Unit 2: Adjacent letters

In this unit we will discuss the structure of Tibetan syllables, and will learn about prefix letters, suffix letters, and post-suffix letters. By the end of the unit you will be able to pronounce words like དབུས་གཙང་ (Ütsang, one of the main regions of Tibet), ཟེར་ (“to speak” or “to say”), and དགུ་ཐུག་ (guthuk, a type of stew).

Unit 2 Sections:

1. 1. The parts of a Tibetan syllable
   1. 1.1. Letter roles
   2. 1.2. Letter role pronunciations
2. 2. Main letters and vowels
   1. 2.1. Main letters
   2. 2.2. Vowels
3. 3. Prefix letters
   1. 3.1. Effect on tone
   2. 3.2. What is voicing?
   3. 3.3. Effect on aspiration (and voicing)
   4. 3.4. Effect on voicing
   5. 3.5. No effect on pronunciation
4. 4. Suffix letters
   1. 4.1. No change in pronunciation
   2. 4.2. Change in aspiration
   3. 4.3. Silent suffix letters
   4. 4.4. Effect on vowel sound
5. 5. Post-suffix letters
6. 6. Syllable constraints
7. 7. Terminology
   1. 7.1. Vocabulary
   2. 7.2. Jargon

1. The parts of a Tibetan syllable

We’ve learned about Tibetan letters in Unit 1; now it’s time to start using letters to make syllables. A syllable is a set of one or more letters followed by a punctuation mark called a ཚེག་ ts^hek . The ts^hek looks like a small dot in uchän script (་). A Tibetan syllable can have anywhere from one letter (e.g. ཁ་ “mouth”) all the way up to seven letters (e.g. བསྒྲུབས་ “completed”) in total.

In English, syllables are often defined as the beats in a word; for example, the word “person” has two syllables (per-son) and the word “holiday” has three syllables (ho-li-day). This is true of Tibetan syllables too, but in Tibetan the entire writing system is based around syllables. Tibetan isn’t written with spaces in between words; instead, it’s written as a continuous series of syllables, with each syllable separated by a ཚེག་ ts^hek. So, to understand the pronunciation of Tibetan words, we need to start with understanding the pronunciation of Tibetan syllables.

1.1. Letter roles

A Tibetan syllable can contain up to seven letters. To put it another way, there are seven distinct positions or roles that letters can occupy in a syllable. They are as follows:

1. Prefix letter (སྔོན་འཇུག་ ngönjuk)
2. Superscript letter (མགོ་ཅན་ gochän)
3. Main letter (མིང་གཞི་ mingshi)
4. Subscript letter (འདོགས་ཅན་ dokchän)
5. Vowel letter (དབྱངས་ yang)
6. Suffix letter (རྗེས་འཇུག་ jenjuk)
7. Post-suffix letter (ཡང་འཇུག་ yangjuk)

The letter roles are named after their position relative to the main letter of the syllable. They can broadly be grouped into stacked letters (which are stacked on top of each other) and adjacent letters (which are written side-by-side). The main letter could be any of the 30 consonants taught in Unit 1.

Stacked letters:

• The letter above the main letter is called the “superscript letter“
• The letter below the main letter is called the “subscript letter“

Note: The subscript letters have unique forms. The diagonal swoosh under སྒྲ་ is the subscript form of the letter ར་.

Adjacent letters:

• The letter to the left of the main letter is called the “prefix letter“
• The letter to the right of the main letter is called the “suffix letter“
• The letter to the right of the suffix letter is called the “post-suffix letter“

The vowel letter is sometimes written above the main letter (as in ཨི་ཨེ་ཨོ་) and sometimes written below it (as in ཨུ་). In syllables with no vowel letter, there is a default “a” pronounced after the main letter.

In this unit we will focus on the adjacent letters, which include prefix letters, suffix letters, and post-suffix letters. We will learn about stacked letters in Unit 3. I will try to progress step-by-step as much as possible, but Standard Tibetan pronunciation is complex so you may encounter certain principles early on that are only explained later on. By the end of Unit 3 you will be able to pronounce almost any word in Standard Tibetan.

