Weeks 5 & 6: Tones Flashcards
Week 5 included Wylie for Sanskrit and the beginning of Tones, week 6 was tones. The tone portions are combined in this set.
ཀ ཅ ཏ པ ཙ ཤ ས ཨ
High tone (yellow); tone never changes
ག ཆ ཕ ཚ ཧ
Highest tone (green); tone never changes
ག ཇ ད བ ཛ འ
Lowest tone (blue: memorize these); tone raised slightly to red sometimes
ང ཉ ན མ ཡ ར ལ ཝ ཞ ཟ
Low tone (red); raised to high tone sometime
High tone 2nd syllable tendency
Generally in 2 syllable words, second syllable is pronounced high tone even if it’s naturally low tone: e.g. བོད་ཇ་ “tea” ཇ་ is pronounced higher than བོང་
If first syllable of disyllabic word is high, what generally happens?
Both syllables are pronounced high: e.g. རྟ་མོ་ “mare” sounds like two high tones
2nd syllable lowered tone for semantic purposes
The second syllable of a verb may be lowered in order to distinguish it from a noun or adjective. Examples are given in separate cards with duplicated spelling in questions.
འགྲོ་བ་ / འགྲོ་བ་
2nd syl. high: “transmigrator” (noun)
2nd syl. low: “to go” (verb)
མཅོད་པ་ / མཅོད་པ་
2nd syl. high: “offering” (noun)
2nd syl. low: “to offer” (verb)
གསལ་བ་ / གསལ་བ་
2nd syl. high: “clear” (noun)
2nd syl. low: “to clarify” (verb)
ཐུག་པ་ / ཐུག་པ་
2nd syl. high: “soup” (noun)
2nd syl. low: “to meet” (verb)
སྲུང་པ་ / སྲུང་པ་
2nd syl. high: “guardian” (noun)
2nd syl. low: “to protect” (verb)
Syllable sectioning: generally
1st syllable 2nd-3rd syllables
high low-high
(examples in separate cards)
སྙིང་རྗེ་པོ་
“beautiful”
pronounced high-low-high
སྤྱན་རན་གཟིགས་
“Avalokiteśvara”
pronounced high-low-high
There are variations in syllable sectioning. If middle syllable is naturally high-tone: ____
All three syllables might be pronounced high-tone (examples in separate cards)
གལ་ཆེན་པོ་
“important”
Prounounced high-high-high
སྒམ་པོ་པ་
“Gampopa”
Prounounced high-high-high
If the last syllable is a nominalizing particle such as པ and མ that emphasizes a gender distinction, _____
The last syllable will sound high tone and be separated from the first two as though they were a two syllable word. Examples in separate cards.
དགེ་སློང་མ་
“nun”
pronounced low-high-low
མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་
“ḍākinī”
pronounced low-high-low
Consonant restoration with adjacent letters
A normally silent prefix might be restored as though it were the previous syllable’s suffix. Examples in separate cards.
བཅུ་གཅིག་
“eleven”
pronounced cug cig
ས་བཀྲ་
“map”
pronounced sap tra
ཨ་མདོ་
“Amdo”
pronounced am do
མཁའ་འགྲོ་
“ḍāka”
pronounced khan dro
(the འ is “restored” as nasalization)
སྤྱོད་འཇུག་
Abbr. for “Bodhicaryāvatāra” which is Abbr. for “Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra” pronounced
cön jug (འ restored as nasalization)
Consonant restoration with superfix letters ར and ལ and also ལྡ, ལྗ, ཟླ. What happens?
Superfix ར or ལ could be restored. ལྡ, ལྗ, ཟླ produce nasalization, as with འ (examples in separate cards)
རྡོ་རྗེ་
“vajra”
pron. dor je
(ར restored from རྗེ)
དགའ་ལྔན་
“Tushita”
pron. gan den
(nasalization “restored” from ལྔ)
དཔལ་ལྡན་
“glorious”
pron. peln den
(nasalization “restored” from ལྔ)
ཡུལ་ལྗོངས་
“natural landscape”
pron. yüln jong
(nasalization “restored” from ལྗ)
སྤྱི་ཟླ་
“solar month”
pron. cin da
(nasalization “restored” from ཟླ)
tone for མནའ་
“vow”
high tone (yellow)
tone for ན་
“ill”
low tone (red)
tone for འཇའ་
“rainbow”
low tone (red)
tone for ཇ་
“tea”
lowest tone (blue)
tone for དུག་
“poison”
lowest tone (blue)
tone for སྡུག་
“pain/suffering”
low tone (red)
tone for མ་
“mother”
low tone (red)
tone for རྨ་
“wound”
high tone (yellow)
དག་
“pure”
dag
དགའ་
“joy”
dga’
གན་
“upward facing”
gan
གནའ་
“early times”
gna’
མན་
“from below”
man
མནའ་
“promise”
mna’
མང་
“many, a lot”
mang
མངའ་
“having”
mnga’
བུམ་
“cup”
lowest tone - blue
ཉེ་
“close”
low tone - red
མཉེ་
“to rub”
high tone - yellow
མར་
“butter”
low tone - red
དམར་
“red”
high tone - yellow
སོ་
“tooth”
high tone - yellow
གསོ་
“to restore”
high tone - yellow
དེ་
“that”
lowest tone - blue
བདེ་
“happiness”
low tone - red
ཡས་
“beyond”
low tone - red
གཡས་
“right”
high tone - yellow
ལུང་
“scripture, reading transmission”
low tone - red
རླུང་
“wind”
high tone - yellow
དེབ་
“book”
lowest tone - blue
སྡེབ་
“repetition”
low tone - red
ལོ་
“year”
low tone - red
བློ་
“mind”
high tone - yellow
གློ་
“cough”
high tone - yellow
རྣ་
“ear”
high tone - yellow
སྣ་
“nose”
high tone - yellow
ང་
“I”
low tone - red
རྔ་
“drum”
high tone - yellow
ལྔ་
“five”
high tone - yellow
སྔ་
“previous”
high tone - yellow
གོ་
“opportunity”
lowest tone - blue
མགོ་
“head”
low tone - red
བགོ་
“to wear”
low tone - red
སགོ་
“door”
low tone - red
ལོག་
“opposite”
low tone - red
གློག་
“lightening”
high tone - yellow
ཀློག་
“to read”
high tone - yellow
བློག་
“listen!”
high tone - yellow