Tibetan Colloquial Disclaimer
Link to originalCAUTION
Those are my personal summarized notes on the great work done by Franziska Oertle and the SINI Sarnath International Nyingma Institute. They are not revised by teachers and I might have understood the material incorrectly. Also you will miss on the examples to illustrate the grammar points. Therefore they are not intended to be read on its own since it might confuse you. Some notes might not even be officially part of the material but reflections from our meetings!
When Asking You Can Prompt for a More Personal Versus General Answer
Through grammar it’s great you can prompt for questions expressing what kind of answer you want to get back (more personal, or general):
- ཁོང་མི་སྐྱིད་པོ་ཡོད་རེད་པས། Have you heard about it?
- ཁོང་མི་སྐྱིད་པོ་འདུག་གས། Have you experienced it?
Describing How Inherent or Momentaneous Features Are
Also specially you can add tone to the quality, imagine:
- ཁྱེད་རང་བཟང་པོ་རེད། It’s an essential quality, innate.
- ཁྱེད་རང་བཟང་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། You have heard about it and you tell him/her.
- ཁྱེད་རང་བཟང་པོ་འདུག It’s your opinion, your own finding.
What Tibetans say
མིག་མར་ལགས། Yes, but with yod red, it suggests more a past reading.
Assuming The Other Speaker’s Experience When Asking
When asking about a fact using འདུག or ཡོད་རེད། changes the perspective too. In བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལས་ཀ་མང་པོ་བྱས་གི་འདུག་གས། the asking person assumes the one answering has direct experience about this, if not ཡོད་རེད་པས། would be used. So that information is embedded into the question and the one replying will see the asking person assumes the replier has direct experience.
Expressing How Emotionally Close the Subject Is to the Speaker
In Tibetan you can also express tight links of relation to yourself: དཀར་ཡོལ་འདི་ངའི་ཡིན། however I am still not so sure about when speaking about someone you feel a very strong jo connection, like your dear beloved son you would be able to use the egophoric ངའི་སྤུ་གུ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ལ་འགྲོ་གི་ཡོད། instead of the non-egophoric གི་ཡོད་རེད། or གི་འདུག.
Expressing the Relationship of the Speaker with the Object
TO CHECK: The connection with the object can be shown as when you make a tea and offer it and you say ཇ་འདི་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་ཡིན།
Expressing Volition and Involition
Another wonderful feature of the language is that through the auxiliaries you can also express the volition of the action. I don’t know if you can freestyle and use non-volitional འདུག་ auxiliaries for volitional verbs to convey the idea, for instance, you started aiming to cook an egg but since your skills are very poor you ended up breaking it and producing an omelette, then could you say “ངས་ omelette བཟོས་སོང་།” instead of བཟོས་པ་ཡིན། ? In the case of forgetting perhaps is more clear ངས་དྲན་བརྗེད་མེད། ངས་དྲན་པ་བརྗེད་མ་སོང།
To Franziska it happened when speaking English to a Tibetan person who unintentionally made a mistake that she was about to say “(Don’t worry.) We all make mistakes”, and she realized it might sound intentional when a Tibetan reads it in English and translates it to his native tongue. Being aware of the connotations can help us catch those subtleties that improve our comunication, so in that case she changed the wording to “This happens to everyone.”.
Conditionals Using Egophoric Because it’s Our Imagination
In the conditionals the egophoric is used because it might be viewed as one’s speculation, one’s believe or imagination. “I believe that if this was the case then that would happen”. གནམ་བཤིས་སྐྱིད་པོ་ཡོད་ན་འཁྱམ་འཁྱམ་ལ་འགྲོ་གི་ཡིན།
Describing Oneself Based on Other’s Knowledge
Another one with the non verbs ཡིན་ རེད་ is using རེད་ for oneself when other’s already know about what “you are”: ང་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་དགེ་རྒན་རེད།
Habits Versus Punctual In Involitional
Another one is when something that is involuntary is recurrent or a habit: ང་སྒོ་ན་གི་འདུང། versus ང་མགོ་ན་གི་ཡོད།
Revealing Something New
The revelatory copula བཞག also adds information of wanting to express something new has been revealed.