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71-584: In the traditional "three-branched" classification of the Tibetic languages , the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan ). In terms of mutual intelligibility , speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at a basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve

142-738: A Khams dialect in Kachin , Myanmar . Tournadre (2005) classifies the Tibetic languages as follows. The other languages ( Thewo-Chone , Zhongu , Khalong , Dongwang , Gserpa , Zitsadegu , Drugchu , Baima ) are not mutually intelligible , but are not known well enough to classify. mDungnag , a Tibetan language spoken in Gansu , is also divergent and is not mutually intelligible with either Khams or Amdo . Tournadre (2013) adds Tseku and Khamba to Khams , and groups Thewo-Chone , Zhongu , and Baima as an Eastern branch of Tibetic. According to Bradley,

213-414: A Lhasa Tibetan syllable is relatively simple; no consonant cluster is allowed and codas are only allowed with a single consonant. Vowels can be either short or long, and long vowels may further be nasalized . Vowel harmony is observed in two syllable words as well as verbs with a finite ending. Also, tones are contrastive in this language, where at least two tonemes are distinguished. Although

284-698: A Tibetan grammar in Hindi . Some of his other works on Tibetan were: In much of Tibet, primary education is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach middle school . However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan secondary schools . In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba , Sichuan. Students who continue on to tertiary education have

355-757: A Tibetic language originally spoken in the western region. Although non-Tibetic languages ( Tshangla , East Bodish ) are dominant in many parts of the country, Dzongkha is also widely used there as a second-language. Other Tibetic varieties of Bhutan include Choča-ngača, Brokpa and Lakha . Within areas administrated by Pakistan , Balti is spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan . Within areas administrated by India , some Tibetic varieties are spoken in Ladakh , Sikkim , Himachal Pradesh ( Kinnaur , Lahul and Spiti ), West Bengal ( Darjeeling and Kalimpong ), as well as Uttarakhand . As with Bhutan and Nepal , there reside

426-450: A West Himalayish superstratum, but its substratum is derived from a different Sino-Tibetan branch. Only a few language clusters in the world are derived from a common language which is identical to or closely related to an old literary language. This small group includes the Tibetic languages, as descendants from Old Tibetan (7th–9th centuries), but also the Romance languages with Latin ,

497-572: A brief overview of Tibetic varieties in the country. He estimates there are about 300 Khams Tibetan speakers inhabiting at least four villages in Dazundam Village Tract, Pannandin Sub-township, Nogmong Township , Putao District , Kachin State. The four villages he mentions are Tahaundam , "Shidudan" ( Japanese : シドゥダン ) , Sandam, Madin, the second of which he provides no romanization because

568-570: A collective or integral are often used after the tens, sometimes after a smaller number. In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic Sanskrit , are expressed by symbolical words. The written numerals are a variant of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system , forming a base-10 positional counting system that is attested early on in Classical Tibetan texts. Tibetan makes use of

639-589: A deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue". However, Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has noted that "within certain limits the PRC does make efforts to accommodate Tibetan cultural expression" and "the cultural activity taking place all over the Tibetan plateau cannot be ignored." Some scholars also question such claims because most Tibetans continue to reside in rural areas where Chinese

710-415: A flat or rising-falling contour, the latter being a tone that rises to a medium level before falling again. It is normally safe to distinguish only between the two tones because there are very few minimal pairs that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in certain words ending in the sounds [m] or [ŋ]; for instance, the word kham ( Tibetan : ཁམ་ , "piece") is pronounced [kʰám] with

781-418: A form of umlaut in the Ü/Dbus branch of Central Tibetan . In some unusual cases, the vowels /a/ , /u/ , and /o/ may also be nasalised. The Lhasa dialect is usually described as having two tones: high and low. However, in monosyllabic words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. The high tone can be pronounced with either a flat or a falling contour, and the low tone can be pronounced with either

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852-465: A high flat tone, whereas the word Khams ( Tibetan : ཁམས་ , "the Kham region") is pronounced [kʰâm] with a high falling tone. In polysyllabic words, tone is not important except in the first syllable. This means that from the point of view of phonological typology , Tibetan could more accurately be described as a pitch-accent language than a true tone language , in the latter of which all syllables in

923-515: A lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds [r] and [l] when they occur at the end of a syllable. The vowels /i/ , /y/ , /e/ , /ø/ , and /ɛ/ each have nasalized forms: /ĩ/ , /ỹ/ , /ẽ/ , /ø̃/ , and /ɛ̃/ , respectively. These historically result from /in/ , /un/ , /en/ , /on/ , /an/ , and are reflected in the written language. The vowel quality of /un/ , /on/ and /an/ has shifted, since historical /n/ , along with all other coronal final consonants, caused

