Tibetan Grammar

24. Personal Pronouns. First person: ང་ ṅa; ངེད་ ṅed, ṅĕʼ; ངོས་ ṅos (Ld.); ཁོ་ kʽo-wo, masc., and ཁོ་ kʽo-mo, fem.; བདག་ dag ‘self’—‘I’; Second person: ཁྱོད་ kʽyod (kʽyöʼ), ཁྱེད་ kʽyed (kʽyĕʼ) ‘thou, you’; Third person: ཁོ་ kʽo, ཁོང་ kʽoṅ—‘he, she, it’.

The plural is formed by adding ཅག་, རྣམས་, ཅག་ or ཚོ་, but very often, if circumstances show the meaning with sufficient certainty, the sign of the plural is altogether omitted. The declension is the same as that of the substantives.

Remarks: ང་ is the most common and can be used by every body; ངེད་ seems to be preferred in elegant speech (s. Note); ངོས་ is very common in modern letter-writing, at least in WT; བདག་ ‘self’, when speaking to superior persons occurs very often in books, but has disappeared from common speech, except in the province of Tsaṅ (Ṭas̀ilhunpo) as also the following; ཁོ་, ཁོ་ in easy conversation with persons of equal rank, or to inferiors.

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’.

30. Introductory remarks. The Tibetan verbs must be regarded as denoting, not an action, or suffering, or condition of any subject, but merely a coming to pass, or, in other words, they are all impersonal verbs, like taedet, miseret etc. in Latin, or it suits etc. in English. Therefore they are destitute of what is called in our own languages the active and passive voice, as well as of the discrimination of persons, and show nothing beyond a rather poor capability of expressing the most indispensable distinctions of tense and mood. From the same reason the acting subject of a transitive verb must regularly appear in the Instrumental case, as the case of the subject of a neuter verb,—which, in European languages, is the Nominative—, ought to be regarded, from a Tibetan point of view, as an Accusative expressing the object of an impersonal verb, just as ‘poenitet me’ is translated by ‘I repent’. But it will perhaps be easier to say: The subject of a transitive verb, in Tibetan, assumes regularly the form of the instrumental, of a neuter verb that of the nominative which is the same as the accusative. Thus, ངས་ is properly: [41]རྡུང་ a beating happens, ཁྱོད་ regarding you, ངས་ by me = I beat you. In common life the object has often the form of the dative, ཁྱོད་, to facilitate the comprehension. But often, in modern talk as well as in the classical literature, the acting subject, if known as such from the context, retains its Nominative form. Especially the verba loquendi are apt to admit this slight irregularity.

31. Inflection of verbs. This is done in three different ways:

a) by changing the form of the root. Such different forms are, at most, four in number, which may be called, according to the tenses of our own grammar to which they correspond, the Present-, Perfect-, Future-, and Imperative-roots; e.g. of the Present-root གཏོང་ ‘to give’ the Perfect root is བཏང་, the Future-root གཏང་, the Imperative root ཐོང་; of འཚག་ ‘to filter, bolt’ respectively: བཙགས་ tsag(s) (Ü: tsā), བཙག་ tsag, ཚོག་ tʽsog. The Present root, which implies duration, is also occasionally used for the Imperfect (in the sense of the Latin and Greek languages) and Future tenses. It is obvious, from the above mentioned instances, that the inflection of the root consists partly in alterations of the prefixed letters (so, if the Perfect prefers the prefixed བ, the Future will have ག or retain the བ), partly in adding a final ས་ (to the Perfect and Imperative), partly in changing the vowel (particularly in the Imperative). But also the consonants of the root itself are changed [42]sometimes: so the aspirates are often converted in the Perfect and Future into their surds, besides other more irregular changes. Only a limited number of verbs, however, are possessed of all the four roots, some cannot assume more than three, some two, and a great many have only one. To make up in some measure for this deficiency:

b) some auxiliary verbs have been made available: for the Present tense ཡིན་, འདུག་, ལགས་ and others, all of which mean ‘to be’ (§ 39); for the Perfect ཚར་, ཟིན་, སོང་; for the Future འགྱུར་, འོང་, and the substantive རྒྱུ་.

c) By adding various monosyllabic affixes, the Infinitive, Participles, and Gerunds are formed. These affixes as well as the auxiliary verbs are connected partly with the root, partly with the Infinitive, resp. its terminative, partly with the Participle.