1.2. Letter role pronunciations

Letters have different pronunciations depending on which of the seven positions or roles they fall into. For example, the letter བ་ is silent when acting as a prefix letter, but is pronounced like p^h when acting as a main letter, and like p when acting as a suffix letter. Also, letters often affect the pronunciation of other letters around them.

There are ten basic rules that describe Tibetan syllable structure:

1) Suffix letters lose their default “a”, tone, and aspiration:

• ལབ་ lap
• ཁོང་ k^hong
• ཟུར་ sur

2) Prefix letters, superscript letters, and post-suffix letters are usually silent:

• བསྐངས་ kang
• བརྟགས་ tak
• བསྐུགས་ kuk

3) Prefix letters and superscript letters cause some main letters to become voiced (e.g. t^h turns into “d”, and k^h into “g”):

• འདེབས་ dep
• སྒོ་ go

4) Prefix letters and superscript letters cause some main letters to become high tone:

• གཡག་ yak
• རྙིང་ nying

5) Subscript ར་ forms a “tr” sound with some main letters, and is silent with others:

• གྲུབ་ tr^hup
• བྲོ་ tr^ho
• སྲབ་ sap

6) Subscript ཡ་ forms a “-y” sound when added to the ཀ་སྡེ་, and a “ch” sound when added to the པ་སྡེ་:

• ཁྱབ་ ky^hap
• བྱང་ ch^hang

7) Subscript ལ་ forms a high-tone “l” sound:

• བླ་ la
• གློག་ lok

8) Subscript ཝ་ is silent:

• རྩྭ་ tsa
• གྲྭ་ tr^ha

9) These rules all combine together to determine the pronunciation of a syllable:

• བསྒྲུབས་ drup (rules 1, 2, 3, 5)
• སྒྲ་ dra (rules 2, 3, 5)
• གདངས་ dang (rules 1, 2, 3)

10) There are other minor rules and a few exceptions, which we will learn as we work through units 2 and 3.

If you learn these ten rules, then you will understand Tibetan pronunciation. In the following sections we will learn more about the pronunciation of each letter position, and we will cover these rules in more detail.

2. Main letters and vowels

In Unit 1, we learned the pronunciation and spelling rules that govern both main letters and vowel letters. We will discuss these points again here in the context of syllable structure, beginning with a discussion of main letters.

2.1. Main letters

The indispensable core of a Tibetan syllable is the main letter. Every Tibetan syllable has a main letter. The smallest Tibetan syllables and words contain a main letter and nothing more; for example, the word for “mouth” is ཁ་ k^ha.

Any of the 30 Tibetan consonants can be a main letter:

1. ཀ་ཁ་ག་ང་།
2. ཅ་ཆ་ཇ་ཉ།
3. ཏ་ཐ་ད་ན།
4. པ་ཕ་བ་མ།
5. ཙ་ཚ་ཛ་ཝ།
6. ཞ་ཟ་འ་ཡ།
7. ར་ལ་ཤ་ས།
8. ཧ་ཨ།

When a consonant letter is in the main letter position, it is pronounced according to the rules we learned in Unit 1. In this unit we will learn how main letters change their default pronunciation due to the influence of adjacent letters.

Now, how do you tell if a consonant letter is the main letter of the syllable?

• If you have a single consonant letter standing by itself with a ཚེག་ ts^hek after it (e.g. ལ་), you know that the single consonant letter must be the main letter.
• If you have a single consonant letter with a vowel letter on top (e.g. ལོ་), then the consonant letter is the main letter.

As we go on to learn about other letter positions, we will discuss how to tell which letter is in which position.

The སྦྱོར་ཀློག་ jorlok rules for main letters are what we learned in Unit 1. In short, you spell a main letter by simply reading it out, so e.g. ལ་ is both pronounced and spelled la.

2.2. Vowels

We also learned about the four vowel letters and their སྦྱོར་ཀློག་ jorlok rules in Unit 1. The vowel letters are easy to memorize and very visually distinct from the consonant letters, so you can tell at a glance if something is a consonant letter or a vowel letter.

