A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO THE AMDO

DIALECT
ཨ་མདོའ་ི སྐད་ངོ་སོད་མདོར་བསྡུས།

Lowell Cook
Summer 2015
ཨ་རི་བོ་བཟང་གིས་བརྩམས།
དབྱར། ༢༠༡༥
དུས་རབས་གསར་པའི་དཔའ་བོ་དོན་གྲུབ་རྒྱལ་དང་དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་འཕེལ་གི་འདྲ་པར་འབོག་ཁིམ་དུ་བཤམས་པ།
Table of Contents
དཀར་ཆག

Introduction (གེང་གཞི)
Divisions of dialect (ཨ་མདོའི་ཡུལ་སྐད)
Pronunciation: training your ear (སྒྲ་གདངས་རྣ་བར་གོམས་པ)
Sentence structures and verb auxiliaries (ཚིག་གྲུབ་སྒྲིག་སྟངས་དང་བྱ་ཚིག་གི་རོགས་ཚིག)
Question words (དྲི་ཚིག)
Vocabulary (ཐ་སྙད)
Imperatives (སྐུལ་ཚིག)
Modal Verbs (བྱ་ཚིག་གཉིས)
Old terminology (བརྡ་རིང)
Familial Names (ཁིམ་མིའི་མིང)
Pure Colloquialisms (ཨ་མདོའི་ཐུན་མིན་ཁ་སྐད)
Modern words (དེང་གི་ཐ་སྙད་གསར་བ)
Spelling (སོར་ཀོག)
Swearing and Curse Words (མནའ)
Suggested Readings (ཀོག་བྱ)
Some Closing Words (མཇུག་བྱང)
Introduction (གེང་གཞི)
Recently, more and more students of Tibetan language have been taking up interest
studying the Amdo dialect or, rather, the Amdo dialects. This not surprising given the fact that
there is veritable cultural renaissance currently taking place throughout the Amdo speaking
regions. Virtually all of modern Tibetan literature and scholarship is produced by Amdo authors
and scholars and many forms of popular culture such as music, film, and so forth are also being
produced in high quantities within Amdo. In addition, there are a number of important
monasteries and high lamas from Amdo speaking regions. Since Amdo is also one of the more
readily accessible parts “historical Tibet” which is now strewn across several Chinese provinces,
foreigners are more likely to find themselves there before central Tibet. Because of this perhaps,
there is a great deal of political activity happening across these areas, such as protests and self-
immolations. Beyond its cultural relevance, the Amdo dialect has many unique qualities of its
1
own. It preserves many of the old terminology (བརྡ་རིང) and prescripts and postscripts are
noticeably pronounced. Hence, one feels that they can taste history on their tip of their tongue.
Needless to say, understanding and/or speaking Amdo dialect puts one in a fortunate position to
pursue a number of Tibet related issues.
Naturally, every student has their individual aims and backgrounds – some may wish to
better understand their spiritual teacher’s instructions, others may wish to receive firsthand
accounts of regional politics, still others may have research topics that connect them with the
Amdo dialect. Whatever one’s individual case may be, the majority of students tend to share one
thing in common – a prior basis in the central or exile dialects. Hence, a simple guide, a starting
point for anyone keen on picking up some Amdo dialect seemed like it would be of much
benefit to such students. There are already a number of textbooks on Amdo dialect on the market
which take one from A to Z (or rather from ཀ to ཨ, if you will), however, these are exhaustive
and assume no prior knowledge of Tibetan. Hence, this short guide is intended for speakers of
central/exile dialects with the hope that by simply distinguishing pronunciation differences and
then slowly supplementing words, one can understand as well as make oneself understood in the
Amdo dialect. In order to keep the size of this mini-grammar down, all of the features that are
shared across the dialects were excluded. If you are wondering whether or not a common phrase
or word not seen here is understood in Amdo, it likely (but not definitely) is. That being the case,
this article would be the ideal thing to take into the field and write notes on but not so ideal for
the classroom.