994-655: A number of Tibetan refugees across the country, notably in Dharamshala where the headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration is located. In Myanmar , a variant of Khams Tibetan is spoken near the Hkakabo Razi , Kachin State which is adjacent to Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture , Yunnan and Tibet Autonomous Region . Suzuki (2012) describes the phonology of the Sangdam dialect, as well as giving

1065-776: A plural marker ཚོ <tsho> . Tibetan has been described as having six cases: absolutive , agentive , genitive , ablative , associative and oblique . These are generally marked by particles, which are attached to entire noun phrases, rather than individual nouns. These suffixes may vary in form based on the final sound of the root. Personal pronouns are inflected for number , showing singular, dual and plural forms. They can have between one and three registers . The Standard Tibetan language distinguishes three levels of demonstrative : proximal འདི <'di> "this", medial དེ <de> "that", and distal ཕ་གི <pha-gi> "that over there (yonder)". These can also take case suffixes. Verbs in Tibetan always come at

1136-540: A preposition, and a gerund (-unge), and has been variously proposed as being influenced by similar forms in Latin and French or British Celtic , though evidence one way or another is scant. Over the course of the Middle English period, sound shifts in the language meant that the (-ende) participle ending and the (-unge) gerund ending merged into a new ending, (-ing). This change, which was complete in southern England around

1207-552: A special connector particle for the units above each multiple of ten. Between 100 and 199, the connective དང dang , literally "and", is used after the hundred portion. Above ས་ཡ saya million, the numbers are treated as nouns and thus have their multiples following the word. The numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10 change spelling when combined with other numerals, reflecting a change in pronunciation in combination. Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals (1 Million) (1 Billion) Ordinal numbers are formed by adding

1278-403: A substitute for the term "Tibetan languages/dialects" used in the previous literature; the distinction between "language" and "dialect" is not straightforward, and labeling varieties of Tibetic as "Tibetan dialects" could be misleading not only because those "dialects" are often mutually-unintelligible , but also the speakers of Tibetic do not necessarily consider themselves as ethnic Tibetan , as

1349-478: A suffix to the cardinal number, པ ( -pa ), with the exception of the ordinal number "first", which has its own lexeme, དང་པོ ( dang po ). Tibetan is written with an Indic script , with a historically conservative orthography that reflects Old Tibetan phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. It is also helpful in reconstructing Proto Sino-Tibetan and Old Chinese . Wylie transliteration

1420-488: A word can carry their own tone. The Lhasa Tibetan verbal system distinguishes four tenses and three evidential moods. The three moods may all occur with all three grammatical persons, though early descriptions associated the personal modal category with European first-person agreement. In the 18th and 19th centuries several Western linguists arrived in Tibet: Indian indologist and linguist Rahul Sankrityayan wrote

1491-501: Is Baima , which retains an apparent Qiangic substratum , and has multiple layers of borrowing from Amdo , Khams , and Zhongu , but does not correspond to any established branch of Tibetic. The two major Tibetic languages used for broadcasting within China are Standard Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan . Tournadre & Suzuki (2023) recognize 8 geographical sections , each with about 7-14 groups of Tibetic dialects. This classification

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1562-561: Is a revision of Tournadre (2014). Tournadre (2014) classifies the Tibetic languages as eight geolinguistic continua , consisting of 50 languages and over 200 dialects. This is an updated version of his work in 2008. The Eastern and Southeastern branches have lower internal mutual intelligibility , but it is more limited in the Northwestern branch and between certain southern and northern Khams dialects. These continua are spread across five countries with one exception, this being Sangdam,

1633-524: Is also spoken in diaspora communities in Europe , North America (e.g. Little Tibet, Toronto ), Asia and Australia . Within China , the great majority of Tibetic speakers are officially classified into the " Tibetan nationality " (藏族), which however includes speakers of other Trans-Himalayan languages such as Rgyalrongnic . Aside from Tibet Autonomous Region , there are several autonomous prefectures for

1704-406: Is also the case with English : a construction such as "He is washing" may be described either as present continuous or as present progressive . However, there are certain languages for which two different aspects are distinguished. In Chinese , for example, progressive aspect denotes a current action, as in "he is getting dressed", while continuous aspect denotes a current state, as in "he

