Examples.

གཡག་ yag, bos grunniens. དཔེ་ pé-c̀ʽa (Ld.: spe-c̀ʽa), book. བཟང་ záṅ-po, good. འབབ་ bab-pa, to descend. དབང་ waṅ, vulg. C: aṅ, power. དབུས་ Ṳ̄, name of the Lhasa district. དབེན་ en-pa, solitude. དབྱིབས་ yib(s), ib, figure. དཀར་ kár-po, white. དགྲ་ ḍá-wo, enemy. མངར་ ṅár-mo, sweet. བཅུ་ c̀ub-z̀i, eleg. c̀u-z̀i, fourteen. དབུ་ u, resp. head. དབུགས་ ug(s), C: ug, ū, breath. དབྱར་ yar-ka, summer. དབྱེ་ ye-wa, e-wa, difference.

9. Word; Accent; Quantity. 1. The peculiarity of the Tibetan mode of writing in distinctly marking the word-syllables, but not the words (cf. § [4]) composed of two or more of these, sometimes renders it doubtful what is to be regarded as one word. 2. There exist a great number of [[13]]small monosyllables, which serve to denote different shades of notions, grammatical relations etc., and are postponed to the word in question; but never alter its original shape, though their own initials are not seldom influenced by its final consonant (cf. § [15]). 3. Such monosyllables may conveniently be regarded as terminations, forming one word together with the preceding nominal or verbal root. 4. The accent is, in such cases, most naturally given to the root, or, in compounds, generally to the latter part of the composition, as: མིག་ mig, ‘eye’, མིག་ míg-gi, ‘of the eye’; ལག་ lag, ‘hand’, ལག་ lag-s̀ub(s), ‘hand-covering, glove’.—5. Equally natural is, in WT, the quantity of the vowels: accentuated vowels, when closing the syllable, are comparatively long (though never so long as in the English words bee, stay, or Hindi راجا‎ etc.), otherwise short, as མི་ mī ‘man’, མི་ mī-lă ‘to the man’, but མར་ măr, ‘butter’.—In CT, however, even accentuated and closing vowels are uttered very shortly: mĭ, mĭ-lă etc., and long ones occur there only in the case of § [5, 4]. [5]. and [8, 2]., as ལས་ lā̤ ‘work’; ཆོས་ c̀ʽō̤ ‘religion’; མདའ་ dā ‘arrow’; གཟའ་ zā ‘planet’; and in Lhasa especially: ནགས་ nā ‘forest’; ལེགས་ lē-pa ‘good’; རིགས་ rī ‘class, sort’; ལོགས་ lō ‘side’; ལུགས་ lū ‘manner’.—In Sanscrit words the long vowels are marked by an འ་ beneath the consonant, as: ནཱ་ (नाम) ‘called’, མཱུ་ (मूल) ‘root’ (s. § [3]). [[14]]

10. Punctuation. For separating the members of a longer period, a vertical stroke: །, called ཤད་ s̀ad (s̀äʼ), is used, which corresponds at once to our comma, semicolon and colon; after the closing of a sentence the same is doubled; after a longer piece, e.g. a chapter, four s̀ads are put. No marks of interrogation or exclamation exist in punctuation.—2. In metrical compositions, the double s̀ad is used for separating the single verses; in that case the logical partition of the sentence is not marked (cf. § [4]).

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