii-poi bya-mams /oii-BttR NGYUR "Owls become blind when the sun's rays rise," Ndtam-pos Ndtam.po Ndloms byeddin, NtiIam-pm ruub-moan Ndtoms-PAR. BYED "Gentleness conquers the gentle, and gentleness conquers the rough," blD-idan byaba dhuii-zad /cyan, rgyun-du gros-kyu bJgrub-pAR. BYA "An intelligent person should always accomplish even a little deed ..ith counsel," !inru rga.N'AR. GYURuhe yan, thru-po man-du bsagPAR. BYA "Even when one has become very o ld, one should gather much learning."

2.3.2.3./.2. TYPE 2 COMPLEMENT CONSTRUCrIONS

In a Type 2 complement construction, the complement does not replace the patient of its intransitive verb head; instead, the complement has a missing participant which is processed as coreferential with the patient participant of the verb it modifies. Compare, for example, the Type 1 b/a-ma-J bg~ btu/bar bden "It is true that the lama tamed the demon" wilh the Type 2 bla-maIJ bgegs btu/-bar ons "The lama came to tame the demon." The first construction has no patient participant of the verb head, and can be diagrammed as (bla-ma-s bgegs btu/-baJ-' bden. The second construction has both a patient and a complement of the ve rb head, and can be diagrammed as bla-ma-IJ [bla 1ft" " bgegs btu/bal-' om.

Type 2 verb heads do not seem to be neatly classifiable, but many of them
are verbs of intention or ability-for example, NUS "he able," TIIUB "be able," "endeavor," BKrsON "strive," KlIAM "begin," SES "know," NGRO "go," ON "come.'MI Olhers a re verbs indicating a Change of state, used with equative complements-for example, SNAN "appear," DtU "melt," nllM "dissolve," ruR "become visible."
flTSOL

~ I believe the ve rb$ NORO "go" and oN 'wme," use4 as Type 2 vcrb bead$. h,ave In intentional quality about tbem_for eumple, dgr-sloft Iii! Nlhubar Iif'"O 'TIIe monk JOCS (in order) 10 ,ather wood," blama I1Iun sgrogfXI' oii.J The lama came (in order) to proclaim the dharma." N~te that a vcrb can function as more than one type of wmplement head: note the difference in the meanin, of the verb oN "wme" btlwoen the Type I wnstrllClkln bla.mQ.J b~gs brw/bQf oil "The lama WILL ume tbe demon and the Type 2 wMtrVCIion b/QmQ' bgqJ brwtboT oil '11'Ie lama COMES TO tame tbe demOn."
H

342

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANaUAGE

2.3.2.3.1.3. 1YPE J COMPLEMENT CONSTRUCTIONS

In a 'JYpe 3 complement construction, the complement replaces the patient of its transitive head: in such a construction, the verb has no patient participant. Again, 'JYpe 3 verb heads are not neatly classifiable, but many of them seem to involve the reception, processing, or transmittal of ~FORMA nON: for example, as to information RECEPTION, we find Ml1IoR "see," RAN "hear," RIOG "recognize," fUJI "dream," DMIGS "visualize"; as to information
PROCESSING, we find SAM "think,
G{)

"understand," HOOD "desire," DRAN

"remember," RD2:ED "rorget," DzuR "grasp"; as to information TRANSMITTAl., we find B1.E.D "assert," sRAD "relate," SGMG "proclaim," SMRA "say."

Of course, any participant in a complement can optionally be omitted when it is recoverable from the discourse. In a lYpe 3 complemcm construction such an omission can be syntactically ambiguous: for example, dgt-sloii-gis bgegs btu/-bar wag can be read as either "The monk proclaimed that (someone) had tamed the demon" or "(Someone) proclaimed that the monk had tamed the demon." One plausible r~ading of such a construction is that an omitted complement participant is coreferential with the immediately preceding agency of the transitive verb head-thus ''THE MONK proclaimed that HE had tamed the demon." Where such a reading is in fact intended, the omitted complement participant may be marked by a reflexive delimiter-thus dge-sloii-gis ("&'I' MtJii RAN-gil bg~ btul-ba J-r bsgrags ''The monk proclaimed that he HIMSELF had tamed the demon."

2.3.2.3.1.4. TYPE 4 COMPLEMENT CONSTRUCTIONS

In a Type 4 complement construction, the complement does not replace the patient of its transitive verb head; instead, the complement has a missing participant which is processed as coreferential with the patient participant of the verb it modifies. Compare, for example, the Type 3 bla-mas dge-slon-gis bgeg:s btuI-bar rmis 'The lama dreamed that the monk tamed the demon" with the Type 4 b/a-nuu dge-sloii-8 bgegs btul-bar bskuJ "The lama exhorted the monk to tame the demon." The first construction has no patient participant of the verb head, and can be diagrammed as b/a-mas [dge-sloii-gis bgqs blUl-baJ-r rmis. The second construction has both a patient and complement of the verb head, and can be diagrammed as bla-mas dge-slon-' [tip "Ie" 8Y b~ btul-ba]-r bslcul.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

343

Many 'JYpe 4 verb heads appear to be verbs of inducement-for example, SKUL "exhon. induce," soo "order," 1l1l0L "appoint," Dtuo "cause, compel," tu "request," OSOL "pray." Others are verbs indicating 8 change of state, used with equalive complements-for example, SGYUR "cause to change," Dtu "make melt," STTM "cause to dissolve," RDZU "transform deceptively, disguise."

NO OBLIGATORY COREFERENCE INTRANsmVE VERB HEAD lRANSITlVE VERB HEAD

(bla-ma' nal-ba] r 8m;N "It is true that the lama slept." [bla.ma-s bgegs blul-baJ-r "II is true that the lama tamed the demon."
TYPE I

'KYa/-pos (bla-ma-' ;w/ba I-I RMIS "The king dreamed that the lama slept."
'1rJ'o(-pos (Iila-ma-s bgep

BDEN

blufba )-r RMIS "The king dreamed that the lama tamed the demon."
TYPE'

OBLIGATORY COREFERENCE
INTRANSITIVE VERB HEAD 'mANSI11VE VERB HEAD

bIa-ma-D [hta ,"a 8 nafbaJ-1 ONS "The lama came to Sleep." bla-maD (hltt "'8 , bgegs bluJ-ba)-loNs 'The lama came to tame the demon."
TYPE 2
TobIt 14. T'yptl

'KYa/-pas b/ti-ma-D (hhtIfttI-lI iial-baJ-1 BSKUL ''The king exhorted the lama to sleep."
rg)al-pos bla-ma-D (Waffttt-1

bgegs btul-baJ-1 bskul "The king exhorted the lama to tame the demon."
TYPE'

of compltmttU COtUrructiot!

Tue ClASSICAL TiBETAN ~GUAGE

1.3.1.3.1. COMPLEX COMPLEMENTS

Just as in the case of complex relati\'iud propositions, conjoined propositions can be nominalized with m and used as complement modifiers of verb or nominal heads-for example, in the chronicle Roal-robs gfal-bai mL./on, ha-ba yons-Jill spyodlam lib-par mdzod "Make your view broad AND your practice precise," or, in the Legs-par Madpo rin-pot.!hei gter by Sa-skya pal)4ita, gnod. po byed-pa tJhuii-iiu yon, myur~ bsal-u Ndum-par bya "Though the harm you have done be smal~ you should quickly remedy it AND make peace."

1.3.2.3.3_ THE OMISSION OF

-'0

As we have discussed above, the nominalizer -PQ can be omined when it would otherwise occur between a verb stem and a bound particle. Such omissions are found in complement constructions as well-thus, for example, bla-rna bgeg:r btul-du oiU "The lama came to tame the demon," 'KYal-pas bla rna tlhos sgrog-tu bskul "The king exhorted the lama 10 proclaim the dharma.''''' In such cases, too, the adverb marker -7U may be omitted akmg with the -Po-for example, in the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa by Gtsan-smyon he-ru-b, lakhu.i khyim rdibs-tUls mi man.po Ii Hdug "My uncle's house fell down, and many people died." Note, for example, the perceived parallelism of these two lines by Sa-skya p31)4ita-Nd1'am-pos Ndlampo NdIoms bred-J!iiI, Ndlam-pos tUub-mooii HtitonuJXlr byed "Gentleness conquers the gentle, and gentleness conquers the rough."

1.3.2.3.4. EQUATIVE COMPLEMENTS

Verb complements can also be built from equative propositions-for example, Nba;u-lig rd1e yin "A va~1 is king" Nbaiis-.fig rdlt' yin-par re "A vassal hope ~ to be king." When the equative verb YIN is mniued from the equative proposition, the nominalizer -I'D which is attached to the verb disappears

47 I have I hunch thlt the omi:s.sio n of ./'0 before .7lI in thes.e oonmuctions is much more frequent in-or even limited to-thme with Type 2 and Type: 4 verb heads. J have I hunch tltat this mipt hive something to do with t~ fact that Type 2 and lYpe 4 verb hea~ illCludc those verbs of chance thai often 00;:1,11 wilh equatjve complements. and thai equalive oompleJTK:nu normally omil both the equ.uiv.' ' -.:rb n" alll~ ilS allached nominatizcr .1'a. B\lt I am not ' \Ire what thai something is.

CoMPLEX PROPOSmONS

345

along with it, and the adverb particle -TU attaches itself to the. patient participant immediately to its left-thUJ the parallel construction, in an archaic Central Asian manuscript, Noons-fig rai rdtNI.U re, sbot-po raj Nphur-DU re "A vass~l, yc.s, hopes TO BE lUNG; a frog, yes, hopes TO FLY." Such equative complement constructions with YIN omitted are quite common with verbs expressing transformation in substance or appearance, such as Diu "melt," T1l1","dissolve," STIM "cause to dissolve," GYUII "change" SGWII "cause to change," T1.tII"become visible," sNAR "appear," Gw.. "appear vividly," II UL "rot," IWZU "disguise," NGIIO "go to a state or condition"-for example, tho ad yin "The god is light" lha od~ Ntilu "The god melts such that it is light! The god melts into light:' rrn:-tog grer yin "The fl ower'S arc gold" mNog grer~ gyur "The flowers Changed such that they were goldffhe flowers changed into gold," byaij-Lfhub ~ems..dpa bramu rgan-po yin "The bodhisattva is an old brahmin" byoii-lI/wb sems..dpa bram-u rgan-por snan "The bodh isattva appears such thin he is an old brahmin/fhe bodhisattva appears as an old brahmin," mi-[w mi-gtsaii-ba mom-po sna -uh~-kyj plum-po yin "The human body is a lump of all kinds of filth" mj-/w mi-gtsaii-ba mom-po sna-uhogs-kyi phuii-por n.d "The human body rots such that it is 8 lump of all kinds of filth/ The human body rots into a lump of all Idods of filth," NgOii-mo khyi-mo-lig yin "The demoncss is a bitch" NgOn-mo khyi-mo lig-tu son "The demoness went into the state in which she was 8 bitchfThe demoness became a bitch." Thus Sa-skya p8t:l4ita writc.s, in his Ugs-par bJad-po rin-po-tIhei gter, lin-pas lo-zwr Nbad-pai lUi, ser-btu sJcad-l!ig niuJ-du rlog "In an instant the hail smashes into dust the field that the farmer worked on 811 year," gnod-por bred-pai dgra-bo yon. thab:r-dan /dan -na grog:r-su NgyUT "Even a harmful enemy turns into a friend, ir you have the skill."

2.3.2.3.5. ON TRANSLATING SANSKRIT VERBS

Oassical Sanskrit had an extraordinarily complex-enthusiaslS "say "rich"system of verbal inflection. In addition to the interaction of several tense and mode rorms, the verb system was premised on a pervasive distinction ~.. One way of COIICl:ptualizi n, the oyerall SalUult verb system is as fol~. 1lIere .....::rr. tow" lENSES (ptCSCIlt, Mure. perfect. Ind IONI) ... hleh Intersected with fOUl MODe... . (iDdkatJw., preterite, optative, Ind imperative) to yield I .. x .. matrix of poaible verb form~ Of IbcK .~een tbcorelic:aJly possible oornbinalkms, len were of sufficien tly rrcqu.~'1 " occurrel'oe 10 .... mlll nolioe III Ihe gnmmalical tradition. Th us SalUktil I\.Id not only Sir'

346

TIH~ Q.ASS ICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

tween active and passive forms of verbs-a distinction which was absolutely meaninglc5S in Tibetan.~9 Yet this distinction also underlay much of the Buddhist philosophical terminology the Tibetans were so eager to master, such as kiiralJ.oikiirya "cause/effect," grahaJca/griihya "subject/object," iidhiiral iidheya "maQ(la la paiace/maQ(lala deities." The following sections will describe how these Sanskrit verb forms were translated into Tibetan.

2.3.2.3.5.1. SIMPLE FORMS

As Inaba Sh6ju has described in detail for us, the Tibetans dealt with this problem first by reducing all the different Sanskrit verb forms to fourpresent, past, future, and imperative-to match their own verb system. Leaving aside the imperative, Ihis meant that for all practical purposes the various Sanskrit verbs and participles, both active and passive, could be reduced to Six-PRESENT, PAST, and FUTURE ACI1VE; and PRfSENT, I'AST, and FlIltJkf. I'ASS[VF._ Then the following convention was adopted: the Sanskrit PAST ACTIVE and p....sr PASSIVE were both translated' with the Tibetan PAST stem; the Sanskrit PRESENT AcnVE and FlJltJRE ACTTVE were hath translated with the Tibetan PRESENT stem; and the Sanskrit PRf'.sENT PASSrvE and FUltJRE PASSIVE were both trans lated with the Tibetan FUltJRE S1T:M_ We can diagram this conv~ntion as follows:

relativcly slJaighl(orward (orm~ iI.\ a pre.'lent ind icllh-c or ,uture indica tive or pres.enl opt,u;ye but also 5uth wmbinati(lAS as a tUllire prettrile ("conditional"), aoriM oputive ("prcativc"), and pc rfcct prctcritt ('"plupc r(ccf-)_ This complu sptem stood in wntf1o.\t 10 daMical Tibetan wilh il5 four len:ICS-present, past, future, and imperative.
.9 SallSklit, unlike Engl is ll_ allows paMiva from botlllr1l11uitiYe$ and inlllllUitiw:S-lllus som<Jm pibat; "IndIa drinks soma:' iIIJr<J~ jJsle "lndra silS," illdre!W sotl'lo~ pfytlft "Soml is drunk by Indra," as well as iltdn1)d cl.l)'Clfe -'Thefe b some sitting going o n, Ind Indra is duing il.-' Nuw Tibetan is perfectly capable of sayin,dbDlt-po-J JO-rnll-' NthuJt " Indra <.Irink.\ soma" and dbon -po-11 blugs "Indra silS"; il is certainly capable of makin! l O-m<J -'soma\' the n tEME of a proposition willi a transitive verb, as in fo-mll-I d1xJA-po-s Jo'fhuJt "As (or ~tlma, In<.lra dlinks it"; ami il can assign more or less REStONSl8tUTY 10 dbaA-po "!ndra" Ihrollglllhe selection of a tranSitive or inlransitive verb-tor Qample,dboiI-~f s()-mIl_' nvIII Nhtbs '"I ndra cam the soma into the fire" u-opposo:d to dbllii-po-/ JO-ma1 nv-f,a J<IblIb "The soma d=nds inlo tI" fife becallSt of Indra:' Dill il can make lillie syntaetk or morphoi01ical sense out of lhe nOlion of tile tASSfVE in S.II'15ktit_
Wlr<J~

CoMl'LEX PRorosmoNs
PASSIVE

347

PRESENT
PAST FU11JRE

Present stem

I
Past stem

Future stem

Present stem

Future stem

This meant that all the various Sanskrit past tense forms, both verbs and paniciples, were translated with the Tibetan PAST stem. This convention applied to past AClTVE forms, as in Sanskrit aI~j pramuiical Tibetan mtJhi ma phyWi "He shed tears," Sansktit mtlhiiniigtlrf'l1 priivi/at Tibetangroiikhyer tJhen-por lugs "He entered the great city"; and it applied as well to past PASSTVE forms, as in Sanskrit sa ca biilaprthagjanair udgrIJltatl Tibetan de yan byispa sosoi skye.bo-mamskyis bzuii "And thai is grasped by fools," Sanskrit mayii sattviitl parimocitiitl Tibetan nas sems-t!an-mnms bkrol "Semient creatures are saved by me." Here the Tibetan PAST stems phyuii < b-PIIYUNS "shed," lugs < 8D1.UGl "entered," blUii < bDZUiJs "grasped," and bkrol < bGROLS "saved" are used to Iranslate both PAST AClTVE and PAST PASSIVE forms in Sanskrit.
PRES ENT ACllVE forms were transialed, similarly, with the Tibetan stem, as in Sanskrit i,tdlltlnam agnir dahati Tibetan mes bud-fiii sreg "Fire burns the firewood," Sanskrit fiinyiin vyavalolwyati Tibetan sfOijpa mampar I/a "He examines the empty." Hete the Tibetan PRESENT stems sreg < N,SREG "burns" and 1M < N-LTA Mlooks" are used to translate San~krit PRESf:NT AClTVE forms. PRESENT

Sanskrit

But, interestingly, Sanskrit PRESENT Pl\SStvE form~ were regularly translated with the Tibetan FUTIJRE stem, as in Sanskrit riipa'!l vi.Jaya/venopadi.~tlle Tibetan gzugs ni yuliiid yin.par iie-bar bslan "Form is expl.,ined as being a perceptual object," Sanskrit anya."ittlti gralia~ena daumlana.ryavarji/u'!1 Rrllyalt: Tibetan /Slior gtan tes bya.ba smosJXlS IIi yid mi-bde-ba,/u.f gtanpni IJllorba gluii "By the expression 'other consciousness' is understood a consciousness other than a sorrowful one," Sanskrit kal)'a kiira~lQm iti pariku/pyutf! TIbetan gaii-gi ~u yinpar bf1ag " It is determined of what it is tht: caust:." fkr e the Tibelan FUTIJRE stems bstan < b'STAN " wilt explain," gzuii < un7.UN "will understand," and bnag < b'RrAG "wilt determine" are used to translatt: Sanskrit PRESENT PA.<;SIVE forms. In the same way, Sanskrit FUTIJRE AcnVE forms were translated with the Tihetan PRESE.NT stem, as in Sanskrit olilqiplacilla manasika,.qyoli Tibetan

348

THE Cv.sslCAL TtBETAN l..ANOUAOE

g.yenha nwi-pai sems-kyis yid-w byed "The unwavering mind will ponder it," Sanskrit eva'1t darfana'fl paron eva drakjyaa M sviitmanmn Tibetan lk blin-4u Ita-ba yan gfan kho-M/a ItQ~ rongi bdog-nid-la .rna-yin ''Thus vision will see only others, not itself," Sanskrit bodhisattvii maM.JQttva bhavijyanti Tibetan byantJhub sem.s-dpa sems-dpa tIhen-po i'Jbyuii '''There will be bodhisattvas, great beings." Here the Tibetan PRESENT stems byed < N-lJYA-D "does," lIa < N-LTA "sees," and Nbyuii < N-BYUR "occurs" are used to translate Sanskrit
FUnJRE ACllVE forms.

Finally, under the same convention, Sanskrit FUruRE PASSIVE forms were translated with the Tibetan ftJTURE STEM, as in Sanskrit laJqaf)QlJJlqaf)4tl1S lDlhiigato dronavyah Tibetan de-blin-trfeg;r-pa-Ia mtshan-dlJii mtshan-mal-par bl'a "The Thus-gone One is to be seen through signs and nansigns," Sanskrit
udgrah'flovyo niidhamu11) Tibetan tIhos ma-yin-pa yan mixzuii "Whal is not the dharma is not to be grasped." Here the Tibetan future stems blta < bLTA. "will see" and
n rnJRE

gtuii < G-DzuR "will grasp" are used to. translate Sanskrit

PASStVE forms.

The same convention was used in translating Sanskrit nouns. Sanskrit nominal derivatives from active verbs were translated into Tibetan by nominalizing present stems; Sanskrit nominal derivatives from passive verbs were translated into Tibetan by nominalizing future stems. Thus we find Sanskrit griihakal griihya Tibetan Ndzin-palgtuii-ba "subject/object." using the present stem Ndzin < N-DZUN-O and Cuture stem gzun < G-DzuR of the root DZUN "grasp"; Sanskrit kii,a~lalkii'Ya Tibetan byed-polbya-ba "cause/effect," using the present stem byed < N-BrA.-D and Cuture stem bra < b-BYA. of the root BYA. "do," and Sanskrit iidhiiraliidheya Tibetan rtenpaJbrten-pIl "mal)(lala paiace/mal)4ala deities," using the present stem rten < N-KTEN and future stem brten < bRJ7:N of the root IUfN "support."

2.3.2.3.5.2. PERIPHRASTIC FORMS

Similar conventions governed the translation of Sanskrit verbs PERIPHRASTICALLY. Periphrastic translations of Sanskrit verbs used tense stems of two verbs-BrA. "do" and GYlJR "evcntuate"-as verb h,e ads of VERB COMPLEMEI'IT constructions. Sanskrit PAST forms, both active and passive, used primarily the PA<;T stem byas of the head verb BrA.. Sanskrit PASSIVE FORMS, both present and fulure, us.:d the FUTURE stem bya of the head verb BrA.. And Sanskrit PRESENT AcnVE forms used the PRF..5EI'rr stem byed of the head verb BrA,

CoMPLEX PaOPOSmONS

349

GYVR.

while fUTURE ACTIVE forms used the PRESENT stem "'W of the head verb In each such construction, the stem of the verb within the complement conforms to the stem convention of simple translation forms." We can diagram this periphrastic convention as follows:
PASSIVE

PRESENT
PAST FUnJRE

PRESENT

STEM-Fa""

bred

I RmJRE
1

ST(!M-Fa-r

bya

PAST STEM-Fa-r byas

PRESENT STEM-Fa"" NgYIU

flTTVRE S'TEM-Fa-r

byo

This convention, again. meant that all Sanskrit past tense forms could be translated periphrastically in the form PAST STEM-Fa"" bya!, as in Sanskrit mayiiriIgiJiI iiriigya na viriigiJjj~ Tibetan "as miia-parbyas-u, miies-parbyas-IUU thugs m4-byuii-bar byas ''They were pleased with me, and, having been pleased, did not turn away." Both Sanskrit PRESENT PASSIVE and FU11JRE PAS.'\IVE forms were translated periphrastically in the form RJruRE STEM-Fa-r bya. Thus we find. for the present tense, Sanskrit siidhyate Tibetan bsgrub-par bya .,It is proven," Sanskrit sal7lpradhiiryatt Tibetan dpyad-par bra "It is examined," and, identically, for the future tense, Sanskrit jiiiitavya Tibetan Its-par byo "It is to be known," Sanskrit vistartf)a gaQaniyam Tibetan tgtas-par brui-bar bra "It is to be counted in detail. "SI
so Allbollp the had verb GWR was used primarily to translate ~nskrit Mllre active forms, its pasl stem fJ'IU is occasionally fOllnd in the tl anslalion or Sanskril past Iora.-for example, the lOti$! in Sanskrit aJlgll-prlltyoJiP-/fIlJ'!UlJny Iltclllliu'tl Tibeut! )OII-/4Ir-dAII Nn-I4f mmru btJlld.ptU fJ'IU "They CUI orr Ihei r limbs and second.uy limbs. It! addilioll, tbe ItC.Id verb GYUR seems 10 be IISCd in Iranslaling ...." rief)' of Sansbil irralis model. It is follnd in uanslations of Ihe Sanskrit CONOITIONi\l or futllre preterhe, t;S ill Sanskrit IIIrytUh6 hi lUIivQ smrukArQ .gMlltJI;WI1 ~tll Tibetan /k-ltQ lIUI-yiII-NJ 1IIb4-byft1 snws-pa mi-lltduJd.ptJT "'I)VI' "Olberwise one woliid nol name Ihem condit ioned IUIes," Sanskrit JIlCt!IIoIuJ-4hlIfIIr tJbJwIviI}'CU III ~Il pi{!I)DgrlJlto 'bMvqyaf Tibcll.n gal-It /chQnu-Jig mlJltiJ-par tfJN'-ItII Ik-llid riJ-ptx Ntb.in-P'" "'I)VI' " If Ihere were a world, thefe woliid abo be uklng it to be real"; and in mulliions of I~ Sanskril OPTA1l\'E, as in Sanskril ~ ~tutJJ"')'IMIi dltJJlIJWI ~Il ~ TIbetan pi-If kJtmJuflid )'Cd-NJ phuiI _ po-dall Jkytd-mrIMd-f'ftIImS yod'P"'''''' " If lbere were elements, Ihere woliid be groups and 5e1lSCS_
M M

SI

Flltllre passive parliciplC$ are fairly common in Bllddhist tau in Saaskrit; in many

350

THE QJ.ssICAL TIBETAN Lo.NGUAGE

PRESENT ACTIVE

However, Sanskrit

forms were translated periphrastically in

the form PRESENT STEM-l'tH b~ as in Sanskrit Qgn~ parQrmanam eva @hoti Tibetan m~ ni gfall-Di bdtJg-nid kho-lIlJ sreg-par byed "Fire bums only the essence of others," Sanskrit lad eva iijiinati Tibetan de-nJd lam les-par byed "He knows jusl thai"; while Sanskrit FUllJRE ACTIVE fonns were translalcd periphrastically, with a different verb head, in the form PRESENT S1C.M-I'a-' "'1:IUT, as in Sanskrit no teliim iitmlJ-SlJf!lj;;,o pravarr#yolt Tibetan de-dag-la ni

btkIg-tu Ntiules Nd1ug-par mj.~W' "The idea'of self will not occur to them," Sanskrit apriipro lIa dhalqyati Tibetan phrad medRQ sreg-par mj-NrIUT "What is not in contact will not bum,"

Figt<r~

II. Charm against lJsrr%gical mufrxrune

$u,h tC):1$ th":y are the major hortatory dcvic(. Note, for example, SaMkril ...IIfT! draum)'u'FI Sll,!ISkrmnl 1 ibctan . 'ldusbym de ltar bflll-bar bya "Quscd Ih inp afC In he looked upon likc Ihal:' S~nskf i l !I/J put;lyaslcomJhn~ fKlrigrilhrw\yn~ Tibelan bsod-lIilnlJ . ~yi pltuil.po roNsu Iluijb/:Ir mi b)"Q "A Ile.Jp of meril is IMJI 1 0 be clun, 10:' Sanskril dhof1l1iJ e"a prnhiJln'ylI~ Tilletan IlhnJmamJ 4yui\ JpaIi (1Ur byo " E"cn events are 10 be cast aside." Fulure passive paniciples CIIn also funclinn a!o absHaCI no minals in Buddhiu philosophical dis<:ourse-thus. fo r eumple, Sarukrit dllhya fnk.~'J')n iN1hallllm Ti tJC tan bJrq,-par b)Ia' boi ;"ululn.ilid!Jan IIi bud1Ui yill 'FircwoooJ is that wll i. :"! ~ the si gn of ria rnmability."

12

Sentences

A Tibetan SENTENCE consists of a proposition followed by a PERFORMANCE PARTICLE: the performance particle signals the way the proposition is being
STATEMENT ("I assert PROPOSmOW"), as a QUESllON

used. There are three basic ways of using a proposition in Tibetan-as a ("I query PRorosmoN"),
coIUtant

or as a COMMAND ("I order PRoPOsmOt<l"). A particular propositional content

may thus remain

while its performance varies. For example, the

sentences dgra Nbros-so "The enemy flees," dgra Nbros-SQm "Does the enemy flee ?" and dgra Nbros-!ig "Let the enemy flee!" can be considered different

performances oJ the same proposition dgra Nbros. I 1. PERFORMANCE PARTICLES

The STATEMENT PARTICLE is -0, the QUESTION PARTICLE is -Am, and the COMMAND PARTICLE is -rlig. These are the three PRIMARY PERFORMANCE

PARTICl..f.S; every Tibetan sentence is one of these three sentence types. It is important to remember that Tibetan performance particles do not necessarily coincide with any overt punctuation in the text. The vertical stroke or Jad is a guide to reading aloud rather than to grammar; although it is of course often the case that the end of a sentence coincides with a reading pause, it is not unusual to find._.two or more sentences written consecutively without punctuation

Z. MODAL PERFORMATIVES
There is some reason to believe that Tibetan-in common with other SinoTibetan languages-has had a richer array of sentence-final performance

1 Similarly, compare bklmo 1Ial-/Q '7he lama is sleepin,," blama FfaJ1tJm "Is lhe lima sleepin,," bla -mo-lla/lig wSleep, 0 lama!" and rr;tal-pos Hdr~ lmUu\Jw "The kin, hil lhe demon," 'fY'CJl-poI /<Idn lmIullNam "Did Ihe kina hil Ihe Gc!"on'r' 1fY01.pos Ndre rdu/I.t./ig " Lei lhe kin,liil Ihe demon!"
3S1

352

THE CUssICAl. TIBErrAN l..ANOUAGE

particles than is immediately apparent in the classical texu.1 We have caUed

the statement, question. and command particles the primary performance

particles., and noted that every Tibetan sentence falls into one of these three sentence types; but we additionally find severa] MODAL PERFORMANCE PARTIa.ES which can occur after the primary particle and specify more

precisely the son of statement, question, or command being uttered. For

example., compare rgyal-po bsad-do "He will kill the king" with rgyal-po b:Ad kyir "He will kill the king, I promise!" or fF3al-po b.uuJ-da-re "Be careful. he may kill the king"; compare b/Q-tntl yin -nom "Is this the lama?" with bltJ.rnn
yin-nom -l;,-gu " Could this be the lama?" o r blll-mD yin-no "I wonder if this is the lama"; compare lUi khytr-lig "Carry the wood!" with lUi khyer-lig..dan "Carry the wood, OK?" Where such a modal performance particle is present., the primary performa nce particle is frequently omitted. Modal performance particles are found prima rily in the early translations, in the epic, and in the more colloquial classical tel{tS influenced by Middle Tibetan. In the sections that follow we will discuss each modal performance particle in the context of the primary performance particle with which it occurs.

3. STATEMENTS

3.1. THE STATEMENT PARTICLE

The STATEMENT PARTICLE is -0. The hyphen indicates that the fonn is BQUI'lD and occurs o nly with an immediately preceding propositio n. The capitali7..ation indicates that the vowel prerlXes to iuelf the last consonant of the preceding syllable coda-thus dog-go, riii-iio, yod-do, yin-no, (hub -bo, Npham-mo, sgyurro, Nbu[-Io, and lags-so. A preceding open syllable becomes a diphthong-thus dgao, Nbrio, tgVUo, dgeo, a nd NgrOO. hi the scansion of verse sueh d iphthongs may occasionally be counted as tWo syllables for the purpose of me ter.

3.2. REDUNDANCY
The overwhelming majo rity of Tibetan se ntences are statements rather than questions or commands; in fact, we might well assume that any given

z In 11K: Tibeto...8urman language Us u, for exam ple. we find performance pilnldes ...hleh indiclle that proposition i5 a warning. I oomptainl, plea. I surprise. Ind 50 0110info,matio n o nen oonveyed in English by in[Onll io n .Ione.

353
sentence is a statement unless specifically informed otherwise. Given such an
assumption. the statement panicle: -0 becomes REDUNOAl'IT, and, u'ndcr the: Telegram Principle, may be omincd. Thus we find sentences without an ovcrt

sentence signal. such as bla-rna iial "The lama sJeeps" instead of the more: explicit bla-rna no//o.

The: omission of the: statement particle is always

optiona~

but in any given

text such an omission may be more or less the norm: it is quite common in narrative: prose, in COlloquial registcr, and in paTatae!ic styles; it is less common in didactic prose, in formal registcr, and in hypotac!ic styles. The statement particle: appears frequently in the: archaic manuscripts from Central Asia; it occurs only infrequently in the biography of Mi-la ras-pa written by
Otsansmyan hc:ru-ka.

Now when the particle occurs in a text that normally omiu iI. the particle may be processed as carrying extra information. It may be read as emphasizing the assertive character or the performance: for example. in the biography of Mi-Ia we find Bdag-med-ma rebuking her husband Mar-pa for his apparently cruel treatment of Mi-Ia by sayingyab-kyis ma-Ihub-po; dgra de Ihon-nos mj-gdao Ihug! bde {ags-soM ''The enemy my lord could not conquer has left; he's not here, 1 tell you. Are you satisfied?" It may be read as concluding a thought unit such a~ a philosophical argument, narrative ~ragraph, or side comment: for example, in the biography o f Mi-Ia we find the particle marking a narrative su~unil in the sequence kun )'OII-bdag-daii

Nban.Hu I1hug-go, de-dus gtsaii-roii-gi mes-slon /SlIo/I'po bde-mIIhog.gi dbaiimo-ahe fur byuii-bas " .. , and they all became his patrons and followers. Meanwhile, Mes-ston tshon-po of Gtsafi-roii. appea red for the great initiation of the god Cakrasarp.vara, and so,. ," Finally, it may be read as marking the end of a sentence which has been embedded as a direct quote within another, as in dgos-so siiam "I thought, 'I have to,'" or from which the equative verb has been omitted, as in pUg! sion-poo "Form (is) empty," khaii-po nao "( It is) in t~e house,'~ bla-mai miion-Its ma-nor-ba yin-pas-so "( It is) because the lama's clairvoyance is unerring."

3.3. THE PROMISE PARTICLE -KY's

Two modal performance particles arc found with statements: we will call these STATEMENT MODA1.S, The modal performance particle -Kli$ occurs in senlence-final position in direct address where the speaker is making a

354

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

promise or prediction of an event which is in some way under his control: in this position .Kl'is constitutes what we will call the PROMISE ' panicle. For example, in the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa, the lama Ri'iog-pa makes a promise to Mi-la, ~ying dban..cJan 8'iatru-nag bya-yis "I will bestow the initiation and teachings," and Bdag-med-rna similarly promises him' 17Ul-gnonno fias tu-yis "If he does not give them, I will ask him." The master Mar-pa tells .Mi-la. without revealing his own identity, o-no iias mar-pa-dlJii. sprru:I-kyis "Well, I will introduce you to Mar-pa," and later promises sgrub-pa-lo bIagrillS sgrub-'XYogs sbyaii-gis "When I have set you to meditation I will supply the provisions," Similarly, Mar-pa commands Mi-Ia to build yet another tower, and says to him Ndj btig-kyan mi-dgos-kyis "It will not be necessary to tear this one down, t promise," Similar examples occur in the twelfth-century Mal')i bka-Nbum, where we find such sentences as khyim nO-les-pa-Ia bu-mo sbyin-gyu "I will give my daughter to the one who recognizes her house" and Md-1Ll mj-ster-na rgyal-khams m6 bsreg-giJ "If you do nOI give her to me I will bum your kingdom with fire." In the epic we find Ge-sar threatening his enemies in verse-gal-te bka-/Q mana,.-na, [na-pai [am-du gran-gis UT '''If you do not heed my command,' he said, 'I will send you on the path of death.'" In the archaizing chronicle Rgya[-Tabs gsa/-bai me-Ion we find this prophecy of Padmasambhava-sIobdpon pad-ma Nbyuii-gnas-kyu, brran-ma btIu-giiu dam-ta btags-pas, bod-du mustegs-pa mj-yon-gis "'1 have bound the twelve goddesses to an oath,' said Padmasambhava, 'so Ihat unbelievers will not come 10 Tibet.'" In some manuscripts we.find what is clearly the same panicle written -ni. In the biography of Gtsan-smyon he-r~-ka written by Sna-tshogs ran-grot, for example, we find the mad yogin eating the rotten brains of impaled heads dnd offering them to onlookers with the words dnosgrub dgos-nJJ sbyin-gyi "If you want magiC powers 1 will give them to you." Further, different manuscripts of the same text may sporadically make the same substitutkln: in the Spo blockprint of the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pat for example, we find the reading mar-pa-daii sprad-gy~ rather than the reading mar.pa-daii spmdkyu found in the woodblock prints from Spuiis-thaii, Bstan-rgyas-g1iii, and Bkra-Jis Ihun-po, and cited in our discussion above; and where the Spa bJockprinl reads gdams-pa bya-yis, as cited above, the &tan-rgyas-gliii and Bk.ra-~i$ Ihun-po prints read gdams-pa bya.yi

SENTENCES

355 3.4. THE WARNING PARTICLE -A-re

Another statement modal is the particle -A-re, found primarily in the translation literature and ust:d where a speaker is assening a warning: we will ca ll -A-re the W,o.RNINO PARTICLE.) Warning statements predict consequences which will a rise if somt: course of action is- or is not-fOllowed, and thus are often found after commands and prohibitions, For example, in the Tibetan translation of the Lalitavislara we find the warning dge-sloii-dag khyed de-MingJegs-pa-Ia tslie-daii klan-pa les ma-rd1od-tIig, khyed-Ia yun-riii-por mi-phanpa-daii gllod-pa-dan mibdebar KYur-la -re "Monks, do not call the Tathagata 'Venerable One'! There will be hurt and harm and unhappiness for you for a lorg time," In the Tibetan translation of the Divyiivadiina we read tlhos, Min ma-yin -pas '1fYal-srid ma-byed-tIig, .fems-IJan-dmyal-bar gtol-bar ~ur-tare "Do not rule unjustly! You will fall 10 hdl." Sometimes the sequence is reversed, as when we find in the Tibetan translation of the VmayavasfU the sentences khyod bsad-da-re sgra ma-Nbyin-tIig " I will kill you, Don't make a sound,"

There are 4ilJ'ertnt techniques, Men write f(} be read, or s poken, Or dtll4imed, or rhapfOdiud, And quite difJerently f(} be JUng,
-Louis Zukofsky, "A" 1

Again, warnings may be about things and persons rather than about courses of conduct, In the Vmaya"ibllaiiga a fable about slander concludes with the moral wa-skyes gron-po brdzwl-du smra-ba byed-pa, mdza-bJes Nbyed-par bytdpo skyes-Ia -re "The fox is one who makes people tell lies; he is born as a separator of friends," and in the same text we read de.Jag-gis dei STUn-mar tJhom-rlwn-pa mi bli blag-sle, Ndi bros-par gy'ur-ta-re les bsgo "They set fou r
3 Note that, whereas tile promise partk:k -1('IoU marb a statement as promisin, some eve nt that may be either desired. or IIndesired bllt is under the spa- ker's control, tbe ..... rnin' pank:1c -A 'n! marks. statement as promisin, so me event thaI is not IIOIX:S$&rily IInller tbe speaker'S con trol but which is invariably IIndesired by tbe IddrC$l(:lt,

356

THE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

thieves as his guards and said, 'He may escape. .. In the Saddhormapuanka we find the warninggnas Ndi-/a ni Ih t-tsllOm Ntshal-ba-yir, byaii.l!hub-stms-dpa iian-NgTOT mtIhi,NQ-rt "By having doubt on this point a bodhisattva may fall to an evil destiny," and in the La/ilQvistafQ the wicked Mara warns the Buddha-ta-be odrna; myu-gu liar do-mod bJ!ad-da-rt ''Today I will cut you down like a green bamboo sta lk,'''

4. QUESTIONS
We can distinguish two different types of question-yes-no questions (Au you ready? ~s Itt like Mozon ?) and information questio ns (When did he go?
What

is your /lame?). A YES-NO

110

QUFSnoll-SQ called because

it can be

answered yes or
whule; an

in Englil'>h-asks about the truth of a proposition a:'l a

QUESTION-SO called because its answer requires a

II'fFORMAnON

specific piece of information-assumes the truth of the proposition but asks amlUI the identity of a participant. The yes-no question Did John see Mary? asks., in effect, "Is the proposition John saw Mary true?" The information question Whom did Joh" set? presupposes that John saw someone and requests the identity of the patient participant in the event. s In classical Tibetan, performance particles ma rk propositions and nut participants; hence the question particle identifies yes-no questions. Participants, on the other hand, are identified by determiners; hence in information questions the queried participant is marked by an indefinite determiner .

In many cases this warning panicle ~ w;od 10 translalc Bllddhist Hyhrid SaMkril COnsUIICIioM wilh mll in the sense of " Icst, in o rdcr that nol:' and it may similarl y he convcnient to l'RANSu.n SUC h Tibeta n warn ings into English using svch cxpr~sion s a~ l~fI or frx~tJr Ihat_for cumple. dhosbIin mtJyiJtJHU rg)"tJ/'SM mtJ.~d, '!ig, umJ/londmyol, /lIlT pol/>Dr ~f.(tJrr "00 not rule unjuMty LEST )o u fall to lIell" or "Do BOI rule unj u ~lly so nv.T YOU DO NOT fall to hel l." Wc mW;1 bear in mind, howevcr, Ihal any ncgal itJn is being crcatod by Ihc English-or the Sans kr it_and does nOI lie in Ihe Tibetan,
, Note thc close rel"ionS hip Ihis cn tails bel .....ee n SU Ch seR1e nces as WhtTt" art)'QU going? and YOII (lit ro'"1 IOtPItw~rt. or Who hif JoM? and SomtOftt hif Jo/In, Which is rcOU:lcd in lhe use oCTibclln indefinite dcterm inefll as inl errog_lives.

SENTENCES

J51

4.1. THE QUESTION PARTICLE

The QUESTION PARTICl...E -Am marks yes-no questions in classical Tibetan. The hyphen indicates that the form is BOUND and occurs only with a n immediately preceding proposition. The capitalization indicates thai the vowel preflXes to itseU the last consonant of the preceding syllable coda-thus dag-gam, riii nom, yod.Jam, yin-nam, Ihub-bam, NphDm-mam, sgyUT-ram. Nbullam, and logssam. A preceding open syllable becomes a diphthong-thus dgaam, Nbriam,
'X)IUOm,

dgeam, and NgrOOm. In the scansion of verse such diphthongs may occasionally be counted as two syllables (o r the purposes of meter.

Note the following examples. Mar-pa performs a miraculous transformation and then asks Mila the question bu mthoii -nom rid.lflles-sam "Did my son see? did you believe?" Mila, in a fit of depression, thinks Ideb-bam lIJebbam "Should I kill myself? Should I kill myself?" $a-skya pal)c,lita writes k.h.yod-kyi bya-ba zin-/llJm Ies, NtSllibdag sdodpar mi.Ng}'UT "The Lord of Death will not wait, saying, 'Have you finished your work?'" Complex propositions can also be made into interrogatory sentences with the question panicle-for example, lar mkhar grugsum homkhuii Jlldrabo Ndir iiedmoms bt!ug-ste mlhu-byed bsam.pa yinnam "Well! Were you thinking of casting us into this triangular tower, shaped like a pit of sacrifice, and working magic on us?" Negative propositions can similarly be made interrogative and us~d as rhetorical questions. Saskya pal)c,lita was particularly fond of this de\'ice; in his Legs.par bIud.pa n'npo-dhei gter we find, for example, dud.HgrO yillyuii n'gsmtllUn.mam.s, khyu glSig.ill IIi migJlassum "Even among beasts, do not those of the same kind stay in one herd'!" na-fa 'ID'all.du byaspo de, bdag.po iiidla mimdzessam " Is not what is done to adorn the horse becoming to the master himself?" (ugpus dgrabo mig.fod-lla. mlslw/I-/!11lJ lell-par mi.byd-dam "If one does nOI kill Ihe enemy with on.:'s hllOds, docs one not take up the sword?"

4.2. QUESTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES

It ~cems clear that the 4uestion particlt: -Am is the same as the -Am which murks an alternative conjunction. There is ce rlilinly reason to believe that yes-no questions in Tibetan derive ultimately from alternative conjunctions, which are sometimes made explicit: for example, in one archaic Central Asian text, the first horse to be tamed by man says khyod t!hab gan-la-fU bgyt.am myi-bgyi yaii ba-rab tu sbog-gam myj-sbog "Will you or will you not water me

358

THE Ci..Ass1CAL. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

on the mountain passes, and will you or will you not wade me in the callie fords?" and, in his biography, Mi-Ia is told khyed-raii-la Jug gsuii-ba Ndug-pas Ng1YXJm mi-NgrO "He has said to you, 'Come!' so afC you going or not?" Often the negated alternative is replaced by the interrogative determiner t!i "what?" yielding the question marker 'Am-tJi "or what?"-for example, in the collection of tales called the Mdzans-blun, where we read no no-lessam l!i "00 you recognize me?" The Sanskrit word kinnora refers to heavenly
mu.sicians with the heads of horses; the term was given the folk etymology /cUrl

nara "Is this a man?" which was duly translated in the ninth-century
Mahi1vyulpatti dictionary as Tibetan minm iIi "Is this a man or what?" This locution is found as late as the 13th-century Legs-par bIad-pa rin-pot!hei gter by Sa-skya pal)"ita, who probably liked ~he resulting three-syllable collocations primarily for metrical reasons: we find, for example, marmei od-fa NdzUl-ba yir, sbran-bu dpa -bar NgTO-am tIi "Does a fly become a hero by fighting with the light of a lamp'!" gtJan-gza'l dug-pal nags.kilrod-du, sems-!es T1ag-tu sdoddam tJj "Does a smart person stay forever in a forest of poisonous beasts of prey?" dpa-bos dgra-sde ma-thul-kyon, raiiphyogs gsod-par byed-dam tJi "Though a hero does not subdue the enemy, does he kill his own side?" IIhu !et rrurrJor byed-pa.y~ yul der t!hu-Je/ Ntlhoii-;;'am t!i "Does o ne sell crystal in a country where they consider crystal to tie mnt?"