1775-582: Is mainly used for interethnic communication; those with primary education can speak and write Burmese as well, while they are illiterate in their own language. Most Tibetic languages are written in one of two Indic scripts . Standard Tibetan and most other Tibetic languages are written in the Tibetan script with a historically conservative orthography (see below) that helps unify the Tibetan-language area. Some other Tibetan languages (in India and Nepal) are written in

1846-579: Is rarely spoken, as opposed to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities where Chinese can often be heard. In the Texas Journal of International Law , Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error. Tibetan

1917-415: Is reading Ulysses" may describe his current activity (it's in his hand), or the state of having started, but not yet finished, the book (it's in his bag). Unless otherwise indicated, the following languages treat continuous and progressive aspects the same, in which case the term continuous is used to refer to both. The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula , "to be", together with

1988-716: Is the case with Sherpas , Ladakhis , Baltis , Lahaulas , Sikkimese and Bhutanese . Marius Zemp (2018) hypothesizes that Tibetan originated as a pidgin with the West Himalayish language Zhangzhung as its superstratum , and Rgyalrongic as its substratum (both languages are part of the broader Sino-Tibetan family). However, there are many grammatical differences between the Rgyalrongic and Tibetic languages; Rgyalrongic tend to use prefixes such as *kə-, *tə-, etc., while Tibetic languages use suffixes such as -pa/-ba, -ma, -po/-bo, -mo, etc. Similarly, Tamangic also has

2059-510: Is the most common system of romanization used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the Latin alphabet (such as employed on much of this page), while linguists tend to use other special transliteration systems of their own. As for transcriptions meant to approximate the pronunciation, Tibetan pinyin is the official romanization system employed by the government of the People's Republic of China , while English language materials use

2130-429: Is wearing fine clothes". As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian. For example, some grammars of Turkish count the -iyor form as a present tense ; some as a progressive tense; and some as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect. The progressive aspect expresses

2201-595: The Arabic languages (or "dialects") with Classical Arabic , the Sinitic languages with Middle Chinese , the modern Indic languages with Vedic Sanskrit . The more divergent languages are spoken in the north and east, likely due to language contact with the Qiangic , Rgyalrongic languages . The divergence exhibited in Khalong may also be due to language shift . In addition, there

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2272-686: The Qiang peoples of Kham are classified by China as ethnic Tibetans (see Gyalrongic languages ; Gyalrong people are identified as 'Tibetan' in China), the Qiangic languages are not Tibetan, but rather form their own branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family . Classical Tibetan was not a tonal language , but many varieties such as Central and Khams Tibetan have developed tone registers. Amdo and Ladakhi-Balti are without tone. Tibetan morphology can generally be described as agglutinative . Although

2343-460: The Riff variety of Berber, the participle aqqa is added before the verb to form present continuous. Chinese is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects. Cantonese has a very regular system for expressing aspects via verb suffixes. 緊 is typically used to express progressive aspect while 住 is used to express continuous aspect. Take

2414-585: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tibetan, written in the Tibetan script : Tibetic languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries, or to the 11th/12th centuries). According to Nicolas Tournadre, there are 50 Tibetic languages, which branch into more than 200 dialects, which could be grouped into eight dialect continua . These Tibetic languages are spoken in Tibet ,

2485-532: The [ɛ̈] phone (resulting from /e/ in a closed syllable) and the [ɛ] phone (resulting from /a/ through the i-mutation ) are distinct or basically identical. Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetan's suffixes, normally ' i (འི་), at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan; the feature is sometimes omitted in phonetic transcriptions. In normal spoken pronunciation,

2556-439: The absolutive , remaining unmarked. Nonetheless, distinction in transitivity is orthogonal to volition; both the volitional and non-volitional classes contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs. The aspect of the verb affects which verbal suffixes and which final auxiliary copulae are attached. Morphologically, verbs in the unaccomplished aspect are marked by the suffix གི <gi> or its other forms, identical to

2627-412: The dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action. For instance, "Tom is reading" can express dynamic activity: "Tom is reading a book" – i.e. right now (progressive aspect), or Tom's current state: "Tom is reading for a degree" – i.e. Tom is a student (continuous aspect). The aspect can often be ambiguous; "Tom

2698-419: The genitive case for nouns, whereas accomplished aspect verbs do not use this suffix. Each can be broken down into two subcategories: under the unaccomplished aspect, future and progressive /general; under the accomplished aspect, perfect and aorist or simple perfective . Evidentiality is a well-known feature of Tibetan verb morphology, gaining much scholarly attention, and contributing substantially to

