Серия «Тибетский язык», курс 1: Тибетский алфавит, занятие 6

[Speaker 1]
So this will be a small class about super-joined letters, sometimes they're called head letters, go-yik, which means letters that are joined onto other letters at the top. Pieces or letters which are joined at the top of other letters, okay? So, there are three super-joined or head letters, and those are ra, la, and sa.

So these are the three Tibetan letters that can be joined on top of other letters. Why would you do that? By changing the spelling, you change the meaning, okay?

So when you add a head letter on something, it changes the meaning. It may or may not affect the pronunciation, and we're going to talk about that, okay? But so these are the three possibilities of head letters which are joined on top of other letters, okay?

So, let's start with ra. What's the mother letter of all Tibetan? It would be ka, okay?

And that's a full-size ka. When you join a ra, right, and a Tibetan r is always spoken from the ra, rolled, and it's never spoken from the front teeth on the inside of the lower lip as it is in English. Really, right, like, we don't say that in Tibetan, it's always, raffles have ridges, right?

It's like in Spanish, I think, right? Is it always drilled in Spanish? Okay.

Now, when you add a ra letter on top of another letter, you don't add the whole letter. You never add the whole letter. You chop it off here, okay?

So you only take this piece, the upper piece. And you shrink the other letter correspondently so the vertical space is the same, okay? So, ka with a head letter would look like this, okay?

Sorry. Okay, it would be the same vertical distance. It would shrink slightly to accommodate the new head letter, okay?

So this is a ra head letter on a ka, okay? Ka, now you have to remember your columns and your rows. You have to remember your columns and your rows.

People who didn't ever study columns and rows are instantly at a disadvantage when they start the head letters, or the super joined letters, because they don't understand the rules of pronunciation. So, because you've had columns and rows, you're going to be fine, okay? The first column in Tibetan is what?

Say it. Kacitabetsa. Say, kacitabetsa, okay?

Kacitabetsa, alright? High tone, unaspirated, okay? The head letter on the first column has no effect on the pronunciation.

Why? It's already high tone, it's already as emphatic as you can get, and it's already unaspirated, which is as active as you can get in Tibetan. Normally, unaspirated means active, aspirated means more passive.

So, ka is already as active and as high tone as you can get. If you add another letter on top of it to change the spelling, nothing happens to the sound. So, if you said ka, a Tibetan wouldn't know whether you were referring to this or that, okay?

Then you'd have to, they would say jor loket for me, which means what? Spell it out loud for me. Here you'd say kakyam.

Kyam means alone, okay? Kyamma is what? An inner channel, meaning the solitary channel.

So, kakyam means a simple ka, just plain old ka. Plain old means kyam. Kakyam.

But if you want to say, oh it's spelled this way, you'd say ra with a ka. Ra attached to a ka, okay? The Tibetan word for attach is ndok.

Say ndok. Ndok. The past tense of that is tak.

Okay, now we'll talk about that in about a hundred videos from now. But tak means past tense to attach something to something else. So, when you jor lok this, you say ra, katak, ka.

Ra, and then you, so you say the ra, and then ka is under it. Tak means attached. Ra, katak means a ra with a ka attached.

Say ra, katak. And then you say what's the result of that? Ka.

So, c-a-t, ka. Ra, katak, ka. Ra, katak, ka.

Got it? Okay, what's the difference in pronunciation? Nothing.

The spelling is different and they have a different meaning. For example, if this had a naro, it would be leather. And if this had a naro, it would be to dig.

So the meaning changes, okay? Because of the head letter. And on the first column, there's no change in the pronunciation.

It's still high tone, and it's still unaspirated, which is as emphatic and as active as you can get. Okay, now, you never have a head letter on the second column. Okay, what's the second column?

Give it to me, quick. Kaja tabata. Say kaja tabata.

Okay, you can't add a head letter on the second column, unless you're writing Sanskrit and we'll talk about that later. Okay, but you can add a head letter on the third column. What's the third column?

Kaja tabata. Use your eyebrows, please. Kaja tabata.

Kaja tabata. Does the third column exist in English? No, okay.