4.3. INFORMATION QUESTIONS

In a question asking the identity of a panicuiar participant, the queried participant is indicated by one of four INTERROG....TIVE DETI::RMINERs-ga;;' "what?" t!i "what?" su "who?" and nam "when?'.6 The determiner can
, 1be interroptive determiner gGIi ....... hat ?.. Is sometimes round in the re4uced form gtJbefore It.e pilnick:s -1Ia, -/laS, .lD, Iiu, .tu, .nd -T. In the archlic Central Asian manU5aipls we .lready rind be.! fO/.tu pr soli Jolt "Child, whence and whither hive you lOne?" In the blopap!ly of MI_lI we nnd pr Jolt NWbere did he: lOr Use of tbe forI!": p-14 "bow?" Is a fl'tlOrite rhetorical deYk;e of Sa.skya paMlu in bis Up_par bJa4pa rin .po-l1Mi gttr-for cumple. IIIIf-stws./ pooH plo ~ "How is il ri&lu to nunure a poisonous snake1 N Nlryor-H dwb-ptIT QW-)'IIJII. bwd'MM$ mtdtUl pWl nag "lboup one has pthe:red wealth, if one . . DO merie. bow can ilWI?" ilaM-JHlITOf-li: bab-M)'IIR. rall-bfin bzaJl-po tCcr "Even iI .Itoly ODe: is in danrer of his life, bow an be abandon his innate JOOdnc:ss1" /Wrbus 1pftU-pai,.... 1pIIII. mdu$.kyaII ba .laA p-Io:! /Ia "Thou&h l aolden ornament adorned with be beaulilu.l, bow wouki'n 0lI look at II?"

ra/a

ae-

359
occur both with and without a nominal head-for example. in the biography of Mi-Ia we find, with a nominal head, mtlwtJ~n khyod dbaii-gral-1tJ sdod-pai DBAR-YON fll yod "Magician, WHAT lNrIlATION FEE do you have for standing in the initiation line?" and, without a nominal head, 10 ser-bas brduiis rtiii. no GAR zu "After the hail smashes my crops, WHAT will 1 eat?" Again, in the Up-par blad-pa rin-po-tJh<i gttr by Sa-skya p3l)c;Jita we find, with a, nominal head. ma-Ia dbyug-gw ma-bmun-par, ck-srid glan-daii KHYAlJ Til yod "Without hitting a drum with a drumstick, ';\'HAT DIFFERENCE does it have Crom

another?" and, without a nominal head, bdtJg-nitI tIhen-po gnas-pai sar, mJcJuu-pa g:fan~ sv-yis rtsi "In a place where a saini lives, WHO counts other wise: men?" And, just as we find indefinite adverbs., we also find interrogative adverbs-thus, again from Sa-skya paT}4ita, mIcJuu-pa mIchns-pai nan-na mdza, bJun-pos mlchas-pa D'lI-LTARgo "A wise man is beautiful among
the wise; IN WHAT MANNER/HOW can a fool understand a wise man?"

The InterroptiYe Ikterminer di ..... hat?" in mouclassical texIS is synlKlically parallclto the

other interropliYe Iktemtlners-for wmple, in the bloUlphy of Mi-la, IdryodolcyiJ sdig-fXl tIi b)w "What sill haYe)'Ou done?M mthu-dhm l4s di bytd.dill MIilg "Oreat MaJidan, what work are)'Ou dollll?" mthu_rJMlI kJryod./il dbAII.)'(o'fI tIi yod "Oreal Mapa, whal inilPlion fee have you?" tIi ur "What are)'Ou sayln&?R Similar'oonstNCIions are found in lhe Irchaic Cenlrll Asian manuscripts-for wmple, tk /tar b)w'1ID dti-/Il pIwf "If we did thai, wherein is the bendit?M Bul in lbose II\JlI\lscripts too we nnd some evidence of di iii I marker for yes-no q~tions iii well-for wmpk, bioi p.JM fat soII-SOI'I tIi myi di khyi "Child, whence Ind whither have you cone? Ale )'Ou tiumall? Are you dol?" bo-mo di ur tIi brdcI wWh31 is my 4alipter "'-yin,? Is il true?" ArId IOIDt wmplCl croll. be read iii eithu yes-no or information q\IQlions, sucb iii 1M Irdj JI\wI /nu I>I(O-la myi drQr.Nl tlti Ru "Since lbesc &Ods are not powerful In (l("!mmand iii before, whit is lbe otrense?ib tbere In otrellKr 11m not sure bow to account for Ihls. This use of the particle may be I remnanl of III earlier tNrJ'lAL q~tion panicle, slmllar-or perhlps even related-Io, say, Old Chinese elchQr > Middle CbIDt$C ekJryd "Haw In Ibe world . . .?M In any event, Ihis use of tIi Ipptll"S already obJO~llt III tbe eipth or ninth centuries. Wbere a DOmlnaJ pbrase wilh all l.IIterroplive determiner his no bead, presumably tile rOYerabk from 00.1110:1 or from knowIcdJC of the world-tor eaampk, lID ~ UI "What (food) willi atr mkJuufXl gJ/Ul4ar If,I.yiJ rui "Whal (penoa) counts otller "IIriIt trltllr Compare. from Sa-skya pa94hl , lhe beedka 1lIIWI_ ~ dd 1fWtr.Q-bo AaII, ,.".aI.po "--JM sufit MDt "WHO relies 011 a bad wite. I bed frieo4, Of I bad tin,?" wilh tbe beMcd ",".,.. WtuI'JM mi-bkwHI, 1M' 4a I>IKHAS-'A slJ.lic IIIod "WHAT WISE MAN '1Iyl bit plaoe where lbey do DOt boDOr tbe vtnllO\lJr NOie tbe foDowtIlJ heWed and bc.Id~ bl1errop1lve phrues III the lime 'lCrK-"-,S.t)vp khIoItptJ sufit IIoit, s.t)vp-JM 1>l1OU$'1'A su-liJ m)'IIII MWHO proba I weD of Yilt \'Omit? And WH....T WISE MAN Wtts
7

mlMllIl beed is

vom.ltr

300

Now the interrogative determiners are the same as the indefinite determiners: an expression such as mkJuupa su-lig, taken in isolation, can be read 8S either "some wise man" or ''what wise man?" Yet, in context, there is seldom real confusion; when Sa-skya pat:l~ita writes skyug-pa mkJuu-pa su-t;, myaii, he clearly intends the qUeJtion "What wise man eats vomit?" and not the statement that there are some wise men who do. Similarly. when Mi-Ia is first searching for his teacher Mar-pa, he asks everyone he meets sJcya-nuJhcg marpo lo-tstsha gaii-na btup "Where does Saint Mar-pa the Translator Jive?" Finally, he meets someone who tells him mar-po ur-bo. ni rod. slcyes-mJ.!hog mar-po lo-uuha zerba ni med "There is one who is called Mar-pa, but not one called Saint Mar-pa the TransiatOf," and the following conversation takes place:

o-na gro-bo Wii gaii-/Ul yod bytlJ-pos, gro-bo tun pha-gi yin zer bstan byuii. pha.gi-na su blugs byas-pas, mar-pa UT-ba de-Ial rod ur, th-Ia glan mlShan med-dam byas-pas, la-las bfa-ma maTpaaii zu-tiii Ndug ur, bla-mai gdan-sa yin-par Ihag-dhod-de, lakha Ndi-la tJi ur byas-pas, Ndi-fa dhos fa-gan ur ur, tJhos lagan-nos bla-mai gdan-sa mt!uJii-ba rten -Nbref !in -tu legs si'iam dga -ba-tig byuii
" Wel~ where is Gro-bo Valley'! " I said. "Gro-bo Valley is over there," he said. and pointed. "Who lives over there?" I said. "That same one called Mar-pa," he said. "Has he no OIher name?" I said. "There are some who call him lama Mar-pa too," he said. I decided that it was the lama's residence. "What do they call this pass?" I said. ''They call it Dharma Ridge," he said; and I had the happy thought that it was an excellent omen to see the lama's residence from Dharma Ridge.

The flow of Ihis conversation makes it clear, what is intended to be a question. Other textual cues life available as w .. ~ ' indefinite determiners are often marked by the connective Yon-thus, in tile Legs-par blad-pa Tin-potIhei gter of Sa-skya pal)qita, diios-po gan-daii gan-la yan, goms-na dlal-ba IIi yaii met! "There is not any difficulty r any matter at all-if one practices"; a question is often indicated by the quote-closer :rte-na-thus, in the translation of the Madhyamakavatiira of Candrakirti, Sanskrit blulVaru gamanudvayaf11 leo dOfa iii eel Tibetan NgrO-ba gnis rod-mod skyon tJj yod tfena "What is wrong with there being two. geers?" But even without such eues, context can distinguish the indefinite from the interrogative-for example, in the couplet from Sa-skya pal)qita, aAfMa blo-gros m;!danfIQ, bstan-btIos '41-

St:N1l'.NC~

361
olI

kyuii SU-lig l(!n "If SOMEONE has no intdligence, though a tt:achi ng he: good,
WI to accepts itT

4.4. Tf/E DOUBT PARTICLES

Two modal pcrformativcs are fuund with questions: we will call these out'snON MOl)i\I.s . BOlh these part ides arc used where the speaker is querying a propositiun-or seeking the identity uf a participant-hesitantly or duhiously: the panicli:s thus const itute what we will call IX)\JIIT PEIlHlIlMAllVES.

The particle -T.~jg-gu is apparently found only in Ihe trans]:.uion lilt:ralure. We find several ell:ampli:s of its usc in the Tibetan translation of the Kanna!ataka. Among ye~-no questions in Ihe texl we find so-soi skye-bo )';"lig-gu "Could Ihis he an ordinary man"!" and bIJum-fdflll-NI1as ga-fa btugs-le, bdag-Ia dgofu-Ji}:-1:u "Cou ld the Blessed One he dwdling somewht:re and thinking or me'!" A similar duhilalive quality is found in questions with interrogative deh:rminers-fm example, (la ~di sui yill-Zig-gu " Whose light could Ihis he"!" h,JoIII-ldulI-,.,dtu-a/J/1 glum Zfffhu su-.!ig-gu "Who wuld this he who converses with Ihe Blessed One?"' limbs db flllr Oy,U-1ZI1 kl,y(,u ...ili; /JIll: rijibar Ng)'uf-lig-gu "What (,::111 I p(l~sihly do til lengthen Ihis hoy's lik".''' There are cases as well where the prtm:.uy l.jueslion p.nticle Am is retained hefore the modal partick-thus Ndtign('/I-II(J mj-Ndlig-puj li'lOJ guii Ndlig-ptlf mi-"'lO'Uf-bu ,,'Xu yod-dum-lig-A'U' "Could there be in the world some imperishahle dhltrma Ihat will not perish?'"

8 In the: Ll"gspar bJlJJ .pa rill 'pIHJhl"i KI''''' Saskya Jlalll~lta I.' fulU/ uf the illteHug~II'e lucution J".I,): ''wh,,'~:' p"'h~hly lUi metrial rca""n~ ..... here "Ilin wlilcl~ ..."utd II.'\C only $11. Fur eumrle. GtS<III ~ myun heru .ka wrilcs ",kh", . 'itI, J'" pII . . ''' 1 h)~IS "Whose I.....el IS this ? Who made il?"' and dl"dusl<yt dplliil"', /a Ju )'Utl"WIIU do y"u havc as a ,,itnc....s or Ihal oa:23ion?--; while Sa . ~kya pal)t! ita wtil CS WIII/Um Jrjbwii JI<~"l"'bo dga, tU hS fl"1;$ so/ba IUt'g 1("11 "Peo ple: like: flagrant ~ndalwoot.l; but ""hcn it"s bU11lI wlln take.' the ella/coa l?" and sbr1ll.la flOI"b" yod/lD yon. unrsJn Julig d",ii /I" .rdoJ '"Though a snake have: a jewel ..... 1".1 wisc person Slays nearby?'" Note: Ihat UJIllc.xl an
:.tts<)

d isti nguish ad\"C rDaI tIltc,,"n&ativC$ flom

indclin it cs-lhu~.

trom

Sa~kya pat:lt!ila once agaIn. MU/l pos IIIkhm 'p'1 ,Ui./lw '. W "HlIw do r ..ols undcrslanll Ihe ...isc"!" plum .",,; nllWf.:rtll~ klrar ..dJ}1/lP<I~ ,J/.,,,,btJ .u.d,,): all-III", Itl"nl "How will unc def<:.:tl those: enem;c..'1 who mllulh rhe ~uunlc l fc" .. I ~, .. ..J a"" ... e ~

362

THE Q...t.ssICAL TIBETAN !...AHOUAOE

By the time of Middle Tibetan the doubt particle -71ig-gu had apparently been lost. and indeed iu precise meaning appears not to have been understood by later writers: the grammarians-dearly influenced by its similarity in appearance to the command particle -rlig-dccided that it indicated a command. We read, for example, in the Li-lii gur-khan dictionary, "The particle -gu, as in WUN!ig-gu, is an imperative." But the same function continued to be served by the doubt particle -no, which seems to occur as early as in the archaic Centra] Tibetan manuscripts: we find the perplexing passage bab gaii-du bab-na, yuI fluJ-yrd guii-daii-gyi naii-du bab-te, dlwr suo; dkor-tul, lha-za gun-tslum-gyi dlwr-dQn dad-du bobs-Ie "The descent was, I wonder. a descent where? They descended into the sacred land of Gun-dan. The province was, I wonder, whose province? They descended in the province eud fief of Lha-r..8 gun-tshun." Less enigmatically, we find in the biography of Mi-Ia such dubitalive questions as tal mthoii-ba-Zig nam yon-na nom yon na "When oh when will I see his face?" tJi yin-na "What could it be?" blarna gaii-na bZugs-no "Where could the lama be dwelling?" mar-po lo-tslShas dmag th-lsam gaii.nas bas-po-no "Where could Mar-pa the Translator have called such an army from?'"
S. COMMANDS
In English, commands generally have second-person subjects, but ....;th the pronoun omitted: thus Go look! means "You go look!" and Meditate! means "Yo u meditate!" First- and third-person commands are expressed periphrastically in such constructions as those with lro and may; as in I..<t'$ go look! or May tile lama medua/e! In Tibetan, however, \;rtually any proposition can be made into a command by using the appropriate imperative verb stem and the command particle-thus mnl-Nbyor iia sgoms-!ig "Let me the yogin meditate!" mal-Nbyor-pa khyod $8oms-!ig "You the ~ogin meditate!" mal-Nbyor-pa khan sgoms-Jig "Let him the yogin meditate!" 0
~econd-petson

, This doubt p:oIrtick Is still found in New Tibeun-for eample. New TIbetan (LhaSliJ mo.nl yiM <mo sui yin-no> "I wonder what ber amity name oould be?" kJtQl<l-/a ptfJO.ft'llo <khoII-1D ~-dhQ yodno> "Might he posSibly have a book'r 10 SIKh coMtructloM do operale under the Telegram Prindple; . n omitted p,irlidpant
is p~ as reoover.ble rrom oontext; in conversation second-peoon addrc:ssee Is

inberently letJll'YCrable. Thus. aenel11ty spealdng. Jgoms_ Jig "MedilJle!n may. wilboul further contextual duCll, be procesKd 1$ a command to 1M person addrc::MCd; or COUTK, one an-

SEHTIlNCES

363 5.1. THE COMMAND PAI<TICLE

The COMMAND PARTIctE is -T!ig. This bound particle becomes -dig after preceding final -g. ..d, and -b; becomes -fig after preceding final -n, on, om, -r, -~ and open syllables; and becomes ..Jig after preceding final or postfinal os.

In addition, many transitive verbs have special IMPERAllVE !ITEMS characterized by aspirated initials, the rounding of the vowel Q in the root to o in the stem, and the inflection suffIX -I-for example, thus < TU-S "gather!" khwns < GUM-S "kim" zos < u-s "eat!" non < NA1H "listenl" skyogs < SKYAG-S "spend!" lIaS < LTA-S "look!" mdzod < MDZAD-S "dO!,,1I

Since many transitive verbs have such distinctive imperative stems, the command particle is REDUNDANT after some verb sterns. It is thus possible, under the Telegram Principle, to find imperative siems without command

Ind, in Tibetan oonlcmplalive poet!')', not infreql.lentty cloc:s-address oneKlr in internal convelUtion. In addition, the ad4reuee may cha nge abruptly: when o ne interlocutor 1rishc5 J('Od lock for the Other by ~yin& bbtlJis Jog "Let &ood luck come!" the oommand is addres.sed 10 a third party. II However, in any panicular text, it is not surprising to tiM a more familiar present or past stem instead of the more ClI:otic.lookln& imperative stem, even where the intent is clearly aoom man4-for eumple, byfil instead of byo.s < IYA.J "4o!~ or even a hybrid form sucb as Ndlos inslead of either the present stem Ndlo or the impe rative stcm 10J < o1.o-J "milk!" In tbe len of the biography of Mila raspa, for example, three alit of fOllr manuscripts use the past stem bruip when Mar.pa tells Mila 101'/0-; ,"Qmpo; khyQrPls 'uHxl br.l'ugRir )odpo brsankJulit-dQii br!Q.Jpofit bruits "Build a <.Dllflyard as an anne., with twelve pillars and a lemple for the rterce 4ei tics"; o nly one manllscript-from Splllls.th~n in Bhulan-has the grammatiOillLy correct r~ding migs < RTS!GS "bllild!' iNTRANSITIVE verbs, on the other hand, generally have no distinctive imperative stem at aLL. Most often the present stem is uiCd in impera ti ve conStructions; Ihat the proposition is intended as a oommand is indicatC'.d by contell, by the use of Ihe command ~rticle 'fli, or by the presence of the rna atlomorph of the nesalive particle mi "NOT," instead of the mi aLLomorph normally found before the present stem in sta tements. For eumple, when Mi la ~ys 10 his SiMer /Hra )'i.mIlK mataai!lWaUMS IOJ " Pe'IlI,let not sadness arise! Eat some nellie soup!" the TRANSlllVE verb lOJ < LH "eat!" is clearly an imperative Slem; the INTRANSITIVE verb IdaJI < NuN "arises is dearly a p.resent stem, but its fUnc1ion as I command is jll$t as clearly in4jolllcd by the ",a, allomorph of tbe nepllvc particle before a nonpast stem aM by the COntUl of the followins Iransitlve imperative.
M '

364

THE ClASSICAl. TI8ETAN lANGUAGE

particles;l2 but I have been unable to discern any very systematic ~iSlinclion between commands with impera.live sIems a nd command panicles and commands with imperative stems alone. 13 I do have an impression that commands without Ihe command panicle are perhaps more deferential, or more familiar, or al an)' cale less peremptory, than commands followed by the command partide; at least commands without -nig seem to predominate in prayers directed to the gods,'

12 Th is is so even where: lhe impcnuivc ste m is nol phonologiCII l1y disti nclive: for eumple, we find th e im pe rat ive sttm kAyo < IUfYER-s "like!" (idenlical"';lh the past stem Idryn < tHomR-s " look" Ind future stem ""'Iff < b-KJfYR ''Will uke when Mi-Ia 1.lI)'S to the wind f(JS dgaflQ rD$ Idt~, "If you ~ nt my rube. lake: my robe!" It is tll us true as well fut inlran~it ive ve rbs. wllic ~ generally have no dilil inctive imperative stem: in Ille biography of Mi la. fur eumplc, we find botll na-rgyalmaIJhe-lig "Let no t )'OU I pride be gr~t!" wi th the cummand pa rtkle. and ilan malhun "LeI not your patie nce be shon!" withoul it.
M )

1.1 In the lIfehaie manuscripts (rum Cent ral Asia, com mands are ITIOS I oflen rrnorked wilh the command panicle; in some manuscripts we find the fo rm -4lig where in laler lexU we Clpccl to find Iig. There is lillie consiste ncy in the use of imperative stems; for eu mple, tlles sufrll! is uften omillcd, bu t the .fig allolllorpll of the com mand particle is IUed anyway, a~ if the final or post final 1 were present. The following arc typical eumples fro m the "r,haie IUL\ _l.lhan luddJ.ig lIln /lYVI -dhig, reXmo rutdma byo.Jig "Oive beerl Offcr food! M;,ke music and spml!" Ishi.t:,< .;./i yi'IW bris/o IfJig.gis grJIg Jlon-4lig "Wrile thc:st words In !cuers and ~how them onc 10 the OIher," pltai Jid Ihonfig )'Db/ci mdDdmtoli IJhugs ..l ig "Milk<.: )1JUr f~lhc"s funeral fcasl, hu ild your lutd'$ funeral pyre!" g.:rag Ina ni nP'la zo-Jig, na HpYi na ni l1Jtu Nlhun Jig "!...c: t 'he ya k c.at gl;u.s before, let Ihe horse drink waler after!" b)ln .~pll'bn 'Ii ma bzunJi/:. mllhig khailma IIi ma-..mub,fig, khri sbag-plta ni mabslcall Jig " [).m, gra.~ p al a Stlaling bird: tlo n', pu t a loof on a ruined lIo use; do n', sa tisfy a mangy dug l"

I~ 1))1,1 5. (01 cum pie, we find \hi~ rdrain in a player wrillen by Kon.sprul rin-po- t.l:lle - K,n n"" Ndrhs.w Ihu}(S...Jam 2o/htts dgvlis, .<,.,(JfIlam ~.S1l }iffnlb-ptV byin.gyiJ ,lobs '1ltus

I pray. Rememhc r tht: ~ow you made! Gran t Ihal my prayer is flilfilled!" And nOle the ruU"wing Vt:ISC:\ by M jl~ 1a5.pa. in which he t hidcs his own mind, and tclls ii, willlou\ cnmmand parlich.:l'. ttl behave i,sclf:
rnaspto maspro rail sa, tog sproJna dQfl rnrd Jna-uhop drtl" "''' 'yril.f m(l'reiis dra" pa .flell yriiJ na dXCsbytW "uil la ",JIIOf'
ltnU

",,, .,,'g'" ma"Wo na/sa 1)ITQfl

soii -nu
~onlJ .pa

,do/a

Ihu~

SENlENCES

365

In the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa, for example, we find commands with imperative stems and command panicles such 85 mot-po iia-ran yin pliyogtshol-tIig "I am Mar-pa. Bow down!" tglalmtshan-gti nse-w phyor-dig "Hoist it to the top of the banner!" dboii-bslau gdams-iiag ston-l1ig "'Teach him the initiation and instructions!" snags-poi mlella, les byo-bo gru-gsum-pa-lig dgospo yin.pas tUigs-Ijg "A magician's tower, properly speaking, should be a triangular one, so build it!" But we also find commands without command panicles-for example, 110 gos glan-nos tshol "Seek your food and clothing e1sewhete'" dbaii-gral-du masdod "00 not stand in the initiation line!" rdzi-bu senu-Ja de-har IIOS "Shepherd, look on your mind like thatl" IN-to )'i-mug moldaii zwa-tslw.r zos "Pe-ts, don't be .sad; eat some nettle soup'"

5.2. POLITE AND ELEGANT COMMANDS

One way to moderate the peremptoriness of a command is to nominalize the proposition and use it as a complement or patient of the imperative stem of a polite or elegant verb-for example, the imperative stem mdzod of the honorific verb MDZAD "do," or the (irregular) imperative stem gyis of the elegant verb BGYl"do." Such complements and patients are most often nominalized with PQ-thus the elegant commands rgyal-bu tml-Ior-btl gyis-lig "00 not let the prince escape!" on-kyaii log-Ita ma-skya-po gyis "Wel~ don't get any wrong ideas." where the nominalized proposition is a patient; and iiai mthus iUlnsoii-du mi-skye-ba$ dga.bar gyis-lig "Since, by my magic power, you will nOI be born in an evil desliny, be happy!" khyod-raii no tml-brdled-por gtis "00 not forget me," where the nominalized proposition is a complement. But it is also possible to nominalize the proposition with the nominalizer -grogs "HELP IN PROPOSIllON" and use it as the palient of the same polite or

ma-srii!s masriils mgo-bo Mug bSri~NW /ag-stolls MIlwlbN NgrO

Mind! Don'l ICI busy, don'l I CI blUy! Slly in )'Our rillll place! Once )'Ou've gol bUSy, )'Ou Ihint of all IOrts of useless Ibinp. Don" wandcr, don', wandcr! Stud firm In mindflilnessl Once )'Ou've ..... nde rcd. your skill is tcallcrcd 10 lhe winds. Don', go. don'llo! Keep 10 )'Our bedl Once you'vc lonc, )'Ollt Iraining smashes On 'he rocks. Don', .each OUI. don ', r~h OU1! Bend IkIwn )'Our headl Once you've fCilehcd OU', your emptiness becomes confused .

366

THE CtAssICAL TIBETAN LANGU ....GE

elegant verbs: Mar-pa's wife asks her husband's disciples bla-rna mug-po Nkhor-bdas-Icyis na; fu-ba NbuJ-grogs mdzod-t!/g "Let Lama Riiog-pa and his disciples help me make my request!" and Mar-pa S8yS 10 Mi-Ia dar-rna mdo sde Nbogs-pai mkhllr-lig mig-grc>gl gyis "Give a hand building a tower I can give to Dar-rna mdo-sde,"

5.3. IMPERSONAL COMMANDS

We also find complemenl constructions with the anomalous imperative stem
f og "Come!"n These constructions generally function as optatives or IMPERSONAL COMMANDS-for example, sgrub-lo bar-lJhad med-par Jog "Let it

come to pass that there are no obstacles 10 our medilationr" bu-Ion gronmklwn-/aaii ma-sKyes-par Jog, bU' /011 Jen-mkJIQn-!aaii ma-skyes-par Jog "May yuu not be born as a moneylender! May you not be born as a debtor!" Such

constructions are very old in Tibetan. In the archaic Central Asian manuscripts we find na khyod n; khor srob-l!J'is srobste klla drun. lu-ba Nkhortlig, rgyab~u sgas stad~e rgyab~u sgal brun.-l;g, glo g/os mnon-te khon-no snjn noms-par loglig "You. horse-bridled with a bridle in your mouth. let sores form by your mouth! a saddle laid upon your back, let loads be on your back! yo ur side pressed by my side, may your heart fail within you!" In the Tibetan translation of theSfimaliidev;siJrlhonadosiiiro we find bsod-nams deyis mgon po kllyod, nog-tu bdQg-gis mlhonbar log "By that merit may I fore1ler look

15 Suth COMPLEMENT c:onstructions should be dlstinguished from c:onstruttions with two oonsetutive tMI'ERATIVI!. sterns, the second of wllitll is log ~Come!K -for example, (kr svbo liig phob log "Come cast down a hailstorm on them!" /alcJw btJ 1IIii.f7Ulms~ m; lam pOI i og:tJig "Come on. heal aU these men of the mountain tribes!" iIlli IIlJ -roi sbl-rgyan40H fhup4llm -mams cUJ/,tl-,WlIoiIJ Jog-/Jig "Came! Get my OlnamenlS I nd fO$;lI'y of Nlro right now!" where we find Jog immediately predcd by the imperalive stems pIwb < I'HA6 "cause 10 fall! cast down!" gws < GSO "cure! restore! heal! " 1onJ < IAN "gel! obtain!" Note, in the sa me way, ;v,kl ,Jhtlii mWipo Ich~, Jog "BriDg me a 101 of bc.er!K tk/Itl lia; m;';ltlII tkr rod NtWgpa tk)"Wi tk dus Id!rid fog "SO. al Ihal lime, bring wilh you also Ihal wicked fellow of mine who is there!" The form fog is traditiol1llly c:onsidered lhe impelalivc stem ot Ihe intransitive vcrb yoii K "comc. lnlll'nsilive ...erbs, of c:ourse. do no! normally havc imperative SIe ms al aU; and. phonologk:aUy, the torm log has no discernable relalionShip to Ihe rool YOR. In fact. it sums thai log is tnore liil:ely related 10 a rool -.fAG of uncerlain meanin&. now lost, but whO$e plesenl stern "Pigs < O.fAGD has been frozen as Ihe OLd T ;betan honorifIC verb G$GS "c:ome. go."

SEI'fJ'ENCES

367

upon you, my lord!" As might be expected, impersonal commands are frequently found in praY/'ls-for example,

bstanpai dpal.gyur bla-rna tVH.!hellmams rwm-mJcha btin4u kun/a khyabpar log fij-zla btin-du kun-la gsa/-bar log n'-bc btin4u rtagru brtan.par log
The may may may precious la l 'as, glory of the teachingsthey pervade everywhere like the sky! they shine everywhere like the sun and moon! they be steadfast forever like the mountains!I'

5.4. REQUESTS
IWH7I

In English, not all comMands are imperatives: statements (Shoes wiJJ not be in the gym) and questions (Could you shut that window for me?) can ft::!ction as commands as well. In Tibetan, we find first-person statements with the verbs tv "request" and GSOL "pray" used with com~lements as very polite commands: we will call such constructions REQUESn. 7 Thus we find, for e:tample, blamas tJhos bstan-paf gsol "I pray the lama to lea,h the dharma," Nkhorbai mlsho'/as sgro/-du gsoJ "I pray that I be delivered from the ocean of transmigration," blama dgoiif-SU gsol "I pray the lama to think of me!" In the biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa, the wife of his master Marpa pleads with her husband bu Ndi-/a tJhosIig gnanbar Iu "I ask you 10 give this boy some dharma!/Please give this boy some dharma!" and MiJa says to his masler thugsrd1es Ndzinpar 1u '" ask that you hold me with compassion!"
I' Somelimes, of CQUrK, Ihe nomi na liur N and adverb particle are omitted, pril'llltil}' tor metrical reasoM-for example. "'8WmDMI bID'nw1 fllm'pili JiU pJryiII Jor "Mayall beipp reacb the inromparable stlgeoCtreedom!" dgt-bas NJ?O.b/II gnasskabs mlllilT./Jwg.fi, btkkg1 'f)'DmuM dpaJ.Nbp m)W rJwb Jor " By this virtue, may all beillp quietly allaip the &lory of the ocean of temporal alld ultimate bliss!" Such roMuuclions remIIip different from the COll$OClltive imperative CQlIStruCtions discw.scd ip the footnote above.
11 In the Irenic translation of the SDddhDmlilfl'J~ found in maDlISCript at KlIotan. _ tiDd sllth expressiolU as gnUJlig "Speak!~ /uIIsrondl1ig "Propbesy!" 110ft "Teacb!H 9y the lime of the ClPoDlcal trall5Lation. these s.ame rommands were UilULated as IIIe rtq\leSl$ /)SI4ZII4u ,,01"1 pray you luch," IlII1buDII "d'" pray you prophesyt and bJtQII ,,01'" pray you teacb,H rapectively.

368

THE CtAssICAL TIBETAN lANOUAGE

Sometimes., using the same construction, a speaker will ask for something which it is entirely within his power to do. This translates a bit strangely into English. Such requests are perhaps best translated as requests for pennission,

111M

rIOt

Pn'Y j,"ereItell in tin jimrwIJ pombi/iti4s ttff""

'" .. IJnnN lii:t "'"BURfJ" pmtmlll1J. 111M MIt!H lID lIMmd ", tbe eJri.tunu of DlSCOUJUES, ", tbe flltt thlJl tpuJtina bill tMm tIRu III l1li jn n:lMiIm 10 l1li oritJi"'" lilNlllion, IUIII JIIUleft trllUJ .bi&h ummll" III uist tuUI unUu, j" thtir ."., ~e .,jIm" history, "'" ItIUMer af ",.,glut

n-m'

(Jr

U~# fomrilms.

-Michel Foucault, Sur les fa~otU d'icrin hirloVe

although that cenainly does not appear on the surface in the Tibetan. When Mar-pa has Mi)a choose berween getting the teachings from Mar-pa ' and food and clothes from elsewhere, or getting food and clothes from Mar-pa and the teaChings from someone else, Mi-!a 58)'5 ho gos glan-IUU NtsIwlbar tu "r ask that I seek food and clothes from elsewhere." When Mi-la wants 10 return home brieny~ he tells Mar-pa
lan -l!ig yul..du gtoii-bar fu fabspllyir myur..du on-bar lu

I ask that you lei me go one time to my country; 1 ask that I quickly return to your presence.

5.5. LINKED IMPEI/,fT/YES

A command is frequently part of a series of instructions, so commands frequently come in bunches. One way that imperatives are linked together js simply by a sequence of ' command sentences which are made cohesive through common participants, duly omitted in the second sentence-thus NdIig-rten..du yafl..dag-par sgrogs-!ig stOll-dig ''Teach it, proclaim it well in the world!" Or a series of instructions can be conveyed through v.veral PfOP"i-

SE>m!HCES

369

lions with past or present stems linked by conjunction or embedding, and made into a command sentence with a final imperative verb stem and command particle-for example, gdams.;'og Ndi I~par iion-rzas yid-ID zuiis-lig "Having listened well to this leaching, hold it in your mind!"

By and large, however, we find a sequence of instructions conveyed by a series of implicitly nominalized imperative stems linked by the locus particle -la-for example.Jog-l4llos-Jig "Come and see!" mj de zuiis-la sod-dig "Seize that man and lcill him!" lons-/o son-Zig "Take it and go'" skyol-la log "Bring him here'" For reasons I do not understand, 14 is the only particle used when a nominali.z.ed proposition with an imperative stem is in the setting slot. I do know the construction is old in Tibetan; in the archaic manuscripts from Central Asia we find, for example, uhigJ Ndj yi-gtr bris/a grJig-gis gtfig stOlldlig "Write these words in le tte rs :lnd show them one to the other," lho14 phyag-wtsholla /Shigs Ndi'Sktu/u byoJig "Let us worship the gods and say these words."ul

5.6. TIlE INFORMAL COMMAND PARTICLE

One modal performative is found with co mmands: we will call UW the COMMAND modal. 'me particle -dan (and its variant .7aii) occurs wh~re a speaker is issuing a command informally or casually: the particle thus constitutes what we will call an l NfO llMAL COMMAND PERFORMATIVE. This less peremptory command mode seems to appear first in the more colloquial literature innuenced hy Middle Tibetan, such as the prose portions of the biography and songs of Mila ras- pa, perhaps around the fourteenth century; by the middle of the e ighteenth century the grammatical commentator Mkhasgrub dampa gilles the particle -dan simply as an alternative to .11ig. In the literature we find such e )(ample ~ as rimo bris-dan "Draw a picture, OK?" .fdoeJ-7an " Please just slay," rid-ta byos-!ig-dan bIad-do "Just pay attention and I'll explain it," khyod-mams I~.pa' mlhon-dan "look at it well, OK?" yuJ./a byOlJig-dan "Hey, pay attention!" Dpal.spru! rin-po-tlhe uses

It Funhc r cumplcs fro m Ih e bitlgr apby of Mi -La include ,do.rdlt Ndi; dri.IfUI b/mt .t]1w 1Idis 1cNw-/Q rgytI/-mlsha,,-gyi rm -/a phyo,.,Jir Ocan.o;e [be d in on th is \/lIra wllh this IIoty ~tcr. _nd hoist it to the lOp of tht: ban ner! " mflhod.ntll lJdi./Q N1b-~ gyiJ_ /Q Iii 11$0 lot "CoDSCCratc lhis reliqUlilI)' a nd place It o n the tOp o f lhe mouRl l ln!" lD ' mo bUlit.k.f;' tfiJ /Q llai I1$IU kJvid log ~Make so me fuod Ind brinK It 10 me!" SHiJI .1US JIt:yfil./Q IJO"'I.I;' "Pul fonh oo ura&e. I nd mcdl late!" Ichm Ndi r~m -I(J fWp _Jig "Exert )'OUfle\f and plo..... !"

"Xld

370 the particle in a story to show the naivele of a country bumpkin who comes to Utasa City and invites the miraculous image of the Buddha to visit him at home, saying na-ran-uhoi yul-du Iog-doii "Hey, come on over to our place!" Mar-pat showing some Tarc sympathy for the labors of the young Mi-la, says
mthu-tJhen sgaJ-po "Ston-<iaii "Great Magician, let me take a look 8t your

sores," Mi-Ia's mother, rejoicing al hii destruction of their wicked kinsmen, exults no myaii-uha dlcar-rgyQII-gyis gos hrul gyon Ito nan tOS-ruJS bui ~g:r sbyaiis-pa-Ia don-byuii ?e-Ndug Ilos-dan ... no myaii-lSha dkar-rgyan-/Q dllWtllas iianu-dga-bo 7e-yoii lros-daii "I, Myaii-tsha dkar-rgyan, wore ragged clothes and ale bad food, but just look whether there has been a profit Crom providing my son with provisions! .. . Just look whether I. MyaiHsha dkarrgyan, will ever be happier than now!"

6. VOCATIVES
A VOCATIVE is a nominal phrase, added optionally to any sentence, denoting the person to whom it is addressed and ~gnalling the fact that it is addreued to him. A vocative is not part of the propositional structure of the sentence. One function of the vocative is to sed the attention of the person addressed, and especially to single him out from olheR who may be within hearing: here personal names, titles, or special term, of address may be used to identify the addressee. Another function, perhaps more subtle, is to express the atlitude of the speaker toward the addressee, insofar as the vocative phrase incorporates terms of respect, familiarity. or conte mpt.

6.1. INITIAL AND FINAL VOCATJJlES

In Tibetan the majority o f such vocatives occur in initial position: for example, Mi-Ia addresses a stranger with the words druii-pa log! "0 Sir ... " before speaking to him;I' the wife of Mar-pa similarly first addresseJ her hushand with the litle bia-rna rill .po.Lfhe "Precious lama ... "; and Mar-pa addresses his disciple nhossku rdo-rdte by both geographical and personal names as nlog,sloll 11hosrdor "Reality Diamond, teacher of Rfiog ... " Mi-Ia

19 As Malllll:w !Upslein has poinled Ollt to me, Ihe lerm dFN,.ptJ usually rden 10 IIIe closest pl:f50nal alLendant or privale Io/Xretary.of an aristocratic or c:o;\e$iaslic::li btc:n.rd!. II may be lhal Mi.!a IlSO il as a prudent way Of addra.sin, a stn.n,et of appt;rent, bill 1I1l' determined , rank .

SENTENCES

37!

cries out la-rna la-rna la-khui khyim rdibs-nos mi man-po Ii Nd~g ltos-dan "Mother, mother, look, uncle's house has fallen down, and many people are dead." Such initial vocatives are often separated textually from the following sentence by a vertical stroke or fad indicating a slight reading pause-for example, bkra-lir, tIhan khyer log "Blaa-Jis, bring some beer!" sman-po lags, iia-la bu-phrug med "0 apothecary, 1 have no children." Occasionally we find vocative phrases extraposed to the end of the sentence, to the right of the verb aRd the performance particle. This is not uncommon in commands: for example, in a prayer to Avalokitdvara, traditionally ascribed to the great king Sroi'i-buan 19am-po, we find a series of lines such as dog-poi fiii-la skyol-fig spyan-ras-gzi81 "Lead me to the Pure land, 0 Avalokitdvara!" and fXYUI1-du ,hu81-rdtes gzigs-lig spyan.ras-gzigs "Ever look on me with compassion, 0 Avalokitdvara'" Similarly, in the work of the poet Pad-rna dkar-po we find such verses as sa-smas ser-ba-/as sruiis-lig snagsNtflwij-gi nag-po "Protect my lotus flowers from the hailstorm, 0 blackness of sorcerors!" and blo "-liaS tl/iol-fig ska{-/dan-lsho "Let your minds be full of hope. 0 my disciples!" But such extra position is also found in statements. Pad-rna dkar-po is fond of such constructions; in one poem, he builds a structure upon repeated verses with extraposed vocative phrases-thus nags-mOw siiegs-po-Ia mi-dga slagphrug-gj gton-nu "You have no joy dashing about the woods, 0 young tiger!" nam-Hphan spyod-pa-la mi-dga Ihaii-dkar-gyigton.nu "You have no joy soaring in the sky: 0 young condor'" rgyaf-khatnS Ngrim.pa.la mi-dga bSla,,Ndz;"gyi gfOlJ-nu "You have no joy wandering in the world, 0 young disciple! " In another poem he uses the repeated refrain rid gfuiis-nas sg01ru.!ig pad-ma dlcar "Meditate with heedful mind. 0 Pad-rna dkar-pol" and then. in the last verse. switches to dbyallS mtJhod-par Nbul/n dktm-mtIllOg gsum "I give my song in offering, 0 Three Jewels''"

6.2. TITLES OF RESPECT

Nominal phrases containing titles of respect are often usee vocatively. Among such titles of respect perhaps the most frequently encountered is lags, either used by itself in the sense of "Sir ... '" or added to other litles, personal names, epilhets, or kinship terms. Thus Mi-Ia addresses a stranger as druii-pa lags "0 Sir ... " and his master Mar-pa as bla-ma lags "0 lama ...... The yogin Mi-Ia is himself addressed by his disciple Ras-tlhun-pa as rdle-btsutl

372

Til E CL.\ssICAL TIBETAN l..ANOUAGE

tags "0 reverend sir .. ." The Grand Secretary of Tibet is properly addressed
as sial-glogs TUe-dtuii lags "Honorable Mister Secretary ... " Other titles of respect t-nCQunlered as vocatives in the classical texu include: the secular gtso-bo "my lord" and guo-rna "my lady," the: religious !d!e-btswl "reverend sir" and rdte-buufIma " reverend madam," and the: intimate Min bzu" "handsome sir" and blill bzaii-ma "fairfaced lady." Such terms may form pan of a more: complex nominal: in the drama SnaijSQ od-Nbum we find a man addressing his wife as uhe-rabs ktm-gyi gtan-grogs blin-bzaii-ma "0 fairfaced constanl wife through all my fo rmer lives ... "
Another series of terms, including s/(;ugtogs, sku'Ms, sku-mdun, and sku-druii, is found in the texts, all meaning "your honorable presence" and used in direct address to a social or spiritua l superior. The term sku-glogs is often written as <sku-tabs> " honora ble feet," in imitation of Indic terms of address; but the original orthography is still reflected in such pronunciatio ns as New Tibetan (Dbus) Wo.
An impona nt and frequently e ncountered title of respect is Tin-po-t/he "precious one," used almost exclusively in addressing high lamas. The Dalai Lama is addressed as 'KYa-mtslio rin-po/Jlte "Precious Ocean" or 'KYal-ba finpo-Lfhe "Precious Conqueror," the Panchen Lama as paf)-tjhen rinpo-tlht "Precious Scholar," and, a t one time, the King of Bhutan as t abs-druii rin-potIhe "Precious Feet.,,20 We find Mar-pa addressed as bla-ma rin-po-tIht "Precious lama" by his wife, by Mi-Ia, and by OI~e r lamas who are his disciples.

Such titles of respect reach their mosl fl owery expression in the Tibetan epistO lary style. For exa mple, a leiter 10 the Dalai Lama is sent with the honorific salutation

NgrO-ba lha-da[j btIas-pai mgoll-skyabs dpuii-giien mtshufu-zla ma-mtlhispar rgya/-bai dbaij-po thams-dad mkhyen-tliii gzigs-pa tlhen-po tabs-sltgs gser-Di Ndabston mampar btad-pai drundu ...

20 The kinl of Bbutln W&$ called la/ls-dnofi when BlIlIlan 11&1 I common te mponot I nd spiri"a.1 had. Under Ille presen t dynas ty Bbutan is fU te4 by a owalpo-dJIl.rgytJI "ki n,~ and the highest ea:lesiaslial office is Ihal of ,dl, ",khanpo "lord abbot "

SEKl<NCES

373

Before the honorable presence of the smiling golden thousandpetal lotus footstool of the great all-knowing all-seeing Lord Buddha who is the peerless friend and refuge of all beings including the gods ...