1
I am indebted to Dr. Dori Wangchuk for these terms in lieu of prefix and suffix respectively. Indeed, they are
scripts that precede or follow they ming gzhi or root letter, whereas prefixes, as they are understood English, would
be more equitable with units such as rjes su, yang dag par, mngon par, and so forth.
 A small caveat is that I actually don’t know Amdo dialect very well! In fact, this article
is mostly for my own benefit to synthesize what I have learned over a number of months spent
in Amdo. This mini-primer attempts to be representative of standard Amdo (ཨ་མདོའི་སི་སྐད) but
might not always do so. Indeed, it is my great hope that those who are more familiar with the
dialect than myself will amend and improve this into a more useful primer to the Amdo dialects.
Divisions of Amdo Dialects (ཨ་མདོའ་ི ཡུལ་སྐད)
As you may have heard, the various Amdo dialects are, for the most part, mutually
intelligible, which is not the case for Khams or Central dialects. Nevertheless, the Amdo dialects
can be divided up2 geographically as well as socially. The linguist Nicolas Tournadre classifies
them as follows:

 མཚོ་བྱང་། North Kokonor (Kangtsa, Themchen, Arik, etc.)

 མཚོ་ནུབ། West Kokonor (Dulan, Na'gormo, etc.),
 མཚོ་ལོ། Southeast Kokonor (Jainca, Thrika, Hualong,3 etc.)
 བ་བང་། Labrang (Labrang, Luchu)
 མགོ་ལོག Golok (Machen, Matö, Gabde)
 རྔ་བ། Ngawa (Ngawa, Dzorge, Dzamthang)
 དཀར་མཛེས། Kandze

Many Tibetans or other non-linguists tend to divide the dialects across social lines with འབོག་སྐད
4
the language of nomads, རོང་སྐད the language of farmers, and རོང་མ་འབོག or semi-nomadic.

Pronunciation: Training Your Ear (རྣ་བ་སྒྲ་གདངས་ལ་གོམས་པ)

The best starting point to learning Amdo dialect is to learn how the pronunciation differs
from central/exile dialect. Once you have figured this out, you’ll be surprised to find that
yourself already able to recognize many words and expressions that you previously found
unintelligible. Of course, the ideal way to do this is in person with native speakers, reading
different letter combinations together and/or simply reading through texts together. If a native
speaker is not available, listening to recordings (see “suggested reading”) would be the next best
alternative. Nevertheless, I will attempt to approximate the pronunciation differs so that students
will know what to listen for. Please bear in mind these are only rough approximations and I’m
not a linguist.
 ཕ (ha) Pronounced quite similar to ཧ. For instance, ཕ་མ་ sounds like ཧ་མ and ལུས་ཕུང
sounds like ལུས་ཧུང and so forth.
 བ (wa) Pronounced like this as well in central dialect when it comes after another
syllables. e.g., འགོ་བ འཁོར་བ སྒྲོལ་བ and so forth.
2
N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]
3
Hualong county is contained with in Haidong city and is partially populated by Tibetans.
4
In more colloquial speech semi-nomads are referred to as འཇམ་པ (?) though I am unsure of the exact spelling if one
even exists.
  ཞ (zha) Pronounced liked the “ja” in the French names Jacques.
 ཟ (za) There is more fricative “z” than in central dialect.
 ཤ (xha) It has been said that there is no approximation for this sound in English and it is
probably true...
 ཝ (wha) It should be known that this is slightly different from བ in that it is a bit
“harsher.”
 ཀྱ/ཁ/ག The ཡ་བཏགས creates a sound cha or ja depending on the root letter.
 པྱ/ཕྱ/བྱ Again the ཡ་བཏགས creates a sound closer to sha for these.
 སྲ (tra/shra) There seem to be two different ways of pronouncing this combination.
I’ve even heard both pronunciations used in a single sentence! The former is similar to
other letters with ར་བཏགས. The later sound similar to the Sanskrit sri/Shri.
 བཀའ (kwa) Here the prescript5 is pronounced. One’s lips press together as if you were
about to say བ but then you pronounce a ཀ and the final sound resembles something like
kwa.
 དཔའ (hwa) Again , the prescript is voiced. It sounds rather like clearing your throat.
 དབང (whong) The “wa” sound has more fricative “throat clearing” sound than in central
Tibetan dialects.
 མི་དགོས (mir-go) The ད prescript creates a “r” sound between the two syllables.
 བདེ་སོན/བོད་སྐད (der-mon/wor-ked) The ས་མགོ creates a “r” sound between the two
syllables.
 ཞིང/སྙིང (zhang/nyang) The postscript “neutralizes” the གི་གུ and makes ཞིང almost
indistinguishable from ཞང for instance.
 ལས/རྒྱས (lee/jee) The postscript ས makes the ending rather high pitched as in the
preceding examples of “lee” and “jee.”
 མེད/ཉིད (mel/nyil) From time to time (I’m not sure what causes it, seems to be
unconscious) the postscript ད morphs to a ལ sound.
5
I am indebted to Dr. Dorji Wangchug for the terms prescripts (sngon ’jug), postscript (rjes ’jug), and secondary
postscript (yang ’jug) in lieu of prefix, suffix, and secondary suffix respectively. I support this terminological
choice in that it reflects the fact that these letter form a part of a syllable whereas suffix, as it is understood in
English, better denotes yongs su, mgon sum du, and other such words that precede Tibetan verbs.
  ཨི/ཨུ These two vowels are essentially identical. In fact, even well-educated Amdowas
have been known to misspell words by confusing the vowels.
 གེང/ལེགས (lang/lak) The postscriptes again change the way the འགེང་བུ vowel is
pronounced, almost as if it reverts it back to the “a” inherent in bare syllables.
 འབོག་པ/གོགས་པོ (drog kwa/drog kwo) Often the syllable following a “-ག” or “-གས”
will give off a little interference.
This is but a very rough sketch of a few of the notable pronunciation differences. In addition to
this, there is a unique rhythm to speaking Amdo dialect – it seems that the intonation rises
towards the end of the sentence. You can hear this pretty clearly, especially when discussions
start getting a little heated. As mentioned above, the best way to train yourself is with a native
Amdo speaker.