2769-502: The "nationality" in Sichuan , Qinghai , Gansu , and Yunnan . Lhasa Tibetan , or more technically, Standard Tibetan (natively called སྤྱི་སྐད spyi skad ) is used among post-1950s Tibetan emigrants to Nepal . Other Tibetic varieties such as Sherpa , Jirel and Yolmo are spoken in districts along the China-Nepal border . The national language of Bhutan is Dzongkha ,

2840-478: The 9th century the process of cluster simplification, devoicing and tonogenesis had begun in the central dialects, as can be shown by Tibetan words transliterated into other languages, particularly Middle Chinese but also Uyghur . The combination of the abovementioned evidence enables us to form the following outline of the evolution of Tibetan. In the 9th century, as shown by the bilingual Tibetan– Chinese treaty of 821–822 found in front of Lhasa 's Jokhang ,

2911-466: The Central or Eastern Tibetic languages: Continuous and progressive aspects The continuous and progressive aspects ( abbreviated CONT and PROG ) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This

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2982-503: The THL transcription system. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as Chomolungma for Mount Everest . Tibetan orthographic syllable structure is (C 1 C 2 )C 3 (C 4 )V(C 5 C 6 ) Not all combinations are licit. The following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in Lhasa , the most influential variety of the spoken language. The structure of

3053-579: The Tibetan language has also spread into the western world and can be found in many Buddhist publications and prayer materials, while western students also learn the language for the translation of Tibetan texts. Outside of Lhasa itself, Lhasa Tibetan is spoken by approximately 200,000 exiled Tibetans who have moved from Tibet to India , Nepal and other countries. Tibetan is also spoken by groups of ethnic minorities in Tibet who have lived in close proximity to Tibetans for centuries, but nevertheless retain their own languages and cultures. Although some of

3124-1351: The Tibetic languages, has been reconstructed by Tournadre (2014). Proto-Tibetic is similar to, but not identical to, written Classical Literary Tibetan . The following phonological features are characteristic of Proto-Tibetic (Tournadre 2014: 113). Reconstructed Proto-Tibetic forms from Tournadre (2014) include: Pre-Tibetic is a hypothetical pre-formation stage of Proto-Tibetic. *ty-, *ly-, *sy- were not palatalized in Pre-Tibetic, but underwent palatalization in Proto-Tibetic (Tournadre 2014: 113-114). Posited sound changes from Pre-Tibetic to Proto-Tibetic include *ty- > *tɕ-, *sy- > *ɕ-, *tsy- > *tɕ-, and *ly- > *ʑ-. However, Tournadre (2014: 114) notes that many Bodish languages such as Basum , Tamang , and Kurtöp ( East Bodish ) have not undergone these changes (e.g., Bake ( Basum ) ti 'what' vs. Proto-Tibetic *tɕ(h)i and Bake tɨ 'one' vs. Proto-Tibetic *g(ǝ)-tɕ(h)ik; Kurtöp la: 'iron' and Bumthap lak 'iron' vs. Proto-Tibetic *ltɕaks). Some Pre-Tibetic reconstructions, along with reconstructed Proto-Tibetic forms and orthographic Classical Literary Tibetan, from Tournadre (2014: 114-116) are listed below. The numerals in different Tibetan/Tibetic languages are: For

3195-528: The complex initial clusters had already been reduced, and the process of tonogenesis was likely well underway. The next change took place in Tsang (Gtsang) dialects: The ra -tags were altered into retroflex consonants, and the ya -tags became palatals. Later on the superscribed letters and finals d and s disappeared, except in the east and west. It was at this stage that the language spread in Lahul and Spiti, where

3266-509: The continuous aspect. This example is useful for showing English speakers the difference between continuous and progressive because "wearing" in English never conveys the progressive aspect. (Instead, "putting on" must be used). In Cantonese, the progressive marker 緊 can express the continuous aspect as well, depending on the context (so the example above could also mean "I'm wearing clothes" in addition to "I'm putting on clothes"), but in general,

3337-442: The coronal sounds i , d , s , l and n . The same holds for Tsang with the exception of l , which merely lengthens the vowel. The medials have become aspirate tenues with a low intonation, which also marks words having a simple initial consonant; while the former aspirates and the complex initials simplified in speech are uttered with a high tone, shrill and rapidly. Proto-Tibetic, the hypothetical proto-language ancestral to