3. Prefix letters

Prefix letters are written to the left of the main letter. Only 5 of the 30 consonants can be a prefix letter. To put it another way, only 5 of the 30 consonants can fall in the prefix letter position. The prefix letters are traditionally listed in Tibetan alphabetical order: ག་ད་བ་མ་འ་.

By default, all of the prefix letters are silent letters with no pronunciation in and of themselves. However, depending on the following main letter, the prefix letter may change the pronunciation of a syllable. We will learn the rules for this below.

3.1. Effect on tone

As we learned in Unit 1, the nasal letters ང་ཉ་ན་མ་ and the letter ཡ་ are naturally low tone. However, when preceded by a prefix letter, they change from low tone to high tone. For example:

• དངོ་ ngo
• མཉེ་ nye
• མནོ་ no
• དམུ་ mu
• གཡུ་ yu

Therefore low tone མུ་ mu contrasts with high tone དམུ་ mu, and so on.

3.2. What is voicing?

In Unit 1 we learned about aspiration and tone, but there is a third dimension of pronunciation that becomes relevant when we start combining letters: voicing. Voicing refers to whether or not your vocal cords are vibrating when making a sound.

For example, say the sound “sssssss”, as if you are hissing like a snake. While saying “sssssss”, put your fingers against your voice box. You might notice your voice box tense slightly, but it won’t be vibrating. This is because the sound “s” is voiceless; it does not involve vibrating your vocal cords. Now, try saying the sound “zzzzzzz” and repeat the above test. This time you will notice that your vocal cords are vibrating; this means that “z” is a voiced sound.

See if you can go back and forth repeatedly between “sssssss” and “zzzzzz” to get used to the difference between voiceless and voiced sounds. You can also try the experiment with an f and a v, or a sh (as in “shhh”) and a zh (the sound in beige), or a voiceless th (as in thick) and a voiced th (as in there). All of these pairs are long and continuous sounds where the first sound is voiceless and the second sound is voiced, so they are a great way to practice the distinction between voiceless and voiced sounds.

There are also short, non-continuous sounds that differ only by voicing. For example, the letters k and g differ only in that k is voiceless whereas g is voiced. Other voiceless/voiced pairs of non-continuous sounds include ch vs. j, t vs. d, and p vs. b.

3.3. Effect on aspiration (and voicing)

When preceded by a prefix letter, the main letters ག་ཇ་ད་བ་ become unaspirated, and may also become voiced. For example:

• དགུ་ ku / gu
• མཇེ་ che / je
• བདེ་ te / de
• འབུ་ pu / bu

I say they may also become voiced because the voicing of these letters in this position is described in different ways. The standard in existing textbooks such as Manual of Standard Tibetan (2003) and Colloquial Tibetan (2015) is to mark low-tone unaspirated sounds as being typically voiceless. However, some research suggests that voicing is a secondary characteristic of low-tone unaspirated sounds, to help distinguish them from high-tone unaspirated sounds. So, I will generally mark low-tone unaspirated sounds as being voiced. Many English speakers also find it easier to use the voiced pronunciation, and that it helps them speak more clearly and confidently.

One notable pronunciation exception here is that when the main letter བ་ is preceded by the suffix letter ད་, the two letters together are pronounced as a high-tone w, and this w may also become silent before the vowel u:

• དབུ་ wu / u

3.4. Effect on voicing

Now let’s discuss the main letters ཞ་ཟ་. Many speakers never voice these letters when preceded by a prefix letter, and thus the addition of the prefix letter does not change their pronunciation whatsoever.

However, some speakers do voice these letters when they’re preceded by a prefix letter. For example:

• གཞུ་ shu / zhu
• གཟི་ si / zi

Also, some speakers tend to voice one of these but not the other. Just as we spoke of Ka vs. Kha lects in unit 1, we could perhaps also speak of Shu vs. Zhu lects, or Si vs. Zi lects. In this course, I will teach a Shu and Si variety. Anecdotally, it seems that Kha lects tend to be Shu and Si lects, whereas Ka lects tend to be Zhu and Zi lects.

