Grammatical and Lexical Variation of Standard Tibetan Between the Region of Lhasa and the Tibetan Diaspora

Abstract

In this paper, I deal with differences between the variants spoken in Lhasa and in the Tibetan diaspora. Although they are very similar, one can find various minor differences in the grammar and numerous differences in the lexicon of these two variants of Standard spoken Tibetan. Dissimilarities in the grammar can be illustrated by the use of different variants of case particles or by different verb stems of a verb. Another example of geographical alterations of Standard Tibetan is epistemic verb endings. Certain epistemic types are common for Lhasa and the diaspora, but other types are only used in Lhasa Tibetan and are rare in Diaspora Tibetan, or vice versa.
 The paper will further examine lexical dissimilarities between the two variants. These are especially owed to the fact that spoken Tibetan has a large number of loanwords from Chinese and English. Many words used in everyday speech in Lhasa and Central Tibet have been borrowed from Chinese whereas the Diaspora variant mainly employs loanwords from English. Nonetheless, the two variants also contrast in the use of words of the Tibetan origin, such as personal pronouns, nouns or verbs. These lexical dissimilarities are in the centre of attention of this paper.