A Lexicon of Tibetan Verb Stems as Reported by the Grammatical Tradition

Hill, Nathan W.

Abstract

This lexicon systematically presents the primary verb stems of Classical Tibetan as recorded in nine sources spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. The currently available dictionaries frequently and inexplicably differ as to the four stems of the Tibetan verb. This work serves as a first step in reconciling these conflicting reports and also provides a comprehensive survey of modern scholarship on the Tibetan verbal system. An index of every
orthographic form appearing in the text facilitates easy access. Not only does the dictionary stand as an important milestone in the study of the Tibetan verbal system, but it is also an invaluable resource for students and readers of Classical Tibetan.

Citation

Hill, N. W. (2010). A Lexicon of Tibetan Verb Stems as Reported by the Grammatical Tradition. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 19, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 12, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Series Title: Studia Tibetica
• ISBN: 9783769610048
• Related Public URLs: https://badw.de/en/publications.html?tx_badwdb_publications%5Bpub_id%5D=3693&tx_badwdb_publications%5Bfilter%5D%5Bbadw_for_id%5D=43&tx_badwdb_publications%5Bfilter%5D%5Bbadw_rei_id%5D=&tx_badwdb_publications%5Bsearch%5D=&tx_badwdb_publications%5BsortBy%5D=badw_pub_bandnr&tx_badwdb_publications%5BsortHow%5D=ASC&tx_badwdb_publications%5Bactive%5D=1&tx_badwdb_publications%5BcomeFromListView%5D=true&tx_badwdb_publications%5Baction%5D=show&tx_badwdb_publications%5Bcontroller%5D=Publications
• Additional Information: References : A kya Yoṅs ḥdzin dbyaṅs can dgaḥ baḥi blo gros (1971). The Collected Works of A-kya Yongs-’dzin. New Delhi: Lama Guru Deva. A kya Yoṅs ḥdzin dbyaṅs can dgaḥ baḥi blo gros (1989). “Rtags kyi ḥjug paḥi dkaḥ gnas bdag gźan daṅ bya byed las gsum gyi khyad par źib tu phye ba nyuṅ gsal ḥphrul gyi lde mig.” Tillemans and Herforth 1989: 39-60. [a critical edition of The Collected Works of A-kya Yongs-’dzin: 434-446 and Sde Srid 223-233]. A kya Yoṅs ḥdzin dbyaṅs can dgaḥ baḥi blo gros. “Rnam dbye brgya daṅ ṅa bya bye las sogs kyi khyad par mdo tsam brjod pa dkaḥ gnad gsal baḥi me loṅ.” [C]: The Collected Works of A-kya Yongs-’dzin 447-460. [Z]: Sde srid 209-222. Bacot, Jacques, F. W. Thomas, and C. Toussaint (1940). Documents de Touen-houang relatifs à l’histoire du Tibet. (Annales du Musée Guimet, Bibliothque d’Etudes 51). Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthener. Bacot, Jacques (1945). Grammaire du tibétain littéraire. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient. Beckh, Hermann (1908). “Beiträge zur Tibetischen Grammatik, Lexikographie, Stilistik und Metrik.” Abhandlungen der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin: Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Beckwith, Christopher I. (1996). “The Morphological Argument for the Existence of Sino-Tibetan.” Pan-Asiatic Linguistics: Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics, January 8-10, 1996. Vol. III. Bangkok, 1996. 812-826. Benedict, Paul (1972). Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1972. [Reviewed: Bodman, N. Linguistics: An International Review 149. (1975): 89-97. Chang, Kun. Journal of Asian Studies 32. (1973): 335-337. Coblin, W. South. Monumenta Serica 30. (1972-3): 635-642. Haudricourt, A. Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 68.2 (1973): 494-495. Lehman, F. K. Language 51. (1975): 215-219. Matisoff, James. “Benedict’s Sino-Tibetan: A Rejection of Millers’ Conspectus Inspection.” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 2.1 (1975): 155-172. Miller, Roy Andrew. “Sino-Tibetan: Inspection of a Conspectus.