# Classical Tibetan

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Early form of Tibetan language

"Choke language" redirects here; not to be confused with [Chokwe language](/source/Chokwe_language) or [Choco languages](/source/Choco_languages).

Classical Tibetan Region Tibet, North Nepal, Sikkim Era 9th century onwards[1] Language family Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? Bodish Tibetic Classical Tibetan Early form Old Tibetan Writing system Tibetan script Language codes ISO 639-3 xct Linguist List xct Glottolog clas1254

**Classical Tibetan**, sometimes called **Chöke** in [Bhutan](/source/Bhutan),[2] is a [liturgical language](/source/Sacred_language) of [Tibetan Buddhism](/source/Tibetan_Buddhism) that dates from the 9th century. It particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from other languages, especially [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit). It is one of the handful of '[living](/source/Modern_language)' [classical languages](/source/Classical_languages) along with [Arabic](/source/Arabic), [Ge'ez](/source/Ge'ez), and [New Persian](/source/New_Persian), though it meaningfully differs from [Modern Standard Tibetan](/source/Modern_Lhasa_Tibetan_grammar).

## History

There are four recognised stages of Tibetan: Archaic, [Old](/source/Old_Tibetan), Classical, Medieval and [Modern](/source/Lhasa_Tibetan). Old Tibetan was used from the seventh century to translate mostly [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit) texts from the [Mahāyāna Buddhist](/source/Mahayana) canon, though standardization in 816 CE during the reign of King [Sadnalegs](/source/Sadnalegs) gave rise to the form of the language known as Classical Tibetan.[3][4] Some medieval writers strayed from this written standard by using more colloquial phrases and words, compound words, and omitting case particles. This process continued to create the current differences between Modern Literary Tibetan and Classical Tibetan.[3]

The [grammar](/source/Grammar) varies greatly depending on period and geographic origin of the author.[5]

## Phonology

The [phonology](/source/Phonology) implied by Classical Tibetan [orthography](/source/Orthography) is very similar to the phonology of Old Tibetan.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] The following information is based on Hodge's description of Classical Tibetan.[3]

### Consonants

Consonant phonemes Labial Coronal Dorsal Nasal m ⟨མ⟩ n ⟨n~'⟩ ⟨ན~འ⟩[i] ŋ ⟨ng⟩ ⟨ང⟩ Plosive voiceless p ⟨པ⟩ t ⟨ཏ⟩ k ⟨ཀ⟩ aspirated pʰ ⟨ph⟩ ⟨ཕ⟩ tʰ ⟨th⟩ ⟨ཐ⟩ kʰ ⟨kh⟩ ⟨ཁ⟩ voiced b ⟨བ⟩ d ⟨ད⟩ ɡ ⟨ག⟩ Affricate voiceless ts ⟨ཙ⟩ t͡ʃ ⟨c⟩ ⟨ཅ⟩ aspirated tsʰ ⟨tsh⟩ ⟨ཚ⟩ t͡ʃʰ ⟨ch⟩ ⟨ཆ⟩ voiced dz ⟨ཛ⟩ d͡ʒ ⟨j⟩ ⟨ཇ⟩ Fricative voiceless ɬ ⟨lh⟩ ⟨ལྷ⟩ h ⟨h⟩ ⟨ཧ⟩ voiceless high tone ˥s ⟨s⟩ ⟨ས⟩ ˥ʃ ⟨sh⟩ ⟨ཤ⟩ voiceless low tone ˩s ⟨z⟩ ⟨ཟ⟩ ˩ʃ ⟨zh⟩ ⟨ཞ⟩ Trill voiced r ⟨ར⟩ Approximant voiced w ⟨ཝ⟩ l ⟨ལ⟩ j ⟨y⟩ ⟨ཡ⟩

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ' ⟨འ⟩ is usually silent, but may be pronounced [n] when occurring as a prefix.

Prefixes are usually silent with the exception of db- when preceding a, e, or o, where it is realized as [w]. The suffixes -g and -b are devoiced to /k/ and /p/, and the suffixes -d and -s are silent.

