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/

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)

(intransitive) to lie down, to recline
(intransitive) to sleep, to go to sleep

Conjugation

Classical Tibetan
present	ཉལ (nyal)
future	ཉལ (nyal)
past	ཉལ (nyal)
imperative	ཉོལ (nyol)

Old Tibetan
present	ཉལ (nyal)
future	ཉལ (nyal)
past	ཉལད (nyald)
imperative	ཉོལད (nyold)

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

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

Related terms

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

References

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