Note. The spoken language, at least in WT, recognises even in four-rooted verbs seldom more than the Perfect root.

32. The Infinitive mood. The syllables པ་ pa or, after the final consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and vowels, བ་ wa are added to the root, whereby it assumes all the qualities and powers of a noun. In verbs of more roots than one, each of them can, of course, in this way be converted into a substantive, or, in other words, each tense has its Infinitive, except the Imperative. From one-rooted verbs the different Infinitives may be formed by the above mentioned auxiliaries: thus, the Inf. Perf., by adding ཡིན་ to the Infinitive of [43]the verb in question, or ཚར་, ཟིན་, སོང་ to the root, and the Inf. Fut. by adding འགྱུར་ to the Supine (terminative of the infinitive, 41. B) thus, མཐོང་ visurum esse, visum iri.

Note. The spoken language uses, in WT almost exclusively, a termination pronounced c̀as in Turig and Balti, c̀es, c̀e in Ladak, c̀e in Lahoul etc., j̀a in Kunawar, s̀e in Tsaṅ etc., the etymology of which is doubtful, as it is not to be found in any printed book. Lamas in Ladak and Lahoul spell it ཅེས་.

33. The Participle. 1. This is in the written language entirely like the Infinitive ཡིན་ ‘being’, གཏོང་ ‘giving’, བཏང་ ‘having given’.—2. Whether the meaning is active or passive, however, can only be inferred from the context, e.g. བཏང་ is of course ‘the money given’, but དངུལ་ ‘the man having given, or, that has given, the money’; the Tibetan participle means nothing but that the action or condition is connected in some way with a person or thing. But it is natural that in the present participle the active idea should be the more frequent one, as well as in the preterit the passive.—3. In the instance of Intensive verbs (formed with བྱེད་ 38.1) the usage of scientific authors has strictly connected the active sense with those formed with བྱེད་, as གཏོང་ toṅ-j̀ed, toṅ-j̀ʽĕʼ, instead of གཏོང་, ‘doing give, giving, [44]giver’, and the passive to those with བྱ་, as གཏོང་ toṅ j̀a, toṅ j̀ʽa i.o. གཏོང་ ‘to be given’ (dandus), བྱ་ ‘to teach the things to be done and not to be done’ (Thgy.).—4. In certain cases, especially with verbs that mean: to say, ask etc., the Participle is used before the words of the speech, where we should use the Imperfect: རྒྱལ་ ‘the king said.…’

Note. In the spoken language, of WT at least, the Participle is formed by མཁན་, in the active sense as well as the passive (whereas in books this syllable occurs only in the meaning of the performer of an action, s. 12. 1.): དངུལ་ ṅul taṅ kʽan-ni mi (s. 15, Note) ‘the man giving the money’, བཏང་ ‘the money given’. འདས་ ‘the lama who brought a coat for sale the other day’. བུ་ ‘the girl who had shewn the door to his reverence’ (Mil.). The future participle is represented, just as in English, by the Infinitive (32, Note), so that ‘the sheep to be killed’, (in books གསོད་ or གསོད་) is expressed, in the most Western provinces, by: sád c̀as-si lug, Lad.: sád-c̀es-si lug, Lah. etc.: sád c̀eï lug, Tsaṅ: söʼ-s̀ē-kyi lug གསོད་, and, most like the classical language, in Kun.: sód j̀ā̤ lug. [45]

34. The finite verb. 1. The principal verb of a sentence, which always closes it (48.) receives in written Tibetan in most cases a certain mark, by which the end of a period may be known. This is, in affirmative sentences, the vowel o (called by the grammarians: སླར་), in interrogative ones the syllable am. Before both the closing consonant of the verb is repeated, or, if it ends with a vowel, འོ་ and འམ་ are written. The Perfect of the verbs ending in ན་ ར་ ལ་, which formerly had a ད་ as second final—ད་—, assume ཏོ་ and ཏམ་.—2. These additional syllables are omitted a) in imperative sentences, b) in the latter member of a double question, c) when the question is expressed already by an interrogative pronoun or adverb, d) in coordinate members of a period, with the exception of the last one, e) commonly, when the principal verb is the verb substantive ཡིན་, ཡོད་ etc. (40. 1.).