6.3. OTHER V0C4TlYE EXPRESSIONS

We find other nominals used in vocative phrases to indicate: the relative status of the person addressed. Such \'ocativeJ may U5C pejoratives, as when Mi1a says iUm-lfiB dl1ummc Ichyod "Listen. you lowly demoness'" or Mn-pa gjia-rdir ur-MnUg gtam Nidi .ilOII "Set-smug you wicked stiff-necked one, hear
this wordl" Other vocatives may use respectful older relative terms, such as la-dIo "older brother" and la-tJhe "older sister," not infrequently with lagJ or other titles of respect, as in lo-t,Jht li1gs rin-po-tIhe "0 precious older sister, . ," Other vocatives may use intimate younger relative terms such as

bu "son." uhabo "nephew," bu-mo mdzu-pa "darling daughter." What we can call professional titles 8rc frequently used vocatively-bla-ma "lama," spnd-sku "incarnation," mklwn-po "abbot," khri-tJhen "abba,," dgebID "professor," dbu-mdzad "head monk," dge-sloii "monk," mo--buun "nun," lhIl "king," bJon-t!hen "minister of state," sde-srid "regent," lhIl-rd1e "physician," yon-bdag "lay patron_" Here again we often find logr or other titles of respect added to the addressee's professional title.lI

6.4. THE STRUCTURE OF TIBETAN NAMES

Quite frequently a vocative phrase contains the addressee's name. Since persons--especially eminent persons-may possess severa] types of names and titles simultaneously, it may be helpful here to discuss the structure of such names as may be encountered in the classical texts.

21 We..,. DOte here Wt "'XItive ruJJW...! Ire of'tel:l lonncd willi . . , boOI ill 1faDI.-

..... rro. SaMbit IDd III claaakallheralwe-tlIlII ,._""".., "'0 IDODIcI " lyt blba_
. . . . . "0 IludIome lin 1a-IdM-tIq "0 karIICId lin Icyc 1fop--po-4f "'0 fr1aIdI . The illterjeaioD Icyc-hvtl-q-yt-ll:twl-yt Is IOmetime. ..eca to IDdkalc I "'XItM tenD., apcclally ID tbe translati(lD Jileratusc. allbougb ills found elsewhere u_UllI. Icyc IIwIi 1M "'0 lord of lords Icyc kJuJ_1o b~-lHl "0 belmsman lNlafo f4 4fFAI-Jir "'P-PO Iryt "TIIlnk of me, 0 lore!.!"
0 " 0 0 ."

0-

0"

0"

374

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN L-.NOUAGl!.

6.4.1. Personal names

The vast maJonty of Tibetan religious names-and the great majority of secular names-consLsI of combinations of disyllabic tenns with a~spicious connotations. These terms may dt:II01e such auspicious objects as ;U-tn4 "sun," zla-ba "moon," rdo-rd1~ "vajra," rgya.mtsho "ocean," rts~-mo "peak," rgyal. mtshan "banner," padma ")otus," nQr-bu "gem," un-gt "lion," rgyal-po "king." and pon-nu "prince"; such auspicious . qualities as mshu-slobs "strength," bsod-nams "merit." IshuJkhrims "discipline," bstan-Ndzin "adherence to the teachings," blan-po "virtue," I1hoHphtl"religious increase," NgYIU.mtd "wnstancy," grags-pa "fame," dbaii.phyug "dominion," blo-gros "intelligence," tsht-fiij "long life," yon-tOI1 "excellence," mam-rgyal "victory," bkrafis "blessing," don-grub "success," phrin-Ias "activity," ye-Its "knowledge," and I~s-rab "wisdom"; and such divine names as saiir-'X)'QJ' "Buddha," kun-dga "joy _ Ananda," sgroi-rna "savioress -. Tira," Nt!tam-dpal"sweet glory - Maiijulri," Ndlam-dbyaij,s "sweet voice .... Manjugho:f8." byarru-pa "friendliness .... Maitreya."

And I lAid, "Hty, pRJ, wh"~goin8 on bm7 W'ho RTe ytN, "np"l?" And he JAut, 'W(]'I1, I JUrI the soul dlKt(W'. And, you ktlOlP, Ja"BuRge is " virus from outer SPRee. And hr.ring ,our Mmt is hater th"n ueing ,our fRee."
-laurie Anderson, DiffICult Listening

Thus we find such names as blo-gros 'rJ'al-mtslian "Intelligence Banner," yeIes rdordI~ "Knowledge Diamond," NdZQm-dbyaiir grogs-po "Sweet Voice Fame," tshe-nii bkra-lis "Long Life Blessing." bsodnarru bfo.gros "Merit Intelligence," zfaba nor-bu "Mo.)n Gem," bzan.po rgyal.muhon "Virtue Banner," blogros bZQnpo " Intelligence Virtue," Ndtam-dbyaiir Its-rob un-ge " Sweet Voice Wisdom Lion," YI!I~s mlhuSIObs dban.phyug "Knowledge Strength Dominion," blogros yonlan rgya.mllho phrinlas "Intelligence Excellence Ocean Activity." We will call such combinations PERSOI'IAl. NAMES.

SENTENCES

The predominantly disyllabic pattern may occasionally be broken by such monosyllabic components as dpal "glory," /'Ibar "blaze," rtsal "skill," otJ "light," grogs "fame," or $de "lord," as in phrin/as dpaf bzaii.po "Activity Glory Virtue," !esrob ",'bar "Wisdom Blaze," yontan NgrO-HduJ rtsaf "Excellence Converting Skill." Occasionally too we find components of a personal name placed in an explicitly adnominal relationship-for example, mkhyenbrtsei otJzer "Ught of Knowledge and Love," bstanpoi 'KYalmuMn "Banner of the Teachings," t!hoslcyi dbaiipo "Master of the Dharma," blo gros mlhayaspai $de "Lord of Infinite Intelligence." Personal names are frequently I!neountered as clipped disyllables formed from the stressed syllables of each of the original components-thus NdJamgmgs < /'Idlam-dbyaiis gragspa "Swel!t Voice Fame," dbanrgyal < dban.phyug 'KYalmuhan "Dominion Banner," t!hasgrap < I!hoskyi gmp.po "Fame of the Dharma," lhubbslan < thubpoi bstan.pa "Teachings of the Sage," nag. dban < iiaggi dbanphyug "Master of Speech." Such clipped names may in turn be components in longer sequences: for example, in the personal name blobzaii grags.pa the first component blobzan is a clip of the combination blogros bzan.po "Intelligence Virtue"; thus the clipped name blogrags < blo bzan gragspo " Intelligence Virtue Fame" is a clip containing a clip.

6.4.2. Types of personal names

A person may poueu several personal names in the course of a lifetime. Every child has a CIULDIiOOD NAME. often bestowed by a respected elder or lama, and established at a naming celebration; a child may in addition have one or more PET NAMES which can change in the course of time. Mila fas. pa's father gives his child the childhood name thospo dga "Happy to Hear It," since he is so pll!ased to hear the nl!ws of the birth; Mila's sister is similarly given the childhood name mgonmo skyid "Lady Joy," as well as the pet namepNa "Little Leech," by which Mila continues to address her even after she is an adult. Sometimes the name includes the day on which the child was born-for example, nirna lhama "Sunday Goddess." posans sgrolma "Friday Tara." Often this D.... YNAME is only tentative, and a new name is given at the first opportunity to have the child blessed by a lama, although often the dayname sticks anyway. In addition. any of these names can be changed for astrological reasons, if the name in use seems to be attended by bad lucie

376

TilE Cl.AssICAL TIBETAN lANaUAGE

When a person enters the monastery, he is given a new name, usually at the time of taking the vows of a novice, although. in some C:lses he may receive a further new name at the time of taking the complete vows of a monk. A typical account of such names is found in the contemporary autobiography of a Sherpa lama, who writes,

buas-ston yail rgyas-par byas-nal miii-la gza.daii bSfwt-le, z/a-ha

bslan-Hdzin lu blags Ndug-go .' ran to ner-gtJig-/a bslehs-dus bf4-ma JQiU-'XYQS tJhos-NfJh~I-gyi druii-nas sO-IMr dge-tshuJ

sdom-pai bar kgs.par IUS-pas, min mkhan-poi mtshan-nos draiisU. StJiis"'X)'tlf zhlba Its blag!
After having a big birth party, they connected my name with the day of the week and called me z/a-ba bSlanNdzin "Monday Adherent" ... When I turned twenly--onc I duly asked the lama sa;u~as t!hosNfJhel "Buddha's Dharma Increase" for ordination up through the vows of a novice, and 1 was given the name sans-rgyas zla-ba "Buddha Monday" after the name of my preceptor. Similarly, Mar-pa ordains his disciple Mi-Ia as a novice monk with the name rdo-rrUe tgyal-mtshan "Diamond Banner," after a prophetic dream he had the evening before the two first met. In addition to this MONASllC NAME, a monk or layman may receive a flODHISATIVA NAME when he takes his vow to save all sentient creatures; and he may receive from his tantric teacher-or even from the deity itself-a SECRET NAME when he is initiated into the rit.ual practices of a tanlnc deity. Thus Mila -describes the acquisition of his secret name as follows:

Hkhor-lo sdom-pa-/a yut iii-!u-rtsa

bt~

gllas sum-/Iu-nsa g11is,

mlcha-~gros

dur-Jcltrod tIhm-po brgyad .kyi dpo-bo-d'l.1

bskor-nas

khra-la,"-InC blugr-pa diios-su mthon, de; tshc bla-ma-d!Jii dkyilNIchor-gi lhtu ,"grin gtIig-tu gran-mtsllan dpal blad-pa rdord1cr btags

J vMdly saw the deity Caluasamvara clearly seated there, surrounded by the gods and gocldesses of the twenty-fo ur lands, the thirty-two p.'aces, the eight great cemeteries; a nd at that time the lama awl the gods of the mat:'<;IlIla with o ne voice gave

me the secret name dpol blad-po rdo-rdlt "Glory Laughter Diamond." A writer may become known under one or more of these different names. and he may even sign his works with a combination of them. For example, Kon-sprul rin-po-dhe was given the NONAS1lC NAME iiag-dban yon-Ian rgyarnuho phrin-/o.s laut-Ichyah dpol bzan-po "Master of Speech E.xcellence Ocean Activity Pervasion Glory Virtue," the BOomSATIVA NAME blo-gros mtha-yw-pai .fIlt "Lord of Infinite IntelUgence," and the SECRET NAME pad-rna gar-gyi dbanphyug phrin-/w Ngro-!duJ f1SlJl "Lotus Dominion of Dance Activity Converting SkilL" He signed his works with abbreviated forms of his monastic name nagdbaii yon-Ian rgya-rnuho and yon-Ian 'K)'Q-m1Sho, and sometimes simply with KWJ.a, the Sanskrit equivalent of yon-tan, or with a combination of his secret and bodhisattva names-thuspod-ma &ar-gyi dbaii-phyug blo-gros mlha-ya.s-pai .sdt. Other personal names may be given for special purposes. After advanced instruction in Sanskrit and poetics. a "choiar may be given a GRAMMAR-tAN'S NAME, which he signs to works on grammar, lexicography, and rhetoric. A religious practitioner who is agter-.ston "discoverer of hidden treasures"-and thus able to locate the hidden texts concealed by the ancient Padmasamhhava -may, upon his appoimment by an already practicing discoverer, be given in addition a special DlSCOVERF.R's NAME, the particular name having been prophesied by Padmasambhava and appearing in the hidden texts themselves.

6_4.3_ Geographical and ramily names

Individuals are often differentiated by a GEOGRAPHICAL NAME. The person's place of birth 01 area of major religious activity may simply be preflXcd to his personal name, as in bo..doii n"-tJhen .rUe-. m o "Jewel Peak of Bo-don," nseg dbaii-phyug uii-gt "Dominion Lion of Rueg," sde..dge blo-gro.s ~al-mts"an "Intelligence Banner of Sde-dge." Frequently we find the person's geographical provenance followed by the formative -pa "PERSON HAVlNG TO 00 Wn1I," as in mar-pa rdo-rdIt ytolu "Diamond Knowledge the man from Mar," gnalpa iii-rna Its-rob "Sun Wisdom Ihe man from Gnal," Ichamr-pa Its-rob rdordIe "Wisdom Diamond the man from Khams." Indeed, a famous scholar or contemplative may be more widely known by his geographical name than by any of his personal names: for example, nhos-kyi ble-gros is widely known simply as mar-po "the man from Mar," Ble-bzaii grags-pa as tsoii-lcha-fNJ "Ihe

378

TIlE

C~SJCAL

TlBETAN

LANGUAGE

man from Tsonkha," ;lnd Zlaod gfonnu as sgampo-pa "the man from Sgam-po." Sometimes geographic affiliations are expressed with the word SIOIl "teacher" or IO-ISH -ba "translator" suffIXed to the person's geographic area: thus we find fWa-ston gtollnu senge "Prince Lion the teacher of Rgya," tan-slon b.wd/lQms grags-pa "Merit Fame the teacher of lan," go .mb lo-tsQba t.!hos-kyj Iesrub "Wisdom of Dharma the translator of Go-rub," Hgns lo-uii-bll gton-nu dp(lf "Prince Glory the translator of Ngos_" Such geographic titles are also fmmd in dipped form, as in stag-Io gfon-nu bnson-NgTUS "Prince Striving the translator of Stag" or smill-gliii Ng}'uNned rtio-rdle "Unchanging Diamond the 13m3 of Smin-grol monastery." A famous teacher or translator may be widely known by such gecgraphie title alone: for example, Narn-mkha grags-pa is often referred to simply 35 mtJliimHlOll "the teacher of Mt~him5," and Tshul-khrims rgyal-bll is often referred to simply as nag-Isho lo-tsii-ba "the translator of Nag-tsho..
In carnation ~ may have geographical names with the suffix sprulsku. "incarnation," as in bde-than sprul-sku blo-bzaii fshul-Ichrims mam-rg}'al "I ntelligence Virtue Discipline Victory the incarnation or Bde-Ihan," Of phurbu-lilog sprul-sku byams-pa tsllUl-khrims bstall-Ndzin "Friendliness Discipline Adherent the incarnation of Phur-bu-It!og_" Famous incarnations again may be Iderred to by this geographic title alone: for example, Yon-tan rgya-mtsho is widely klOwn as koii-spru l rin-po-t.!he, the term koiisprnl being a dipped form of the geographical name koii-posprul-sku "the incarnation of Koii-po," since the monk of whom he was held to be an incarnation came originally from Kon-po. Similarly. the contemporaneous Ndtigs-med I~hos -kyi dbaii-po is widely known as dpal-spml rin-po-tJhe, the term dpal-spnll again being a clipped form of the geographical name dpal.dge sprnl-sku "the incarnation of Dpal-dge," since Ioe was held to be an incarnation of Dpal-dge Bsod-nams sbyin-pa_

Some'times the various incarnations of a single spiritual progenitor are distinguished by geographical names_ For example, Ndtam-dbyaiis mkhyenbrtsci dbaii-po kun-dga bstan-pai rgyal-mtshan has been held 10 be incarnate in several different persons simultaneously in several monastic centers: thus we find nizoii-sar mkhyt.'lI-brtse sd!am-dbyaiis lIlIos-lcyi dban-po "Sweet Voice Master of Dharma tbe Mkhyenbrtse at Rdzoil-sar," dpaf-spuflS mkhyen-brtse karma mkhyen-brtsei odour "Karma Light 01 Knowledge and Love the Mkhyen-brtse at Dpal-spufis," dis.mgo mkhyen-brtse rab-gsal zla-ba "Clarity

SENTENCES

379

Moon the Mkhyen-brue at Dis-mgo," rdzogs-tIhen mJchyen-bnse gu-ru tslzedban "Guru Lifepower Ihe Mkhyen-brt.se at Rdzogs-tJhen," and so on. Additionally, names may incorporate FAM ILY NAMES. The great-greatgrandfather of Mi-Ia ras-pa acquired the name mi-la when he conquered an evil demon, who cried oul in fear pha rna mila mi/a "Father! Mother! Woe! Woe!" This name was passed on to his son Mi-Ia Mdo-ston sen-ge, who passed it on to his son Mi-Ia Rdo-rdie sen-ge, who passed it on to his son Mi-Ia Ses-rab rgyal-mtshan, who passed 'it on to his son called Thos-pa dga. Similarly we find such combinations of family and personal names as Nkhon dkon-mtIlzog rgya/-po "Jewel King of the Nkhon," rgya ye-Ies mgon-po "Knowledge Protector of the Rgya," myaii Ies-rab Nbyuii-gnas "Wisdom Source of the . Myan." Sometimes family names and geographical names overlap, where a family has the same name as its hereditary estate.

6.4.4. Epithets
In addition to such names, persons may acquire EPITIIETS in the course or their lives, and it may be by such an epithet that a person is best known. The epithet may be professional, as in sde-srid sans-rgyas 'X)'a-mtsho "Buddha Ocean the Regent," darhan lem-tIhi Ndtam-dbyaiis rgyal-mtslzan "Sweet Voice Banner the Physician of Dar-han," dga-Idan khri-tIhen iiag-dbaii tshulkhrims "Master of Speech Discipline the Abbot or Dga-Idan," spyi-klzyab mkhan-po bde-tIhen rgya-mlsho "Bliss Ocean the Abbot of Spyi-khyab." Sgam-po-pa is often referred to simply as dwags-po Iha-rdle "the Physician or Dwags-po," and Mi-Ia becomes known as mlhu-IJhen " Magician" after he demonstrates his professional abilities to his master Mar-pa:

thugs snuii-bai mi man-po gri-kI!ar Ii-ba gzigs-nas, khyod-fa mtnu dhen-po yod ur-ba belen-par Ndug gsuiis-nas na-fa min mlhutIhen-du blags
He saw many maddened men die at knire-poin!. He said, " It's true what they say, that you have magic power"; and he gave me the name mlhu-"tIhen "Magician."
An epithet may also be honorific, as when the first Black Hat Karma-pa Tlhos-kyi grags-pa is known almost exclusively as dus-gsum mkhyen-pa "He Who Knows the Past, Present, and Future," or the fifth Black Hat Karma -pa

380

Tllij Cu.ss1CAl. TIBETAN lANGUAGE

nhos-<lpaJ bzan-po is VlOwn almost exclusively as de-b1.in gIep-pa "He Who

Has Thus Come," an epithet of the Buddha. The name of the great yoginf
Ma-g1lig Lab-kyi sgron-rna combines the geographical name Lab-phyi and the childhood name sgroll-ma "Lady Lamp" with the honorific epithet ntIl-gt!ig

"The One Mother." We may note here too that certain general honorific
expressions have become specialized as such personal epithets: for example,

unless otherwise specified, the expression dlo-bo rdle "Venerable Lotd" refers to Ati~, rdle-bt.sUll "Reverend Sir" refers to Mi-la, rdte rin-po-t.!ht "Precious Lord" refers to T soii-kha-pa, and gu-ru rin-po-tJ/K "Precious Guru"
refers 10 Padmasambhav3.

flU -po

An epithet may also be generic. For example, a yogin often bears the epithet "one who wears a colton cloth" combined with some individuating component: thus Mgon-po rdo-rdle is called khyj-ra-ba ras-po "Hunler Yogin," after his former occupation; Pad-rna rdo-rdle is called gliii ras-po " Yogin of Gliil," after his geographic provenance; the young Thos-pa dga eventually becomes known as Mi-Ia ras-pa "Yogin of the Mi-la," after his family name. Similarly, Ye-~es rdo-nUe is known as gtsaij-pa tgYa-rIU "Yogin of t,he Rgya family from Gtsaii," in a clipped form that combines both geographical and family names with his epithet.
A similar generic epithet is smyollpa "madman," used of the crazy and iconoclastic saint of the yogic tradition, as in such names as dbwsmyon kundga hzaij-po "Joy Virtue Ihe madman of Dbu!>," or Nbrug-smyon kun-dga legspa "Joy Goodness the madman of the Nbrug." The author of the life of Mi-la ras-pa and the editor of his c611ected songs began life with the childhood !lame t.fJlOs'Wallltun-po "Dharm;\ King Mounlain," became a novice monk with the monastic name saiis-tg)'as 'X)'al-muhan "Buddha Banner," and recdved thc secret name khrag-Nfhuii tg}'al-po "Blood-drinking King" from his tutelary deity; but he is best kno ..... n-and is spok.en of in his earliest hingnlphy-by the epithet gIsan-smyon he-ru-Jw "Heruka the madman of Gtsaii. "

An cj)!lhet may also be descriptive: such epithets are idiosyncratic to the persons who bear them. Rdo-rd1.e gmgs-pa, the disciple of Mi-Ia ras-pa, is calkd rGHfh wl-pa "Little Piece of Cotton" because he wears only a small piece of cotton cloth; Mgonpo rdo-rd1.e is said to have worked SO lirelessly fOl hIS fellow contemplativcs:1I Tsa-ri Ih:!t he became known to them as rrizakhmd hoii-ser "Yellow Donkey of the Claypi!s." Gtsan-smyon he-ruka signed his biography of Mar-pa with the epithet durkhrotJ myuJbai maJ-Nbyor-pa

SE>m!NCES

381

"Yogin Who Wanders in Cemeteries" and his biography of Mila with the epithet rus-pai rgyon-lJun "He: Who Has Ornaments of Bone," while Ndiigsmc:d t!hos-kyi dban-po-the great Dpal-sprul rin-pcHJhe-signed his works with the epithet la-bu 1Ira/po "Ragged Old Fellow...zz

6.4.5. Names and epithets In vocative phrases

Personal names are often found in vocative phrases, used both by friends and intimates of the: addressee and by his superiors. It is interesting to note, (or example:, that in the works of Gtsan-smyon he-ro-b lhe lama Mar-pa ad-

dresses his wife Bdag-mc:d-ma by her personal name, while she: addresses him by his title as bla-rna rin-po-tJht "precious lama." Similarly Mar-pa addresscs
his disciple Riiog-pa by both family and personal names., using the form riiogslon tlhos-rdor, while the: disciple again uses bla-mo rin-po-tIhe in reply. His instructors in black magic address Mi-Ia by his personal name: thos-ptJ dga, while both Mar-pa and Riiog-pa address him by his epithet mtlul-tJMn "Magician," occasionally with the affectionate prefIX 1a-OO added; Mi-Ia in tum addres.~s all his teachers as blo-ma wgs or b/a-ma rin-po-dM. The relation berween Mi-la and his own disciplCl is the same: Rdo-rd!e grags-pa addresses. his master as bla-rna rdIt-btsun rinpo-t!he "precious reverend lama" or rdI~-bLfWl rin -pot!h~ lags "precious reverend sir," while Mi-Ia

tl The names of horses are also found in cla. \5ical Tibetan. In tile 1W-lI)'Ig "bone n<:;e" chapler of t he epic of Ge-sar we find a long list of the pIInicipatin, horses and their ri4en -the c:quivalen, 0( I Homeric catalogue 5~ ips. Many of tbese hones., as we mizht t:tpoct, have nall'lt$ referrinlto their colo r-for example, IIOg-po /imIIt-1IIh41 KBIack Ylk-tamer,"IIDf' khTa NpIIw-Ju "Black_5poUed J'lyer," ptr-mMA ilimai /JrhnJNIkJior "Gokl-faced MalK: We.apoo of the 5 .. n," ~bo mol14m! "Dun Skillful," $r~-ri rag-dkm "RlWtt-wbile o( lhe [)csoll te MountaiM, Hplwrba rilo.l16g " wping Blackuil," SeYeral bor5e5 baY(; names which refc:r to the Wind-rhill-lIDg rdlts-grlod "Bladwind TJKker," /IDf'-bu rlNIIM1ziII "Jewel Wind'irabber," rlullgi wldtor-(Q "Wind Wheel": Ina a surprising number haYe Dlmt! lluil refer to birds-for eumple, khyuIi ' /Illg /diIIJu "Black-a.ate Soarer," mNI' byd gdoIt1IDII "PuCOI:k Fac:c," g.yu.bya m a}dyo ''1'I:rljuolse-bird Spollod-a.t," tW./I' /J)'P f-)'II' rlIof "CoIlCh bird 'rurquoise.mant," 'XY".byo mj1tJii .-.Mrvl.-.tchor " China-bird UneqlUllled MagiC WClipon. A few n.ames. step! 10 have: 1I louch or SClf-dc:proaliing lIumor-.JQ-riIyQJI drtl.".go MWild_ bone Mule!lead, ~ kD ba /dlriskyid "Pillar Happy-lhroDe." But nKl5t of tbe Dlmti .re siraiptforward and charmlng-.rIQAri dN!oIdIams "Oesol..e-mountain Smoolb-aslilk," 11Juun_l~ " Oance5-like-a-lamb," pAt-ri Id4rul~ "Glacier Soarer," 'M.ri ttIcItyiJ'Ju "FireIDOUDtaia Twister," S/nU.gu ldii\ lu "F1oatslike-themisl"

or

ju_,.,

382

Tile CtAssICAL TIBETAN Lt.NOUAOE

addresses him not by his personal name but by his epithe t ras-dhuii-pa "Little Piece of Cotton."

Figurt J2. Chtum /0 prOlK/ against dmroru. prots, and "umpires, pKfUrtd hrrt a.J wQmu tllld scorpiQIU (nou 1M vuual pufIJ_,Jig_ pa "JCorpiOtl " sdig-ptJ "sin, " sri-srin "d'.mOt1 ' JMbll "inMcl, womr "J

13

Beyond the Sentence

I. EXCLAMATIONS

An EXClAMATION is a partial :oentence- somelimes called a "sentence fragment" or "minor sentencc"-that functions as an autonomous unit similar to a sentence. An exclamation may be found anywhere a sentence may be found, either within a discourse or embedded in a proposition as the patient of a verb such as GSUN "say" or SNAM ":hink."

1.1. HYPOTHETICAL EXPRESSIONS

Some sentences, of course, are assertions with exclamatory force. The verbs l.EGS "be good" and RUN "be right" are often used in such a way-thus legs-so "Very well! Excellent!" run gSUiif '''All right!' he said." We often find such IIYPOTIII;"TICA!. constructions as IlUs-IW till-/tl Ieg.v "If you can do it, very well!" Jgom.z!h~n Ichu-rags ulQd'/1U legs "A meditator had best slay quiet!" 'KYa/-po gfc.~-gyi.J Mag.po byednQ mi-legs "Another king had bener nOl become her husband!" mi-riied-na mi-run "We'd beller find it!" /!i-i/ar byed-na legs "What sho'Jld I do?"

Even stronger exclamatory force is foUnd in hypothetical constructions with the expressions tJi ma-Iegs-tJj ma-fUn " What's wrong with that?"1 For example, we find blom-no tfi ma-legs "What's wrong with think.ing about il?/You ought to think about it!" de Nbyun-na tJi ma-run "Would that it happencd!/Oh, may it happen!" Ndii te-.sdan Ndj tiona t!i ma-run "Best I quiet this anger of his!" no rig-pa-dan /dan-lla tJj mel-run "Would that I were wise!"

I Comparc alsQ Ihc exptCS5ion IIlHlismo,J-luJ.JmOJ.!li-dgo.J ''what need to say. need I mention, urc I add. 10 say notlling of, wllat morc of,~ as in Ndi-dDg "oo/ba lIatJj-s1l1OS ~, . 10 say nothing of!he mnvcBion of !!lese!" mv g)W-ba ya.II riltJ-pardk4:Jrn;I dolba plum . swnu/wppa ba!lismOl "If it's difficult 10 be born as a hllman being. wllat then of perf! liberty!"

383

384

TilE ClASSICAL TIBETAN WGUAGE

no; bu-mo min-1lQ IIi rna-run "Would that she were not my daughte r!" sems l!an thams-t.fad $dug-bsiial-daii Hhra/na l1i rna-run "Oh that all sentient beings were free from suffering!" Ndi Ntira-boi sdug-bsiiol Nkhur-ba1tJs Nf!hina tJi rna-run "Better I should die than beat such suffering!"

1.2. HYPOTHETICAL ELLIPSIS

Such exclamatory hypothetical SENTENCES can become EXcu.MA1l0NS by omIssion of the consequent, leaving only the antecedent locus participant in the setting slot, rather like English exclamations in the form 1/ only __ . Thus, in addition to, say. de Nbyuii-na legs " If it happens, it would be good," we find, simply, de NbyulIg-na "If only it .....ould happen!" and, in addition to, say. Mli bdag-gi yin-no IIi rna-run "Would that this were mine!" we find, simply. Ndi bdag-gi yin-no "If only this were mine'" For example, in the Tibetan translation of the Karma/alaka we read kye-ma rgya/-po t!hen-po no blla-bai phyir oiis-na "Oh, if only the great king has come to see me!" and, in the biography of Mi-Ia, we find semNian man-po Ii-no NtsheiiNt snam " I thought happily, 'If only many senlient creatures had died!'"

1.3. EXCLAMATIONS IN -Pa-Ia

Another form of exclamation consists of a nominalized proposition followed by the locus panicle -la, yielding what appears to be an autonomnus locus participant, indicating an extreme degree of some variable factor, which is expressed by the nominali7.ed verh, usually stative-for example, khyi tf/te -bala "That dog is really big!IHow big that dog is!" gnam sdug-pa-Ia "The sky is so beautiful!/What a beautiful .sky!" Sometimes the variable factor is expressed by a noun, presumahly with an equative YIN omitted; for example, when some young girls see the emaciated and ragged body of Mj-Ia ras-pa, one exclaims sdug-sdug-gi N dra-ba-Ia "How miserable he seems!" while another cries out slji/1-rdle-ba-/a "What a pity!" Such exclamations may also be made from hypotheticaJs: for example, when rebuked by his master, Mi-]a cries out !i-na dga-ba-Ia "How happy J W t)uld be if J died!" and 50-/0 (/tim-no dga -bo-Ia "What happiness to sink into the earth!" Similarly, in one of his songs Mi-Ia exclaims sgorn-no fIhog -pa-{a " If I meditate that's surely e nough for me!M

BEYOND

nm SI!N TENCI,
1.4. EXCLAMATIONS IN -re-

385

A compound may become an exclamation when the syllable -re-is inserted between its two components-for example, silin-relle "compassion" siliii-re-rdle "What a shame!" skyug-Iog "disgust" skyug-re-Iog " How disgusting! " Such an exclamation can even be predicated of a participant-for example, sems-dan siliii-re-rdIe "The PC:Xlt creatures!" "hyod-faii siiiii-re-rdle " How you are to be pitied!" Or it can be nominalized wit h -Pa and used as the modifie r of a nominal head-th ussi'iin-re-relle-bai sdig-dan dmyal-bor lluii "The sinne r-how to be pitied!-falls to helL" Other such exclamatory compounds include iiamsdga "joy" ilarrtS-re-dga "Wonderful !" blo-Me "happiness" bfo-re-bde " What happinesst" o-brwol "fatigue" o-re-b'X;'al " How tired!" te-Ndtigs "fear" Ie-reNtlIigs " How frightfuJ!" yi-mug "despair" yi-re-mug "Alas!" Such exclamations have apparently deep foots in the Tihetan language: in an archa ic ninthcentury manuscript from Central Asia we find the exclamation 0-"0 bu-re stug-re-bsna/ "Oh my only son, what suffering!"

2. CONNECTIVES

2_1 _ THE CONNECTIVE

ran

The connective Yair "EVEN, AL'iO" is clearly related to-hut is not the same as-the bound adversative conjunction -mii "mfr." Like the conjunction particle, the connective Yaii becomes kyaii after preceding final -g, -d, -h, <tnd Os; becomes yaii after preceding final -ii, -Ii, om, -f, -I. and opcn stressed syllahles; and becomes aii or yail ana precedi ng o pen unstressed syllah1cs. The con nective Yair occurs within propositions but outside participants; since the connective th us occurs frequently afta unstressed particlt:5 <tt the end of participants. we nul infrequently find such resulting diphthongs as -(Jaml and
-duQn.

One functi on of thc connective YU/I is AllD\llVE: it serves to add the ~on ten t of one sentence or proposition to the cOl11ent of a preceding one. The connective generally follows the participant wh ich particularly supplies thc additional information: compare rg}'a/.po hsod-llams-tlU/1 yan Idall "The king has MERIT as well" with rgyo/-po yan bsotillam{-daii ldan "The KlNG tlX) has merit."l A connective following the first participant in Ihe proposition Cflf!
1 NOle fuflher eJUlmp lcs fro m the biogt3phy o f MfLa r3s-pa_iinT/lii.gi ridlonn dbon-J/wT

386

TilE C lASSICAL TIBETAN lANaUAGE

also indicate that the information being added is more general, as in Ichyeu
de yaii tshe Ndas-so "And thcn Ihc boy died," bsad-pa yon gram med-do "And

those slain were numberless.") Connectives in successive propositions can emphasize their parallelism: the young Mi-la tells his prospective master Marpa Ius ;wg yid gsum yan ,..hul, /10 gos tIllos gsum yan bfa-rna-fa iu "On the one hand, I arrer you my body, speech, and mind; on the o ther, I ask the lama for food. clothing, and teaching."
Sequential connectives within the same scr:lIence or proposition arc similarly additive-for example, dge-tshul yan dge-slon yan Ndu "Both novices and monks galher together," bu yaii bu-mo yaii 'KYo/-po nan-pas bsad "The villainous king slew nOI on ly sons but daughters also," gser yan diiul yon mi sbyin-no " ) will give neither gold nor silver."

Another function of the connective Yon is to poi nt out when the informatio n supplied in a sente nce or proposition appears improbable or unlikely in light of the preceding text or in light of general knowledge or expectation. Again the connective generally follows the participant which pa rticula rly sUFplies the improbability: compare Ndre-bus rgyolpoaii sluag "Even the king is scared of the lillie demon" with Ndrebus kyO/I rgyaf-po sluag "The king is scared even of a lillie demon." Other examples include ka r-fa.po ni Nbum yon .t hyin " I will give even 100,000 cowries," siior-fns kyan lhagpa yin "This is even bener than before," dgesloii gffig kyaii m~ "There is not even a single monk," no min gtan.t!ig yin./lQ gsod-duan yon " If it were one other than myself he would even ltill you," rifjpor malotlpo; smra yon fa "Before long he could even speak," iied/a fog kyan mizer "They did not even invite us.'.4

paiI)'OII J~am.po b)tsil "The lhollah t occurred to my mind Ilso that he would bestow the initia tion," /D./o.s bkl'mIl mll'poail u,.Iiii ~g '1bere I re some.,.ho call him una MIT'pa as well," 1111 du ~ b/Dma-daii mdlalbai mlhun'~n byaspas.liiigi miiilaaJI "wwnrl')'en tJ.. tJhllp "Since Ihlt field sen'C4 as the ro nunate circumstance fo r meetina my ~m.a, its name came to be Fortunate Circumstance as well," yumgyi lal1IDS dolan Jchyod"llii )'Gil dbWl lig fhob'JNl b)oN pun "The Mother said, 1bi! lime we shall have you tOO "': ;In initiation.' "

] The choice o f rcadinp, of oourse, depe nds o n .... helher the immediately pl"COlldina participant Is prOCll:$$c:4 as OLD tNFORMATIOH (kIIyni rk ~ UM IlliaNO " And lhen the boy we have been talkina abo llt died") o r NEW INFORMATION (kIIyni tk ~ UM /Idm.SQ "The boy also dlc:4, In add itio n 10 the other pcnons we have bocn talkin, abo ut"). This usc: of YWi Is o fte n ro und after I nominaUzc:d prOp05llion in lhe sellinl 5101 marked with the locu! pan ide tIll "In Ihe case lhal ..." With YilA, th i! circulMlance Is

387

2.2. DISCOURSE CONNECTIVES

One way of achieving textual cohesion is through what we will call DISCOURSE coNNEcnVES- con nectives in the setting S[OI of the proposition which

explicitly connect that proposition or sentence to the text that has preceded it. Such discourse conne~ljvcs may be phrases. such as de-nas "thereupon" or bye-brag-tu "in panicula r"; or they may be propositions., such as Ndi /la -sle "for instance" or yill-kyuii "neverthetess.'" Like the English discourse can-

pointed to as wnlrary \0 fact or expectation or dcsirc-lhl.lS "Allhough/Even IhOI.lgh/Even if ... " Note the following examples from Ihe up-par bJad-fX' rin ,po' fJ~i 810 of s.a-skya pal;J<;Iila-blo-grru 11hm -po l'gUlI_ na ran, lhag-pilr blo-gros JlooS-/&'" ~'''A1lhough Ihe wise grow frail, their understanding groW5 strOnger," bla.nan j~$'pa man-no ran. I'f{)u-sknr blin-du pal ",i -nus "Even if fooliSh scholan arc many, like tile planets they Cilnnot illuminate:' toiJ}'O'-bo Ihob-[HIT IO",-na yo;;' bsod-'lOms "ltd-no ga-Ia nag -'Even Ihough }'flu manage 10 galher weallh, how pn. il la~t if you have no merit?" dllm-pa srog-/a bab -m:. yo;;' raii.blin b~aiipo 1:f/-/tl /JJ", "11'10ugh a holy man be in danger uf his life, how can he cast uide his inherent vinue?" And nute Ihe following vcrses:
glliina blllb/uil rod flu "IOu: dI.'QsfH' ; brtl -ba blJol-)"';; /o'bros grom,u,;; btod-Klld Jts-na)",d mdtug-ma med'fHli kJlyi 'Xun)'in

Hc rUM 10 ..... here there is fow and drink; Ihough charged with nc!;.C,..... ary work. he OCCli. Evcn thuugh he knows s l ori~ and jokes. he is an old dllg ..... ithuut a t~il.
h/o-IJhu;; nraii .du /JJusna rllii byoba IJh r n-po sgrob ",inus mi ril)'uii nrtl;; .Ju $dum nll }'II;; khoii pai gdllii-nlll blOr./-par dim

Even if many fooli~1I pcuplc gather Ihey cannol accnmpJiSh great deeds; even if you lie together many single ~lfa""5, il is hard fo r th em to support a 1I0Ulie beam. DisrouI'$C eonntives such as Ik-mu "thereupon" or )'in-k)'OII "nevcllhdes.s," which uplkitly rder to tile oonlenl of Ille preceding texl. can be called Inaphotic or BACK.kEJ-"EkIl.INC oonnectives. Disooun(: oonn:liva such as ~-b'/lg-III "in panieubr" or Ndi 110Ire "for iMunce," which ind iCilte lhal ..... hal follows is linked to the preceding tUi as an ample o r spification, can be caUed IN~"ANTlAnNC connectives.

388

TH E CLASSICAl. TIBETAN LANGUAGE

nectives-such as therefort! .or hence or moreover-Tibetan discourse connectives tend to be stereotyped in form and often archaic in navar. It is only among discourse connectives, for example, that we find preserved the archaic determiner 0 "TI1ERE"; and we find archaic contractions preserved as well-for example, on < o-na and gal < go-fa < gon-Io, as in onte "011 the other hand" and gal-te "if,"

2.3. PHRASAL CONNECTIVES

Many discourse connectives are simply stercotyped nominal phrases, frequently with an explicitly bClck-referring determiner, used in the selling slot to link that proposition or sentence to Ihe preceding text-thus de-nos "thereupon," de- Io "in that regard," drs "therdore," de YUHIU "in that case," 0- /10 "now, well, but," gon yill-na "in any casc." Such connectives are often adve rb~: note such back-referring adverbs as de llar "thus," de btin-du "thus," dei phyir-du-de phyir "for that reason, therefore," gan-gi phyir-du-gaii phyir "for which reason, wherdore," and su~h instant iating adverbs as spyir "generally," phal-dher "for the most part," bye-brag-Iu "particularly," khyadfXJr-du "especia lly:.6

2.4. Yan IN THE SETTING SLOT

When Yan occurs, stressed, in the setting slot of a proposition, it indicates that all of the information in the following proposition or sentt:nce is to be added to what has gone before; thu~ stressed initi:1 1 Yon may he glossed as "moreover, further, in addition, al$O, again, once more"-for example, yaii b/on-pos [us-pa, grsaii-pa-Ia mam-pa man "Moreover the minister said, 'Oeverness comes in many forms.'" In an archaic administrative invoice found at an eighth-century Tibetan garrison in Central Asia, we readyan gro

, Some phTaHl connectives with the locus panicle 1113 appear to derive from nominaliz.cd propositions with omitted v<:rbs, yielding what $eCm to be: double role: panicles_for example, ~-fID ~ ror Qimple," presumably a stereotyped contract ion of a ?hTa.~ ~uch as dp<t brdlod fID "If one would loti it forth as an cumple .. . ," or mdtN1IO "in briel," presumably a stereotyped contraction of I phr~ such as miJlN b!tW.IIQ 'If one would summarize it as In .phorism ... Elsewhere the preSlolmlbly omiHc:d verb is less clear, but mly welt be simply 17H-ror ,Qimple, tU /lar.nD ~ in that ca!ol:,~ <US'IIQ "Ihe(erore,~ ck-bDS-rw 'therefore."
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BEYOND m E SENTENCE

389

bre drug phul./e rgyas blab "In addition, six bre of wheat were delivered and were sealed"; in the biography of Mila raspa we find yon blamas byon.nas, mlhut!hen khyod nsig-pai mkhar ~; sui yin gsun "Once again my lama arrived and said, 'Magician, whose is this lower you aTe building1, ..1

The stereotyped expression Yanna in the setting slot means, for reasons I do not know, "or else, otherwise, on the other hand." For example, Sa-skya pal)c;\ita writes yontan kunrdzogs skyebo sten, yan.na thamal NgT'OgS'po bdt "Adhere to people of perfect virtue; olhelWise it is easy 10 be associaled with the vulgar_" The connective Yanna L .. thus often found in the setting slot of a proposition which fo llows the alternative conjunction -Am "OR"-for example, again from Saskya pal)c;\ita, rndayiJ pharol gsodpoam, yun.na rmi nid MIhagpar "'KYur "An arrow either kills the o!her person or else is itsdf broken," mkhaspo giall-Ia Madpaam, yan-na H-ba; nagHu sgrub "A wise man is either a leacher 10 others, or else meditates in a peaceful forest." Sometimes the connective Yan -nu is fuund ;n sequentiaJ sett ing slots to offer a series of alternatives-Jot example, Mar-pa offers to Mi-Ia the choice yan110

flo-gos stet I!hos gtull-nus /Shof, yan-na I!hos steT lta-gos gtan-nas /S/lol

"Eithe r I give you food and clothing and you seek the dharma from elst!where,' or I give you the dharma and you sed food and clothing from elsewhere." The connective Yan is also part of several backreferring phrasal conllectives -de yan -dean "in that regard," gtan yan "furthermore," on /cyan "nevertheless," yin.naan "anyway," d~ Ilar-na yan " in any case," gan ltarna yon "in any case." After Mjla has told his prospective master Mar-pa his whole sad history, Mar.pa says. Ndug gan Ilar-naan Ius nag yid gsum Nbul zer d~ bzan

1 The txpTeMion )'QII-yoil-or )'Qii-dli )"IA-du or y.m.na.s )'<l1ldu-simi1llrly m~1U "again and apin"_for eumple. in the following verse by saskya p,a1)4ila, who writes,
fJfun,poI sogpai sdug-fJsillJ1.ilid m)'Oil-gi spyod.poi lwk mi-mJOit yuilJQ/I ifu/till /1Q-fJQ-yi NdIuns-poi na ni tryi-fJQ , 'J/ira

Fool$ wle the pain of pthering but do not wle the pleasure of spendi ng: the we.alth of I miser who again and again sn~ks in and looks 11 il is ~ke Ih.a l of rat.

390

TilE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

"Okay. In any event, I like the pan where you offer me your body. speech, and mind."