3408-532: The cultural aspects of their region which has shared a close history with neighbours like Kashmiris and Punjabis since the arrival of Islam in the region many centuries ago. Old Tibetan phonology is rather accurately rendered by the script. The finals were pronounced devoiced although they are written as voiced, the prefix letters assimilated their voicing to the root letters. The graphic combinations hr and lh represent voiceless and not necessarily aspirate correspondences to r and l respectively. The letter '

3479-519: The effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs: The progressive aspect in English likely arose from two constructions that were used fairly rarely in Old and Early Middle English . The first used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende). This construction has an analogous form in Dutch (see below). The second used beon/wesan,

3550-502: The end of the clause . Verbs do not show agreement in person , number or gender in Tibetan. There is also no voice distinction between active and passive ; Tibetan verbs are neutral with regard to voice. Tibetan verbs can be divided into classes based on volition and valency . The volition of the verb has a major effect on its morphology and syntax . Volitional verbs have imperative forms, whilst non-volitional verbs do not: compare ལྟོས་ཤིག <ltos shig> "Look!" with

3621-670: The face of strong Punjabi cultural influence throughout Pakistan, has fostered renewed interest in reviving the Tibetan script and using it alongside the Perso-Arabic script . Many shops in Baltistan's capital Skardu in Pakistan's "Northern Areas" region have begun supplementing signs written in the Perso-Arabic script with signs written in the Tibetan script. Baltis see this initiative not as separatist but rather as part of an attempt to preserve

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3692-421: The following example: 我 I 著 wear 緊 PROG 衫。 clothes 我 著 緊 衫。 I wear PROG clothes I am putting on clothes. 我 I 著 wear 住 CONT 衫。 clothes 我 著 住 衫。 I wear CONT clothes I am wearing clothes. In the example, the progressive aspect expresses the fact that the subject is actively putting on clothes rather than merely wearing them as in

3763-428: The four tone analysis is favored by linguists in China, DeLancey (2003) suggests that the falling tone and the final [k] or [ʔ] are in contrastive distribution , describing Lhasa Tibetan syllables as either high or low. The vowels of Lhasa Tibetan have been characterized and described in several different ways, and it continues to be a topic of ongoing research. Tournadre and Sangda Dorje describe eight vowels in

3834-545: The greater Tibetan Plateau , and in the Himalayas in Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , Aksai Chin , Nepal , and in India at Himachal Pradesh , and Uttarakhand . Classical Tibetan is the major literary language, particularly for its use in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and literature. Tibetan languages are spoken by some 6 million people, not all of whom are Tibetan people . With the worldwide spread of Tibetan Buddhism ,

3905-700: The languages cluster as follows (dialect information from the Tibetan Dialects Project at the University of Bern): Some classifications group Khams and Amdo together as Eastern Tibetan (not to be confused with East Bodish , whose speakers are not ethnically Tibetan). Some, like Tournadre, break up Central Tibetan. Phrases such as 'Central Tibetan' and 'Central Bodish' may or may not be synonymous: Southern (Central) Tibetan can be found as Southern Bodish, for example; 'Central Tibetan' may mean dBus or all tonal lects apart from Khams; 'Western Bodish' may be used for

3976-417: The late fifteenth century and spread north from there, rendered participles and gerunds indistinguishable. It is at this point that a sudden increase in the use of progressive forms is visible, though they would not take their current form until the eighteenth century. Linguist Herbert Schendl has concluded that "with this feature, a polygenetic origin ... seems attractive, and at least the further extension of

4047-399: The non-existent * མཐོང་ཤིག <mthong shig> "*See!". Additionally, only volitional verbs can take the egophoric copula ཡིན <yin> . Verbs in Tibetan can be split into monovalent and divalent verbs; some may also act as both, such as ཆག <chag> "break". This interacts with the volition of the verb to condition which nouns take the ergative case and which must take

4118-501: The non-tonal western lects while 'Western Tibetan' is used for the tonal lects, or 'Bodish' may even be used for other branches of the Tibeto-Kanauri languages . Amdo Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan and Khams Tibetan, while Khams Tibetan has 80% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan. The Tibetic-speaking area spans six countries: China (PRC), Nepal , Pakistan , India , Bhutan , and Myanmar . Tibetan

4189-553: The option of studying humanistic disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China. This contrasts with Tibetan schools in Dharamsala , India, where the Ministry of Human Resource Development curriculum requires academic subjects to be taught in English from middle school. In February 2008, Norman Baker , a UK MP, released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day claiming, "The Chinese government are following

