Two sentences in Tibetan?

Community-Created Courses Asian & Pacific Languages
1

I keep getting these two sentences mixed up.
བོད་ ལ་ གཡག་ ཡོད་རེད།
There are yaks in Tibet. (known fact)
གཡག་བོད་ལ་ཡོད་རེད།
Yaks are in Tibet. (known fact)

Maybe it’s my English getting in the way. To me, they are the exact same sentence with the words simply in a slightly different order. Indeed, the only difference is the subject and object have been reversed. Is this an important distinction? Or is it just a different way of translating the phrase. Indeed, it would make more sense to me if this first sentence was translated as “In Tibet, there are yaks.”. The little I have read about Tibetan language is that the translators don’t translate literally and so there seems to be a lot of discussion about how the final product should read.

Thanks

2

There is a minor difference because the emphasis is not the same, depending on what the first element of the sentence is. In the first sentence, you stress the fact that it is in Tibet. In the second sentence, you stress the fact that it is about yaks.

Anyway, since “In Tibet, there are yaks” is a valid translation to me, I changed the translation for that one! :slight_smile:

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3

How to correct/mark possible errors in your course(s)?

4

Hi Yak,
You can write the changes to be made here for instance. I’ve put the bell on Watching for this topic, so I should get a notification when a new message is posted here.