Note. The affixes བ་ བོ་ are after vowels and after the consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ always pronounced wa and wo, instead of ba and bo; thus, དཀའ་ ka-wa ‘difficult’; རེ་ re-wa ‘hope’; གང་ gaṅ-wa (gh°) ‘full’; ཟེར་ zer-wa (ser-wa) ‘to say’; མྱལ་ nyal-wa ‘hell’; ཇོ་ jo-wo (jho-wo) ‘lord, master’.
12. Difference of the Articles among each other. 1. The usage of པ་ བ་ མ་ is the most general and widest of all, [[19]]as they occur with all sorts of substantives and other nouns. པ་ is particularly used for denoting a man who is in a certain way connected with a certain thing (something like والا and دار in Hindustāni and Persian): གྲྭ་ ḍa ‘school’, གྲྭ་ (literally: scholar) ‘disciple, novice’; ཆུ་ c̀ʽu ‘water’, ཆུ་ ‘water-carrier’ (پانى والا); རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟ་ ‘horseman’; དབུས་ ‘the province of Ṳ̄’, དབུས་ ‘a man from Ṳ̄’, ཁྱེའུ་ kʽyëu ‘boy’, ལོ་ lo ‘year’, གཉིས་ ñi(s) ‘two’, hence: ཁྱེའུ་ ‘a two years’ boy’. If the feminine is required མ་ is either added to, or—more commonly—used instead of, the former: དབུས་ ‘a woman from Ṳ̄’; བུ་ ‘a two years’ girl’. The performer of an action is more frequently denoted by པོ་ (or, in more solemn language, པ་), though, in conversation at least, མཁན་ kʽan (kʽe̱n), is preferred; བྱེད་ j̀ed-pa ‘to do, make; doing, making’: བྱེད་, བྱེད་, བྱེད་ ‘the doer, maker’. 2. The appendices ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ occur with a limited number of nouns only, especially the names of the seasons, with numerals, and some pronouns. (ཀོ་ seems to be a vulgar form of pronunciation for ཀ་).
13. The indefinite Article. This is the numeral one (§ [13]), only deprived of its prefix, viz.: ཅིག་, which form it retains, if the preceding word ends with ག་ ད་ བ་, as: ཁབ་ [[20]]kʽab-c̀ig, a needle; it is changed to ཤིག་ after ས་, རས་ ras-s̀ig, rä-s̀ig, a cloth; to ཞིག་ z̀ig (s̀ig) in all other cases. Some authors use ཅིག་ after any termination indiscriminately. It is, of course, always without accent. The articles པ་ བ་ etc. are not superseded by the indefinite article e.g. སྟོན་ ‘teacher, the teacher’, སྟོན་ ‘a teacher’. It is used even after a plurality: thus, ཆུ་ ‘there were some four wells’, and even: མང་ ‘there being a multitude of them’ (from Mil.). Very often it is placed after the interrogative pronouns (v. [27]), and sometimes its original meaning is obscured so much that it occurs even after known and definite subjects, where one would expect the demonstrative (see f.i. Dzl. 25, 1. 28, 6. 128, 14).
Chapter II.
The Substantive.
14. The Number. The Plural is denoted by adding the word རྣམས་ nam, or, more rarely, དག་ dag (dʽag), ཚོ་, or a few other words, which originally were nouns with the common notion of plurality. But this mark of the Plural is usually omitted, when the plurality of the thing in question may be known from other circumstances, e.g. when a numeral is added: thus, མི་ ‘man’, མི་ ‘men’, མི་ ‘three men’. When a substantive is connected with an adjective, the plural sign is added only once, viz. after the [[21]]last of the connected words: མི་ ‘the good men’.
Note. The conversational language uses the words རྣམས་ etc. seldom, in WT scarcely ever (an exception s. [24. Remarks]), but adds, when necessary, such words as: all, many, some; two, three, seven, eight, or other suitable numerals (cf. § [20, 5].).
15. Declension. The regular addition of the different particles or single sounds by which the cases are formed is the same for all nouns, whether substantives or adjectives, pronouns or participles. Only in some cases, in the Dative and Instrumental, the noun itself is changed, when, ending in a vowel, it admits of a closer connection with the corrupted case-sign. We may reckon in Tibetan seven cases, expressive of all the relations, for which cases are used in other languages, viz: nominative and accusative, genitive, instrumental, dative, locative, ablative, terminative and vocative. 1. The unaltered form of the noun has some of the functions of our Nominative and those of the Accusative and Vocative. 2. The sign of the Genitive is ཀྱི་ after words with the finals ད་ བ་ ས་; གྱི་ after ན་ མ་ ར་ ལ་, གི་ after ག་ and ང་; after vowels i is simply added by means of an འ་ thus: འི་, which then will form a diphthong with the vowel of the noun (cf. § [6]), or if, in versification, two syllables are required, i appears supported by an ཡ་ forming a distinct word. 3. The Instrumental or Agent is expressed by the particles ཀྱིས་, གྱིས་ or གིས་ after the respective [[22]]consonants as specified above; after vowels simply ས་ is added, or, in verse, sometimes ཡིས་.
Note. The instrumental is, in modern pronunciation, except in Northern Ladak, scarcely discernible from the genitive, and there are but few if any, even among lamas, who are not liable to confound both cases in writing.