A Survey of the principal forms of the Finite Verb.

Present:

གཏོང་,	W	བཏང་ give
མཐོང་		མཐོང་ I see intens. མཐོང་
	C	མཐོང་ (or ཡོད་)
	W	མཐོང་ (or ཡོད་); C མཐོང་ I am seeing

Perfect:

བཏང་	W	བཏང་ gave, have given
མཐོང་	C	མཐོང་ saw,	W	སོང་	C	སོང་
				went		went
བཏང་		བཏང་ I have given, intens. མཐོང་
		བཏངས་ has been given

[[65]]

Future:

གཏང་	W	བཏང་ shall, will give
མཐོང་	C	མཐོང་ intens. མཐོང་
		shall, will see
		སླེབ་, སླེབ་ will arrive

Imperative:

ཐོང་	W	བཏོང་ give! བཏོན་ take out! བསད་ kill!
		མཐོང་ see! intens. མཐོང་
negat. མ་ do not give! མཐོང་

[1] The objects of ཟ་ and འཐུང་ often assume the dative-sign, cf. English ‘to feed on’. [↑]

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Chapter VII.

The Adverb.

42. We may distinguish three classes of adverbs: 1. Primitive adverbs. 2. Adverbs formed from Adjectives. 3. Adverbs formed from Substantives or Pronouns.

1. Very few Primitive Adverbs occur; the most usual are: ད་ ‘now’, ནམ་ ‘when’, སང་ (books and CT) or ཐོ་ (WT) ‘to morrow’, and a few similar ones; ཡང་ ‘again’, and the two negatives མི་ and མ་, the latter of which is used in prohibitive sentences, and with a past tense, as མི་ ‘(I) do not give’, མི་ ‘(I) shall not give’, but: མ་ ‘did not give’, མ་ (WT: མ་) ‘do not [[66]]give!’ The verbs ཡིན་, ལགས་, མཆིས་, རེད་ have always མ་ instead of མི་ before them ([40.]). Another particle of this kind, of a merely formal value, is ནི་, which is added to any word or group of words in order to single it out and distinctly separate it from everything that follows. It is, therefore, often very useful in lessening the great indistinctness of the language, especially so when separating the subject from the attribute: མི་ ‘that man is a Ladakee’. (There is scarcely an adequate word to be found in our modern languages, but the Greek γε, or μεν—δε—, are very similar.) In talking it is seldom heard, and, when used, in WT pronounced: ནིང་.

2. Adverbs may be formed from any Adjective by putting it in the Terminative case. བཟང་ ‘good’, བཟང་ ‘well’; རབ་ ‘principal’, རབ་ ‘principally, very’; དྲག་ ‘violent’, དྲག་ or དྲག་ ‘violently’.

3. Nearly all the local Adverbs are formed from Substantives or Pronouns with some local Postposition: གོང་ ‘the place (space) above, upper part’, གོང་ ‘above’, གོང་ ‘upwards’, གོང་ ‘from above (downwards)’; འདི་ ‘this’, འདི་ ‘in this, here’, འདི་, འདིར་ ‘hither, here’ (cf. [15.]), འདི་ ‘hence’; དེ་ ‘that’, དེ་ ‘there’, དེ་, དེར་ ‘thither, there’, དེ་ ‘from there, thence, then, after that’. [[67]]

Note. In talking the simple adjective is used, mostly, instead of its adverb (2. class): མགྱོགས་ for —པར་ ‘quickly, soon’.

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Chapter VIII.

The Postposition.

43. There are two kinds of Postpositions: 1. Simple Postpositions. These are the same that we know already as forming the cases ([15]). 2. Compound Postpositions, formed in the manner of local Adverbs ([42. 3]), with which they are, indeed, with a few exceptions, identical.

1. Simple Postpositions. These are: ལ་ (the affix of the Dative), ན་ (Locative), ནས་ and ལས་ (Ablative), རུ་, ར་, སུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་ (Terminative).

Their use will be best seen in the following examples:

༎ ལ་ ༎

ཕན་ WT, ཟངས་ (inst. of ཞོག་ [38, Note]) CT ‘put the degchi on the fire!’.

