Tibetan Grammar

as they occur with all sorts of substantives and other nouns. is particularly used for denoting a man who is in a certain way connected with a certain thing (something like in Hindustani and Persian: da „school,

and والا دار

(literally: scholar),disciple, novice'; §ču,,‚water“, '',water-carrier' (, ); 5,horse', 54′,horseman'; དབུས་ ,the province of U, དབུས་པ་ ,a man from Ų, ཁྱེའུ་ kuyitu ,boy‘, ལོ་ lo ·year', གཉིས་ ii(s) ,two', hence: ཁྱེའུ་

TM‚a two years' boy'. If the feminine is required

is either added to, or

more commonly
more commonly — used instead

of, the former: དབུས་མ་ ,a woman from U‘; བུ་མོ་ལོ་གཉིས་

,a two years' girl. frequently denoted by

The performer of an action is more

(or, in more solemn language,

♫′), though, in conversation at least,

is preferred;

kan (kẹn),

̄ ̄ jed-pa,to do, make; doing, making‘:

བྱེད་པོ་, བྱེད་པ་པོ་, བྱེད་མཁན་ ,the doer, maker“. 2. The

appendices occur with a limited number of nouns ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ only, especially the names of the seasons, with numerals, and some pronouns. seems to be a vulgar form of pronunciation for T).

13. The indefinite Article. This is the numeral one (§ 13), only deprived of its prefix. viz: 4, which form it retains, if the preceding word ends with

ག་ ད་ བ་,as:
,as: ཁབ་ཅིག་

ลง

kab-čig, a needle; it is changed to ཤིག་ after ས་, རས་ཤིག་ ras-ŝig, rä-sig, a cloth; to ig (ig) in all other cases. Some authors use after any termination indisriminately. It is, of course, always without accent. The articles etc. are not thrown out by the indefinite article e.g.

སྟོན་པ་ ,teacher, the teacher་, སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ ,a teacheré.It is used even after a plarality: thas, ཆུ་མིག་བཞི་ཞིག་དེ་རུ་ཡོད་ ,there were some four wells, and even:

753

,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).

Chapter II. The Substantive.

14. The Number. The Plural is denoted by adding the word 3⁄4Ã nam, or, more rarely, 5 dag (dag), F,

or a few other words, which originally were nouns with the common notion of plurality. Bus 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 nu

meral is added: thus, མི་ ,man', མི་རྣམས་ ,men་, མི་གསུམ་

,three men'. When a substantive is connected with an adjective, the plural sign is added only once, viz. after the

last of the connected words: མི་བཟང་པོ་རྣམས་ ,the good

men'.

Note. The conversational language uses the words etc. seldom, in WT scarcely ever (an exception s. 24. Remarks), but add, 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 an 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 after by words with the finals ད་ བ་ ས་; གྱི་ after ན་ མ་ ར་ ལ་,

after and ; after vowels i is simply added by means

of an thus:, 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 W forming a distinct word. 3. The Instrumental or Agent is ex

pressed by the particles ཀྱིས་ གྱིས་ or གིས་ after the re

spective consonants as specified above; after vowels simply is added, or, in verse, sometimes

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.

consonants, ཀྱི་ གྱི་

In the language of common life, in WT, the different forms of the particle of the genitive and instrumental, after etc. are never heard, but everywhere the final consonant is doubled and the vowel i added to it, thus: ', G. lus-si (Ld.), lṛ-i'; Ñ3′ G. lam-mi; (gold), G. ser-ri etc.; or, in other words, all nouns ending in consonants are formed like those ending with (see the example). In those ending with a vowel no irregularity takes place.

4. The Dative adds indiscriminately the postposition 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 na,in'. 6. The Ablative by 5 nặ or la,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; ཏ་ after fnal ག་ and བ་ and, in certain words, ད་ ར་ ལ་; སུ་ after ས་ ; ད་ generally '; 5°

after and the other final consonants. All these

postpositions denote the movement to or into. 8. The Vocative is not different from the Nominative (as stated above), if not distinguished by the interjection oh!, and can only

be known from the context.

Examples of declension. As example of the declension of consonontal nouns we may take 1. for those in s (respectively d, b), N lus, lụ,,body'; 2. for those in m (n,

r, 1), Q5 lam‚way'; 3. for those in g (n),

‚eye', - of that of vocalic nouns: 4.