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 plaral of the pron. དེ་ ,that‘ has

been chosen.

N. Acc. ལུས་རྣམས་ lus(Uit-)-nam(s) དེ་དག་ de-dag

Gen. ལུས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ Čas. mam(s)-byi དེ་དག་གི་ de-dag-gi

Inst.

kyis

ལུས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ “8-m(8)- དེ་དག་གིས་ de-dag-gis Dat. ལུས་རྣམས་ལ་ lus-nam(s)-la དེ་དག་ལ་ de-dag-la ལུས་རྣམས་ན་ lus-mam(s)-wa དེ་དག་ན་ de-dag-wa ལུལ་རྣམས་ནས་ laus-vam(s)- དེ་དག་ནས་ de-dag-ma

Loc.

Abl.

na

Term. ལུས་རྣམས་སུ་ lus-uam(s)-su དེ་དག་ཏུ་ de-dag-tta

Chapter III.
The Adjective.

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.*) The declension, likewise, follows the same rules as that of substantives Only two remarks may be added

here. 1. The particles

are not very strictly

used for distinguishing the gender, since even in the case of human beings and are not seldom found connected

with feminines, e.g.: བུ་མོ་མཛེས་པ་ just as well as བུ་མོ་

Na fine girl. 2. The Adjective stands after the Substantive to which it belongs: thus, po, C: ri-ton-po,,the high hill, when, of course, the case

ri-tón

*) But the vulgar language has a predilection for certain forms of Adjectives 1. those with the gerundial particle, as:

ཚན་ཏེ་

for the more classical

in use in Tsan:

',warm'; these seem to be particularly

friendly', less so in Ü. 2. compound ad

jectives either by simple reiteration of the root: r for

round, or changing the vowel at the same time:

,complicate་, གཙང་གཙོང་

ཁྲག་ཁྲུག་

complicate, awry ete Often they are quadrisyllables

after this form: མལ་ལ་མུལ་ལེ་ lakewarm', ཆག་ག་ཆོག་གེ་ ,medley་、

signs are joined to the Adjective: ‚of the high

hill:, རི་མཐོན་པོ་རྣམས་ ,the high hills‘ etc.

Or the Adjective may be put in the Gen. before the Substantive:, and then the latter only is de

clined: མཐོན་པོའི་རིའི་, མཐོན་པོའི་རི་རྣམས་. 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་ས་ instead of ས་སྐམ་པོ་ 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 endings, 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: ', after the final consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and after vowels (པས་, after ག་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ ས་ )), and ལས་; these particles follow the word with which another is compared (like the Hind.) and this then preceeds the compared one, finally follows the

adjective in the positive: རྟ་བས་ (or ལས་)ཁྱི་ཆུང་བ་ཡིན་

than dog small is', just as in Hindūstāni:

چھو But also the position usual in تھوڑی سی کا

تا هي

*) Some Mscr. and wood-prints, however, prefer, even after these consonants, the form བས་.

our European languagesoccurs, thus: རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་ བསོད་ནམས་རི་རབ་ལྷུན་པོ་བས་འཕངས་མཐོ འོ་ ,the merit of

becoming a priest is relatively higher that mount Meru';

བོད་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་གཞན་ལས་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན་ནོ་ ,the king of Tibet is

greater than the other ones'. The particle N' (N') may be put, in the same manner, after adverbs. Thus,

བས་གསལ་བར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཏོ་ ,(their eyes) became more

keen-sighted than before'. Or, after infinitives,

བ་བས་ནུ་བོས་སོང་ན་ཕན་ ,itis better (for hin)that hisyounger

brother should go (with him) than another'. ' for itself has the meaning of, more than', with the negative:

,not more than', ,only; thus: ང་ལ་སྲང་གཉིས་ལས་ནི་མི་དགོས་

,more than two ounces I do not want' (cf. vulg. WT:

མན་ ing but་, ,only་, རི་དྭགས་ཤོར་བ་ལས་དགའ་བ་མེད་ ,there is

5′,there are not more than (only) three'); or,noth

no pleasure (for us) but hunting, h. is our only pl'. 2. An Adverb which augments the notion of the adjective itself, is more'; this can be added ad li

bitam: རྟ་བས་ཁྱི་ལྷག་པར་ཆུང་བ་ཡིན་.

3. Another adverb,

means:,more and more“, „gra

dually more', e.g. ÈHE'going nearer and nearer'.

4., The elder

the younger' e. g. of two brothers, is

simply expressed by: , the great the little'. 5. The

Superlative is paraphrased by the same means: ཀུན་ལས་ ཆེན་པོ་ or ཐམས་ཅད་པས་ཆེན་པོ་ ,greater than all'. Or it is expressed in the following manner: ཡུལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ནང་ན་ རྒྱལ་པོ་གང་ཆེ་ ,༠f (among) the kings of the country which

one is the greatest (prop. great)?.Adverbs for expressing

high degrees are: ཤིན་ཏུ་ or རབ་ཏུ ,very', ཀུན་ཏུ་ ,all; ཡོངས་སུ་ ,quite་, མཆོག་ཏུ་ ,exceedingly‘ etc.

Note. The colloquial language of WT uses ' instead of བས་ or ལས་, and མ་ (má, always with a strong

འ

emphasis, perhaps a mutilated form of མངས་ ,much) or

མང་པོ་ instead of ཤིན་ཏུ་, whereas that of CT employs ལས་

in the former case, but repeats the adjective in the latter,

so that ,very largeł is expressed in books by ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེན་པོ་

in speaking, in WT by má čén-po, in CT by čem-po čem-po.