ལྷག་བཅས་ lhag bcas

Alternative names: ལྷག་མ་ཅན་ <lhag ma can>

English names: continuative particle

Pronunciation

ལྷག་བཅས་ lhag bcas:

• lhakche (Ütsang dialect)

ལྷག་མ་ཅན་ lhag ma can:

• lhakma chen (Ütsang dialect)

Overview

The ལྷག་བཅས་ <lhag bcas> is a dependent particle with 3 different forms:

• སྟེ་ ste
• དེ་ de
• ཏེ་ te

Meaning

The term ལྷག་བཅས་ <lhag bcas> means “having a remainder”. These particles are called ལྷག་བཅས་ <lhag bcas> because they indicate that the preceding statement is not complete; there is something more that remains to be said.

They are used for:

• In traditional Tibetan grammar:
  1. མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ <mtshams sbyor> “Conjunction”
     • e.g. མདའ་འཕངས་ཏེ་ཕོག (STZL)
       <mda’ ‘phangs te phog>
       “The arrow was shot and struck [the target]”
  2. དམ་བཅའ་ <dam bca’> “Thesis”
     • e.g. དངོས་པོ་ནི་གསུམ་སྟེ། བེམ་པོ་དང་། ཤེས་པ་དང་། ལྡན་མིན་འདུ་བྱེད་དོ། (STZL)
       <dngos po ni gsum ste/_bem po dang /_shes pa dang /_ldan min ‘du byed do/>
       “There are three types of things: matter, consciousness, and non-associated compounders.”
       (This usage is why people say that the ལྷག་བཅས་ <lhag bcas> can be translated with a colon (:). However, it’s just one of three uses of this particle.)
  3. གཞན་འདྲེན་ <gzhan ‘dren> “Preceding something else”
     • e.g. ཁྱོད་ནི་དཔལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་ནི་མགོན། (STZL)
       <khyod ni dpal te khyod ni mgon>
       “You are magnificent and you are a protector.”

At first glance, the first and third uses might seem synonymous, since they can both be translated as “and”. However, the མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ <mtshams sbyor> involves proper verbs, whereas the གཞན་འདྲེན་ <gzhan ‘dren> involves an implicit copula ཡིན་ <yin>. Copulas are not considered to be verbs in Tibetan grammar; rather, they are considered to be a different type of word called an “establishing word” (སྒྲུབ་ཚིག་ <sgrub tshig>).

Joining

The ལྷག་བཅས་ <lhag bcas> particles are joined as follows:

After this letter:	Use this particle:	Examples and notes:
ག་ g ང་ ng བ་ b མ་ m འ་ ‘ syllables with no suffix letter	སྟེ་ ste	བཞག་སྟེ། bzhag ste དྲང་སྟེ། drang ste ལབ་སྟེ། lab ste ཕམ་སྟེ། pham ste དཔའ་སྟེ། dpa’ ste ཅི་སྟེ་ ci ste
ད་ d (as a suffix letter)	དེ་ de	བཤད་དེ། bshad de
ན་ n ར་ r ལ་ l ས་ s ད་ d (as a post-suffix letter)	ཏེ་ te	ལན་ཏེ། lan te འཁྱེར་ཏེ། ‘khyer te དཔལ་ཏེ། dpal te བཤུས་ཏེ། bshus te ཤརད་ཏེ། shard te (with an explicit ད་དྲག་ <da drag>) ཤར་ཏེ། shar te (with an implicit ད་དྲག་ <da drag>)

Abbreviations:

STZL: སི་ཏུའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། <si tu’i zhal lung>