2.5. PROPOSITIONAL CONNECTIVES

Some discourse connectives are stereotyped propositions (ollowed by
conjunction particles, which connect the second member of the conjunction to the preceding text. The adversali\'c conjunction Yaii "Btrr" is found in such stereotyped expressions as yin .lcyan "nevertheless" and gaii yin.qoii "in any case"; the coordinating conjunction srt "AND" is similarly found in Ndi flo-ste "for instance," de bIin-1t "in tbal case," do-Sft "hencefonh," and Lfi sle-(h-sle-on-tt-gal.tt "if." Note also the campou,nd stereotyped expressions t!j.slt.na-on-ttna-ga!-te-na "but if, if however, even supposing that,"

3. SENTENCES AS PATIENTS
It is possible for a SENTENCE to function as the patient of certain events, such as those expressed by such verbs as GsuR "say," ZER say," SHAM "think," tu "ask.," tv "request," JES "know," LLt "see," and KI'OG "examine." That such patients are sentences rather than propositions is shown by the presence of sentence-final performance particles bero re such verbs-for example, Jarphfogs-nas on-no Jes "They came from the east, 1 know," lIJeb-bam hIeb-bam siiam "I thought, 'Shall I kill myse lf? Shall I kill myself?'" fia-la tfhiJn nwn-po Ichyer-lig glum "'Bring me a lot of beer!' he said."
U

The proposition containing a sentence as its patient participant can in tum be nominalized, a device of which Gtsan-smyon he-ru-ka, among others, was rond; for example, in his Mi-Ia ras-pa cycle, we find such a nominalized proposition runctioning as a no minal HEAD in Ichyod-la mlhu dken-po yod zerba de bden-par Ndug "It is true what they say, that you have great magic power," and as a nominal MODIFIER in mi-Ia rru-pa-14 gler yod zer-bai mirntJms-kyi /chQr skyag gofi-tig llhug-tJig "Put a piece of shit in the mouths of those who say Mi-Ia ras-pa has gOld!" Sometimes such sentential patients are quite brief, and the reader must be alen to recognize a sentence even in a single word-for example, nUllag:s-sam Ius tuii gsuiiJ "'Is it all right?' I asked, 'All right,' he said," t.fhog.,am siiamflQ mi-llhog "If you're wondering, Is it permitted?-well, it isn't," kJryeJ-raii-lil

BEYOND 11IE Sf!lO'EHCE

391

.for gsun-bQ Ndug "He says to you., 'Come! ' " ned-/o Jog kyaii mi-zer "They did

not even invite us," yin Ztr snon "He said, 'It is,' and lied," dgOs-so siiam "I thought, I have to." Nominalized propositions with sentential patients can be similarly laconic-thus gyis ztr-bai gzl.lg,f "images regarding which it was said, 'Make them!'" or even Nbras-bl.l tshur Jog-gi yid-mum "a wish. 'May the fruit of this return to mel""

3.1. QUOTE OPENERS

Several expressions are used in the setting slot of a proposition to indicate that an immediately following sentence is the patient of a fina: verb of speaking: these expressions are conveniently called QUOTE OPENERS. One such quote opener is 'the expression na-re. of uncertain origin. which immediately fo llows the identification of the speaker; the speaker has no overt role particle, even with a transitive verb. For example, in the Tibetan translation of the Abhidhannako!abha~a by Vasuhandhu, the various competing philosophical positions are set forth with such quote openers as Jeha- lSiX na-re "Some say ... " glan-dog na-re "Others say .. ," siion-gyi slob-dpon M-rt: "Masters of the past have said, . ." mdo-.~de-pa-mam.s M-re "The Sautriintikas say , . ," ~-brag-tu smra-ba -mams M-re "The Vaibha~ikas say . .. " lrJuJ-tIh.e-ba.--IJUlms nQ-Te' "The Kashmirians say , .. " nub-phyogs-pa-dag n(l-re "The Westerners say ... " Note the following examples from the biography 0( Mi-Ia ras-pa, wher;e we find la-Ia nQ-re bdell-ptl bden-te da-Ian ha J.~aii drag ur "Some said, '1hIth is truth, but this is too lillich,'" or rgan-po-mums na-re mo bsad-pa.s t!i/o phan . , . zcr "The elders said, 'What benefit will it b:: to JrjU her?' " OtheJ quote openers are marc clearly adverbs or foc us part icipan ts~- f(lr example, iitJj yid-Iil ... snam "In my mind, I thought ... " Ndi skad-du ... l:er ''This., in words., he said ... " Ndi snam...:ll.l , , . bsarns "This, in his mind, he thought, " Wbere the quote is from a text, the source is ciled with the particle ./as (and often with the final veth byuR "occur, appear")-thus mdolas "From the scripture ... " Ndul-balas "From the ecclesiastical laws . . ," dbu-mala Hdtug-pa-/as "From the Madhyamakii vallira .. " or even such

A. aenlentill patient differs from a rompJenlent ronsrrllction Wilt, the s..me verb. For c:x&D1-PIe, tIhoI J1IDA III MBesIOW the dlurrn', I !lS1r." is a dirrerem c:oru truction than t1hru pA-bM til '" ask Wt )'Ou bestow the <!hIlIlUI," and k t J.mrru ''' I Ir.now; he said" is a dlllereDt ooDSttllCtion lhan JU-JII SItINU "He uid IIll1l he knew."

392

THE Q...t.ssICAL nBETAN L\N"OUAGE

combinations as IJhos miion-pa-Ias fold; skod-du "From the abhidhanna. this.,

in words ... " Quote openers with the honorific word lal "mouth" indicate

either a direct quote or an oral tradition descended from the indicated person-for example, yab-kyi lal-nas bla-mai bka bsgrub dgoJ gmiis "My. master said. 'One must accomplish the lama's commando'"~ blamai tal-nas, khyed bud-med blo-mo zer1uJ bden-par gda gsuiis "The lama said. "Ylle saying is true, that you women are sharp-witted,'" rcHe-buWI-gyi Ial-nas, nan-pai nniwm mlhon-ba blin ma-daii Nphrad-pai skol-ba ma-byuii gsum "The Reverend Master said, 'As I saw in my inauspicious dream;it was! not my fate to meet with my mother.'"
When a large chunk of lext is to be quoted, such as when the speaker sings a song or gives a metrical peroration, the quote opener may be marked with the statement particle -0. When Mi-la. is about to sing, he narrates glu lid;
bluijs-so ") took up this song," often with a brief indication of the nature of the song-for example, rania /JJaglldtbs-lcyi glu Nth' bia;u-so "I took up this song of self-reproof," bdt-ba inai glu 11i bfaiis-so "I took up this song of the five pleasan t things," mdhima NkhlUS biill.poi iiaii-nas gtu Mii bfaiis-so "In a state close to tears, I took up this song_'" In the archaizing chronicle Rgyaf robs gsa/-bai me-foii, the putatively historical characters frequently make long melrical speeches to each other, and we find such highly stereotyped quote openers as Hdi skad ur-ro-Ndi skod byas-sQ "This, in words, he said, , ," Mli skod des Clol-to "This, in words, he thus besought ." Ndi skad IJp bkIJ stsa/lo "This, in words, he thus commanded, , ,"

3.2. THE QUOTE CLOSER TSes

How does a reader know when a quote is finished? One way is by noting the verb of speaking immediately following its sentential patient-for example, as when Mar-pa and Mi-Ia have the following interChange:

maT'po byon"las kllll-la gzigs-nog lib-mo mdzad-nas, budhm gsumpos bsgril-bai rdo de-/a pllyag-mdzub btsugs-tt, mthutlhen rdo lidi ga-nas byuii c;suR, tllUgssrQ$ budlrtn-'niams-kyis sku rtsed/a bstlams byuii-ba lags tus-pas, a-no kiloii-tshoi mos khyod-kyi mkhar.laskyi go mj.tJll()d, rdo Adi il.OIl/a dan.poi sar
, When MiJa $ings 10 a superior, he sa)" gIw Hdi phul/O '" olTered up Ihis son&- WbcA a Jllpc:rior sings 10 Mi la, Mila nanale:t Ihe evenl IIonoririeat/y as mgur _ pIlJ-slJ.
H

BEYOND TIlE SENTENCE

393

skyol GsuR, mkhar Ndi mi-bJig-pai tal-bIes yod tus-ptU, de yodde ... Jam bJig-pa ni min rdo lIdi thonla raii-gna.s-su skyo/ GsuR
Mar-pa came and made a careful inspection of everything. He pointed to the stone the three disciples had rolled up. "Magician, where did this stone come from?" "Your three discipleJ brought it in sport." "Wel~ their stone is inappropriate for your tower work. Pull out this s~ne and take it back to its original place." "You promised this tower would not be destroyed!"''So I did. But this is no t to destroy the whole thing. Pull out this stone and take it back to its own place." I have capitalized the verbs of speaki ng in this passage for ease of reference. Notice how easy it is to keep track of who is speaking at any time in this exchange. The fint speaker must be Mar-pa, because he addresses the other as mthu-lIhen "magician," the epithet by which Mi-Ia was then known; then a tum by Mar-pa is indicated by the honorific verb of speaking GsuR "speak/' and a turn by Mi-Ja by the humble vc:rb .?f speaking tu "request."tO But, in addition, the particle ties can be used to indicate that a previous quoted discourse has ended, and thus, too, to mark a preceding discourse as attributed to one other than the present speaker-for example, from the Tibetan translation of the Madhyamakiivtlliira by Candrakirti, NdiK'lis-ga rgyu met/-par NgyUT-ro, Ia Nl!had-pa n~ NgQgs-na rlcytn yaii g(1ii-lig yin "And what are the grounds for refuting those who contend, 'These both are without cause?'" or, from the Ugs-par bJad-pa rin-po-tJhei gtu by Sa-skya pal)"ita, sgom-na thospa mi-dgos la, blun-po blo-rgya IJhuii-iiu smra "1 you meditate you need not have learning, say fools of little inte lligence.,,11 10 Thb pasNfC, by the way, contains an inlercstingliule tmual puu.Je. The blockprint from Spo I.n KhIIms bas the tc.4inl gzigs-IO( libmo, while those from BsunrtyU-llili in UlaN Oly and from Bkra~is Ihun-po have the ru,4in& &tigs-Ior dgtl-lrlo, and that from SpIIlb-thaft in BhuLin bas the reldinl gzigs.nor dga-mo.. There can be liule doubt that the correct ra4inl of the fint 'NOr4 is gzigJ-nor "inspotlion, examination. presumably a so::oaCSary hanoriric of nor-po < RTAG "cumine, consider, .search into." But was Ihis im~k?a orf&lnally lib/f'W ."CUC1, prcds.c, tboroup" 01 dp-mo "happy. cheerful", I cenalnly tblnk lib-mo m. kQ more sense in thb conla!; but I must confea thai assuminl that rca4ln& to be ori&lnal makea hlsh out of .ny reasonable fililtion of tile texts..
R

II 1lIc panicle rlu ''nius .bould_ln parallel wilb tile plrticlcl -Tfir.1td .T!iII, which bc&ln witb tbe same morpbopbonemc 11-beoomc dQ .fler prccedinl fiul .f, -d, .Itd .b;
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394

TilE ClAssiCAl TI8ETAN Lo.NOUAOE

When the particle 1'kJ is present, also, the verb of speaking may be less explicit than, say, the verbs n.w "contend" and Sit/ItA "say" in the prcceding two exampleJ-thus, again from Sa-sJcya pal)~ita, fwn -pa gtan-don sgrubbo les, snad btagNI4f Iii kiiglo shyor' .. 'We act for thl.. sake of others: falsely say the wicked, and stick to sin," or Ndi Mes Ndi "i dgra-bo tes, blogrw dhuii mams so.sor Nbyed "Fools make diSlinctions-this is a friend, this an enemy,"
0'

bdtlg.gis bya-ba mtl-zin-pas ('C-lig du'iii khyod btug3 fa mtJhjnws bmans-t( gsol btab-kyaii
Htfhjbdng bl!os-$u ga-ta roii

" I have not finished my warx, so wail, ~oday. just a linle while." Though one thus pray, choked with tears, hOw can the Lord of Dealh change his mind?

Indeed, when the particle: 11u is present, there need be no explicit verb of speaking at all, the particle alone: sufficiently indicating th at Ihe preceding discourse is a quotation, Note the foll owing examples from Sa-skya p.II,lQilf1 :

become tu .fter precedin g fina l _II, on, .m, ,r, .1. lin<! ope" syllable'>; Ino! beoome lts .fler preocding tiM-I.1Id pOMfinal ,s. H()'W(:Ver, manll5(:rlplS not infrequently hav-; t n or fIts after a predinl syllablefinal 'S, ralher tha n lu, probably because lhe La u et aJ lomu rph loon confusingly like a stem of Ille verb Ju "know." Thus, for cumpJe, JIliny bJlXkprinlS of the up.JXl' bfiJd.pil rin'P(Nlh<i II)' SaS~;)'3 p~ ~~ ita ~ive the leadi ng t t J in, ~y, Sgom fHl fhospil midgos t t l "If you me4it-.te, yo u don' t !lew I.. ..a.rn ing, tlley say," ral h,,' Iba n the "correct" JgvtnM IhoJ'JHl mi.dgos JtS, which oo u)d Ulotly b;': read as " !f you med lla lt1, you don 'l need learning. Ihey know,"

srt,

The p.anicle 1.1#:1 iUlTUI t le.r.rly relille4 10 Ihe verb TIm : "s~k , say." The part itLe has retained silllificalll Iraces o f verbality: it can, l'Ipparcnl ly , be no minali~..ed , as in InuII!tJ-pG NJdkyf nUll yin '11Ie word Jnun is .1 term fo r di!oC.l!oC"; il can be foll oww try I oonjunttiQn, as In rd-", .I!Dn-Jtnu mtd ats!t, phllrot kl"'/Il yid rn jt/rftlll "You un uy. ' ! I:.w~ 1 -.0 "art thouJllts In)'Klf'; bUI ckIn't trwt anyone else"; il can be followed tJy a perfo rm r'lr ,.~ . 'las when a quote endJ, si mply. 1J,,so. A tIOminalizecl is frequently t'l:' ,-~ ronclusion of a bllXkprint or manw.cript, in the S tCrcOlyped expre<.sio Tl t::~ r' oJ , .... ' or "Tk1.ptJ Ndi)lOll . .. ..hith marks the col'l ei !/..~ion or , he lext pl(... ~; a nd the bc & inn ing o f the colophon.

ne .,

BBYOND ~E SarrENCE

39S

siiiii-lil Ichon-du sdaii blllii-nas kJIIJ-1o tshigbzaii smrao fa dra1i-sroii gdugpai gdamsiiag-stt dJJm-pai IshuJ-daii NgtJIba yin

"Hate firmly in your heart, and speak good words in your mouth." This is the teaching of a vicious sage; it contradicts the way of the holy.
dug.gi roaba Ndonpa lh2r dgra-bo madnos blIad-do fa rgyal-poi lugs.las Nbyuii.modkyi bu Min bskyans-nas bu blitz byed

''Tear out your enemy by the roots as you would tear out a source of poison." Though this is found in the book of DUgs, jf you protect someone like a son, he will act like a son. And the particle ms, without specirlC attribution to a source, can indicate simply that the preceding statement is being reported as hearsay, or as based upon tradition; for example, in the Ge-sar epic, we read the following description of a magical chiid-libu min-po phtu-gu lxUmo-lig-1il gyur.lt, roma/a blaii-na f14 It l . grib-Nkhyagl-Ia bor-na Nkhyags del "The coarse worm became a iender chi!d: if put in the sun would melt, they say; if left in the shade would fre eze. they say:' The expression B el bye, with the future stem of the verb 8'01: "do, say," {and the elegant equivalent T$es DCYI. with the future stem of the verb BGY1 "speak. say") follows a nominal with the meaning "be called, be named"-for example, Sanskrit (cnocyarilt Wald dha1TJ1Q iii Tibetan dtNUJ dgebaj t1hos moms Ies byao "Thc.refore they are called 'virtuow elements ... This exprelsian is frequently nominalized as T$es bya-ba (and the elegant equivalent l'ks bgyiba) and modifies a nominal head with the meaning "so called, thus named"-for example, Sanskrit hhiimir iii gati-llifaya/;l Tibetan sa its bya-ba ni go-slwbs-kyi yui-te "What is called 'earth' is the realm of extension," Sanskrit moho lliimiillidylI Tibetan rmoiis'pa fa byaba ni ma-ri&-paste "The term 'delusion' meam ignorance," mal-Nbyor-gyi dbaii-phyugyul gnanam grad. po phug les bya-bai blti-gnas dam-po-na Mugs "The Lord of Yoga dWelt in the holy pilgrimage place named Stomach Cave in the country of Gfta-nam.
H

396

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

The nominal ~s bya-ba is also often found in book titles-for example, Sanskrit Arya-sarradhi-ninnocana-niim(l-mahiiyiina-sWra Tibetan Nphags-pa dgoiis-pa nu-par H8"1ba lu bya-ba theg-pa 1J~It-poi mdc "The Noble Mahayana Scripture entitled Clarifying the Intention," Sanskrit Subhii$ilaratnn-nidhi-nama-IQsml Tibetan legs-par bIad-po rin-po-tJhei gter les bya-bai bstan-btIos 'Treatise entitled Precious Treasury of the Well-spoken," mal
Nbyor dban-phyug dtJm-ptl rdIe-btsUII mifa ras-pai mom-tha, thar-pa-tklii thams-tJad mJchyen-pai Jam ston les bya-ba "The Biography of the Holy Lord

of Yoga. the Reverend Mi1a ras-pa, entitled Showing the Way to Freedom and Omniscience."
Another member of this family is Ihe stereotyped expI;cssion Tk-na "If one says . . ... 11 The expression is first found in the translation literature, especially of Sanskrit commenta ries, where it marks both rhetorical questions and statements by philosophical opponents which are 10 be refuted. For example, in the Tibetan translation or the MadhyantavihhiippIcQ by Slhiramati, we read the quoted statement tJhO$-mams ran-hIin-gris od gsalbo-niddu mi-nUi-iio fe-na ... "1 one says, 'It is incorrect that events are inherently colorless light ... '" or, in the Tibetan translation of the AbhidharmalinJohhiiD'O by Vasubandhu, de Ita-no ono ni mom-par Ies-pai khnms drug-po-dog lIaii-gi yin-par mi-Ngyur-te, de-dag yid-kyi khamsiiid-du ma-gyurpa ni sems-kyi rt{'ll-du mi-Ngyur-ro fe-1Ul ... "If one says, 'Well, in that Case, the six fields 'o f perception are not internal, and, not being within the mental field, they are not a basis of thought ... '"

However, it is much more common in the translation literature-and especially in the later classical texts-for ~-na to be preceded by a question. Such a question can be an information question-for example, from the MadhyQnlavihhaga(ilc4, gal-te tIhos-mams ran.MiII-grit ad g:sal-ba-;w yin-no dli liar siiar kunnas iion-mons-pa phyis mom-par byan fe-no . .. "If one ub, '1 events arc inherently colorless light, how can they first be obscured and then cleansed?' .. ." or, from the AbhidhilrmakoIabhiil)la. rlun-la Icho-dog d1.i Itar yod Lfe-na, don Ndi ni dad-par byaba yin-gri rdtes-su dpag-par ni rna-yinno "How can air have color? This is a matter of faith,! and not a matter for investigation." Or it may be a yes-no question-for example, from the AbhidJaannDkoIabhiiD'O, mig kyan Ius-Icyi dbaii-po blill-du yul de phrad-ptl-tiB yin-nom leona . , . "1 you ask, ']5 the eye, too, something that contaCU its
12 Tbe oprcsslon T.k'''Q is, '1Iin, clearl)' rclaled 1101 only 10 T'k$ '''IUS" bill also (0 (he verb rolE "speak, u)'."

BEYOND TIlE SENTENCE

397

object, like the sense of touch?' ..." or Hdj-la don-f1IJJnLf kyan dbaiibyedpa ma.yin.nam !.~-na ... " If one asks, 'As for that, aren't external objects. also organs?' ... " Indeed, the ~urrence of m-na with questions was sufficiently expected that it became a way of marking an indefinite determiner as interrogative: a proposition such as N,Jj-la ston-pa-iiid gt1n yin l~ na in the MadhyilnlQvibhdga(l1cii is, context aside, clearly to be read as "As for that, what is emptiness?"

3.3. QUESTIONS AS PATIENTS

k we have seen, question sentences can be patients of verbs of speakingfor example, na gan ZQ zer nu!.iii Hdug "'What willi eal?' she said, weeping," nuhu-tIMn las tIi ~-tIiii Hdug p un "He said, 'Magician, what work are you doing?''' su yin dris Jog "Come ask, 'Who is it?'" gar son pun .. 'Where did he go?' he said." But, in addition, question sentences can occur as the patient of certain verbs which are not verbs of speaking-for example, lD. "see.," STON "ShOW," Sa "know," RfAG "examine," DRAN "remember." With information questions the interpretation of such constructions is fairly straightforward-for example, Hdj GAR yin iias brtag "I will find out WHAT this is," na-bun HAM yat mj-ks "We do not know WHEN the fog will lift," su yin blta "We will see WHO it is," rmilam -la byun-sa mN-pas NI yin mi-Jts "Since dreams have no meaning, I don't know WHAT this one is." With yes-no questions the analysis is slightly more complex. \3
.na~ lie possible lIere. Look II IlIree prop05iliollJ fro m. poem by

\3 Two dilkrenl

HAM yal mikl "We do nol 1r.now WHEN lhe fOI willlirt," JbraArui SIIS tpyod mi-Ju " We do IIOl know WHO will \UoC tile hoDCy," IGU pIt.aIt t.dwp mj.Ju "We do

J..o. ..... pa-IM.bun

DOl 1r.Dow WHrnER lbis";l1 brinl prOfiL ~ There is every reasoD 10 believe lhal lbe lulllor relt lbele Q)lIIlrUC1ioN; 10 be palllileL Now OK .nalysis-lhe one propolCd bere-likes, u)', 1WI-bwI_)IIII II I q~tlon lenience " WIleD will lhe fOllifl?~ fuDCIIoDiDl1i lhe pallenl of t!Je verb 1s .. ~; Ibit ....lysil derives tbe readinl "We do nolinow when lbe foa";l1 lift" from IlIe readl. , "WIlen twill lbe fOI Un? We do fIOl know." The olber I"'lysis\.Ili1iaUy allnlCliYe-would Like IID'bun /lam ytd II a .bonened form, willloul lhe .1tl, ot a relllMzcd prDp05ldoD modifyial an omincd bud uDdenlood 10 be IOmethinl like dw "1."; lhit; ....lysil dertYa; !he mean.inl "We do DOl blow wbea lhe fal will lift" from In IlDdeflyinl'(IWI-bws _~pGl_' miJu " We do DOt know (Ihe time) when tbe foa";l1 IJJI.
'IlIe IIoeCOGd 1...1yIb, I Ibini. cannol dell witb prOJKl'illoa .ucb II IGU pI\mIN-1hop mIDOt know wbelber Ihis ";11 brinl profiL "1'bc: .nalysb propolCd bere L11r.es 1ItIiz

Ju "We do

398

THE ClAssiCAl. TIBETAN l...-.J.iGUAGE

When a yes-no question is the patient of such a verb-and not when it is the patient of a verb of speaking-the question particle -Am after the verb can optionally be replaced by the particle le- BEFORE the verb: thus. for example, we find both bden-par Ndug-gam bl1ag and bden-por le-Ndug bnag "We will find OUI whether it is truc." Frequently the alternative nature of the question sentence is made explicit in such a construction-thus. for example, lalchu Jiam .ma-!i biro " I will see whether or no t my uncle has died," la-ne skyidda m mjskyid blla "I will see whether my aunt is happy or not"; or, with lereplacing -Am in the first of the two altemativeJ, ?t-nus mi-nus mi-ks "I do
not know whether or not we can." Note the following examples of embedded yes-no questions with the prefiX le- from the biography of Mi-la ras-paLfhanfig ?e-g1lan ltos "See if they will give us some beer," m yor byon-IUU bla-ma /a fu-skabs ?eNdug bltQJ "Some of them went up and saw whether the lama was in a mood to lislen," kilyed-dan ?ephrad mi-Jes "I don't know if I will meet with you again," khan -po 7eNphrod de-no . . . "If you ask whether this house will prosper ... "; and, with ?e replacing -Am in the first of tw{)
allcrna liv~s, na; gdamsnag sgom nU,fna uhe Ndir .fam ?e''XYa mi''XYa yon stan pa yiJl "This doctrine of mine is one that will show, ir you can meditate on it, w he th e r or nOl you will become a Buddha in this lifetime."

phlO fI ?!'rho<,.:r u regularly derived from

s "~h ~~

a qucstion sente nce NdU phD" fllllpS"," or even Ndis

phi'" Ih0t;s f(l f{l nr; /hO"t:J "Will tll is bring pro~I?" whe n it runctio ns IS the pltient o f a verh

.tn "k now." ; am 11m a t all

sueh as
t h i~.

pmp()~i "o'l

~ lIre how the second anal)Sis Vo"(luid even begin 10 ha lMlk (n iaet. ( tllink tile ~nd .nat)Sis has Ot her problenu as well.

!r: Iht: biography IIf Mi). ralO ' pa we fi nd III1J'pa .III rl ht/xI WID " We will see who is mo re ab!c. The nominal flU S' pD musr here be interpreted as having a human referenl, bea\.tSoC it j~ f(:1;,l<:~ ~JIlI~ctically II> .III-thus, in this propositio n, "II.1pa "person h.ving .biliry .-:: NilS "w; ai- Ie.'" ti m)":1 the seco nd anal~is, Ihe proposition would be: read IS fW.I'fNll(~ tfhl").pol!' Ii 111'<1. In mh ~f wo rds. il would be read a~ having. t:Kp(i~itly. bolh lhe .I'n and Ihe IIu<I of Ihe "':)~ ll",' cu tls,,,,,l i,,n which were o milu:d in, say,1W' bu" "am ya1. Under this reading. (lie nIHIl,r_;': Iu-r.u "".1'(,(, " pcrson ha"ing ;bilily:' however modified, would be the pllient of tiw: ,,":Ih i /.: "-..x.' BUi tllis is, I hcli..:ve, an incollfxt reading or the proposilion: the speaker L, 11m !h-'~!'~'hng tha i we will sa: an ahle person, eve n a ,real one, bUI rattler Ihal we wi:! ~ Iii': tJut.;omc o f ~ dtcisiun as to whdl perw n 1:; mote . ble lhan Ihe olber, Under the ti"t ~ "al:"I~.. on ihc IlIh e r halld, "",j .pil s'" lillt./J/l would be: read as lhe quest ion senlenc:e Wh, .. ~ i><'::""GI,II~ 'i ;! cah , lity (is) Ihe grea tef une?" funetionin, as the pi!ien! or (he YCrtI 1_1 .40 ",I.lC:' WHO Inc pal le n! sc me ncc hnir'g the equa ljye ycrb ulI$\lrprisin,ty omitted; thi.\ ~n aly<i ~ <!e llyr_ , \I.e (COlI/.ng " We will 5((: wM ts HIe mure: .ble fro m Ihe readin, "Which loc rMl n .h,;v,nKahiI I\Y i~ the: grcale r one? We will SoQC," whic:1!. etrlXlivc:1y embodieS II\(; un derl),'"f, sc n~c of ..:lIoice without irwokin!!! any 5pecill Nk:I.
M

BeYOND niE SEN1l!NCE

399

To show that alternative questions and constructions with 1~- are virtually interchangeable as patients of these verbs, we can compare two different versions of one song. traditionally attributed to MHa ras-pa. One version is found in his biography by Gtsaii-smyon he~ru-ka, and the other is found in the B;"a-brgyud mgur-mtsho, an anthology of the mystic songs of the Bkabrgyud masters. These two versions differ in several intereJting ways; but note in particular that. in the following parallel verses selected (rom the poem, one version will have a yes-no question with le- and the other with -Am.'
Mi-Ia mam-thar rna-'8an luskyi sgrom-bu de, da-Ita sku-khams ?e-bzan Bkil-bTDud mw-mJsJuj

iia-yi la-rna lus.Jcyi sgrom-bu

de, dus daita lig-gam rna-fig bIla

b/la
The old mother who was the container of my body-I will see if her health is now good.
bIos-lUi or-mo gru-gsum de, da-Ita Ndlagskya leHphyur bIla

My mother who was the container of my body-I will see whether or not she has perished.
gIan-fiii or-mo gru.-gsumla, NdIag-skya phyur-ram ma-phyur bila
As for the valley field Or-rna Triangle-I will see whether or not it has now been overgrown with pale grass.

The food field Or-nlO Triangle -I will see if it is now overgrown with pale grass.

dam-t.fhos dkonmlIhog bruegs-pa de, dUf doIta thigs-pas le-brdufir blla

dum-Lfhos glegs-bam fID/os-pa de, dus dalla btugs-sam rna-blugs blla

The precious holy dharma stacked up-I will set if it has now been ruined by raindrops.
mlIhod-gnas dkon-mtIhog lha-Hbum de, da-lla Mugssam ma-btugs blla

The numerous books of holy dharma-I will see whether or not they now remain.
bla-mlIhod dkorgiier lha Nbum de, dus da-Ila skuidIOms ?e-bzoR blla

400
The priest Dkon-mt!hog IhaNbum-l will see whether or not he now remains.

THE cu..ssICAL TIBETAN l...ANoUAGE

The priesl steward Lha-Nbum

-I will see if his health is now good.

4. FIGURES OF SPEECH
4.1. METAPHOR
Metaphor is one way of manipulating the semantic content of participants; metaphor can thus have syntactic consequences, even though it is not itself created syntactically. Moreover, metaphor can function across sentences: an extended metaphor is a device of textual cohesion, a~ much 85 any connec-

tive.
Some metaphors are lexical. NOIe the expression thag TSIIAD "cut the rope," for example. Mi-Ia rss-pa says bdog iie4u.&ln NbreJ.thag btJad "I have cut the rope that binds me to my family." One can re-thag Ti'(AD "CUI the rope of hope" and thus give up one's plans; one can o-thag 7~HAD "cui the: rope of milk" and thus wean a baby. Most important, one can blo-thag tlHAD "cut the rope of mind" and thus end deliberation, make a decision, be sure about something. Eventually this particular metaphor becomes dead, and the verb compound thag-tlHAD "cut the rope" comes to mean, simply, "decide." We also find rather dry and academic metaphors, in the Indic style, in the classical literature; Tsoii-kha-pa, for example, in his Dgons-pa rob-gsa! commentary on Candrakirti's MadhY(Jm(J/div(Jliira, writes as follows:

kun-gyi gt~r kun-gyi ma-Ndris mdza-b!es-t~ sa-gsum NgrO-l(J lam-bzan mUhon-pai mig zab-tIiii
Nd1ig-rt~n

'8Ya-tIh~i 1~-bIad

'hub-dbaii smra-ba; fi.;-mas I1ag-ru skyons

Treasure of all the deep broad maxims, Unasked friend of all the world, Eye which shows the good path to beings of the three realms, Sun of the master's teachings-ever protect us! The native Tibetan poetic tradition is particularly rich in metaphor. In the epic of Ge-sar we read of mtho nam-mkha mlhiii-gi gur-kJU1f1 "the azure tent

BEYOND mE Sl!NfENCE

401

of heaven on high." The horses of Tibet are descnbed as foUows:

Ichm.mo gliii-gi mdo-tJhci'f11(JtnS 14-10 _.po phyw.phyw mJ IIwd-14 ~kJw NpIuv.NpIuv mJ dwr./Q rlJab-rgOd yruyar mi
The great spotted hoJ'Se$ of Olin are a swirling fos: upon the passes, are soaring hawks upon the plain. are a leaping avalanche as they descend. Or again:

ru'NgQ slcyjd-kyi iiinul NtIIuu ru'NgQ Ndli&r-snaii rhUirutg HfShub nJij,smu dgoiis-lcai tWr-tJugla Jioms,moJi rluJi-gis bskyod-bsJcyod/UU
Sometimes the sun of fortune rises; sometimes the storm of fear whirls about. The winds -of thought disturb the silken banners of the mind. We also fmd frequent metaphors in the genre of lyric poetry called ""'..,. "mystic song." Padrna durpo particularly would build his poems around a framework of extended metaphon; here, for example, he uses a series of syntactically parallel and interlocking metaphoR to express his sorrow at havina to leave the beautiful ~brag vaJley, where he has been meditating with his disciples, in order to fulfil) his political and administrative respon sibilities elsewhere:

NdzmngIUi I!Iw-nwho-"" N/I)Niba ku.mud.kyi sdoiipo tk-la mdm'fIJuBs-su ldDn-pa tIhuJel-K!i zla-ba tlw-tJlwd iUn-muIuUI~ bgrodpas zlaIHJ ;w LfJuu1UJS gliIi-pun IIinHkhor-la byaJ-ruu IJw..gIiii Ndir skb-oii od-dJuu dgo .....-<tu H/l)'Od-do ku..,udkyi "",,tshal SQ-smo.t' ,ur-balIu sru/is-Jig siiag.Nlt!haii-gi rutg-po

THE CUssICAl. TIBETAN lANOUAGE

Haughty in the southern lakes are the stalks of water lilies, and their lover is the crystal moon: wandering through day and night I am the moon and must depart to circle the wo rld in a day; will return he re to the south and hold 9 feast of white moonbeams. o blackness of magicians! protect from the hailstorm my fo rest of water lilies!
span-glom mlhon-pona mdzespo span-rgyan-tJ'i snon-mo de-Ia mdza-gtIugHu [dan-po stag-tIhuii-gi buiiba dus-tshod bser-bu-yis bskul-bas buii-ba nos tIiuunas nags-mlha yud-tsam-tJ'u bskornas spanglons Ndir sleb.cii giu-s,VO dir-dir-gyis Ngdu,so span-rgyan.gyi tshaldhen me-tog ba-mo-Ias slcyobs-lig lho -sprin-/D'i smug-po

Beautiful upon the high meadows is the blue of thc flowers, and the ir lover is l ~e young tiger-stripc=rI bee: impelled by the cool breeze I am the bee and must depart to eircle the woods in an instant; will return here to the meadow and fill it with buzzing song. a mists or southetIl clouds ' protc(:\ from thl.: frost my f(}fest of meadow flowers!
fho-brag luii-gsum- lla skyidpa X',a.f-dh~n-gyi mkhar-Lfhu ddo mdza-gtlugssu !dan -po mol'Nbyor-gyi pad-dkar dW-lSllod bya-blag-gis bTt/-bas pad-dlu1r iias lJluls-nas fha-gtsaij skad -tIig-gis bskor-nas gnos-dh~n Ndir sleb on dam-lIllOs dga-ston -du Nf:I~d-do .Vliir blugs-poi ml.Ihod-yon kl,y~d-tIQg bar-IIirad-/as skyobs-lig bla.ma-yi dkon -mtIhog

BEYOND

nm SEmENCE
Delightful in the three valleys of tho-brag is the holy Rwer Mkhar, and iu lover is the yogin Pad-ma dkar-po: busy with things that must be done 1 am Pad-rna dur-po and must depart to circle Lho-kha and Quang in a moment; will return here to this holy place and hold a feast of the holy Law_ o jewel of lamas! protect from hindrance my friends and disciples!

4113

The followlng song similarly consists in a series of extended metaphors: Padma dkar-po sings of his desire to cast aside his administrative responsibilities, to cease his wandering among the kingdoms of the world, and to live in meditation by the River Mkhar:
1UJg.t-ldt ons phaf-mo-la Ngrim-pa T"6Y'I-slag-gi khra-bo
tsan-dan nags-ma-dan phrad-pas smll-rid-fa for-nas nags-mlha slieg-pa-Ia mi-dga sl ag-piuug-gi gIOII-nu Ndzum-drug bstan-sa-Ia bya yin t.fan-dan-gyi nags-rna

Th= striped tiger

wanders in ordinary woods until he is captivated by find ing the sandalwood forest. Then the young tiger has no joy dashing about the woods: Ihe forest of sandalwood is t:.lf: pIece for him to show his grin.
gaiis-ri zur-Icha -la Ngrim-pa sen-ge-yi dkar-mo gaiis-slod mlhon-po-dan phrad-pas sems-yid-Ia Jar-nos zur-kha-Io siltg-pa-la mi-dga sen-pJltug-gi gton-nu g.yu-ral gsig-sa-ia bya yin gaiis-uod-kyi mlhon-po

The white lion wanders beneath the glaciers until he is captivated

404

THE Cu.ssICAL TIBETAN lANOUAGE

by finding the high snows. Then the young lion has no joy dashing beneath the glaciers: the snowy heights are the place for him to shake his turquoise mane:.
mlsho-mJha sgor.mo.lil Ngrim-pa HgyW-ldan-Kfi na-mo Uhu-kkUi dwans-mo-dQii phrad-pas s~ms-yid-la Jor-nlU mlsho-ml~ siiq-pa-la mi-dga llaii-dJuu-gyi na-pluug

per-mig blla-sa-la bra yin g.YU-mlSho-yi siion-mo

The wiggling fish wanders around the lake until he is captivated by finding the clear stream.

Then the young fish has no joy dashing around the lake: the blue of the turquoise waters is the place for him to roll his golden eyes.
dguii-siion mlhon-po-fa "grim-pa byo-rgyal-gyi fKOd-po brag-dmor ri-bo-dan pllrad-pas sems-yid-la Ior-nQ.$ nam-Hpllaii spyod-pala mi-dga llan-dkar-gyi gion-nu gtog-phrug brkyaii-sQ-la bya yin brag-dmar-gyi mihan-po

The kingly condor wanders the high blue heavens until he is captivated by finding the red rock mountains. Then the young condor has no joy soaring the sky: the heights of the red rocks are the place for him to spread his pinions.
rgyat.khanu phyogs.med-la Ngrim-pa maJ-Hbyor-gyi dpon-slob gnas-tJMn mJchar-tJhu-4aii phrad-pas sems-yid-ia lor-fUJS rgyaJ-IcJuJms Hgrimpa-Ia mi-dga bsranHd:in-gyi gton-nu sgomsgrub Ntlagsbyar-la bya yin debiyi /ro-ti

BEYOND TIlE Sam:.NCE

The yogin and his disciples wander thr~ugh all kingdoms until they are captivated by finding the holy River Mkhar. Then the young scholar has no joy wandering the kingdoms: Devakoli is the place for him to be sealed in a cave to meditate.

4.2. SIMILES
Similes., on the other hand, are created by a syntactic device; and similesespecially extended ones-can easily cross sentence boundaries. 1Wo terms are used in Tibetan to create similes-blin "like, as" and lla--Jbl-bu--lIa-ba "like, as." When used to formulate a simile, -blin and -lta--Ita-bu-lta-ba normally appear in adverb form. although the adverb particle -lU may be 'omitted under the constraints of meter; note, for example, in the lAgs-par blad-po rin-po-tJh~i gt~r by Sa-skya pal)i;lita, blags-pai 1IOr ni sbraii-nsi-bar, nam-lig glan-gyulpyod-po( NgYur"Hoarded wealth, like honey, will eventually be enjoyed by others," bzoyi rig-by~d sbya;u-pa-bar, dnm-dhos dkaba rrudpar NgTUb "Like mastering the instructions of a craft, the holy dharma is accomplished without difficulty," lkye-bo dam-pa rin-tJhtn-bfin, mam-po kun/u NgyUf-ldog med "A holy person, like a jewel, is always unchanging," tJhuiirna bsad-pai thj-ba-ltar, gt"Ogl.dan bral-baj mya-nan thob "Uke the pigeon who killed his wife, he gains the suffering of being without friends," lUi-bal dhunnus g.yoboltar, dman-poi lpyod-pa fl'KYUr-ldag dh~ uLike the flullering of cotton because of any small thing, the conduct of the ignoble is changeable,"
pharol gnad-/u Hb~bs-JXli ullig dgra-bo-Ia ran lmrtl ,m-bya brag-I!ha blin.du ran-Ijjd-/a d~ ma-thag-Iu I~-Ian Nb}Wi

Even to an enemy you should not speak a word that touches the quick of another; like an echo, the consequence comes immediately upon oneself. In each case, the simile-creating -btin or -Ita is preceded by a nominal

THE Cu.ssICAL TISETAN l.....-\NGUAGE

phrase. simple or compJelC, with or without specifiers or modifiers-thus

sbraii-TUi-luJr "like honey," rin -dlun-btin-du "like a jewel," brag-dha -b2in-du "like an echo," tJhuii-ma bsad-pai thi-ba-Itllr "like the pigeon who killed his wife"; and sometimes with a nominalized proposition as its head- thus bzo-yi

rit-byed sbyaii.J-jNJ-lJar "like mastering the ins!ructions of a eraU," !m-bai tlhuii4iur g_yo-ba-IJQr "like the fluttering of cotton because of any smali thing," Where the conte nt of such a phrase is deemed recrn:erahle from the

L ______________~~:: ~t
sdon.-po gt.fig-fas skyc.t-pu-yi
11sa-mll ntS d un-gil phyop' bC!/JI' Nthor

--Gasten Bachelard,

les rlves _ _ _ _

preceding text. it may. of course, be omitted; however, ~incc the similecreating -bIin and -Ita are BOUND, as indicated by !he hyphen with which ! write them, the phrase is l epre~ nt!;d by the phrase-d osing determiner de " TI{AT" -thus sbran-rtsi-l:ar "like hUlley" dc-IrQ r " like that" but not? D-Itar, Tin dlun-btin-Ju "like a jewel" dt-btin-du " like th"t" but not ?fJ-b!i,l -dlt. Thus we fil1d, again in the l...g$-par b,fad-pa rin -pc-tJhei gte' by Sa-s k"a oal,l<)ita,

vS-Him lhtln -dig sKyespa-yi

slc~-br;

/t.s -kyis so-wr /l'bml

TIle wind scatters in the IV1 directions

grasses born from e single stalk.

Lure n lA:r, karma

~coarate~

persolls who wc::re born together,'

.,

14 'The ronn /k-tlm "like thar" ca n, or course:, rde r bitk to any prior elemelll of dis OOIlI'Se, nI)l ncces.sari!y I simile , b UI includinr: (:tJurscs of fction. Thus Saskyl! pa l)i.! ita \T ires:
m/chaspd }'Offtan dJXlc,m(d-kyafi
&1a".gyi )'Ofr'la" dhult."utlfi It"

BEYOND TIlE SEN'TENCE

407

Similes can be similarly formed from nominals by means of the totalizer (Sam "as much as." Note, for example, in the Tibetan translation of the Chinese
NdzansblUII fa byabai mJo, dumbur btIadpa tsam-du sdug.bsiiaf-gyis gdu.ru "He suffered as much torment as being cut 10 pieces," bus rna mthoii ba tsam-du dgo "He was as happy as a child seeing its mother."I S

Df: LTAR ~n411

spy<ld-payis
mkh~n -par ~r

myur411 Ilulflu -tlad

lboUlh a wise man hYe numbcr les.s acromplisbmeills he aoccpts even a SIN II picoc or learn ing rrom others. By always accing lJlOi THAT be 'Iuk:kly be(lumes omnisc:ic:n1.
This. is as plod a place 15 any 10 puint UUI lhl, in some le~Ili, where Ibe palicnl of ~ ve rb of inrolmatKm is reooYerabie flllm oonlCll or genclal knuw!wgc. the omiuc:d r~uie nt pankipanl is. represented, nOl, as we would Clrcet, with 8 or dt:R, hUI willi dt:./taf _ thus. again from s..Skyd p<I~4ita,
dhOJ-44,n dlms min sm ff/ !w fa mldlaJ'pu jin tll muii'lIa }'<Iii
" ': I .TAH.

J.-sNU

;;'lnlJ kn J'~

Ndl,gnt:n N/li.lla li".11I dktNl

There

~re m~ny

wll" alc s killCIJ

in speaking 'Jf rigll! "nu "" I<)IIg;

bUI one who knoW!> J"I' amI mkes it 10 IIC311 is very 13re in Ihi~ wm ld ,
ilams.tIhllii .nuln .., .l.yis raii .nul-lyi Jmfuba Ih(.mJ.I$ad Nkltrufbaf bsmu /JIo: /.TAH. go .naj mismra hai mifa gfan .l'J'i$ bkurbu nr

Humble pwplc .....iIl tll ink Illal all tllcir own word~ alc mist~ken ; 1I0nor Ily o th crs is near Iu lhe man who undemands 111lS, and duo nll! spea k.

"Note JIio the verb HlPa '"reso: mble, be like . be equal:' which occurs .....ith an ~ccompani menl as ilS alre p"nicip,ml-Ihu.s, for example, in a relalive (:tJIIStructiun fronJ the biotlaphy of Mi.la. las-p", bod mll" ,"oggi g!iii."a slc)sbll l~aill la jHma Jafba ...:Uafurl)'Qii yQipar ~g '"Ye t Illere are in Ihis dark land of T itle l people like the s un rising nn tile glacic u .'"

408

THE CLASSICAL TIBETAN l...AHGUAOE

s. METRICS
5.1. DEFINITIONS
The Tibetan VERSE or metrical line consists of two or more f>1::ET, most commonly between three and five; each foot consists of two POSmONS-ii. STRONG position and a WEAK position; thus, for example, a threefoot verse has the underlying metrical pattern [(strong)(weak)} [(strong)(weak) (strong)(weak). Every word in classical Tibetan has a single primary SlllF.5S that falls on the first syllable; bound forms (conjunctions, nominalizers, role particles, bound quantifiers) are thus considered unstn::ssed. as are also l1i and ran, unless the latter is the firsl word of the proposition; free quantifiers, numerals, and determiners may also be ullSiressed in a weak position. We will $ymbolize a stressed syllable 85 } and an unstressed syllabic as O.

It il ,we "uesmry th:u R poem lhouJd rely on its mun., but if it iloeJ rely 011 its "lUlU that music InUIt be JUdJ aJ will delight rhe "pm.

-Ezra Pound,
A Retrosptcl

Stress, however, is NEUTRALIZED in the last syllable of c=very verse: that is, both stressed and unstressed syllables in verse final position count as bearing the same stress; there is no s!'5tematic distinction of stress in this position. Metrical symmetry suggests that syllables with neutralized stress be counted as unstressed; thus the last 0 of any sequence symbolizes either 0 or J. We must distinguish between periodical and aperiodical meters. In a PERIODICAL METER each verse exhibiu the same mapping of stress onto the metrical pattern; in an APERIOOICAL MErnR the mapping exhibited by each verse may be different.

