Dzongkha grammar describes the morphology and syntax of Dzongkha, a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Bhutan. This article uses Roman Dzongkha to indicate pronunciation.
Dzongkha nouns distinguish between singular (unmarked) and plural, with the plural either unmarked or suffixed with ཚུ་ -tshu. The use of the plural suffix is not obligatory and is used mainly for emphasis. [1] [2]
Dzongkha nouns are marked for 5 cases: genitive, locative, ablative, dative and ergative. [3]
As in other Tibetic languages, compounding is the most common method for deriving new nouns in Dzongkha. A compound usually consists of two (or, less commonly, more) monossyllabic roots, which can be either free or bound. [4]
Root 1 | Root 2 | Compound noun | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
བསྟོད་ tö (praise) | ར་ ra | བསྟོད་ར་ töra (praise) | ར་ ra is a bound morpheme with no meaning of its own. |
ཁབ་ khap (cover) | ཏོག་ to (top) | ཁབ་ཏོག་ khapto (lid) | ཏོག་ to is a bound morpheme and means something like "top" in most (though not all) compounds. |
རྡོ་ do (stone) | གནག་ nak (black) | རྡོ་གནག་ donak (graphite) |
Person | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
1st | ང༌ nga (I) | ང་བཅས༌ ngace (we) |
2nd | ཁྱོད༌ chö (you) | ཁྱེད༌ chä (you all) |
3rd (m) | ཁོ༌ kho (he) | ཁོང་ khong (they) |
3rd (f) | མོ༌ mo (she) | |
honorific | ནཱ༌ nâ (he; she; you) | ནཱ་བུ་ nâb°u (they; you all) |
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (July 2024) |
In Dzongkha, there are 5 copular verbs that can be translated as "to be" in English: ཨིན་ 'ing, ཨིན་པས་ 'immä, ཡོད་ yö, འདུག་ du and སྨོ་ 'mo.
The comparative is indicated by the suffix བ་ -wa ("than") while the superlative is indicated by the suffix ཤོས་ -sho ("the most", "-est"). [5]
Hindu-Arabic numerals | Dzongkha numerals | Spelling | Roman Dzongkha |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ༡ | གཅིག་ | ci |
2 | ༢ | གཉིས་ | ’nyî |
3 | ༣ | གསུམ་ | sum |
4 | ༤ | བཞི་ | zhi |
5 | ༥ | ལྔ་ | 'nga |
6 | ༦ | དྲུག་ | dr°u |
7 | ༧ | བདུན་ | dün |
8 | ༨ | བརྒྱད་ | gä |
9 | ༩ | དགུ་ | gu |
10 | ༡༠ | བཅུ་ཐམ | cuthâm |
Dzongkha grammar describes the morphology and syntax of Dzongkha, a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Bhutan. This article uses Roman Dzongkha to indicate pronunciation.
Dzongkha nouns distinguish between singular (unmarked) and plural, with the plural either unmarked or suffixed with ཚུ་ -tshu. The use of the plural suffix is not obligatory and is used mainly for emphasis. [1] [2]
Dzongkha nouns are marked for 5 cases: genitive, locative, ablative, dative and ergative. [3]
As in other Tibetic languages, compounding is the most common method for deriving new nouns in Dzongkha. A compound usually consists of two (or, less commonly, more) monossyllabic roots, which can be either free or bound. [4]
Root 1 | Root 2 | Compound noun | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
བསྟོད་ tö (praise) | ར་ ra | བསྟོད་ར་ töra (praise) | ར་ ra is a bound morpheme with no meaning of its own. |
ཁབ་ khap (cover) | ཏོག་ to (top) | ཁབ་ཏོག་ khapto (lid) | ཏོག་ to is a bound morpheme and means something like "top" in most (though not all) compounds. |
རྡོ་ do (stone) | གནག་ nak (black) | རྡོ་གནག་ donak (graphite) |
Person | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
1st | ང༌ nga (I) | ང་བཅས༌ ngace (we) |
2nd | ཁྱོད༌ chö (you) | ཁྱེད༌ chä (you all) |
3rd (m) | ཁོ༌ kho (he) | ཁོང་ khong (they) |
3rd (f) | མོ༌ mo (she) | |
honorific | ནཱ༌ nâ (he; she; you) | ནཱ་བུ་ nâb°u (they; you all) |
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (July 2024) |
In Dzongkha, there are 5 copular verbs that can be translated as "to be" in English: ཨིན་ 'ing, ཨིན་པས་ 'immä, ཡོད་ yö, འདུག་ du and སྨོ་ 'mo.
The comparative is indicated by the suffix བ་ -wa ("than") while the superlative is indicated by the suffix ཤོས་ -sho ("the most", "-est"). [5]
Hindu-Arabic numerals | Dzongkha numerals | Spelling | Roman Dzongkha |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ༡ | གཅིག་ | ci |
2 | ༢ | གཉིས་ | ’nyî |
3 | ༣ | གསུམ་ | sum |
4 | ༤ | བཞི་ | zhi |
5 | ༥ | ལྔ་ | 'nga |
6 | ༦ | དྲུག་ | dr°u |
7 | ༧ | བདུན་ | dün |
8 | ༨ | བརྒྱད་ | gä |
9 | ༩ | དགུ་ | gu |
10 | ༡༠ | བཅུ་ཐམ | cuthâm |