Dictionary Order
¶ Summary of Dictionary Order
See page 557 of Wilson.
The priority of ordering in Tibetan dictionary sorting is as follows. It's more complex than this (see below) but this is helpful to keep in mind.
- root consonant
- vowel
- suffix
- subscript
- prefix
- superscripts
Words are sorted by the first syllable first, the second second, and so on (left to right). The primary means of sorting is the order of the Tibetan consonants (ཀ་ཁ་ག་ང་ཅ་ཆ་ཇ་ཉ་ and so forth) followed by the order of the vowels (ཀ་ཀི་ཀུ་ཀེ་ཀོ་, or a, i, u, e, o). Words are first ordered by the root consonant of the first syllable, not by any prefixes or superscripts. Thus བཀའ་ཆོས་ (religious teaching) is primary listed by the ཀ་ and only secondarily sorted by the བ་ prefix. As you will see below, suffixes, superscripts, and prefixes are used as a secondary sorting indicator after the root consonant and vowel have been used.
¶ The complete ordering is as described below
1) Bare root letter followed by any suffixes (in alphabetical order: ག་ང་ད་ན་བ་མ་འ་ར་ལ་ས་). Secondary suffixes immediately follow syllables with the same primary suffix.
ཀ་ ཀག་ ཀང་ ཀན་ … (all the suffixes)
ཁ་ ཁག་ ཁང་ ཁན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters and suffixes)
2) (SUFFIXES) After that list, vowels (ཀི་ཀུ་ཀེ་ཀོ་) are added to the bare foot letters and suffixes.
Step 1
ཀི་ ཀིག་ ཀིང་ ཀིན་ … (all the suffixes)
ཁི་ ཁིག་ ཁིང་ ཁིན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters and suffixes with ཨི་)
ཀུ་ ཀུག་ ཀུང་ ཀུན་ … (all the suffixes)
ཁུ་ ཁུག་ ཁུང་ ཁུན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters and suffixes with ཨུ་)
… (repeat for the remaining vowels ཨེ་ཨོ་)
3) (SUBSCRIPTIONS) Next, after all of the combinations of bare root letters, vowels, and suffixes, subscriptions are added and the entire sequence as seen in steps 1 and 2 are repeated for each subscript in this order: ཡ་ ར་ ལ་ ཝ་
Steps 1 & 2
ཀྱ་ ཀྱག་ ཀྱང་ ཀྱན་ … (all the suffixes)
གྱ་ གྱག་ གྱང་གྱན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters with subscribed ཡ་)
ཀྱི་ ཀྱིག་ ཀྱིང་ ཀྱིན་ … (all the suffixes)
གྱི་ གྱིག་ གྱིང་ གྱིན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters with subscribed ཡ་)
… (repeat for the remaining vowels ཨུ་ཨེ་ཨོ་ with all of the suffixes and subscribed ཡ་)
… (repeat entire step for each of the remaining suffixes ར་ ལ་ ཝ་)
4) (PREFIXES) Prefixes are added to the bare root letter next and steps 1, 2, and 3 are recapitulated for each prefix.
STEPS 1, 2, & 3
གཀ་ གཀག་ གཀང་ གཀན་ … (all the suffixes)
གཁ་ གཁག་ གཁང་ གཁན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters and suffixes)
གཀི་ གཀིག་ གཀིང་ གཀིན་ … (all the suffixes)
གཁི་ གཁིག་ གཁིང་ གཁིན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters and suffixes with ཨི་)
… (repeat for the remaining vowels ཨུ་ཨེ་ཨོ་)
གཀྱ་ གཀྱག་ གཀྱང་ གཀྱན་ … (all the suffixes)
གགྱ་ གགྱག་ གགྱང་ གགྱན་ … (all the suffixes)
… (all the root letters with subscribed ཡ་)
… (repeat for the remaining vowels ཨུ་ཨེ་ཨོ་ with all of the suffixes and subscribed ཡ་)
… (repeat entire step for each of the remaining suffixes ར་ ལ་ ཝ་)
… (repeat for each prefix ད་ བ་ མ་ འ་)
5) The order begins all over again with the bare root consonant superscribed with ར་
6) The subscriptions are added to the root letter plus the superscribed ར་, as in steps 1, 2, and 3.
7) Prior to adding the prefix letters (step 4), steps 5 and 6 are recapitulated for each superscript.
8) Step four is recapitulated: that is, once all the combinations of superscribed root letters with the various subscripts, vowels, and suffixes have been listed, the various prefix letters are then added to them, and the sequence in steps 1, 2, and 3 are recapitulated for each prefix.