### Vowels

Vowel phonemes Front Back High ɪ ⟨i⟩ ི u ུ Mid e ེ o ོ Low ɑ ⟨a⟩ -

/ɑ/, /u/, and /o/ are raised to [ɛ], u [y], o [ø~œ] before the suffixes -d /∅/, -s /∅/, -n /n/, and -l /l/. All vowels are lengthened before the -gs /∅/ suffix.[3]

## Nouns

### Structure of the noun phrase

Nominalizing suffixes — *pa* or *ba* and *ma* — are required by the [noun](/source/Noun) or [adjective](/source/Adjective) that is to be singled out;

- *po* or *bo* ([masculine](/source/Grammatical_gender)) and *mo* ([feminine](/source/Grammatical_gender)) are used for distinction of gender.

The [plural](/source/Plural) is denoted, when required, by adding the morpheme *-rnams*; when the collective nature of the plurality is stressed the morpheme *-dag* is instead used. These two morphemes combine readily (e.g. *rnams-dag* 'a group with several members', and *dag-rnams* 'several groups').[6]

### Cases

The classical written language has ten [cases](/source/Grammatical_case), listed below, though scholars differ in their analyses.[7] Traditional Tibetan grammarians do not distinguish case markers in this manner, but rather distribute these case morphemes (excluding *-dang* and *-bas*) into the eight cases of [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit_language). *-la*, *-na* and *-tu etc.* are traditionally grouped as the *la don* particles, as *-las* and *-nas* are as *’byung khungs*.[8]

Comparison of case analyses Particles Traditional Delancey (2003) Tournadre (2010) Hill (2011) Hodge (2015)[3] -∅ unmarked morphologically nominative, vocative zero marking absolutive - -ཀྱི་ -kyi, -གྱི་ -gyi, -གི་ -gi, -འི་ -'i, -ཡི་ -yi genitive -ཀྱིས་ -kyis, གྱིས་ -gyis, -གིས་ -gis, -ས་ -s, -ཡིས་ -yis instrumental ergative/instrumental agentive instrumental -ལ་ -la la-don-gyi sgra (morphemes with the same meaning as la) locative/allative dative allative oblique (locative/allative) -ན་ -na locative/illative locative -ཏུ་ -tu, -དུ་ -du, -ར་ -r, -རུ་ -ru, -སུ་ -su terminative purposive terminative general subordination -ལས་ -las ’byung khungs (source) ablative -ནས་ -nas elative prolative -དང་ -dang - - associative conjunctive -བས་ -bas - - comparative -

Case markers are affixed to entire noun phrases, not to individual words (i.e. [Gruppenflexion](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gruppenflexion)).

### Pronouns

There are personal, demonstrative, interrogative and reflexive [pronouns](/source/Pronoun), as well as an [indefinite article](/source/Indefinite_article), which is plainly related to the numeral for "one."[9]

#### Personal pronouns

As an example of the pronominal system of classical Tibetan, the *Milarepa rnam thar*, exhibits the following personal pronouns.[10]

Person Singular Plural First person ང་ nga ངེད་ nged First + Second རང་རེ་ rang-re Second person ཁྱོད་ khyod ཁྱེད་ khyed Third person ཁོ་ kho ཁོང་ khong

The plural (ཁྱེད་ *khyed*) can be used as a [polite singular](/source/T%E2%80%93V_distinction).[10]

## Verbs

[Verbs](/source/Verb) do not inflect for person or number. Morphologically there are up to four separate stem forms, which the Tibetan grammarians, influenced by Sanskrit grammatical terminology, call the "present" (*lta-da*), "past" (*'das-pa*), "future" (*ma-'ongs-pa*), and "imperative" (*skul-tshigs*), although the precise semantics of these stems is still controversial. The so-called future stem is not a true future, but conveys the sense of necessity or obligation.