Sentence Structures and Verbal Auxillaries (ཚིག་གྲུབ་སྒྲིག་སྟངས་དང་བྱ་ཚིག་གི་རོགས་ཚིག)

The second most crucial thing to know is how verbs work. Once you are able to identify the
main verb and its respective particles etc., Amdo dialect will no longer seem very different from
its Tibetan brothers and sisters.
 In some way, the verbs in Amdo dialect resemble those of literary Tibetan. མི and མ are
used for present/future and past respectively.
མི་ཤེས། I don’t know
 Since such minimalistic sentences might only be if seen in writing and hence some
additional verbage, in this case verbal auxillaries, are necessary when speaking. For the
nd rd
1st person and 2 /3 person testimonial, གི (sometimes written as ཀི or even ཁུ) is
attached to the end of the verb.
ད་ང་འགོ་གི I’m going now.
ང་དྲོ་གི I feel warm.
 Many adjectives can be used in that way as if they were verbs:
ཡག་པོ ཡག་གི It’s good. He/she looks good.
མང་པོ མང་གི There’s a lot.
ཉུང་པོ་ ཉུང་གི There’s just a little.
བདེན་པ བདེན་གི That’s true.
འདྲ་པོ་ འདྲ་གི It’s similar.
 ཐར་བ ཐར་གི It’ll make it through.
འཐད་པ འཐད་གི I agree.