བོང་, vulg: འགྲེ་, Tsang: བོང་ ‘the ass rolls himself on the ground’.

རྟ་ (or ནས་) འགྲོ་ ‘having mounted on the horse (he) goes’, or ‘(he) goes on horseback’.

བྱ་, vulg (WT): ཅི་ (corrupted from [[68]]མཆིལ་) ནམ་, CT: བྱ་ ‘the bird flies in the sky’.

མཚན་ WT, ནམ་ CT ‘(we) shall set out at night’.

དེ་ (books and CT), དེ་ WT ‘being very glad at this’.

སྨན་ ‘skilful in medicine’.

ཆང་, vulg: བོས་ ‘invited him to beer’.

མགོ་ WT, འདུག་ CT ‘is (there) ache in (your) head’, ‘have you head-ache?’

༎ ན་, དུ་ etc. ༎

ཁྱིམ་ (or དུ་) ཡོད་, vulg: ཁང་ (or རུ་) ཡོད་ ‘(he) is in the house, at home’.

ཁྱིམ་, vulg: ཁང་ (or ལ་) སོང་ ‘go into the house, home!’.

དུས་, vulg: ཞག་ ‘at a (certain) time, once’.

ད་ (books) ‘from to-day in (after) seven days’.

མས་; WT: ཨ་; CT: ཨ་ ‘the mother carried the son in (her) arms’.

དེའི་, vulg: དེ་ ‘at that time’.

ལོ་ (books, for vulg. see Compound adv.) ‘for seven years’. [[69]]

མི་ (or བསྐོས་), W: རྒྱལ་ ‘(they) made (or selected, raised) that man to (be) king’.

ཡོ་, CT: འཁྱོ་ (or ཆ་) སྔས་ ‘they made (their) luggage into a pillow, used it as a pillow’.

གང་ (or ག་) འགྲོ་, WT: ག་ (s. [35. 2. b], ཡིན་ omitted, [40. 1. a]), CT: ག་ (པ་ or པས་, provincial irregularities [35. 2. c]) ‘where are (you) going?’

ང་ (or ཁོག་) འགྲུལ་ (vulg.) ‘I am going to Tino (or Kʽoksar)’.

༎ ནས་ ༎

ཟླ་ ‘after eight months’.

ཟླ་ ‘from (after) the eighth month’.

ཐོག་ (books and CT), WT: མགོ་ ‘from the beginning’.

༎ ལས་ ༎

དཀར་ ‘from the window, through the window’.

འཁོར་, vulg: ༌༌༌ནས་ ‘to deliver from the circulation (transmigration)’.

པ་, WT: ནས་, Tsang: པ་ ‘to build a house out of brick (Ts: a house of brick)’.

མདོ་ ‘from the sūtra Zamatog’. [[70]]

སློབ་ (vulg: སློབ་) ‘one of (from among) the pupils’.

ཀུན་ (books and CT), WT: ཚང་ ‘wiser than all, the wisest, most skilful of all’.

གཉིས་ ‘more than two are not left’.

ང་ ‘more than myself are not’.

Besides these དང་ ‘with’ is to be mentioned as Simple Postposition: thus, ཁྱེའུ་, WT: ཁྱོག་ ‘speaking (conversing) with the youth’; ང་ ‘with me’, or, in fuller form, ང་, ང་ vulg: ང་ ‘together with me’. In WT it is even used for the instrumental when the real instrument (tool) of an action is meant, e.g. རྒྱལ་ so in books, but WT: རལ་ ‘the king killed the minister with the sword’. It is, moreover, added to many Adjectives and Verbs, when we use the Accusative or Dative or other Prepositions, e.g. དེ་ ‘like (with) that, similar to that’. With an Infinitive it denotes the synchronism of the action with another one, ཉི་ ‘with the sun rising, at sunrise’; གཉིད་ ‘with (on) their going to sleep, when they went to sleep’; ཅེས་ ‘(with) saying so he went home’ or also ‘he said so, and went home’. Often it is found with [[71]]an Imperative, without any perceptible signification, if it is not to be regarded as a substitute for ཅིག་ ([38]): ད་ ‘now eat!’ For its use as a conjunction see the next chapter.

