Ajay Kumar at 17:53, 5 September 2023

2023-09-05T17:53:02Z

New page

{{short description|Form of Tibetan language, 10th – 12th centuries, CE}}
{{Infobox language
|name = Classical Tibetan
|nativename =
|region = [[Tibet]], [[Nepal|North Nepal]]
|era = 11th–19th centuries
|script = [[Tibetan script]]
|familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
|fam2 = [[Tibeto-Kanauri languages|Tibeto-Kanauri]] ?
|fam3 = [[Bodish languages|Bodish]]
|fam4 = [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic]]
|ancestor = [[Old Tibetan]]
|iso3 = xct
|glotto = clas1254
|glottorefname = Classical Tibetan
|linglist = xct
}}
'''Classical Tibetan''' refers to the language of any text written in [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic]] after the [[Old Tibetan]] period. Though it extends from the 12th century until the modern day,<ref>Tournadre, Nicolas (2003). Manual of Standard Tibetan (MST). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, p. 27.</ref> it particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from other languages, especially [[Sanskrit]]. The [[phonology]] implied by Classical Tibetan [[orthography]] is very similar to the phonology of Old Tibetan, but the [[grammar]] varies greatly depending on period and geographic origin of the author. Such variation is an under-researched topic.

In 816, during the reign of King [[Sadnalegs]], literary Tibetan underwent a thorough reform aimed at standardizing the language and vocabulary of the translations being made from [[Sanskrit]], which was one of the main influences for literary standards in what is now called Classical Tibetan.<ref>{{cite book | first = Stephen | last = Hodge | title = An Introduction to Classical Tibetan | edition= Revised |year = 1993 | publisher =Aris & Phillips| place = Warminster | isbn = 0856685488| pages = vii }}</ref>

==Nouns==

===Structure of the noun phrase===
Nominalizing suffixes — ''pa'' or ''ba'' and ''ma'' — are required by the [[noun]] or [[adjective]] that is to be singled out;
* ''po'' or ''bo'' ([[Grammatical gender|masculine]]) and ''mo'' ([[Grammatical gender|feminine]]) are used for distinction of gender.

The [[plural]] is denoted, when required, by adding the morpheme {{transl|xct|-rnams}}; when the collective nature of the plurality is stressed the morpheme ''-dag'' is instead used. These two morphemes combine readily (e.g. {{transl|xct|rnams-dag}} 'a group with several members', and {{transl|xct|dag-rnams}} 'several groups').<ref>Hahn 2003</ref>

===Cases===
The classical written language has ten [[Grammatical case|case]]s.<ref>Hill 2012</ref>

* absolutive (unmarked morphologically'')
* genitive (གི་ -''gi'', གྱི་ -''gyi'', ཀྱི་ -''kyi'', འི་ -'''i'', ཡི་ -''yi'')
* agentive (གིས་ -''gis'', གྱིས་ -{{transl|xct|gyis}}, ཀྱིས་ -{{transl|xct|kyis}}, ས་ -''s'', ཡིས་ -{{transl|xct|yis}})
* locative (ན་ -''na'')
* allative (ལ་ -''la'')
* terminative (རུ་ -''ru'', སུ་ -''su'', ཏུ་ -''tu'', དུ་ -''du'', ར་ -''r'')
* comitative (དང་ -''dang'')
* ablative (ནས་ -''nas'')
* elative (ལས་ -''las'')
* comparative (བས་ -''bas'')

Case markers are affixed to entire noun phrases, not to individual words (i.e. ''Gruppenflexion'').

Traditional Tibetan grammarians do not distinguish case markers in this manner, but rather distribute these case morphemes (excluding ''-dang'' and ''-bas'') into the eight cases of [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]].

