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
