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3.2 Prefix Letters (སྔོན་འཇུག)

simple illustration of a Yak with Tibetan text below
“Illustrations of Tibetan materia medica” is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The Five Prefix Letters: སྔོན་འཇུག་ལྔ།

ག་ ད་ བ་ མ་ འ་

The pronunciation changes when conjugating the five prefix letters for the following five letters.

Their pronunciation changes into a nasalized, un-aspirated low tone.

Sample Words

Use the audio file to practice spelling and pronouncing it.


Number 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Letter ག ཇ་ ད་ བ་ ཛ་
Tibetan Word དགར། འཇའ། བདག འབར། མཛངས།
English Meaning separate rainbow self ablaze learned
Number Letter Tibetan Word English Meaning
1. ག དགར། separate
2. ཇ་ འཇའ། rainbow
3. ད་ བདག self
4. བ་ འབར། ablaze
5. ཛ་ མཛངས། learned

The pronunciation changes when conjugating the five prefix letters for the following five letters.

Their pronunciation changes to a high tone.

More Sample Words

Use the audio file to practice spelling and pronouncing it.

Number 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Letter ང་ ཉ་ ན་ མ་ ཡ་
Tibetan Word མངར། གཉན། གནན། དམར། གཡག
English Meaning sweet argali to press down red yak
Number Letter Tibetan Word English Meaning
1. ང་ མངར། sweet
2. ཉ་ གཉན། argali
3. ན་ གནན། to press down
4. མ་ དམར། red
5. ཡ་ གཡག yak

Exception Case of Letter (བ) 1

In the case of the letter བ་ where it is the second syllable of the word, the sound of the letter བ་ is modified and pronounced as Wa (ཝ) instead of its original sound Ba.

Sample Words

Use the audio file to practice spelling and pronouncing it

Number 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Tibetan Word ཁ་བ། རེ་བ། བདེ་བ། རྒོ་བ། བྱ་བ།
English Meaning snow hope happiness antelope action
Number Tibetan Word English Meaning
1. ཁ་བ། snow
2. རེ་བ། hope
3. བདེ་བ། happiness
4. རྒོ་བ། antelope
5. བྱ་བ། action

Exception Case of Letter (བ) 2

In this case of letter བ་ where it is prefixed with the prefix letter ད་ the letter བ་ is modified and pronounced as Wa (ཝ) instead of its original sound Ba.

Sample Words

Use the audio file to practice spelling and pronouncing it.

Number 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Tibetan Word དབར། དབང་། དབེན་པ། དབྱར་ཁ། དབྱིབས། དབྲལ། དབུལ་པོ། དབྱུག་པ།
English Meaning in between power remote summer shape to tear poor person stick
Number Tibetan Word English Meaning
1. དབར། in between
2. དབང་། power
3. དབེན་པ། remote
4. དབྱར་ཁ། summer
5. དབྱིབས། shape
6. དབྲལ། to tear
7. དབུལ་པོ། poor person
8. དབྱུག་པ། stick

Challenge Yourself

Activity 1: Speaking

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Number Tibetan English
1. དགར། separate
2. འཇའ། rainbow
3. བདག Self
4. འབར། ablaze
5. མཛངས། learned
6. མངར། sweet
7. གཉན། argali
8 གནན། to press down
9. དམར། red
10. གཡག yak
11. དབར། in between
12. དབང་། power
13. དབེན་པ། remote
14. དབྱར་ཁ། summer
15. དབྱིབས། shape
16. དབྲལ། to tear
17. དབུལ་པོ། poor person
18. དབྱུག་པ། stick
19. རེ་བ། hope
20. བདེ་བ། happiness

License

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Basic Tibetan Copyright © by Jampa Khedup; Sonam Tsering; Rajiv Ranjan; and Erlin Barnard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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