Collected writings on the three groups (ཚོགས་གསུམ་) of letters (ཡི་གེ་), names (མིང་), and phrases (ཚིག་). All translations are my own. More content will be added over time.

Sections:

Introduction to the Three Groups

Introduction to the Three Groups

A partial translation of Peri Jikme Wangyal’s Coarse explanation of the condensed meaning of the three groups from Tibetan grammar (བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་བརྡ་རིག་པ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཚོགས་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྡུས་དོན་གྱི་རགས་བཤད།). Tibetan text here. The text has several typos, for example switching between རྒྱུ་ and རྒྱུད་, writing གཉན་བྱ་ for མཉན་བྱ་, etc.

I have left out the author’s description of the different divisions of the three groups, which constitute the bulk of the text. The divisions are discussed in many other texts, so they are of lesser importance. This text is most valuable for its clear introduction to the three groups and their basic features. It gives an overview the three groups in terms of their cause (རྒྱུ་), identity (ངོ་བོ་), etymological explanation (ངེས་ཚིག་), and divisions (དབྱེ་བ་).

In brief, language is made up of phrases, which are made up of names, which are made up of letters. Letters include consonant letters and vowel letters, such as how the word “cat” is made up of the consonant “c” plus the vowel “a” plus the consonant “t”. Names are nouns, i.e. words that refer to the mere identity of some referent, such as how the word “cat” refers to a cat in and of itself. Phrases are collections of names that refer to the characteristic of some referent, such as how the phrase “good cat” refers to the characteristic of a cat.

The term svara, which is used to describe the qualities of vowels, also occurs in Tibetan musical treatises.

1. Letters

In the description of letters, if explained in terms of the four: 1) the cause of letters, 2) their identity, 3) the etymological explanation, and 4) their divisions, if the meaning is explained in a condensed way, it is easily described in terms of the four topics.

1.1. The cause of letters

The causes of letters are four: place, articulator, wind, and concept.

Place (གནས་): it is called the “place” because it is the place or basis from which the letters arise.
Articulator (བྱེད་པ་): it is called the “articulator” because the modulation of sound (སྒྲའི་གདངས་) is produced through the meeting of those places with an articulator such as the tongue.
Wind (རླུང་): the movement of the breath that arises together with the modulation of svaras (ང་རོ་) from within the chest, driven by force.
Concept (རྣམ་རྟོག་): the force of a thought that signifies something in the mind of a being.

“How do those bring about a letter?”, you may ask.

Firstly, the stirring of thought must first take birth in the intention of a being; a thought of significance (བརྗོད་འདོད་ཀྱི་བློ་) that clarifies [i.e. refers to] some object of expression (བརྗོད་དོན་).

Secondly, inner wind stirs from the instigation by that movement of the thought of significance, and this very movement of wind, bearing the seeds of the vowels, flows up from the chest to the mouth.

Thirdly, when the vocalic svara (དབྱངས་ཀྱི་ང་རོ་) that arose from the wind of the chest meets with the different places from which the sounds of letters arose, such as the throat (མགྲིན་པ་), the tongue (ལྕེ་), the palate (རྐན་), the teeth (སོ་), the lips (མཆུ་), and so on, that same singular and fundamental vocalic svara arises as many types of dissimilar sounds.

Fourth, because those [dissimilar sounds] in turn do not arise except on the basis of the mutual contact (ཕན་ཚུན་ཕྲད་པ་) of the conditions of the articulators, such as the tongue, palate, teeth, lips, and so on, they must rely on mutual contact.

If explained in terms of an example of how letters arise from those four causes: letters are like the sound of a bell, places are like the body of a bell, articulators are like the tongue of a bell, wind is like the person’s hand, and concepts are like the person ringing the bell.

It is like how the occurrence of sounds of various different types — big, small, thin, and thick — from the sound waves (སྒྲ་རླབས་) of the bell depends on how the various different places such as the body and mouth of the bell meet with the tongue of the bell.

As for the occurrence of the various different pronunciations (སྒྲ་གདངས་) of letters: different modulations occur due to the meeting of different origin places such as the chest, throat, and so on with the articulators of the tongue and so on.

Also, if the causes of letters are explained through the example of a gyaling: the eight places are like the eight holes of a gyaling; the six articulators are like the six fingers that support and are placed down; the wind is like the breath that plays the gyaling; and the concept is like the person who plays the gyaling. If the person playing the gyaling did not exist, then there would be no foundation for the occurrence of sound from the gyaling. Whatever degree of force of breath one blows with the breath that plays the gyaling, if the fingers don’t coordinate with the eight holes, then there may be a mere “tung-tung” sound but there is no way that a modulation of Chinese or Tibetan music, with their very beautiful features, will occur.

