2. person. ཁྱོད་ is used in books in addressing even the highest persons, but in modern conversation only among equals or to inferiors; ཁྱེད་ is elegant and respectful, especially in books.— [[35]]
3. person. ཁོ་ seldom occurs in books, where the demonstr. pron. དེ་ (§ [26]) is generally used instead; ཁོང་ is common to both the written and the spoken language, and used, at least in the latter, as respectful. But it must be remarked that the pronoun of the third person is in most cases entirely omitted, even when there is a change of subject.—Instead of ང་ and ཁྱོད་ the people of WT use ང་ and ཁྱོ་; the vulgar plural of ཁོ་ is ཁོ་.—
To each of these pronouns may be added: རང་ raṅ or ཉིད་ ñid, ñĭʼ ‘self’, and in conversational language ང་, ཁྱོད་, ཁོ་ are, perhaps, even more frequently used than the simple forms, without any difference in the meaning. ཉིད་ is more prevalent in books, except the compound ཉིད་ ñi-raṅ, which is in modern speech the usual respectful pronoun of address, like ‘Sie’ in German.
Note. The predilection of Eastern Asiatics for a system of ceremonials in the language is met with also in Tibetan. There is one separate class of words, which must be used in reference to the honoured person, when spoken to as well as when spoken of. To this class belong, besides the pronouns ཉིད་, ཁྱེད་, ཁོང་, all the respectful terms by which the body or soul, or parts of the same, and all things or persons pertaining to such a person, and [[36]]even his actions, must be called. The terms, most frequently occurring, have special expressions, as སྐུ་ (s)ku, instead of ལུས་ lus, lṳ̄, ‘body’; དབུ་ u, i.o. མགོ་ go ‘head’; ཐུགས་ tʽug(s) (Ü: tʽū), i.o. སེམས་ sem(s) ‘soul’, or ཡིད་ yid, yĭʼ, ‘mind’; ཡབ་ yab, i.o. ཕ་ (vulg: ཨ་), ‘father’; ན་ na-za, i.o. གོས་ gos, gō̤, ‘coat’, ‘dress’; ཆིབས་ c̀ʽib(s), i.o. རྟ་ (r)ta, sta ‘horse’; བཞུགས་ z̀ug(s)-pa (Ü: z̀ū-pa), i.o. སྡོད་ dod-pa, döʼ-pa ‘to sit’; མཛད་ dzad-pa, dzäʼ-pa i.o. བྱེད་ j̀ed-pa, j̀hĕʼ-pa ‘to make’ and many others. If there is no such special word, any substantive may be rendered respectful by adding སྐུ་ or ཐུགས་ respectively (so, སྐུ་ i.o. ཚེ་ ‘lifetime’; ཐུགས་ i.o. ཁྲོ་ ‘anger’) and any verb by adding མཛན་, according to [39, 1]. Another class of what might be called elegant terms are to be used when conversing with an honoured person (or also by a high person speaking of himself), such as བགྱིད་ gyid-pa, gyĭʼ-pa ‘to do’; མཆིས་ c̀ʽī-pa ‘to be’; སླད་ lad-du, läʼ-du i.o. ཕྱིར་ ‘for the sake of’, without reference to the said person himself. Even uneducated people know, and make use of, most of the ‘respectful’ terms, but the merely ‘elegant’ ones are, at least in WT, seldom or never heard in conversation.
25. Possessive pronouns. The Possessive is simply [[37]]expressed by the Genitive of the Personal, ངའི་, ཁྱོད་ etc. ‘His’, ‘her’, ‘its’, when referring to the acting subject (suus), must be expressed by རང་ or ཉིད་ ‘his own’; otherwise (ejus) by ཁོའི་, ཁོང་, དེའི་. In C, in the latter case, ང་, ཁྱོད་, ཁོ་ are used.
26. Reflective and Reciprocal pronouns. 1. The Reflective pronoun, ‘myself’, ‘yourself’ etc. is expressed by རང་, ཉིད་, also བདག་. But in the case of the same person being the subject and object of an action, it must be paraphrased, so for ‘he precipitated himself from the rock’ must be said ‘he precipitated his own body etc.’ རང་; for ‘he rebuked himself’—‘he rebuked his own soul’ རང་.—2. The reciprocal pronoun ‘each other’ or ‘one another’ is rendered by ‘one—one’, as གཅིག་ ‘by one one was killed’, ‘they killed one another’; གཅིག་ ‘to one one said’, ‘they said to each other’.
27. Demonstrative pronouns. 1. འདི་ di, ‘this’; དེ་ de, dhe ‘that’ are those most frequently used, both in books and speaking. The Plural is generally formed by དག་, but also by རྣམས་ and ཚོ་. More emphatical are འདི་, འདི་, འདི་, འདི་, ‘just this’, ‘this same’; དེ་ etc. ‘that same’.—The vulgar dialect also uses ཧ་ hắ-gyi [[38]]and ཕ་ pʽắ-gyi for ‘that’, ‘yonder’, and, in WT, ཨི་, ཨི་ for ‘this’ and ཨ་ for ‘that’; ཕ་ occurs even in books.—2. It is worth remarking that the distinction of the nearer and remoter relation is, even in common language, scrupulously observed. If reference is made to an object already mentioned, དེ་ is used; if to something following, འདི་; e.g. དེ་ ‘that speech he said’, ‘thus he said’; འདི་ ‘this speech he said’, ‘he said thus, spoke the following words’.
28. Interrogative pronouns. They are སུ་ su ‘who?’; གང་ gaṅ, ghaṅ ‘which?’; ཅི་ c̀i ‘what?’; to these the indefinite article ཞིག་ is often added, སུ་ etc. The two former can also assume the plural termination དག་, སུ་, གང་.—In CT གང་ is frequently used instead of ཅི་.
29. Relative pronouns. These are almost entirely wanting in the Tibetan language, and our subordinate relative clauses must be expressed by Participles and Gerunds, or a new independent sentence must be begun. The participle, in such a case, is treated quite as an adjective, being put either in the Genitive before the substantive, or, in the Nominative, after: འགྲོ་ ‘the merchants who would go (with him)’; ཉག་ ‘the cord on which turquoises are strung’; འཁྱོས་ [[39]]‘one who gets (unto whom come) many presents’. Cf. also [33]. Only those indefinite sentences which in English are introduced by ‘he who’, ‘who ever’, ‘that which’, ‘what’ etc. can be adequately expressed in Tibetan, by using the interrogative pronouns with the participle (seldom the naked root) of the verb, or adding ན་ (‘if—’ v. [41, A. 4.]) to the latter. Instead of ཅི་ in this case ཇི་ is written more correctly. Thus: སུ་ ‘if anybody who possesses the good faith teach it me’; ཁྱོད་ ‘when those of you who wish to go are assembled’; ནོར་ ‘this jewel (cintāmaṇi) will make come down like rain whatever is wished for’; ཁྱོད་ ‘whatever you may say and ask of me according to that I will act, or I will grant you whatever you ask’. བདག་ ‘having scooped the water of the sea with what force I have’; རིན་ ‘I beg you to show me what sort of jewel you have found (got)’; རྒང་ ‘his footprints, in what place soever they fell (v. lex. s. v. རིགས་), became gold-sand’. [[40]]
But the participle is treated as if no relative was preceding, thus སྔར་ ‘he did not recede from (recall) the word he had spoken before’; vulg., WT, ང་ ‘the room where I sat’.