In the months of May and June my study of Tibetan language with SINI spent time with modal verbs. Franziska Oertle’s analysis has been for me a site for thoughts to deepen, and here I share a snippet of the process in thinking through འདོད་པ་, which speaks to wishes and wants in colloquial Tibetan.
In conjugating the verb to express wishes and wants, one does not utilise future and present tenses. In other words the connections to future and present moments are not prioritised in the world making through meaning, when it concerns one’s wishes in this language. Instead, it affirms the roads that have been traveled.
