Translingual

Letter

མ

1. Tibetan letter ma

Tibetan

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*ma/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan Pinyin: ma^v
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ma˩˧/

Noun

མ • ‎(ma)

1. mother, mom

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma ‎(“no, not”).

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*ma/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan Pinyin: ma^v, ma^f, mha^f
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ma˩˧/, /ma˥˥/, /m̥a˥˥/

(Note: mav - before low-tone syllables; maf - before high-tone syllables; mhaf - before high-tone aspirated syllables)

Adverb

མ • ‎(ma)

1. negates the following verb in the past tense.

   བལྟས་ཀྱང་མ་མཐོང‎ ― bltas kyang ma mthong ― He looked but did not see it

2. negates the following verb in the imperative tense; prohibitive particle.
3. placed between nouns to indicate “neither ... nor ...”.

   ར་མ་ལུག‎ ― ra ma lug ― neither a goat nor a sheep

Etymology 3

Suffix

མ • ‎(ma)

1. ownership suffix used to indicate the feminine form of a noun.

   ཟློས་གར་མ‎ ― zlos gar ma ― female singer/dancer

2. particle affixed to nouns to add a level of specificity or gravity to the noun.