This page assembles some of the main examples of syllable-internal morphology in Tibetan. Many of these examples are tentative or putative.
Suffixes
-n
This is a suffix that turns verbs into nouns.
| Before | After |
| དབྱེ་ to divide (tr. v.) | དབྱེན་ schism (n.) |
-npo
This is a suffix that turns verbs into adjectives or nouns.
With intransitive verbs, the derived form is the sole argument of the original verb:
- ཆེ་བ་ to be big > ཆེན་པོ་ (that which is) big
- ཞ་བ་ to be crippled > ཞན་པོ་ (that which is) crippled; weak
- སྔོ་བ་ to be blue or black > སྔོན་པོ་ (that which is) blue
With transitive verb, the derived form can have different argument roles:
- Agentive:
- བཙའ་བ་ to protect > བཙན་པོ་ that which protects, i.e. ruler
- སྲི་བ་ to block > སྲིན་པོ་ that which blocks, i.e. demon
- Patientive/resultative:
- གསོ་བ་ to keep sth. alive > གསོན་པོ་ that which was kept alive, i.e. alive
Without ablaut
| Before | After |
| ཆེ་ to be big (intr. v.) | ཆེན་པོ་ big (adj.) |
| བཙའ་བ་ to protect (tr. v.) | བཙན་པོ་ ruler, emperor (n.) |
| སྲི་བ་ to stop up, block (tr. v.) | སྲིན་པོ་ demon (n.)1 |
| གསོ་བ་ to nourish, keep alive (tr. v.) | གསོན་པོ་ alive (adj.) |
| ཞ་བ་ to be crippled (intr. v.) | ཞན་པོ་ weak (adj.) |
| སྔོ་བ་2 to become blue or black (intr. pres. v.) | སྔོན་པོ་ blue (adj. or .n.) |
| རྐུ་བ་ to steal (tr. v.) | རྐུན་པ་ thief (n.) |
| གཡོ་ to be unsteady; to waver (intr. v.) | གཡོན་པོ་ left3 (adj.) |
| སྐྱི་བ་ to borrow (tr. v.) | སྐྱིན་པོ་ a loan (n.) |
| རྒ་བ་ to be old (intr. v.) | རྒན་པོ་ old (adj.) |
| བརྟ་བ་ to grow wide (intr. v.) | བརྟན་པོ་ stable4 (adj.) |
| མཐོ་བ་ to be high (intr. v.) | མཐོན་པོ་ high, tall (adj.) |
| ང་བ་ to smell bad; to be afraid5 | ངན་པོ་ bad (adj.) |
| *གུ་བ་ to decline, to deteriorate, to fail | གུན་པོ་ a great loss (n.) cf. གུད་ to decline (intr. v.) |
| *གྱོ་བ་ to contest, to quarrel, to rival | གྱོན་པོ་ matching someone’s skill (adj.) cf. གྱོད་ dispute, contention (n.) |
| དབོ་བ་ to pour out, to discard (fut. tr. v.) | དབོན་པོ་ nephew, grandson (n.) cf. ཚ་བོ་ newphew, grandson (n.) |
| འགྲོ་བ་ to go (intr. v.) | འགྲོན་པོ་ guest (n.) cf. མགྲོན་པོ་ |
With altered onset or coda
| Before | After |
| ཤི་བ་ to die (intr. v.) | གཤིན་པོ་ dead (adj.) |
| བཀྲེས་པ་ to be hungry (intr. v.) | བཀྲེན་པོ་ beggar (n.) |
With ablaut
| Before | After |
| དཀའ་བ་ to be difficult (v.) | དཀོན་པོ་ rare (adj.) |
| དཔའ་བ་ to be able, to dare (v.) | དཔོན་པོ་ boss, capable one (n.) |
Unsupported or implausible examples
| Before | After |
| *སྲུ་བ་ | སྲུན་པོ་ calm and peaceful (adj.) |
| བསྲུ་བ་ to welcome (tr. past fut. v.) | བསྲུན་པོ་ calm and peaceful (adj.) |
| *ལེ་བ་ | ལེན་པོ་ attractive; fitting (adj.) |
| མགོ་བ་ head (n.) | མགོན་པོ་ protector (n.) |
| གཉའ་བ་ nape of neck (n.) | གཉན་པོ་ frightening, cruel (adj.) |
| *ལྷུ་བ་ | ལྷུན་པོ་ Mount Meru (n.); seems to have connotations of “massive” through ལྷུན་. |
| སྙ་བ་ to faint; to waste away (intr. v.) | སྙན་པོ་ pleasant to hear (adj.) |
| *མཁའ་བ་ (this surely existed in the past and meant “to learn” or “to teach”) | མཁན་པོ་ upadhyaya; learned one (n.) cf. མཁས་པ་, མཁྱེན་ |
| *སྐུ་བ་ | སྐུན་པོ་ a small container or vessel (n.) |
| སྐྱེ་བ་ to be born (intr. v.) | སྐྱེན་པོ་ quick; easy; skilled (adj.) |
| *གླེ་བ་ | གླེན་པོ་ fool, idiot (n.) |
| བླུ་བ་ to buy, to redeem, to ransom (tr. v.) | བླུན་པོ་ fool, idiot (n.) (Unless this means “one who is bought”?) |
| *མགྲོ་བ་ | མགྲོན་པོ་ guest (n.) |
-po
| Before | After |
| སུན་ to annoy (tr. pres. v.) | སུན་པོ་ annoying (adj.) |
| བསུན་ to annoy (tr. past fut. v.) | བསུན་པོ་ annoying (adj.) |
| ཁྱོན་ size, area (n.); all (adj.) | ཁྱོན་པོ་ most (arch. adj.) |
-dmo
This suffix turns verbs into nouns. It seems to have a patientive sense, even for intransitive verbs.
I could find no examples where this suffix is gendered, or even where it refers to an animate noun.
| Before | After |
| ལྟ་ to watch (tr. v.) | ལྡད་མོ་ a show (n.) |
| རྩེ་ to play (tr. v.) | རྩེད་མོ་ a game (n.) |
| ངུ་ to cry (intr. v.) | ངུད་མོ་ a sob (n.) |
-nma
Gendered
| Before | After |
| བསུ་ to welcome (tr. past fut. v.) | བསུན་མ་ female messenger |
Alternations
phy-/l-
| phy- | l- |
| ཕྱོགས་ direction (n.) | ལོགས་ side (n.) |
| ཕྱེ་ to split, to separate (intr. v.) | ལེ་ a section (n.) |
| ཕྱག་ hand (h. n.) | ལག་ hand (n.) |
| ཕྱུང་ to arise (intr. v.) | ལུང་ source6 |
- This connection is tentative. ↩︎
- There is also the homograph transitive verb སྔོ་བ་ meaning something like “to shift” or “to dedicate”. ↩︎
- This can be understood as “that which is unsteady”. Compare Latin sinister and many other languages’ words for “left”, which also have connotations of “bad”, surely because most people are right-handed and bad or unsteady with their left hand. ↩︎
- I suggest this is connected because wide things are stable. Cf. also བརྟེན་ — stable things are, in turn, reliable. ↩︎
- This is not attested as a verb as such; it is rather attested only as the “adjectival” portion of a complex adjective like དྲི་ང་བ་ or ཡ་ང་བ་. However, it has the structure of a verb and is semantically connected to badness, so I have tentatively included this pair. ↩︎
- The meaning of “source” is not directly attested in dictionaries, however it is found in the word ལུང་པ་ (the place where someone comes form) and is a plausible origin for ལུང་’s meaning of “citation” or “quotation”. ↩︎