Examples. a) སོང་ ‘go!’, འདི་ ‘come here!’.—b) མཐོང་ ‘do you see or not?’—c) དེ་ ‘who is there?’, ནམ་ ‘when did (he, you etc.) arrive?’.—d) ཁང་ ‘the houses were destroyed, the men killed, the whole town annihilated’.—e) གཙང་ ‘in the sand of the river is gold’.

Note. In conversation the o is generally omitted, and [46]the m of the interrogative termination dropped, so that merely the vowel a is heard, e.g. the question མཐོང་ ‘do (you) see’ and the answer མཐོང་ ‘(I) see’, are commonly spoken in WT: tʽoṅ-ṅa? tʽoṅ.

35. Present Tenses. 1. Simple Present Tense. This is the simple root of the verb, which will always be found in the dictionary; in WT, as mentioned above, of verbs with more than one root, only the Perfect root is in use; if, therefore, stress is laid on the Present signification, recourse must be had to one of the following compositions (s. 31. and Note). Thus, མཐོང་ ‘(I, thou, he etc.) see, seest etc.’, གཏོང་ ‘(I etc.) give’ through all persons; in the end of a sentence: མཐོང་.

2. Compound Present Tenses. a) འདུག་ (s. 40, 1) is added to the root: མཐོང་ ‘(I) see’, བཏང་ ‘(I) give’. This is common in the dialect of WT especially.—b) The Participle connected with ཡིན་, མཐོང་ ‘I see’. In WT this, of course, is changed to མཐོང་.—c) One of the Gerunds (41, A) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་, as མཐོང་ (or ནས་ or གི་ or ཞིང་), འདུག་ or ཡོད་ ‘(I) see, am seeing’; it must, however, be remarked that both ways of expression, b) and c), are not very frequent.—d) གིན་ or འདུག་ is the proper form for the compound [47]English present: མཐོང་ ‘(I) am seeing’, འབྲི་ ‘(I) am writing (just now)’.

36. Preterit Tenses. 1. Simple Preterit, Perfect or Aorist Tense; this is the Perfect root: བཏང་, at the close of the sentence བཏང་ ‘gave, have given, was given’; in one-rooted verbs it has, of course, the same form as the present: མཐོང་(ངོ་) ‘saw, have, or was, seen’. This is the usual narrative tense like the Greek Aorist or French Parfait défini.—2. Compound Preterit Tenses.—a) The root with སོང་, བཏང་ ‘have given, gave, was given’, མཐོང་ ‘have seen, saw, was seen’; rarely met with in books, but in general use in the conversation of WT. In CT བྱུང་ j̀ʽuṅ is used in a similar way: ཁྱིས་ ‘the dog has bitten’.—b) The root with ཟིན་ (more in books), or ཚར་ (more in common language), the true Perfect as the tense of accomplished action: བཏང་, བཏང་ ‘have given etc.’, ‘the action of giving is past’, མི་ ‘the man has already left’.—c) The Participle connected with ཡིན་ occurs more frequently in the past sense than otherwise. Here, in the common talk of WT, པ་ is used, even in those cases where the books have བ་, ཡི་ yí-ge kál-pa yin, or, contracted, kál-pen, ‘the letter has been sent off’, in books: བཀལ་ (s. 11, Note), even གླ་ [48]la táṅs-pa yin, táṅs-pen, ‘the wages have been paid’ i.o. བཏང་.—d) Gerunds in ཏེ་ (WT) or ནས་ (CT) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་ (the same as 35. 2. c); also (in Ü Tsaṅ and later books) the mere Perfect root with ཡོད་, the ཏེ་ or ནས་ being dropped: སོང་ ‘has gone’.