4260-460: The placename is uncharted on the map available to him. According to Suzuki's consultant , they migrated from Zayu County , Tibet more than a century ago although they still have contact with relatives living there, and there are few differences between the dialects of the four villages . Since Rawang people are the ethnic majority of the area, the Tibetans also have a command of Rawang , which

4331-522: The present participle (marked with the suffix -ing ). It is generally used for actions that are occurring at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "Andrew was playing tennis when Jane called him." indicates what Andrew was doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long Andrew played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would suffice: "Andrew played tennis three hours every day for several years." Salikoko Mufwene contrasts

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4402-464: The progressive is a language-internal development." In the Amazigh language, past continuous is formed by using the fixed participle ttugha (original meaning: I forgot); ttugha is added before the verb that is in the present tense. So we have: Ntta itari : he writes / he is writing Ntta ttugha itari : he was writing Present continuous is usually the same as the present tense. But in

4473-623: The related Devanagari script, which is also used to write Hindi , Nepali and many other languages. However, some Ladakhi and Balti speakers write with the Urdu script ; this occurs almost exclusively in Pakistan . The Tibetan script fell out of use in Pakistani Baltistan hundreds of years ago upon the region's adoption of Islam . However, increased concern among Balti people for the preservation of their language and traditions, especially in

4544-518: The same sound as the one following it. The result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, ཞབས zhabs (foot) is pronounced [ɕʌp] and པད pad (borrowing from Sanskrit padma , lotus ) is pronounced [pɛʔ] , but the compound word, ཞབས་པད zhabs pad (lotus-foot, government minister) is pronounced [ɕʌpɛʔ] . This process can result in minimal pairs involving sounds that are otherwise allophones. Sources vary on whether

4615-454: The standard language: Three additional vowels are sometimes described as significantly distinct: [ʌ] or [ə] , which is normally an allophone of /a/ ; [ɔ] , which is normally an allophone of /o/ ; and [ɛ̈] (an unrounded, centralised, mid front vowel), which is normally an allophone of /e/ . These sounds normally occur in closed syllables; because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants , there are cases in which one syllable ends with

4686-424: The superscribed letters were silent, the d and g finals were hardly heard, and as , os , us were pronounced ai , oi , ui . The words introduced from Tibet into the border languages at that time differ greatly from those borrowed at an earlier period. Other changes are more recent and restricted to Ü and Tsang. In Ü, the vowel sounds a , o , u have now mostly umlauted to ä , ö , ü when followed by

4757-485: The term "Tibetic" had been applied in various ways within the Sino-Tibetan research tradition, Nicolas Tournadre defined it as a phylum derived from Old Tibetan . Following Nishi (1987) and Beyer (1992), he identified several lexical innovations that can be used as a diagnosis to distinguish Tibetic from the other languages of the family, such as བདུན bdun "seven". The "Tibetic languages" in this sense are

4828-544: The understanding of evidentiality across languages. The evidentials in Standard Tibetan interact with aspect in a system marked by final copulae, with the following resultant modalities being a feature of Standard Tibetan, as classified by Nicolas Tournadre : Unlike many other languages of East Asia such as Burmese , Chinese , Japanese , Korean and Vietnamese , there are no numeral auxiliaries or measure words used in counting in Tibetan. However, words expressive of

4899-571: The word-initial consonant clusters , which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan , especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan. Like many languages, Lhasa Tibetan has a variety of language registers : Tibetan is an ergative language , with what can loosely be termed subject–object–verb (SOV) word order . Grammatical constituents broadly have head-final word order: Tibetan nouns do not possess grammatical gender , although this may be marked lexically, nor do they inflect for number . However, definite human nouns may take

4970-483: Was pronounced as a voiced guttural fricative before vowels but as homorganic prenasalization before consonants. Whether the gigu verso had phonetic meaning or not remains controversial. For instance, Srongbtsan Sgampo would have been pronounced [sroŋpʦan zɡampo] (now pronounced [sɔ́ŋʦɛ̃ ɡʌ̀mpo] in Lhasa Tibetan) and ' babs would have been pronounced [mbaps] (pronounced [bapˤ] in Lhasa Tibetan). Already in

5041-442: Was the main language of instruction in 98% of TAR primary schools in 1996; today, Mandarin is introduced in early grades only in urban schools.... Because less than four out of ten TAR Tibetans reach secondary school, primary school matters most for their cultural formation." An incomplete list of machine translation software or applications that can translate Tibetan language from/to a variety of other languages. From Article 1 of

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