ལ་དོན་ la don

Alternative names: ལ་སྒྲ་ la sgra

English names: la-equivalent

Pronunciation

In Ütsang dialect:

ལ་དོན་ la don: ladön

ལ་སྒྲ་ la sgra: ladra

Overview

The ལ་དོན་ (Wylie: la don) is a set of seven particles:

• སུ་ su
• ར་ ra
  • This is pronounced “ra” when discussing it as a particle, like saying “the particle ra“. However, in actual usage it is joined as a suffix letter, and therefore is spelled and pronounced simply as “r”. For example, the word ཕྱིར་ <phyir> is composed of the root ཕྱི་ <phyi> plus the ལ་དོན་ <la don> particle ར་ <r>. Here it is just “r”, not “ra”.
• རུ་ ru
• དུ་ du
• ན་ na
• ལ་ la
• ཏུ་ tu

Meaning

The term ལ་དོན་ <la don> is a bahuvrīhi compound. It means “[that which has] the meaning of ལ་ <la>”. These particles are called this because all have the same basic meaning as the particle ལ་ <la>. These particles are used for:

• In traditional grammar:
  • Five nominal uses:
    1. 2nd case: ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ་ <las su bya ba>
       • e.g. ཤར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འགྲོ། <shar phyogs su ‘gro>: “Go to the east.” (STZL)
    2. 4th case: དགོས་ཆེད་ <dgos ched>
       • e.g. རྟར་རྩྭ་བྱིན། <rtar rtswa byin> “Grass was given to the horse.” (STZL)
    3. 7th case: རྟེན་གནས་ <rten gnas>
       • e.g. དཔྲལ་པ་རུ་སྨེ་བ་ཡོད། <dpral pa ru sme ba yod> “There’s a mole on their forehead.” (STZL)
    4. The དེ་ཉིད་ <de nyid>, a subset of the 2nd case
       • e.g. འོད་དུ་འཚེར། <‘od du ‘tsher> “It glistened as light.” (STZL)
       • Note: in Classical Tibetan grammar, the particles ལ་ <la> and ན་ <na> cannot be used for the དེ་ཉིད་ <de nyid>. However, in Modern Ütsang dialect, ལ་ <la> can be.
    5. The ཚེ་སྐབས་ <tshe skabs>, a subset of the 7th case
       • e.g. ཉི་མ་ཤར་བ་ན་ཆོས་སྟོན། <nyi ma shar ba na chos ston> “They teach the Dharma once the sun rises.” (STZL)
  • One verbal use:
    • “and”
• In linguistics:
  • accusative
  • dative
  • locative
  • coordinating verbal conjunction

Dependent vs. independent

The ལ་དོན་ <la don> particles are traditionally taught as part of the dependent particles. However, if we analyze them individually, then out of the seven ལ་དོན་ <la don> particles, five are dependent and two are independent:

• The five dependent ལ་དོན་ <la don> particles:
  • སུ་ su
  • ར་ ra
  • རུ་ ru
  • དུ་ du
  • ཏུ་ tu
• The two independent ལ་དོན་ <la don> particles:
  • ན་ na
  • ལ་ la

Joining

For the five dependent ལ་དོན་ <la don> particles, their joining is as follows:

After this letter:	Use this particle:	Examples and notes:
ས་ s	སུ་ su	ལས་སུ་ las su
ག་ g བ་ b ད་ d (as a post-suffix letter)	ཏུ་ tu	ལག་ཏུ་ lag tu གཟབ་ཏུ་ gzab tu ཀུནད་ཏུ་ kund tu (with explicit ད་དྲག་ <da drag>) ཀུན་ཏུ་ kun tu (with implicit ད་དྲག་ <da drag>)
ང་ ng ད་ d (as a suffix letter) ན་ n མ་ m ར་ r ལ་ l	དུ་ du	ཤིང་དུ་ shing du རྨད་དུ་ rmad du སྔོན་དུ་ sngon du ལམ་དུ་ lam du བར་དུ་ bar du ཞལ་དུ་ zhal du
འ་ ‘ or syllables without a suffix letter	རུ་ ru	After འ་ <‘>: མཐའ་རུ་ mtha’ ru After syllables without a suffix letter: ང་རུ་ nga ru
འ་ ‘ or syllables without a suffix letter	ར་ ra (in practice, just “r”, not “ra”)	After འ་ it replaces the འ་: མཐར་ mthar After syllables without a suffix letter it is added within the same syllable: ངར་ ngar

Abbreviations

STZL: སི་ཏུའི་ཞལ་ལུང་ <si tu’i zhal lung>, a famous Tibetan grammar text.