Ebook: Standard Tibetan Grammar

This is Lotsawa Tony’s magnum opus. He started writing it in the late 1990’s and has been letting it mature since. He has been in no hurry to publish it because he intends it to be the standard reference for Tibetan grammar for the foreseeable future. The complete work is envisaged as a series of volumes. For the other volumes, see below.

Although there are a number of books available on Tibetan grammar, all of them come from a Western approach and not one of them shows the actual meaning of Tibetan grammar as understood by Tibetans. This book corrects that completely. It offers commentary and background written by a Westerner who has studied Tibetan grammar in Tibetan classes in a purely Tibetan milieu and couples that with authentic translations of several of the most important Tibetan grammar texts.

The first volume begins with extensive historical background, far more than seen in any other Western publication, and includes selections from various Tibetan history texts not to mention the fruits of the author’s own, considerable research during the many years that he has lived in Nepal.

The book continues with a major exposition of the lineages of grammar and the main texts used for the study of Tibetan grammar. Again, none of this information has been seen to date in Western publications.

The book continues with a history of the three language revisions. This completes the prefatory sub-volumes.

The real material of the book starts with Thumi’s first grammar treatise, The Root of Grammar in Thirty Verses. This is the first authoritative translation of the text into English. The treatise is followed by hundreds of pages of explanation that show every single nuance and detail of the text, all written by the author. This explanation includes a wealth of detail that shows how Tibetan grammar works in its own right and also shows how it can or cannot be related to English grammar. This section of the book is a treasure trove of information for any translator, covering many points of Tibetan grammar and its relationship with translation into English which are essential for any translator to know.

Included within the author’s extensive explanation is a very long chapter on pronunciation. This is one subject that is still not being taught properly even in major programs around the world. The reason is simply that very few Westerners have understood all the details involved in Tibetan pronunciation. The author not only includes those details but uses extensive quotations from the Tibetan sources to show how it does work. The first translation ever of a Tibetan text on pronunciation is included in the book.

Also included is an investigation of the hottest debate in Tibetan grammar, the debate over how many vowels there are in the language. The author presents the opinions of many great Tibetan scholars of the past including Thumi Sambhota, Sakya Pandita, Situ Panchen, and others. The complete section on this issue taken from Situ’s very famous Great Commentary on grammar has been translated and included. This is not only interesting in its own right but provides a glimpse of this famous grammar text.

There are chapters that explain where the nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives of English grammar can and cannot be found in Tibetan grammar. There are chapters which explain punctuation and how it works and where one could find English punctuation or not within Tibetan punctuation. A long list of the many punctuation marks in the Tibetan language with explanations is also included.

The book contains translations of the following texts:
The Root of Grammar, The Thirty Verses< by Thumi Sambhota
“The Great Living Tree”, The Essence of Thonmi’s Fine Explanation The Thirty by Yangchen Drubpay Dorje
“The Fine Explanation Great Living Tree”, The Clarifier of the Meaning of The Essence of “The Thirty” by Yangchen Drubpay Dorje
“Supreme Expert Situ’s Words”, A Thorough Explanation of the Grammar Shastras of the Language of the Snowy Land, The Thirty and Application of Gender Signs by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra (PART I about the Thirty Verses only)
The Essence of the Elegant “Thorough Explanation”, The Literal Aspect of the Snowy Land’s Grammar Shastras, The Thirty and Application of Gender Signs by Khenpo Ngedon Jamyang (PART I about the Thirty Verses only)
“A Beautiful String of Pearls to Adorn the Necks of the Wise”, A Thorough Explanation of the Specific Texts The Thirty and Application of Gender Signs of the Shas­tras that Authentically Set Forth the Signs of the Snowy Land by Situ Chokyi Jungney (Section on vowel definitions only)
A New Bud of the Story Of How The Production Plac­es, Producers, And Efforts of Tibetan Letters Are Identified by Yangchen Drubpay Dorje (a text on the Tibetan system of pronunciation)