 For present continuous བཞིན is used to show that you or someone is in the process of
doing something. Can be applied to first, second, and third persons equally.
ཟ་མ་ཟ་བཞིན་ཡོད། I’m currently (in the process of) eating.
 For second person, the auxiliary གོ་གི is usually employed.
Verb + གོ་གི
 ཡོད་རེད/ཡོད་མ་རེད are certainly understood but, in addition to that, ཡོད་ནི་རེད/ཡོད་ནི་མ་རེད
and ཡོད་གི་རེད/ཡོད་གི་མ་རེད are also often employed.
གོང་ཁེར་འདི་ན་མི་རིགས་མང་ཙམ་ཡོད་ནི་རེད། There are a lot of ethnic groups in this city.
ཁོ་ལ་རླངས་འཁོར་ཡོད་གི་རེད། He has a car.
 འདུག/མི་འདུག as an a verb or as an auxiliary following a verb is understood, however, the
preferred verb of choice is ཡོད་གི/མེད་གི
e.g., ཕར་ར་རྐུབ་སྟེངས་ཟིག་ཡོད་གི There’s a seat over there.
 Similarly, སོང after a verb is understood tordalso create the past tense, but ཐལ is more
nd
often used. Like སོང it is used for 2 and 3 persons or for non-volitional verbs.
e.g., ངས་གོ་ཐལ། I heard you/I understand.
ཁོ་བུད་ཐལ། He left.
 There are a number of affirmations that differ from central dialect. In lieu of རེད་བ/རེད་པ
the expression རེད་མོས is used. ཡིན་ན with an emphasis on the ན is used in the same way
and doesn’t necessarily carry the connotation of a question that it might otherwise have.
 In place of འདུག་བ/འདུག་ག and their negative constructions, ཡོད་ག and མེད་གི
 There is a particular use of the particle ནོ to nominalize verbs. It resembles the colloquial
ཡག and the classical རྒྱུ in many ways but has perhaps slightly wider usage
ངས་བཤད་ནོ་ཁོས་ཨེ་གོ་ཐལ། Did you hear what I said?
བིས་ནོ་འུ་འགིག་གི Is what I wrote correct?
 The རྒྱུ can be used is several different constructions:
དཔེ་རྒྱུ་མ་རེད། Impossible!
མ་ཤེས་རྒྱུ་མེད་གི། There’s nothing I/we don’t know. I’ve got it.
མི་ཆོག་རྒྱུ་མེད་གི། There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s good enough.
  For doubt and uncertainty, ཡིན་ན་ཐང is often used.
དེ་འདྲ་ཡིན་ན་ཐང་། Maybe. Probably.
 There are a number of fun things you can tack on to the end of your sentence. I don’t
really know the most appropriate parallel in English so I’ve translated them according to
my feelings below. You’ll just have to get a sense how they are used through exposure.
ཤེས་སོང་ཡྰ། Oh! I see…
ཚྭ་བོ་གི་བེ། Ya there’s enough salt, man.
གང་ང་འགོ་གི་ཨ་རོ། Hey! Where you going?
བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་ཨ་ལེ། Aww, thanks.
ཆོག་གི་རེད་ཨོ། Of course it’s okay.
There are bound to be many more, but that’s for you to discover!

Question Words (འདྲི་ཚིག)

If you read classical/literary Tibetan, you will find yourself already familiar with many of
the “question word” in Amdo dialect.
 What? ཅི/ཅི་ཟིག/ཆི་ཟིག
འདི་ཆི་ཟིག་རེད། What is this?
 How much? དུ
སོར་མོ་དུ་རེད། How much does it cost?
ཁོད་ལོ་དུ་རེད། How old are you?
 Where? གང་ན/གང་ང (ག་ར = རྔ་སྐད)
ཁོ་གང་ང་ཡོད། Where are you?
གང་ས་གང་ན་སོང་ནི་ཡིན། I went everywhere!
 Why? ཅིའི་ཕྱིར/རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅི/ཅིའི་རེན་གིས
ཅིའི་རེན་གིས་མོ་ལ་སེམས་པ་ཤོར་སོང་། Why did you fall in love with
her?
 When? ནམ
ཁོད་ནམ་འགོ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། When are you going?
 How? ཅི་འདྲ/ཆི་མོ
ཟ་མ་ཆི་མོ་ཟིག་རེད། How is the food?
  From where? གང་གི/གང་ནས
ཁོ་གང་གི་ཡིན། Where are you from?
ཁོ་གང་ནས་སོང་ཡིན། Where did you come from?

For questions, where ཡོད་པས, འདུག་གས, སོང་ངས, and so forth would be used, ནིས/ནས (ni) are used.
ཁོད་ལ་ཡོད་གི་ནིས། Do you have it?
འགོ་ནིས། Should we go?
In addition to that, the classical structure ཨེ་ is also used with frequency:
བདེ་མོ་ཨེ་ཡིན། How are you?
ཁོད་བོ་བཟང་ཨེ་ཡིན། Are you Lobsang?
ཨེ་རེད། Is that so? Is it?
བིས་ནོ་འུ་འགིག་གི Is what I wrote correct?

Vocabulary (ཐ་སྙད)
Once you are able to discern how words are pronounced and sentences formed, you have
a strong foundation for understanding and speaking Amdo dialect. From there all you need to do
is continue practicing and slowly expanding your vocabulary more and more.
The following list are words that are favored by speakers of Amdo dialect. As they come
from literary Tibetan they should be understood by the majority of Tibetans even if they don’t
use them in their own speech. I’ve provided the common equivalent in central dialect in addition
to a translation and notes in no particular order. Please note that some of the terms in central
dialect are also widely understood in Amdo.

