https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/1h4p4sc/migrating_from_english_prayers_to_tibetan/
created by Silent_Substance_936 on 02/12/2024 at 06:53 UTC
6 upvotes, 4 top-level comments (showing 4)
So I've been slowing moving over to reciting prayers in Tibetan and as an English speaker, I find that the phonetics are quite different than what I imagine the words to sound like based on characters.
Does anyone have any good resources for the basics? Preliminaries like refuge, bodhicitta, four immeasurables, offering the mandala, dedication, etc?
I've just been listening to YouTube videos on repeat which has been effective in the past but is a little clunky.
Thank you, metta! 🙏
Comment by Significant_Storm428 at 02/12/2024 at 08:43 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Well, I think the first step is picking a dialect of Tibetan and therefore their corresponding accent to work with. Most people would choose the Lhasa dialect and I would recommend so as well.
You would then learn how to pronounce Tibetan words using the accent chosen. Understandably, this may be very effortful and if you’re aiming for something simpler, you can use the oft provided romanizations.
Romanizations of the words may not be entirely accurate, but can be a rough guide to pronunciation. In this case, you would still want to base your pronunciation of a particular dialect/accent.
Most modern guides to the Tibetan language use the Lhasa dialect/accent, otherwise it’ll be stated as such. You can search online for guide books or free language books or search YouTube videos teaching basic Tibetan. These should suffice.
Some YouTube recordings may be done by teachers or practitioners that speak different accents/dialects, so it may be confusing if you just regard them as all the same. Stick to one accent n their corresponding samples.
Alternatively, if you practice in a group setting, might be good to learn to recite in the accent your resident teacher speaks.
I have been trying to do that as well, with the added intent to try to understand what is being recited while reciting by actually learning the language. I think it’s good you’re trying to do so, as it connects you with the lineage and the community, though understanding is probably most important
Comment by bodhiquest at 02/12/2024 at 09:41 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It's best to learn directly from someone who has a good proficiency in the language. Your teacher should be able to guide you, no?
Comment by tyj978 at 04/12/2024 at 13:30 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Forget Romanised phonetics, they're wildly inaccurate. Just learn Tibetan script. It's a lot like learning French, once you know the sound a certain letter combination makes, you can be confident it will always make that sound. That's a lot easier than reading English.
The differences between dialects are somewhat overblown. With the liturgical language, the differences are small.
There are endless resources online for learning to read Tibetan. Virtually nothing for an intermediate learner, but loads for beginners. YouTube is your friend for learning to read Tibetan.
Comment by eliminate1337 at 02/12/2024 at 15:30 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Tibetan dialects and orthography are honestly a mess. It's like English with many letters that change pronunciation depending on surrounding letters. The reason (both in Tibetan and in English) is that spellings were standardized a long time ago but pronunciation continued to change.
In the beginning I was so discouraged by Tibetan that I learned all the mantras in Sanskrit instead. My teachers provided both. Sanskrit is *much* easier to pronounce (it's perfectly phonetic) and has a romanization system called IAST that is exactly equivalent to the other Indic scripts used to write Sanskrit.
My Tibetan has improved but I still recite all the Sanskrit mantras I learned early on. If you just want to move away from English that could be an option.