2. Compound Postpositions. These may conveniently be grouped in two classes: a) Local Compound Postpositions, which are virtually the same as the Local Adverbs specified in [42. 3].: thus, ནང་ ‘in (the midst of)’, ནང་ ‘into’ also ‘in’, ནང་ ‘from, out of’. The most usual ones will be seen in the following examples:

རྫིང་ (or དུ་) ཁྲུས་ ‘to bathe in a pond’.

ཆུའི་ ‘he entered into the water’ (both in books and common talk).

ལྷའི་ ‘the lord among the gods’.

ཁང་ (or འབྱུང་) vulg. ‘(he) comes (emerges) out of the house’.

སྒོའི་ (or ན་, or ལ་) ‘above the door’ (books and vulg., but more usual in WT: སྒོ་, CT སྒོ་).

ཡབ་, vulg.: ཡབ་ (or ལྔུན་, CT also གདོང་ ‘he died before his father’.

པདྨའི་ (or ན་, or ཐོག་, or ཁ་) བཞུགས་, vulg., in WT: ཁ་ (ཁ་), CT: དགེང་ ‘to sit on a lotus-flower’. [[72]]

སྒོའི་ (or ལ་, or ན་) (books and talk) ‘beside, near the door’.

ཤིང་, vulg.: མདུན་, རྩ་, རྩར་ ‘under a tree’ (literally: ‘in front, by the side, of a tree’).

ཞལ་ (མདུན་) འཁྲིད་ ‘to take before the judge’.

ཟླ་ CT, རྟིང་ WT ‘after eight months’.

ཟླ་ (or སྔུན་) vulg. ‘before two months, two months ago’.

སའི་ books and CT, WT: སའི་ ‘to hide a treasure below the ground’.

སའི་ CT, WT: སའི་ ‘to emerge, come out, from below the ground’.

ཆུའི་ books and CT, in CT also: ཕར་, WT: ཕར་, ཕར་ ‘beyond the water, river’.

ཆུའི་ books and CT, WT: ཚུར་ ‘on this side of the water’.

ཞག་ (or ནས་) ཐང་, CT: ཕ་, WT: ཕར་ ‘in (after) three days he will arrive beyond this plain, will have crossed it’.

ཁང་ ‘in the four regions of the house, roundabout’. [[73]]

ཡུལ་ ‘go in the direction of, towards, that village’.

ལོ་, CT: ལོ་, WT: ༌༌༌ཚུག་ ‘for seven years’.

འདི་, CT: འདི་, WT: ཨི་ ‘from this to that’.

ང་ WT: ‘till I go to Kullu’.

b) General Compound Postpositions, expressive of the general relations of things and persons. They are formed in the same manner as the Local ones, from substantives, adjectives, and even verbs. Their use may be learned from the following examples:

ངའི་ or དོན་ books and CT, WT: ངའི་ ‘for me, in my behalf, for my sake, on my account’.

ནད་, WT: ཅིའི་, CT: གང་ ‘for what reason has that illness come? what is the cause of etc.?’.

སེམས་ ‘in behalf of all living beings’.

ཤིང་ (WT: རྡོ་) བཏོང་ ‘give (apply) stone instead of wood’.

བཞིན་ ‘according to, like, as’—རྒྱལ་ ‘doing according to the word of the king’; དེ་[[74]]བཞིན་ ‘according to that, like that, thus, so’; སྔ་ ‘as formerly, as before’; instead of it the dialect of WT uses ནང་, generally with the Genitive, thus the last example there would be: སྔན་.

ལྟར་ ‘like’, རི་ ‘like a hill’; འདི་, དེ་ ‘like this, like that, thus, so’, ཅི་, CT: གང་ ‘like what? how? in what manner?’.

In the dialect of WT མཚོགས་ or མཚོགས་ is used instead (which is a corruption of མཚོངས་, occurring in books with the same meaning): thus, རི་ ‘like a hill’; འདི་, དེ་ ‘thus’; or ཟུག་ (properly ཙུག་), ཨི་, ཨ་ ‘thus’, ག་ ‘how?’.

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Chapter IX.

The Conjunction.

