Tibetan Grammar

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tibetan Grammar

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Title: Tibetan Grammar

Author: H. A. Jäschke

Editor: H. Wenzel

Release date: October 22, 2022 [eBook #69207]
Most recently updated: October 19, 2024

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Trübner and Co, 1883

Credits: Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIBETAN GRAMMAR ***

[Contents]

Transcriber’s Note.

This book contains text in Tibetan (བོད་), Devanagari (देवनागरी), Arabic (عَرَبِيّ‎), Urdu (اُردُو‎) and Greek (Ελληνικά). You may need to install additional fonts to properly render those languages. I suggest to use the following freely available fonts:

Tibetan:	Yagpo Tibetan Uni	link.
Devanagari:	Sanskrit 2003	link.
Arabic:	Scheherazade	link.
Urdu:	Awami Nastaliq	link.

On some devices, fonts may not render correctly, or font sizes may be mismatched. When using the Firefox browser, you can adjust the default font settings per script. To do so, open the “Settings” page; select the “General” tab; in the “Fonts and Colors” section, click the “Advanced” button, and adjust the settings as desired.

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[Contents]

TRÜBNER’S COLLECTION
OF
SIMPLIFIED GRAMMARS
OF THE PRINCIPAL
ASIATIC AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

EDITED BY
REINHOLD ROST, LL.D., Ph.D.

VII.

TIBETAN.

BY H. A. JÄSCHKE.

[Contents]

TRÜBNER’S COLLECTION OF SIMPLIFIED GRAMMARS OF THE PRINCIPAL ASIATIC AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

EDITED BY REINHOLD ROST, LL.D., Ph.D.

I.
HINDUSTANI, PERSIAN, AND ARABIC.
By the late E. H. Palmer, M.A.
Price 5s.

II.
HUNGARIAN.
By I. Singer.
Price 4s. 6d.

III.
BASQUE.
By W. Van Eys.
Price 3s. 6d.

IV.
MALAGASY.
By G. W. Parker.
Price 5s.

V.
MODERN GREEK.
By E. M. Geldart, M.A.
Price 2s. 6d.

VI.
ROUMANIAN.
By R. Torceanu.

VII.
TIBETAN.
By H. A. Jäschke.

Grammars of the following are in preparation:—

Albanese, Anglo-Saxon, Assyrian, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Chinese, Cymric and Gaelic, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Malay, Pali, Polish, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Siamese, Singhalese, Swedish, Turkish.

London: TRÜBNER & CO., Ludgate Hill.

[Contents]

TIBETAN GRAMMAR

BY
H. A. JÄSCHKE
MORAVIAN MISSIONARY.
SECOND EDITION
PREPARED BY
Dr. H. WENZEL.

LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL.
1883.
[All rights reserved.]

[V]

[Contents]

Preface.

The present new edition of Mr. Jäschke’s Tibetan Grammar scarcely needs a word of apology. As the first edition which was lithographed at Kyelaṅ in 1865 in a limited number of copies has long been out of print, Dr. Rost urged the author to revise his grammar for the purpose of bringing it out in an improved form. The latter, prevented by ill-health from undertaking the task, placed the matter in my hands, and had the goodness to make over to me his own manuscript notes and additions to the original work. Without his personal cooperation, however, I was unable to make any but a very sparing use of these, adding only a few remarks from Gyalrabs and Milaraspa, with some further remarks on the local vernacular of Western Tibet. Indeed, special attention has been paid throughout to this dialect; it is the one with which the author during his long residence at Kyelaṅ had become most familiar, and with which the English in India are most likely to be brought into direct contact.

Besides the above mentioned additions, I have taken a number of examples from the Dzaṅlun, to make clearer some of the rules, and, with the same view, I have altered, here and there, the wording of the lithographed edition. [VI]The order of the paragraphs has been retained throughout, and only one (23.) has been added for completeness’ sake.

The system of transliteration is nearly the same as in the Dictionary, only for ny, ñ is used, and instead of e̱, ä (respectively ā̤) has been thought to be a clearer representation of the sound intended. For the niceties of pronunciation the reader is referred to the Dictionary, as in this Grammar only the general rules have been given.

Finally I must express my warmest thanks to Dr. Rost, to whose exertions not only the printing of this Grammar is solely due, but who also rendered me much help in the correcting of the work.

Mayence, May 1883.

H. Wenzel.

[Contents]

Abbreviations.

act. = active.
C or CT = Central Tibet, especially the provinces of Ü and Tsaṅ.
cf. = confer, compare.
Dzl. = Dzaṅlun.
e.g. = exempli gratia, for instance.
ET = East Tibet.
fut. = future.
imp. = imperative.
inf. = infinitive.
i.o. = instead of.
Köpp. = Köppen.
Kun. = Kunawur, province under English protection.

Ld. = Ladak, province.
Mil. = Milaraspa.
neutr. = neuter verb.
perf. or pf. = perfect.
pres. = present.
s. = see.
term. = terminative case.
Thgy. = Thar-gyan, scientific treatises.
v. = vide, see.
vulg. = vulgar expression.
W or WT = Western Tibet.

[VII]

[Contents]

Contents.

