Nouns
Structure of the noun phrase
Nominalizing suffixes — ''pa'' or ''ba'' and ''ma'' — are required by the noun orCases
The classical written language has tenPronouns
There are personal, demonstrative, interrogative and reflexive pronouns, as well as an indefinite article, which is plainly related to the numeral for "one."Personal pronouns
As an example of the pronominal system of classical Tibetan, the ''Milarepa rnam thar'' exhibits the following personal pronouns.Hill 2007 Like in French, the plural (ཁྱེད་ ) can be used a polite singular.Verbs
Verbs do not inflect for person or number. Morphologically there are up to four separate stem forms, which the Tibetan grammarians, influenced by Sanskrit grammatical terminology, call the "present" (''lta-da''), "past" (das-pa''), "future" (''ma-'ongs-pa''), and "imperative" (''skul-tshigs''), although the precise semantics of these stems is still controversial. The so-called future stem is not a true future, but conveys the sense of necessity or obligation. The majority of Tibetan verbs fall into one of two categories, those that express implicitly or explicitly the involvement of an agent, marked in a sentence by the instrumental particle (''kyis'' etc) and those that express an action that does not involve an agent. Tibetan grammarians refer to these categories as ''tha-dad-pa'' and ''tha-mi-dad-pa'' respectively. Although these two categories often seem to overlap with the English grammatical concepts of transitive and intransitive, most modern writers on Tibetan grammar have adopted the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary", based on native Tibetan descriptions. Most involuntary verbs lack an imperative stem.Inflection
Many verbs exhibit stem ablaut among the four stem forms, thus ''a'' or ''e'' in the present tends to become ''o'' in the imperative ''byed'', ''byas'', ''bya'', ''byos'' ('to do'), an ''e'' in the present changes to ''a'' in the past and future (''len'', , , ''longs'' 'to take'); in some verbs a present in ''i'' changes to ''u'' in the other stems (dzin'', , , 'to take'). Additionally, the stems of verbs are also distinguished by the addition of various prefixes and suffixes, thus (present), (past), (future), ' (imperative). Though the final -''s'' suffix, when used, is quite regular for the past and imperative, the specific prefixes to be used with any given verb are less predictable; while there is a clear pattern of ''b''- for a past stem and ''g''- for a future stem, this usage is not consistent.Hill 2010 Only a limited number of verbs are capable of four changes; some cannot assume more than three, some two, and many only one. This relative deficiency is made up by the addition of auxiliaries or suffixes both in the classical language and in the modern dialects.Negation
Verbs are negated by two prepositional particles: ''mi'' and ''ma''. ''Mi'' is used with present and future stems. The particle ''ma'' is used with the past stem; prohibitions do not employ the imperative stem, rather the present stem is negated with ''ma''. There is also a negative stative verb ''med'' 'there is not, there does not exist', the counterpart to the stative verb ''yod'' 'there is, there exists'Honorifics
As with nouns, Tibetan also has a complex system of honorific and polite verbal forms. Thus, many verbs for everyday actions have a completely different form to express the superior status, whether actual or out of courtesy, of the agent of the action, thus ''lta'' 'see', hon. ''gzigs''; ''byed'' 'do', hon. ''mdzad''. Where a specific honorific verb stem does not exist, the same effect is brought about by compounding a standard verbal stem with an appropriate general honorific stem such as ''mdzad''.See also
*References
Further reading
* * *Beyer, Stephen, 1992. ''The Classical Tibetan language''. New York: State University of New York. Reprint 1993, (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica series, 116.) Delhi: Sri Satguru. *Hahn, Michael, 2003. ''Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache'' Marburg : Indica et Tibetica Verlag * * * *Hodge, Stephen, 2003. ''An introduction to classical Tibetan''. Bangkok: Orchid Press *Schwieger, Peter, 2006. ''Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache''. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH. *Tournadre, Nicolas (2003). Manual of Standard Tibetan (MST). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, p. 479. *skal-bzhang 'gur-med, 1992. ''Le clair miroir : enseignement de la grammaire Tibetaine'' (trans.) Heather Stoddard & Nicholas Tournandre, Paris : Editions PrajnaExternal links