Tibetan punctuation: usage of the "shad": Difference between revisions

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The ''shad'' is the vertical strokes that falls at the end of a sentence or phrase. Its usage in Tibetan is a bit tricky, just like with commas in English. Here are the rules as I learned them when typesetting Tibetan publications in Varanasi.


The ''shad'' marks pauses at the ends of a sentence, clause or phrase, or separates items in a list. In ''tshig lhug'' (prose), there is a single shad except after a ''rdzog tshig,'' in which case there are two--one at the end of one phrase, and one at the beginning of the new phrase. For example: thabs yin no/ /legs so/ /sogs


After the letter ''ga'' when it does not have either a vowel, ''sgo can'' or ''mdogs can,'' the ''shad'' is moved after the space. For example:
[[Category:Indian Masters]]
dgra rnams zlog /'phrin las sgrub/ sogs
[[Category:Early Dzogchen Lineage]]
 
This is because the ''shad'' and the vertical stroke together can be visually confusing, but you can't entirely eliminate the ''shad'' without confusing things.
 
In ''tshig bcad, shad'' begin and end every ''tshig'' (verse), with the exception that after a ''ga'' with no vowel, ''sgo can'' or ''mdogs can,'' the ''shad'' is omitted at the end of the line. Here it is not necessary to repeat the ''shad'' at the beginning of the next line because there already is a ''shad'' there. If a ''shad'' would fall at the beginning of a line, it is moved up to the end of the previous line because otherwise it would not be easily seen.
 
There are some scholars who suggest that when a ''shad'' falls before the letter ''kha,'' it should be omitted, but that seems to be relatively uncommon in practice. [[User:DKC|DKC]]
 
 
[[Category:Grammar]]

Revision as of 10:32, 16 October 2006

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