3.5. No effect on pronunciation

The prefix letters have no effect whatsoever on pronunciation when preceding any of the other main letters. For example:

• གསོ་ so
• དཀུ་ ku
• མཆེ་ ch^he
• འཕོ་ p^ho

All of these syllables are pronounced the exact same way with or without a prefix letter. གསོ་ is pronounced the same way as སོ་, and so on.

4. Suffix letters

Suffix letters are written to the right of the main letter. 10 of the 30 consonants can be a suffix letter. In order, the suffix letters are: ག་ང་ད་ན་བ་མ་འ་ར་ལ་ས་.

A suffix letter falls after the main letter and before the ཚེག་, for example the letter ན་ in the syllable ཡིན་. When in suffix letter position, a consonant loses its default “a”, its tone, and its aspiration. For example, ཡིན་ is pronounced yin (not yina), and གཡག་ is pronounced yak (not yak^ha or yak^h).

Many of the suffix letters can be pronounced in either a strong form or a weak form. In general, slow and careful pronunciation uses more strong forms, whereas quick and casual pronunciation uses more weak forms. Also, some letters use their weak forms more often than others.

4.1. No change in pronunciation

5 of the suffix letters have little to no change in pronunciation: ང་ན་མ་ར་ལ་.

For example:

• ཁང་ k^hang
• ཡིན་ yin
• ཐིམ་ t^him
• ཟུར་ sur
• རིལ་ ril

Weak form of the suffix letter ན་

Sometimes the suffix letter ན་ may 1) become silent and 2) cause the preceding vowel to be pronounced with a nasalized quality, as in French:

• ཡིན་པ་ yi(n)pa

Weak form of suffix letter ར་

Sometimes the suffix letter ར་ may 1) become silent and 2) cause the preceding vowel to lengthen:

• དམར་པོ་ ma(r)po
• དཀར་པོ་ ka(r)po

Weak form of the suffix letter ལ་

Sometimes the suffix letter ལ་ may become silent, or be pronounced as a murky l similar to the ll in ball or mall:

• འཕེལ་ p^he(l)

Note that unlike English, these final consonants in Standard Tibetan tend to be unreleased. In other words, when you get to the final k, t, or p sound, your mouth stops on that sound without actually releasing it.

Weak forms of the suffix letter ག་

Sometimes the suffix letter ག་ is pronounced very weakly, or entirely silent:

• ལག་པ་ la(k)pa

Also, when preceding a nasal consonant (i.e. when the following syllable has ང་, ཉ་, ན་ or མ་ as its main letter), the suffix letter ག་ tends to be pronounced like ང་:

• བདག་མེད་ dangme

Weak form of the suffix letter ད་

Most of the time, the suffix letter ད་ is completely silent:

• མིད་ mi

Its pronunciation as -t is associated with careful, educated speech.

4.3. Silent suffix letters

The suffix letters ས་ and འ་ are generally silent:

• རེས་ re
• འགའ་ ga

The suffix letter འ་ must be added to any syllable that has only a prefix letter and a main letter, with no vowel letter. This sometimes is purely customary, and other times helps to resolve ambiguity about which letter is the main letter. For example:

• མཁའ་ k^ha
  • མཁ་ is not allowed, even though it would be unambiguous
• དགའ་ ga
  • the suffix letter འ་ shows that ག་ is the main letter
  • disambiguated from དག་ t^hak

This also means that in syllables that consist of two bare consonant letters, the first consonant letter is the main letter and the second is the suffix letter.

4.4. Effect on vowel sound

The four suffix letters ད་ན་ལ་ས་ also cause the following changes in vowel sound:

• a > ä
• u > ü
• o > ö

These 3 sound changes are called vowel raising because they involve raising the tongue to the palate during the pronunciation of the sound. The raised vowels are indicated using two dots called a diaeresis.

These sounds are pronounced very similarly to the German letters ä, ü, and ö. The sound ä is similar to the “e” in the word ten. The sound ö is pronounced roughly like this, and the sound ü is pronounced roughly like this.