BEYOND THE SENIl!NCE

409

5.2. BASIC MAPPING

In a periodical meter, the simplest mapping of stress onto the metrical pattern il for each strong position to be filled with one stressed syllabic and each weak position to be filled with one unstressed syllable, as folk>ws:

(strongXweak)) (strong)(weak)} [(strongXwealt)] 1 0 I 0 1 a

This basic MAPPING RULE is precisely the one found in a large number of Tibetan folksongs, with metrical lines three feet long, as in these examples:

101010 101010
101010

Iho-sa skyid-pai Sto-Ia skyid-t1hu$ g.yaHkor rgyab byuii

mUj-mu ma-tJig dpal-lhai yontIhab ""'Iwd-po yod-dQ

101010 101010 101010 101010 101010

luHIllii smin-pai Nbras-bu

gtan-Jas kJuJ-miiar /dan-pas

NdIlb-Nbras pad-nul; stan-iUU g.yu-sbraii serns-po sJcyo ~yuii

This meter is also found in the mguJ-glu "love songs" of the sixth Dalai Lama 'I\hafi-dbyafil rgya-mtsho. poems clearly based on folk: prototypes., as in the following stanza:
101~10

101010

101010 101010

Iia-daii tshoii-Ndus bumoi tshig-gnun dam-btIai mdud-pa Ichrag-poi NgtUl-/Q ma-rgyab raiiran sa-to grol son

Lonaer versions of this meter, wilh four feet, can be found occasionally in translations from Sanskrit, as in the well-known hymn BtJom-id411 HdDs-ma yali1ilJg-par tdzogs-pG saiis-IX)W bstod-pa gsuiis-pG to the twenty~ne fonns of Ihe pldeIs Tiri,

10101010 10101010 10101010 10101010

plrya,-NtsIuJ/ bskoJ-pGi fha-mai I'M-iuu Nbar-bai phrdi-bQi dbws-ruJ. gruu-ma &.,w-brA.yoil g.yon-bskwn .bm-na.r bskof'-dgai d&ra-yi dpuii ni mJJm-par Ndtonu-trUl

410

TillE ClASSICAl.. TIBETAN l.J.NOUAGE

This longer meter 100 is not unknovm in native Tibetan poetry, as in this mgur or mystic song from the Rdo-rdlei mgur sklll-ldan rid-Icy; mun-se/ of
Stag-lShaii rss-pa Rag.<Jban rgya-muho:

10101010
10101010

siiiii-nas byon-tIhub bsgrub-Ndod yon-kyaii

glo-bur rna-rig Nlchrul-JXj gtJig-gis

10101010 101O}OI0

bsliJii-/tIJS mn-no l eNt ma-tshugs

no

ni nushan-ldan rdlt-dan mdtaf byuii

5.3. SYNIILEPHA
It is also possible to map two unSiressed syllables onto a single weak position:
this mapping is tradi_ tionally called SYNALEPII.....

By far the single most

common meter in classical Tibetan-used as the standard translation of the Sanskrit JloJca as well as in much native poetry-has a metrical line of three
feet with a single syna1epha in the last foot, as follows: [(5Irong)(weak)] l(strong)(weak)1 [(slrong)(weak)]

1
po'l!h~j gt~r

00

We may cite as examples the (ollowing stanzas from the lAgs-par bJadpo rin by Saskya pal)4ita:

1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100

ranla blagrol miJdan-na blolJh~n Ktan./a l~gJ.par dri Jagpal dgrabo ml.glod.na mlShontJha len.par mj-bytd-dam mkhtupa bya-ba ma.yinpoi byaba Iukyaii mjbya-o glaii-pos dgrasd~ bdompa-yis fXYUn-du rgyalpos btIiiiskJ IUn

Other and longer versions of this periodical meter may have nine or even more feet; four feet is the second most common length, as in this poem by Pad-rna dkar-p:l, from his ritual text Slian-rgyud yid-blin norbul' blkyedpai

rim -JXl rgyas.po Ndod.JXli TNlwii:

BEYOND TIlE SENTI;NCE

411

101010100 101010100 101010100 101010100

dzam-bui .gser-/as roii-byun lJe-ba zlwn nsibs-sloii mu-khyud mtIhog-IU mam-Nphnd-bil mkhil-la mb-NpJwgs phyogs-/as rgyal-byed-pai Nlchor-fo rin-lIhen nam-mJchQ bkaii-su NbuJ

or in the inlroductory stanzas to Tson-kha-pa's &riln-btIos tlMn-pO dbu-ma10 Ndlug-pai mam-bJad dgons-pa rob-gsal commentary on the Madhytlmllk4valara of Candrakirti:

101010100 101010100 101010100 101010100

zab-lIin rgya-t.fhei fegs-Mad kun-gyi gter ~ig-mn kun-gyi mo-Ndris mdza-Mes-te sa-gsum NgrO-/a lam-bzoii mt.shonpai mig thub-dban smrabai iijmas rtagtu skyoiis

Even longer metrical lines can be found in translations of the complex meters of Sanskrit Iu1vya as well as in the ornate native Tibetan pacify it inspired, especially in the genre of bSlodpa or encomium. We find the following eight. foot lines, for example, in an encomium of Genghis Khan-of all peopleincluded in Ndfigs-med rigs-pai rdo-rdu's history of Buddhism in Mongolia enlit1ed nhell-po Iwr-g)'; yul-du dam-pai tJhns dfilIar byuii ba; tshul bIad'-pa rgja/-ba; bSlan-pa rill-po-IIlle gsal-bar bred-pai sgroll-me:
10101010101010100

101010 10 I01OlOHlO

10101010101010100

10101010101010100

phy;.y; spyodpa nsubmor bSlan-rgyud iiams-lIlag Ngro-Ia brtsebas dam-du Nkhyud khyim-pai IIlIa. lugs bzun-naaii rgyalbslatl spelbai fhagbsam o-mai rgya-mts/w relol sao)'; tshaiis-pa yab-sTas brgyud-fX1r bt.fas-pai iio-mtslJar mazad-bzan sku-drin gzugs dali-pai yidmu/lOr !ar-tshe faX-pui ,.uab-brgyu siiiii-gar mi-zum dpyod-idan su

Blo-bzafi t~hos-kyi nl-ma uses nine-fooL lines in a stanza of praise to AtBa that fo rms pan of the introduction 10 his Grub-mtlw thams-IIad-kyi khuilS-dan

Ndodtshul ston-po legs-Mad !eI-gyi me-loll:

412

THE Cv.sstCAL TIBETAN l..J.N'GUAGE

1010101010101010100

1010101010101010100

1010101010101010100

1010101010101010100

dkiJ-ba du-mas gst!r-gyi gliii-IUU gnt!r-bfans byan-tJhub st!ms-kyi gdamr-pa dban-gi 'KYal bod-yul gduJ-byar brtse-bas Hphans-m~ stsol-mdzad dto-bo t!ht!n-po ([j-ptJm ka-ra-dan yoiis-rdzogs thub-bstan lxiag-gir btu-tt! legs-bIad gtam-dan mom-thar gtsan-mai nU-mUhar-gyis kun/as khyadNphag> dgeuuln sro/Nbyld 'K)'al-ba gnis-ptJ srw-daii bt!as-la snjjj-nQS Ntiud

We should mention here too the monstrous eighteen-foot tour dt! foret! with which the crazy yogin Gtsan-smyon he-ro-ka begins his famous biography of Mi-Ia ras-pa, Ihe first line of which reads 1010101010101010101010101010101 -

010100 alIOs-sku; fha -lam ma-rig t!hu-Ndzin gdod-bral dbyiiis-na gzugHku /4gpo; nin-mlshon mgonni bdud-tIhui sgro-gI!an T1Sa-bral Nphrin-/as michyen-brtlt!i od-NgYt!d mllla -kias dpaf-Nbar-bas.
Syna1epha is found also in feet OIher than the lasl. For example, in the follo~ing verses fro m the praye r Mtshams sgrub-byt!d-skabs thU1l mgo-mdfug-ru ,w/.on-'XYu gsof-tdcbs bfa-ma rgyan-Nbod by Ndfig-rten blos-btan, we find synalepha in the second foot:

1010010 1010010
1010010 1010010

1010010

tJhos-sku "ID'uf-mt!d-kyi iio-bo lIhos-sku lcun-khyab-kyi iio-bo tJllos-.fku bde-tJhen-gyi iio-bo piis-med yt-Ies-kyi iio-bo than-skyes ye-Ies-Icyi no-bo

The heroic poetry found in the archaic Central Nian manuscripts, dating back as far as the mid-seventh century, uses a verse of two feet with synalepha in both: 100100

100100 100100 100100 100100

dgu-SiiO ni bdun-rim-gyi lha-yul ni guii-dan-nas Iha-sras n; myi-; mgon myi-yul n; thams-dad-daii

myi-mtshuiif n; myi-Ndra-sle

BeYOND THE Smrn;NCE

413

The last syllable of the first foot is always an unstressed ni, and, as in the later poetry, stress appears neutralized in the final syllable of each verse. This ancient bardic structure is occasionally encountered in )ater worD. in such lines as these from the Bon text Bka Hduspa riJa-pcrlIhe gur-myig-gi rgyud:

100100 100100
100100

100100

mkhyen-mgar ni yag-po logs NphruJ-mgar ni kun-mkhyen log:r bzaij-mkJuJn ni yo.mii,u logs JUlij-gi ni dro-nuJ myoii,

Variations on this pattern are also sometimes found in the ancient manuscripts., as in the following two stanus from a mytholog:icaJ fragment found in the caves near Thn-huang:

10010 10010 10010 10010 10010

flQ-1o ni gllii tngjOg:f muJijlG ni T1JQt tIhe

magtUJ ni myi-skbs
IibI'ONUl iii mYi-thor tpl-IUI ni myi-rhub

The poet Padma dkar-po, as a funher example, made extensive and

remarkably sltillful use of periodic meters With synalepha in altemat~ feet. We may give the following two examples from a manuscript of his ronected songs, entitled Rdo-rdte glui phreiiba SM-rna:

1001010010

l0010UX)I0
1001010010 1001010010 101001010010 101001010010 101001010010 101001010010

~/lcJuJms.kyi mJIhod-gnas mol-Nbyorgyi dpon.sJob sgntb-b'Ud-lcyi bstanldzin HgrtUImN4u Ndug-pas thcs-bsam-d4ij sgom-ptl tI;,-t1ar4u bgyis.ptI bar-lIhiJd/a med-do byin.r!abs-kyi Ichyad-par

nagsld1oiis phalmc-/a Ngrim-ptl rgya-staggi Jchrobo tsan-dan nags-ma-d4" phradpas semsyid/Q Jor-1UU nagsmlila sMppa1a mi-dga stagphruggi gIontUA Ndzum-drug buansa/a byayin tsan-d4n-gyi nagsrna

5.4. CATALEXIS
In the first foot of a verse it is possible for a weak position to be left empty.

414

TilE Ct..Ass ICAL TIB~,AN LANGU AGE

this mapping we will call CA1ALEX1S. A particularly popular meter fOf mgur "mystic song," both periodically and aperiodicaJly, was a four-foot meter with catalexis in the first foot and synaJepha in the last, as follows:
[(strong)(weak)] [(slrong)(weak)] [(Slrong)(weak)]

00

Used as a periodical meter, for example, we fin d the following couplets

forming part of the central section of a song by Mila ras-pa, as given in the anthology Ml1hog-gi diios-grub miion-du byed-pai myur-wm blw-brgyud bla-mo-

moms-kyi rdo-rdJe mgur-dbyaiis yt-!es tJhar-Nbebs rajj.groIlhun-grub bde-tJhen rab'Nbar iies4Dn rgyo-ml$hoi siiiii-po, which we will call by its short title 8kabrgyud mgur-mtsllO:
1-1010100
no; gtlQs-fa

bltas-no ri-dwags Ndra

1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100

1-1010100

mi g!an-gyis mlhon-yan siiiii-rluii /dan

na: zas-/o bllas-no dud.Hg1'O Ndra

mi gtan-gyis mthan-na skyug-bro Idan nai lus-la bltas-na keii-rus "rira dgra scion-bas bllas-kyan ml!izi-ma NtIhor

The same meter is often exploited by Pad-rna dkar.po, as in the foll owing st'anza from the Rdo-rdte glui phren-ba .rna-ma: 1-1010100 1 1010100
}'WI

}-10 10100
l- tlIi0 100

,iii-po Isam-ran ma-sbyaiiskyan tIhos lun-rigs uhad-mas gIalbala dus den-san smra-bai sen-ger gyur khon mkhas-pa tshogs-kyin iia-re brod

All r.x <Jmp~c (rom a Dge-lugs-pa poet is the well-known Gsuii-mgur !ur-gaiis ri-ma by toe first. Dalai Lama Dge -..dlln-grub, of which the following are the

firs!

tWL

.!.Ulnzas:

' jOJv lOO

..
11[~ t OW()

;'}:O:OO

oHmiO

Iar gaiis-ri dkar-poi me-ma-na .rprin dkar-po gnam-/a bsneg-Ndra-ba de mthoii-ba mod-fa bla-rna dran dmn osams-Jiii bsoms-Jiii dad-rna skyes .fpri11 d"-ar-po Idlii-ba i !ar-phyogs-na N brog d,;e-fdoll ma","por rgyal-ba der

'J0.{rlOO J. :Pl 9100

BEYOND llJE SarrENCE

41S

11010100 1-1010100

muhan brrilod-ptJT dkn-bai rin-po-IIM pha bJo-bzaii grags-po yab-mu bll4g.r

k a final example we may cite the following verses attn'butcd to the third Dalai Lama Bsod-nams rgya-mtsho in the 11h~n-po hor-gyi yu/-du dIlm-pai tIhos dli-bar byuii-bai IShuJ blDd-po rgyal-bai bS(Qn-pa rin-po-tJh4 grol-bar bytd-pai sgron-nu by Nd1.igs-med rigs-pai rdo-rd!c:

1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-1010100

ned sag-poi 'KYal-pas

spyon~iis-nas

yuJ mlha-Nkhob gnas-su NgTO-Jar-Jcyan dus mj-NgYOiiJ blin-du Nkhor bgyid-pas ch bar-du s~ms-Ia blag-bya ni
gnas dpal-ldan Io'bras-Spuiis tIhos-kyi sde glis dga-/dan phobran Nkhor-btIas-kyi dOli Ndzin-Nbros Ie-par nul-Jor-1Ui ran rgyu-Nbras tIhos-la yid-tIhu..dlzn las dge-bQi phyogs-la Nbod-kyaii NUhaf

5.5. APERlODlCAL METERS

APERIODl~ METERS can orten be of great poetic interest. The simplest type consists in simple metrical alternation, as in the following folksong stanzas:

1010100 1-1010100 1010100 1-1010100 1010100

l-lOlOHXl

do ni dog-mot bro-brduii lw sleii fho -y; yul-du bro-trig brduii dog-mot sa-Ia mum-po-Isam bar bSlan-gyi yul-du bro -tJig brdun dog-moi sa-fa mam-pa-rsam

og kJu-yi yul-4u bra-dig brduli

The poet Mi-12 ras-pa is fond of Sl.:CO dev i ce~, and we: fi nd such stanzas as the following, given in the BIca-brgyud mgw-mlSho:

1010100 1-1010100 1010100 1-1010100

la-fie khyun-bzai dpal-Ndren de dw do -Ita skyid-dom mi-skyid blto lcMii-ptl kn-bl; gduii -b'f'JIod d~ dus do-Ita Ngytl-lom fflo-NgYel btlo

416

THE Cv..ssICAL TlBIITAN lJ.NOUAGE

1010100
1-1010100

gtsan-khan zur-bIj logs-brgyad de

dus do-ftQ fig-gam mIJ-lig blla

The crazy yogin Nbrug-pa !tun-legs uses a similar alternation in the following stanza, included in his autobiography Rnal-Nbyor-pai miii-dan kun.:clga lqs-paj mam-thar byuii-uhu/ /hug-par smras-po Iib-moi mid-rna ha-k Jw.le ma-nn spu-zin-nas bkod-pa:
11010100 iitl slcye-ba mJ1ii-poi plwii-ba-iIl

1-1010100 1010100 11010100

Ius ma-bloijJ bra-boi dgu-dig blons

gsal-gsa/ nz;i-tIig mi-Ndug-ste tshod byas-fUJ NrJjftar slcycNam snam

and the yogin Lo-ras-pa UIoCS an even more irregular paltern in such stanzas as the fol1 owi~g, again given in the Bko-brgyud mgur-multo:
1-1010100 11010100 101010100 1-101010100

blo las-su fUn-boi, sems-rgyud Ndi gans dkar-po stoiii-kyi nobun Ndro na-bun nam-yal mi-In sgom.la gIqs Ndi yal-bar fieND dam-poi I1hos-lo gIegs

We can nOie here thai such cataleclic first feet can be used as a device of topicalizalion. In a poem by Mi-Ia ras-pa given in the Bko-brgyud mgur-mJsho, the poet begins an admonitory address to his own wandering mind with a single aperiodical verse before continuing with periodical lines of the form lOlOHIO: 1-1010100 1010100 1010100 1010J{1O

serns ma-spro ma-spro ran-sar fog spros-lla dOll-med sna-tshDg$ dran rna-yens rna-yens dran-pa brtt'll yens-no dge-sbyor rluii-la Htfhor

The topical syllable urns "mind" is here set off by its position in an initial catalectic foot. Similarly. in another poem. found in the Rag-mili skor siio-ma of the Rdte-btsun mi-Ia ras-poi mom-thor rgyas-par ph~-bo mgur-Hbum, Mi-Ia ras-pa begins with the line 1-1010100 no rigs-drug NIcJuuI-pai gron-/cJryn'--du.. establishing the syllable iia "I" as topic before continuing with several stan:taS of periodical IOIOHIO verses; he then gives a series of metaphOrs about himself. again lopicalizing iiQ in a calalectic foot at the beginning of each stanza:

BEYOND TIlE SENIENCE

417

11010100 1010100 1010100 1010HXl 1010100 1-1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 H010100

iia mol-Nbyor mj-yi sen.-ge yin lJa-bo bzon.-poi g_yu-ro/ rgyas bsgom-pa bzan.-poi m8M-sder-t.fon iiams-len gans-kyi ltons-m byas yon-tan Nbras-bu ,hob-tu re

na mtll-Nbyor mi-yi rwo-stog yin byon.-t.fhub senu-kyi n.fol-gmm rdzogs thabs-Ies dbyer-med gro-Ndzunt.t.fon Ndogs-la sman-ld1oru n4gs-io bsdad gton-dim Nbras-bu Nbyiii-du re na mol-Nbyor mi-yi rgod-po yin

Similar to such patterns of aperiodical catalexis are patterns of apcriodical synalepha_ We find folksongs with loosely organized systems of apcriodical synalepha in the final foot:

101010 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 1010100 101010 101010 101010 10101010

ko-bIi gdun.-brgyod noii-du rigs-bzon. mlcho-NgrO gtos-fo byon de-riii skyid-poi ;jin-mQ-fa dpa-bo mlcho-A'gTO glas-fo byon phyog.gi don. -po yuJ-lho-lo gtj-bdag yo-Io phyog-Ntshof-/o sno~-bu dluJr-po tIlJags-la mi-NgTO zer-rgyu yin-no aii-Ia bu-mo na nj dam-poi t.fllos-fa NgrO-rgyu yin-no

More regul ~r patterns of alternation may be associated-as W8J the ease with alternating catalexis-with systematic variation of the number of feet in each line. For example, we find the following song recorded in the chronicle lAdwogs rgyal-robs, a history: of Buddhism in ladakh:

101010 10100

sol-bas rrfo-gsum tus-nos diiul-zoUf Itlags-gsum stall

418

T ilE CLASSICAl. TUU;.'AN WGUAGE

101010
10100 101010

!illfa bug-pa bud-nas f ol-dan giiu-lin bl!os

millun-gliis 8'ilHU sdt!bs- nas

10100 101010 10100

than -mums liii-du rmos

rgya-mlSho yur-Ia dranHWS

ISlm-la zam-pa Ndzugs

Mi-Ia ras-pa often utilizes such strictly organized patterns of alte rnati{'l n, panicularly in the second ({XII, as we find in the following stan7.as of prayer 10 his master Mar-pa, given in the Bka-brgyud mgur-mtsho:

10:110100 100100100
10010100

.dryel-ma-daii bsu-mlJi thugs-dam mdzod bar-tfhad-daii rk)'t'II.ij(J/I-~'i hz/ng-pa mdzod

(us-nag-dmi bsam-pai sTU ii-rna mdzod smO Il-rna-dan IhugskllIlr~i nen-Nbrel nulzod

100100100
10010100

1001001110

Ihugs .rdte-daii nus-po; dhanb.~kur fTU/zod '1O'ud /uFI-a ii mall -nag-" '1O'ub-hnen mdwd

Elsewhere in the poems of Mi-la fas-pa we elm find morc lo()sdy paucrned for ms, as in these stanz(ls from the: Bkuo'K)'ud mgurmuho. wh.:re: he uses allcrn(l ling synflle pha in the sc:cond arid Ihen in Ihe first foot:
JOI0100
Jkyeboi .W Hwm .1 dip,pai las .f{lyud /Iu nan.1ml.f.:i sdul].bsno/ myon Iiedui gauII-semI bdud.kyi mkllor brf.tl:XI-I!/I meobj-kyi lIuii -du a/nul
zu.Htor,~i

IOH)(IH)O IOIUln(j
WII )()]()(I

IOUIOIIXl
WIOIIK)

J(soXN'ltof.: mi-yi rgyu

hsug'i I,~lzll d sprm"jpoi h'X}'UWi-phye yin

Even more cumplex p;lIterns can he 'H.:hicve:d by comhining aperiodical Gi la lexis and synalepha. as i11 Ihe folluwirlg song attributed to Padmasam hha\'a in his biogra phy CU. '" fJad'l7!!I. ",bYll.llXllus -kyi skyesrabs mom-pa' Ihar-pa:

1-10 10100 1- IOliXlIOO

1 IU JOIf)() 1010 If)O

lili bOIl 'f'o pad-ma ",I>yw ;-Xllus yin I{/W.~ IllAsfirm g.ylJi"i h!on.gyi gdoms-nlJg t:dog lur r~?J dfUl] s(.,.1H5rln bdefa hkod U!f' ~r;'l s<ie.hrx; " d hru/I-d.. Nkiw/

BEYOND TI-lE SEHTENCE

419

The yogin Rgod-tshaii-pa Mgon-po rdo..rd!e uses a similarly loose alternation in the chorus of a mystic song of prayer to the lineage of his masters. given in the Bktl-brgyud msur-muho:
1010101010 101-1010010
snaii-ba Ndi-Iam zab-ta zob-tar Ndug-go Jeun-rdzob Ndi wu-mai Nkhru/-Nkhor..du Ndug-go rgyab-brag Ndi zan-ile thal-le-fU Ndug-go

1011010010

As a final example we can cite a song attributed by the Bka-brgyud mgurmUho to three anonymous disciples of Sgam-po-pa. where aperiodical stanzas

alternate with a repealed aperiodical chorus as follows:

1-1010100 1-10101010 10100101010 101010100 101010100 101010100 HH00100100 1-1010100 1-101010010 10100101010 101C10100 101010100 101010100 10100100100
gnas og-mill tIhos-lcyi pllo-braii-na 8'las de-no blugs-po rdo-rdle M!haii-tIhen skabHfer gsol-ba-Zig 'h ob-dan rdo-rdle spun-tsho bla-mas fOr-Jog gsun-gill yar-yar NgrO mtho-ris them-skas Ndfogs-Jiii yar-yar NgfO nan-son fdog-pas gnon-fiii yar-yar NgfO IO-nlO nams-bzan-la dga-yo-dan re-spro-na Iar za-hor nor-bui dgon-pa-ta 8'las de-no blugs-pa tai-Io-y; Ier-bzan skahs-der gsol-ba-fig thob-da/i fdo-rdfe spun-uho bla-mas yar-Iog gsuii -gill yar-yar NgrO mtho-ris th em-sleas Ndfogs-lin yar-yar NgrD nan-son rdag-pas guo/l-!in yar-yar NgfO Io-mo iiams-bzaii-Ia dga-yo-doii re-spro-no

5.6. UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES IN STRONG POSITIONS

In many periodical meters we can note certain consistent variations from the mapping rules outlined above_ These variations seem to constitute a set of optional metrical liberties a poet can take within the framework of the verse sltucture_ One such permitted variation, not infrequently found, is for a strong position to be filled with one unstressed syllable ra ther than with one stressed syllable, as in the following folksong stanza:

.20
101000 101010 101010 101010

bslwl-bzaii bde-ba-tlan-gyi nor-gliii kJu -yi pho-braij leoma de-Ndra mlhoii-dus W on-poi pho-braM dum Nbyuii

The same substitution -can be found in the hymn of praise to the goddess Tiri called Bllom-ldan Hdas-ma sgroi-rna yaii-dag-par rdzogs-po sa;u-'XYas bstod-pa gsuiis-po:
10101010 10101010 10101010 10100010
phyag-Ht.~hal sgroi-rna myur-ma dpa-mo

spyan ni .fwd-tlig glog-daii Ndra-ma Ndlig-rten gsum-mgon tJhu-skyes lol-gyi ge-sar phye-bo-las ni byuR.rna

10101010 10101010 10101000 10101010

phyag-NtSha! ston-lea; zla-ba Jeun -tu gan-ba brgya 'Ii hruegs-pai tal-rna
slwr-ma stofi-phrag tshogs-pa-mams-kyi.s

rab-tu phye-bai od-rab Nbar-ma

and- in verses with synalepha in the last foot-in such stanzas as the foll<>'Ning from Sa-skya palJ"ita '$ l1gs-par blad-po rin-po-Lfhei gtt,:
1010100 1010100 1010100 1000100

Jin -tu rgas-par gyurrshe yan rhas-pa maii-du bsags-par bya phyi-mar thas-pa! phan-pa-tsam sbyin-pa-yis kyoii go-lo phon

lOH)(XXl 1010100 1010100 1010100

dw-su ma-bob-po-y; gtam gaii-smra de-Io lam-gyis briias man-po smra-baj gtam-tshig-las smyon-par rdteNu mi-dpog-gam

Similar substitutions are found in apcriodical meten: in the following stanz.as in his autobiography Rnol-Nbyor-pai miii-tIan kun-dga kgs-poi nwm-rlulr the crazy yogin Nbru,-pa kun-Iegs maintains the parallel structure of his verses by introducing the exclamatory extra syllable dan where the preceding strong position has been filled with an unstressed syllable:

BEYOND THE SarrENCE

421
nushan-Idan-pai dan bla-rna snod-Idan-pai dan slob-ma dam-tIhos (shul-bZin by~d-pa-la dgos-pa yod-do 7ao dam -tIhos-poi dan Ndul-ba spon-sems-pai dan orton-po rab-byun wun-pa by~d-pa-Ia dgos-pa yod-do l ao gtan -la mi-phod sniii-rd1~ bdag-gtan brd1~-baj bsam-po th~g-tIhen byaii-sems sgom-pa-Io dgos-pa yod-do 7ao

100010 100010 101010010100 100010

100010
101010010100 101010 101010 !OI01oo10100

In the follow ing verses, given in the Bka-brgyud mgur-mtsho, Mi-Ia ras-pa. integrates trisyllabic forms into his metric pattern by similarly allowing an unstressed syllable to fill a strong position:
1010100
mi-m~d

1-1000100 1010100 1-1000100

brag-gi phug-pa-na skyo phyodde-bala safu-'XYu med

bla-rna dam-pai sans-rgyas-la yid dun-ne-ba-Ia Nbral-ba med

Sometimes we find an initial sequence of one snessed and two unstressed syllables; in a meter with catalectic first feet, this is read as an unstressed syllable in the strong position of the second foot after catalexis in the first syllable-that is, as 1-00, rather than 100, in order to maintain parallel scansion with verses clearly beginning 1-10_ This variation is found, for example, in the long and often strictly periodical mystic songs by Pad-rna dkar-po, where it is a permitted departure from the highly regular 1-1010100 line, as in this stanza from his Rdo-rdte glui plrreii-ba sna-ma: 1-1010100 1-1010100 1-0010100
11010100

raii gsot-ba Ndebs-pllyogs rna-log-no tslte Ndi-phyii dgOS-Ndod dtj-sfred-pa bde-blag-tu srer-bai nw-pa mfra bl0 ISham-ISham med-pai gsol-Ndebs I>l$hal

Simila rly we can select the following stanzas from a long poem by Pad-rna

422

THE ClASSICAL TIBc,AN l..ANOU .... OE

dkar-po, from the same collection, which uses the same metrical structure and variation: 11010100 1..Q()10100 10010100

yid gilen-poi lthu-fQn rna brall-Ie Ndod-yon-gyi snaijba IIi-bkra-yaii

ler..,Jhags-kyi sred-po mi-ldaii-bas

11010100
1-0010100

khan bt5un-po tshogs-kyin na-rt brod

Ndag-sbyar-gyi bsgom-yWl rna-bras-Ie lam iiQms-su myoii-bai drod-r1ags-la dti-lla-bai spu-ris pllyed-pai phyir

1-1010100 1-0010100
1-1010100

grogs sgom-dhen tshogs-kyin iia-re brod

mi-bdag-pai b,od-pa Ndi-dag kyan pha mlshan-Idan bla-ma khoii-gi drin drill Nkhor-Iabs mtd-pas gsolNdebs Ndi rrite dam-pai snall-la gzan-yaii byas

1-0010100
11010100

1-1010100
1-1010100

5.7. VARIATION IN THE LAST FOOT

Where there is synalepha in the final foot of a verse, a poet seems permitted the occasional liberty of substituting a last foot of the form 110 for the usual fina\I00. We can cite the following examples from Sa-skya pal)~ita's Ltgs-por

bJod-po

rin-po-tJh~j

gur: nams-stohs tJhun-bai sky~-bo run tJh~n-po glan.ta bs(~n-na Ng1Ub tJhu-yi Ihigs-pa nam-tJhun yon mtsho-daii Ndra-na skam mi-nus su-/oan bdag.gi dgra yin-po .-.go yon bdag-ta mi-byams f~ mi-byams-na yan d~ mi-sgrag bsgrags-na d~-ijid Nbyed-pai s~t gat-tt dgra-ta gnod Ndod-na raii-iiid yon-tan Idan-par bya de-yis dgra yan sems bsreg-tliii ran yon bsod-nams Hplle(-bor f<I!l"IUT

1010100 1010100 1010100 1010110 1010l 10 1010100 1000110 1010100 1010110 1010100 1010110

1010100

BEYOND TIlE SENTENCE

423

We find the same variatio n perrnilled within a periodical meter in the following diatribe against beer, attributed to the Buddha himself in Ndtigsmed rigs-pai rdo-rdte's TIh en-po hor-Kli yul-du dam-poi tJhos tili-Itar byuii-bai tshuJ bIad-po 'KYal-bai bSlan-pa rin-po-tJlu gsal-bar byed pai sgroll-me:

100010100 101010110 101010110 101010110

tIhan-mIlWi-ba-la miion-par dga-bai mi bdag-Ia phan-daii gtan-la bdt mi-nw rmollS-pa mdog-iian byed-po tJ/ion yin-Ie titi-Itar ha-Iai dug-btin de mi-btuii

We can cite as a further example the following stanza from Ihe Rdo-rdte glut phren-ba sna-ma by Pad-rna dkar-po:

1-1010100 1-1010110
1-00 10110 1-1010110

ran liams-Iell byed-rsliul rna-log-no r1Sa !<Ildior-/a dnlg-gi mdud grol-lias bde-tJlleli-gyi ""gras-bt; mtlwr sOli-poi tshe gtJjg-gu SOIIS-rg}'OS Io-grtlb nes yill

14

Bibliography
I. CULTURAL BACKGROUND

BECKWTJl{, ChriJtopher I. '!he 'T'iMtan empire in Central Asia: 0 history of the struggle for great power among TIbetans, 71ui.f, Arobs, allL Chinese during the tarty Middlt Ages. Princeton: 'Princeton Uni\'ersity Press, 1987.
BEYER, Stephan V. 1he cuh o/Tara, Magic and rirual in TIbet. Berkeley: Uni versity of California Press, 1973.
DEMIi!VlUE, Paul. condie de LhlHa, Biblioth~que de I'lnstitut des Haules Etudes Chinoises 7. Paris: Presses U nivcrsitaires de France, 1957.

EKVALL, Robert B. Religious observances in Tibet: patterns and Chicago: Univrsity of Chicago Press, 1964.

!UIICliotl.

FllCHNER, Wilhelm. Kumbum. Lamaismw in Lehre und uben. Zurich:

Rascher Verlag, 1954.

HoF'J'JroCANN. HelmuL The religions of 1ibel. Edward Fitzgerald, trans. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., H61.
LEssiNG, Ferdinand. Yung.ho-kung. An iconography of the lama it! cathedral in

PeJdng. In collaboration with Gosta Montell. Repons from the Scientific Expedition to the Northwestern Provinces of China under the Leadership of Dr. Sven Hedin 18. Stockholm: Goteborg Eland ~ f"$, 1942. UNG, David Marshall. Tht wisdom fJf Balahva .... . Christian legend of the Buddha. london: George AJlen and Unwin Ltd., 1957.
SNELLGROVE, David. Buddhist Hin d aya. Oxford: Bruno Canirer, 1957. SNEllGROVE, Divid and Hugh Richardson. A cultural history of Tibet. New York: Frederick A Pratger, 1968. STFJN, Rolf Alfred. lA civiJisaticn tiMtaint. Paris: Dunod, 1%7. Translated as ~tall civilization. J.E. Stapleton Driver, trans. Stanford: Stanford University Pre~. 1972.
TtsCCl, Giuseppe. IndQTIbttica. Rome: Reale Academie d'ltalie, 1932-41;
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BIBUOGRAPHY

425

Lokesh Chandra, ed. Sata-Pitaka Series 347-<353>. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1988-. TuCCI, Giuseppe. 1M religions of 'TiMt. Geoffrey Samuel, trans. Berke ley: University of California Press, 1980.

TuCCI, Giuseppe. 1lbet. land of snows. JoE. Staplelon Driver, Irans. Calculla :
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2. BIBLIOGRAPHIES
GRON80LD, Gunter. "Verzeiehnisse tihetischer Handschriften und Blockdrucke. Ein bibliographische Obersicht." Zentralasiulisehe Srlldien 18:222-46,

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HAl, Awtin. Research on 1ibeloJjunnan languages, 63-155. Trends in Linguistics, State of the Art Report 14. New York: Mouto n, 1982. HUFFMAN, Franklin E. Bibliography alld index of mainla,uJ SoU/lleasl A.(WII languages and linguistic:.r. Ne~ Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

LAPOLl..A, Randy J. and John B. lL"""'e, with Amy Dolcourt. Bibliography of the Ifllentlliiotwi Conferences on Sino Tibetan LQI/guages and [.il/Ruis/ics /. ro.
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O U t)

3. GRAMMARS
BACOT, Jacques. Grommaire du lib/win /if/haire . Paris. 1948.

42.

TilE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN Lo.NGUAGE

BERNARD, Theos. A Jimp/ified grammar of the fiJerary TIbetan /angunge. Santa Barbara: Tibetan Text Society, 1946.
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CsOMA D~ KoH.Os, Alexander. A grammar a/the TIbetan language in English. Calcutla, 1834; New York: Altai, \970: Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984. DAS, Saral Chandra. An inrroduction to llu grammar of the TIbetan Jaflguag~, with the texts of Situ sum-lag, Oag-jt so{wai me-fong, and Situi shot lung. Darjeeling. 1915; Delhi: Malilal Banarsidass, 1972. FOUCAUX. Philippe Edouard. Grammaire de 10 langue ,ibelaine. Paris, 1858.
HAl IN, Michael. Lehrbuch der klassischcn tibetischen Schrijtspraclle. Hamburg.

1971; Indica et Tibelica 10. Bonn: Indica et Tibetic:! Verlag, 1985.

HANNAII, Herbert Bruce. A grammar of the TIbetall language, li/erary a,ul colloquial. Calcutt;!, 1912; Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1973.

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Jk;CH~, Heinrich Augusi. Tibefwl grammar. Addenda by A.H. Francke, assisted by W. Simon. Bcdin: d.: Gruytc::r, 1929.

L \l nu, Marcelle. Mmwel tUme/l taire de (ibbuin classiljue: met/lOde empirUJue. Paris. 1950.
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Languages of Asia and Africa. Moscow; Nauk,l Puhlishing House, 1970. Transiatcd as TIre wrilfen Tibelan /(mgllage. S.S. Gitman, tr,ms. Lmgu ag~s of f~ia and Africa. Moscow: Nauka Publish ing House. 1982.
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Pavel. "The Tihet<ln language." C'llIrol Asiatic iOllmal 8:2 19-29,

1%3.

SCIIMII)T, Isaac J;!cob. Grammali/.;n tibl'lskllgo,inzyka. St. Petersburg, 1839. Grammalik dertibeludll'lI Sp,ache. Leipzig, 1839: Leipzig: Zcntral-Antiquariat der DCUI!>c hcn Demo kratisehc:n Rep ublik. 1%8.

4. DICTIONARIES
BSTAI'I-!'oOIV.1I1/ RNM..I-1WY,\1,.

Rjc mkhan-po

XI ',' .

Raii-blo gsa/-ba i meloil-las

BIBUOGRAl'UY

427

mnon-brdtod-kyi buan-blJos bsam-pllel nor-bu. Thimpu: Kunzang To pgey, 1976.

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THE."ClASSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

SAKAKl Ry6zaburfi, ed. Hon 'yalcu meigi taishii (Mahiivyrupatti). Kyoto, 1916; Kyoln, 1925 (with Sanskrit index); Tokyo: Suzuki Gakujutsu Zaidan. 1962 (with Tibetan index).
SANDBERG, Graham and A.W. Heyde. Tilman-English dictionary. Calcutta, 19(12.
SCHMIDT, Isaac Jacob. Tibetisch-deulSdu$ WOrrerouch, Mbsr deuucMm Won regi.fter. St. Petersburg, 1841 ; Osnabruck: Biblio Verlag. 1969.

Sc:IIMIt)T, Isaac Jacob. Tibetskorusskii :riovar ', St. Petersburg. 1843. SEMICIIOV, B.V" Y.M. Parfionovich, and 8.0. Dandaron. Kratlcii rihnsfwrusJkii .flavo r '. Moscow: Akademiia Nauk. 1963.
$t JMA"I1 RA"fNA.

Bod lwr-gyi brda -yig min-tshjg don gsum gml-bar bred-poi m,un

.w :lsgmll .m e. Corpus Scri ptor um Mo ngolo rum 6-7. Ulan-Bator, 19S9.

T!I(J M I\.~,

r-rcdcrick William a nd L. Giles. " A TibeloChinese word and phrase hook." Bull('/ill of tilt! School of Oriental and African Studin 12:753--69, 1948.

'I\ II ( ' ~ ! N l)Ui\N- IWY i\I ~ M do-mkhar fabs-druii. fie-bar mkho-bai lqs-sbyar-gyi hoJ-kyi hrdll /(ii lii phml bsK'igs nomlthar tlorbui do-la/. Dehra Dun: D.G. Kh()('h h ~ 1l T rulku, 1975. Also Jacques Bacot. Dictionlloirt tibitoin-sa1J.!CrU par l.\t.n ll};-IJU lllliU,yai (Ole nTI Jhllii w all. Buddhica, 2d series, 2. Paris., 1930.
"[""' I : I AN / ,\IISIlIIIIN . /Jllg .!"i;:

/Ium -mii dKoIIS-rgyUlI. nang-hon lz'it-hui. Hsi-

r:i:I!' J1}';7
Y I ' - ~I ' :-' lUlU 1m/I .
1 ~lIi

IJmbkujkyi .hrdu g.mr-nliJi dkll-ba sogsluJd-du kii-li sumrim {!(J.I J.:11ll1-hl phdl-pai brdll-yig mkhas-pa 'lO'0 -mtsho blo-gsa[ mgul-rgyon
Corpus Sniplnrum Mongolorum 4_ Ulan-Balor, 1959.

I.C .I-il)"lI.hll.

YOSill M IJ R,\ Shiiki. Tihctrm dieriollary. Kyoto: Ryiikoku University, 1955-56.

S. GLOSSARIES
Alus. Michael. Sources fm lite hi.t/m) o.f Bhuta/!, 187-98. Wiener Studien zur '1 ihctnlo!!ic und Buddh ismusku mk 14. Wien : Arbeilskreis fUr Tibetische und
BUlklhlstlsdll" Studic n. Uniwrsitiit Wic: n, 198(,.
UIIl! FY. DR. Shackktun. Ph! SO lOpmi ciifal ko of Mal(ura, 211-32. Cam-

hril1gc:: CHnhridgc: Unive rsity

C(l~/J .

Pr es~,

195 1.

Edw"r d.A hllil"amayiiialikiira. 179- 223. Sc rie Oric:nla1e Roma 6. Rome:

BIBLIOGRAPHY lstltuto Italiano per II Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1954.

429

FRANCKE. August H ermann. A lower lAdakhi veflion O/IM Kesar Jago, 2129, 7483, 129-138, 160-163, 195199,250-255,314-372. Biblil)theca Indica 1543. Calcutta, 190541.
GRONWEDEL, Albert. Die Lege/wen des Nii-ro-pa, 159-233. Leipzig:

Otto Har-

rassowitz. 1933.

JUT herausgegeben

l-iAl-lN, Michael. CwulragomulS Lokiinand!Jnii{alca. Nach dem tibetischen Tanulld iiberutzt. Ein beitrag zur indischm kJassischDI Schauspkldichtung, 228-273. Asiatische Forsctoungen 39. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1974. HAII N, Michael and Konrad Klaus. Das mrgajiilalca (Hariblul{tajiiwkamiilii XI), 71-106. Indica et Tibetica 3. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag. 1983.
I/'IAGAK.I Hisao. Index 10

the Larger SWcJulvalfvyuha Siilra. A ~tan glouaty with Sanskn', and Chinese equivalents. 1-138. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshado, 1978.
OxJoro~ . ~od{tiana,

LAUI-"'ER, Berthold . Ein Siihngtdicht der Bonpo, ous einu Handschri/t der 40-59. Denkschriften def Wiener Akademie def WissenN,\GAO, Gadjin M.II/dex

schaf!t:n XLVI.7. Wien. 1900. to th~ Malliiyana -siitriilalJ1kiira (Sylliain Uvi uiition) , 11.1-150. TOkyo: Nippon Gakujutsu Shinko-kai. 1961-

NAGAO, Gadjin M. Madhyiil1t(1IIibhiigabhii&a, 149-180. Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1964.

NEBESKY- WOJlmwIT7~ Rt:ne de. Oracles and demollS of Tibet: the Cull and icon()graphy of till' Tibetan pmt~ct lI~ deilws. 605-52. London: Oxford University Prt:ss. 1956. NISIUO Kyo. Tibetan inda to the Mahiivyutpalti with So,tSkriJ equillD/ems. Kyoto, 1936. Reprinted in Ryijzaburo Sakaki; ed. Hon'yaku meigi tauM (MaitiiVYUlf>/Jtli). Tokyo: Suzuki Gakujulsu Zaidan, 1962
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Johannes. Suvart)aprabhiisotlamasutra: das Goldglanzsu,ra. Vol. 2. Wonerbuch Tibelisch-DeutschSanskril. Lt:iden: E.J. Brill, )950.

D~ lib~tische

NOBEL, J ohan~.es. Udriiya,)a, Konig lion Rom,",. Einf' buddhistische EnahlWlg. UbersetzlJ.IIg des Sa1ulcrirlextes, Vol. 2, Wa,urbuch. Wiesbaden, 0110 f-Jarrassowitz, 1955.

S.....'i'nu, N. Aiyaswami. Arya Siilistamba Su.lfa, Pracftyasamutpiidavibhanga nuddasiitra, 0I1d Pratftyasamutpiidagarhii SUlfa, 7397. The Adyar library Series

'30
76. Adyar, Adyar Library, 1950.

TilE ClAssICAL TIBETAN LANGUAGE

SI'ffiUGROVE, David L 1M Htvajra Tanlra. A crilicol study. Pan 2, Sanskrit and 7Jbdan tau, 161177. London Oriental Series 6. London: Oxford University Press. 1959.

SNELLGROVE, David L The nine way.f of Bon. Excerpts from gZi-brjid ediJed and rmnslllted, 291-312. London Orienlal Series 18. London: Oxford University Press, 1967; Boulder: Praji'\ii Press, 1980.
STEIN, Rolf Alfred. L'tpopie rib/laint! de Gesar, dans sa ver.rion lamo'ique de Ling, 354-99. Annale.s du MUKC Guimet. Biblioth~que d'Etudes 61. Paris: Presses Univc:rsitaires de France, 1956.

