The Tibetan Phrasebook བོད་སྐད་ཀྱི་ཚིག་ཚོགས་དེབ་ཆུང་། A Phrasebook of Colloquial Amdo Tibetan
EzDean Fassassi Chaksham Tsering Ringzin Dorje Gabzang Tseten
Holistic Health Consulting Press
The Tibetan Phrasebook = bod skad kyi tshig tshogs deb chung by EzDean Fassassi ... [et al.] ISBN 978-1-7325849-0-7 Published by Holistic Health Consulting Press / Holistic Health Consulting, LLC. http://holistichealth.consulting/ Revised Edition. Š 2018 EzDean Fassassi, Chaksham Tsering, Ringzin Dorje, Gabzang Tseten Accompanying audio available at http://tibetanphrasebook.com/buythebook.html All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: press@holistichealth.consulting Cover by EzDean Fassassi.
Table of Contents Preface General Remarks Scenarios I. Introducing Oneself II. Eating and Drinking III. Visiting a Tibetan Family IV. Traveling V. At the Market VI. At School VII. On the Phone VIII. At the Clinic
Supplementary Resources
Book cover: Aerial view of the New Haihu Quarter, Xining City, Qinghai Province, July, 2013.
All photo credits Š EzDean Fassassi 2013.
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Preface The Tibetan Phrasebook is a phrasebook of the modern Amdo dialect of the Tibetan language. The Tibetan speaker's voices are native to Qinghai Province, the geographic heart of the dialect—where the majority of Amdo speakers are. Amdo Tibetan, one of the three main dialects of spoken Tibetan, is gradually gaining notoriety in the Western world. Given that during the past half-century, a great many Tibetans fled from Central Tibet, the Central, or "Lhasa" dialect has thus become the only dialect of Tibetan that many outsiders have come to know. As a result, now in the West, it is extremely rare to find institutions teaching dialects of Tibetan other than the Central dialect. Furthermore, despite the overwhelming proportion of Amdo Tibetans making their way into Western lands from the P.R.C. and changing the makeup of the Tibetan diaspora, the phrase "Tibetan language" remains assumptively identified as the Central dialect of the Tibetan language. Nevertheless, given China's economic surge and increasingly open borders, many Western academics, business persons, and tourists traveling to Amdo Tibetan regions of China, have developed an interest in the Amdo dialect. Still, despite the increasing need for Amdo instructional resources in the West, at the time of this writing, there are few tools for learning the Amdo dialect of Tibetan. The Tibetan Phrasebook was thus conceived as a project to help address this very need. This edition of the Phrasebook varies greatly from the previous one. In this version the emphasis is placed on real-life scenarios rather than an exhaustive treatment of colloquial Amdo Tibetan grammar. True to the socio-political realities of the Amdo Tibetan linguistic landscape, the content of this Phrasebook is meant to reflect actual situations that Amdo dialect learners are likely to encounter in the modern P.R.C. of the early 21st century. Consequently, eight different scenarios were chosen to reflect situations deemed most relevant to the average modern-day student of Amdo Tibetan. The methodology within each scenario is based on drilling sentence structures by using high-frequency phrases (at actual conversational speeds) and building upon the pattern of the original phrase by using an array of examples, substituting them in one by one. For beginner to intermediate students, repeating aloud after the native speaker is crucial in being able to not only understand the subtle phonemics, but also, to reproduce them. This point can not be emphasized enough. Repetitive listening and speaking also mimics the natural language learning process, enabling the learner to gradually internalize grammatical structures. In sum, the Phrasebook builds basic vocabulary by regularly repeating common words and clauses— so that a competency in pronunciation and high-frequency language is developed—in the context of common grammatical structures of varying difficulty. With such a foundation, the learner's conversational experiences become fertile grounds for development, as they are better able to both retain and reproduce words, phrases, and grammatical structures, given that there already exists something on which to build. In this manuscript of the Tibetan Phrasebook's revised edition, one can find a transcript of the colloquial Amdo Tibetan phrases, in English and Tibetan. Two different Tibetan scripts: the “headed” (Wylie transcription, dbu-can) script and the so-called “headless” (Wylie, dbu-med) script are displayed. The Phrasebook thus allows the learner to gradually expand listening and speaking skills into the written word. By reading along with the transcript, the learner is able to catch spoken material that may otherwise escape the untrained ear. Furthermore, by introducing common varieties of Tibetan writing early-on in the course of study, one is prevented from developing the habit of only recognizing a single form of the written language. There are many variations of Tibetan writing, but a mastery of these two principal categories allows for easy acquisition of their variants. As a disclaimer,
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this Phrasebook can be of use to students of all levels, but it is mainly intended for those with rudimentary training in literary Tibetan—it does not include Latin transcriptions, and it was not conceived for beginners learning to read Tibetan for the very fist time. Resources, both digital and print, abound for learning to read Tibetan, and so the beginner wanting to learn basic literary Tibetan should first refer to them. Finally, I'd like to thank my co-authors and teachers, Dr. Ringzin Dorje and Gabzang Tseten, Dr. Mona Schrempf, Chaksham Tsering, along with everyone else who helped make this edition a reality. Of course, any mistakes found herein are solely the responsibility of the authors, and we welcome any help in redressing any errors that we may have made. EzDean Fassassi Gaithersburg MD, USA August of 2018.
