This page is a reference grammar on Tibetic nouns and noun phrases. It assumes a basic understanding of grammar similar to what’s covered in our Standard Tibetan course. This page currently focuses on Standard Tibetan, but may be expanded in time.
Introduction to nouns
Nouns are often introduced as words that refer to people, places, and things. This is a useful definition for beginners, but in linguistics, different parts of speech (such as nouns, verbs, and so on) are defined primarily based on how they grammatically interact with other words. If a word behaves like a noun grammatically, then it is a noun. But how does a noun behave? In English, nouns can be preceded by words like “a”, “an”, or “the”; but verbs cannot. We can say “a car”, but not “the carry”, so we know that “car” is a noun but “carry” is not. “Carry” is a verb.
Some words seem to be nouns only some of the time, like the word “love”. It acts like a verb in the sentence, “I love you”, but like a noun in the sentence “the love of my life”. In other words, the word “love” can be a noun or a verb, depending on how it’s actually used in a sentence.
This is important to keep in mind as we discuss nouns in more detail. If you see a Tibetan word on this page translated with a word that could be either a noun or an verb (like “love”), then it’s probably meant as a noun. Also, we will see examples of non-nouns turning into nouns and vice versa, so it’s important to understand that we are basing these categories on grammatical behaviour.
Tibetic nouns typically have the following basic characteristics:
- they can be modified by adjectives and determiners
- when followed by a particle, that particle will have a nominal meaning
The grammar of nouns
Nouns are called nāman in Sanskrit, and མིང་ ming (classical) or མིང་ཚིག་ ming tshig (modern) in Tibetan.
Nouns can be made up of the following components:
- [noun root]
- e.g. ཁྱི་ dog
- [noun root] + [default ending] (see “noun endings” below)
- e.g. དཔོན་པོ་ boss
- [noun root x2]
- e.g. ཙི་ཙི་ mouse
- [noun root] + [noun root] (near synonyms)
- e.g. བདེ་སྐྱིད་ happiness
- [noun root] + [noun root] (combined meaning)
- e.g. ནུབ་བྱང་ northwest
- [noun root] + [noun root] (separate meaning)
- e.g. ཕ་མ་ parents (“father [and] mother”)
- [noun root] + [noun root] (connective meaning)
- e.g. ས་མཚམས་ border (“boundary [of] the earth”)
- [noun root] + [adjective root]
- e.g. གླང་ཆེན་ elephant
- [noun root] + [verb root]
- e.g. སྲིད་འཛིན་ president
- [verb root] + [verb root] (near synonyms)
- e.g. གོང་འཕེལ་ increase
- [verb root] + [deverbal ending] (see “noun endings” below)
- e.g. གཟིགས་མཁན་ viewer
- [noun root] + [denominal ending] (see “noun endings” below)
- e.g. ཞིང་པ་ farmer
The act of joining different roots to make a noun is called compounding, and nouns that are made in this way are called compounds. Compounds are called samāsa in Sanskrit and ཚིག་སྡུད་ tshig sdud in Tibetan. Traditional Indo-Tibetan grammar outlines six types of compound:
- མི་ཟད་པ། mi zad pa (Skt. *akṣaya?)
- དེའི་སྐྱེས་བུ། de’i skyes bu (Skt. tatpuruṣa)
- ཟླས་དབྱེ་བ། zlas dbye ba (Skt. dvandva)
- འབྲུ་མང་། ‘bru mang (Skt. bahuvrīhi)
- ལས་འཛིན། las ‘dzin (Skt. karmadhāraya)
- ཕྱོགས་གཉིས། phyogs gnyis (Skt. *dvigu?)
Compounds are discussed in Tibetan texts, but I think they are best understood by referring to Indian sources like the Samāsacakra.
Noun endings
Nouns are often followed by specific endings:
- Default endings (with no specific meaning):
- -པ་, -བ་, -མ་
- e.g. ཐག་པ་ rope
- -པོ་, -བོ་, -མོ་
- e.g. དཔོན་པོ་ boss
- -ཀ་, -ཁ་, -ག་
- e.g. ཞིང་ཁ་ field
- -པ་, -བ་, -མ་
- Other endings:
- Derivational endings (nominalizers):
- Deverbal (turns a verb into a noun):
- {པ་}, ཡ་/ཡག་/ཡས་, མཁན་, ས་, སྲོལ་, རེས་, etc.
- Denominal (turns a noun into another noun):
- {པ་} (the བདག་སྒྲ་)
- e.g. ཞིང་པ་ farmer (< ཞིང་ field)
- {པ་} (the བདག་སྒྲ་)
- Deverbal (turns a verb into a noun):
Pronouns
Pronouns (མིང་ཚབ་ ming tshab) are words that can replace nouns. They include:
- demonstrative pronouns
- e.g. དེ་ that
- interrogative pronouns
- e.g. ག་རེ་ what?