===Pronouns===
There are personal, demonstrative, interrogative and reflexive [[pronoun]]s, as well as an [[indefinite article]], which is plainly related to the numeral for "one."{{sfn|Waddell|de_Lacouperie|1911|p=919}}

====Personal pronouns====
As an example of the pronominal system of classical Tibetan, the ''Milarepa rnam thar'' exhibits the following personal pronouns.<ref name=Hill2007>Hill 2007</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Person !! Singular !! Plural
|-
| First person || ང་ ''nga'' || ངེད་ {{transl|xct|nged}}
|-
| First + Second || || རང་རེ་ {{transl|xct|rang-re}}
|-
| Second person || ཁྱོད་ {{transl|xct|khyod}} || ཁྱེད་ {{transl|xct|khyed}}
|-
| Third person || ཁོ་ {{transl|xct|kho}} || ཁོང་ {{transl|xct|khong}}
|}

[[T-V distinction|Like in French]], the plural (ཁྱེད་ {{transl|xct|khyed}}) can be used a polite singular.<ref name=Hill2007 />

==Verbs==
[[Verb]]s do not inflect for person or number. Morphologically there are up to four separate stem forms, which the Tibetan grammarians, influenced by Sanskrit grammatical terminology, call the "present" (''lta-da''), "past" ('''das-pa''), "future" (''ma-'ongs-pa''), and "imperative" (''skul-tshigs''), although the precise semantics of these stems is still controversial. The so-called future stem is not a true future, but conveys the sense of necessity or obligation.

The majority of Tibetan verbs fall into one of two categories, those that express implicitly or explicitly the involvement of an agent, marked in a sentence by the instrumental particle (''kyis'' etc) and those that express an action that does not involve an agent. Tibetan grammarians refer to these categories as ''tha-dad-pa'' and ''tha-mi-dad-pa'' respectively. Although these two categories often seem to overlap with the English{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} grammatical concepts of transitive and intransitive, most modern writers on Tibetan grammar have adopted the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary", based on native Tibetan descriptions.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} Most involuntary verbs lack an imperative stem.

===Inflection===
Many verbs exhibit stem ablaut among the four stem forms, thus ''a'' or ''e'' in the present tends to become ''o'' in the imperative ''byed'', ''byas'', ''bya'', ''byos'' ('to do'), an ''e'' in the present changes to ''a'' in the past and future (''len'', {{transl|xct|blangs}}, {{transl|xct|blang}}, ''longs'' 'to take'); in some verbs a present in ''i'' changes to ''u'' in the other stems ('''dzin'', {{transl|xct|bzung}}, {{transl|xct|gzung}}, {{transl|xct|zung}} 'to take'). Additionally, the stems of verbs are also distinguished by the addition of various prefixes and suffixes, thus {{transl|xct|sgrub}} (present), {{transl|xct|bsgrubs}} (past), {{transl|xct|bsgrub}} (future), '{{transl|xct|sgrubs}} (imperative). Though the final -''s'' suffix, when used, is quite regular for the past and imperative, the specific prefixes to be used with any given verb are less predictable; while there is a clear pattern of ''b''- for a past stem and ''g''- for a future stem, this usage is not consistent.<ref>Hill 2010</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Meaning !! present !! past !! future !! imperative
|-
| do || བྱེད་ ''byed'' || བྱས་ ''byas'' || བྱ་ ''bya'' || བྱོས་ ''byos''
|-
| take || ལེན་ ''len'' || བླངས་ ''blangs'' || བླང་ ''blang'' || ལོངས་ ''longs''
|-
| take || འཛིན་ '''dzin'' || བཟུངས་ ''bzungs'' || གཟུང་ ''gzung'' || ཟུངས་ ''zungs''
|-
| accomplish || སྒྲུབ་ ''sgrub'' || བསྒྲུབས་ ''bsgrubs'' || བསྒྲུབ་ ''bsgrub'' || སྒྲུབས་ ''sgrubs''
|}

Only a limited number of verbs are capable of four changes; some cannot assume more than three, some two, and many only one. This relative deficiency is made up by the addition of auxiliaries or suffixes both in the classical language and in the modern dialects.{{sfn|Waddell|de_Lacouperie|1911|p=920}}