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General Remarks How to use this Phrasebook It is essential that this print edition of the Phrasebook be used with the accompanying audio on http://tibetanphrasebook.com/buythebook.html The Amdo dialect of Tibetan has a very rich and exigent system of phonetics that is difficult to completely transcribe in any script. In order to properly understand native speakers' speech and to in turn be understood, it is strongly advised that the learner always practice with accompanying audio until the full spectrum of the language's phonetic system has been internalized. As stated in the Preface, there are eight different scenarios in this Phrasebook, which can be studied in any particular order, though the sequence in which they appear does follow a certain logic. Each scenario is divided into a number of episodes as designated by Tibetan letters. These episodes are for the purpose of better orientating the learner, and to prevent being overwhelmed by the large amount of content. As the speakers read the Phrasebook, they will repetitiously re-read the sentences whenever an array of various examples are presented for substitution—the learner should do the same. Lastly, there is no glossary at the end of this phrasebook, as we sought to make the publication as concise as possible, including only that content considered essential in fulfilling the manuscript's objective. At the time of writing, there exist numerous English-Tibetan and Tibetan-English Amdo Tibetan dictionaries and lexicons, both digital and in physical print, which the student can more efficiently and effectively access for reference.
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Scenarios Introducing Oneself
ཀ Hi, my name's Dean; my Tibetan name is... བདེ་མོ། ངའི་མྱིང་འ་བདེ་ཨིན་ཟེའ། ངའི་བོད་མྱིང་འ་་་་་་ཟེའ།
བདེ་མོ་
ངའི་མྱིང་འ་བདེ་ཨིན་ཟེའ་
ངའི་བོད་མྱིང་འ་་་་་་ཟེའ་
Tserang Traxhi. ཚེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས།
ཚེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་
Ringzin Dorje. རིག་འཛིན་རྡོར་རྗེ།
རིག་འཛིན་རྡོར་རྗེ་
Dorje Tserang. རྡོར་རྗེ་ཚེ་རིང་།
རྡོར་རྗེ་ཚེ་རིང་
Traxhi Jyal. བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྒྱལ།
བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྒྱལ་
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Lozang Dhonjeu བློ་བཟང་དོན་འགྲུབ།
བློ་བཟང་དོན་འགྲུབ་
ཁ Hi, my name's Ellen; my Tibetan name is... བདེ་མོ། ངའི་མྱིང་འ་ཨད་ལིན་ཟེའ། ངའི་བོད་མྱིང་འ་་་་་་ཟེའ།
བདེ་མོ་
ངའི་མྱིང་འ་ཨད་ལིན་ཟེའ་
ངའི་བོད་མྱིང་འ་་་་་་ཟེའ་
Dawa Drolma. ཟླ་བ་སྒྲོལ་མ།
ཟླ་བ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ Lhamo Tserang. ལྷ་མོ་ཚེ་རིང་།
ལྷ་མོ་ཚེ་རིང་ Sonam Tsho. བསོད་ནམས་འཚོ།
བསོད་ནམས་འཚོ་
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Lhamo Drolma. ལྷ་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མ།
ལྷ་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ Drugmo Tsho. འབྲུག་མོ་འཚོ།
འབྲུག་མོ་འཚོ་
I have no Tibetan name. ང་བོད་མྱིང་མེད།
ང་བོད་མྱིང་མེད་
I have no Chinese name. ང་རྒྱ་མྱིང་མེད།
ང་རྒྱ་མྱིང་མེད་
Rinduo is my nickname, my full name is Ringzin Dorje. རིག་རྡོར་ངའི་གཅེས་མྱིང་ཡིན། ངའི་མྱིང་ཧྲིལ་བོ་འ་རིག་འཛིན་རྡོར་རྗེ་ཟེར།
རིག་རྡོར་ངའི་གཅེས་མྱིང་ཡིན་
ངའི་མྱིང་ཧྲིལ་བོ་འ་རིག་འཛིན་རྡོར་རྗེ་ཟེར་
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ག Where are you from? ཁྱོད་གང་ཟིག་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན།
ཁྱོད་གང་ཟིག་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན་ I'm from... ང་་་་་་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན།
ང་་་་་་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན་ America. ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ།
ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ་ Europe. ཡོབ་རོབ།
ཡོབ་རོབ་ Africa. ཨ་ཧྥེ་རི་ཁ།
ཨ་ཧྥེ་རི་ཁ་
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South America. ལྷོ་ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ།
ལྷོ་ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ་ Australia.
