Beginner's Step-by Step Guidebook - For Learning Tibetan

Beginner's Step-by Step Guidebook - For Learning Tibetan

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Book Specification

Item Code: NAH713
Author: Dorje Khedak
Publisher: Dorje Khedak, Nepal
Language: Tibet and English
Edition: 2016
Pages: 92
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 9.5 inch X 7.5 inch
Weight 190 gm

Book Description

Preface

When I was in south India many years back, I taught Tibetan to some of my foreign dharma friends. At that time I had a feeling that it would be beneficial if there were good books that can help one learn Tibetan; books that can help people who are interested to read and write this beautiful and rich language; books that people can carry in their classes as textbooks or self help guide so that they can learn Tibetan by themselves. A year later in 2005, I started making such a book and finally succeeded by publishing and printing 500 copies. With the passage of time, many people appreciated the book and with the increasing demand, I am bringing out the improved and revised second edition.

The aim of making this particular book is to benefit students who have an interest to learn the basics of Tibetan language starting from the alphabet. The students can be either foreigners or those who are traditionally related to the Himalayan Buddhist culture. Since Tibetan Buddhism spread to different parts of the world in the last few decades, there is a significant increase in the number of foreign students who are interested to learn Tibetan. On the other hand, the new generation of Tibetans and Himalayan Buddhists born in the foreign countries are facing great difficulties in learning their mother language. In fact, many of the Tibetan youngsters who are put into English medium schools at a tender age have not even seen the Tibetan alphabets let alone studying them. In order to help these two types of people, I have prepared this book. Generally, for Tibetan children living in a Tibetan family, learning Tibetan is not as challenging as learning other languages like English, Chinese, Arabic, European languages, and so forth, because Tibetan is their mother tongue. The only thing that they need in order to learn Tibetan is a little diligence, interest, resource and guidance.

To have a basic knowledge of Tibetan language, one needs to learn just 41 letters: 4 vowels, 30 consonants, 3 superscript) and 4 (subscript). If you want to learn how to read and write perfectly, you should learn only 107 letters: 4 vowels 30 consonants 12 superscript, 10 superscript, 11 superscript , 6 subscript, 12 subscript and three punctuation marks which appear in the beinging, middle and end of the words with symbols like head letter, the dot, and the brush stroke.

The literary tibetan based upon the four vowels and thirty consonants are commonly used all over the Himalayan regions of Tibet, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, and so on. The knowledge of colloquial Tibetan does not ensures the knowledge of the literary Tibetan, This is a fact as there are many Tibetans who can speak Tibetan fluently, but cannot write even a single sentence and read it correctly. Therefore, speaking and writing both are very important.

This book is designed as a step-by-step method for learning how to read Tibetan systematically without much intricate details. I have seen many people reading Tibetan prayers with the help of transliterations in English, Chinese or Nepali that are mostly incorrect. Hence, one should try to read the Tibetan without the help of phonetics to achieve accuracy.

This book will definitely enable people to read Tibetan directly without relying upon transliteration. I also hope that after studying this book, learning to speak Tibetan and pronounce Tibetan words will be much easier.

It is very difficult to transliterate Tibetan pronunciation perfectly into English letters. Thus, I recommend you to learn from someone who knows Tibetan well for your good pronunciation.

I heartily thank everyone who helped me to complete this book including Khenpo Sonam Tsewang.

Finally, I dedicate this book for the preservation of the Tibetan language based Dharma and culture which has the power of bringing peace and harmony on this planet. I pray for the longevity of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Penor Rinpoche's Yangsi, and all the great living masters.

Contents

1 Biography of Thonmi Sambhota 1
PART ONE

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

2 Eight symbols of the origin points of the letters 4
3 Thirty consonants 5
3 The origin of the thirty consonants 6
4 How to pronounce in English? 8
5 Some single letters have meaning 10
6 The four vowels 10
7 How to pronounce when four vowels are used with thirty consonants? 12
8 Words formed by combination of vowels and consonants 18
10 Vocabulary 19
11 Prefix, root letter, suffix and post suffix 21
PART TWO
THE STEP-BY-STEP METHOD OF LEARNING HOW TO READ TIBETAN

12 Learn how to spell tibetan letters 22
13 Ten suffixes with root letters 23
14 Read the two words together 24
15 Root letter with the vowels and suffixes 26
16 Root letter with the five prefixes 28
17 Root letter with both the prefix and suffix 30
18 Post suffixes after the suffixes 31
19 How Tibetan letter is read 32
20 Root letters that change their sounds with prefixes 33
THREE GOCHEN (SUPERSCRIPTS)
21 Rago, the superscript Ra 34
22 Superscript Ra with suffixes, prefixes, vowels and post suffixes 35
23 Lago, the superscript La 37
24 Superscript La with the suffixes, prefixes and vowels 38
25 Sago, the superscript Sa 39
26 Superscript Sa with the suffixes, prefixes and vowels 40
FOUR DOGCHEN (SUBSCRIPTS)
27 7 Yatag 42
28 12 Ratag 44
29 6 Latag 46
30 12 Wazur 48
DOUBLE AND TRIPLE STACKED LETTERS AND OTHERS

31 Example of Ba root letter which change with Da prefix 49
32 Double and triple stacked letters 50
33 How to read both subscribed and superscribed letters together? 51
PART THREE

LEARN HOW TO READ TIBETAN CONDENSED or SHORTHAND WORDS

34 Recite the prayers 54
35 The way of reading tibetan sentences 56
36 The prefixes used only with consonants 57
37 Language pronunciation 60
PART FOUR

USED IN SANSKRIT

38 The six reversed letters (Log yig drug) 61
39 Five heavy sounding letters (Thugpo nga) 61
GENDER LETTERS
40 Root letters 62
41 Prefixes 63
42 Suffixes 65
PART FIVE
DIFFERENT WRITTEN TIBETAN LETTERS

43 Explanation of Wu-chen written letters 67
44 Others 70
45 Seven seals that avoid mistakes 78
46 Introduction to tenses and nmbers etc 81
47 Explanation of the book cover 85








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