Ebook: Standard Tibetan Grammar

This is the second volume of 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.

This second book is the second in a series of volumes. For the other volume, see above.

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 second volume focusses on Thumi Sambhota’s second, extant treatise which defines Tibetan grammar. This treatise concerns the specific issue of what is called "letter gender". The text defines letter gender then shows its various effects. The text is extremely difficult to understand, so difficult that many well-educated Tibetans do not study it. To make the material of the treatise more accessible, the book starts with an overview of the whole treatise which goes into sufficient detail that the general points of the treatise can be understood fairly easily. The book then continues with in-depth commentaries on the various effects of letter gender, going through the points that are found in the treatise itself. There are several main effects such as pronunciation, verb theory, and phrase linker theory. The book gives detailed and extensive explanations of verb theory. The book especially gives a complete explanation of the Tibetan system of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. For the first time, the special self-and-other feature of transitive verb theory is explained fully yet exactly according to the Tibetan system. All of these explanations are given so clearly so that anyone will be able to understand these various difficult points as they are called, of the treatise. This is the first time that a complete and clear explanation of this treatise and its difficult points has appeared in English.

The book contains translations of the following texts:
Grammar, “The Application of Gender Signs” by Thumi Sambhota
“A Mirror Which Reveals the Difficult Points”, A Short Statement of the Essential Meaning of The Application of Gender Signs by Yangchen Drubpay Dorje
“A Golden Key of Knowledge”, Commentary to A Mirror that Reveals the Difficult Points of ‘The Application of Gender Signs’ by Yangchen Drupbpay 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 II about the Application of Gender Signs 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 II about the Application of Gender Signs only)