ཨོད་སི་ཁྲོའུ་ལེའེ་ཡ།
ཨོད་སི་ཁྲོའུ་ལེའ་ེ ཡ་
Central America. དབུས་ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ།
དབུས་ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ་
ང Where in...are you from? ཁྱོད་་་་་་གི་ས་ཆ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན།
ཁྱོད་་་་་་གི་ས་ཆ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་ནེ་ཡིན་ America. ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ།
ཨ་མེ་རི་ཁ་
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7 other roommates. འདུག་རོགས་གཞན་པ་བདུན་ཡོད།
འདུག་རོགས་གཞན་པ་བདུན་ཡོད་
ད Where did you learn Tibetan?
ཁྱེས་བོད་སྐད་གང་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན།
ཁྱེས་བོད་སྐད་གང་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན་ I studied for 1 year at University. ངས་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་ནང་ནས་ལོ་གཅིག་འ་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན།
ངས་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་ནང་ནས་ལོ་གཅིག་འ་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན་ I studied here in Xining. ངས་ཟི་ལིང་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན།
ངས་ཟི་ལིང་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན་ I studied for some months with a private tutor. ངས་ཟླ་བ་ཁ་ཤས་རིང་ལ་ངའི་སྒེར་གི་དགེ་རྒན་བསྟེན་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན།
ངས་ཟླ་བ་ཁ་ཤས་རིང་ལ་ངའི་སྒེར་གི་དགེ་རྒན་བསྟེན་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན་
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I learned a little from my Tibetan friends. ངས་ཙི་གེ་ཟིག་ངའི་རོགས་པ་གི་ཟུར་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན།
ངས་ཙི་གེ་ཟིག་ངའི་རོགས་པ་གི་ཟུར་ནས་སྦྱངས་ནི་ཡིན་ I only speak a little Tibetan. ངས་བོད་སྐད་ཉུང་ཉུང་ཟིག་བཤད་ཤེས་ཡ།
ངས་བོད་སྐད་ཉུང་ཉུང་ཟིག་བཤད་ཤེས་ཡ་ ན I'm sorry... དགོངས་པ་མ་ཚོམས།
དགོངས་པ་མ་ཚོམས་ I didn't understand that. ངས་དེ་ཧ་མ་གོ་ཐལ།
ངས་དེ་ཧ་མ་གོ་ཐལ་ could you please repeat that? ཁྱེས་དེ་བསྐྱར་བཟློས་ཟིག་བྱས་ན་ཨེ་ཆོག་གི
ཁྱེས་དེ་བསྐྱར་བཟློས་ཟིག་བྱས་ན་ཨེ་ཆོག་གི
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could you please speak a little slower? ཁྱེས་ཙི་གེ་ཟིག་དལ་མོ་བྱས་འེ་བཤད་ན་ཨེ་ཆོག་གི
ཁྱེས་ཙི་གེ་ཟིག་དལ་མོ་བྱས་འེ་བཤད་ན་ཨེ་ཆོག་གི I'm not so sure how to say this.
ངས་འདི་ཆི་ཤེ་བཤད་གྱོ་ས་བོ་ཟིག་མི་ཤེས་གི
ངས་འདི་ཆི་ཤེ་བཤད་གྱོ་ས་བོ་ཟིག་མི་ཤེས་གི
I can't find the words to express myself. ངས་ངའི་ནང་དོན་ཆི་ཤེ་བཤད་དགོ་འདུག་མི་ཤེས་ཀི
ངས་ངའི་ནང་དོན་ཆི་ཤེ་བཤད་དགོ་འདུག་མི་ཤེས་ཀི
I should go, it was nice talking with you. ང་འགྱོ་དགོ་གི ཁྱོ་ཁ་བརྡ་བྱས་ནོ་ཞེ་གི་སྐྱིད་པོ་རེད།
ང་འགྱོ་དགོ་གི ཁྱོ་ཁ་བརྡ་བྱས་ནོ་ཞེ་གི་སྐྱིད་པོ་རེད་ པ Goodbye! བདེ་མོ།
བདེ་མོ་
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A view of the North of Xining City from one of the peaks on North Mountain. Xining, Qinghai Province, August 2013.
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