A Textbook in Classical Tibetan is the first comprehensive course book in the Classical Tibetan language written in English. The textbook describes the grammar of pre-16th-century Classical Tibetan works for beginners and students of intermediate level. It is intended to cover the most essential topics that can be mastered within two semesters of an academic class. Classical Tibetan is a written Middle Tibetan language that has been in use in Tibet from the 9th century. Until the early 20th century it served all purposes, from administrative, to medical, to religious. Nowadays Classical Tibetan remains an important part of religious identity and services for communities also outside of cultural Tibet, foremost in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, but also elsewhere, most importantly in Europe, North America and Australia.
The main body of the textbook consists of an introduction to the Tibetan script, eighteen lessons, and a reading section. Each lesson elucidates several grammatical topics which are followed by an exercise and a word list. The chapter readings contain four supplementary readings. In addition to the main parts of the textbook, a brief introduction to Tibetic languages provides linguistic context for the language taught in the textbook, whereas the chapter Translations of Exercises and Readings contains translations and explanatory notes to the exercises provided at the end of each lesson, as well as to the readings.
A Textbook in Classical Tibetan is essential reading for both undergraduate and graduate students without any knowledge of Classical Tibetan, but also for those who would like to deepen their experience of the language by reading annotated excerpts from well-known pieces of Tibetan literature.
By:
Joanna Bialek
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 700g
ISBN: 9781032123578
ISBN 10: 1032123575
Pages: 376
Publication Date: 18 March 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Undergraduate
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Introduction Structure of the textbook Language history Tibetic languages and their genetic affiliation Geographic distribution of Tibetic languages Characterisation of Tibetic languages Tibetic languages in diachrony Written vs spoken Tibetic languages Classical Tibetan Tibetan script History The script Syllable Numbers Punctuation marks Word order in dictionaries Tibetan transliteration of Indian scripts Lesson 1 Word Tibetan as an agglutinative language Particles. An overview Noun Adjective Demonstrative Indefinite particle Noun phrase Grammatical case Exercise Word list Lesson 2 Word order in a clause Absolutive Copula ཡིན་ and its negation མིན་ Number Personal pronouns Exercise Word list Lesson 3 Locative Dative Copula ཡོད་ and its negation མེད་ Genitive Possessive pronouns Final particle འོ་ Exercise Word list Lesson 4 Tibetan verbs. An overview Intransitive verbs Terminative case Exercise Word list Lesson 5 Transitive verbs Tibetan as an ergative language Ergative Comitative Translation of clauses Exercise Word list Lesson 6 Elative Delative Negation Imperative Prohibitive Exercise Word list Lesson 7 Nominal particles པ་ ~ བ་ particle པ་ particle པོ་ ~ བོ་ particle པོ་ particle མ་ particle མོ་ particle ཀ་ ~ ཁ་ ~ ག་ particle ཀོ་ particle General remarks Exercise Word list Lesson 8 Converbs Coordinative particle Non-controllable transitive verbs Speech register Adverbs Exercise Word list Lesson 9 Gerundial particle Focus particle Diminutive particle Apposition Exercise Word list Lesson 10 Concessive particle Postpositions and postpositional phrases Possessive particle ཅན་ Adjectives ལྡན་ and བཅས་ Exercise Word list Lesson 11 Questions Nominalisation Relative clauses Exercise Word list Lesson 12 Case converbs Verb + case particle Verb + པ་/ བ་ + case particle Reading Lesson 13 Direct speech Indirect speech Interjections Compounds Modal verbs Causative verb འཇུག་ Reading Lesson 14 Passive Possessive attributes Complex attributes Ellipsis Omission of coreferential arguments Impersonal clause Other pronouns Reading Lesson 15 Morphology of transitive and intransitive verbs Other converbial particles Light verbs Incorporation Idioms Measure words Comparative and superlative Double case particles Ergative in quotations Reading Lesson 16 Auxiliary particle ཀྱིན་ Analytical verb constructions Concessive auxiliary རུང་ Purposive particle རྒྱུ་ Reading Lesson 17 Clause chaining Determiners Reduplication Numerals Reading Lesson 18 Impact of Sanskrit on Classical Tibetan Metrics Reading Readings Reading I: Householder Dbyig-pa-čan Reading II: The descent of Tibetan people from a monkey and a rock-ogress Reading III: The death of Mi-la Ras-pa’s father Reading IV: A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels Translations of exercises and readings Exercises Readings Linguistic glossary Appendices Appendix A: Writing instructions Appendix B: Transliteration systems. A comparative table Appendix C: Combinations of sub-, pre-, and superscripts with base letters Appendix D: Particles Appendix E: Semantics of converbial particles Appendix F: Analytical verb constructions Appendix G: Syntactic structures Glossary Symbols and Abbreviations Sigla References Subject index
Joanna Bialek is a research associate in the Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Germany.
