ཉལ

Tibetan

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-njal ~ s-njal (“to sleep, to lie down; sleepy”). Compare Chinese 瞑 (OC *meːn, *meːns, *meːŋ, “to close the eyes”), 臥 (OC *ŋʷaːls, “to lie down”), 妥 (OC *n̥ʰoːlʔ, “peaceful; to stop”), 綏 (OC *snul, “to pacify, comfort; tranquil”) (STEDT).

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*ȵal/
• Lhasa: /ȵɛː˩˨/
• Batang: /ȵɛ˨˧˩/
• Dêgê: /ȵe˩˧/
• Zêkog: /ȵa/
• Bla-Brang: /ȵal/
• Arik: /ȵa/

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• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*ȵal/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: nyae^v
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ȵɛː˩˨/
• Khams
  • (Batang) IPA^(key): /ȵɛ˨˧˩/
  • (Dêgê) IPA^(key): /ȵe˩˧/
• Amdo
  • (Zêkog) IPA^(key): /ȵa/
  • (Bla-Brang) IPA^(key): /ȵal/
  • (Arik) IPA^(key): /ȵa/

Verb

ཉལ • (nyal) (nominal form ཉལ་བ)

1. (intransitive) to lie down, to recline
2. (intransitive) to sleep, to go to sleep

Conjugation

Conjugation of ཉལ (Classical Tibetan)

Tense/Mood	Form	Wylie
Present	ཉལ	nyal
Future	ཉལ	nyal
Past	ཉལ	nyal
Imperative	ཉོལ	nyol

Conjugation of ཉལ (Old Tibetan)

Tense/Mood	Form	Wylie
Present	ཉལ	nyal
Future	ཉལ	nyal
Past	ཉལད	nyald
Imperative	ཉོལད	nyold

Synonyms

• གཟིམ (gzim, “to sleep, to fall asleep”)

Derived terms

• ཉལ་ཁྲི (nyal khri, “bed”)
• ཉལ་ཁེབས (nyal khebs, “bedspread”)
• ཉལ་གདན (nyal gdan, “mattress”)
• ཉལ་གཟན (nyal gzan, “blanket”)
• ཉལ་ཆས (nyal chas, “bedding”)
• ཉལ་རས (nyal ras, “sheet”)

Related terms

• ཉལ་པོ (nyal po, “coition”)
• མཉལ (mnyal, “(dialectal) same as ngal; to rest, fatigued”)
• མཉལད (mnyald, “(archaic) to fall ill, to become sick”)
• སྙལ (snyal, “to lay something down, to bed a person, to assign person a couch”)
• གཉིད (gnyid, “sleep”)
• མཉེལ (mnyel, “to be fatigued, tired”)
• ཉེལ (nyel, “to be ill, to become sick”)
• རྣལ (rnal, “rest, transquility; basic state, fundamental condition”)
• མནལ (mnal, “sleep”)
• ངལ (ngal, “to rest; fatigued”)
• མངལ (mngal, “womb, uterus”)

See also

• རྨི (rmi, “to dream”)
• རྨང་ལམ (rmang lam, “dream”)

References

• “ཉལ” in The Tibetan Living Dictionary, Mandala Collections, 2021.
• “ཉལ” in Tibetan-English Dictionary.