Likewise, even if the wind that arises from the chest of a being has the forms of the svaras, if there is no coordination of place and articulator, then there is no way that pronunciations like ཀ་ཁ་ག་ང་ will emerge from pronunciations like ཨ་ and ཨི་. Therefore, if you want to produce the pronunciation of letters with the components complete and the accessories all there, you must rely on those four causes.

[Divisions of the causes, presented in a table in the original text:]

Places (8 divisions):
- the chest (ཁོག་པ་)
- the throat (མགྲིན་པ་)
- the tongue (ལྕེ་)
- the palate (རྐན་)
- the teeth (སོ་)
- the lips (མཆུ་)
- the nose (སྣ་)
- the top of the mouth (སྤྱི་བོ་) [note: this is the mūrdhan]
Articulators (6 divisions [sic.]):
- slightly touching (ཅུང་ཟད་ཕྲད་པ་)
- tight (དོག་པོ་)
- light (ཡང་པ་)
- open (ཕྱེ་པ་)
Wind (1 division)
- some also divide it into two: outer and inner (ཕྱི་ནང་)
Concept (1 division)

1.2. The identity of letters

The identity of a letter: a modulation of the voice which is the foundation of names and phrases. This is the common assertion of both sound [i.e. grammar] and epistemology. Also, while its identity is the modulation of sound, its function is that is has the quality of serving as the basis of composition of names and phrases. Among proponents of both the outer and the inner view and practice, there are those who assert the permanence of letters, and there are those who assert it as the identity of a non-revelatory form or a non-concomitant compounder. You should also know of those who assert it to be an image of consciousness.

1.3. The etymological explanation of letters

In Tibetan per se there is no etymological explanation (ངེས་ཚིག་) of ཡི་གེ་, because this name ཡི་གེ་ is an arbitrary name (འདོད་རྒྱལ་གྱི་མིང་). For the Indian correlates of ཡི་གེ་, three different etymological explanations must be made, beginning with ཨ་ཀྵ་ར་:

ཨ་ཀྵ་ར་ akṣara = མི་འགྱུར་བ་ unchanging (assigned on account of its essence)
བྱ་ཛཱ་ན་ [recte བྱཉྫ་ན] vyañjana = གསལ་བྱེད་ clarifier (assigned on account of its function)
ཝརྞ་ varṇa = རྗོད་བྱེད་ expressive (assigned on account of its purpose)

Because letters’ types do not change into something else, or because they don’t exist as another type, they are described as unchanging; because the function of letters is to make names and phrases clear, they are described as clarifiers; and because the purpose of letters is to express meanings, they are described as expressive. From Jamgon Sapan’s Entry to Sound: “The term བྱཱ་ཀ་ར་ is used for that which defines, that which clarifies everything, that which makes everything understood.” And from Gyaelwang Drukchen Paema Karpo’s explanation of the cause of expressive phrases in The Mouth-Ornament of the Learned Ones: “The etymological explanation is that because letters do not change into something other than their nature, they are called ཨཀྵ་ར་; and because they clarify names and phrases, they are called བྱཉྫ་ན་; and because they have the ability to express another referent, they are called ཝརྞ་.” Also: “Because they are unchanging, clarifying, / and have the power to express, / they are called ཡི་གེ་.”

1.4. The divisions of letters

Typically, letters are grouped within the divisions of suffixed, prefixed, post-suffixed, superscripted, subscripted, and triple-stacked letters, derived from the consonants of the alphabet.

Here, if the theory is explained in slight detail, there are 12 divisions:

First, the letters of life-force and condition (སྲོག་དང་རྐྱེན་གྱི་ཡི་གེ་);
the letters of father, mother, and child (ཕ་མ་བུ་ཚའི་ཡི་གེ་);
the letters of male, female, and neuter (ཕོ་མོ་མ་ནིང་གི་ཡི་གེ་);
the divisions of the svaras (ང་རོའི་དབྱེ་བ་);
the way that the svaras of vowels are elicited (དབྱངས་ཀྱི་ང་རོ་འདྲེན་ཚུལ་);
the qualities of the origin places (སྐྱེ་གནས་ཀྱི་ཁྱད་པར་);
standalone letters (རྐྱང་པའི་ཡི་གེ་);
letters with a subscript (འདོགས་ཅན་གྱི་ཡི་གེ་);
letters with a superscript (མགོ་ཅན་གྱི་ཡི་གེ་);
letters of big and small pervasion (ཁྱབ་ཆེ་ཆུང་གི་ཡི་གེ་);
suffix letters (རྗེས་འཇུག་གི་ཡི་གེ་);
and post-suffix letters (ཡང་འཇུག་གི་ཡི་གེ་).