37. Future Tenses. 1. Simple Future. The Future-root, གཏོང་(ངོ་) ‘shall, will give, be given’.—2. Compound Future. a) The auxiliary verb འགྱུར་ (to grow, become) added to the Terminative case of the Infinitive: གཏོང་ ‘shall, will give, be given’, མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see, be seen’. This is the most common, and, together with the Simple Future and the Intensive (39.), ༌༌༌བར་, the only one in use with the early classical authors in all cases where a special Future-root is wanted, and even where this exists. It disappears, however, gradually from the literature of the later period, and is replaced by the two following compositions.—b) རྒྱུ་ connected with the root: མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see’, གཏོང་ ‘shall, will give’ etc. (རྒྱུ་ is originally a substantive, meaning material, cause, occasion).—c) the root with འོང་ or ཡོང་, སླེབ་ ‘will arrive’, or, i.o. the root, the Term. Inf., སླེབ་.—Both b) and c) are even now in common [49]use in CT, whereas in WT:—d) ཡིན་ connected with the root is the general form: མཐོང་ tʽoṅ yin, vulg.: tʽóṅin ‘shall, will see’, བཏང་ táṅin, ‘shall, will give’, བཀལ་ kállin ‘will send’, ཚ་ c̀ʽa yin, c̀ʽa’in, c̀ʽän ‘will go’.—e) In books the Participle with ཡིན་ (35. 2. b, 36. 2 c) occurs sometimes also as Future.

38. Imperative mood. 1. This is usually the shortest possible form of the verb, which often loses its prefixed letters, though in some instances a final ས་ is added. In many verbs with the vowel a, and in some with e these vowels are changed into o, besides other alterations of the consonants. Particularly often the surds or sonants of the other tense-roots are changed to their aspirates in the Imperative. Thus, ཐོང་ ‘give!’, from གཏོང་; ལྟོས་ Ld: ltos, CT: tō̤ ‘look!’, from ལྟ་; ཐོབ་ ‘throw!’, from འདེབས་. In one-rooted verbs it is, of course, like the Present, but it can always be sufficiently distinguished by adding the particle ཅིག་ (ཤིག་ or ཞིག་, according to 13.). This is used in the classical literature indiscriminately in addressing the highest and the lowest persons (or, in other words, as well to command, as to pray), but according to the modern custom of CT only when addressing servants and inferior people.—2. In forbidding, the Present-root is used with the negative particle མ་, མ་ ‘do not give!’, མ་ ‘do [50]not look!’, མ་ ‘do not throw!’—3. In praying or wishing (Precative or Optative) either the same forms as under 1. are used, or the Imperatives of འགྱུར་ ‘to come’ or འོང་ ‘to come’ (the latter, ཤོག་, of a quite different root) are connected with the Termin. Infin. མཐོང་ or ཤོག་ ‘may (I, you, he etc.) see!’—4. In none of the three a person is indicated, but it is natural that in commanding and forbidding the subject will be the second, sometimes the third person; in the precative also the first person can be understood.

Note. The common language of WT, acknowledging only the Perfect-root, changes nothing but the vowel: བཏོང་ ‘give!’ from བཏང་; ལྟོས་ ‘look!’ from ལྟ་; བཏོབ་ ‘throw!’ from བཏབ་ (Perf. of འདེབས་). Instead of ཅིག་, which is not much used, བཏོང་ (‘give!’) is often added to the roots of other verbs (s. 39), thus, བཏོན་ ton toṅ ‘take out!’ from བཏོན་ (འདོན་). Or the Imperative is paraphrased by དགོས་ gos (Ld.), gō̤, goi ‘must’, added to the root of the verb: བསད་ ‘must be killed’.—In CT the changing of the vowel seems to be usually omitted, but the ཅིག་ is more used. Here, also, the Perfect root is not so exclusively preferred.