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 94. (1974): 195-209. Sedláček, Kamil. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 124. (1974): 205-206. Sprigg, W. K. Asia Major 19.1 (1973): 100-106]. Beyer, Stephen (1992). The Classical Tibetan Language. Albany: State University of New York Press. [Reviewed: Behr, Wolfgang. Oriens 34 (1994): 557-564. Davidson, Ronald M. Philosophy East and West 46.1 (1996): 119-122. Miller, Roy Andrew. Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.1. (1994): 67-76. LaPolla, Randy J. 1994. Language 70.1: 195-196]. Bielmeier, Roland (1988). “The Reconstruction of the Stop Series and the Verbal System in Tibetan.” Languages and History in East Asia: Festschrift for Tatsuo Nishida on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday. Kyoto: Shokado. 15-27. Bielmeier, Roland (2004). “Shafer’s proto-West Bodish hypothesis and the formation of the Tibetan verb paradigms.” Himalayan Languages. Ed. Anju Saxena. (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 149). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 395-412. Bodman, Nicholas C (1969). “Tibetan sdud ‘Folds of a Garment,’ the Character 卒 , and the *ST-hypothesis.” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 39.2: 327-345. Böhtlingk, Otto and Rudolph Roth (1855-1875). Sanskrit-Wörterbuch. St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften. Blo bzaṅ tshul khrims rgya mtsho (1957). “Bya byed las gsum dus gsum daṅ bcas dper brjod.” Bod kyi brdaḥ sprod sum cu pa daṅ rtags kyi ḥjug paḥi mchan ḥgrel mdor bsdus te brjod ba do mtshar ḥphrul gyi lde mig. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. 192-249. Byams pa rdo rje (1996). “‘Bcib’ daṅ ‘bźon’ źes pa byed med las tshig yin paḥi skor rags stam gloṅ ba [Remarks concerning ‘bcib’ and ‘bźon’ as intransitive verbs].” Mtsho sṅon slob gso 4: 53-54. Bsam gtan (1979). Dag yig gsar bsgrigs. Xining: Mtsho sṅon mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. Bzod pa rgya mtsho, ed. (1994). Mdzaṅs blun źes bya ba theg pa chen poḥi mdo. Xining: mtsho sṅon mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. Chang, Betty Shefts (1971). “The Tibetan Causative phonology.” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 42: 623-765. Chang, Kun and Betty Shefts Chang (1984). “The Spoken Tibetan verb kʌp.” Tibetan and Buddhist Studies Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. Ed. L. Ligeti. Budapest: Akadémia Kiadó. Vol I. 131-142. Chos kyi grags pa (1957). Brda dag miṅ tshig gsal ba bźugs. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. Cin buṅ [Jin Peng 金鵬] (1988). “Bod yig gi bya tshig gzugs ḥgyur baḥi rnams pa nas gzug mi ḥgyur can baḥi rnam pa can du ḥgyur tshul skor gleṅ ba [On the evolution of verbs in Tibetan Language from the inflectional to the agglutinative form].” Kruṅ goḥi bod kyi śes rig / 中國藏學 Zhongguo Zang Xue / China Tibetology 1.1: 97-108. Coblin, W. South (1976). “Notes on Tibetan verbal morphology.” T’oung Pao 62: 45-60. Coblin, W. South (1986). A sinologist’s handlist of Sino-Tibetan lexical comparisons. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag. Das, Sarat Chandra (1902). A Tibetan English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms, Eds. Graham Sandberg and A. William Hyde. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depôt, 1902. DeLancy, Scott Cameron (1980). “Deictic Categories in the Tibeto-Burman Verb.” Diss. of Indiana University. Denwood, Phillip (1991). “Some Rare Words in Tibetan Documents of the Early Period.” Tibetan History & Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Géza on his Seventieth Birthday. Ed. Ernst Steinkellner. (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 26). Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien. 129-136. Desgodins, Auguste (1899). Dictionnaire thibetain-latin-français, par les missionaires catholiques du Thibet. Hong Kong: Impr. de la Société des Missions étrangères. Eimer, Helmut (1987). “Eine alttibetische Perfektbildung.” Indo-Iranian Journal 30: 213-214. Emmerick, R. E. (1978). “Some lexical Items from the rgyud-bzhi.” Proceedings of the Csoma de Kőrös Memorial Symposium. Ed. Luis Ligeti. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. 101-108. Emmerick, R. E. (1983). “Some Lexical Items from the Siddhasāra.” Contributions on Tibetan Language, History and Culture. Eds. Ernst Steinkellner and Helmut Tauscher. (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 10). Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 1995. 61-68. Giorgi, Antonio (2001). Alphabetum Tibetanum, Teil 1. Trans. Peter Lindegger. Rikon/Zürich: Tibet-Institut. Goldstein, Melvyn (1991). Essentials of Modern Literary Tibetan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Goldstein, Melvyn (2001). The New Tibetan-English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Reviewed: Christopher Beckwith. Anthropological Linguistics 43.3. (2001): 395-398.] Grünwedel, Albert (1933). Die Legende des Nāropa, des Hauptvertreteres des Nekromanten- und Hexentums: Nach einer alten tibetischen Handschrift als Beweis für die Beeinflussung des nördlichen Buddhismus durch die Geheimlehre der Manichäer. Leipzig: Harrassowitz. Gyurme, Kesang (1992) (= Skal bzaṅ ḥgyur med). Le clair miroir: grammaire tibetaine. Trans. Heather Stoddard and Nicolas Tournadre. Arvillard: Editions Prajña. [Translation of Skal bzaṅ ḥgyur-med 1981]. Haarh, Erik (1969). The Yar-luṅ Dynasty. Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad’s Forlag. Hackett, Paul G (2003). A Tibetan Verb Lexicon: Verbs, Classes and Syntactic Frames. Ithaca, Snow Lion. [Reviewed: Hill, Nathan (2004). Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 6: 78-98. Zeisler, Bettina (2005): “On the utility of the Tibetan grammatical tradition.” The Tibet Journal 30.2: 69-92.] Hahn, Michael (1973). “Grundfragen der tibetischen Morphologie.” Zentralasiatische Studien 7: 425-442. [Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der Klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache und Beiträge zur tibetischen Wortkunde (Miscellanea etymologica tibetica I - VI). (Indica et Tibetica 10a). Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2003: 75-94.] Hahn, Michael (1974). Lehrbuch der Klassischen Tibetischen Schriftsprache. (Indica et Tibetica 10). Bonn: Michael Hahn; Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1994. Hahn, Michael (1994). “On some rare particles, words and auxiliaries in classical Tibetan.” Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the Sixth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Fagernes 1992. Ed. Per Kværne. Vol. 1.2. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. 288-294. [Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der Klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache und Beiträge zur tibetischen Wortkunde (Miscellanea etymologica tibetica I - VI). (Indica et Tibetica 10a). Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2003: 119-130] Hahn, Michael (1997). “A propos the term gtsug-lag.” Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. 341-348. [Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der Klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache und Beiträge zur tibetischen Wortkunde (Miscellanea etymologica tibetica I - VI). (Indica et Tibetica 10a). Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2003: 131] Hahn, Michael (1999). “Blags und Verwandtes (Miscellanea etymologica tibetica, VI).” Studia Tibetica et Mongolica (Festschrift Manfred Taube). Eds. Helmut Eimer et al. (Indica et Tibetica 34). Swisttal-Odendorf, Indica et Tibetica Verlag. 