Dr. Nathan Hill: “Tibetan Words for ‘Me’ and ‘Us’”

7 December 2016

Tibetan boasts a wide range of first person pronouns, including ṅa, bdag, ṅan-bu, kho-bo, kho-mo, ṅed, bdag-cag, yu-bu-cag, and ḥo-skol. All of these become ‘me’ or ‘us’ in English, but how are they different in Tibetan? In this paper, I survey my own previous findings and fill in the picture with further gleanings from the Old Tibetan Rāmāyaṇa, other Dunhuang texts, and canonical texts including the Mdzaṅ-blun, and the Vinayakṣudrakavastu (Ḥdul ba phran tshegs kyi gźi). The wide array of available first person pronouns allows for subtle literary effects. For example, in one passage in the Old Tibetan version of the Rāmāyaṇa Marīcī, the minister of Daśagrīva, changes his word for ‘me’ three times.

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December 7th, 2016 - 16.00h
Universität Hamburg,
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, ESA-OST, Raum 120
Free Entrance.