39. Intensive verbs. 1. Very frequent in books is the [51]connection of the four-rooted verb བྱེད་ (Pf. བྱས་, Fut. བྱ་, Imp. བྱོས་) ‘to do’, elegantly བགྱིད་ (Pf. བགྱིས་, Fut. བགྱི་, Imp. གྱིས་), respectfully མཛད་ (Imp. མཛོད་) with the Term. Inf. of another verb, to intensify the action of the latter. By this means not only one-rooted verbs can be made to participate in the advantages of the four-rooted, as མཐོང་ ‘see’, མཐོང་ ‘saw’, མཐོང་ ‘shall, will see’, མཐོང་ ‘see!’, but also several other periphrastical phrases are gained for speaking more precisely than otherwise would be possible. The Future tense བྱ(འོ)༌ serves, besides its proper notion of futurity, particularly to express the English auxiliaries ‘must, ought etc.’: thus, བརྗོད་ ‘must not be uttered, ought not to be uttered’, sometimes it may be translated by the Imperative mood. The spoken language, at least of WT, is devoid of this convenience, and possesses nothing of the kind except the above mentioned intensive form of the Imperative, formed by བཏོང་ (s. 38., Note).—2. Another class of intensive verbs are formed by connecting two synonyms, as འཇིགས་ ‘to be afraid’, literally ‘to be fear-frightened’, and other similar ones.

40. Substantive and Auxiliary Verbs. 1. To be a) ཡིན་, in elegant and respectful speech ལགས་ lag-pa, Ü: lā-pa (the latter word never used in WT) is the mere means [52]of connecting the attribute with its subject, as: མི་ ‘this man is a Ladakee’, དེ་ ‘is it you, Sir?’. Therefore the question སུ་ is to be understood ‘who are you’ or ‘who is he’ etc., the personal pronoun being often let to be guessed.—ཡིན་ itself is often omitted in daily life in WT as well as in poetry, e.g. ཨི་ ‘this load (is) very heavy’ WT. Negatively: མ་, མིན་ vulg. མན་, resp. མ་.—b) ཡོད་ yod-pa, yöʼ-pa, eleg. མཆིས་ c̀ʽī-pa, resp. བཞུགས་ z̀ug(s)-pa, Ü: z̀ū-pa, negat.: མེད་, མ་, མི་ means ‘to exist’, or ‘to be present’, ‘to be found at a place’, therefore the question སུ་ is to be understood: ‘Who is here? Who is there?’—ཡོད་ and བཞུགས་ are in general use, མཆིས་ is seldom heard. When connected with the Dative of a substantive it expresses the English ‘to have, to have got’, as: ང་ ‘I have money’; ང་ ‘I have pain’. In this case the respectful term is not གཞུགས་ but མངའ་ ṅa-wa: རྒྱལ་ ‘has not the King an indisposition?’ i.e. ‘is Your Majesty ill?’.—c) འདུག་ dug-pa (eleg. གདའ་ is seldom heard), resp. བཞུགས་, ‘to be present, stay, be found at a place’; negat. [53]མི་. Both འདུག་ and ཡོད་ can be used instead of ཡིན་, though not this instead of them.—d) རེད་ rĕʼ-pa = འདུག་, negat. མ་ in Spiti and CT, seldom in books.—e) མོད་ mod-pa, möʼ-pa has a somewhat emphatical sense: ‘to be (something) in a high degree’, ‘to be (somehow) in plenty’. It occurs most frequently in the Gerund with ཀྱི་ (41.), when it frequently has the sense of ‘though’, but never with a negative.—f) སྣང་ naṅ-wa, originally ‘to appear, to be visible, extant’, negat. མི་. Sometimes in books, and common in certain districts.—g) In books the concluding o (34.) is, moreover, found to represent the verb ‘to be’ in all its meanings, and is capable of being connected with words of all classes besides verbs, e.g. དང་ ‘is the first’ = དང་. In a similar manner also the ཅིག་ of the Imperative (38.) implies the verb ‘to be’.—h) The Preterit root for all these verbs is སོང་ soṅ ‘was, has been’, and besides also ‘has gone, become’, which is its original meaning.—For the use of these verbs as auxiliaries s. 35. sq.

2. འགྱུར་ originally ‘to be changed, turned into something’ then ‘to become, to grow’, auxiliary for the Future tense in the old classical language, as mentioned in 37. Since this can be considered as the intransitive or passive sense, opposed to བྱེད་ ‘to make, render’, the connection [54]of འགྱུར་ with the Term. Inf. of another verb must, in many cases, be rendered by the passive voice in our languages. In WT the verb ཆ་ c̀ʽa-c̀e ‘to go’ is used in the sense of ‘to become, to grow’. The Perfect root for both is སོང་ ‘(went), grew, became, has become, is’ (s. above).—In CT and later books འབྱུང་ is used instead.