123-125. [Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der Klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache und Beiträge zur tibetischen Wortkunde (Miscellanea etymologica tibetica I - VI). (Indica et Tibetica 10a). Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2003: 144-147] Hill, Nathan W. (2004). “Compte rendu” (of Hackett 2003). Revue d’études tibétaines 6: 78-98. Hill, Nathan W. (2005): “The verb ‘bri ‘to write’ in Old Tibetan.” アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究 Ajia Afurika Gengo Bunka Kenkyū / Journal of Asian and African Studies 68: 177-182. Hill, Nathan W. (2007). “Aspirate and non-aspirate voiceless consonants in Old Tibetan.” 語言暨語言研究 / Languages and Linguistics 8.2: 471-493. Ḥjigs med nam mkhaḥi rdo rje (1966). Bod kyi brda skad ston paḥi bstan bcos. Dolanji: Tibetan Bonpo Foundation. Ḥjigs med nam mkhaḥi rdo rje. “Bod kyi sprod brda dus gsum skul tshig reḥu mig ḥdzad med rig paḥi mdzod chen.” [A]: Bod kyi brda skad 223-258. [B]: Phuntshok 81-108. Hoshi Izumi 星泉 (2003). 現代チベット語動詞辞典 Gendai chibetto go dōshi jiten / A Verb Dictionary of the Modern Spoken Tibetan of Lhasa: Tibetan-Japanese. (Asian and African Lexicon Series 62). Tokyo: Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Huang Bufan 黄不凡 (1981). “古藏語動詞的形態 Gu Zangyu dongci de xingtai [The Verbal Morphology in Ancient Tibetan].” 民族語文 Minzu Yuwen 3: 1-13. Inaba Shōju 稲葉正就 (1957). “仏典に用いられた チベット語動詞の用法の研究年俸 Butten ni mochiirareta chibettogo dōshi no yōhō no kenkyū nenpō [Studies in the use of Tibetan verbs in Tibetan Buddhist literature].” 大谷大学研究年報 Ōtani daigaku kenkyū nenpō 9: 243-248, supplement 1-42. Jäschke, H. A. (1881). A Tibetan-English dictionary. London: Unger Brothers. de Jong, Jan Willem (1973). “Tibetan blag-pa and blags-pa.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36.2: 309-312. de Jong, Jan Willem (1989). The story of Rāma in Tibet: text and translation of the Tun-huang manuscripts. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. Jin Peng 金鵬 (1956). “藏文動詞屈折形態在現代拉薩話裏衍變的情況 Zangwen dongci quzhe xingtai zai xiandai lasahua li yanbian de qingkuang [Verbal Inflexion in Classical Tibetan and Present-day Lhasa Dialect].” 硏究語言研究Yuyan Yanjiu 25-39. Jumian Gesang 格桑居冕 (=Skal bzaṅ ḥgyur med) (1982). “藏語動詞的使動範疇 Zangyu dongci de shidong fanchou [The causative category of Tibetan Verbs].” 民族語文 Minzu yuwen 5: 27-39. Kerang, Tan (1988). “On the morphology of simplex and causative verbs in Tibetan.” 民族語文 Minzu Yuwen 6: 42-50. Ko źul grags pa ḥbyuṅ gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzaṅ mkhas grub (1992). Gaṅs can mkhas grub rim byon miṅ mdzod. Xining: Mtsho sṅon źiṅ chen źin hwa dpe khaṅ. Lalou, Marcelle (1958). “Tibetain ancien Bod / Bon” Journal Asiatique 241: 275-276. Li Fang-kuei (1933). “Certain Phonetic Influences of the Tibetan Prefixes upon the Root Initials.” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 6.2: 135-157. Li Fang-kuei (1959). “Tibetan Glo-ba-’dring.” Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren dedicata, Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard. 55-9. Li yuṅ khraṅ (1988). Bya tshig tshig mdzod. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. [Excerpt of Zhang 1985]. Mkhar stod, Rdo rje dbaṅ phyug / Kharto, Dorrje Wangchuk (1979). Thumi dgongs gter: the complete Tibetan verb forms / Dus gsum reḥu mig Thu miḥi dgoṅs gter. Delhi: C.T. Charto. Ṅag dbaṅ bstan dar lha rams pa (1971). “Sum cu pa daṅ rtags ḥjug gi don go sla bar bsdus paḥi bshad pa skal ldan yid kyi pa dam ḥbyed paḥi snaṅ paḥi mdod bya ba.” Collected gSung ‘bum of Bstan-dar lha-ram of a-lag-sha. Vol. Kha. New Delhi: Lama Guru Deva. 155-214. Ṅag dbaṅ tshul khrim (1997). Brda dkrol gser gyi me loṅ. