Yöndän — ཁོང་སུ་རེད།
Marie — ངའི་གྲོགས་པོ་རེད།
Yöndän — ཨ་ལའི། བོད་པ་རེད་པས།
Marie — ལགས་རེད།
Hello, Could someone please explain why the girl in this excerpt is calling herself གྲོགས་པོ? Isn’t པོ masculine? And why would she say “I’m a friend” anyway? What does being a friend has to do with being tibetan?
Thanks in advance!
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Hi!
You are right! There is གྲོགས་མོ་ for girls. But here, she isn’t talking about herself – they are talking about a third person (ཁོང་):
Y: Who’s he?
M: He’s my friend.
Y: Oh, is he Tibetan?
M: Yes, he is.
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(ཁོང་)* ངའི་ གྲོགས་པོ་ རེད།
The grammar here is ང་ (I / me) + འི་ (འབྲེལ་སྒྲ་, Tib. grammar). The ‘connection’ (འབྲེལ་བ་) is linking ང་ to གྲོགས་པོ་, and in English grammar we’d say it’s acting as a ‘possessive’ (ངའི་ = my, ངའི་གྲོགས་པོ་ = my friend).
འདི་ ངའི་ དེབ་ རེད། “This is my book” (ex).
*remember that the subject in Tibetan (here, ཁོང་) can be left out if it’s understood in context
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