Page images
PDF
EPUB

giver, and the passive to those with, as

′′ ton ja,

ton ja i. o. གཏོང་བར་བྱ་བ་ ,to be given‘ (dandus), བྱ་བ་དང་ བྱ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པ་སྟོན་པ་ ,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་པོས་སྨྲས་པ་་་ ,the king said . '.

[ocr errors]

Note. In the spoken language, of WT at least, the Participle is formed by, 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.): 5555 nul tan kan-ni mi (s. 15, Note),the

man giving the money', བཏང་མཁན་གྱི་དངུལ་ ,themoney འདས་ཞག་གོན་ཆས་བཙོངས་མཁན་གྱི་བླ་མ་ ,the lama

given‘.

who brought a coat for sale the other day'. 'HỀ¬g ་ཁང་སྟོན་མཁན་དེ་ ,the girl who had shewn the door to

ལ་སྒོ་ཁང

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

ΟΙ

à ̃ ̈3⁄4”) is expressed, in the most Western provinces, by: sád cas-si lug, Lad.: sád-ces-si lug, Lah. etc.: sád deï lug, Tsan: sö’-ŝë-kyi lug ÃÒ'', and, most like the classical language, in Kun.: sód jā lug.

[ocr errors]

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: ), in interrogative སླར་སྡུ་བ་), ones the syllable am. Before both the closing consonant of the verb is repeated, or, if it ends with a vowel, and

are written. The Perfect of the verbs ending in

sume

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

which formerly had a as second final ད་ - -– · ད་དྲག་ —, as5 and 58.—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 exception of the last one, e) commonly, when the principal verb is the verb substan

tive ཡིན་, ཡོད་ etc. (40. 1.).

Earumples.a) སོང་ ,go!', འདི་རུ་ཤོག་ ,come here!',

༦) མཐོང་ངམ་མི་མཐོང་ ,do you see or not?་ c)དེ་ན་སུ་ཡོད་

who is there?',,when did (he, you etc.) arrive?“.

@)ཁང་པ་ཤིག །མི་བསད། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཚང་མ་མེད་པར་བྱས་སོ།

,the houses were destroyed, the men killed, the whole town

annihilated'. ༠) གཙང་པའི་བྱེ་མ་ལ་གསེར་ཡོད། ,in the

sand of the river is gold'.

Note. In conversation the o is generally omitted, and

the m of the interrogative termination dropped, so that merely the vowel @ is heard, e. g. the question མཐོང་ངམ་ ,do (you) seeí and the answer མཐོང་ངོ་,(I) seeé, are com

monly spoken in WT: toi-ia? foi.

35. Present Tenses.1. Simple Present Tense.This is the simple root of the verb, which always will 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 te one of the following compositions, (s. 31. and Note). Thus, མཐོང་,(I, thou, he etc.) see, seest etc., གཏོང་ ,(I etc.) giveé through all persons; in the end of a sentence: མཐོང་ངོ་། གཏོང་ངོ་།

2. Compound Present Tenses.@) འདུག་ (s. 40, 1) is

added to the root:

མཐོང་འདུག་ ,(I) se༠་, བཏང་འདུག་ ,(I)

give'. This is common in the dialect of WT especially.

-

0) The Participle connected with ཡིན་, མཐོང་བ་ཡིན་ ,(I) see:. In WT this, of course, is changed to མཐོང་མཁན་ཡིན་

as

— ༩) One of the Gerunds (41, A) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་, མཐོང་སྟེ་ (or ནས་ or གི་ or ཞིང་), འདུག་ or ཡོད་ ,(I) see,

am seeing'; it must, however, be remarked that botlh ways of expression, b) and c), are not very frequent.

[ocr errors]

a) གིན་ཡོད་ or འདུག་ is the proper form for the compound

English present: མཐོང་གིན་འདུག་ ,(I) am seeing', འབྲི་གིན་

25′,(1) am writing (just now).

36. Preterit Tenses. 1. Simple Preterit, Perfect or Aorist Tense; this is the Perfect root: 55, at the close of the

sentence

བཏང་ངོ་།

55,gave, have given, was given‘; in onerooted verbs it has, of course, the same form as the present: (),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་སོང་ ,have given, gave, was given་, མཐོང་སོང་

,have seen, saw, was seen'; rarely met with in books, but in general use in the conversation of WT. In CT

བྱུང་ zwz; ཁྱིས་རྨུག་བྱུང་,the dog has bit.

is used in a similar way: ཁྱིས་རྨུག་བྱུང་

6) The root with

(more in books), or

(more in

common language), the true Perfect as the tense of accom

plished action: བཏང་ཟིན་, བཏང་ཚར་ ,have given etc., ,the

[blocks in formation]

frequently in the past sense than otherwise. Here, in the common talk of WT, is used, even in those cases where

the books have བ་, ཡི་གེ་བཀལ་པ་ཡིན་ yt-ge kát-p@

yin,

or, contracted, kál-pen,,the letter has been sent off', in

books: (s. 11, Note), even བཀ

གླ་བཏངས་པ་ཡིན་

la táns-pa yin, táns-pen,,the wages have been paid' i. o.

55. — 5 d) Gerunds in (WT) or 5′ (CT) with ནས་ ཡོད་

or 25 (the same as 35. 2. c); also (in Ü Tsan and later books) the mere Perfect root with, the or

ནས་ being dropped: སོང་ཡོད་ ,has goneé.

37. Future Tenses. 1. Simple Future. The Future-root, ),shall, will give, be given. - 2. Compound Fu

ture. a) The auxiliary verb

(to grow, become)

added to the Terminative case of the Infinitive:

འགྱུར་(རོ་) ,shall, will give, be given་, མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར་(རོ་

,shall, will see, be seen'. This is the most common, and. together with the Simple Future and the Intensive (39.),

་ ་བར་བྱའོ་, 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 dissappears, however, gradually from the literature of the later period, and is replaced by the two following compositions. connected

[ocr errors]

ཆ) རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ with the root: ¿Ã ̈ ̈¤ ̈‚shall, will see', མཐོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ will see་, གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ (རྒྱུ་

,shall, will give' etc. (

is originally a substantive, mean

ing material, cause, occasion).

c) the root with

or

,, will arrive', or, i. o. the root, the Term. Inf.,

[merged small][ocr errors]

Both 6) and c) are even now in common

« PreviousContinue »