ཨམ་སྐད དབུས་སྐད དབྱིན་སྐད་དམ་མཆན

ཁ་བརྡ་ཡེད སྐད་ཆ་བཤད have a conversation
གོ་རེ བག་ལེབ bread
ཨ་ཁུ སྐུ་ཤོགས monk
ཇོ་མོ ཨ་ནེ nun
ལུས་ཕུང ཕུང་བོ གཟུགས་པོ body; pronounced ལས་ཧུང/ཧུང་
བོ
སོད་ཁང གསང་སོད bathroom, WC
ཕོ་བ གོད་ཁོག stomach
དུ་བ ཐ་མག cigarette
 དྲྭ ད་ྲྭ བ ད་ྲྭ རྒྱ internet; Amdo dialect often
uses shorter forms of the same
word
རྐང་སྣང གོས་ཐུང pants, trousers
འུ་གཉིས འུ་ཅག ང་གཉིས us; ང་གཉིས is also very
frequent
མལ་ཁང མྱལ་ཁང ཉལ་ཁང bedroom
ཚོན་པོ རྒྱགས་པ fat
ཕེང་ང ཕེང་བ mala, rosary
སྟོབས་ཅན རིག་པོ handsome
གསར་བུ ཕོ་གསར young man
དུས་ཚོད ཆུ་ཚོད time, hour, watch; དུས་ཚོད is
often used where ཆུ་ཚོད would
be in central dialect
ཁོད ཁེད་རང you
ཁོས ཁོད་ཀྱིས ཁེད་རང་གིས you (contains the བྱེད་སྒྲ)
གོས་པ དུད་ལོག clothes
ནང་ཇ ཞོགས་ཇ breakfast
ཁར་རྩང ཁ་སང ཁེ་ས yesterday
དཀའ་ཁག དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་པོ difficult, challenging
སོར་མོ དངུལ money, cash (དངུལ actually
means silver)
ཟད རོགས run out
ཀུ་རེ ཁ་མཚར རྩེད་མོ joke; རྩེད་མོ་ means to play
བཞེས མཆོད The true ཞེ་ས for to eat
དོན་དག ལས་ཀ something to do, something
business/tasks/chores
བྱ་བ ལས་ཀ work/job
དོ་ཚིགས ད་ལོ this year
འཁིག་སོད རྒྱོ sex
ཟླ་བརྒྱད་པ ཟླ་བ་བརྒྱད་པ August; note the dropped བ
ཡིག་དཀར དབུ་ཅན print
ཡིག་ནག དབུ་མེད cursive
རླངས་འཁོར མོ་ཊ car
འཕྲུལ་རྟ སྦག་སྦག motorcycle
 ལྕགས་རྟ རྐང་འཁོར bicycle
རྩི་འཁོར གོག་ཀད computer
གཅིག་རེད གཅིག་པ་རེད “it’s the same”
བལ་བོ བལ་བོའི་ཡུལ བལ་ཡུལ Nepal
འདུག བསྡད to sit, stay
གཉིད་ཡོང གཉིད་ཁུག to sleep
པྲ་ཚིག རྩེད་མོ joke
ཡུལ ནང home
ཟོག cattle
འདི ཁོང he/she; sometimes འདི is used
to refer to a person. you might
feel inanimate when referred
to like this!
སོ་མ གསར་པ ད་ལྟ་རང new, fresh, just now
སོབ་ཐུན འཛིན་གྲྭ སོབ་ཚན lesson, class
ཐོན སེབ to arrive
ཙི་གུ ཙི་ཙི mouse (classical)
ཕྱོགས སྐོར about
སོང ཕྱིན went
སེམས་ཁུར སེམས་ཁལ worries
རྒྱུན་པར ནམ་རྒྱུན usually, generally
ཁེར་མོ ཁེར་པོ ཁེར རང་རང་ གཅིག་པོ alone, by oneself
འོན་ཀྱང ཡིན་ན་ར ཡིན་ན་ཡང but, however
ད་རུང་ ད་བུར ད་དུང still
ཟིན ཚར finish
ངར་བ ངར་གི awesome
རི་མགོ རི རི་བོ mountain, mountaintop
བྱ་སོང སོ་ང (chicken) egg
ཟ ཟོས ཟ བཟས to eat (present/future and past
tenses)
ཕྱེ ཕྱེ་ཐུག ཐུག་པ noodles
ལྒང་ལི རྐང་རྩེད་སོ་ལོ football/soccer
ལྒང་རྒྱབ་རུ་ཁག རྐང་རྩེད་སོ་ལོ་རུ་ཁག football team
There is a preference for the feminine ending མོ instead of the masculine/neuter པོ and བོ.
Similarly, བོ is used where པོ would be in central dialect.