===Negation===
Verbs are negated by two prepositional particles: ''mi'' and ''ma''. ''Mi'' is used with present and future stems. The particle ''ma'' is used with the past stem; prohibitions do not employ the imperative stem, rather the present stem is negated with ''ma''. There is also a negative stative verb ''med'' 'there is not, there does not exist', the counterpart to the stative verb ''yod'' 'there is, there exists'

===Honorifics===
As with nouns, Tibetan also has a complex system of honorific and polite verbal forms. Thus, many verbs for everyday actions have a completely different form to express the superior status, whether actual or out of courtesy, of the agent of the action, thus ''lta'' 'see', hon. ''gzigs''; ''byed'' 'do', hon. ''mdzad''. Where a specific honorific verb stem does not exist, the same effect is brought about by compounding a standard verbal stem with an appropriate general honorific stem such as ''mdzad''.

==See also==
{{Portal|Asia|Languages}}
* [[Standard Tibetan]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Citation
| last = Bialek
| first = Joanna
| title = A Textbook in Classical Tibetan
| place = London
| publisher = Routledge
| year = 2022
| url = https://www.routledge.com/A-Textbook-in-Classical-Tibetan/Bialek/p/book/9781032123561
| ISBN = 9781032123561
}}
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Tibet |display=Tibet § Language |volume=12 |pages=919–921 |first1=Lawrence Austine |last1=Waddell |author-link1=Laurence Waddell |first2=Albert Terrien |last2=de Lacouperie |author-link2=Albert Terrien de Lacouperie}}
*Beyer, Stephen, 1992. ''The Classical Tibetan language''. New York: State University of New York. Reprint 1993, (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica series, 116.) Delhi: Sri Satguru.
*Hahn, Michael, 2003. ''Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache'' Marburg : Indica et Tibetica Verlag
*{{cite journal
| last = Hill
| first = Nathan W.
| title = Personalpronomina in der Lebensbeschreibung des Mi la ras pa, Kapitel III
| journal = Zentralasiatische Studien
| pages = 277–287
| date = 2007
| volume = 36
| url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/5609/
}}
* {{Citation
| last = Hill
| first = Nathan W.
| title = Lexicon of Tibetan Verb Stems as Reported by the Grammatical Tradition
| place = Munich
| publisher = Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
| series = Studia Tibetica
| year = 2010
| chapter = Brief overview of Tibetan Verb Morphology
| chapter-url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/11006/3/Hill_2010_verb_dictionary_excerpt.pdf
| pages = xv–xxii
}}
*{{cite journal
| last = Hill
| first = Nathan W.
| title = Tibetan -las, -nas, and -bas.
| journal = Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale
| volume = 41
| issue = 1
| pages = 3–38
| date = 2012
| url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/14122/
| doi =10.1163/1960602812X00014
}}
*Hodge, Stephen, 2003. ''An introduction to classical Tibetan''. Bangkok: Orchid Press
*Schwieger, Peter, 2006. ''Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache''. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH.
*Tournadre, Nicolas (2003). Manual of Standard Tibetan (MST). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, p. 479.
*skal-bzhang 'gur-med, 1992. ''Le clair miroir : enseignement de la grammaire Tibetaine'' (trans.) Heather Stoddard & Nicholas Tournandre, Paris : Editions Prajna

==External links==
{{wikibooks|Research on Tibetan Languages: A Bibliography}}
{{wikibooks|A Textbook of Classical Tibetan}}
*[http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2014/03/tibetan-in-digital-communication/ Tibetan in Digital Communication]
*[https://tibetantranslations.com/ Translations of Tibetan texts, Tibetan language courses & publications by Erick Tsiknopoulos and the Trikāya Translation Committee.]
{{Tibetan_language}}
{{Tibet related articles}}

[[Category:Bodic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Tibet]]
[[Category:Languages of Nepal]]
[[Category:Languages written in Tibetan script]]
[[Category:Medieval languages|Tibetan, Classical]]
[[Category:Classical languages|Tibetan, Classical]]
[[Category:Sacred languages]]

Classical Tibetan - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 17:53, 5 September 2023