The Suffixes
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A suffix is the last letter in a syllable. Tibetan also has a secondary suffix. Ten letters can act as suffixes, and two letters can act as secondary suffixes. The suffix will always affect the pronunciation of the syllable, but not in the same way. A suffix will either add its own sound to the root letter (omitting the inherent "a" sound), modify the vowel of the root letter, or have both of these effects.
| The Ten Suffixes | ||||
| ག | ང | ད | ན | བ |
| མ | འ | ར | ལ | ས |
Six suffixes add their own sound, without the inherent "a", to the root letter. In the examples below we use the first letter in the alphabet as a root letter, but this could be any of the 30 consonants.
| The Six Suffixes Which Add Their Own Sound | |||
| Suffix | Example | Pronunciation | Notes |
| ག | ཀག་ | kag | This suffix is sometimes not fully pronounced. |
| ང | ཀང་ | kang | |
| བ | ཀབ་ | kab | |
| མ | ཀམ་ | kam | |
| འ | ཀའ | ka | This suffix does not add its own sound since it's already present in the root letter. |
| ར | ཀར་ | kar | |
Two suffixes do not add their own sound to the syllable, but they do modify the sound of the root letter's vowel. í
| The Two Suffixes Which Modify the Root Letter's Vowel | |||||
| Suffix | Example | Pronunciation | Suffix | Example | Pronunciation |
| ད | ཀད་ | kë | ཀ | ཀས་ | kë |
| ཀིད་ | kï | ཀིས་ | kï | ||
| ཀུད་ | kü | ཀུས་ | kü | ||
| ཀེད་ | kê | ཀེས་ | kê | ||
| ཀོད་ | kö | ཀོས་ | kö | ||
Two suffixes modify the sound of the root letter's vowel, and add their own sound. í
| The Two Suffixes Which Add Their Sound and Modify | |||||
| Suffix | Example | Pronunciation | Suffix | Example | Pronunciation |
| ན | ཀན་ | kën | ལ | ཀལ་ | kël |
| ཀིན་ | kïn | ཀིལ་ | kïl | ||
| ཀུན་ | kün | ཀུལ་ | kül | ||
| ཀེན་ | kên | ཀེལ་ | kêl | ||
| ཀོན་ | kön | ཀོལ | köl | ||
Secondary Suffixes
ས and ད are the only letters which can be secondary suffixes. In modern Tibetan ད is not used anymore as a secondary suffix. Secondary suffixes do not add their own sound, nor do they affect the pronunciation of the root letter.
| Examples of Words With a Secondary Suffix | ||
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
| གྲོགས་པོ་ | drog-po | Friend |
| ལྕགས་ | chag | Iron |
| སེམས་í | sêm | Mind |