SlEJN. Rolf Alfred. "Yocabulaire tibetaine de Ja biographie de 'BlUg-pa KunI~." ZmtralaritJrische StudiLn 8:129-78, 1974.
SUZUKl. Daisetz Teitaro. An indu /0 rhe LAnkavatara Surra, Nanjic editWn.

Kyoto: Sanskrit Buddhist Text Publication Society, 1934.

THOMAS, Frederick William. roman /iura,>, texIS and documents concerning ChiMM Turiwlan, Part III, 112192. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1955.

TSUDA Shinichi. Th~ Sa'!lIIarodaya-Tantro . Selected chapters, 384-408. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1974. WELLER, Friedrich. Indu to th~ 7Ib~tan translation of the KiifYapapari~Qna. Harvard Sino-Indian Series 1. Cambridge: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1937. WEl.LER, Friedrich. Tlb~tischsalUkriti.scher Indu zum BodhicaryQvatiira. Abo handlungen der Leipziger A1cademie der Wis.senschaften 46-47. Berlin, 195255.
ZIMMERMANN, Heinz. D~ Subhiifua-ratna-karalJ4aka-kathii (dem AryaJiira ZUgeschriebefl) WId ihre tibelische UbersetzuflG' Ein Vetgleich zur Oorlegung der Irrtwrurisikm bei der Awwenuflg tibeti!cher Ubel'$etzungen, 248-55. Freiburger

BeiuAge zur Indologie 8. Wiesbaden: Ono Harrassowit2., 1975.

6. PLACE NAMES
FERRARI, AUoma, Mk'yen brue's guide to the holy places of CenlraJ Tlbet.

Luciano Petech, ed, Serie Orientale Roma 16. Rome: 15tituto Italiano per il Media ed Estremo Oriente, 1958. L\Lou, Marcelle. "Catalogue des principautb du Tibet ancien." Journal

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MEISEZAlIL, R.O. D~ grosse Geschiclue des ribetiscMn Buddhismus Nlch alltr Tradition. Driller Teil. Glossar dtr Eigennamen. J. Geographische NaIMn, Kloster, Tempel und Herlcunft,snllIMIl der Personell. 395420. MOJ:l.urnenta Tibetica H istorica. Abteilung I: Scriptores 3. Sankt Augustin: VGH Wissen schartsycrlag, 1985.
NEOESKY WOJKOwrrz., Rent de. Oracles and demons of Tibet: 1M cull and iconogra.phyofthe 1ibetan protective deities, 65257. London: Oxf'ord University Press, 1956.

ROCK, Joseph Francis. 1M Amnye Ma-<:hhen range and adjacent ngions, Q monographic study. Serie Orientale Rama 12. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1956. R UEGG, O. Seyfa". The life of Bu SIOIl Rin po che, with the Tibetan lUI of the Bu ston rNam thor, 18791. Serie Oricntale Rama 34. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1966.
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Hermann de. "Glossary or Tibetan geographical terms collected by He rmann, Adolphe, and Robert de Schlaginrweit." Journal of the Royal Asialic Society 20:67.98, 1863. TlloMAS, Frederick William. Tibetan literary tUlS and documen/J concerning Chinese Thrkeslan, Part IV, 40-84. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1955.
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ZACII,

Erwin 'Ion. "Tibetische Ortsnarnen." Lex'icographische Bei/riige 1:83.98, 1902; 3: 108-35, 1905.

7. LEXICOGRAPHIC STUDIES
CaSLIN, Weldo n South. "An early T ibeta n wo rd for hone." Joumo/ of the American Oriental Society 94:124-5, 1~74 . .
Co OLIN,

Weldon South. "A no te on Tibetan mu." Linguistics of Ihe 1ibelQ

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CoBUN, Weldon South. "Notes on Old Tibetan Rje-blas." Paper presented at (he twenty-third annuallntemational Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Unguislics, University of Texas, Arlington, 1990.
EIMER, Helmut. "dByans-can dga'ba'j blo-gros' explanation of some expressions from the Sa skya legs ~d." In Helmut Eimer, ed. VICUrakusumaijjali. Volumt' presented to RKhtJrd Othon Meisaahl on 1M occasion of his tighMth birthdily, 49-60. Indica et Tibetica 11. Bo~n: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1986.

EKVAl.L, Roben B. "Correlation of contradictions: a Tibetan semantic de\-jce." In William C. McCormack and Stephen A Wurm. cds.LAnguo.gt and Ihoughl: oruhropologica/ Wllt.f, 325-6. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1977; also in James F. Fisher, ed. Himalayan anthropology: 'he Indo-Tibetan inteifnu. 25 1-62. The Hague: Mouton, 1978.
EMMERICK. Ronald Eric. "Some lexical items from the Rgyud.bti." In Procudings of th~ Csoma de K6rds M~morin l Symposium , 101-8. Bibliographia Orientalis Hungarica 23. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1978.
EMMERICK. Ronald Erie. "Some lexical items from the Siddhasiira." In Ernest Steinke llne r and Helmut Tauscher, eds. ConJributions on Tibetan umguag~, History, and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de K6rOs Symposwm held a! Velm-VlefJna, AUSlria, ]319 September 1981, 1.61-68. Wiener Studicn zur TibelOlogie und Buddhismuskundc to. Wien: Arbeits!c:.reis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universitat Wien. 1983. EMMERtCK, Ronald Eric. "Some more loanwords in Khotanese," Ok Spmche: Zeitschrift fUr SprachwissellScha[, 29:43-9, 1983.
EMMERk 'K, Ronald E ric. "Tibetan lexical notes." In Louis Ugeti, ed. Tibetan and Buddhist sm.dies commemorating the 2001h anniversary of the birth of Aluartder Csoma de K6rds, 1.207-1 0. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984,

EM M f.RICK. Ronald Eric. "Tibetan norrare." Bulletin of the School of Orientul alUi AfrUulI Studies 51:537-39, 1988. HAMM, F.R. "Tibetsiche dbus and yul dbus." IndoJrall illn journal 4:1 :'-: , l. 1959.
HOfFMANN, Helmut. "Probleme und Aufgaben de r tibetischen Philolobic,"
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der deutschen morgenliilUiiscllen Gesellschoft 92:34568, 1938.

Hon "MAN, Helmut. "Th~ Tibetan names o f the Saka and the Sogdians." Asia

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.33
C~nlral

HOUSTON, Gary W. "Cig car, cig char, Slon : note on a Tibetan term."
Asiatic Journal, 20:41-6, 1976.

IMAEDA Yoshiro. "Towards an interpretation of the wo rd chis." In Michael V. Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds. Tibetan sludks in honour of Hugh RichiJrdson: proceedings of the International Seminar on Tibetan Studia, Orford, 131-32. Westminster: Ads & Phillips, 1979; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981. JONG, Jan Willem de. "Tibetan blag-p!l and blags-pa." Bulletm of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36:309. 12, 1972.

K.ANlA, lreneusz. "The seventh chapter of the rGyal-rabs gsal-ba'j me-long and a problem of Tibetan etymo logy." Folia Orie/ltalia 15:247-58, 1974; also . in Tib~t Journal 3.3:12-20,1978.
KOHALMI, Kata lin. "Ohcr die pfcifenden Pfeilc der innerasiatischen Reiter nomaden." Acta Orkmalia Hungaricat 3:45-71 , 1954.
LAUFER, Berthold. "Loan words in Tibetan." T'oulIg Pao 17:404-552, 1916; Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1918. Reprinted in Hartmut Walravens and Lokestl Chandra. eds. SillO-TIbetan studies, 11.483-632. Nc ..... Delhi: Rakesh Goel, :987.

u u

Fang-kuei. "Notes on Tibetan sog." Central Asiatic Jouma/3:139-42, 1957.

Fang-kuei. "A SinoTibetan glossary from T unhuang." T'oung Pao 49:233356, 1962; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963.

u Fang-kuei. "Tibetan Glo-ba 'dnng." Sludia Serica Bernhard Karlgren dedicalQ , 55-9. Copenhagen, 1959.
MAnsOl'l', James A. " Hearts and minds in South-East Asian languages and English: an essay in the comparative lexical semantics of psycho-collocations." Cnhkrs de linguistiqu~ Ask Orkllfa/e 15.1:5-57, 1986.
MEISElAIIL., R.O. "Tibelisch margad, smaragd. Umf-Allaische Jahrbu cher 35:

204-12, 1963.

MORIYASU Talmo. "La nouvelle interpretation des mots Hor et Ho-yohor dans Ie manuscrit Pelliol tibi!lain 1283." Acta Oncn/afia Hungaricae 34:171-84. 1980.
Oh"TKf.. Cla us. Die nus dem Chillesischell ilbersetUl1 tjbetischell Veniol/ell des Suval7JaprabMisasutra. PJzilolugi.sche UluJ lit'KI,islische Beitriige lur k!assi[lZkrenden Characterisienmg ilbenetze Tale. AlI- und Neu-Indische Studien 18. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. 1977.

4.14 RICIJAI{I)SON, Hugh E. "Narlle~ and tiiles in early Tibetan records." Bu.llelill of Tihc/fIlo}.. '\ 4.1:520, It)h7. RJCIIAlWSOt'i. H ugh E. "Tihel :1Il chif lind IJcllis ." Asia Major 14:2546, 1969. RON A-T AS, Andr{ls. "Oil a h: rm of Iilxat iun in the Old ribetan Royal Annals." In Proceedings of th e CJoma de K(jr/is Mt'mo,wl S)'mposwm, 35763. Bihliographia Orientalis H unga rica 21 BudilJ'R'st: Akademiai Kiad6,

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RONA-T AS, Andril~ . "Sociill terms in tho;: list of granls of the Tibelan Tunhuang chronicle." Acto Oriell/alia fflmgari('IIl 5:24970.1955. SAkKOZI. Alice . "Some words on the: Mongoli:m Mahavyutpani." Acta Ontllt olio ffullgan'cae 34:219-34, 198(). SARKO/.!, Alice. " A Tihell) Mongniian m:lIlusrn pt of 1c:xicographic explana tiuns to tht: fWyud.hti. " In Louis ligeti. cd. Tih('/(II! [lIId Buddhist studies commemomtillx till' ZOOIIl WllliIWWIT)' ('f lin' hirlh of Ak.w./lda Csomll de Konis, 11 .249-79. IJUl.!;lpcst: Akaucm i: ti K i;IU{ IIJX4. SIOIlI }.{:U:, Kalllil. "The numnal ~ys ll'm of c1as~i licatilln of catchwords in Tibel:m kxic{lgraphy.' Zcil"d;n!/ cia dr!idJc/"'1I m 0'Kl'lIliilldiKht'lI Gf!sellscha/t 11O: 74H2. 196CJ. SIMON. Walte r. "Cogn;ucs of Tlhct:tIl ,wIs'fill ('entire, complc:tc')." Academja Sillica: Bulit-lill of ,h" hl.l'/illllc of lliwory alld PhiloloK)' 39:2X7-9. 1%9. SIMON. W'llter . "Some T illl' l;m l'I~l11ol ogics of semantic interest." Bul/elill of (II{' School of Oricllwl amI Afr/ClIII SwJi~'J 43; 132-6, 1Will. SIMON. Walter. "Tiht.wn gr.'h :md CIlb",atl' wo rds." Bulf.,till of (Iu' School of Ori('lIwl alld Af ri("fm SlIulit's 2osn.'2. IIJS7. SIM()N. Waltcr. "T iheta n lexicl,gr:l phy <L IlU c tynl()lugical research." .TrUll5oc.iol/.~ of /he /'hiftllrWic(// SI,ri('/I' ( 11)64 ): K~-I I 17. 19M. SIMON, W"her. "T ihl.' l;m 1I.\ill rrm.1 ami
/i,rWI.I."

A ..ju Major 12: 179R4, 1966.

SIM ON, W"her. "Tibetan pllf. "flar. JPIJf. ;111\1 (ugnalc words." Bullt'/ill (.f rhe Sdwol of On'I'II/II! (1/1(1 Aj';CIlII SIWJi('S 25:72-RO. 1%2. StMON. Waher. ''The Tibetan p.lnide r. ... Bullt'/;1I of thl' School of Oriell/al and AfrictJl[ Stwii"J )0:11726. 1%7.
Orin'-wl

SIMON, Waltc r. "Tibe tan re in its wider COll1cxt." Hldlet;1I of 11t~ Sch ool of (111(/ Afn'ctm Sludi.s 31:555('2. 196H. SIMON, Walta. "Tiheta n J(( 'J
.I"/('J. /(

(Ic .

an.1 some o f Iheir Sanskrit corrcs

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pondences." Bulletin of the School of Orienlal and African Siudies 42:3346, 1979, SIMONSSON, Nils. "Sanskrit na and Tibetan ma yin." Orientalin Suecana 9:1121, 1960. SoMLAI, G. "Preliminary investigation of a Tibe!an medical chart." ,In Louis Ugeti, ed. me.an and Buddhist studies commemora.ing .he 200th annivef:fary of 1M birth of Alexander Csarna de KorOs, 11.313-19. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984. STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Un ensemble semantique libtlain: creer et proc n~e r, !tre et devenir, vivre, nourir, el guerir." Bullelill of the School of Oriellla/ alld African Studies 36:412-23, 1973. STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Notes d'etymologie tibttain." Bulletill de {'Ecolt! Fran<;oise d 'ExtrimeOrient 41 :2033 1, 1941. STEIN, Rolf Alfred. ""SaiOl et divin .. , un tilre tibetain et chinois des rois tibttains." Journal Asiatique 269: 23 1-75, 1981. STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Sudden illumination or simultaneous comprehension: remarks on Chinese and Tibeta n terminology." In Peter N. Gregory, ed. Sudden and gradual: approaches to enliglrtellmelll ill C/rinese thought, 41-65. Studies in East Asian Buddhism 5 Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987. STEIN, Rolf A1rred. "Tibetica aOliqua I. Les deux vocabulaires des traductio ns indo-tibetaine et sino-tibetaine dans les manuscrits de To uenHouang." Bulletin de l'Ecole Franfaise d'utrimeOriem 72: 149236, 1983. Sn::IN, Rolf Alfred. "Tibet ica antiqua III . A propos du mot g<.ug{ag et de la religion indigene." Bulletin de {'Ecole Fmllfaise d'utrime Onelll 74:83- 133, 1985. TAUDE, Manfred. "Zu e inige n Texlen cler tibetischen brdagsor.niiii-LiteralUr." In Eberhard Richter and Manfred Taube, eds. Asielll"issenschaftliche Beilriige: Johannes Schubert ill memoriom, 169201. Veroffentlichungen des Museums f(jr V6Ikerkunde zu Leipzig 32. Berlin: Akade mieYerlag, 1978. TERJ.K, J. "Die Wo rterbikher der vorklassischen tibetischen Sprache." In Proctedings of the Csoma de Koros Memorial Symposiu m, $03-9. Bibliogra phia Orientalis Hungarica 23. Budapest: Alcademiai Kiad6, 1978. UEB ....CIl, Helga. "Notes o n the Tibetan kinShip term dbon." In Michael Y. Atis and Aung San Suu Kyi, cds. Tibetan studies ill honour 0/ Hugh Riclrard

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URAY, Geza. "The four horns of Tibet according to the Royal Annals." A c/a
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URAY, Geza. "Grtn, Ihe alleged Old Tibetan equivalent of the clhnic name Ch 'iang." Ac/a OrkfJta/io Hungaricot 19:245-56. 1966. U RAY, Geza. "Notes on a Tibetan military document from Tun-huang." Acta O,untalia Hungaricae 12:223-30, 1961. U RAY, Geza. "Old Tibetan dm-mQ-drartJ." Acta OnenlO.litJ Hungaricae 14:219-

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WtUIELM, Friedrich. "Ein Beitrag zur tibetischen Lexikographic." Cmtra[ Asiatic Journal 7:2 1225, 1962. WYLI E., Turrell V. "Etymology of Tibetan Bla-ma." Centrol Asiatic ioumal 21: 1458, 1977.

8. TIBETAN TEXTS
ARtS, M ichael. Sources for the hislOry of Bhutan. Wie ner Stud ien zur Tibet o logie und Buddhism uskunde 14. Wicn: A r beit ~kre is fUr T ibctische IJnd Buddhistische Studien, Universitat Wien, 1986.
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BAC.:OT, Jacques. Zugiliima. C.,hiers tie fa Societe: Asi3tique 14. Paris, 1957. BACOT, Jacques, F. W. Thomas and Ch. Toussaint. Docummls de rauen houallg relalifs a ['hisroi,e du Tibet. Annaks du Musce Guimet, BibliOlheque d'Etudes 51. Paris, 1946.

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BAlBIR, Jagbans Kishore. L 'hi.stoin de Ramo en tWtlain d 'apns les manuscritr de Touenhouang. Collection Jean Pnyluski 4. Paris: AdrienMaisbnneuve, 1963.
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HOUSTON, Gary W. Sources for a history of the bSarn yas debate. Monumenta Tibetica Historica. Abteilung I: Scriplores 2. Sank! Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1980.
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JONO, Jan Willem de. Mi la ras pa 'j mam lhar. Tale libttain de la vie de Milar/pa. Indo-Iranian monographs 4. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1959.

JONG, Jan Willem de. "The Tun-huang m:.nuscripts of the Tibetan Riimiiyal)a story." Indo-/ronUln Journal 19:37-88, 1977.
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Samten G. The tretuury of good sayings: a Tibetan history of BOil. London Oriental Series 26. London: Oxford University Press, 1912-

KASaIEWSKY, Rudolf. " Die Lehrworte des Pha-dam-pa." In Rudolf Kaschewsky, K1aus Sagaster, and Michael Weiers, eds. Sena TlbetO-Mollgolica. Festschnft fUr Walther Heinig zum 60. Geburtslag, 171 -204. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1973. KAscHEWSKY,

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KAscHEWSKY. Ruaolf and Perna Tsering. Dos Leben der Himmelsfee 'Gro-bo bzoij-mo. EUI buddhistisches 1heatemuck. Tibetische Texte al.:s NepalI. Wien: Octopus Verlag, 1975_ KAscHEWSKY, Rudolf and Perna Tsering. "Die Niederschlagung des ErnpOrers von Nag-ron und andere Reminiszenzen des Dpal-sprul Rin-po-the." Zentrafasiatische Studit:n 7:443-75, 1973.

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KtAFxOWSKl, Piolr. The secret deliverance o[ the sixlh Dalai Lama a.f IUlrroted by Dharmatala. Wiener Studien zur Tibelologie und Buddhlsmuskunde 3. Wien: Arbeitskreis filr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Univer1itiit Wien, 1979.

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KVAERNE., Per. "Un nouveau document Telatir a l'epopte tibttaine de Gesar." Bulletin de I'tc~/e Franrraise d'xrlme-O~m 58:221-229, 1971.

LALOll, Marcelle . "Fiefs poisons et guerisseun." Journal asinliqUL 246:151-201, 1958. LALou, Marcelle. "Sulfa du Bodhisattva 'Roi de la Loi.'" Joumal asiotique 249:321-32, 1%1.
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th~

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UNOTNER. Christian. "AtiSa's introduction to the two truths. and its sources." Journal o[ bldinn Philosophy 9:161-214, 198L MACDONAW,

Alexander W. MatlritJuz pour I'ltude de la liItlroturt popuIaiu

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M ACDONALD,

Alexander W. MaliritJuz pour I'Ifud~ de la li.ttirarur~ popuJaire

THE ClAssiCAL TIBETAN UNGUAGE

tibittlw II. Paris: ubrairie C. KJincksieck. 1972.

MJ.NEN, Johan van. Minor TIbetan

tttlS, / :

1M song of the eastern snow

m()WIIaUu. Bibliotheca Indica, new series 1426. Calcutta, 191 9.

NOBEL, Johannes. UdrayaIJQ, KOnig von RonJco. EiM buddhistische Erziihlung. Dk tibetische filnr.selZung d~ Sonskrinuus. Wiesbaden, Ouo Harrassowitz,

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Thubten Jigme and Robert B. Ekvall. The younger brother Don Yod. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.., 1969.

RIOIARDSON, Hugh E. Ancient historical edicu at Uw.sa and the Mu Tswtg/Khri Guung Lde Bnsan treaty of A.D. 821-822 from the inscription at Lhasa. Royal Asiatic Society Prize Publication Fund 19. London, 19.52. RIOIARDSON, Hugh e. "A new inscription of Khri Srong Lde Brtsan." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ( 1964): 1-13, 1964. RICHARDSON . Hugh E. ':A ninth-century inscription from Rkoi'i-po." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1954):1.57-73, 1954. RIC HARDSON, Hugh E. "The Sino-Tibetan Ireaty inscriplion of A.D. 8211823 at lllasa." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1978):137-62, 1978. RICHARDSQN, Hugh E. "The Skar-cung inscription." Journal of tile Royol Asiatic Society (1973):12-20, 1973. RICHARDSON, Hugh E. "Three ancient inscriptions from Tibet." Journal ofllie Royal Asiatic Society of lkngal 1.5:45-64, 1949. RICHARDSON. Hugh E. ''Tibeta n inscriptions at :l.va-hi Lha Khan, 1-11." Journal of the RO)'ol Asiatic Sociery (1952): 133-.54, 1954; (19.53): 1-12, 1953. RICHARDSON, Hugh E. A corpus of early Tibetan inscriptions. Hertford : Royal Asiatic Society, 1985. RUEGG, D. Seyfml. The life of Bu ston Rill po che, willi the Tibetan tat of tile Bu ~ton rNam thor. Serie Orientale Roma 34. Rome: Istituto Italia no per iI Media cd Estrcmo Oriente, 1966. ScIllEFNER, Franz Anton von. Toranm/lae de doctrinae Buddhicae in India propagatione nam1tio. Contextum Twelicum e codiciblls Petropolilanis ediliil. St. Petersburg, 186&. ScuIEFNER, Franz Anton von. fiber das Bon-po Surro, Dos Weisu I\ "'-~';~ Hundemausnd. Mcmoires de I'Acadcmie Imperiale de St. Petersb..iurJ, ViI.

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BII A lTAC' II A){YII.,

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BoSE, Phanindra Nalh. Pra/jm,imiIIHJ.I{/k.~a~wm. Lahore' MOl; Lal Banarsi Das. 1929; Delhi: BhlnaliY(l Puhlishing ' Iouse. \978.
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JAS"ffiAM, Judy Ann. 11vu clwptm from the Gal)ljDvyiiha siUTa: a crilicaJ ediJwtl of the SalUJcriJ and Tibetan texts of the youlh Sudhana's visits to 1M bhiJqw MegJumi, Siigaramegluz, and Supra(#Ihila. Dissertation AbstraCU

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lAMOlTE. Etienne. La fomme du grand ~hicuh (MahayaNUllfN'UIuJ). Publications de "Institute Orientalisle de Louvain 8. Louvain: Univenit~ de Louvain, 1973.
LAUFEI/., Berthold. DOkumenlt! de' indiJchen Kunst. rslU Heft. Maltrei. [)as CiJralaksha')o: Leipzig: Quo Harrassowil2., 1913. Translated as An early docurnellt of Indinn an: the "Citra/alqtH;lQ of NagnajiJ. " B.N. Goswamy and A.L Dahmen-Dal1apiccola, trans. New Delhi: Manohar, 1976.

Ltyy, Sylvain. Mahiikamwvibhaiiga (La grande classi[u:ation des acres) er Karrnovibhaiigopadefa (Discussitm sur Ie mahii kam1J1vibhaiiga). Paris: Librairie Ernst Leroux, 1932.
LIN u- kouang. Dharrna-wmuccaya. Compendium de InloL Rtcueil de stances extruiles du Saddlwrrna-sm{TtY-up<whiina,sulra par AvaloldJasifriha. Paris: AdrienMaisonncuve, VoLl, 1946; Vol. 2, 1969; Vol. 3, 1973. L1NDTNER, Christian. "Cadrakirtj's PaikaskandhaprakaraT:la." AclO Onemu/ill 40:87. 145, 19"19.
LINI>TNEII.,

Christian. "Narakrxldharastava." Acra Oriefltalill 40:146-55, 1979.

M AY, JaCtjucs. Candrokirti. Prasannapadii madhyamakovrtti Collection Jean Przyluski 2. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1959.
N nfl E! ~

Johannes. Suvaf7)aprabhiisOltomasutra: dos GoldglanLfutra. Leiden: E.J.

8rm, 1950.

jagadishwar. Ralniikaro-fiimj's Chandoramiikora. Rahula Collection Scrics 2. Patna: Bihar Research Society, 1988.
PANDEY,

PATI'.! , Prabhub h~i Bhikhabhai. Cjua~iJuddhiprakara'!4

PMII A K.

0/ Aryadeva. Sanskrit
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Sunitikumar. Ciil)a/cyariijalllliJiistram (a Tibetan

wiJh SanskrU

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parallels). Santiniketan: VisvaBharati Research Publications., 19S9.

PATIIAK, Sunitikumar. Nititliltrt1 of Maswalqa. Santiniketan: VisYaBharati Research Publications, 1961. POUSSIN, Lous de la Vallee. Tibetan trQI'LSiation of tM NyQyabindu of Dharma k"irti with the com~ntary of Vlniradeva. Bibliotheca Indica 171. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1905-13; Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1984.

SASTR[, N. Aiyaswami. Al)'a ~aiUlambQ lutra, ProtflYO-Slumupad4vibluJnga nir de!asutra, and PrQriryasamurpadagiirho surra. The Adyar Ubrary Series 76.
Adyar: Adyar Library, 1950.

SASTRI, N. Aiyaswami. Bhavasaiikranti sUlra and NagarjUTUJ'S BluJWUtliiJaanti .fiillra with rite commtlltary of MaiJreya"litha. Adyar: Adyar library, 1938.
StERBAnKOJ, Fedor Ippolitovif. N>'liyabindu, buddhijVcij ulebniJc iogiJd, solinenie Darmokirti, i tolkovanie no nego, NyliyabindufikD, sol~ Dormottarbi. rtbetskij perevod. BibliOlheca Buddhica 8. St. Petenburg. 1904. Si:ERBATSKOJ, Fedor Ippolitovif. TibelSkij ptm'Od AbJUdhormalcofakiriJcih i AbhidirannakOfobhii&om solintnlJ' Vasubandhu. Bibliotheca Buddhica 20. Leningrad, 1930; Osnabrilck: Biblio Verlag, 1970. SeERHATSKOJ,

Fedor IppoJitovif. rtbetskijpel'n'Od socinenij $anIQMnlanuiddIti Dharmakirti i Saflliifllimarcuiddhi/ilcd Vlllltadeva lI1rIate s libtrsldm tolJcJcva nitm, sostavlelillym Agvofl DandarllJ(lramboi. Bibliolheca Buddhica 19. St. Pe tersburg, 1916.
Si":ERBATSKOJ, Fedor tppolitovit and Evgenij Evgenievif Obermiller. Abhisamaya lalikiI ra-prajllii pii ramiJii -upadefa .fii Slra. Bibliotheca Buddhica 23. Leningrad. 1929_

SKORUPSKI, Tadeusz. nit! S!Jn'adu'K(;JlipariJodhana lantra. Elimination of oil evil desrinks. Sa/ukriJ alld Tibe/an 1t!.XfS. Delhi: MOlilal Bananidass, 1983. SNELLGROVE. David L. nle Hevajra Tallfra. A criticalltudy. London Oriental Series 6_ London : Oxford University Press, 1959.
SORENSEN. Per K . COIwrakinis Wa,a~lalaplati. n'e septu4ginJ of lhe "vee refug.es. Wiener Siudien zur TihelOlogie und Buddhismuskunde 16. Wien: At beitskreis fUr Tihetische und Buddhislische Studien, Univenitat Wien, 1986.

STAft-Hot S1ViN, Baton A. von. nit Kii\yapapan"vana. A MoMyituJSiJrra of tht Rm/Jaku!(J class. Peking, 1925; Tokyo: Meichofu\cyu-kai, 1977. S1T:.lNKHI.NF.R, Ernst . Dharmakrnis Paralokasiddlli. Nach~ird~ WJftl~bW1.

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lUI'

Zugleich eine Eidulegung maleriLliis,irchu 'Ihnen

Notur der Geistigkeu.

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ToU\, Fernando and Carmen Dragoneni. "SUnyaliisaptan: the seventy karikis

on Voidness (according to the SV3vrtti) of Nagarjuna." Joumal 0/ Indian

Phaosop/l), Il:l-ll, 1987.

TSUDA Shinichi. 17K SOfJ1yorodaya- Tantra. Selected ClulpttT3. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1974.
VIDYABIfU~A, Salis Chandra. Amamkoja and Us 'T'ibetan tnlfUltlrion, 'Chi met! mdzod. A mtlrical dictionary of flu Sanskrillanguage by AmarruiqW1 with us 7ibeton trans/DtWn made by MahiipoQ4uo Klrticandra and Yar/uiis Lo-uiiba Gratp-pa-rgyal-mtslum. Bibliotheca Indica 204. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 191112; Gangtok: Sherab Gyaltsen Lama, 1984.

VOGEL., aaus. The teachings 0/ the six heretics according to the PrallrQjyavastu of llie Tibetan Miil4salViistiviida Vlltaya. Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des

Morgenlandes XXXIX.4. Wiesbaden: Kommwionsverlag FranzSteiner,l910.

VOOEl, Qaus. Viigbho{a's Alriingahrdayasarphilii. The first five chopttr.r 0/ its Tibetan vtr.rion. Abhandlungen rur die Kunde des Morgenlandes XXXVI!. 2. Wiesbaden: Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft, 1965.
WEUER, Friedrich. Brahmajiilosuml. 7ibetischer und mongolircher Tat. Leipzig: Kommissionsverlag Otto Harrassowitl, 1934.
ZIMMERMANN, Heinz.. Die SubhiiJua-ratna-karalJ44ktJ-/wtha (dem AtyaJiira zugeschMben) und ihre tibetische Uberwzung. Ein Vergleich zur Darl~ng der ImwnsriJiJren bei der Awwertung tibetischer Ubtr.retzungen. Freiburger Beitrage zur lndologie 8. Wiesbaden: Duo Harrassowitl, 1975.

10. WRITING
BACOT, Jacques.
L'~criJun

cw:Jilie tibetaine. Paris, 1912.

B~D, William L "In re classical Tibetan orthography. 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' ,. Paper presemed at the eleventh annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language! and linguistics, University of Ariwna. Tucson, 1918.

DAS, Sarat Chandra. 1'he sacred and ornamental characters of Tibet." Joumol of 1M Aswtic Society of Bengal 57:41-8, 1888.

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F~cKE,

August Hermann. "The Tibetan alphabet." Epigrophia Indica 11:

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HUNTER, David. Paptrmaking. The hiJtory and techniqIU of an anciem croft, 59, 111114, 170, ISO, 240. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1947.
LAUFER, Berthold. "Origin of Tibetan writing." Journal of the Anurican Oriental Society 38:34.46, 1917.

MIllER, Roy Andrew. "Phonemic theory and orthographic practice in Old Tibetan." J0Utn41 of Ih~ TIbelan Society 1:45062, 1981. MIUER, Roy Andrew. Th~ Tib~/an wriring 5}'st~m. American Council of Learned Societies Program in Oriental Languages Series B, Aid 6. WaShing ton DC: American Council of Learned Societies, 1956.
NAKANO Miyoko. "The Rgya--dkarnagrgyaser kasmira hal bod horgyi yige dan dperis rnamgrans maiiba and some remarks on the Phagspa Kript." In Perala Ratnam, ed. Studies in Indo-Aswn art and cu//un. Comnumoratjv~ volume on the 71s1 birthday of Achorya Raghu Vva, 111.118. ~ala.Pitaka series, Indo-Asian Literatures 209. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture. 1973.
NARKYTD, Ngawangthondup. "The origin o f the Tibetan script." In Ernest Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher, eds. ContribuMfIJ on 'Jibelan lAngtUlge, History, and CulJurt. Procudings of the Csoma de KOriis Symposium h~ld at Vefm.V&tnna, Austria, 1319 September 1981. 1.20720. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 10. Wien: Arbeil$kreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Siudien, Uni,.. ersi~t Wien, 1983. SAMPSON,

Geoffrey. Wriring systenu. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.

ScHARlIPP, Wo lfgangEkkehard. Eirlfohrung in die tiMtisch~ Schrift. Hamburg: Buske, 1984. STEVENS, John. Sacred calligraphy of the East, 7196. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1981. URAY, Geza. "On the Tibetan letters ba and wa--contribution to the origin and hislory of the Tibetan alphabet." Acto Orienlalia Hungarica~ 5:10122. 1955.

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HALE, Austin. Research 011 Tibelo-BUf17Iol1 languages, 10-35. Trends in Linguistics, State or the Art Report 14. New York: Mouton, 1982. MA71SOFF, James M. "The languages and dialects of Tibelo-Burman: an alphabetic/genetic listing. with some prefatory remaru on etnonymic and glossonymic complicatiom." In John McCoy and Timothy Light, cds. Contributiolls to Sino-TlhelQII studies. Cornell Linguistics Contributions 5. Leiden:

E.J. Brill, 1985.

MICIWLOVSKY, Boyd. "Phonological typology of Nepal languages." Paper pres~nled at the fifteenth annual International Conferenc~ on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Peking, 1982.
NISIII Yoshio. "Classification of some Tibetan dialects of Nepal." Paper presented at the first annual conference of the Linguistic Society of Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, 1980.

RUlILEN, Merrill. A guide fO fire world's languages. Vol. 1: classi[lCofWII , 141

47,331-33. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987.

SHAFER,

Raben. "Classification of the Sino-Tibetan languages." Word 2:94111,1955.

SHAfER, Raben. "Classification of some languages of the Himalayas." Joumal of ,he Bihar Research Society 34: 192.214, 1950.

SII .... FF.R, Roben. "The linguistic position of Owags." Oriens 7:)48-56, 1954.
THURGOOD, Graham. "Pronouns, pronominallPtion, and the suhgrouping of Tibeto-Burman." In G raham Thurgood, James A. Matisoff, and DaVid Bradley, cds. Lingui5lics of ,he Sino Tibetan area: (h e SIOle of tile art PapH'S presemed to Paul K. 8efU'dicl for his 71st bindhay, )76-400. Pacific Linguistics Series C, 87. Canberra: Australian National University, 1985.

VOEGEI.IS, C.F. and F.M. Voegclin. Classificatioll alld index of IWlguuges. Ncw York : Elsevier, 1977.

Jill' K'o"d :~

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12. RELATED LANGUAGES

CHANG Kun. "The phonology of the Gyarong dialect." Academio Sinko: Bulletin 0/ the fnslitule 0/ History and Phi/ology 38:251-75, 1968.
OlANO

Kun and Betty Shefts Chang. "Gyarong historical phonology." Academio Sinko: Bulletin 0/ the Institute of History and Philology 46:391-524, 1975. DRElM, George van. "An exploration of Proto-Kiranti verbal morpholoj1Y." Paper presented at the twenty-first annual International Conference on SinoTibetan languages and Linguistics, University of Lund, 1988. DRtEM, George van. "Le Proto-Kiranti revisitt: morphologie verbaJe de LDhorung." Paper presented at the twenty-second annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1989. Karen H . "More evidence for the relationship Kiranli-Rung." Paper presented at the twenty-first annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of Lund, 1988.
EBERT,

FORREST, R.A.D.

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GLOVER, Warren W. Gluung phonemic summary. Tibeto-Bunnan phonemic summaries l. Kirtipur: Summer tnstilLJle of Linguistics, 1969. GLOVER, Warren W. SemefflU; and grammatical srructures in Gurung (Nepal). Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics and related fields 49. Norman, OK: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1974. HALE, Austin. ReSt'orch on rIbeto-BUlman languages. Trends in Linguistics, State of the Art Report 14. New York: Mouton &. Co., 1982. HALE, Austin, Maria Hari, and Burkhard SchOttelndreyer. ComporatiVt' vocab ularies 0/ lallguages of Nep<ll (Swadesh J{)()-word list). Kirtipur: Summer Institute of iJnguistics and Tribhuvan University, 1972. HAtE, Austin and Kenneth L Pike. TOile systems o/lIbeto-Burma" ia"guDgu

0/ Nepal. Occasional papers of the Wolfenden Society on Tibeto-Burman

Linguistics 3. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970. HALE, Austin and David E. Watters, eds. Clause, sentence, and discoune patttnt.S in selected IOtlguages 0/ Nlpa~ PaffS I-IV. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publicalions in Linguislics and Related Fields 40. Kathmandu: Summer Institute or Linguistics and Tribhuvan University, 1973.

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HOfFMAN, Helmut. "Several1..afifuii etymologies." Oriens txtremw 19:193 201, 1972-

HoF'F'MAN, Helmut. "Zan-tun, the holy language of the Tibetan Bonpo." ~ir
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HUMMEL, Siegbert. "Materialen zu einem WOterbuch der :l.aii-fuii-Sprache." MonumenlQ Serica 31:488-520, 1974-7S; 32:320-36, 1976.

HUMMEL, Siegbert. "Der Ursprung der Sprachc von Zhang-wung." Joumal a/1M nMl Soci~ty 6:3-16. 1986. KARLOREN, Bernhard. Grammala Senca Rensa. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964. MANSIER, Patrick. "Le lexique rgyaJron et Ie vocabulaire archaique tibftain (analyse d'UR cas d'allofamie en tibClo-birman)." Paper prcSc:nted at the
fiteenth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and

Linguistics, Peking. 1982.

NAGANO Yasuhiko. "A historical study of rOyarong initials and preftxes."

Linguistics 01 the TIbetoBunnan Area 4.2:44..68, 1979.

NAGANO Yasuhiko. "A historical study of rGyarong rhymes." Linguistics olthe TwetoBurman Area 5.1:37-47, 1979. NAGANO Yasuhiko. A historictll study 01 the rGytlrong verb system. Tokyo: Seishido, 1984. NAGANO Yasuhiko. "Preliminary remarks on rOyarong dialeclOlngy." Paper presented at the eleventh annual International Conference on SinerTibetan Languages and Linguistics., University of Arizona, Tucson, 1978. NISHIDA Tatsuo. "On the linguistic position of the Kham language in West Nepal-some provisional observations." Onsei Kagaku Kenleyu (Studio Phono-

logica) 21:1-9, 1987.

NISIflOA Tatsuo. "The Hsihsia, Lolo, and Moso languages." In Graham Thurgood, James A Matisoff, and David Bradley, eds. Linguistics ollht Sino TIbetan area: the state of the art. Papers pr&erUed to Paul K Be~tIOT his 7151 bindhtty, 23()...41. Pacific Linguistics Series C. 81. Canberra: Australian National University, 1985. N(SIflDA Tat$uo. "Hsihsia, Tosu and Lola-Burmese languages." Oll.Jei Kagalw. Kelltyu (Sludia Phonologica) 10:115,1976. PrnMAN, Richard S. and Jessie R. Glover. "Proto-TamangGurung-Thakali."

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Chinoises 15. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1961.

THOMAS, Frederick William. Nom, all ancient language of 1M Sino-1Umon borrkrland. Publications of the Philological Society 14. London: Oxford University Press, 1948. THURGOOD, Graham. "The 'Rung' languages: notes on their proto-morphosyntax and subgrouping." Acta Orientalia 46:79-99, 1988.
WA~ David E. "Emergent word tone in Kham: a Tibeto-Burman halfway house." Linguistics of the TIbeta-Bunrum Arl!'a 8.2:36-54, 1985.

WAlTERS. David E. '1'he evolution of a Tibeto-Burman pronominal verb morphology: a case.study from Kham (Nepal)." Linguistics of thl!' TiMloBumwn Area 2.1:4580, 1975.

13. COMPARISONS AND RECONSTRUCTIONS

BAUMAN, James John. "An historical perspective on ergativity in TibetoBurman." In Frans Plank, ed. ErgativiJy: towards a .ht'Ory of grammatical relations, 419-33. New York: Academic Press, 1979. BAUMAN, James John. "Pro nominal verb morphology in Tibeto-Burman." linguistics of 1M 1TM10-8urman Arl!'a 1.1:108-55, 1974. BAUMAN, James John. "Pronominal roots in Tibeto-Burman." Paper presented at the eighth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, 1975. BENEDICT, Paul K. Sino-TIbelan: a corupectus. Princeton-Cambridge studies in Chinese lingustics 2. James A Matisoff, contributing editor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972 BEN"EOICT, Paul K. "Tibcto-Burman tones with a note on teleo-reconstruction." Acta OntTllalill 35:127-38, 1973. BoDMAN, Nicolas C. "Evidence for I and r medials in Old Chinese and associated problems." In Graham Thurgood, James A Matisoff, and David

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BODMAN. Nic(llas C. "Olll Chinese .~- clusters. some dialect alternations, and traccs of the SinoT;bclan $- causative," Paper presenled at the firth annual
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DEL\NCEY, Scott. "The analysis-synthesis-Iellis cycle in Tibeto-Burman: a case study in motivated change." In lohn Haiman, ed. /coniity in Synuu. Proceedintp of a symposium on iconkity in .syntax, Stanford, 367-89. Typological Studies in Language 6. Amsterdam: John Benjarnins, 1985. DEL\NcEY, Scott. "The category of direction in Tibeto-Burman." Linguistics of thf! 'ltbf!to-Bunnat1 Ana 6.1:83-101, 1981. DEL\NcEY, Scott. "Etymological notes on Tibeto-Burman case particles." Linguistics of the 'Ilkto-Bunnan Arf!a fll:.59-77, 1983. DEL\NCEY, Scott. "From ergative to accusative in Tibeto-Burman." Paper presented al the tenth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1977. DEL\NCEY, Scott. "Mood particles in Sino-Tibetan." Paper presented at the eleventh annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, 1978. DEL\NCEY, Scott. "Tangut and Tibeto-Burman morphOlogy." Linguistics of the Tihf!to-Burmal1 Ana 7.2:100-8, 1983. FORREST, R.AD. "On certain Tibetan initial consonant groups." Wennli 4:116,1942. FORREST, RAD. "Towards common Tibeto-Burman." WeMli 10:1-18, 1956. GONG, Hwang-cherng. "A comparative: study of the Chinese, Tibetan, and Burmese vowel system." Academia Sinica: Bullf!M of thf! /nstiIulf! of History and Philology .51:4.5.5-90, 1980. KARLOREN, Bernhard. "Tibetan and Chinese."

roung Pao 28:2.5-70. 1931.

LAUFER, Berthold. "The prefIX a- in the Indo-Chinese: languages_" /ownal of the Royal Asiatic Soc~1y (191.5):7.57-80. 191.5. LucIO. Gordon H. A comparative wordJist of Old &umese, ChiMse. and TWf!IQt1. Eug~nie J.A Henderson, ed. london: School of Oriental and African Studies, J981.

MAnsoFF, James A "Stars, moon, and spirits: bright beings of the night in Sino-Tibetan." Gf!t1gO KenkyU (Journal of the Linguistic Soc~ry o{ Japan) 77: 145, 1980. .
MAzAUDON, Martine. "Tibeto-Burman lonogenelics." Linguistics ofthe Tibeta-

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MEl, Tlu-lin. "Some exampleJ of prenasais and -s-nasats in Sino-Tibetan." In

Graham Thurgood. James A Matisofl, and David Bradley, eds. Ungulstics of 1M Sino-1Jbetan aml: 1M mlk oftM olt. Paper! pusented to Paul K.. Berudict for his 71st birldlury, 334-43. Pacific Linguistics Series C. 87. Canberra:

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MJOlAILOYKY, Boyd. -ribcto-Bunnan dental suffixes: evidence from Limbu (NepaJ)."tn Graham Thurgood, Jamcs A Matisoff, and David Bradley, cds. Linplrtic$ 0{ 1M Sin.o-Tfbttan Qrta: the "Slate of 1M an. Papers prestrJed to Paul K. &nIict lex hir 7Ist bUtdhay, 363-75. Pacific linguistics Series C. 87. Canberra: Australian National University, 1985. MilLER, Roy Andrew. "The significance for comparative grammar of some Bblauts in the Tibetan numbc:r-systt .n." T'oung Paa 43:287-96, 1955. Mn.LER. Roy Andrew. "The Tibeto-Bunnan ablaut system." 1hlfUQCrions of llu /fIlmuuioMJ Congress of Orknllllisu in Japan 1:29-56, 1956.

MIlLER, Roy Andrew. "The Tibeto-Burman infIX system:' Journal of 'he American Oriental Sodny 78:193-204. 1958.
NISHIDA Tatsuo. "Some problems in the comparison of Tibetan. Burmese. and leachin languages." Onsei KDga1cu KenIcyU (Studia Phonologica) 11 :1-24, 1977. NISHIDA Tatsuo. "Some problems of morpheme stock in Sino-:ribetan: a preliminary observation in genetic " relationship." In Mantaro J. Hashimoto, ed. Gmnic reltltion.Jhi.p, diffwion and typological sinUJarilW of East and Southeast Asian ItlIf8lUlBU, 30-38. Papers of the first Japan-U.s. joint seminar o n East and Southeast Asian linguistics. Tokyo: Japan Society ror the Promotion or Science, 1976.

wt Asia," LiIIguistics of llu '1tInto-Bunnan Ana 9.1:65-82, 1986.