I.	Phonology.
				Page
	1.	Alphabet		1
	2.	Remarks		3
	3.	Vowels		3
	4.	Syllables		4
	5.	Final Consonants		5
	6.	Diphthongs		6
	7.	Compound Consonants		7
	8.	Prefixed Letters		11
	9.	Word; Accent; Quantity		12
	10.	Punctuation		14
II.	Etymology.
	I.	Article.
		11.	Peculiarities of the Tibetan Article	17
		12.	Difference of the Articles	18
		13.	The Indefinite Article	19
	II.	Substantive.
		14.	Number	20
		15.	Declension	21
	III.	Adjective.
		16.	Relation to the Substantive	25
		17.	Comparison	26
	IV.	Numerals. [VIII]
		18.	Cardinal numerals	28
		19.	Ordinal numerals	31
		20.	Remarks	31
		21.	Distributive numerals	33
		22.	Adverbial numerals	33
		23.	Fractional numerals	33
	V.	Pronouns.
		24.	Personal pronouns	34
		25.	Possessive pronouns	36
		26.	Reflective pronouns	37
		27.	Demonstrative pronouns	37
		28.	Interrogative pronouns	38
		29.	Relative pronouns	38
	VI.	Verb.
		30.	Introduction	40
		31.	Inflection	41
		32.	Infinitive	42
		33.	Participle	43
		34.	Finite Verb	45
		35.	Present	46
		36.	Preterit	47
		37.	Future	48
		38.	Imperative	49
		39.	Intensive	50
		40.	Substantive Verbs	51
		41.	Gerunds and Supines	54
		42.	VII. Adverb	65
		43.	VIII. Postposition	67
		44.	IX. Conjunction	74
		45.	X. Interjection	76
			XI. Derivation:
		46.	Derivation of Substantives	77
		47.	Derivation of Adjectives	78
III.	Syntax.
	48.	Arrangement of Words		80
	49.	Use of the Cases		81
	50.	Simple Sentences		82
	51.	Compound Sentences		83
	Appendix.
		Phrases		86
		Reading Exercise		92
		Verbs		99

[Contents]

Errata.

The corrections listed below have been applied to the text.

Page	3,	line	13	read	at instead of in.
Page,,	4,	line,,	2	read,,	respectively.
Page,,	4,	line,,	7	read,,	which instead of whom.
Page,,	4,	line,,	9	read,,	under particular.
Page,,	4,	line,,	14	read,,	همزة‎ instead of همرنة‎.
Page,,	4,	line,,	20	read,,	exertion.
Page,,	4,	line,,	21	dele	to.
Page,,	5,	line,,	5	dele	down.
Page,,	7,	line,,	4	read	succession instead of conjunction.
Page,,	7,	line,,	5	read,,	each instead of either.
Page,,	7,	line,,	11	read,,	subscribed instead of subjoined.
Page,,	8,	line,,	11	read,,	foot for food.
Page,,	8,	line,,	12	read,,	subscribed for subjoined.
Page,,	8,	line,,	16	read,,	homonyms.
Page,,	8,	line,,	19	read,,	language.
Page,,	8,	line,,	23	read,,	over instead of above.
Page,,	8,	line,,	24	read,,	consonants.
Page,,	9,	line,,	10	read,,	case.
Page,,	10,	line,,	4	read,,	judgment.
Page,,	11,	line,,	9	read,,	except.
Page,,	12,	line,,	21	read,,	it instead of is.
Page,,	13,	line,,	1	read,,	which serve to denote.
Page,,	13,	line,,	7	read,,	preceding.
Page,,	14,	line,,	6	read,,	exclamation.
Page,,	20,	line,,	3	read,,	indiscriminately.
Page,,	20,	line,,	5	read,,	superseded.
Page,,	20,	line,,	19	read,,	But.
Page,,	21,	line,,	5	read,,	adds.
Page,,	23,	line,,	1	read,,	motion.
Page,,	26,	line,,	13	read,,	terminations.
Page,,	26,	line,,	20	read,,	precedes.
Page,,	27,	line,,	3	read,,	higher than.
Page,,	33,	line,,	6	read,,	to denote.
Page,,	34,	line,,	14	read,,	letter-writing.
Page,,	36,	line,,	1	read,,	The terms most &c.
Page,,	36,	line,,	16	read,,	high person speaking of himself.
Page,,	38,	line,,	11	read,,	ghaṅ.
Page,,	39,	line,,	14	read,,	you may.
Page,,	40,	line,,	7	read,,	verbs.
Page,,	40,	line,,	21	read,,	an Accusative.
Page,,	40,	line,,	25	read,,	neuter.
Page,,	41,	line,,	10	read,,	form instead of shape.
Page,,	41,	line,,	11	read,,	forms instead of shapes.
Page,,	41,	line,,	22	read,,	the Perfect prefers.
Page,,	42,	line,,	1	read,,	Perfect.
Page,,	42,	line,,	16	read,,	recognises instead of acknowledges.
Page,,	43,	line,,	20	read,,	idea instead of notion.
Page,,	45,	line,,	14	read,,	with the exception.
Page,,	46,	line,,	6	read,,	which will always be.
Page,,	46,	line,,	10	read,,	to one.
Page,,	52,	line,,	15	read,,	it expresses.
Page,,	53,	line,,	11	read,,	found.
Page,,	53,	line,,	24	read,,	passive sense, opposed to &c.
Page,,	55,	line,,	7	read,,	affixes.
Page,,	58,	line,,	12	read,,	that it.
Page,,	61,	line,,	12	read,,	king’s.
Page,,	64,	line,,	8	read,,	intended.
Page,,	66,	line,,	15	read,,	རབ་ ‘principally, very’;

[1]

About This Book

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tibetan Grammar

Transcriber’s Note.

TRÜBNER’S COLLECTION OF SIMPLIFIED GRAMMARS OF THE PRINCIPAL ASIATIC AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

Preface.

Abbreviations.

Contents.

Errata.