What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to analyze the grammatical evolution of Old Tibetan verb stems, particularly focusing on the encoding of passive voice.

February 21, 2026

From Nominalisation to Passive in Old Tibetan: Reconstructing Grammatical Meaning in an Extinct Language 1

Key Points

This study aims to analyze the grammatical evolution of Old Tibetan verb stems, particularly focusing on the encoding of passive voice.
Analysis of the Old Literary Tibetan corpus.
Examination of v3 verb stems and their grammatical properties.
Comparison with Trans-Himalayan nominal morphology and linguistic typology.
Consideration of translation practices from Sanskrit.
Evidence suggests v3 stems initially encoded passive voice.
Reconstruction of grammaticalisation path aligns with established cross-linguistic patterns.
Findings confirm previous analyses of Old Tibetan passive markers.

Abstract

Abstract Based on an analysis of the Old Literary Tibetan corpus—a corpus of the oldest documented Tibetic language—the present study provides evidence that literary Tibetan v3 verb stems (commonly termed ‘future’) initially encoded passive voice. New arguments put forward in this article range from Trans‐Himalayan nominal morphology to early Tibetan practices in translating Sanskrit to the pragmatics of v3 in Old Literary Tibetan and are additionally buttressed by the modern understanding of the passive voice as established by comparative studies and linguistic typology. The reconstructed grammaticalisation path from the Proto‐Tibetic nominaliser *g‐ via resultative participle towards passive marker agrees with a pattern well established cross‐linguistically and ultimately confirms the analysis of v3 stems as passive.

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