44. The written language possesses very few, the spoken still fewer, Conjunctions, most of which are coordinative. The common word for ‘and’ is དང་ which we have seen above in the sense of ‘with’, གསེར་ ‘gold and silver and iron and collection (i.e. and so on)’, though the position of the s̀ad ([10].) after the word དང་ shows that it is always considered as belonging to the preceding member of the sentence, similar, in [[75]]this respect, to the Latin ‘que’; nor can it in any case begin a sentence. Very seldom, and only in later literature, it appears as combining two verbs, if not, indeed, the root ought to be regarded there as abbreviation for the infinitive. Further: ཡང་ ‘also, too’. When belonging to a single word or notion it is put after it in an enclitical way like ‘quoque’ in Latin. It is changed according to the termination of the preceding word, into ཀྱང་ after ག་ ད་ བ་ ས་[1], into འང་ often after vowels (cf. [6]). Thus: བུ་ ‘taking also a son (with him)’. When repeated, it has the signification of Latin ‘et—et—’, མ་ ‘both mother and son died’. Often, especially in negative sentences, it means ‘even’, གཅིག་ ‘even one (they) did not find—not even one’. This is the only means for expressing ‘none, no, nothing’, མི་ (or གང་) ཡང་ (resp. ཡོངས་) ‘nobody came’; དེ་ (ཅིའང་, or ཅང་) མེད་ ‘there is nothing’ (cf. [29]). When combined with verbs, བཙལ་ ‘even searching (they) did not find’, it serves as another expression for ‘though’ or also ‘but’ (s. [41. A. 7. b]): thus, ‘though they searched, they etc.’ or ‘they searched, but they etc.’. Standing [[76]]for itself (not leaning on the preceding word) it means ‘again, once more’ (when it is to be regarded as adverb), དེར་ ‘there (I) fainting once more etc.’. In the beginning of a sentence it is ‘and, again, moreover’, and may occasionally be rendered by ‘however, but’. ཡང་, ‘or’; repeated, ཡང་ ‘either—or—’.—‘Or’ is expressed also by the interrogative affix of the finite verb ([34. 1].), འམ་ etc., གསེར་ ‘a bottle of gold, silver, or copper’.—འོན་ ‘nevertheless, but’, vulg: ཡིན་ occurs much less frequently in Tibetan than in the European languages.

The only Subordinate Conjunctions are: 1. གལ་ ‘if’, introducing conditional sentences ending in ན་ ([41. A. 4]). But, as the conditional force really rests on the closing ན་, the initial གལ་ may be put or omitted at pleasure; 2. ཅི་ ‘but if’; གལ་ ‘if I can …’, ཅི་ ‘but if not …’; this last is found only in books.

[1] This is not very carefully observed even in good mscr. and prints, where ཡང་ will occur sometimes after ག་ etc., and ཀྱང་ after the other consonants and even after vowels. [↑]

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Chapter X.

The Interjection.

45. The most common Interjection is ཀྱེ་, or, repeated, ཀྱེ་ ‘oh!, alas!’ used also before the Vocative. The language of common life uses instead: ཝ་ wa, or ཝའི་ wä. [[77]]

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Chapter XI.

Derivation.

46. Derivation of Substantives. As most of what belongs under this head has already been mentioned in [11]. and [12]. only the formation of abstract nouns remains to be spoken of. 1. The unaltered adjective may be used as an abstract noun, especially with the article བ་, as: གྲང་ ‘the cold is changed into warmth’.—To this may be added the pronoun ཉིད་ (གྲང་ ‘ipsum frigidum’); but this is used scarcely anywhere else than in metaphysical treatises, from whence a few expressions, such as སྟོང་ ‘the vacuum, the absolute rest in deliverance from existence’ have become more generally known.—2. In the case of two correlative ideas existing, frequently the compound of both is used, esp. in common talk, ཆེ་ ‘size’ (lit. ‘large and small’), སྦོམ་ ‘thickness’ (‘thick and thin’), e.g. ཆེ་ ‘the size as much as a mustard-seed’.—3. ཁྱད་ ‘difference’ (or, sometimes, ཚད་, ཚོད་ ‘measure’) is added, མཐོ་ ‘height’, ཕྱུག་ ‘wealth, riches’.—4. Mental qualities are in most cases paraphrased by སེམས་, or བློ་ with a genitive, བཟོད་ ‘mind of suffering, enduring, i.e. patience’, མཁས་ ‘wise mind, wisdom, skill’; དགའ་ ‘mind of rejoicing, [[78]]joy’ (vulg: སེམས་), དད་ ‘mind of belief (also ‘a believing mind’), faith’.—5. Diminutives are formed by adding the termination འུ་, often with an alteration of the preceding vowel: རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟེའུ་ ‘little horse, foal’; མི་ ‘man’, མིའུ་ ‘little man, dwarf’; རྡོ་ ‘stone’, རྡེའུ་ ‘small stone, calculus’. If a word ends with a consonant, only u is added, and a new syllable formed: ལུག་ ‘sheep’, ལུ་ ‘lamb’.

