The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality

Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2). © Himalayan Linguistics 2010
ISSN 1544-7502
The Classical Tibetan cases and their
transcategoriality:
From sacred grammar to modern
linguistics ∗
Nicolas Tournadre
University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito
1 “Sacred” grammars
There are few ancient grammars in the world, which are still used on a daily basis in a
modern curriculum. Among these, we can mention Pāṇini’s grammar, the Aṣṭādhyāyī (अटायायी),
which has been used to describe Sanskrit phonology and morphology since the 5th century B.C. 1
It comprises four thousand formula or rules written in the style of a sutra. Another famous Indian
grammarian, Patañjali, composed in the 2nd century B.C a commentary of Pāṇini’s grammar, the
Mahābhāṣya (महाभाय) which is also still studied by some Brahmins in contemporary India.
The same can be said about the ancient Tibetan grammatical treatises, the Sumcupa (སུམ་ཅུ་པ་)
and the Rtags’jugpa (རྟགས་འཇུག་པ་) attributed to the seventh century figure Thonmi Saṃbhoṭa in
modern Tibet in the 7th century. The Sumcupa and Rtags’jugpa are written in the Tibetan script,
one of very few ancient scripts of Asia, which are still in use nowadays. 2 The Sumcupa and the
Rtags’jugpa 3 deal with morphology and phonology and they have been the starting point of all
subsequent grammatical commentaries in Tibet until now. Just as in the case of the Indian tradition,
which has heavily influenced the Tibetan grammatical tradition, the two treatises attributed to
Saṃbhoṭa are written in verses and are conceived as a “sacred grammar” meant to facilitate the
access to sutras and tantras.
Generally speaking, Tibetan philology had an impact, which goes well beyond Tibet itself.
For example, a lama-philologist called Gromgon ’Phagspa Blogros Rgyalmtshan (alias
Chosrgyal ’Phagspa), who was the nephew of the great philosopher and poet Kundga’ Rgyalmtshan,
better known as Saskya Paṇḍita, created the alphabet, which was named after him, ’Phagspa script,
∗ I would like to thank all those who commented this paper, particularly Nathan Hill, Randy LaPolla, Françoise
Robin, Thuben Rigzin, You-Jing Lin and the two anonymous reviewers.
1 The uniqueness of Pāṇini’s grammar lies not only in the novelty but in the fact that it was transmitted only orally
for many centuries since it was prohibited to write in Sanskrit.
2 It is derived from the Gupta variant of the Brahmi script of India. The first attested document is a stela which
dates back from 764.
3 Both treatises are reproduced in the appendix of the present article.