ཨམ་སྐད དབུས་སྐད
བདེ་མོ བདེ་པོ
གོང་ས་མོ གོང་ཁེ་པོ
དཀའ་མོ དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་པོ
ལྕིད་མོ ལྕིད་པོ
མང་བོ མང་པོ
རྒྱལ་བོ རྒྱལ་པོ

Imperatives (སྐུལ་ཚིག)
More so than central dialects, the Amdo dialect employs the imperative forms of verbs.
Below is a short list of some commonly used imperatives:

སྐུལ་ཚིག བྱ་ཚིག དབྱིན་སྐད

ཤོད བཤད Speak!
རྒྱོབ རྒྱབ Do!
སོང འགོ Go!
ཟོ ཟ Eat!
ཉོན ཉན Listen!
སོང སངས Get up! Lift up!
སྡོད བསྡད Stay!

Modal Verbs (བྱ་ཚིག་གཉིས)

There are some secondary verbs that can be directly tacked on to the end of other verbs.
For example:
 ཉན
དེ་ལབ་ཉན་གི་མ་རེད། You shouldn’t say that. That’s not something proper to say.
 ཧོད (ཕོད)
ད་ལྟ་ང་ཕྱིར་ར་འགོ་མི་ཉན་གི I don’t dare go out now.
 འཇུག
སྲིད་གཞུག་གིས་ང་འདིར་བསྡད་འཇུག་གི་མ་རེད། The government won’t let me stay here.
  བསམ
ང་ལ་ས་མཇལ་དུ་འགོ་བསམ་གི I’m thinking to go on pilgrimage to Lhasa.

Old Terminology (བརྡ་རིང)

Amdo dialect preserves the old forms of many words.

བརྡ་རིང བརྡ་གསར དབྱིན་སྐད

མྱིང མྱིང་ང་ མིང name
མྱི མི person
མྱི་སྡང གོགས་པོ་ལོ་ལོ dear friend
མྱིག མིག eye
འགོ འགོ to go
ཆི ཅི what

Familial Names (ཁིམ་མིའ་ི མིང)

Familial terms can vary greatly from region to region and be rather confusing. Below is
just a few familial names.

ཨམ་སྐད དབུས་སྐད དབྱིན་སྐད

རྒན་པོ ཁོ་ག husband
རྒན་མོ ཨ་ཡེ སེ་སན སེ་དམན wife (“the old lady”)
ནུ་བོ གཅུང་པོ younger brother
ཕུ་བོ ཅོ་ཅོ གཅེན་པོ elder brother
ཨ་ཅེ ཨ་ཅེ elder sister
ཧིང་མོ གཅུང་མོ younger sister
ཨ་མྱེས པོ་པོ grandfather
ཨ་ཡེ རོ་རོ grandmother
བཟའ་མི ནང་མི family
ཤ་ཉེ close friend/relative
ལོ་ལོན རྒན་ཁོག elderly

Pure Colloquialism (ཨ་མདོའ་ི ཐུན་མིན་ཁ་སྐད)

 There are a number of high frequency colloquial expressions unique to Amdo dialect
alone. While they are undoubtably Tibetan, they are likely unintelligible to speakers of other
dialects.

ཨམ་སྐད སི་སྐད དབྱིན་སྐད

བ་གི ཐུབ འགིག ཡོང can, possible, able, okay
ཧ་གི བཟང ཡག་པོ་རེད great, excellent
དྲག་གི གལ་ཡོད་མ་རེད it's fine, it doesn’t matter
ཁུར་གེ ཁོའམ་ཁོང he
མུར་གེ མོའམ་ཁོང she
གཤིས་ཀ དཔེ ཞེ་དྲགས very, much
ཟིག ཞིག a/the (definite and indefinite
articles)
འོ་ན ཨོ་ལེ འོ་ལེ confirmation, not be confused
with ཨ་ལེ
འདི་གི དེ་ནས “so…” “then...”
འདི་མུ འདི་མུ་འདི དེ་ནས “so…” “then...”
ཀུ་ལས་ཀུ་ལས ཏི་ཙ་ཏི་ཙ ཏོག་ཙམ a little bit
ཡེད བྱེད to do
རེ་མ མགོགས་པོ quick, quickly
ར དང ཡང and, also
དེ་རེད་་་་དེ་རེད་་་ རེད་་་་རེད་་་ “right…” “yes.. i see…”

