མག་པ

Tibetan

Etymology

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *maːk (“son-in-law, genitals”). Compare Dzongkha རྨགཔ (rmagp, “husband”), and Galo magbo, Adi mak-bo, Mizo mâkpa; also compare Jingpho /da-maʔ/, Lepcha ᰕᰤᰩᰭ (myók), Southern Qiang /tʃɿ⁵⁵ ma³¹/ (Taoping), Northern Qiang /tʃɪ miɛ/ (Mawo), Situ /tə nmak/ (Ma'erkang / Barkam), Burmese သမက် (sa.mak), Lisu ꓟꓯꓸ ꓪꓵ (mǽ wy), S'gaw Karen မာ် (mạ). Benedict (1979) also compares this to 牡 (OC *mɯwʔ, “male”), though this is disputed. (STEDT)

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*mak.pa/
• Lhasa: /ma(k̚)ˀ˩˨.paˑ/
• Dêgê: /ma⁵³ pa⁵³/
• Zêkog: /ɣmak kwa/
• Bla-Brang: /mak kwa/
• Arik: /ɣmok kwa/

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• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*mak.pa/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: mag^v-ba
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ma(k̚)ˀ˩˨.paˑ/
• Khams
  • (Dêgê) IPA^(key): /ma⁵³ pa⁵³/
• Amdo
  • (Zêkog) IPA^(key): /ɣmak kwa/
  • (Bla-Brang) IPA^(key): /mak kwa/
  • (Arik) IPA^(key): /ɣmok kwa/

Noun

མག་པ • (mag pa)

1. groom (generally matrilocal, living with the wife's family)

   Antonym: མནའ་མ (mna' ma)

2. son-in-law (generally matrilocal)

Derived terms

• མག་པ་བཏང (mag pa btang)
• མག་པ་སློང (mag pa slong)

References

• “མག་པ” in The Tibetan Living Dictionary, Mandala Collections, 2021.
• Goldstein, Melvyn; Narkyid, Ngawangthondup (1984). English-Tibetan Dictionary of Modern Tibetan, page 9. University of California Press.
• James A. Matisoff, editor (2015), The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus, etymon 547.