3. ‘must’ is expressed by དགོས་ ‘to be necessary’ (s. 38. Note). In WT this is used in a very wide sense for any possible modification of the notion of necessity: ‘I must, should, want to, ought’ and even ‘I will, wish, beg (for something)’ is nothing but ང་ ‘to me is necessary’ which may be, in the last mentioned case, rendered somewhat more politely by adding ཞུ་ z̀u ‘pray!’ ང་ ‘I want potatoes, pray!’ is as much to say as ‘Will you kindly give me some potatoes’. In books and more refined language several other verbs are used in the same sense, viz. རིགས་ ‘it is right to’ (usually with the Genit. Infin.), རུང་ ‘it is meet, decent’, འདོད་ ‘to wish, desire’, both with the Supine; དགའ་ ‘to like’ with the Dat. Inf. The popular substitute of the last, especially in use in WT, is འཐད་, of similar meaning, added to the root.

41. Gerunds and Supines. We retain these terms, employed by former grammarians, but observe that they do not refer to the form, but to the meaning, as well as that Gerund is not to be understood in the same signification [55]as in Latin, but as the Gérondif of some French grammarians, or what Shakespeare calls Past conjunctive participle in Hindi. These forms are of the greatest importance in Tibetan, being the only substitutes for most of those subordinate clauses which we are accustomed to introduce by conjunctions. They are formed by the two monosyllabic affixes ཏེ་ (so after the closing consonants ན་ ར་ ལ་ ས་); དེ་ after དེ་, སྟེ་ after ག་ ང་ བ་ མ་ and vowels and ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ or ཞིང་ according to the same rule as ཅིག་ 13.), both of which are added to the root, or by the terminations mentioned in 15. as composing the declension of nouns, which are added partly to the root, partly to the Infinitive or Participle.

A. Gerunds. All the following forms can be rendered by the English Participle ending in ing, but the more accurate distinctions must be expressed by various conjunctions.

1. ཏེ་ (དེ་ etc.), the most frequent of all these endings. It is added to the Present-root as well as to the Perfect-root: གཏོང་ ‘giving’, བཏོང་ ‘having given’, and stands for all clauses beginning with when, as, since, after etc. Also in the spoken language of WT it is used most frequently.—Examples: ཕྲུ་ ‘the child, having been carried away by the water, died’; རྒྱལ་ ‘the king having died, the prince occupied [56]the throne (king’s-place)’; ཆུ་ ‘as there is a great water, we cannot go’.

2. ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ etc.), of a similar sense, chiefly used for smaller clauses within a large one, མི་ ‘when, being displeased, he became angry’, or ‘growing displeased and angry’. Often it denotes two actions going on at the same time, or two states of a thing existing together, and then can only be translated by ‘and’, thus, མཐའ་ ‘without end and boundary’; ཤ་ ‘to eat flesh and drink blood’1. It stands also in a causal sense: ‘by doing etc.’, as: ཉ་ ‘(we) live by catching fish’. These two (1. and 2.) can also, like the closing o, as mentioned in 40. 1. g, be added to every class of words, in the sense of being: ཁྱོད་ ‘as you are high(-born), being of a great family’. In conversation, ཅིང་ is scarcely ever heard.

3. ནས་ (from, or after, doing something) in temporal clauses with ‘after, when, as’; practically it is very much like ཏེ་, and often alternating with it. In most cases, in speaking always, it is added to the root, seldom to the infinitive.[57]—Examples. ནམ་ ‘when the night had risen (viz. at daybreak) he went’; ལང་ ‘after you will have risen, go!’ དེ་ ‘when I saw that, raising clamour, I wept’.

4. ན་ ‘in (doing something)’ again for clauses with ‘since, when, as’, but in most cases by far for ‘if’ and conditional ‘when’: འགྲོ་ ‘if, or, when (I) go, or went’; ཤི་ ‘when, after (he) has died’, ‘if he is already dead’; ཤི་ ‘if (he) die, should die’, ‘if (he) died’, ‘when (he) dies’; བྱེད་ ‘if … do, did’; བྱ་ ‘if … were to do’. It is added to the root, seldom to the infinitive, and as common in talking as in books.

