Chapter III.
The Adjective.
16. In the Tibetan language the Adjective is not formally distinguished from the Substantive, so that many nouns may be used one or the other way just as circumstances require.[1] The declension, likewise, follows the same rules as that of substantives. Only two remarks may be added here. 1. The particles པ་ མ་ པོ་ མོ་ are not very strictly used for distinguishing the gender, since even in the case of human beings པ་ and པོ་ are not seldom found connected with feminines, e.g.: བུ་ just as well as བུ་ ‘a fine girl’. 2. The Adjective stands after the Substantive to which it belongs: thus, རི་ ri-tʽón-po, C: ri-tʽo̤n-po, ‘the high hill’, when, of course, the case-signs [[26]]are joined to the Adjective: རི་ ‘of the high hill’, རི་ ‘the high hills’ etc.
Or the Adjective may be put in the Gen. before the Substantive: མཐོན་, and then the latter only is declined: མཐོན་, མཐོན་. In the vulgar speech both of C and WT the adjective sometimes preserves, even in this position, its simple form (Nominative). A third way of expression, when both are joined together, without any article, as སྐམ་ instead of ས་ ‘the dry land’, is rather a compound substantive, with the same difference of meaning as ‘highland’ and ‘a high land’ in English.
17. Comparison. 1. Special terminations, expressive of the different degrees of comparison, as in the Aryan languages, do not exist in Tibetan. There are two particles, however, corresponding to the English than: བས་, after the final consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and after vowels (པས་, after ག་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ ས་[2]), and ལས་; these particles follow the word with which another is compared (like the Hind. سے) and this then precedes the compared one, finally follows the adjective in the positive: རྟ་ (or ལས་) ཁྱི་ ‘horse—than dog small is’, just as in Hindūstāni: گھوڑى سے كتّا چھوٹا ھَى. But also the position usual in [[27]]our European languages occurs, thus: རབ་ ‘the merit of becoming a priest is relatively higher than mount Meru’; བོད་ ‘the king of Tibet is greater than the other ones’. The particle བས་ (པས་) may be put, in the same manner, after adverbs. Thus, སྔར་ ‘(their eyes) became more keen-sighted than before’. Or, after infinitives, གཞན་ ‘it is better (for him) that his younger brother should go (with him) than another’. ལས་ for itself has the meaning of ‘more than’, with the negative: ‘not more than’, ‘only’; thus: ང་ ‘more than two ounces I do not want’ (cf. vulg. WT: གསུམ་ ‘there are not more than (only) three’); or ‘nothing but’, ‘only’, རི་ ‘there is no pleasure (for us) but hunting, h. is our only pl.’.
2. An Adverb which augments the notion of the adjective itself, is ལྷག་ ‘more’; this can be added ad libitum: རྟ་.
3. Another adverb, ཇེ་ means: ‘more and more’, ‘gradually more’, e.g. ཇེ་ ‘going nearer and nearer’. 4. ‘The elder—the younger’ e.g. of two brothers, is [[28]]simply expressed by: ‘the great—the little’. 5. The Superlative is paraphrased by the same means: ཀུན་ or ཐམས་ ‘greater than all’. Or it is expressed in the following manner: ཡུལ་ ‘of (among) the kings of the country which one is the greatest (prop. great)?’. Adverbs for expressing high degrees are: ཤིན་ or རབ་ ‘very’, ཀུན་ ‘all’, ཡོངས་ ‘quite’, མཆོག་ ‘exceedingly’ etc.
Note. The colloquial language of WT uses སང་ instead of བས་ or ལས་, and མཱ་ (mā, always with a strong emphasis, perhaps a mutilated form of མངས་ ‘much’) or མང་ instead of ཤིན་, whereas that of CT employs ལས་ in the former case, but repeats the adjective in the latter, so that ‘very large’ is expressed in books by ཤིན་, in speaking, in WT by mā́ c̀ʽén-po, in CT by c̀ʽem-po c̀ʽem-po.
[1] But the vulgar language has a predilection for certain forms of Adjectives 1. those with the gerundial particle ཏེ་, as: ཚན་ for the more classical ཚན་ ‘warm’; these seem to be particularly in use in Tsaṅ: མཛའ་ ‘friendly’, less so in Ü. 2. compound adjectives either by simple reiteration of the root: རིལ་ for རིལ་ ‘round’, or changing the vowel at the same time: ཁྲག་ ‘complicate’, གཙང་ ‘awry’ etc. Often they are quadrisyllables after this form: མལ་ ‘lukewarm’, ཆག་ ‘medley’. [↑]