The Verb To Do in rDzong-kha

I have always wondered about the rDzong-kha word for “to do,” which is spelled either as ’bad, sbed, or sbe. But my impression is that both of these are mistakes caused by ignorance. Actually it is the verb byed (“to do”) as in Tibetan (or Chos-skad for political correctness) and the difference in rDzong-kha being only in pronunciation. In rDzong-kha, the subscript (here y-subscript) is silent. Such a phenomenon is not unknown especially in Central Tibetan dialect such as in the pronunciation of sprang, spral, and spre’u.

Tshang-lha word for “whimper”?

Note that “whimper” means to “make a series of low, feeble sounds expressive of fear, pain, or discontent.” What would one say in Tshangs-lha? I think it is rims (verb) (cf. Tibetan rims nad).

ཨ་པ། ཨཔ།

It is interesting that in rDzong-kha a distinction is made between a pa “(biological) father” and ap “an elderly man” (mostly honorific, e.g. Ap mDo-phu). There is no doubt that ap is actually a mere syllabic contraction for a pa (e.g. phorp for phor pa “cup”). Similarly, “mother” in rDzong-kha is called a’i and am (a syllabic contraction for a ma) is reserved for a “lady” (honorific), a “respectable woman.” Strangely in a rDzong-kha dictionary (e.g. http://www.dzongkha.gov.bt/online/dictionaries/dz-en-dict/Contents/30-00-A.html), a’i is not recorded as a lexeme, whereas a ma is. There, a ma is said to mean both a “mother” and a “lady.” But one cannot deny the use of a’i in rDzong-kha in the sense of “mother” (as in a pa dang a’i “father and mother”).

Orthography (Tshangs-lha)

ཤིང་གླང་མ།

The Tshang-lha word for “pole of wood” is shing glang ma and this is the same word also found in some Tibetan lexicons. See, for example, the Thon mi’i dgongs rgyan (p. 66).

སྲོ་ལོ། 

The Tshang-lha word for “chilly” is sro lo and the orthography found in some Tibetan sources such as the brDa dag (s.v. sro lo sngon po) should be adopted.

དོ།  

In Tibetan do no longer seems to have the meaning of “to equal,” although Tibetan words such as do med and do zla  (brDa dag, s.vv.) seem to suggest that once do had the meaning of “to be equal” or perhaps even “to equal.” See q.v. zlo.

ཟློ།

It is reasonable to adopt the orthography zlo also for the Tshangs-lha verb meaning “to equal.” 

འཕྱེང་། 

In Tibetan ’phying ba means “to tie up” or “to roll up.” Perhaps the orthography for the Tshangs-lha equivalent of the same verb should be ’phyeng. E.g. wa ’phyeng mas “to tie up a cow [to a peg].”

ཀོ་ལོང་།

I wonder how many Tibetans would understand what ko long means. Every person who speaks Tshangs-lha would know what kho long is. It simply means “quarrel” or “dispute.”

Copula (Tshangs-lha)

བགྱི་ལགས།
མང་བགྱི་ལགས།
བཅའ།
མ་ལགས།

ཇང་རྡོ་རྗེ་བགྱི་ལགས། པད་མ་མང་བགྱི།
ཇ་/ཇང་ག་
མན་བཅའ།


བགྱི་བ་ལགས།
མ་བ་ལགས།
མཆོ་བ།
མ་བ།

Interrogative Pronouns (Tshangs-lha)

Interrogative Pronouns:


1. ཨེ་བུ་/བི། (e bu/bi) “who”
2. ཨོ་ག། (o ga) “where”
3. ཨོ་ག་ཁེས་པོ། (o ga khes po) “which* exactly,” cf. Jäschke 1881: s.v. khes pa
4. ཨོ་གཏད། (o gtad) “where to,” cf. Jäschke 1881: s.v. gtad
5. ཧང་། (hang) “what”
6. ཧང་གཏད་/གཏན། (hang gtad/gtan) “how”
7. ཧབ་གཏུར། (hab tur) “how much/many”
8. ཧ་ལ། (ha la) “when”

*Strangely, I am not sure how to say “which” in Tshangs-lha. The same word for “where”?

Where or Where to?

Where or Where to?

ག་གཏད་?

In rDzong-kha, the national language of Bhutan, “where” or “where to” is usually spelt ga ti (or ga sti?check) but I wonder if it goes back to ga gtad with etymology of “in which direction or facing towards what.” See Jäschke 1881: s.v. gtad.