Acknowledgements Introduction Structure of the textbook Language history Tibetic languages and their genetic affiliation Geographic distribution of Tibetic languages Characterisation of Tibetic languages Tibetic languages in diachrony Written vs spoken Tibetic languages Classical Tibetan Tibetan script History The script Syllable Numbers Punctuation marks Word order in dictionaries Tibetan transliteration of Indian scripts Lesson 1 Word Tibetan as an agglutinative language Particles. An overview Noun Adjective Demonstrative Indefinite particle Noun phrase Grammatical case Exercise Word list Lesson 2 Word order in a clause Absolutive Copula ཡིà½à¼ and its negation à½à½²à½à¼ Number Personal pronouns Exercise Word list Lesson 3 Locative Dative Copula ཡོà½à¼ and its negation à½à½ºà½à¼ Genitive Possessive pronouns Final particle འོ༠Exercise Word list Lesson 4 Tibetan verbs. An overview Intransitive verbs Terminative case Exercise Word list Lesson 5 Transitive verbs Tibetan as an ergative language Ergative Comitative Translation of clauses Exercise Word list Lesson 6 Elative Delative Negation Imperative Prohibitive Exercise Word list Lesson 7 Nominal particles à½à¼< à½à¼ particle à½à¼ particle à½à½¼à¼< à½à½¼à¼ particle à½à½¼à¼ particle à½à¼ particle à½à½¼à¼ particle à½à¼< à½à¼< à½à¼ particle à½à½¼à¼ particle General remarks Exercise Word list Lesson 8 Converbs Coordinative particle Non-controllable transitive verbs Speech register Adverbs Exercise Word list Lesson 9 Gerundial particle Focus particle Diminutive particle Apposition Exercise Word list Lesson 10 Concessive particle Postpositions and postpositional phrases Possessive particle à½à½à¼ Adjectives ལྡà½à¼ and à½à½à½¦à¼ Exercise Word list Lesson 11 Questions Nominalisation Relative clauses Exercise Word list Lesson 12 Case converbs Verb + case particle Verb + à½à¼/ à½à¼ + case particle Reading Lesson 13 Direct speech Indirect speech Interjections Compounds Modal verbs Causative verb འà½à½´à½à¼ Reading Lesson 14 Passive Possessive attributes Complex attributes Ellipsis Omission of coreferential arguments Impersonal clause Other pronouns Reading Lesson 15 Morphology of transitive and intransitive verbs Other converbial particles Light verbs Incorporation Idioms Measure words Comparative and superlative Double case particles Ergative in quotations Reading Lesson 16 Auxiliary particle à½à¾±à½²à½à¼ Analytical verb constructions Concessive auxiliary རུà½à¼ Purposive particle རà¾à¾±à½´à¼ Reading Lesson 17 Clause chaining Determiners Reduplication Numerals Reading Lesson 18 Impact of Sanskrit on Classical Tibetan Metrics Reading Readings Reading I: Householder Dbyig-pa-Äan Reading II: The descent of Tibetan people from a monkey and a rock-ogress Reading III: The death of Mi-la Ras-pa''s father Reading IV: A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels Translations of exercises and readings Exercises Readings Linguistic glossary Appendices Appendix A: Writing instructions Appendix B: Transliteration systems. A comparative table Appendix C: Combinations of sub-, pre-, and superscripts with base letters Appendix D: Particles Appendix E: Semantics of converbial particles Appendix F: Analytical verb constructions Appendix G: Syntactic structures Glossary Symbols and Abbreviations Sigla References Subject index.