For example:

• ཞལ་ shä
• ལུས་ lü
• ཐོད་ t^hö

When occurring before the suffix letters ག་ and ར་, the vowel ཨོ་ is pronounced slightly lower in the mouth, somewhere between the “o” in so and the “aw” in law. This sound sometimes occurs in other contexts, such as ཡོད་རེད་ (hence why some people write it as ཡོག་རེད་), which must be memorized as exceptions.

Sources: 1, 2

5. Post-suffix letters

Post-suffix letters are written to the right of a suffix letter. There are two letters that can be post-suffix letters: ད་ས་.

The post-suffix ད་ was phased out of Tibetan writing in a spelling reform a thousand years ago, but it has had enduring effects on Tibetan particles which will be discussed at a later time. The post-suffix ས་ is very common, especially in past tense and imperative verbs.

Both of these letters are completely silent and have no effect on pronunciation, although a final ས་ in any position can cause a sharply falling tone.

Example words with post-suffixes:

• ཤིནད་ shin (nowadays written ཤིན་)
• སེམས་ sem

6. Syllable constraints

The structure of a syllable is governed by specific rules or patterns about which letters can go next to which other letters. For example, the post-suffix letter ས་ cannot occur after the suffix letters ན་, ར་, or ལ་. I will call such rules syllable constraints.

Syllable constraints help resolve ambiguity about how to read a syllable. For example, consider the syllable གནས་. If you didn’t know the syllable constraint I just described, then you might be unsure whether to read this syllable as k^hän (with a main letter ག་, suffix letter ན་, and post-suffix letter ས་) or as nä (with a prefix letter ག་, main letter ན་, and suffix letter ས་). However, if we know that the post-suffix letter ས་ cannot occur after the suffix letter ན་, then we can reject the first reading and identify nä as the correct pronunciation.

I haven’t taught syllable constraints in this course because our focus is on the spoken language. Most of the words you will encounter in this course will be accompanied by audio, which will prevent any seemingly ambiguous syllables from being misread. Overall, ambiguous syllables are a non-issue: the vast majority of syllables have an unambiguous pronunciation, and most syllables that seem ambiguous are in fact easily resolved by knowing one or two syllable constraints, or by hearing the word spoken aloud. Even if you don’t explicitly study syllable constraints, you will naturally develop an intuitive feel for them after some time.

However, if you want to learn more about syllable constraints then I would recommend studying the རྟགས་འཇུག་ Takjuk, which is one of the foundational texts of traditional Tibetan grammar. It has been translated by Tony Duff here, alongside its most well-known commentaries and summaries.

Furthermore, syllable constraints are of great interest to Tibetic historical linguistics because they reflect the history of early Tibetan sound changes. If we understand early Tibetan sound changes, then we will understand Tibetan syllable constraints, and we will also gain a deeper understanding of Tibetan grammar. Nathan W. Hill’s article, An Inventory of Tibetan Sound Laws, is an excellent overview of this topic. It explains, among other things, the syllable constraints governing the prefix letters ད་ and ག་ (see “Sakya Pandita’s law”) and the prefix letter བ་ (see “Chang’s law”).

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To test yourself on the content of Unit 2, try answering the following questions:

• Which letters can be a main letter?
  • How are main letters pronounced?
• Which letters can be a prefix letter?
  • How are prefix letters pronounced?
  • When do prefix letters affect tone?
  • When do prefix letters affect aspiration (and voicing)?
  • When do prefix letters affect voicing only?
  • When do prefix letters have no effect on pronunciation?
• Which letters can be a suffix letter?
  • Which letters have no change in pronunciation when in suffix letter position?
  • Which letters are unaspirated in suffix letter position?
  • Which letters are silent in suffix letter position?
  • Which suffix letters affect the sound of the preceding vowel?
• Which letters can be a post-suffix letter?
  • How are post-suffix letters pronounced?

We’ve now finished learning about 5 of the 7 parts of a syllable. I recommend studying this unit thoroughly before continuing. There are still a few remaining rules for Tibetan pronunciation, which we will learn in Unit 3.

7. Terminology

7.1. Vocabulary

Audio:

7.2. Jargon

Audio: