Tibetan Grammar

42. We may distinguish three classes of adverbs: 1. Primitive adverbs. 2. Adverbs formed from Adjectives. 3. Adverbs formed from Substantives or Pronouns.

1. Very few Primitive Adverbs occur; the most usual are: ད་ ‘now’, ནམ་ ‘when’, སང་ (books and CT) or ཐོ་ (WT) ‘to morrow’, and a few similar ones; ཡང་ ‘again’, and the two negatives མི་ and མ་, the latter of which is used in prohibitive sentences, and with a past tense, as མི་ ‘(I) do not give’, མི་ ‘(I) shall not give’, but: མ་ ‘did not give’, མ་ (WT: མ་) ‘do not [66]give!’ The verbs ཡིན་, ལགས་, མཆིས་, རེད་ have always མ་ instead of མི་ before them (40.). Another particle of this kind, of a merely formal value, is ནི་, which is added to any word or group of words in order to single it out and distinctly separate it from everything that follows. It is, therefore, often very useful in lessening the great indistinctness of the language, especially so when separating the subject from the attribute: མི་ ‘that man is a Ladakee’. (There is scarcely an adequate word to be found in our modern languages, but the Greek γε, or μεν—δε—, are very similar.) In talking it is seldom heard, and, when used, in WT pronounced: ནིང་.

2. Adverbs may be formed from any Adjective by putting it in the Terminative case. བཟང་ ‘good’, བཟང་ ‘well’; རབ་ ‘principal’, རབ་ ‘principally, very’; དྲག་ ‘violent’, དྲག་ or དྲག་ ‘violently’.

3. Nearly all the local Adverbs are formed from Substantives or Pronouns with some local Postposition: གོང་ ‘the place (space) above, upper part’, གོང་ ‘above’, གོང་ ‘upwards’, གོང་ ‘from above (downwards)’; འདི་ ‘this’, འདི་ ‘in this, here’, འདི་, འདིར་ ‘hither, here’ (cf. 15.), འདི་ ‘hence’; དེ་ ‘that’, དེ་ ‘there’, དེ་, དེར་ ‘thither, there’, དེ་ ‘from there, thence, then, after that’. [67]

Note. In talking the simple adjective is used, mostly, instead of its adverb (2. class): མགྱོགས་ for —པར་ ‘quickly, soon’.

43. There are two kinds of Postpositions: 1. Simple Postpositions. These are the same that we know already as forming the cases (15). 2. Compound Postpositions, formed in the manner of local Adverbs (42. 3), with which they are, indeed, with a few exceptions, identical.

1. Simple Postpositions. These are: ལ་ (the affix of the Dative), ན་ (Locative), ནས་ and ལས་ (Ablative), རུ་, ར་, སུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་ (Terminative).

Their use will be best seen in the following examples:

༎ ལ་ ༎

ཕན་ WT, ཟངས་ (inst. of ཞོག་ 38, Note) CT ‘put the degchi on the fire!’.

བོང་, vulg: འགྲེ་, Tsang: བོང་ ‘the ass rolls himself on the ground’.

རྟ་ (or ནས་) འགྲོ་ ‘having mounted on the horse (he) goes’, or ‘(he) goes on horseback’.

བྱ་, vulg (WT): ཅི་ (corrupted from [68]མཆིལ་) ནམ་, CT: བྱ་ ‘the bird flies in the sky’.

མཚན་ WT, ནམ་ CT ‘(we) shall set out at night’.

དེ་ (books and CT), དེ་ WT ‘being very glad at this’.

སྨན་ ‘skilful in medicine’.

ཆང་, vulg: བོས་ ‘invited him to beer’.

མགོ་ WT, འདུག་ CT ‘is (there) ache in (your) head’, ‘have you head-ache?’

༎ ན་, དུ་ etc. ༎

ཁྱིམ་ (or དུ་) ཡོད་, vulg: ཁང་ (or རུ་) ཡོད་ ‘(he) is in the house, at home’.

ཁྱིམ་, vulg: ཁང་ (or ལ་) སོང་ ‘go into the house, home!’.

དུས་, vulg: ཞག་ ‘at a (certain) time, once’.

ད་ (books) ‘from to-day in (after) seven days’.

མས་; WT: ཨ་; CT: ཨ་ ‘the mother carried the son in (her) arms’.

དེའི་, vulg: དེ་ ‘at that time’.

ལོ་ (books, for vulg. see Compound adv.) ‘for seven years’. [69]

མི་ (or བསྐོས་), W: རྒྱལ་ ‘(they) made (or selected, raised) that man to (be) king’.

ཡོ་, CT: འཁྱོ་ (or ཆ་) སྔས་ ‘they made (their) luggage into a pillow, used it as a pillow’.

གང་ (or ག་) འགྲོ་, WT: ག་ (s. 35. 2. b, ཡིན་ omitted, 40. 1. a), CT: ག་ (པ་ or པས་, provincial irregularities 35. 2. c) ‘where are (you) going?’

ང་ (or ཁོག་) འགྲུལ་ (vulg.) ‘I am going to Tino (or Kʽoksar)’.

༎ ནས་ ༎

ཟླ་ ‘after eight months’.

ཟླ་ ‘from (after) the eighth month’.

ཐོག་ (books and CT), WT: མགོ་ ‘from the beginning’.

༎ ལས་ ༎

དཀར་ ‘from the window, through the window’.

འཁོར་, vulg: ༌༌༌ནས་ ‘to deliver from the circulation (transmigration)’.

པ་, WT: ནས་, Tsang: པ་ ‘to build a house out of brick (Ts: a house of brick)’.

མདོ་ ‘from the sūtra Zamatog’. [70]

སློབ་ (vulg: སློབ་) ‘one of (from among) the pupils’.

ཀུན་ (books and CT), WT: ཚང་ ‘wiser than all, the wisest, most skilful of all’.

གཉིས་ ‘more than two are not left’.

ང་ ‘more than myself are not’.

Besides these དང་ ‘with’ is to be mentioned as Simple Postposition: thus, ཁྱེའུ་, WT: ཁྱོག་ ‘speaking (conversing) with the youth’; ང་ ‘with me’, or, in fuller form, ང་, ང་ vulg: ང་ ‘together with me’. In WT it is even used for the instrumental when the real instrument (tool) of an action is meant, e.g. རྒྱལ་ so in books, but WT: རལ་ ‘the king killed the minister with the sword’. It is, moreover, added to many Adjectives and Verbs, when we use the Accusative or Dative or other Prepositions, e.g. དེ་ ‘like (with) that, similar to that’. With an Infinitive it denotes the synchronism of the action with another one, ཉི་ ‘with the sun rising, at sunrise’; གཉིད་ ‘with (on) their going to sleep, when they went to sleep’; ཅེས་ ‘(with) saying so he went home’ or also ‘he said so, and went home’. Often it is found with [71]an Imperative, without any perceptible signification, if it is not to be regarded as a substitute for ཅིག་ (38): ད་ ‘now eat!’ For its use as a conjunction see the next chapter.

2. Compound Postpositions. These may conveniently be grouped in two classes: a) Local Compound Postpositions, which are virtually the same as the Local Adverbs specified in 42. 3.: thus, ནང་ ‘in (the midst of)’, ནང་ ‘into’ also ‘in’, ནང་ ‘from, out of’. The most usual ones will be seen in the following examples:

རྫིང་ (or དུ་) ཁྲུས་ ‘to bathe in a pond’.

ཆུའི་ ‘he entered into the water’ (both in books and common talk).

ལྷའི་ ‘the lord among the gods’.

ཁང་ (or འབྱུང་) vulg. ‘(he) comes (emerges) out of the house’.

སྒོའི་ (or ན་, or ལ་) ‘above the door’ (books and vulg., but more usual in WT: སྒོ་, CT སྒོ་).

ཡབ་, vulg.: ཡབ་ (or ལྔུན་, CT also གདོང་ ‘he died before his father’.

པདྨའི་ (or ན་, or ཐོག་, or ཁ་) བཞུགས་, vulg., in WT: ཁ་ (ཁ་), CT: དགེང་ ‘to sit on a lotus-flower’. [72]

སྒོའི་ (or ལ་, or ན་) (books and talk) ‘beside, near the door’.

ཤིང་, vulg.: མདུན་, རྩ་, རྩར་ ‘under a tree’ (literally: ‘in front, by the side, of a tree’).

ཞལ་ (མདུན་) འཁྲིད་ ‘to take before the judge’.

ཟླ་ CT, རྟིང་ WT ‘after eight months’.

ཟླ་ (or སྔུན་) vulg. ‘before two months, two months ago’.

སའི་ books and CT, WT: སའི་ ‘to hide a treasure below the ground’.

སའི་ CT, WT: སའི་ ‘to emerge, come out, from below the ground’.

ཆུའི་ books and CT, in CT also: ཕར་, WT: ཕར་, ཕར་ ‘beyond the water, river’.

ཆུའི་ books and CT, WT: ཚུར་ ‘on this side of the water’.

ཞག་ (or ནས་) ཐང་, CT: ཕ་, WT: ཕར་ ‘in (after) three days he will arrive beyond this plain, will have crossed it’.

ཁང་ ‘in the four regions of the house, roundabout’. [73]

ཡུལ་ ‘go in the direction of, towards, that village’.

ལོ་, CT: ལོ་, WT: ༌༌༌ཚུག་ ‘for seven years’.

འདི་, CT: འདི་, WT: ཨི་ ‘from this to that’.

ང་ WT: ‘till I go to Kullu’.

b) General Compound Postpositions, expressive of the general relations of things and persons. They are formed in the same manner as the Local ones, from substantives, adjectives, and even verbs. Their use may be learned from the following examples:

ངའི་ or དོན་ books and CT, WT: ངའི་ ‘for me, in my behalf, for my sake, on my account’.

ནད་, WT: ཅིའི་, CT: གང་ ‘for what reason has that illness come? what is the cause of etc.?’.

སེམས་ ‘in behalf of all living beings’.

ཤིང་ (WT: རྡོ་) བཏོང་ ‘give (apply) stone instead of wood’.

བཞིན་ ‘according to, like, as’—རྒྱལ་ ‘doing according to the word of the king’; དེ་[74]བཞིན་ ‘according to that, like that, thus, so’; སྔ་ ‘as formerly, as before’; instead of it the dialect of WT uses ནང་, generally with the Genitive, thus the last example there would be: སྔན་.

ལྟར་ ‘like’, རི་ ‘like a hill’; འདི་, དེ་ ‘like this, like that, thus, so’, ཅི་, CT: གང་ ‘like what? how? in what manner?’.

In the dialect of WT མཚོགས་ or མཚོགས་ is used instead (which is a corruption of མཚོངས་, occurring in books with the same meaning): thus, རི་ ‘like a hill’; འདི་, དེ་ ‘thus’; or ཟུག་ (properly ཙུག་), ཨི་, ཨ་ ‘thus’, ག་ ‘how?’.

44. The written language possesses very few, the spoken still fewer, Conjunctions, most of which are coordinative. The common word for ‘and’ is དང་ which we have seen above in the sense of ‘with’, གསེར་ ‘gold and silver and iron and collection (i.e. and so on)’, though the position of the s̀ad (10.) after the word དང་ shows that it is always considered as belonging to the preceding member of the sentence, similar, in [75]this respect, to the Latin ‘que’; nor can it in any case begin a sentence. Very seldom, and only in later literature, it appears as combining two verbs, if not, indeed, the root ought to be regarded there as abbreviation for the infinitive. Further: ཡང་ ‘also, too’. When belonging to a single word or notion it is put after it in an enclitical way like ‘quoque’ in Latin. It is changed according to the termination of the preceding word, into ཀྱང་ after ག་ ད་ བ་ ས་1, into འང་ often after vowels (cf. 6). Thus: བུ་ ‘taking also a son (with him)’. When repeated, it has the signification of Latin ‘et—et—’, མ་ ‘both mother and son died’. Often, especially in negative sentences, it means ‘even’, གཅིག་ ‘even one (they) did not find—not even one’. This is the only means for expressing ‘none, no, nothing’, མི་ (or གང་) ཡང་ (resp. ཡོངས་) ‘nobody came’; དེ་ (ཅིའང་, or ཅང་) མེད་ ‘there is nothing’ (cf. 29). When combined with verbs, བཙལ་ ‘even searching (they) did not find’, it serves as another expression for ‘though’ or also ‘but’ (s. 41. A. 7. b): thus, ‘though they searched, they etc.’ or ‘they searched, but they etc.’. Standing [76]for itself (not leaning on the preceding word) it means ‘again, once more’ (when it is to be regarded as adverb), དེར་ ‘there (I) fainting once more etc.’. In the beginning of a sentence it is ‘and, again, moreover’, and may occasionally be rendered by ‘however, but’. ཡང་, ‘or’; repeated, ཡང་ ‘either—or—’.—‘Or’ is expressed also by the interrogative affix of the finite verb (34. 1.), འམ་ etc., གསེར་ ‘a bottle of gold, silver, or copper’.—འོན་ ‘nevertheless, but’, vulg: ཡིན་ occurs much less frequently in Tibetan than in the European languages.

The only Subordinate Conjunctions are: 1. གལ་ ‘if’, introducing conditional sentences ending in ན་ (41. A. 4). But, as the conditional force really rests on the closing ན་, the initial གལ་ may be put or omitted at pleasure; 2. ཅི་ ‘but if’; གལ་ ‘if I can …’, ཅི་ ‘but if not …’; this last is found only in books.

45. The most common Interjection is ཀྱེ་, or, repeated, ཀྱེ་ ‘oh!, alas!’ used also before the Vocative. The language of common life uses instead: ཝ་ wa, or ཝའི་ wä. [77]