Tibetan Grammar

11. Peculiarities of the Tibetan article. 1. What have been called Articles by Csoma and Schmidt, are a number of little affixes: པ་ བ་ མ་ པོ་ བོ་ མོ་, and some similar ones, which might perhaps be more adequately termed denominators, since their principal object is undoubtedly to represent a given root as a noun, substantive or adjective, as is most clearly perceptible in the instance of the roots of verbs, to which པ་ or བ་ impart the notion of the Infinitive and Participle, or the nearest abstract and nearest concrete nouns that can possibly be formed from the idea of a verb. These affixes are not, however,—except in this case—essential to a noun, as many substantives and adjectives and most of the pronouns are never accompanied by them, and even those which usually appear connected with them, will drop them upon the slightest occasion. 2. Almost the only case in which a syntactical use of them, like that of the English definite Article, is perceptible, is that mentioned § 20. 3; a formal one, that of distinguishing the Gender, occurs in a limited number of words, where མོ་ denotes the female, པོ་ the masculine. Thus: རྒྱལ་ gyál-po ‘king’, རྒྱལ་ gyál-mo ‘queen’. Or, [18]if the word in the masculine (or rather common) gender has no article, མོ་ is added: སེང་ séṅ-ge ‘lion’, སེང་ ‘lioness’. 3. In most instances, by far, their only use is to distinguish different meanings of homonymous roots, e.g. སྟོན་ (s)tón-pa (tó̤n-pa), ‘teacher’; སྟོན་ (s)tón-mo (tó̤n-mo) ‘feast’; སྟོན་ (s)tón-kʽa (tó̤n-kʽa) ‘autumn’. Even this advantage, however, is given up, as soon as a composition takes place, and then the meaning can only be inferred from the context, or known from usage: མིང་ (from སྟོན་) ‘name feast’ (given on the occasion of naming or christening an infant); སྟོན་ (from སྟོན་) ‘autumnal month’. In some instances the putting or omitting of these articles is optional; more frequently the usage varies in different provinces. 4. The peculiar nature of these affixes is most clearly shown by the manner in which they are connected with the indefinite article § 13.

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).

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.

In the language of common life, in WT, the different forms of the particle of the genitive and instrumental, after consonants, ཀྱི་ གྱི་ etc. are never heard, but everywhere the final consonant is doubled and the vowel i added to it, thus: ལུས་, G. lus-si (Ld.), lṳ̄-i; ལམ་, G. lam-mi; གསེར་ (gold), G. ser-ri etc; or, in other words, all nouns ending in consonants are formed like those ending with ག་ (see the example མིག་). In those ending with a vowel no irregularity takes place.

4. The Dative adds indiscriminately the postposition ལ་ la, denoting the relation of space in the widest sense, expressed by the English prepositions in, into, at, on, to. 5. The Locative is formed by the postposition ན་ na ‘in’. 6. The Ablative by ནས་ nā̤ or ལས་ lā̤ ‘from’ (the latter especially with the meaning: from among), all three likewise without any discriminating regard to the ending of the noun. 7. The Terminative is expressed by the postpositions རུ་ or ར་ after vowels; ཏུ་ after final ག་ and བ་ and, in certain words, ད་ ར་ ལ་; སུ་ after ས་; དུ་ generally after ན་ ར་ ལ་ and the other final consonants. All these [23]postpositions denote the motion to or into. 8. The Vocative is not different from the Nominative (as stated above), if not distinguished by the interjection ཀྱེ་ oh!, and can only be known from the context.

Examples of declension. As example of the declension of consonantal nouns we may take 1. for those in s (respectively d, b), ལུས་ lus, lṳ̄, ‘body’; 2. for those in m (n, r, l), ལམ་ lam ‘way’; 3. for those in g (ṅ), མིག་ mig ‘eye’,—of that of vocalic nouns: 4. ཁ་ kʽa or kʽa-wa ‘snow’.

Singular.

Plural.

As the plural signs are simply added to the nouns, without affecting their form, we here only give examples of declension with the two most frequent plural particles. As example for དག་ the plural of the pron. དེ་ ‘that’ has been chosen.

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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.

18. Cardinals:

There are, as in Sanscrit, names for many more powers of 10, but they are seldom used.

19. Ordinals. དང་ W: daṅ-po, C: dʽ° ‘the first’, the rest are simply formed by adding པ་ to the cardinals, as: གཉིས་, ‘the second’ etc.; the 21st is ཉི་ ‘the twenty-oneth’, not, as in English, ‘the twenty first’.

20. Remarks. 1. The smaller number postponed indicates, as is seen in § 18, addition, the reverse—multiplication: བཅུ་ 13, སུམ་ 30; but in the latter case the three first numerals are changed to ཆིག་, ཉི་, སུམ་; and བཅུ་, as the second part of a compound after consonants, is spelled ཅུ་. 2. The words ཐམ་ (after full tens up to one hundred), ཕྲག་ (after hundreds and thousands1), [32]ཚོ་ (with still greater numbers), are optional but frequent additions. རྩ་ is common instead of དང་ ‘and’, to connect units with tens (s. § 18), but it occurs also with hundreds and thousands, and not seldom together with དང་, e.g. སྟོང་, 1002. It is used also instead of ཐམ་, as: བཅུ་ ten, ཉི་ twenty; often it is standing alone for ཉི་, as རྩ་, twenty two. This latter custom may have caused the belief, common even among educated readers in C and WT, that རྩ་ must mean twenty, even when connecting a hundred or thousand to a unit, as they will usually understand the above mentioned number in the sense of 1022 instead of 1002; but the authority of printed books, wherever the exact number can be verified from other circumstances, does not confirm this, which would indeed be a sadly ambiguous phraseology. 3. ཀ་ added to a cardinal number means conjunction: གཉིས་, the two together, both; གསུམ་, the three together, all three etc. པོ་ means either the same, or represents the definite article, indicating that the number has been already mentioned, e.g. མི་, five men were sent.… The five men arriving etc. 4. པ་ is used, besides [33]forming Ordinals, to express the notion of ‘containing’, e.g. ཡི་ ‘that containing six letters’, viz. the famous formula: ཨོཾ་ om maṇi padme hum; སུམ་ ‘that containing thirty (letters)’, the Tibetan alphabet. 5. Such combinations as གཉིས་ etc. are frequently used in common life, to denote a number approximately, ‘two or three or so’ (cf. § 14 Note).

21. Distributive numerals. They are expressed by repetition as in Hind.: དྲུག་ each time six, six for each etc. In composed numerals only the last member is repeated, thus སུམ་ each time thirty two.

22. Adverbial numerals. 1. Firstly, secondly etc. are formed from the ordinals as every Adverb is from an Adjective, viz. by adding the letter ར་, དང་, གཉིས་ etc. (s. § 41). 2. Multiplicative adverbs, ‘once’, ‘twice’ etc., are expressed by putting ལན་ ‘times’ before the cardinal: ལན་, ལན་, W: lan-c̀ig, lan-ñi(s), C: län-c̀ig, län-ñī ‘once, twice’ etc.: seldom ཚེར་, ཚར་, ཐེངས་ with the same meaning as ལན་.

23. Fractional numerals are formed by adding ཆ་ ‘part’: thus, བརྒྱའི་ ‘a hundredth part’ etc., but also: བང་ ‘one third of the treasury’. [34]