The grammar of adjectives
Tibetan adjectives are unusual and somewhat hard to categorize.
They behave partly like nouns:
- they often have default endings like པ་པོ་བ་བོ་མ་མོ་
- they can take determiners like ཞིག་
But they also behave partly like verbs:
- they can take verbal particles, e.g. མང་དྲགས་ན་ (“if it’s too much”)
- they seem to be etymologically derived from stative verbs (e.g. ཆེ་བ་ “to be big”)
Here we have included them in the reference grammar for noun phrases.
Internal structure
- Natural adjectives:
- [adjective root] + [default ending]
- e.g. སྐྱ་པོ་ grey
- [adjective root x2]
- e.g. སྐྱ་སྐྱ་ grey
- [adjective with default ending] + [adjective root] + རྐྱང་
- e.g. གཅིག་པ་གཅིག་རྐྱང་ totally the same
- e.g. དཀར་པོ་དཀར་རྐྱང་ totally white
- [adjective root] + [default ending]
- Derived adjectives:
- གང་ + [adjective root x2]
- e.g. གང་མང་མང་ as much as possible
- [interrogative] + [verb root]
- e.g. གང་ཐུབ་ as much as one can
- e.g. གང་ཐུབ་ཅི་ཐུབ་ as much as one can
- [interrogative] + [verb root x2]
- e.g. གང་ཐུབ་ཐུབ་ as much as one can
- e.g. ཇི་ལྟར་ནུས་ནུས་ as much as one can
- [noun] + [adjective] (a.k.a. “complex adjective”)
- e.g. གཟུགས་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་ tall (“big-body”)
- གང་ + [adjective root x2]
Adjective endings:
Adjectives can be followed by various endings:
- Default endings:
- -པ་, -བ་, -མ་
- e.g. གསར་པ་ new
- -པོ་, བོ་, མོ་
- e.g. དཀར་པོ་ white
- -པ་, -བ་, -མ་
- Other endings:
- -{པ་} (comparative)
- ཆུང་ང་ smaller
- -ཤོས་ (superlative)
- ཆུང་ཤོས་ smallest
- -དྲགས་ (excessive)
- ཆུང་དྲགས་ too small
- -ལོད་ (interrogative)
- ཆུང་ལོད་ how small
- -ཙམ་ (slight comparative)
- མང་ཙམ་ a little more
- -{པ་} (comparative)
- Derivational endings (adjectivalizers):
- རུང་, ལོད་, ཡ་/ཡག་/ཡས་, རན་
Modification
Nouns can be modified by adjectives, determiners, nouns, and verb phrases.
Modifying nouns with adjectives
- Simple adjectives go after the noun:
- e.g. ཁྱི་ཆེན་པོ་ big dog
- Complex adjectives can go either before or after the noun. If they go before the noun, they must be connected to it with a connective particle:
- e.g. ཐག་རིང་པོའི་ཁང་པ་ or ཁང་པ་ཐག་རིང་པོ་ distant house
Modifying nouns with determiners
There are several types of determiners:
- Pronominal determiners (pronouns being used as adjectives):
- using demonstrative pronouns:
- e.g. མི་དེ་ that person
- using personal pronouns:
- e.g. བུ་མོ་ང་ I, the girl
- Note: English can’t use personal pronouns as determiners.
- using interrogative pronouns:
- e.g. མི་སུ་ which person?
- e.g. སྐྱེ་ས་ག་ནས་ from which birthplace?
- using demonstrative pronouns:
- The indefinite determiner
- e.g. མི་ཞིག་ a person
Modifying nouns with nouns
Nouns can be modified by other nouns.
Usually the modifying noun goes before the main noun with an intervening connective particle:
- e.g. སློབ་ཕྲུག་གི་གློག་ཀླད་ the student’s computer
Sometimes the modifier noun can go before the main noun without an intervening connective particle:
- Generic example:
- e.g. ཁ་པར་ཚོང་ཁང་ phone store
- With titles:
- e.g. སྲིད་སྐྱོང་སྤེན་པ་ཚེ་རིང་། The Sikyong, Penpa Tsering
- With measure words:
- ཀུ་ཤུ་རྒྱ་མ་ kilos of apples
When both nouns refer to the same entity, as with titles, this type of modification is called “apposition”.
The modifier noun cannot go after the main noun.
Modifying nouns with verb phrases
Verb phrases can go either before or after the noun they modify. If they go before the noun, they must be connected to it with a connective particle:
- e.g. སྒེའུ་ཁུང་མེད་པའི་ཚོང་ཁང་དེ་ The store that has no windows
- e.g. ཚོང་ཁང་སྒེའུ་ཁུང་མེད་པ་དེ་ The store that has no windows
Concatenation
Concatenation is making lists of nouns:
- e.g. ང་དང་ཁྱེད་རང་ me and you