Modern Terms (དེང་གི་ཐ་སྙད་གསར་བ)

There has been great effort to speak the “pure father tongue” in Amdo and hence many
recently coined terms have wide currency. Of course, the list is endless and grows every day but
it should be recognized that this is a noteworthy quality of the modern Amdo dialect. Below a
small sampling is provided:

ཐ་སྙད་གསར་བ དབྱིན་ཡིག
བདེན་དཔང diploma
ཞོར་ཟས snacks
སྲང་ལམ alley, side-street
ནང་དོན་གནད་བསྡུས thesis statement
 མཐེབ་སྡེར འཁེར་སྡེར flash drive; pen drive
ག་གཏོང་རླང་འཁོར taxi
མཐར་ཕྱིན་དཔྱད་རྩོམ final thesis paper

Spelling (སོར་ཀོག)

The manner of spelling out words (སོར་ཀོག) is slightly different that in central Tibet. Where in
central Tibet they would add and “oh” (‘og)6 after the prescript and before the root letter, in
Amdo there is absent. However, after the root letter and before the postscript or secondary
postscript (assuming there is one) “zhag” (bzhag) is vocalized. For instance, let’s spell the
following words:
 ངག
Central: “nga. ga. ngag.”
Amdo: “nga. ga bzhag. ngag.”
 བསྒྲིགས
Central: “ba ’og. sa ga btags ga. ra btags sgra. gi gu sgri. ga. sa. bsgrigs.
Amdo: “ba. sa ga btags ga. ra btags sgra. gi gu sgri. ga. sa bzhag. bsgrigs.
… and so forth. If this seems somewhat convoluted please sit down with some native speakers
and spell out a few words.

Swearing and Curse Words (མནའ)

Amdo dialect is complete with its own swears and curse words. The majority seem to be dharma
words, many of which you might already recognize from your pechas. They have been
approximated below but please understand that their meaning can vary based on context but, as
they are curse words, the intended meaning should be rather evident. They can be quite strong
and might be misunderstood if not used appropriately so use them at your own risk!
 བཀའ་འགྱུར Perhaps similar to “I swear on the bible!”

6
I’m not sure if there is actually a meaning behind this sound or if it just a sound. I have heard that it is the word ’og
meaning before with the sense that the prescript comes before everything else.
 མ་ཎི་འདོན “If you don’t believe me, then go chant your mani-s!”
 ཡུམ Yes, ཡུམ་ as in the ཡུམ་ཤེས་རབ་གི་ཕ་རོལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་མ. It is perhaps the most commonly
used and might be translated as “mother------...” It can also be turned into a question as
ཨེ་ཡུམ་་་ meaning “are you (freaking) serious?”
Suggested Reading (ཀོག་བྱ)

Norbu, Kalsang, Karl Peet, dPal Idan bKra shis, & Kevin Stuart, Modern Oral Amdo Tibetan: A
Language Primer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
sDrol ma skyid. A mdo’i kha skad slob deb (Colloquial Amdo Dialect Text). Qinghai
Nationalities Press. Xining, Qinghai, 2001.

Hua Kan and kLu ‘bum rgyal, editors. Bod rgya shan sbyar gyi a mdo’i skad tshig mdzod
(Bilingual Tibetan Chinese Dictionary for Amdo Dialect). Gansu Nationalities Press. Lanzhou,
Gansu, 1993.

Some Closing words (མཇུག་བྱང)

Hopefully students with a background in classical/literary Tibetan and/or central dialect
are now slightly better equipped to embark on the path of Amdo dialect. I have no doubts that
such a path will be extremely meaningful & joyful, yet entail many hardships at the same time.
May we always have the confidence to persevere!
It is my sincere wish that this article is able to contribute in some tiny way to the
flourishing of the Tibetan language and its people and culture that depend on it so dearly. I
similarly hope that it contributes towards a proper Tibetan lingua franca – a true སི་སྐད made
understandable to all that is not just the exile language but a synthesis of all the positive qualities
of three main dialects. Otherwise, calling the current exile language “སི་སྐད” is no different from
calling the conversion of all Buddhist schools to the དགེ་ལུགས་པ school “རིས་མེད” (non-
sectarianism).
Any feedback, critique, comments, and so forth is more than welcome! Please kindly
write me at: lotwell@gmail.com

བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།