Dzongkha and English/Lexical Selection
From LING073
Contents
dzo → eng
Case I
མཐུ་ → bewitchment/black magic, power
Example sentences:
| Dzongkha Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|
| ཁོ་གི་མཐུ་རྐྱབ་འོང་ | He might do black magic. |
| སྨན་གྱི་མཐུ་ | The power of medicine. |
- Generalization rule: མཐུ་/black magic is usually followed by closely related words like casting(do), spell, witchcraft. If a word that is closely related to this meaning is within 2 cohorts of མཐུ་, it will be realized as black magic. Else, by default it would be realized as power.
Case II
ཕྱག་ → honorific of hand, prostrate
Example sentences:
| Dzongkha Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|
| ཕྱག་འཚལ་གེ་ | Let (us) prostrate. |
| ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་ | Bestowed from (their) hand. |
- Generalization rule: ཕྱག་/hand takes on the subcategory <hn> after <n>
Case III
འཐེན་ → verbal message, pull
Example sentences:
| Dzongkha Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|
| ཞབས་ཁྲ་འཐེན་ནི་ | (We) will sing. |
| ཐགཔ་འཐེན་ནི་ | (We) will pull the rope. |
- The default will be འཐེན་/pull.
