There are eight cases, or declensions. Confusingly, there are also eight types of verbs in the Wilson system. This is a coincidence. The eight cases do not have any direct correspondence to the eight types of verbs.
| Wilson Name | Case Endings | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nominative | none |
| 2 | objective | སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་ |
| 3 | agentive | གིས་, ཀྱིས, ་གྱིས, ་འིས, ་ཡིས་ |
| 4 | beneficial & purposive | སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་ |
| 5 | originative | ནས་, ལས་ |
| 6 | connective | གི, ཀྱི་, གྱི, འི, ཡི་ |
| 7 | locative | སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་ |
| 8 | vocative | none |
| བོད་སྐད་ | Literal Translation | Wilson | Latinate | Alternate names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| མིང་ཙམ། | mere names | nominative | nominative | absolute |
| ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ། | object terms | objective | accusative | |
| བྱེད་སྒྲ། | agent terms | agentive | instrumental | ergative |
| དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ། | purpose & benefit terms | beneficial & purposive | dative | oblique |
| འབྱིང་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ། | source terms | originative | ablative | |
| འབྲེལ་བའི་སྒྲ། | connection terms | connective | genitive | |
| རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ། | dependence & place terms | locative | locative | oblique |
| བོད་སྒྲ། | vocative terms | vocative | vocative | |
| Time and identity (དེ་ཉིས་) are mentioned in the Grammar Verse as functions of the la-group particles. | ||||
| དུས། | time | Wilson moved this to 7th case | ||
| དེ་ཉིས། | identity (aka, “té-nyi”) | Wilson moved this to the 2nd case | ||
གི་, གིས་ after ག་, ང་
ཀྱི་, ཀྱིས་ after ད་, བ་, ས་
གྱི་, གྱིས་ after ན་, མ་, ར་, ལ་
འི་, འིས་ merges with final syllable that ends in འ or has no suffix
ཡི་, ཡིས་ after འ or no suffix
སུ་ after ས་
ཏུ་ after ག་, བ་ or secondary suffix ད་
དུ་ after any nasal: ང་, ན་, མ་, ད་, ར་, ལ་
ར་ merges with final syllable that ends in འ་ or no suffix
རུ་ after འ་ or no suffix
ན་, ལ་ after any suffix
Here is a printable pdf version of the euphony rules.
There are eight classes of verbs. To quote Paul Hackett's Tibetan Verb Lexicon, Vol. 2:
"A verb is an argument-taking lexical item that denotes an action, state, or process involving one or more participants. To know the meaning of a verb is to know both the number and type of arguments it requires and the semantic relationship each argument has with the verb."
The verb class according to the Wilson system (as developed under Jeffery Hopkins by Joe Wilson and Elizabeth Napper) is descriptive classification scheme that, based on the terminal verb in a sentence, someone may infer the basic structure of a sentence and it's various arguments (qualifiers, complements, objects, agents, etc.).
Here is a printable summary of the eight verb classes.
| I | Nominative-nominative Verbs |
| II | Nominative-locative Verbs |
| 2.1 verbs of existence | |
| 2.2 verbs of living | |
| 2.3 verbs of dependence | |
| 2.4 verbs of expressing attitudes | |
| III | Nominative-objective Verbs |
| 3.1 verbs of motion | |
| 3.2 nominative action verbs | |
| 3.3 rhetorical verbs | |
| IV | Nominative-syntactic Verbs |
| 4.1 separative verbs | |
| 4.2 verbs of absence and containment | |
| 4.3 conjunctive verbs | |
| 4.4 disjunctive verbs | |
| V | Agentive-nominative Verbs |
| VI | Agentive-objective Verbs |
| VII | Purposive-nominative Verbs |
| VIII | Locative-nominative Verbs |
| 8.1 verbs of possession | |
| 8.2 attributive usage |