5. ལ་ is of more various use. When added to the root, it is very much like ཅིང་, which it replaces in the conversational language of CT (where the first example of 2. would be, མ་), but does not occur so often except in imperative or precative sentences, when it is added to the Imperative root of the subordinate verb, just like other gerunds: སོང་ ‘going look!’, ‘go and look!’ ལོང་ ‘rise and go!’. This particle, like the above-mentioned, implies the verb ‘to be’, especially when added to adjectives denoting a personal quality. མི་ ‘being ugly and short’; དབྱིབས་[58]པ་ ‘pretty, being of a good figure and nice to behold’. When added to the Infinitive, it denotes: a) of course, the real Dative, or the usual meanings of the postposition ལ་ with a substantive; thus, གསོད་ ‘to rejoice at killing, be fond of killing’. b) nearly the same as ཏེ་ or ‘as’ in English, e.g. ལམ་ ‘as there was an idol-shrine in the middle of the way, (she) alighted from (her) chariot’; རྒྱལ་ ‘as the king went there daily to bathe’; འཇིག་ ‘as (it) does not occur in the (whole) world, what is (its) occurring here, or, how is it that it occurs here?’. Finally, in the language of common life ལ་ is added to the repeated root in order to express the English ‘while, whilst’: ངས་ ṅā̤ s̀a tub-túb-la kʽyód-dī (15., Note) s̀iṅ kʽyoṅ WT, or ཁྱོད་ kʽyöʼ-kyī s̀iṅ kur-s̀og CT ‘while I am cutting the meat into pieces, bring you (some) wood’.

6. ལས་ added only to the Infinitive, literally ‘out of (the doing)’. This may mean a) ‘after’, ཉལ་ ‘to rise from lying, after having lain’; དུར་ ‘after having been three days in [59]the grave (I) came out of the grave’.—b) ‘while’, in which case the root of the verb may be repeated, as: སོང་ ‘out of my walking i.e. when walking along, (I) met with a brahman’; ང་ (the above mentioned example (s. ལ་) translated into classical language); c) also the English ‘being about to’ is, in books, often expressed by this Gerund: ནང་ ‘when (I) was about to enter, the door was shut’; ཤི་ ‘when (I) was going to die, (I) was restored to life again’. Which of the three is the real meaning, will in most cases be clear from circumstances. This gerund is not used in talking, at least in WT.

7. ཀྱིས་ (གྱིས་ etc.) or ཀྱི་ (གྱི་ etc.), or the Instrumental and Genitive cases of the root, mean a) ‘by doing something’ or ‘because’, e.g. དགོས་ ‘we come (here), because it is necessary’. ཁོ་ ‘since I am resolved to help you, do not be depressed!’ This, originally, is a function of the Instrumental only, but in later times the other cases also are used in this meaning.—b) more frequently they are used adversatively, ‘though’, especially when connected with མོད་ (40. 1. e), ཅེས་ ‘though (you) did [60]say so, by what shall (I) believe (it)?’ In other cases it may be left untranslated when the next sentence will commence with ‘but’: ཟས་ ‘not liking delicate food, he ate vulgar food’ or ‘he did not like d. f., but preferred v. f.’. This Gerund is scarcely used in talking, at least in WT.

8. པས་ (བས་), the Instrumental of the Infinitive, ‘by (doing something)’ is, of course, the proper expression for ‘because’, but also very often used indiscriminately for ཏེ་ or ནས་ only for the sake of varying the mode of speaking: ཤིན་ ‘because it is very difficult’; ལྟས་ ‘when (he) looked’.

9. Also གིན་ the proper use of which has been shewn above (35. 2. d.) must be mentioned once more as it occurs in a similar sense to ཅིང་, སྨོན་ ‘walk on praying (preces faciendo)!’; བྲང་ ‘beating (her own) breast and weeping’.

