The third- and fourth-year sequence is meant to expose students to a range of genres in Tibetan literature, including religious, historical, philosophical, scientific, and literary works. Instruction consists in guided readings, with continuing grammar review, practice in speaking, and application of philological methods.
This intermediate sequence covers second-level pronunciation and grammar of the modern Lhasa dialect, as well as intermediate-level reading and speaking skills.
The Tibetan language, with a history going back more than one thousand years, is one of Asia’s major literary languages. At the present time, it is the first language of close to seven million people in Tibet, as well as in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. The textbook is The Manual of Standard Tibetan by Nicolas Tournade and Sangda Dorje. This introductory sequence covers the script and pronunciation, the grammar of the modern Lhasa dialect, as well as basic reading and speaking skills.
The goal of this sequence is to provide students with strong reading expertise in a wide range of Sanskrit texts in literature (poems and plays, verse and prose) and the scientific and philosophical discourses (e.g., grammar, logic, poetic theory, Buddhist thought), and commentarial literature on both.
Second year Sanskrit or comparable level of language skills. Reading selections introduce major Sanskrit genres, including verse and prose narrative, lyric poetry, drama, and the intellectual discourse of religion, philosophy, and the sciences. Analysis of the language and style employed in commentarial texts and practice in reading such texts is also emphasized.
The intermediate-level Sanskrit sequence will equip students to apply the core grammar concepts that they learned in the introductory course to selected narrative, poetic, dramatic, philosophical, and scholastic texts in Sanskrit. In-class activities and selected assignments that develop skills in writing, speaking, listening, and vocabulary retention will support students' success in reading the text(s) at hand. Students will expand their abilities to apply grammar concepts by bringing increased attention to syntax and morphology. Students will be able to identify major poetic meters. Students will begin to build the skills that they will need to make use of Sanskrit commentarial works. As a whole, the sequence in Intermediate Sanskrit will prepare students to read and analyze Sanskrit texts in a range of literary styles at the advanced level, and to do so with confidence.
The first half (about fifteen weeks) of this sequence is spent mastering the reading and writing of the Devanagari script and studying the grammar of the classical Sanskrit language. The remainder of the sequence is devoted to close analytical reading of simple Sanskrit texts, which are used to reinforce the grammatical study done in the first half of this course. The aim is to bring students to the point where they are comfortably able, with the help of a dictionary, to read simple, narrative Sanskrit. Texts in Sanskrit.