The majority of Tibetan verbs fall into one of two categories, those that express implicitly or explicitly the involvement of an agent, marked in a sentence by the instrumental particle (*kyis*, etc.) and those that express an action that does not involve an agent. Tibetan grammarians refer to these categories as *tha-dad-pa* and *tha-mi-dad-pa* respectively. Although these two categories often seem to overlap with the English[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] grammatical concepts of transitive and intransitive, most modern writers on Tibetan grammar have adopted the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary", based on native Tibetan descriptions.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Most involuntary verbs lack an imperative stem.

### Inflection

Many verbs exhibit stem ablaut among the four stem forms, thus *a* or *e* in the present tends to become *o* in the imperative *byed*, *byas*, *bya*, *byos* ('to do'), an *e* in the present changes to *a* in the past and future (*len*, *blangs*, *blang*, *longs* 'to take'); in some verbs a present in *i* changes to *u* in the other stems (*'dzin*, *bzung*, *gzung*, *zung* 'to take'). Additionally, the stems of verbs are also distinguished by the addition of various prefixes and suffixes, thus *sgrub* (present), *bsgrubs* (past), *bsgrub* (future), '*sgrubs* (imperative). Though the final *-s* suffix, when used, is quite regular for the past and imperative, the specific prefixes to be used with any given verb are less predictable; while there is a clear pattern of *b-* for a past stem and *g-* for a future stem, this usage is not consistent.[11]

Meaning present past future imperative do བྱེད་ byed བྱས་ byas བྱ་ bya བྱོས་ byos take ལེན་ len བླངས་ blangs བླང་ blang ལོངས་ longs take འཛིན་ 'dzin བཟུངས་ bzungs གཟུང་ gzung ཟུངས་ zungs accomplish སྒྲུབ་ sgrub བསྒྲུབས་ bsgrubs བསྒྲུབ་ bsgrub སྒྲུབས་ sgrubs

Only a limited number of verbs are capable of four changes; some cannot assume more than three, some two, and many only one. This relative deficiency is made up by the addition of auxiliaries or suffixes both in the classical language and in the modern dialects.[12]

### Negation

Verbs are negated by two prepositional particles: *mi* and *ma*. *Mi* is used with present and future stems. The particle *ma* is used with the past stem; prohibitions do not employ the imperative stem, rather the present stem is negated with *ma*. There is also a negative stative verb *med* 'there is not, there does not exist', the counterpart to the stative verb *yod* 'there is, there exists'.

### Honorifics

As with nouns, Tibetan also has a complex system of honorific and polite verbal forms. Thus, many verbs for everyday actions have a completely different form to express the superior status, whether actual or out of courtesy, of the agent of the action, thus *lta* 'see', hon. *gzigs*; *byed* 'do', hon. *mdzad*. Where a specific honorific verb stem does not exist, the same effect is brought about by compounding a standard verbal stem with an appropriate general honorific stem such as *mdzad*.

## See also

- [Asia portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Asia)
- [Languages portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Languages)

- [Standard Tibetan](/source/Standard_Tibetan)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Old Tibetan / Classical Tibetan: Tibetan: Language Portal: Center for Language Technology: Indiana University"](https://celt.indiana.edu/portal/Tibetan/old_tibetan.html). *Center for Language Technology*. Retrieved 2026-01-01.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Hyslop, Gwendolyn (2022-09-01), Roche, Gerald; Hyslop, Gwendolyn (eds.), ["The Role of Classical Tibetan (Chöke) on the Development of Kurtöp, a Language of Bhutan"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9789048552719%23c3/type/book_part), *Bordering Tibetan Languages* (1 ed.), Amsterdam University Press, pp. 53–82, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1017/9789048552719.003](https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9789048552719.003), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-90-485-5271-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-90-485-5271-9), retrieved 2026-03-17{{[citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Citation)}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_work_parameter_with_ISBN))