[description of the divisions of letters]

2. Names

Second, the explanation of names (མིང་), has four.

2.1. The cause of names

The first, the cause of names, is letters; because a name, which is the result, must come about from the grouping of at least two letters, which are the cause.

2.2. The identity of names

Second, the identity of names, is that which expresses the identity of a referent, which is expressed by combining two letters. Alternatively, it is that which arises from a group of letters, which are the cause, and that which constitutes the basis of the establishment of phrases, which are the effect. Its function is to indicate the mere identity (ངོ་བོ་ཙམ་) of an entity, and it should be said that its form, consisting of the modulation of sound, is the identity of letters.

2.3. The etymological explanation of names

Third, the etymological explanation of མིང་: because this is an explicit name (དངོས་མིང་), in Tibet per se it has no etymological explanation; however, the Indian etymological explanation of name is that because the term namaḥ “name”) makes the mind enter into and descend onto the meaning, it is called a “name”.

2.4. The divisions of names

Fourth, the divisions of names. If analyzed in detail, there are:

Arbitrary names (འདོད་རྒྱལ་གྱི་མིང་)
Derivative names (རྗེས་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་མིང་)
Explicit names (དངོས་མིང་)
Assigned names (བཏགས་མིང་)
The four koṭi of names and phrases (མིང་ཚིག་མུ་བཞི་)
Names blended with verbs (བྱ་ཚིག་གིས་ཤན་ཞུགས་པའི་མིང་)
Names that indicate adjectives (ཁྱད་ཚིག་མཚོན་པའི་མིང་)
Assigned on the basis of negation (དགག་སྒྲའི་སྒོ་ནས་བཏགས་པ་)
Names that include case declension (རྣམ་དབྱེ་སྡུད་པའི་མིང་)
Compound names (ཚིག་སྡུད་ཀྱི་མིང་)
Names that are phrasal ornaments (ཚིག་རྒྱན་གྱི་མིང་)
Names that are old signifiers (བརྡ་རྙིང་གི་མིང་)
Blended and corrupted names (ཤན་ཞུགས་དང་ཟུར་ཆགས་ཀྱི་མིང་)
The metrics of names (མིང་གི་སྡེབ་སྦྱོར་)

…and so on. Of the many divisions that exist, here we will briefly explain a few in isolation.

[description of the divisions of names]

3. Phrases

Third, in the explanation of the group of phrases (ཚིག་), there are five: 1) the cause of phrases, 2) their identity and divisions [sic.], 3) that which counts as a phrase, 4) the etymological explanation of ཚིག་, and 5) the divisions of phrases.

3.1. The cause of phrases

First, the cause of phrases: a phrase, which is the result, comes from assembling two names, which are the cause; therefore the assembling of names is explained to be the cause of a phrase. This is in agreement with the explanations of both the grammarians (སྒྲ་པ་) and the logicians (ཚད་མ་པ་).

3.2. The identity of phrases

Second, the identity of a phrase: a sound that expresses the characteristic of a referent from the assembling of various names is the definition of a phrase. In the classical traditions of logic, there are those who posit “an object of hearing that indicates through the joining of a characterized basis and a characterizing quality” as the definition of a phrase, but ultimately there’s no difference.

From Drukchen Paema Karpo’s Mouth Ornament of the Sages, an explanation of the continuum of expressive phrases: “When explaining the definition of a phrase, the appearance of a sound-generic (སྒྲ་སྤྱི་སྣང་བ་) that indicates merely the characteristic of a referent (དོན་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་ཙམ་) upon coarse analysis (རྟོག་པ་) is the feature itself (མཚན་ཉིད་), and the basis of features is the expression ཙན་དན་གྱི་ཀ་བ་ (“a sandalwood pillar”) or བུམ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ (“a good vase”).”

3.3. What counts as a phrase

Third, what counts as a phrase: a temporary assembly of letters that express the characteristic of a referent is the sufficient measure of a phrase.

3.4. The etymological explanation of phrases

Fourth, the etymological explanation of ཚིག་: in Tibetan, the term ཚིག་ is an arbitrary name, and so it has no etymological explanation. On the basis of the Indian language, it is distinct and unitary.

3.5. The divisions of phrases

Fifth, in the explanation of the divisions of phrases, there are six:

Phrase-links (ཚིག་ཕྲད་པ་);
the explanation of phrase-compounds (ཚིག་སྡུད་);
the explanation of verbs (བྱ་ཚིག་);
the explanation of phrasal ornaments (ཚིག་རྒྱན་);
the explanation of phrase joining (ཚིག་སྦྱོར་).

[description of the divisions of phrases]

The Three Groups