47. Derivation of Adjectives. 1. Possessive adjectives are regularly expressed by adding the syllable ཅན་, or the phrase དང་, abridged ལྡན་ to any substantive, མགོ་ ‘having a head’; མི་ ‘having the head of a man’; སྐྲ་ ‘having hair, (long-)haired’; རིག་, རིག་ ‘possessing knowledge, learned, wise’; དང་ is never heard in common talk in WT.—2. Adjectives of appurtenance are generally expressed by the genitive of the substantive, གསེར་ ‘of gold, golden’; ཤའི་ ‘the eye of flesh, the carnal, bodily eye’, oppos.: ཤེས་ ‘the eye of knowledge, spiritual eye’.—3. Negative, or privative adjectives are formed in several ways: a) by the simple negative མི་, མི་ ‘unworthy’; མི་ ‘unfit’; མི་ ‘unheard of’. b) by adding མེད་ ‘without’, [[79]]མགོ་ ‘headless’; སྐྱོན་ ‘faultless’. c) by adding the verb བྲལ་(བ་) ‘separated from’, ལུས་, ལུས་ ‘separated from the body, bodiless’.—4. The English adjectives in -able, -ible are expressed by རུང་ ‘to be fit’, added to the Supine, or to the simple Root, འཐང་, འཐུང་ ‘fit for drinking, drinkable’, vulgo: འཐུང་ (from ཉན་ ‘to be able’), འཐུང་ (ཆོག་ ‘permitted, lawful’). [[80]]

Part III.

Syntax.

48. Arrangement of words. 1. The invariable rule is this: in a simple sentence all other words must precede the verb; in a compound one all the subordinate verbs in the form of gerunds or supines, and all the coordinate verbs in the form of the root, each closing its own respective clause, must precede the governing verb (examples s. below).—2. The order in which the different cases of substantives belonging to a verb are to be arranged, is rather optional, so that e.g. the agent may either precede or follow its object. Local and temporal adverbs or adverbial phrases are, if possible, put at the head of the sentence.—3. The order of words belonging to a substantive is this: 1. The Genitive, 2. the governing Substantive, 3. the Adjective (unless this is itself put, in the genitive, before; [16]), 4. the Pronoun, 5. the Numeral, 6. the indefinite Article: thus, ངའི་ ‘this my little daughter’; གོས་ ‘a red gown’; གོས་ or དམར་ ‘the red gown’; རྒྱལ་ ‘these three great kingdoms’. Adverbs precede the word they belong to: ཤིན་ ‘very great’; ཤིན་ ‘come very quickly’.—[[81]]4. In correlative sentences (cf. [29]) the Relative precedes the Demonstrative: གང་ ‘what there is, give!’ i.e. ‘give whatever you have’, and in comparative sentences the thing with which another is compared, ordinarily precedes this (cf. [17]).