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. Nishi, Yoshio et al, eds. (1995). New Horizons in Tibeto-Burman Morphosyntax. (Senri Ethnological Studies 41). Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. Nishida Tatsuo (1994). “A personal view of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family.” Current issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics. Osaka, 26th international conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. 1-22. Nobel, Johannes (1950). Suvarnaprabhāsottamasūtra. Das Goldglanz-Sūtra. Ein Sanskrittext des Mahāyāna-Buddhismus. Die Tibetischen Übersetzungen mit einem Wörterbuch. Leiden, E. J. Brill. Phuntshok, Tenpa [Phun tshogs rten pa], ed. (1979). Bonpo Lexicographical Works: A collection of lexicographical and grammatical writing by two Bonpo Lamas Khyun-sprul ‘Jigs-med-nam-mkha’i-rdo-rje and Hor-btsun Bstan-’dzin-blo-gro. Dolanji: Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre. Regamey, C. (1946-1947). “Considération sur le système morphologique du Tibétain littéraire.” Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 6: 22-46. Richardson, Hugh E. (1985). A corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions. (James G. Forlong Series 29). Hertford: Royal Asiatic Society. Róna-Tas, András (1966). Tibeto-Mongolica: The Loanwords of Mongour and the Development of the Archaic Tibetan Dialects. (Indo-Iranian Monographs 7.) The Hague: Mouton. Róna-Tas, András (1978). “On a Term of Taxation in the Old Tibetan Royal Annals.” Proceedings of the Csoma de Kőrös Memorial Symposium. Ed. Louis Ligeti. (Bibliotheca Orientalis Hungarica 23.) Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. 357-364. Róna-Tas, András (1985). Wiener Vorlesungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte Tibets. (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 13). Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistiche Studien Universität Wien. Schneider, Johannes (1992). Der Lobpreis der Vorzüglichkeit des Buddhas: Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmins Viśeṣastava mit Prajñāvarmans Kommentar. (Indica et Tibetica 23). Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag. Sde srid saṅs rgyas rgya mtsho (1979). Blaṅ dor gsal bar ston paḥi draṅ thig dwaṅs shel me loṅ: A treatise on the Sixteen Fundamental Principles of Tibetan Administrative Law by Sde-srid Sans-rgyas-rgya-mtsho with 16 other prints of works on Tibetan Grammar and Orthography from 20th Century Lhasa New Zhol blocks. Dolanji: Sonam Drakpa Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre. Siklós, Bulcsu (1986). “The Tibetan Verb: Tense and Nonsense.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 49: 304-320. Simon, Walter (1971). “Tibetan ‘fifteen’ and ‘eighteen’.” Études Tibétaines: dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou. Paris: Libraire d’Amérique et d’Orient. Shafer, Robert (1950-1951). “Studies in the Morphology of the Bodic Verb.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 13: 702-724, 1017-1031. Skal bzaṅ ḥgyur med (1981). Bod kyi brda sprod paḥi khrid rgyun rab gsal me loṅ. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ. [Translated as Kesang Gyurme 1992] Skorupski, Tadeusz, ed. (2001). Bod dbyin tshig mdzod chen mo: bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo bcos snon byas paḥi deb / An encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary: A Revised Version of Bod rGya Tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: mi rigs dpe skruṅ khaṅ daṅ shar phyogs daṅ a hphri ri khaḥi śes rig slob gliṅ / The Nationalities Publishing House and The School of Oriental and African Studies, 2001. [Translation of Zhang 1985]. Sprigg, R. K. (1970). “Vyañj