Pt.1U.EYB~

Edwin O. 1'onogenetiJ "U an indo: or areal relationships in

SEDI.AC:a:, Kamil. "Existiene ein lautgesctz in zusammengesetzen Anlauten ~ Proto-Sino-Tibetischen?" Cmrrul Asiatic Jounuzl 7:270-311. 1962.

SEDu.i:B. Karrul. 'The law of phonetic change in initial clwlers in common Sino-Tibetan." MOttUrtU!fIIa SerleQ 26:6-34, 1967. SEDLAi:EK, Kamil. "00 some Tibetan s'; d- initial clusters and their metathetical forms in Sino-Tibetan Jacmes." Orbis 13:556-67, 1964.

BmuooltAl'HY

SEDl...J.l:EI:, Kamil. "Zum InstrumentalsufflX HlUlng in Barmanisdlen und Dang im Tibetilcben." ZAilschrift thrd~UJSChen morgenJiindisch~n Ges~Usclwft 112:

15_.1962.
5HAPmt, Roben. 'The 'IOC8lism of Sino-Tibetan." Joumal of 0tWnsa/ Socidy 61):302-37, 1940; 61:18--31, 1941.
~ Ih~

Ammcan

SHAFER., Roben. "Problems in Sino-Tibetan phonetics." Journal Oriental Sociny 64:137-43.

0/

the

SHAFER., Roben. "PrefIXes in Tibeto-Burmic." Harvard Journal of AsiDtic

SAMJi<s 9,4550. 1945.

SHAFER., Roben. "The initials of Sino-Tibetan." Jouma/ of OrWtJlQl Soci~ty 70:96-103, 1950.
Ih~

AfMrican

SH.A.FEJl, Robert. "Newari and Sino-Tibetan." StudiD lingWsticQ 6:92-109.

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SHAFER, Robert: Introduction 1966-73.
10

Sillo-Tibeta n. Wiesbaden: OUo Harrauowitz,

SIMON. Walter. "Tibetisch-chinesische Wongleichungen. Ein Versuch." Miltei/-

IUIgen des S~minQrs rUr on.entQuiche Sprachen Qn der koniglichen FriM.richWdhelms-Universiliit zu B~rlul 32:157-228, 1929.
SPRIGG.

RK. " Prosodic analysis and phonological formulae in Tibeto-Burman linguistic comparison." In Harry L Shono, ed. linguistic comparison in South ~QSt Asia and (he PQcifIC, 78--108. Collected papers in Oriental and African studies. London: School of Oriental and African Siudies, 1963.
SUN Hongkai. "On consonanl clusters in Tibela-Burman." Linguistics of the

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Graham. "Lisu a nd ProlO-Lolo-Burmese." ActQ Orren tulia 3ft 147-

207. 1977.
WEIDERT, Alfons K. Tlhero-Bunnan tonology. C urrent Issues in Linguistic Theory 54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1987.

WOt.FENDEN, Stuart. "Conc(:rning the origins of Tibetan brgiad and Chin(:sc

pwdt. h T'oung Pao 34:16573, 1939.

WOLFENDEf'I", Stuart N. OU/lules of TiimoBurmall lillguistic morphology, willI special reference to 'he prrrurs, ulfues, wrd sulfues of classical Tibetan, Ulad th~ lanffUagrs of the Kachill, Bodo, Naga. Kuki ellin, alad Burma groups. Royal Asialic SociclY Prize Publication 12. London: Royal AsiaTic Society, 1!n.9.

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YANO, Paul Fu-mien. "Proto-Otinese SK- and Tibe~Burman equivalents," Papcr presented at the eleventh annual Intcmationa1 Conference on SinoTibetan Languages and Unguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson. 1978.

YANO, Paul Fu-mien. "Proto-Olinese -5-n- aod Tibete>Bunnan equivalents,"

Paper presented at the tenth annual International Conference on SinoTibetan Languages Bnd linguistics. Georgetown University, 1977.

14. WORD FAMILIES

CoNRADY, AugWL Ein indochbwiscJu CausQriv~nomiMtill-BUdung WId ihr Zwanunenhang mil den Tonaccenten. Em. Beilrag zur wrgkichetukn Grammotile tUr Indochinesiscehn SpraCMTI, insotukrluu du TibetischDt, Barmanischen, Siamesischen ulld Chinuischen. Leipzig: Otto HaITassowi~ 1896.

KARLGREH, Bernhard. "Word families in Chinese." Bulletin of 1M Museum of

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MAnsoFF, James A "Universal semantics and aUofamic identifation: two case studies-'straight/flat/full' and 'property/livetock/talenL'" Paper pre Knted at the nineteenth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Ohio State University, Columbus, 1986. MAnsoFF, James A Variational wruuuia in TdJeloBunnon: 1M "organic" approach 10 Iinguisric comparison. Occasional papers of the Wolfenden Society on Tibeto--Burman Linguistics 6. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978.
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WOl..fENOEH. Stuart. "On certain alternations between dental finals in Tibetan and Chinese." /oiurull of lhe ROYQl Asiatic Society (1936):401 .. 16, 1936.
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15. NEW TIBETAN DIALECTS

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aVERA, Marro Bernard. The dislinclive phonology of Uuua CmIrOl'Ilbdan: results of a [udd Irip 1 0 study rhe Himalayas as /lIZ aJtno.linguistit: llI'f!D.. Dissertation Abstracts International 32(04):2076, University Microfilms

ADG7125225. Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 1971.

DARROCH, Vivian. "Verbal experience in Ladakh." /laourcu lor Feminist

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DAWSON, Willa. TIbetan phonology. Dissertati{1O Abstracu International
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DA'NSON, Willa. "Tibetan tones: evidence fo r two-tiered representation." Paper presented a t the fourteenth annual International Conference on Sino-. Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, 1981. In Chauncey QU, Weldon South Coblin, and Feng-fu Tsao. eds. Pop03 from the /ouneenth annuol International Conference on Sino -Tibetan LAnguagd and LinguUtia. Taipei: Student Book Publishing Co., 1983.
DAWSON, Willa. "The: vowel feature 'consuicted' in Tibetan... In Suriya Ratanakul, David Tho mas and Suwilai Premsirat, cds. SoUIMa.rI asian lingwiJics slud~s pr~se"ted 1 0 Andre-G. Haudn"court, 15877. Bangkok: Mahidol University, 1985.

DElJ.NcEY, $con. "Agentivity and syntax." In Willia m H. EHrort, Paul D. Kroeber, and Karcn L Peterson, eds. PQpefl from Ih~ parasession on causarives and agentiviJy, fVt.'~t1ty-rllSt regional meeling. Chicago Ungustic Society, 1-12. Chicago: <...l1icago Linguistic Society, 1985. DE1..J..NCEY, Scott. "Categorics of nonvolitional aCIOT in Lhasa Tibetan." In Allene R. Zide, David Magier, and Eric Schiller, cds. Proceedings of W conferet1ce on. participant roles: Soulh Asia and adjacent areas, 58-10. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistks Oub, 1985.
DELANCEY, Scott. "Contour tones from lost syllables in Central Tibetan," Linguislics of .he TiMlo-Burman Area 12.2:33-4, 1989. D EW CEY, Scott. "Ergative case in modern Tibetan." Paper presented at the founeenth annuallntemational Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, 198 1. D El...ANCEY, Scott. "Evidentiality and volitionality in Tibetan." In Wallace Chafe and Johanna Nichols, cds. Evidt"rltialiry: rile linguisric coding of epislemology, 203-13. Advance!t In Discourse Processes 20. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1986.

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DElANCEY, Scott. "Lhasa ribetan: a case study in ergative typology." Journal of Linguistic R#!$<arch 2.1:21-31, 1982. DE.l..ANCEY, Scott. "Modern Tibetan: a case study in linguistic typology."

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DEl..ANCEY, Scott. "Tibetan evidentials and the semantics of causation." In

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KJEUJN, Olle. "How to explain the "ones' in Tibetan," Paper presented al the eighth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibelan Languages and
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K.JlllIN, Olle. "ObselV8tions on consonant types and 'tonc' in Tibetan," Journal of PiwIlelics 5:317-38, 1977.

K(lSIIAl.., Sanyukt3. ConversarionolLAdakhi. Delhi: MotHal Banarsidass, 1982.

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NAGANO Yasuhiko. "Preliminary notes on gLo.-skad (Mustang Tibetan)." In Graham Thurgood, James A Matisoff. and David Bradley, eds. Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan Ilml: the stille of the art. Papen presented to Paul K. &MeIict for his 71$1 bindhay, 451-62. Pacific Linguistics Scries C. 87. Canberra: Australian National University, 1985. OLsoN, Robert F. "Central Khams Tibetan: a phonemic survey." KDilash 2:

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RAy, Punya Sioka. "Kham phonology." Joumal of the American Ori.elllal Sockty 85:336-42, 1965.
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RICJrrER, Eberhard. Grundlagen der Pholletik des Utasa-DiIllekus. Schriften zur Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsfo rschung 8. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1964. RICJflCR, Eberhard and Dieter Mehnert. "On the structure and function of aspiration in modern Tibetan." In Eberhard Richler and Manfred Taube, eds. AsknwisJtlUchaftliche Beuriige: Johannes Schuben in memoriam, 123-30. VerOffentlichungen des Museums fUr Volkerkunde zu Leipzig 32. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978ROERICH, George Nicolas. "Modem Tibetan phonetics." Journal and Pro ceedings of the Asiatic Soci~ry of Bengal 27:285312., 1931. ROERICH, George Nicolas. Le parler dt l'Amdo. Etude d'un dia/tete archal.que du Tibet . Serie Orientale Roma 18. Rome: 151ilUIO Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958. ROERICH, George Nicolas. "The Tibetan diakct of Lahul." }oumal of the

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QIAN Che. "Certain phonetic changes in Tibetan in the light of variant and erroneous spellings in Old Tibetan documents of the Royal period." Linguistic! of the Tibeto-Burman Area 13_1: 110, 1990. ROERICH, George Nicolas. "Tibetan loan words in Mongolian." In Kshitis Roy, ed. L~benthal Festschrift. Special publication of Sinolndi(m Stud~ 5.34:174-80, 1957. RONA-TAS, Andras. "Linguistic notes on an Amdowa text." In Ernest Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher, eds. Contributions on 1lJntan Language, HistOly, and Culture. Proceedings of the Ooma de K6ros Symposiwn Mid at Velm-Vumna, Austria, 1319 September 1981, 1.243-80. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 10. Wien: Arbeitskreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universit1i t Wien, 1983. RONA-TAS, Andras. "Tibelological remarks on the Mongolian versions of the Thar.po then-po. In tflwes tibituines dtdiles d fa mtmoire de MarceUe Lalou, 440-7. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1972. RONA-T AS, Andras. ribeto- Mongo/ica; the Tibetan loanwords of MOI1gUQf and the development of the archaic ribetan dill/eets. Indo-Iranian monographs 7. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966. RONATAS, AndrAs. Wumer Vorlesungen zur Sprach- und KuJnugeschichte Tibets. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 13. Wicn: Arbeitskreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien. Universil1it Wien, 1985. SEDUCE", Kamil. "On Tibetan transcription of Chinese characlen." MiIteilungen chs In.uiJws fur OrientforscllUng 5:91-112, 1957. SIMON, Walter. "Alternation of final vowel with final dental nasal or pJosive in Tibetan." Bulletin of the Schoo/ of Oriental and African Stud~ 40:51-7, 1977. StMON, Walter. "A Chinese prayer in Tibetan script." In Kshilis Roy, ed. Liebenthal Festschrift. Special publication of Sino-Indian Studies 5.3-4:192-199. 1957.

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SIMON, Walter. "Iotization and palatizatiou in c1assiall Tibetan," Bull~rin of th.e School of OrkrUa/ and African Studies 38:611-14,1975.

SIMON, -Walter. "Loss of lor r in Tibetan initial consonantal clusters." Bu/krill of the School of Oriental and African Studies 37:442-5, 1974.
SIMON, Walter. "A note on Chinese texts in Tibetan transcription," Bulktin of the School of Oriental and African Srudies 21:33.....43, 195B. SIMON, Walter. 'The reconstruction of the original cluster 'nasal plus r' through Tibctan-Chinese word equations." Proceedings of the /nttrnlltiona{ Congress of Qrienlalisu 25:163-9, 1960.
SIMON, Walter. "Tibetan 'fifteen' and 'eighteen.'" In Etudes rib/lailles didi&s It fa mtmwe de MarcefJe Lalou, 472-78. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1972.
SIMON, Wa lte r. "Tibetan initial clusters of nasal and R," Asia Major 19:246-51 , 1975.

SIMON, Walter. "Tibetan Ih and hr in alternation with other initial consonant clusters, or with simple initial I and r- ." Asin Major 17:21622, 1972. SIMON, Walter. ''Two final consonant clusters in archaic Tibetan." Acad~mia Sinica: Bullttin of th~ IlUtilul~ of History and Philology 29:87-90, 1957. SIMON, Walter. "Vowel alternation in Tibetan." Asin Major 19:86-99, 1974. SPRIGG, R.K. "A polysystemic approach. in Proto-Tibetan reconstruction. to tone and syllableinitial consonanl clusters." Bullerin of rh~ School of Oriental and African Srudies 35:546-87. 1972. SPRIGG, R.K. "The syllable finals of Tibetan loan words in lepcha orthography." Lillguistics of r"~ 7ibeto-Burmall AreQ 9.1:27-46, 1986. SPRIGG, R.K. "Vocalic alternation in the Balti, the Lhasa, and the Sherpa verb, as a guide to alternations in Written Tibetan, and to Proto-Tibetan reconstruction." Bul/erill of Ih e School of Omma/ and A/ricall Studies 43: 11022, 1980. Sl'EINKELI.NER, Ernst. "A literary source for 1ate 18th-century spoken Tibetan (Amdowa)." Acta Onell/ajja HUlIgaricut 34:245-48. 1980. TAKATA Tokio. "Sur la naissance des Io ns du tibelain." Journal Asialique 269: 277-85, 1981. TANG lian. "Types and rorders vowel assimilatory processes in the Ancient Tibetan language." Paper pn'sented ilt the twenty-first annual International

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85&-60, 1927.
THOMAS, Frederick William, S. Miyamoto, and G.LM. aauseo. "A Chinese Mahayana catechism in Tibetan and Otinese characters." Journal of the Rayal Asiatic Socilty (1929):37-76, 1929. WANG, Stephen S. "Consonantal clusters of Tibetan loanwords in Stau." Monumenta Serica 29:631-58, 1970-71. Alfons K. "Tonogenesis in the Tibetan dialects of Bhutan." Paper presented at the nineteenth annual International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Ohio State University, Columbus, 1986.
W EIDERT,

y",o Wang. "A study on the ancient pronunciation of the word mig in Tibetan." In Ernest Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher, eds. Contributions on 1ibelan Language, History, and CulfUlt. Proceedings of the Csoma de K6rOs Symposium held at Velm.VU'nna, Austria, /319 September 1981, 1.449-55. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 10. Wien: Arbeitskreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Siudieri, Universitat Wien, 1983.

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18. LITERARY STUDIES

AROUSSI, John and Lawrence Epstein. "The 5aintly madman in Tibet." Tn

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James F. Fisher, cd. Himalayan anthropology: lh~ Indo-1ibeum interface, 32738. The Hague: Mouton, 1978. ARJs, Michael. Hiddtn trtruwts and secret lives. A study of Pemalingpa (14501511) and 1M sixth Dalai LAma (1683-1706). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988.
A:n'L, Barbara Nimri. "The work of Pha-dam-pa Sangs-rgyas as revealed in Ding-ri folklore," In Michael V. Ans and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds. Tibetan stutlia in honour of Hugh Richardson: proceedings of fhe International Seminar 011 TIbetan Studw, Oxford, 21-29. Westminster: Aris & Phillips., 1979; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981.

BACK, Dieter Michael. Eme buddhistische JellSeiJsrrise. Das segenanllte "Totenbuch de, T'ibeter" aus philologischer Siehl. Freiburger Stilrage zur Indologie 13. Wicsbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1979.
BALl(, Michael. "fndische Etymologien in einem tibetischen Kommentar," In Helmut Eimer, ed. V/Curakusumiinja/i. Volume presented to Richard Olhon Meisezahlon the occasion of his eightieth birthday, 122. Indica et Tibetica 11. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag. 1986. BECXH, Hermann. Bei/riige zur tiberischen Grammalik. Lajcographk. Sri/isrUc, und Metrik. Berlin: Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1908. BERN8AUM, Edwin Marshall. The mythic jouml!)' and its symbolism: a study of the devtlopment of Buddhist guidebooks 10 SamMala in relation to their ante c~ent.J in Hindu mytllology. Dissertation Abstracts International 47(03}:0942, University Microfilms ADG86-09940. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cali fomia-Berkeley, 1985. BLONDEAU, AnneMarie. "te decouvreur .. du Ma,)i bko '. 'bum etailil hon poT' In Louis ligeti. ed. Twetan and Buddhisl studies commemorating the 200th annivenary of tile birth of Alaander Coma de K6rru, 1.77123. Budapest: Akade miai Kiad6, 1984. BLONDEAU, Anno-Marie. "Le Ua 'dre bka' thai'i." In Etudes (ibitaines dtdites
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BLONDEAU, AnneMarie. Matiriaux pour I'itude de I'hippologie et de "hippiarrie ribitaines Ii partir des manuscriu de TouenHouung. Hautes Etudes Orientalcs 2. Geneve: Libraririe Droz, 1972. BROUGKTON, Jeffrey. "Early Ch'an schools in Tibet." In Robert M. Gimello omd Peter N. Gregory, eds. Stud~s in Ch'ul1 and Huayel1, 168. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism L Honolulu: University of Hawaii

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t~

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HAHN, Michael. "Zu den QueUen einiger Strophen 8US Sa Skya Pal)~itas SubMpuual1Ulnidhi." In LDuis [jgel~ ed. TIbetan and Buddhist studks commmaomMg 1M 200rh Dnnivtflory of the binh of Alexander Csoma de Koros, 1.2.51-66. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6. 1984.

HMRH. Erik. 1M Yar!uii dylUUfy. A slUdy wiJh particular regard 101M canmi.unon Iry myths ,,,,d /qtnds 10 1M history of Anc~nl 7Ibel and 1m: origin and
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HERRMANJII,PFANDT, Adc Iheid. "Zur Vorgeburtsgeschichte cincr ...e r)t6rpenen J)alUl)i." In Helmut Eimer, ed. VJCi!ralcusumiHijali. Volume preslmled to RicluJrd Othon Meisaahl on 1M occa.sion of his eightieth binhday, 113-24.
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HOUSTON, Gary W. ''The system of Ha Sang Mahayana." Central AsUlIic JoumaI21:10S10. 1977.
IMAEDA Yoshiro. "Documenu tiM:tains de Touen-ho uang concernant Ie condie du Tibet." Jownal aswrique 263:125-46, 1975. lMAEDA Yoshiro. "L'identification de I'original chinois du Pelliot Tibetain 1291. Traduction ti~taine du Zhanguoce." Acla Orienlalia Hungoricoe 34:53-

68, 1980.
JACXSON, ~oger. "Sa-skya paQQita's account of the Bsam-yas debate: history as polemic." J0um41 oflile Interna/iollal A55OCwtion of Buddhisl Snufits 4.2:8999, 1981. JAClSON, Roger. "Sa-skya paQ~ita's letter to th~ Tibetans: a lale and dubious addition to hiJ collected works:' Journal of tl.1! Tibet Society 6:1723, 1986. JONG, Jan Willem de. "Encore une fois Ie Fonds PelliOl tibetain no. 610."

Central Aswlic JoumoI 12:11, 1968.

l ONG, Jan Willem de. "Un fragment de I'hisloire de Rama en Ti~lain." In tludel ,iblloines didiles d la mimoire de Morre//e La/au, 127-41. Paris: Adrien-Maisonncuve, 1912. lONG, lan Willem de. "An old Tibetan version of the Ramiiyana." In Venkatarama Raghavan. ed. Proceedings of tile Fir.st III/emotional SOfUkriJ Conference, 11.1.289-302. New Delhi: R ashlriya Sanskrit Sanslhan, 1975. KAtsTEIN. Matthew. "Religious syncretism in 13th century Tibet: The Limilless Ocean Cycle." In Barbara Nimri Aziz and Matthew Kapslein, cds. Soulldings in Tibetfm CilliJizotion, 358-71. Proceedings of the 1982 seminar of the Inter national Association for Tibetan Studies, Columbia University. New Delhi:

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KMMAY, Samten G. "L'apparition du petit homme ttte-noir (creation et procreati<1n des Tibetains selon un myth indigene)." JoumalasiatiqUl! 274:19-138,
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KARMAY, Samten G. A eala/ogue of Bollpo publicatimu. Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko, 1977. KARMAY, Samten G. "AgZer-mig version of the interview between Confucius and Phyva Keii.-tse lanmed." Bulletin of the Se/lOol of O~nlal and A/rican Studks 38:56280, 1975. KARMAY, Samten G. "The ordinance of IHa Blarna Yeshes'od." In Michael V. Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, cds. Tibetan studies ill IIOllour of Hugh Richardson: proceedulgs of the lmemational Semular 0tI Tibetan Sludies, Oxford, 150.62. Westminster: Aris & Phillips, 1979; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981. Leslie S. "Is reconstruction from Tibetan into Sanskrit possihle"!" In Harold G. Coward, cd. LAnguage in Indian philosophy and reliKion, R393. Wate" rloo: Wilfrid Laurier Uiliversity Pres~ 1978; also in Studks UI Religinn 5:8393, 1978.
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KJM ()ltA Ryiitnku. "Le dhyiina. chinoisc au T iht!t Joumaf Asiafiquc 269:18392, 198\.
KlRK1Alm,

anci~n

d'<lpr'::s Mahayana:'
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J. Russell. "The SpiTi! of th~ moumain: myth anJ stale in Buddhist Tibet."' History of Rcligums 21:2577 1. 19R2.

Kl.AI-'KO\vsIU, Piotr. "Hand and finger mcasurclno.!nts in Tiho.!tan:' /.i"RUo Posnallien.(js 26:8597, 1983. KI.AUS, Christa. Ocr ous dem LOlos ellfS/alldelit. Ej" Bdlrag zur Ilc00U'f('apllie UluJ JlcollO/ogie des Padmasambhul'a IWCI! d,'m Rill chell gter ,.,uJzod. Asiatische FOTschung~n 85. Wiesbaden: 0110 Harrassowit2, 1982. KUIJP. Lel)nard WJ . van der. "Marginalia to Saskya Pal)~jta's oeuvre." l oumaf of Ilu Jlltematiollaf A SSOCia liol1 of Buddhist Studies 7:37.55, 1984. KUIJP, Leo nard W,J. van der. " On the sources for Sa-skya Pal}~ila 'S notes on the Bsam'Y3s debate." l Ol/mal of tht IIlfMwlimw/ A.nocimi(m ()f Buddhist Studis 9:14753, 198f,. KVAERI'o'E, Per. "The canon of the Tibetan Bonpos." llUJo-lmlliilll Jnuma! 16:18.56,96-144, 1975.

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KVAERNP.. Per. ""The Greal Perfection' in the tradition of the Bonpos." In Whalen Lai and Lewis lancaster, eds. Ec.rly Ch'an in China and 7lbn, 367 92. Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series 5. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press,

1983.
KVAERNE, Per. "Mongols and Khitans in a 14th-century Tibetan Sonpo text."

Acta Onemalia Hungaricot 34:85-104, 1980.

KVAERNE. Per. "A preliminary study of chapter VI of the gZer-mig." In Michael V. Aris Bnd Aung San Suu Kyi, eds. Tibelon studw in honour 0/

Hugh Richardson: proceedings a/1M Intemariona/ Seminor on 7Ybelan Studin, Oxford, 18591. Westminster: Aris &t Phillips. 1979; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981.
WOE, Kristina. "Einige Bemerkungen zur Oronik des Wnflcn Dalai-Lama als literaturdenkmal." Acta Orientalill HU!lgaricat 41:277-300, 1981. LICHTER, David and Lawrence Epstein. "'rony in ribetan notions of the good life," In Charks F. Keyes and E. Valentine Daniel, eds. /UJrma: an anthropological inquiry, 223-59. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

MACDONALD, Alexander W. "Religion in Tibet at the time of Srong-btsan ,tudw sgam-po: myth as history." In Louis Ligeti, ed. Tibetan and Buddhist . commemorating the 200th anniversary of the binh of AIaD/tder Croma de Kor6s, H.129-40. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984.
MAlANOVA. T. "On the Sanskrit Subha,itaLiterature in Tibet." In Louis Ligeti, ed. Tibetan and Buddhist studies commemorating the 200th anni'm':fQry of the binh of Alemnder Coma de KOrtis, II.14151. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984.
Soc~ty

MANEN, Johan van. "Three Tibetan repartee songs." Joumal of the Asiatic of Bengal17:287-31B. 1921.

MARTIN, Dan. "For love or religion? Another look at a 'love song' by the sixth Dalai Lama." billchrift derdeutscllen morgenIiindischen Gesellschaft 138: 349-63, 1988.

MEl'TE, Adelheid. " Beobachtungen zur Oberlieferungsgeschichle einiger Lieder des Mi Ia ras po 'j mgur 'bum." Indo-Iranian Joumal 18:25512. 1976.
NATIlER, Jan. The Cartdragarbha-sutra in Central and East Asia: studies in a Buddhist prophy o{ decline. Dissertation Abstracts International 50(02):0466. University Microfilms ADG8908999. Ph.D. diss~nalion, Harvard Univenity.

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BmuOGRAPllY NEUMAIER. Eva. "bKa'-b'K)'ad ranbyw"jran-sar. ein rjogs-<:'en-Tantra." schrift der deutschen morgetlliindischen Gt/Sellschaft 120: 131-63, 1970.

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POMMERf,." Fran1joise. Les revenants de l'au-delq dans Ie mende tibJUlin: sources IjUtroues et rrudilion vivume. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1989. POUCHA, Pavel. "Le ve rs tibetain." Archiv Onentdl1ti 18: 188-235, 1950; 22:56385, 1954. RIIOTON, Jared r ouglas. A study of the sDomgSum of Sapol). DisseNtion Abstract! Interr Jtional 49(10):3060, University Microfilms ADG88-27637. Ph.D. dissertati.Jn, Columbia U.niversity, 1985. RICIIARDSON, Hugh E. "Dharma thai came down from heaven: a Tun-huang fragment." In Leslie S. Kawamura and Keith Scott, eds. Buddhist thought and Asian dvJizutMm; essays ill honor of Herbert V. Guenther on his s~th birth day, 21929. Emeryville, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1977." RUEGG, O. Seyfort. "Autour du ITa ba'i kllyad por de Ye ks we (version de Touen-houang, Pellio Tibetain 814)." }oumal Asiatique 269:20729, 1981. S,Wrr;KY, LS. "Secular lyrical poetry in Tibet. Works of Tsangjang-jamtso (1683-1706)." Proceedings of tile Cwma de K&Vs MemoriDl Symposium, 403-9. Bibliographia Oric!ntalis Hungarica 2J. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1978. ScIlWiEGER, Pc!ler. "Zur Rezeptionsgeschichte des Gsol'debs le'u bdun-ma und des Gsol'debs bsampa Ih ungtubma." Zemralasiatirche Studien 21:29-47, 1988. SEDlACEK, Kamil. "Tibetische Uberselzungweise von uitwortern des Ergehnisse~ und der Richlung aus dem Otinesischen." }oumal of the American Onelllal Sociery 82: 170-89, 1962. SMm1, Ellis Gene. "Introduction." In Lokesh Chandra, ed. Kongmd's EncydopediiJ of Ilido-Tibetan Culture, 1-78. ~ata.Pilaka Series, IndoAsian Lite ratures SO. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture. 1970. SNYDER, Jeanelte. "Some popular songs of Tibet." Maluhat Review 21:2()'39, 1972. SoLOMON, Beth Ellen. Th~ Tale of Ihe Incomparable Prince: a study and trarulation of tile Tlberall novel gZhOtl nu zla med Icy; gtam 'K)'ud by mOo mklwr zhabs drung Tslle rUlg dbang rg;af (1697.1763). Dissertation Abstracts International 48(04):0926, University Microfilms ADG87-081IS. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987.

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THE ClAsSICAL TIBETAN lANGUAGE

K.. DiviniLy secu.larized: an inquiry inlo the

nQlUn

and IQI'rn

0/

the songs ascribed to the .sixth DolJJ; LAma. Wiener Studien zue Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 25. Wic:n: Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universitat Wien, 1990.

STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Du recit au riluel dans les manuscrits tibttains de

Touenhouang," In Etudes tibilaina dtdU"s d fa mbnoi ck Marcelle Lalou,

479-547. Paris: AdrienMaisonneuve, 1972.

STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Un genre pankulie r d'exposts du tantrisme ancien tihetain et khotanais," Jounwl Asintique 275:265..82, 1987. STEIN, Rolf Alfred. "Tibelica antiqua 2. L'usage de metaphores por de~ distinctions honorifiques a repoque des rois tibelains." Bulletin de [,Ecolt Fra//roiJe d 'Exlrl!me-On'em 73 :25 7.72, 1984. S1T:IN, Rolf Alfred. Vuo el cliants de 'Brug-pa Maisonneuve et Larose, 1972.
KUI1-f~,

Ie yogin. Paris: G.P.

STERN8ACH, Ludwik. "General appeal of lublwfua literature in Sanskrit." In Venkatarama Raghavan, ed. Proceedings of the FiTst IrnenuJtWnal Sanskril Conference, 11.1.370-97. New Delhi: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 1975.
Sll~RNBACJI.
Par:t~ita's

Ludwik. "Note on the ' identification' of some sayings in Sa Skya Subhiifua-ratna-nidhi." Acla O,unlalio Hungaricae 34:249-62, 1980.

STODDARD, Heathe r. Le merniiont de /'Amdo. Paris: Sociele d'Ethnographie,

1985.
T,\UBE,

Manfred. Beurage zur GeKhiclue der mdhilliKhen Lileralur TIbei.f. Monumt!nla Tibetica Historica. Ableilung I: Scriptores 1. S1nkt Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1981 . Manfred. "Ti ~ti~che Autoren zur (;t' ~ t!.ichl e dt! r J">.g}wi hli." Acta On'ell/alia Htmgaricue 34:21}7-31l4, J9RO.
I ' fl

TAU BE',

Tr.RJtJ:., Jozsef. \'Colloqc ial ir:fl .u:nce' HUI/gancae 25:39-51, 1972.

lI> in".n Tibeta n. " A cto Oriellfalia

T1SO, Francis VinC(:nl. A ~llld)' of rlll~ BI ;.fdhisf .mil!' in rd mif>/! 10 flu biograpilicu/ [radiliOn of Mililrcpa. Dissertatiun Ahsiracts Imcrnalional 50(06):1697, University Micromms ADG89-19193. Ph.D. disse rtation. Columbia Un ive r~:ty, lYSQ.
TSI'kINO.

PC lT!d. "tin t'nzyklopadischer Text zur Geschichte der tibetischen Hcil kunJe." ~ n I krher! Francke and Walther Heissig, eds. Hellen und

BI8UOORAPHY

479

scMnJcen. FUlsch.rift fUr GiinlMT Klinge rum 70. Geburtslag, 107-20. Asiatische Forsc.hungen 71. Wisesbaden: Otto Harrassowil2, 1~.
Ttl<Xl, Giuseppe. ''The Fifth Dalai Lama as a Sanskrit scholar." In )(shilis Roy, cd. LkMnlhol Festschlift. Special publication of Sino-lndiJJn Srudus 5.3-

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Tuu:u, Mynak R. "Grey wolf in Tibetan tradition." Bulletin o/Tfbelology 4.2:

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TuYl, Charles Oon van. An analysis 0/ chapter twenty-eight 0/ the "Hundred '1Jwus(Jnd Songs" 0/ MiJa-raspa, a Buddhist poet and saini o/tibel. Dissertation . Abstracts International 32(12):6869, University Microfilms ADG72-15933. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1972.
UEBACH, Helga. "Die Besitzurkunde des Se-ra snags-pa gra-c'an," In He rbert Francke and Walther Heissig, eds. Heilen und schenken. Festschrift JUT Giinther Klinge Zuni 70. Geburtstag, 121-27. Asiatische Forschungen 71. Wisesbaden: Qtto Harrassowitz, 1980.

UEYAMA Daishun. "The study of Tibetan Ch'an manuscripts recovered from Tun-huang: a review of the field and its prospects." K.W. Eastman and Kyoko Tokuno, trans. In Whalen Lai and Lewis lancaster, eds. Early Ch 'an in China and Tibet, 327-49. Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series 5. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1983. URAY, Gtza. ''The earliest evidence of the use of Ihe Chinese sexagenary cycle in Tibetan." In louis Ligeti, cd. Tibetan and Buddhist studies commem.oTtJting the 2001h anniversary o/the birth 0/ Alexander Csoma de Koros, 11.341-60. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1984. URAY, Giza. "Oueen Sad-mar-kar's songs in the Old Tibetan Chronide." Acta Orientalia Hungaricae 25:5-3.8. 1972. VALBY. Ja mes M. The life and ideas 0/ the 8th century A.D. Indiiln Buddhist mystic Vunafamilra: a compweT-assisted approach to TJbetan texts. Dissertation Abstracu International 46(12);3722, University Microfilms ADG05-57843. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Saskatchewan, 1985. VEKERDI, J6zsd. "Some remarks on Tibetan prosody." Acta O,un/afia Hungaricae 2:221-34, 1952.
Voo~

Qaus_ "On the m-ro-poi mom-thor." Centrol Asiatic JoumaiI2:8-30,

,968.

WALTER. Michael Lee. The role of alchemy and medicine in Indo-Tibetan

TIlE: Cu.ssICAL T IBETAN l.AN'GUAGE

tantrism. Disscrlation

Ab~t l acts International 41(05):2115, University Microfilms ADG8().24583. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1980.

WAYMAN, Alek. "Observations on translation from the classical Tibetan language into European languages." In.dIJ-/ranian JoumaI14:161-92, 1972. WILLIS, Janice D. "On the nature of mam-thar. early Dge-Iugs-pa siddha biographies." In Barbara Nimri Aziz and Matthew Kapstein, eds. Soundings in TIbetan C;..,ilizatiQn, 304-19. Proceedings of the 1982 seminar of the International Association for Tibetan S;tudies, Columbia University. New Delhi: Manohar, 1985.

19. LITERATURE IN MOTION

BISCHOFF, Friedrich. "Theatre in Tibet" In Henry W. Wells, ed. Asian drama:

a collection of lestival [lt1{JCrI. 149-54. Vermillion: University of South Dakota

Departmcnt uf Spet:ch and Dramatic Arts, 1966.
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CROS\.Ey-HoLl.AND. Peter. " Form and style in Tibetan folksong melody." Mu.(ilur/ische Viilkakulldt 3:116, 1967.

CRosu:yHoUANI). PCI ~r. "rGya-gUng hymns of the Karma-Kagyu: the rhythmitollal ,Irchitecture of some Tibetan instrumental airs." Selected Rttpons: ruhfictJIif}ll of Ille l'rugram i'l Elllllomusic%gy of Ih~ Ulli\'l!rsiJy of California III LO. f AlIgclcs 1.3.11-114, 1980. DRAmll. Paul Alexander. "The stag and the hunting dog: a Bhlltane~e religious dance and its Tihe:tan source." Joumal of Poputur Culture 16:169.75, 1982. ELLINGSON, Terry Jay. "'Don l1a dbyangs gsum: Tibetan chaRI tlnd melodic categories." Asiall Mwic: Joumal of the Sockty for Asian Mllsic 10.2: 1122-.'i6, 1979. ELLINGSON, Terry Jay. The mandala of soowt.ti: concepts alld SOUlW SfruClures in Tibetan rilunk Dissertation Abstracts International 40(08):4292, lJniver~ity
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ELLINGSON, Terry Jay. "The mathematics of Tibetan rol-mo." Erllllomwic%KY 23:225-43. 1979. FOLEY, Kathy and M. Joshua Karter. "Tibetan opera music and dance from Lhasa : an iRlerview with Daeidan Duoji and Xiaozhaxi Ciren." TDR: nit

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HElFFER, Mireille. "us airs dans \'epopte de Ge-sar: tradition o rale and tradition ecrite." ln Walther Heissig, edt Fragen dermongoJischen Heldendich tung. Tell I/. Vonroge des 3. Epensympo1Wnu des Soru:lerfonchung1bereiclu 12, Bonn, 231-44. Asiatische Forschungen 13. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1982. HELFFER, Mireille. "Le gaulJi: un simandre libelain d'origim: indienne."

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HERMANNS, P. Matthias. Das Naliollo/-E,)()< dt'r T;:JI'(<'f G/jii Kiillig Cr . far. Regt:nsburg: Verltlg Joser Hahbod, 1965. HERRMAN, Silke. "Stand der Epenforschung in Wt:~tTibet." In WlIltl.er Heissig, ed. Fragen der mongoiischen HefJe,uliclwlIIg. Teil W. Vorrriige d" J 5. E~luymposium.l deJ SOllderfoncll/mgsbcre;c1~f J';', 801111. 406-11. Asi,"i~che Forschungen 101. Wiesbaden: Ouo Harrrtssowitz, 1987. HULTON-BAKER, Robert. TIbelan Budd/listdrama. D ;~se~t;lt io n Abst racts Inte l'

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SAOMTER, Klaus. "Konig Gesar, zur Symbolik des tibetischen Nationalepos." Syrnbolol1 4:163-71, 1978.

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SNYDER, Jeanette. A prelinllllill)' slUdy of the lho mo." Asicm Music: J~mal of the Socic>ty for Asian ."'/wi:; lO,2 ;~3-62, 197Q.
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STFIN, Rolf Alfred. Une sourcc ancienne pour \'histoire de 1'~JX)pee tibttaine, Ie RlafiJ Poti bscru." JounllIl cuinliqut 250:77.1()(}, 1962. SmIN, Rolf Alfred. "Lc theatre au Tibet." In Thea/res, 245-56. Paris: Centre National de la Rc:chen.:he Sciclltifique, 1978TSERING, Pema. "Die Eruberung del Goldburg von mNa'ris." In Walther

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BAOOT, Jacques. u~ grammo.irt libltaim flu libltain c1twiqtu: les Jlokas grtlnllrullicaux de 17wnmi Sambhola, av /.tun comnumtairu. Annales du Muste Guimet, Bibliothtque d'Etudes 37. Paris, 1928.

BECKH, Hermann. B~ilrii~ tur tibetisch~n Grammatik, /..Uicograi>h~, StiJistik. und M~triJc. Berlin: Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1908. BtrrZENBERGER, Klaus. "Ein orthographischgrammatischer Text im Rgyalrabs pal-ba'i me-Ion." Zentralosiatische Studkn 21:48-61, 1988. DAS, Sarat Chandra. An introduction to lhe grammar of the TIbetan langua~, with the tats of Silu sumtag, Dag-je salwai metong. and Silui shot lung. Darjeeling, 1915; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972.

DURR, Jacques A Deux trouts grammaticau:c libltains. Heidelberg, 1950.

INABA

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MIu.ER, Roy Andrew. ''Than mi Sambho\a and his grammatical treatises revisited." In Ernest Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher, cds. Conrriburions on 1ibetan Longuoge, History, and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de K6r6s Symposium held at Velm-Vumna, Awtrill, 13-19 September 1981, I. 183-20S. Wiener Studien zurTibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 10. Wien: Arbeitskreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Sludien, Universitat Wien, 1983.

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ScHUBERT, JohanneJ. "Tibetische Nationalgrammalik." Mitteilungen des Seminarr fUr oriemalischen Sprac~en and der kOnjglichen Friedrich-Wuhelms Universiliit zu Berlin 31:1-S9, 1928; 32:1-54, 1929. ScIlUBERT, Johannes. 1ibetuche Nationalgrammatik.. Das Sum cu po and Rlagslcyi 'ajug po des Grosslamas von Peking Rol poi rdo-rje. Leipzig, 1937. SIMONSSON, Nils. "On the co ncept of Kntence in ancient Indian and Tibetan theory amJ on the function of cas!! particles in Tihct;m <ll.:l.:mding III Tihclan grammarians." Fmno -Ugrica SuecallQ 5:281-91, 19R2. Tn.LEMANs, Tom J.F. and D!!rek D. Herforth. Ag/.'IUJ alld aCfimLJ in Classical

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21. TIBETAN HERMENEUUCS

BROIDQ, Michael M. ''Abhipraya and implication in Tibetan linguistics." JOUI7UlI of lndi4n Philosophy 12:1-34, 1984.

BROlDO, Michael M. "The term dngos-po'i gnas-Juss as used in Pad-rna dUrpo's gZhung.'greL;' In Michael V. Aris and AUllg San Suu Kyi. eds. ~'Qn

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CABEZON. Jose Ignacio. "The prasangikas' .. iews on logic: Tibetan Dge lugs pa exegesis on the qucslion of SVQtantra..f." Journal of Indian Philosophy
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GOLDBERG, Margaret Ellen. Argumelltolion aNi understanding: a study of

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GOlDBERG, Margaret Ellen. "Entity and antonomy in Tibetan bsdus po logic." JOWtIllI of Indian Philosophy 13:153-200, 273-304, 1985.
GUENTHER, Herben V . "Henneneutics in Tibetan Buddhism." Rtligious TrodiJions 1:3947, 1978.

JACKSON, David P. Tht tntrance gart for tht wife (section 111). Sa-skyo pafJ4iJa on Indian and nhetanlradilioru of pramii/')a and philosophical debate. Wiener Studien :l.ur Tibeto logie und Buddhismusxunde 17. Wien: Arbeitsitreis fUr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universitiit Wien, 1987. KAPs'rEIN, Matthew. "Mi-pham's theory of interpretation." In Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed. Buddhift hermentUlics, 149-74. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.

iCAPsTEIN, Matthew. ''The purificatory gem and its cleaning: a late Tibetan polemical discussion of apocryphaltext5." History of Religions 28:217-44, 1989.
Kuup, Leonard W.J. van der. "Bhlimaha in Tibet." INio-lranian JoutnQI

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KUIJI'. Leonard W.J. van der. "An early Tibetan view of the soteriology of Buddhist epistemology: the case of 'Bri-gung 'Jig-rten mgon-po." Journal of Indian Philosophy 15:5770, 1987.

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lIPMAN, Kennard. "Nilirtha, M)'lrtho, and lQJh4galQgatbJuJ in TibeL" Joumol of Indian Philosophy 8:87.95, 1980.
PERDUE, Daniel Elmo. l"trJcti and wory of phiJosophiaJI debok in 'Tfbdan . Buddhisf tduc4rion. Dissertation Abstracts International 45(05):1433, University Microfilms A008+ 15445. Ph.D. clisscrtation, Uoiversity or Yirdinia, 1983.

RUEGO, D. Seyfort. " An Indian source ror the Tibetan hermeneutical term dgoiisgli 'intentional gro und.'" Joumd of Indion PIti/osophy 16:1-4, 1988. RUEGO, D. Seyfort. " Purport, implicature and presupposition: Sanskrit aMi prlya and T ibetan dgorupd/dgoiugIi as henneneutical concepts." Joumtll of Indion Philosophy 13:309-25, 1985.
RUEOO, D. Seyfort. "On translating the Buddhist canon (a dictionary or IndoTibetan terminology in Tibetan and Mongolian: the Dag y;, mkJa4s pa'i 'byuii of Rol-pa'j-rdo-rje)." In Perala Ra tnam, cd. Studia in IIJdo.Asi4n art and cuJtun. Convnemoralive volume on W 71s1 birthday of AcJatuya RAgIui Vuu , III.243-ti1. ~ataPjtaka series, Indo-Asian literatures 209. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1973.
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Tnuw.Ns. Tom J.F. " Formal and semant", &Speas of Tibetan Buddhist debate logic." Jounud of Indion Philosophy 17:265-97, 1SJ8S..
WAYMAN, A1c:L 1be interlineaty.type commentary in Tibetan." In louis used. ed. 7lbtt4n and Buddhisl'Studia c:onunnnotYlring tM 200lh annivmtuy of tM binh of Aia.ander CJoma de K6tW, 11.367-79. Budapest: Aka~miai Kiad6, 1984.
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WIWAMS, Paul. "rMa bya pa 8yang chub brtson 'gres on Madbyamaka method," Journal of Indilln Philosophy 13:20525, 1985.

n. TIBETAN GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT

ARIEL, Mira. Acceuing noun-phrase
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BfAUGRANDE, Robert-Alain de and Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler. Jnl1'Oducticm

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BROWN, Gillian and George Yule. Discount analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge Unrvcrsity Press, 1983.