B. Supines. They are expressed simply by the Terminative Case of the Infinitive or of the Root, མཐོང་ or ཐོང་ ‘to see’. In many instances the use of either is optional, in others one is preferred. 1. Their use is: with adjectives like the Latin supine in u, e.g. བསླབ་ ‘difficult to learn’; with verbs expressing ‘to go, to send’ etc., [61]also ‘to pray’ etc. like that in um: ལེན་ ‘go to fetch’, གནང་ ‘(I) beg (you) to permit,—for permission’. In these cases the root is most common, but the Inf. བསླབ་, or གནང་, ལེན་ may also be used. 2. Another use of the Supine is a) with verbs of sensation and, less frequently, with those of declaration, where we use sentences with ‘that’ or the Participle or Infinitive: མ་ ‘seeing (his) mother coming’ (instead of which, however, འོང་ may be said as well); ༌༌༌བའི་ ‘knowing that the time of … ing had arrived’ (lit: ‘that it had come down to the time’); རྒྱལ་ ‘remembering him to be the king’s son’ or ‘that he was …’.—b) in an adverbial sense, when we say ‘so that’, especially in negative sentences, ‘so that not’, ‘without … ing’, སུས་ ‘so that nobody may (did) perceive it’, or ‘without anybody perceiving it’.

Note 1. The modern language of WT uses in the first instance (B. 1.) either the simple Infinitive, བསླབ་ (or དཀག་), or the same with ལ་, བསླབ་, or with ཕྱི་ (for the ཕྱིར་ of the books s. 7. 2.), བསླབ་; in the second either the same forms, or a particular one, which consists in repeating the final consonant [62]of the root with the vowel a, to which also ལ་ may be added: thus, ལེན་, ཁྱོད་ ‘(I) have come to meet you’; in the third, the direct Imperative adding ཞུ་ for the sake of civility, དགོངས་ ‘pray permit!’

In the case of B. 2., instead of མ་, the expression in common use will be ཨ་ or ཡོང་; instead of སུས་, either the same form, མ་, or the Gerund, མ་.—In CT those examples would respectively, stand thus, བསླབ་ or བསླབ་ or བསླབ་ láb-tu, láb-ba (sounding almost lă-wa), láb-pa̤ dʽo̤n-dʽu kag-po; in the third instance a peculiar word, ‘rog’, is used, which is said to be originally the same as གྲོགས་ (རོགས་) ‘friend, assistant’, and serves now as the respectful substitute of ཅིག་, Particle of the Imperative, གནང་ ‘pray permit!’, སྟེར་ ‘pray give!’ Instead of མ་ etc. the most usual form in CT will be the simple Participle, མ་.

Note 2. All the forms, of course, where པ་ or བ་ are met with might in certain cases belong to the Participle, and not to the Infinitive.

Note 3. The reader will have missed any mention of tenses of the class of Pluperfect, Past Future etc., and, [63]indeed, there exists no form of the kind, and they can only be rendered by a Gerund, e.g. ཡི་ ‘when (he) had written the letter, (he) sent (it) off’; ཡི་ (WT: བཀལ་, CT: བཀལ་) ‘when (he) shall have written the letter, (he) will send (it) off’. Neither have the Conditional or Subjunctive any special form. Thus, e.g., འདི་ ‘if we did not do that, we could not live’ (i.e. we cannot earn our sustenance in any other manner); ཅིའི་ ‘why should not I hear (grant) what you say (your wish)?’; བརྡ་ ‘if (you) had not explained it, and (we) had not seen the signs, we would not have understood it’; མིས་ ‘as a man would not find it, I must send an emanation’; vulg., WT, ཨི་ ‘if the distance was not so great, they would come to me (visit me)’. Here may be added, that also the intention of, or attempt at, doing something is expressed by the simple verb: thus, བདག་ ‘though I did try to hinder him, I could not’; བདག་ ‘as he saw his own disciple [64]on the point of springing into the water (and that he had sprung off the bank), he held him back by the force of his magic, so that he did not touch the water’ (s. 41. B. 2. b.). Especially the gerunds in ལས་ (41. A. 6.) have often this meaning: བདག་ ‘when I was about to be parted from life, he saved it’; སྦྲུལ་ ‘the snake, having become angry, though she intended (or: had at first int.) to let out her poison, reflected thus’. As will be seen from these examples, the action, in such cases, is thought to have begun in fact.