Transliteration: tshig phrad
<noun> "Phrase connector" (mistakenly called "particles" up till now.) The name of a particular part of speech in Tibetan grammar which has no equivalent in English grammar. It is one of three, related parts of speech: ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connectors; ཚིག་གྲོགས་ phrase assistives; and ཚིག་རྒྱན་ phrase ornaments q.v. Phrase connectors derive their name from the fact that they act as linkers that allow other ཚིག་ words or phrases to connect up into meaningful expressions. The name ཕྲད་ indicates that they are the linkers at the point of connection between མིང་ grammatical names and ཚིག་ grammatical phrases.Tibetan like English, has letters as the basic units of writing. In English, letters are put together to make words which are put together to make phrases, clauses, and sentences and so on. Tibetan is different. In Tibetan, letters are put together to make མིང་ "names" which are the basic, meaningful parts of speech, e.g., "white", "run", "house". Letters are also put together to make ཕྲད་ connectors which, unlike "names", are meaningless or essentially meaningless by themselves. Connectors are only there to be joined with "names". This function is stated by their name, which in Tibetan means "thing at the junction, linker, connector" (and not particle as they have been mistakenly called up till now). Until they are joined with a name, they have no meaning. After they have been joined to a name, the resulting combination becomes a new type of grammatical structure with a new level of meaning. The resulting combination is called a ཚིག་ "phrase" q.v. Hence the connectors used to make them are called ཚིག་ཕྲད་ "phrase connectors".
Phrase connectors are divided into categories in two main ways. 1) They are divided according to whether they change or not in relation to the ending of the name they are being applied to, in which case they are either i) ཕྲད་རང་དབང་ཅན་ independent connectors or ii) ཕྲད་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ dependent connectors. 2) They are divided according to whether they are used to show the cases of Tibetan grammar or not, in which case they are either i) རྣམ་དབྱེའི་ཕྲད་ case or ii) རྣམ་དབྱེ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྲད་ non-case connectors.
Firstly, phrase connectors are categorized into གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ "dependent" and རང་དབང་ཅན་ "independent" types. Dependent connectors are called so because their use is controlled by Tibetan grammar's rules of letter-gender. In Tibetan grammar, every letter is assigned a gender value and there are rules about which gender-values can be written in adjacent positions (co-located). The dependent (lit. controlled by another) connectors are subject to these rules and hence their use is "controlled" by the spelling of "another" word which is the "name" which they follow. Thus, dependent connectors performing a given function are not a single connector but a group of connectors with members of the group having different letters in the first position. Each group contains sufficient members with differing first letter that a member of the group will be able to be positioned with any previous letter and still maintain the rules of gender. For example, the connectors for case two, the ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་ objective case, are a group of seven, dependent connectors called the ལ་དོན་ "la-equivalents (q.v.)". With the particular set of seven spellings of the connectors in the set, one connector can be placed after any previous letter that might occur at the end of a preceding name and not break the rules of gender. Independent connectors on the other hand are not affected by the letter written immediately before them and hence there is only one connector needed to fulfil the function of the connector.
Secondly, phrase connectors are divided into case and non-case types. Certain phrase connectors are used only to create the cases of Tibetan grammar. They are added after a grammatical name or name equivalent to create the cases of Tibetan grammar. They are called རྣམ་དབྱེའི་ཕྲད་ "case connectors". These connectors have no meaning by themselves. When they have been added to a name to create the case, they become part of a "case phrase" which, as a composite, now has a new meaning.
Independent phrase connectors are mainly used to perform non-case functions in Tibetan grammar though there are some that function as case connectors. The non-case connectors perform functions like the pronouns, conjunctions, and so on of English grammar; they are called རྣམ་དབྱེ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྲད་ "non-case connectors". Like case connectors, non-case connectors are not regarded as having much meaning in their own right, needing to be joined with one or more names in order to make a phrase, in which they become meaningful.
Here is a table of case connectors:
Case #Tibetan Name
English
list of case signs used
name of group of case signs used
1
མིང་ཙམ་ངོ་བོ་
just the name of the thingno case sign used
2
ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་
place where something is to be doneསུ་ར་རུ་དུ་ན་ལ་ཏུ་
la-equivalent
3
བྱེད་སྒྲ་
agentive termsགིས་ཀྱིས་གྱིས་འིས་ཡིས་
'I' having harmony
4
དགོས་ཆེད་སྒྲ་
purpose and necessity termsསུ་ར་རུ་དུ་ན་ལ་ཏུ་
la-equivalent
5
བྱུང་ཁུང་གི་སྒྲ་
source termsནས་ལས་
source-marker
(independent)
6
འབྲེལ་སྒྲ་
connective termsགི་ཀྱི་གྱི་འི་ཡི་
'I' having harmony
7
རྟེན་སྒྲ་
support termsསུ་ར་རུ་དུ་ན་ལ་ཏུ་
la-equivalent
8བོད་སྒྲ་
calling termsཀྱེ། ཀྭ་ཡེ། ཝ་ཡེ།
(independent)