49. Use of the cases. As the necessary observations about the instrumental have been made in [30], about the other cases and postpositions partly in [15], partly in [43], it is only the Accusative, that requires a few words more, as it is very often used absolutely (as in Greek). a) Acc. temporalis: མཚན་ ‘at night’; གསོན་ ‘during (his etc.) lifetime’; དེའི་, དེ་ ‘at that time’; ཉི་ ‘having studied for one day, after one day’s study’.—b) Acc. modalis: དབྱིབས་ ‘regarding the size, round’; གཏིང་ ‘regarding the depth, eight cubits’ (cf. [12]); ཁ་ ‘regarding colour, being like smoke’ (cf. [50, 1, a]); རིགས་ ‘with regard to (his) birth, equal’ i.e. ‘of equal birth’. Here ནི་ ([42. 1]) is very often employed: དབྱིབས་ etc. Nearly in all cases, however, postpositions may be added, and in talking they are preferred to the simple Accusative: མཚན་, མཚན་, དེའི་, དབྱིབས་ etc. [[82]]

50. Simple Sentences.—1. Affirmative sentences.—a) the attribute being a noun, the verb: to be, become, remain etc.; མི་ ‘this man is wise’; འདི་ ‘this is a wise man’. When the verb is འགྱུར་ (to become), གནས་ (to remain) etc. the attribute must be put in the Terminative: སྐྲ་ ‘(his) hair became white’; རྒྱལ་, vulg: བརྟན་ ‘the king remained steadfast on his vow’; in some special cases this may take place, even if the verb is simply ‘to be’: ལུས་ ‘while his whole shape was like a man’s, his foot only was piebald’. b) the attribute being any other verb: རྒྱ་ ‘an ancient king of China built a very large wall in the north of that country’.

2. Interrogative sentences.—a) simple: ཁྱོད་ ‘is your son in the house?’; དེ་ ‘who is there?’; ཅི་ ‘what do you come for?’, ‘what do you want?’.—རིན་ W (རིན་ C) ‘how much (is) the price?’.

Besides the affix am the later literature and the conversational [[83]]language of CT has the accentuated interrogative particle ཨེ་ ĕ́, immediately before the verb: ཐབས་ tʽab ĕ́ yöʼ ‘is there any means …?’; ལས་ lā̤ di j̀ĕʼ ĕ́ nṳ̄ ‘can you do this work?’.

The form of a question is also used to express uncertain suppositions (likely to become realized), as: རྗེད་ ‘is forgetting possible?’ for ‘he may possibly have forgotten it’; ཤི་ ‘won’t he die?’; འདི་ ‘this (apparition) is not the devil, I hope?’.

b) double: ནང་ ‘is (he) within or not?’; བདག་ ‘is it agreeable (to you i.e. do you consent) to give me (your son) or not?’; ང་ ‘are you sorry at my arrival, or what (else) is the matter (with you—because you weep)?’.

3. Imperative and Optative or Precative sentences do not require any additional remarks besides what is said in [38].

51. Compound Sentences. After having examined in [41] the different gerunds as the constituent parts of compound sentences, a few examples will suffice for illustration.

1. Compound sentences, for the most part coordinative: རྒྱལ་[1]། བཟང་[2]ལ་[[84]]ཆད་[3]། བྲེ་[4]། མི་[5]༎ ‘The king having given a law, the good were given rewards, the bad punished, measures and weights arranged, and people taught letters (i.e. reading and writing)’.

2. subordinate sentences: དེར་[6]བུད་[7]བུ་[8]མཁས་[9]འདི་[10]བསྒོའོ། །ཁྱོད་[11]གང་[12]བུ་[13]ཅེས་[14]། བུའི་[15]བུ་[16]སྣད་[17]མི་[18]དྲངས་[19]དྲག་[20][[85]]མ་[21]དྲངས་[22]ཀྱི་[23]། དྲང་[24]སྨྲོས་[25]ཅེས་[26]བུ་ ‘There being certain two women quarrelling about one boy, the king (being) wise of understanding having examined (the case) thus ordered: You two, having seized from each (side) a hand of the boy, pull, and who gets him, (she) may carry him off.—When he had so spoken, she who was not the boy’s mother, because she had no compassion for the boy, not fearing (she might) hurt (him), pulled with what force she had. She who (in truth) was the boy’s mother, because she had compassion with the boy, fearing (she might) hurt (him), though she was able by force, did not pull hard. The king said to her who had pulled hard: “Because this, not being your son, is the other woman’s son, say (it) outright”. When he had so spoken, as he had turned out to be the son of the gentle puller, (she) carried off the boy’. [[86]]