Punctuation

Question 1

་
ཚེག་

Answer 1

intersyllabic tsheg (lit. “crack” or “snap”: the sound of a twig breaking): morpheme delimiter

Question 2

།
ཤད་

Answer 2

shad (lit. “stroke,” phonetic shé): marks the end of a section of text (tshig grub)

Question 3

། །
གནྱིས་ཤད་

Answer 3

(phonetic nyi shad: two shad/double shad): following a terminative particle or at the end of a line of verse.

Question 4

༏
ཚེག་ཤད་

Answer 4

tsheg shad: indicates a transition in a liturgy or ritual; key points in scriptural passages; or a pause at the end of a complex philosophical argument

Question 5

༐
གནྱིས་ཚེག་ཤད་

Answer 5

(also with the two tsheg horizontal on top instead of vertical) nyis tsheg shad: regarded as an incorrect rendering of ༑ or ༏

Question 6

༑
རིན་ཅེན་

Answer 6

rin chen spungs shad: a shad that follows a tsheg bar ཚེག་བར་ (“morpheme”: lit. “between tshegs”) that starts a new line

Question 7

༔
གཏེར་ཚེག་

Answer 7

gter tsheg (“terma break”): terma text delimiter: if a section of text is actually a gter ma གཏེར་མ་, a single terma symbol replaces both shad ། and double shad ། །

Question 8

༈
སྦྲུལ་ཤད་

Answer 8

sbrul shad (snake shad): separates sections of meaning equivalent to topics or subtopics, such as the start of a smaller text; the start of a prayer; a chapter boundary; or to mark the beginning and end of insertions into text in pechas. (i.e. indicates the end of a དོན་ཚན་ (section of text))