So here's ka, ka, okay? That's ka. Sorry for the slurping.

Add a ratak to it, and you come out with this. Again, you have to shrink the ka vertically, you know, so it doesn't take more vertical space, otherwise you'd have a problem. So this is ra, say ra, ga, tak, ga.

Okay, now, what's cool? When you add a head letter on a third column, which doesn't exist in English, it becomes the English sound. Which would be what?

Kaja tabata. Okay, say it without the head letter. Kaja tabata.

Doesn't exist in English. Add a head letter, the sound changes. Kaja tabata.

Kaja tabata. I got you. I have a job.

I have a dog. I have a... Bob is my friend.

Like kaja tabata, okay? So that's very important. So now you have really four column sounds, don't you?

Kaja tabata. Kaja tabata. Kaja tabata.

Kaja tabata. The second and the fourth now exist in English. Those ten sounds exist in English.

Got it? Okay, so that's the effect of the head letter. Now, what does the head letter do to the fourth column?

You tell me, guess. The fourth column is the nasals. Nga, nga, nga, ma, nga, nga, nga, ma.

Let's take one of them. Let's take this one. Nga, nga, nga.

Guess what would happen if I add, if I change it, what will happen? It'll go up, okay? That's the only thing it could do.

It's not aspirated, it doesn't apply. So let's add a head letter to nga. Again, the letter below has to shift and get a little shorter to accommodate the same vertical space, okay?

Otherwise it'd be weird to carve it. You'd have the carving, it'd be all weird. Say nga.

Nga, nga, nga, nga, nga, nga. Okay, you gotta be really careful. Nga means if.

Nga means ear, okay? And if you don't know all this stuff, 90% of foreigners who learn Tibetan have no clue. I've never met anyone in university who did it correctly, okay?

Period. It's very frustrating to work with them, okay? Say nga.

Nga, nga, nga, nga. Got it? Ka, gga, ka, gga, gga.

Come on, come on. Gga. High tone.

Gga. No change. You can't make it stronger.

It's already strong. The first column is already as strong as it can get, okay? Third column can change.

It can unaspirate, unvoiced. Ka. Gga.

God. Got you. Goober.

Okay? That's a real English g. This is not an English g.

Ka. You don't say, I got a dog. Okay?

Then gga. And then na? Na.

Na. Na. Do we have it in English?

Either one. We don't really. It's a mid-tone in English.

We just say na. You want to go? Na.

Okay? You don't say na. And you don't say na.

Okay? You want to go? Na.

Na. You don't say na. And you don't say na.

Okay? We don't have either sound in English, okay? So now we have a new column really, after the nasal column, which is now nga.

Say nga. Nga.

[Speaker 2]
Nga.

[Speaker 1]
Nga. Ma. Okay?

Nga means me. Nga means five, drum, or before. Nga means fish.

Nga doesn't have any special meaning, but it could have. Nga means if. Nga, or to be sick.

And nga means either ear, or nose. Okay? And, like the Heart Sutra has migme, nga-wa-me, nga-me, che-me, lu-me, yi-me-do.

The Heart Sutra, right? And if you don't know, you'll never say it right. Say nga.

Nga. Cool. So we finished the first of the three head letters, super joined letters, they're called in, you know, grammar to make it difficult.

We can call them head letters. How do you indicate that, how do you spell it out loud, how do you jor-lo-ka? You use the verb tak, which is the past tense of ndok, which is a very important word in kundok, like dron-dok, in the Mainomi school, to overestimate a thing, to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Very important philosophical term. Dok also means to project, when the seed opens in the mind and you project, that's called ndok. You dok a pen onto here.

You see what I mean? It's a very important word, but it means to attach something to something else. So tak is the past tense, okay?

So this is ra-ka-tak-ka. Say ra-ka-tak-ka. So you say the first letter, then you say the second letter, then you say stuck onto, and then you say what resolves.

You see? Ra-ka-tak-ka. Ra-ka-tak-ga.

So the ka is not the same as the ga, right? Ra-na-tak-na. Got it?

Alright, we have to do la and sa, and we're done with the head letters. See you next class.