BROWN, Penelope and Stephen C Levinson. Poliuness. Some univet:fa!s itt language usage. Studies in Intcractional Sociolinguistics 4. Cambridge:
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BYBEE, Joan L ''The diachronic dimension in explanation." In Johry A Hawkins, ed. ExplI1ining wnguage univtnaiJ, 350-77. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988.
BYBEE, Joan L Morphology: a study 01 the feliltion betwttn meaning and form. TyPOlogical Studies in Language 9. Amsterdam: Johh Benjamins, 1985.

BYl'O'ON, Theodora. Historical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1977.

CllAMBERS,

J.K. and Peter Trudgill. Oiil/ectalogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1980.

CIIEN, M.Y. and W.S.-Y. Wang. "Sound change: actuation and implementation." Languag~ 51:25581, 1975.
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Bernard and Edward Keenan. "Noun phrase accessibility revisited." lAnguage 55:649-64. 1979.
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CoNlE, Maria-Elisabeth, Jinos S. PetOfi. and Emel SOur, eds. Tat and diswur.Je COfIJIIedness. Proceedings of the Conference on Conne~ty and Coherence, Urbina. Studies in Language Companion Series 16. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1989.
CROFT, William. "Semantic and pragmatic correlales to syntactic categories." In David Testen. Veena Mishra, and Joseph Drogo, eds. Papen l 1m the pGrasession on laical s~mantics, twentieth regional muting of the ,'hicago Linguistic Society. 53-71. Chicago: Chicago Unguislics Society. 1984. CROFT, William. Synlacric cattgOrUs and grammatical relations: the cognitive organization of information. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1991.
DEl...ANcEY, Scott. "On active: typology and the: nature of age:ntivity." In Frans Plank, ed. Relational typology, 47-6). Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 28. Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1985.

DEl.ANCEY. Scott. "Aspect. transitivity and viewpoint." In Paul Hopper. ed. Tens~ and aspt: b<tweell semanticJ and pragmatics, 167-84. Typological Studies in language 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1982.
DENNY, J. Peter. "Locating the universals in lexical systems for spatial deixis." In Donka Farkas. Wesley M. Jacobson, and Karol W. Todrys, eds. Papen from lhe parosusion on the lexicon, fourteenth regional muting of th~ Chicago Linguistic Society, 7184. Chicago: Chicago Unguistic Society, 1978.

DUle, Teun A van. Tat and con/at. Explorations in the semantics and prag matics of discoune. London: Longman, 1977. DuBoIs, John A "The discourse basis of ergativity." LAngr.mge 64:80555 , 1987.

FOLEY, William A and Robert O. van Valin, Jr. Functional syntar and um venal grammar. Cambridge Studies in Unguistic$ 38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

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GAlAMBOS, Sylvia Joseph. "A clarification of the notion of topic: evidence

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Talmy. "from discourse to syntax: grammar as a processing strategy."

In Giv6n, Talmy, ed. Discouru and .syntax, 8 1-112. Syntax and semantics 12. New York: Academic Press, 1979. GIVON, Talmy. "Negation in language: pragmatics, function, o ntolOgy." Working papers in language univenals 18:59116, 1975.
GIVON, T almy. On uruierstanding grammar, Pe rspectives in Neurolinguislics and Psycholinguistics. New York: Academic Press, 1979. G IVON, T almy. " Promotio n, accessibility and case marking: toward understanding grammars." Workillg papers in language universals 19:55- 125, 1975. GJV6N, Talmy. Syfllax. A functiollal-typological introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1984. GtV6N, Tahny, cd. Discourse and syrllux. Syntax and seman tic.~ 12. New Yo rk: Academic Press, 1979.
GREENBERG, Joseph H . "Some iconic relatio nships among place, time, and

symposium

discourse dcixis." In Joh n Haiman, cu. Iconicity in Syntax.. Proceedings of a 011 iconicity in syn.tax, Stallford, 271-87. Typological Studies in Langullgc '). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1985.
HARIUS. Zellig. " The interrogative in a syntactic framework." In H enry Hiz, ed. Questions, 135. Symhesc Language Library I. Dordrech t: D. Reidel, 1978.

H OCK, Hans Heinrich. Principles of historical linguistics. Berlin: MoulOn de Gruyter, 1986. G UI'JOH., Jeanette K. "ZeroN P anapho ra in R ussian: a case of topic. prominence," In Jody Kleiman and Almerindo E. Ojeda, cds. Papers from the
para ~essioll

011 prOIiOUns alld anllphora, sixteenth regi(}IIo/ meetillg of the Chicago Lingus(ic Society, 139 146. Chhcago: Chicago Linguistics Society, 1980.
H Al MA!' , John. "Symmetry." In John Haiman,

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all

ed. lcollicily in Sylllax. ProceedicoII ;city in syntax, Stanford, 73-95. Typological Studies

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HALLIDAY, M.A.K. and R uqaiya Hasa n. Cohesioll in English. Englisn

BIBUOGRAPHY Language Series 9. London: Longman Group limited. 1976.

491

HAMOUN, C.L ImperativeJ. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987.

HAYES, Bruce. "Metrics and phonological theory." In Frederick 1. Newmeyer, cd. Linguisties: the Cambridge sUf\le}'. Volume 1I. Linguistic theory: dXtetlSions and implications, 220.49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

HOPPER, Paul, ed. Tense and l2$pt!Cf: berwten semanric.r and progmarics. Typological Studies in Language 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1982. HOPPER, Paul and Sandra A Thompson. "The discourse basis for lexical categories in universal grammar." LAngtUl~ 60:70352, 19&4. HORN, LR. "Some aspects of negalion." In Jospeh H. Greenberg. CA. Ferguson and Edith A. Moravcsik, Univena/s 0/ human language. Vol. 4: SynltU, 127-210. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1978. HUDSON, R.A. Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
KEENAN,

Edward and Bernard Comrie. "Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar." Linguistic inquiry 8:6399, 1977.

KEENAN, Edward and Bernard Comrie. "Data on the noun phrase accessibili
ty hierarchy." LAnguage 55:33.3.51, 1979. K.!PARSKY, Paul. "Stress, syntax and meter." In Donald C. Freeman, ed. Essays in modem styJisties, 22372. London: Methuen, 1981.
KONIG, Ekkehard. "Concessive connectives and concessive sentences: cross linguistic regularities and pragmatic principles." In John A. Hawkins, ed. Explaining language univenab, 145-166. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988. KUNO SU! .t'ptu.

Funclicmal syntax. Anaphora, discourse and empathy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

L.t.oEFOGED, P. PrtliminarUs 10 linguistic phonetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

l..ASS., Roger. Phonology. An introduction 10 basic connepts. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1984.
LEHMANN,

Christian. "On the typology of relative clauses." Linguistics 24:663

SO, 1986.
LI, Charles, cd. Subjtct and topic. New York: Academic Press, 1976.

LYONS, John. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

TilE Cu.ssICAl TiBETAN U-NGUAGE

ODm.N, Davitl. "Further evidence for the feature (gravel." Linguistic Inquiry '1. 1"1"4,1978. \1 ,,-'JeA, Gllin. De{uling a lillguistic area: South Asia. Chicago: University of Chic<lgo Press. 1976.
M I\llll EWS, A .C.

Morphology. All introductioll to the theory ofword-strw:ture.

Camhridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.

PAt.MI: .M,

F.R. Mood and moda/fly. Cambrltlge: Cambridge l]niversity Press.

19XO.
PI

:\NK. Frill'. ed. Ergalil'iry. Towards a II/eOly of gratnmlJtica, "1ations. New York: Academic Press, 1981.

PI AN K. Fri iS. ed . Objects. To.....ards a theory of grammatical rtlatiotu." London: Awdl'lllic Pr~ss, 1984. PI(IN("I"

RIIJlllm muJ
Press, I IJf\IJ.

Alan. " Metrical forms." In PaullQparsky and Gilben Youmans. eds. meier, 4580. Phonelics and Phonology J.. San Oiego: Acildemic

1'II.INeE, Ellen F. "Tuwa rd a taxonomy of given/ne)'l information. II) Peter Cole, ed. Radical pragmmics. 22356. New Yor-k: Academic Pre~s, 1981.

51101'1'.1'1, Timothy, ed. LUI/guage typology and SYllldctic description. Vol. I: Clau.se structure: Vol. 2: Complex c(mstfUctiollS; Vol. 3: Grammatical categories Wid the lexicoll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
STA.'i.<;EN,

Leo n. ComparisrJ/l and universal grammar. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,

1985. STtKKWEU .. Robt!rt P., Paul Schachtt! r, and Barbara Hall Partee. "Relativizalion." In 771t: major SYlifactic stmcWres of English. New York: Hail, Rinehart a nd Winston, Inc., 1973.
T(fOMPSON, Sandra A. "A discourse approach 10 the cross-linguistic category 'adjective.'" In Robe rta Corrigan, Fred Eckman, and Michael Noonan, eds. UlIlfo1.istic C(l/eNonzatum , 245-65. C urrem Issues in unguistic Theory 61. Am~te rd am: Jo hn Benjamins, 1980; a lso in Jo hn A. Hawkins, ed. Explaining IUIiK/laXe ulli\'l!~uls, 167185. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988.
TOMLIN, Rus.~e ll,

cd. Coilerence and grolmding ill discoune. Amsterdam : John

Bcnjamins, 19R7.
TOOl .IN,

Michael J. No"mil'e. A crilicallinguislU: imroduclion. London: Rout ledge, 1988.

BlBUQ(iRAl'IIY

493

Tum:.., Kevin J., Asif Agha, and Randolph Graczyk. "Agentivity, transitivity, and the question o f active typology." In William H. Eilfort, Paul D. )(roeber, and Karen L Peterson, eds. PaJXfl from the panuessiolt 011 caUStJtiveJ and agentivily, lwenty.[lr$t rqiolUll meering, Chkago Lingustic Socidy. 25270. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. 1985.
TfV.UGOlT, Elizabeth Closs, "Conditional markers. t.

In John Haiman, ed, Iconicity in Syntax. Proceedings of Q symposium 011 iconicily in .I)'ftUU. Slanford, 289307. Typological Studies in Language 6. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1985.

TRAUGOTr, Elizabelh Closs, Alice ler Meulen, Judy Snitzer Reilly, and Charles A Ferguson, eds. On conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. TRUDGllL, Peter. On dialect. Socwf and geographical JXflpIi'.teS. New York: New Yo rk University Press, 1983. Wi\ROllAUGII, Ronald. An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. WEINREICH, Uriel. LAnguages in contact. The Hague: Mouton, 1968. WIERZBICKA, Anna. "Oats and wheat: the fallacy of arbitrariness.." In John Haiman. cd. /coniciJy in Syntax. Proceedings of Q symposium on iconicity in .l}'nttu, Stanford, 311 42. Typological Studies in Language 6. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1985. ZUUlN, David A. and Soonja ChoL "Orientation and g~.stalt: conceptual organizing principles in the lexicalization of space." In David Testen, Veena Mishra, and Joseph Drogo, cds. PIlJXll from the palTUusion Oft laical semafltics, Iwt mkth regional meeting of tile Chicago linguistic Society, 333345. Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society, 1984.

23. TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BAILEY, David R. Shackleton. "Editing ancient texts." In Herb;ert H. Paper, ed. LAnguage &: tats. 77lt lIature of fUlguislic evidence, 2132. Ann Arbor: Center (or COOrdination of Ancient and Modem Siudies,. University of Michigan, 1975. DEARING, Vinton A. Principles and practice of literary IIMJysi.r. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

494

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HOUSMAN, AE. S~let:l~d prose. John Caner, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961. KENNEY, E.J. The classical lUI: asptcts of editing in lhe age of the prinJed book. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
MMS, Paul. Tu/ull/ crilicism. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.
McGANN, Jerome J.A crilique of modnntUlUal criticism. Chicago: University

of,Chicago P(ess, 1983. SIMONSSON, Nils. "Zur indo-tibetischen 52, 1953.

Textkriti~."

Orientalia SuecalUJ 2:129-

TIIORPE, James. Principles of textual criticism. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 1972.

24. TRANSLATION
BKOWER, Reuben A, ed. 011 translation. New York: Oxford Universiiy Press,

1%6.

FRAWLEY, William, ed. TrallS/ation. Literary, linguisric, and philosophical perspeclives. .Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984.
G1\H.1I.10UE, Jean, ed. Tran.dations by American poets. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1970. Glv6N, Talmy. "Universal grammar, lexical structure and translatability." In F. Guenthner and M. Guenther-Reutter, eds. Meaning alld /rans/alion. Philosop/lical and linguirlic approaches, 235-72. London: Gerald Duckworth & Company Limited,. 1978. GRAIIAM. Joseph F., ed: Di!ferenu in translation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.
HOLL\NIl, Dorothy and Naomi Quinn, eds. Cullural models in language and lhouglll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

KEENAN, Edward L ''Some logical problems in translation." In F. Guenthner and M. Guenther-Reutter, eds. M~aning and translation. Philosophical and linguirtic approaches, 157-89. London: Gerald Duckworth & Company

Limited, 1978.
KU~ST,

AHhur Egon. "Practical aspects of the translation seminar and work-

BJRJ.JOORAPJIY shop." Sub-Stance 16:89-96. 1977.

491

lARso"" Mildred L Meaning-based rraru/mirm: a guide 10 cross-language equjvalence. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984.
MAi.OI'lE, Joseph L 71le scknce of linguistics in the art of /ranslarion. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1988.

MAl'lGO, Susan. "Alice in two wonderlands: Lewis Carroll in German." Sub-

Stance 16:63-84, 1977.

MERWIN, W.S. Selected lranslatiarIJ,# /948-/968. New York: Atheneum, 1975. NIDI\, Eugene A Toward a scknce of /ranslating. Leiden: EJ. Brill. 1964. NID ...., Eugene A. and Charles R. Taber. TIle theory and practice of/rans/anon. Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1969.
RN-TEl. Burton. 77le art of lralularj"K poetry. University Parle.: The Pennsylva-

nia State University Press, 1988. ROlliNSON, Douglas. TI,e translator's tum. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. .
ScIiOGT, Henry

G. Lillgui.uics, literary analysis. and literary troltslarian.

Tommo: University of TOTonlo Press, 1988. SNELL-HoRt-'BY, Mary. TrallSlarion srudies. An integrated approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1988. St-'ELL-HoRNBY, Mary and Esther P6hl. eds. TrallSlalian and lexicography. Papers read at the EURALEX Colloquium held a l Inosbru::k. 25 July 1987. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1987. STEINER, George. After Babel. Londol1: Oxford University Press, 1975. SULLIVAN, J.P. Ezra Pound and Sextus Propertius. A study in crealiw ttrJrIJlarion. London: Faber and Faber, 1964. WEAVER, Warren. A/ice in many tongues. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Pres.~,

1964.

25. ETHNOPOETICS
BEt-'I\MOU, Michel and Jerome Rothenberg, eds. Etlinopoetics. a [II'S' illter national symposium. Boslon: Boston University Press, 1976.

496

THE ClAssiCAl TIBETAN l..ANoUAGE

DoRIA. Charles and Harris l.enowitz. Origins: creation tats from the ancient Medilerrantan . Garden City: Anchor Books, 1976.

DUNCAN, Robert. "Ideas of the meaning of form ." In Donald M. Allen and Warren Tallman, The poetics a/the nnv American poetry. 195211. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1973.

EsHl.EMAN, Clayton. A CATERPIlhf.R anthology. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1971.

GOODMAN, Sleven D. "Ocean woman .... ho already knows," Alcheringa: ElhfU}'

ptXtics 3.2:5254, 1977.

GROSSINGER, Richard and Lindy Hough, eds. 10/4 (Alchtnty /SSIU). Berkeley:
Book People, 1973. HYMES, Dell. "Discovering oral performance." New luerary history 8:431-57, 1977. HYMES, Ocll. "Directions in (ethno.) linguistic theory,"'n A. Kimball Romney and Roy G. d'Andrade. cds. TralUcuilUTal studies in cognition. Special publication of American Anthropologist 66.3:6-56, 1964. HYMES, Dell. In vain I tried nia Press, 1981.
to

leff you. Philadelphia: University (jf Pennsylva-

HYMES, DeI1. "Some North Pacific Coast poems: a problem in anthropological philology." American Anthropologist 67:316-339, 1965. Reprinted in Jerome Rothenberg and Diane Rothenberg. eds. Symposium of the whole: a range of discoune toward an tlhnopotlics, 34366. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. McAuESTER, David P. "The tenth horse song of Frank Mitchell: Ifanslalion and comments." In George Quasha, ed. Siony Brook 3-4:306-15. 1969. Re printed in Jerome Rothenberg and Diilne Rothenberg, eds. Symposium of Ihe whole: a runge of discoune toward an elhnopoetics, 393-98. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
NGAL, N. "Literary creation in oral civilizations." New lueruf)' history 8:335-44, 1977.
ONG.

Walter J. Orality and lueracy. The lechnologizing of Ihe word. London: Routledge. ]982.

PAUL. Sherman. In search ollhe primUive: rereading David Amin, Jerome ROlh enbetg. and Gary Snyder. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 1986.

BIBUOORAPHY

497

QUASHA, George, ed. Active anthology. Fremont, MI: Sumac Press, 1974. QUASHA, George. "Dialogo$: between the written and the oral in contemporary poetry." N~ LiJerary History 8:485-506, 1m. Reprinted in Jerome Rothenberg ad Diane Rothenberg, cds. Symposium of the whok: a TGtrp 0{ discoune toward an elhnopoelics, 461-74. Berkeley: University of Califomia Press. 1983. ROTIiENBERG, Jerome. PRE-FA CES d: otherwrilillgs. New York.: New Direc1K>ns, 1981. ROTIiENBERG, Jerome, ed. ShakiTJg the pumplOn: trGdiIiontJJ pont'j .of IN Induln North Americas. Garden City: Doubleday de Company, Inc., 1972. RQTIiEN8ERG, Jerome, ed. Techllicillnl of the sacred. New York: Doubleday
& Company, Inc. 1968.

ROTIIEN8ERG, Jerome. "Total translation: an experiment in the presentation of American Indian poetry." In Jerome Rothenberg. PRE-FACES &: other wriJiIIgs, 76-92. New York: New Directions, 1982. Reprinted in Jerome Rothenberg and Diane Rothenberg, cds. Symposium of 1M whole: a fd~ of discoune lowald an erhnopoetics, 38193. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. ROTIIEN8ERG, Jerome and Harris Lellowitt. Exiled ill lhe world: pcHms and other visions of the Jews from tribal times to presenl. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1989. Ronu:.l'IUERG, Jerome and 'Diane Rothenberg. eds. Symposium of 1M whok: a range of discourJe toward an ethnopoetics. Berkeley: Univel"lity of California . Press, 1983. SNYDER, Gary. Eanh howe hold. '!'lew York: New Directions. 1969. TEDLOCK, Dennis. Finding the center: TUlrrative poems of lhe Zuni 1ndi41U. New York: Dial Press, 1972. T EDLOCK, Dennis. "Towards an oral poetics." New /iurary history 8:507-20, 1977. TEDI,OCK, Dennis and Jerome Rothenberg, eds. Alchtringa: eduwpoetics. Boston: Boston University, 197()'80. TURNER, Viclar. "A review of Ethnopoetics." BotuJdary 2 6.2:583-90, 1978. Reprinted in Jerome Rothenberg and Diane Rothenberg, cds. Symposium 0{ the whole: 0 range of discourJe toward an elhnopoetics, 337-42. Berkeley:

498 University of California Press, 1983.

THE CtAssICAL TIBETAN L+.NOUAGE

ZUMTliOR, Paul. Oral ptHtry: an introducticn. Kathryn Murphy-Judy, trans.

Theory and History of Literature 70. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.

26. ODDS AND ENDS

DENUNGER, Paul B. "Tibetan and Mon-Khmer: a short communication." In

in honor of IGchllrd S. PilmuJII. 145-46. Unguistic Sociely of tbe Phillipines Monograph Series 11. Manila: Summer Institite of Unguistics and Unguistic Society of the Phillipines, 1981.

Andrew Gonzales and David Thomu. eds. Lingui5tics acnm continmlJ: stutlin

EooAR, J. HWlon. "Sumerian and Tibetan equivalents." Journal of the West

China Border Ruearch SociLty 5:6&-7, 1932.

MillER, Roy Andrew. "Is Tibetan genetically related to Japanese?" Proceed ings of tilt Crorna de K6r6s Mem0ri41 Symposium. 295-312. Bibliographia
Orientalis Hungarica 23. Budapest: Akademiai K.iad6, 1978.

ScHUHMAOIER, W.W. "Basque and the other Dene-Caucasian languages." u langagt et I'lwmme 24:262..63, 1989.
SHAFER, Robert. "Athapaskan and Sino-Tibetan." [ntemotional JOIU7UlI of

American Linguirtics 18:1219, 1952.

SHAFER, Robert. "A few more Athapaskan and Sino-Tibetan comparisons."
[nI~tional

Journal 0/ Amrican Linguistics 35:1..67, 1969.

SHAFER, Robert. "Note on Athapaskan and Sino-Tibetan." Inlemotional 'oumal 0/ American Linguisrics 23:Il6-.I7, 1957. SHAFER, Robert. "Some Uto-Aztecan and Sino-Tibetan comparisons." Otbir 13:104-9, 1964.

A.ccomlM"ilDCRl . oIe,270 """"IIS.iI; dattlpdol\S., 63

n<,""n~l 3.16_ ""h. ~.\1: types <.If, :B8; 1)-1'" I. ))'. l) pc 2., .w I; l}pc), 34 2; 1)'[1<' 301 2: Q,mplc . :<44: "",;,..,ion N . J4.t: "'1.\1.,;"", .'44

0 '

Adjeaiva, 201;

r~LIo\Ml:ed

proplllitions ' n<!. 317

MDOmi ..... f;Jipo. 94

Cump! ... p">p<!5iliollJ, 282; o.)IIlpk:l 'Cbll~ ;1c.l propositions.))4; <.:OfIIplc. IXImp"'rnelll>. o.lmpollnds. 103; MiNe. 103: NOUN + NOUN ....
NOO!'!. 103; ADJECt'tYE + NOUN .... NOON. 104: MOUN + ADlEC11Vl: .... t'lOUIO', 104; ADJ ECllVIl + ...vlECl1Vf. ....

Ml>Ominals, 1)4: !laic lIIOditio.::lolioa panerns,

114; MOditlcalioll I)pCJ. 215 AlMrbl., 243; ladctla.he, 216; propoAlioMl, J07 Moe_1M COIIJ .. actloD, Z86; dial1 variants of,

'"

m
Mil(
r~1ea.

166

NOI'N. l OS: NOUN

Vf.1l~ -

\11:118. Hll'o:

A&cncy role, 164

AJLUll.lllivc _JuDCtIoa, l85 Aperlodical meK!$, 41 '

In"'~lion oompo~ncb.

107; ,IllU,llVIi

+ i\,l)1f:CTJV1; -- NOUN. 1117: NOUN + VOI R"" HO\lN. 10'1; n'TU< SIHI'. )I +
""')18 .... VElla. 110

ArIkllIaIOf)' dc:Ktipllon., ,,: anio:1oll'ory

aulmila'ion. 186
Auilllihlion. artio;wLloIOI'j'. 186; "'flOu nce, 1811

B6ekf0nns. 146
8aLlIK'OOd relal jviw;! propositions.))2

CoDn icr of ril les, 18) ConjoiM<l nominal phrases. 240; ronjo,1\Cd pfOp06il ioAs, 284 O "'jllntlioM. 284; 11IUNI!Ye. W: a<J""~lr.'C,

2116: COOfdinali~ 2119

Conn<Xliycs.lIIS: rail, 385, ~ d isu)IIJ')(, :llI7: ph._ I. 388: pfOposilional, )911

8onowi"a.

\)11

eo.......... nu.

S1

8rulhl-. dep n 26 B"rmese, T ibeUon and. II

c
CaLloIc:UI, .1) 0.1_. Tibetan aDd, 10 Cla& membe"h lp, IIIl1h lp\e, 181 Claulcal T1betall, defined. 36

CoftSlninl$ 0 11 pnshn ilials. 81: CO..,lIninl> "n prcinilials.81 o..I>Smocl ioM. 102 CoGrdin.alC eli"" 9) Co(",'ina livc wnjIlMIi<>n. 2119; s;m lll,.nct_ and ~'iphruli<: oonJlrllClions. 290; di~I""1 YII rilon ts, 29 1'

u
Ddinite dc te.mlften;, 206 Dclimhcl1, 206 DellOUlioa ud oonllQ(alioli. ISS DeriYIILioD. Ill; inner. 111: ouu:r. 119 Dete,mine", 206; ddlallc. 206; '1"',"1. 206; pcn;ooa~ 207, IIoftoriI\c, 208; 5CJI """kcd pc_I. 212; Jfwk, 2\ Iftdcfinilc. 214; 1IcI4k:N iftdcfillilc, 216 Di".plol; , nd diact'Jtica, ) Discourx COIIncctiYa, 381

aipped UIIM:ralt. 222 aipa. 92; word, 92; 1l0III1l1li, 93; plIrlK, 93:
COOI'dlUIe, 93; MI""",ift&\, 904: .e la ll"".

94; werb,

""'~ ~ COIIItrainlS, 1\
CoIIa;\M _
aad adjcc1i>a. 226

"

Commallda, J62; GMI ...rwI ""nide, 363; polite, )65; "IePAI. l6S: 'lIIpeno ...1, J66;

'eq_\I., 367; Ullkcd.l6&; IRlomIal, l6\l Complcmc.1I a:>ftSlnctlons. llS: _ ,))6;

'"

"""""- '"
Epitbcu.,l79 Eqllatlofts, 2$5

DWIallIauo., Oic:e, I7&, Jrn'il)', 187

DtayUabIc 'U- JfOUp. 90 Doubk IICJII tloD, 241 Doubt partldea. 361 DIl11UII)' ro\t. pvtlde Clnk!$, 318

127;
I~

-mo ".-\OJEcrlVBIAClEm"', l 27:..,.

129;.,.., _ _ IMAL",

"PlACl!!~,

Fraalons, ru

, "ADJI!C11VB", 131; -IJuI-IuI'f'II "MOl.Tnl", 132

Elcpat IpoedI. 153; com..... 165 EUlillutlo. ot ro4~, 194 EaIliH.. relatlc COIIIInIClIoIIs III, 310

OlpplllL 291
Ooopphlcalll.llllCS, 377

Oraphs,

SOU~

m, 19

OI"lViIy,63 Oravlly dlssilllllatJoa. It?

Eq ... tNc complement&, 344

ErptMI)',ll9 Efron, acrlbaI, 117
EupMRlIs.., 156 E....nll., 2$2 Eroeplions, Irre,wla ntla and. 176; KfibAl erro"" 117; lIIullipk dUllllClllbenllip, 181; mUltiple uMrllen., 182; oonnict of rwks. til; Iwppletion, I ...; re",)f.r, lIS EKllmalions, 383; II)'potMt1ca1 apressloDS, 333; hypothetical ellipiis, 384: 'n 'I'd.IiI, )8.4:

H
Head .nd modirlCr, 199 Hc.IdIcl5 modi/kn, 203: Itad'- llllkllD.ilC delennlKn, 216; headlell -.lnolllIMIs, 2J9; headless relluie&, 315 Himal')1I11 1a1lP"P- f.IId TlbeUOlI, 14 HonorU"io, 152; 11K. 152; prlllWy, 154; deDOlltioll and ODIlIIOUIlioa, ISS: npbembm .114, 156; JeCoI>Cia'l', 156; ill

In

~"

185

Hwmmnca. 2 1 ~ .nd pe_1 dctCf1l\'IIU1, 212 HypolhctiCIl apft:ulofts, 3&3; hypothetical

..

kilUh.p terms, iS7; penoul determinel,

ellipsis, 384
Family urnes, 377 filwrCl of speech. otOO; metaphor!., otOO; similes .

."
for maliva, lIOII'syl"'bic, III; m "HONOII.lflC", Ill: m "t illMAN BOOY 'AAT'"', 114; ,.
M""'tMA.\..M. Ml'IOtot tNA,L",

liS: ,. I"lV<NSmVE"", 116: .. 117;," .. "'OM1N ...... M, 117;r

M

ImitaliollS, 141 Impersoul 0DfIl1Olln<h, .l66 IlI<lefinile delerminen. 214: indefinite ad...ero" Inl\caioll. 160; wltb'lIlyll.bles, 161; tellSC. 161: !\cms. 162: 'YJ'CI o f rwle, 162; trlllSlti...e Ind intr'lISiliYe ...elM. 163; parldi& ms, 164; Irr.. rula., 166; pren. 1'1', 161; plerlll G, 161; prtrlll ." 168; sum. 1, 168; root rules, 169; """'" dlssimilltion, 170; ulIStoppin&. 171: Jabl.l rules, 17); pl_nt Stem doI""Q1. 175: KroSS sylllbles, 186 Informal oom ma nds, J69 lnform"lon qYeltiollS, )S8

,-dis" "kiNSHIP COt...t.f.CT1VE ,1I9 formativa, syllabic, 119; .IUd "'NESS 119; 'I"l "'ElUOl'IliAV1N() TO 00 WITlI 120; . m.!:MII: "Sklu..ED IN". 120; l'IIo-d~ M"O kI"'O Of", 121; "I'OSSESSIN()", 121: ')'<11 "LESS". 122: -lll41U "OI "'INtJllVE", 122: sa. 123: ... 0 MFEJolALE" 111<1 _ pM ......u;", 111; Inimal sa. 124; ntO Ind ."", .. FE......u;", 125: names, 126: ICOI"phy.
"tfONl"'AL", 118;
M

'"

,1""

INDEX llIiDrmalion, old and fteW, 19S IIIKt KrMtiort, III IlItetjeaioN, 1'7 Intransitive wel'bt, 163 IIMntlon, of wrill .." 40 tsopos.sa., Southern nbelU, 24

Nepllon. 242; lerm, W; RIwen.al, 2M.; .,....

New Tibetu, variIolro. ill, t9 NotIIiALl d1~ 93

""

'"

No.u1'lJ fOIIllpllcatlo&, 134 NotIIJaaI pmus. 204; lL.pIe.

,.,

204; -JoIrIed.

J KL
Kinship lerlN, ." LabUol rula, 171 LabUols., pallllllutlon of, 22 Larie numbelS. 22l

No.ullll colllplc1lleall, lJ6

Noml4ll1utioG, 294
NoIIII ...1izIed propoaitlolllas ItadI, J02; .. modlfkrl, lOS NoIIIIII&Iiaen, 29$; pitlcllt_1Cfed, 296; "'II'" "rATtI'.IIT OF 1'II.Of'OIfT1ON, 296; _ rJorj-4p/DIIo/IAU. ,Anam OF
'II;OI'O$~,

Lkal morpbolo(Y, 99
!...nia1 .;atelOl'f, dIInte of, III

m: .1f*P ~
rROI'OSf11Otf'", 2SI8;

Unkc4 Impelilivea, 16II '-'n IranslitlollS, 1'2; aeatloN, 143

l.w role, 267

Of' M71EtfT Of'

proposillortalerCd ~ m, N, 299; ..,. "'r'IJ.a! WHEQ rltol'O$tnON", 300; . . , . "'tIaP WlT1I

rll;OI'O$I7lOH", 101;
~

M
MUlliCript YlrlalloftS, 31 Mwphor,400 Metria, <I0Il; ddillitlons, 408; basic mappin" 409; 'l)'lllleplla, 411); CltaleQ, 411;
aperlod l.;all!lClCn, 41S; uNtrasc4

"'EIUOfoI lHV(It..YEO IX rt'lOl'OSl11Oll"',

S)'llIbla IlIlIron, posltloM, 419; Ylriallo. In ll1e last fOOl, 422

MiKd loan forlM, 14S MooIal pe.fOfmat!va,lSI

Madmen, headlcu, 201 MOfPIlOIoIY, KOpe of, '1'1; " pailS 01 SpeDClI", 91; 1exiao1,99; Inllect101\ll, 160 Mo.pllopboncmcs 1CrOSIl)'l1abla, 186 Multiple cmbeddin" POminlb, J03; relatMzc4 p.opositlo .... l29 Multiple "n<krlicn, 1&2 Multiple dais IMmbenhip, lS I

301; Nomlruols., 199; KtI~11oIl, 199; IIcad aDd 1tIOdll\cr, 199; bMk Plt1mll, 100: extctldcd pllte... 'ZOO; llllject'-, 201; beaclk:u ..adltkn, lQ) "'lIlner,1s., 221; dipped, 222; as seleo;ton, 223; 1Ir,e 1I';1DI!en, 22l; rr.aloca., 22S; coIItk !lOll. ud aoIjeal-., 2216; anll ... ,,- 226; dlJlrfWlha, 226; wctpll ,nd measures, 22S; pq:I....Uoa, 229

o
Old and _ Inlonnlllon, 19S Old nbet.lll, YlriI,1oIt In, 24; pboM..1c l.IIwelllOl)', 65 o.nbotoa of roJe panicIa, JCKfII\Iy 191: \II - '....... Xl$; \II wert! compae.c.lI, O,,,,)[.uuopoda. 147 Ordl ... b, Z26 Ovla KrMl\oB., 119

,...

Nama., illllClure of,

penollll, 174; pel1Ol\l.l, Iypa. o f, 17S; JeOInIpblcal and

Fl;

"

t.amily,l77; cpithe."179; ill VOCItlwe pb...a, JIll Nauli..,.,62 NalM DOfIIpotorids, 103

,
',.in.alloa., 229 '.!.tt.allllltknt of "blals., 22

Pata4ipa., 164 PatUdpaala, 26l; putlclpaal hrU of ..-... SIt htbl rok, 26J

o~,

271

hliclIl...:a1C:reG _IMU ....... 296 P~ panIdet, 351; IMICIaI, 351 Pat~ *"-. 1lbeI&I 26l; III lf1;",lallll, SUobiI alia, ~ I'enocIaI . . . . . 374; typc:I of, 37~ Penoul ~ '2t17: 1lUWte4, 2OS; IpedalIIed, 2OS; IIoDorUk. 2OS; .114 ~ toIo, lW; ..wlIc, 210. 212;

,.nkk, lS2 134; nomtlLlt, 134; ""'11\, U5 Rellelics,211 ReJII'" iml"larilics, LSS RcLlljyc eli"" 90t Re~tivc CQalNCIiofts, lO9: ill Ea&lish, 110;
Rcd~plkallo ..

--.atIiod.
p~ ~

....... ....-..,'"
Poetil; wool ,..,., 148 PoIIIe _ - - . )6.S .

2lZ; ~ 213 1; pllocleJak 1_10/)', liS

.fier lite bad, 112; before 1M; heI4, 116; and ....ja:tia, 317;.114 d~1I\1I\1 lole panicle cmien, )11l; b9dJ(&5, 3lS; Il&leI 1114 P'O<II:IoIeI, 327; emboiSdcd, 129; b&~IIId, ll2; a)II\pIQ. )J( Repro''''';lioIII, 142 RC<l1ICI1S, )67 Rok. IN'11o:1I1, 26l; 'ICIIC)', 264; locuIall4 to~Ice,
261; ao:omlN'nJlMftI, 270
Role IN'nldel, omission or, 197; III nominals, JOS; JI ""Ttl c:ompkmelllS, }404 Roo! NleI, 169

PIIBIe dI,.. 91 Pu-, 191; ....... 1:04; "",11\, :42 I'Iace of ~Iio!l, 51 P,,,raII, 2JO

Ruou aDd
R~k:s,

J.lCI'III,

162

ro.UaltlaI T, 14:" &1 Prelb N, 161; 00, 161; &., 161; 4, t61 hdalliU, ~ protIIaftI of, 34 Pn:IaI _ . . . .' 1'75

InlltlClloftal, rypeI of, 162; IN'radiJIIU. 164: .Iflx, 166; rool. 169;,.gke 4bilmililloll. 1'70; IIJIJlOpplna. 111; ~biaJ, 113; oontJicts or, UO

-'"
I'rI!IW)'

s
S. ... krll ""'Iba. 1r1l1Ula111lJ. 345; ,implc lor .....
346;

1St

ProporItIoa...:a.... --.uxn, :zr. Propaloo-t 8OwertII, lO"I PropaIUo.l-.....l9O Propoo.Iuo., . . . . . %52; COIIIpIa. 2S2;

periphrullc Ior"",.)4

.... -'"
-.""
:ua.
o-uo.

SaitNol erron, 177 Scrip!, nbelU, 51 Sec:on41ry IIo!!oriIla, 156 Selcaort, 232; nmcnll IS, 223 SeIlU:nc:eI, lSI; IS IN'lielllS, 390
Sc:r,.mar\o:d

QuclIkna, 6; 1(..00. putIde, 3S7; ud 1I11_tha, )$7; IafonIalk>ll q_doIIt, doQI ~ 361

SimlIeI, IS SllllgLI&_ OOIISINCIions. 290 SocIal vcaon, IS)

patlcall, m

Quote OJIICM'I'-l!I1; 111_ doKr .J1a,

-'"
~

SoIIoraDcc uailllilatlon. 188 SouD4, .1141"1,..39 SoIIDdI, of 1lbe1&~. S5; _T1iculaIOl}' cleaaipdonl. 55: _II. 55; oouounu, 57; plac:e of If\kulal!oA, 51; dOIlIR. ,'), ,.gK;e 0 ....,1 tiIDe,6O; _iiI)'. 62; _ l i e

_.

penonal cltltrmincn. 2 12

-'-"'-.3)

deIcrIptlou, 63; &r-"'I)'.63;

64; pboMmic laoclliory. liS Som:e role. 267

SOftOIlIrK:e,

Rod\llldnf;:y, dI_""" 0(, 194; "'lemeIIt

INDEX So\Ilbent

l03
~ 2A

TItIeu..

n'lUilive alld 1Jt11U$;1M:

-w. 1a000ion and.

SplIIlJ dc\mn1Den. 206 Spaoklll, rob, 209 SpedaJiJ:ed penou.l dcle.rmlllCn. 208 Spedllen, 204 SIadtll, mIIIlrallll, &9 Sl.Ile_1I, ~2; JI.IlelDt:1ll panlck, )52; nod
nd......IIC)'. 352;

nanshive Yf:rt., 16) lhInslltvlty, and 'lOki!!" 112 n&aaillioll mmpowldl, 107
1l1onslilcrllioll, 0( 'nbellll, ); pbontlllil: s)"DIbob, 3: dlpplll and dlKriliQ, l; other I)'I1Iboh, 4; or Ollie, lin ....... S

'"

prom..... 353;

wantllp, lSJ
SI.IICI .nd proc:aNIl. 3Z7 SII"$ IfOOIpI, dllylilobic, 90: I)'llIobil: C)'C1cI. 'IS
Sypplel~ 114 Sylllobk: qo;ka, 'IS SyILibia. 68; Ien,,~ coflllraiMs. 68; 11cKliller
colISll.i~1I,

vv
Ullderlicn, II\lIlliple, III UnM:nlllICplloll, 2~ Uama cd pel1Oft.1 dclermillCn, 208 UMtoppln" 171 Variatioti, In TIbeIlQ, 18: I. New TIhelin. 19; in Old TIbcllll, 2S; IQ JIIaII\lKlipll, )1 ;
'CCONlrIlClOll, 33

71 ; ./. Ind ..... 74;

eo-

I,lChncDCC Q)II$train". 'I, poltinilLiI Cl)l\SIr.lnll, 81 ; poli ini tial " 81 ,

poliinitial t. 84 ; prcin!!;,,1 c:oIIIlralnll. 87; ItackJ~, COIISIf.lnu.. 89; Ien,lh oollStflinu., 68; slot riller COIISIUlnu, 7 i; C)'C1cI, '15 Symlc:pM.410 S)'IIllotI iI: Ilnoa",e. 252 S)'IIIIl. IIIOI'pholo&Y.1Id . 191; CMI"YM:w. 191

Verb (OIOIpLclllulI,)37 V.,b rcdllpUaulolI, 13S Verb dips. '15 Verb pbr_. 2A2
Voc:aIM:s, 370; iaitlai alld fI..,l, 3~ lillel of respea In. )11: oUter ezpra&Ions III,
)7): . . _

la, )7)

T
"Dill, pcnc>nal determiner, 213

'rokc dll.slmil .. km. 170 'rolcc 0fI5C1 lime. 6D ~lcin".1Id IIllISi';";!)', 112 Wlweb.55

"RIe,,,m I'rincipk. 194; aDd ,edundancy. 194;

Ind Information, 1'15; ,nd om wion 0/ ,olt pafl il:lc:I.. 197 1hse. 161. 261

WIYZ
Want inp, )5S Wci&hu Ind IMI$wres, 221 Weole,,, Barbarian 11II&lI.Ip. Tibetan '1Id , 16 Word !amil ia. 137 Word 'lips. 92 WOrd play. 1..Words: <n W" h ", S)1ICIII. )9, 41; invention Of. 4(}. K'tipt.

"Rrm M,ltion, 243

~n'IIlio: 1l""'I"'t. 272

Tibctn. in COll ie",. 7; o$c:rined. 1 ; , .... related Iiln' .... "'". 8; and ChinGt, 10; Ind lI .. r _ , 11 ; .1Id lite Hin'llll~n Lln'.... 'a. 14; I"d 1M Weale.n &.~ri," Lln, ,,,,a, 16; ~rialion in. Ill; a-ical. derined. 36; ..... ' ilin' ')"lem. 39; phru!cmk I n~nl Ol')' . 6,\; T illca of raJlCC'I. 311 lbrlC<lliu:r ~;, 215; ./4 278; .srl , 279 lbpilll. 275

"

lbu" rtn. 2JO

Thn., fcn, 1.l'il

ThE C LASSI CA L TIB ETAN LANG UAGE

Stephan V. Beyer
Among Asi;tn langu.l gt's.Tibet.lIl is second o llly to Chinese III the de pth of Its histo ricAl record . with [('xu dmng hac k as f<IT as the e Ig hth and mnth centuries, written 11\ dJl a1ptubetJc SCTlpt thai presel'\" the conte-mpor.meo us pho lloloweal features of the I.1nguage ]1.t: C1U$SKdITilK/<J1I LiIl3 '/'~(' is the first comprehe nsive descri ption o Cthe Tlhetm buguage and IS d,stulcllve III th.u It nears the d.;asslcal TIbetan hnguJ.gt'

a ll Its O\"'U te rlllS father than by means of d escriptive categOries .lppropnJ.te to o lher lan guages. as has tr.uiJ.tJo lully been the case. Beyer presents tlu' I;mgu;age as a mcdulln o finc rary exp ressio n with g reat r;mge. po'l.'.'C f . subtlety,
J.

and humor, no t as an abst'rJ.cl object . lie lisa deals compre hensively with

w ide variety o f I.lIlg l.llStiC pheno m e na as t hey are actuall y en countered in the classICal texts, with 1lt1lll(' roUS examples of idio llls, C OllUnOIl locuu ons, transla-

tion devIces , ne ologisllU, and dl:tlectal v;m ations. " Beye r's wo r k 15 the first g r:tllll1\ar o f c Luslcal hteraryTibt'tall th:n ado pts a gellllllldy fresh approach to the l1ngll:tge, J.bando ni ng t he tired (and ont'll inaccurate) conventio ns o f Indo-European g ramnu r that do nunJ.te the av.ulable textbooks. r ho ugh some of his conclusions and as.scrtiollS may be c o nlTOveni.ll, Be yer fo rces us to [hlllk .thout the distmctive fe.ltures of l Ibet;m ttl a c hallcng m g .lnd ;l.llImatcd fashIo n . Il lS many ex..lmples, drawu from all brallCh cs of the IlIe r;l.ture, .:lrt" superb. .. I he fields o f Buddlust Studies. ASian I luto ry. and C o mp;lratlve L teld[ure have all suffered .lS ;l result of the 1 1I1ute d access to I ibeun pri mary sources. B~r's book wLlI significantly contnbute to rectifYing tlu s SLue o f a (f;un." - Matthew Kapstel1l. C o lumbl.l Utllveulty

STEPHAN V. BE YER h,l$ a Ph .D. III Buddhist Studies ;l.nd

IS autho r of 11,~ ClIll o fTara. Magi( and Rimals in TiMI ;uld 11,e Budd/lisl Ex perimu. l ie is curren tl y an J.uo rney ,wd pJ.rtner .1t SIdley .:lnd Austm m Chica go.

A vo lume 111 the SUNY sen cs III Buddh ISt StudJ(:S Manh!,.w Kapstelfl. e dito r

STATE UNI VER SITY www.sunypress.edu

O l~

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