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_3-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_3-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:0_3-4) Hodge, Stephen (2003–2015). [*An Introduction to Classical Tibetan*](https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Introduction_to_Classical_Tibetan/kJHGOQAACAAJ?hl=en). Orchid Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-974-8304-58-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-974-8304-58-8).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTETournadre2003479_4-0)** [Tournadre 2003](#CITEREFTournadre2003), p. 479.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Beyer, Stephan V. (1992). *The Classical Tibetan Language*. [State University of New York Press](/source/State_University_of_New_York_Press). pp. 62–80. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780585086903](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780585086903).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHahn2003_7-0)** [Hahn 2003](#CITEREFHahn2003).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Hill, Nathan W. (2 January 2012). ["Tibetan-las, -nas and -bas"](https://brill.com/view/journals/clao/41/1/article-pv_1.xml). *brill.com*. Retrieved 2025-11-03.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Hill, Nathan W. (2011). ["The allative, locative, and terminative cases (la-don) in the Old Tibetan Annals"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260197473_The_allative_locative_and_terminative_cases_la-don_in_the_Old_Tibetan_Annals). *New Studies in the Old Tibetan Documents: Philology, History and Religion*. Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. pp. 3–38.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWaddellde_Lacouperie1911919_10-0)** [Waddell & de Lacouperie 1911](#CITEREFWaddellde_Lacouperie1911), p. 919.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHill2007_11-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHill2007_11-1) [Hill 2007](#CITEREFHill2007).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHill2010_12-0)** [Hill 2010](#CITEREFHill2010).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWaddellde_Lacouperie1911920_13-0)** [Waddell & de_Lacouperie 1911](#CITEREFWaddellde_Lacouperie1911), p. 920.

## Further reading

- Bialek, Joanna (2022), [*A Textbook in Classical Tibetan*](https://www.routledge.com/A-Textbook-in-Classical-Tibetan/Bialek/p/book/9781032123561), London: Routledge, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781032123561](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781032123561)

- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): [Waddell, Lawrence Austine](/source/Laurence_Waddell); [de Lacouperie, Albert Terrien](/source/Albert_Terrien_de_Lacouperie) (1911). "[Tibet § Language](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tibet)". In [Chisholm, Hugh](/source/Hugh_Chisholm) (ed.). *[Encyclopædia Britannica](/source/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition)*. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 919–921.

- Hahn, Michael (2003). *Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache*. Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag.

- Hill, Nathan W. (2007). ["Personalpronomina in der Lebensbeschreibung des Mi la ras pa, Kapitel III"](http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/5609/). *Zentralasiatische Studien*. **36**: 277–287.

- Hill, Nathan W. (2010), ["Brief overview of Tibetan Verb Morphology"](http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/11006/3/Hill_2010_verb_dictionary_excerpt.pdf) (PDF), *Lexicon of Tibetan Verb Stems as Reported by the Grammatical Tradition*, Studia Tibetica, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. xv–xxii

- Hill, Nathan W. (2012). ["Tibetan -las, -nas, and -bas"](http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/14122/). *Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale*. **41** (1): 3–38. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1163/1960602812X00014](https://doi.org/10.1163%2F1960602812X00014).

- Hodge, Stephen (1993). *An Introduction to Classical Tibetan* (Revised ed.). Warminster: Aris & Phillips. pp. vii. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0856685488](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0856685488).

- Schwieger, Peter (2006). *Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache*. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.

- Tournadre, Nicolas (2003). *Manual of Standard Tibetan (MST)*. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

- skal-bzhang 'gur-med (1992). *Le clair miroir : enseignement de la grammaire Tibetaine*. Translated by Stoddard, Heather; Tournadre, Nicholas. Paris: Editions Prajna.

## External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: ***[Research on Tibetan Languages: A Bibliography](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Research_on_Tibetan_Languages:_A_Bibliography)***

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: ***[A Textbook of Classical Tibetan](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A_Textbook_of_Classical_Tibetan)***

- [Tibetan in Digital Communication](http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2014/03/tibetan-in-digital-communication/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20140324053216/http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2014/03/tibetan-in-digital-communication/) 2014-03-24 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)

- [Translations of Tibetan texts, Tibetan language courses & publications by Erick Tsiknopoulos and the Trikāya Translation Committee.](https://tibetantranslations.com/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Classical Tibetan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Tibetan) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Tibetan?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.