H. A. Jäschke

“ 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. ”

“ The invariable rule is this: in a simple sentence all other words must precede the verb; in a compound one all the subordinate verbs in the form of gerunds or supines, and all the coordinate verbs in the form of the root, each closing its own respective clause, must precede the governing verb (examples s. below) .—2. The order in which the different cases of substantives belonging to a verb are to be arranged, is rather optional, so that e.g. the agent may either precede or follow its object. Local and temporal adverbs or adverbial phrases are, if possible, put at the head of the sentence.—3. ”

“ The Tibetan language is monosyllabic, that is to say all its words consist of one syllable only, which indeed may be variously composed, though the [5] component parts cannot, in every case, be recognised in their individuality. The mark for the end of such a syllable is a dot, called ཚེག་ tʽseg, put at the right side of the upper part of the closing letter, such as ཀ་ the syllable ka. ”

“ Only in some cases, in the Dative and Instrumental, the noun itself is changed, when, ending in a 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 ཀྱི་ after words with the finals ད་ བ་ ས་ ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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་བའི་ཚོང་པ་རྣམས་ ‘the merchants who would go (with him) ’; ཉག་ཐག་གཡུ་བརྒུས་པ་ ‘the cord on which turquoises are strung’; འཁྱོས་མ་མང་པོ་ཡོང་བ་ཞིག་ [39] ‘one who gets (unto whom come) many presents’. ”

“ 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་ངོ་། གཏོང་ངོ་།.
2. Compound Present Tenses. a) འདུག་ (s. 40, 1) is added to the root: མཐོང་འདུག་ ‘ (I) see’, བཏང་འདུག་ ‘ (I) give’. ”

“ 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་རང་, 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. ”

“ 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.1 The declension, likewise, follows the same rules as that of substantives. Only two remarks may be added here. 1. The particles པ་ མ་ པོ་ མོ་ are not very strictly used for distinguishing the gender, since even in the case of human beings པ་ and པོ་ are not seldom found connected with feminines, e.g.: བུ་མོ་མཛེས་པ་ just as well as བུ་མོ་མཛེས་མ་ ‘a fine girl’. ”

“ Comparison. 1. Special terminations, 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: བས་, after the final consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and after vowels (པས་, after ག་ ད་ ན་ བ་ མ་ ས་2) , and ལས་; these particles follow the word with which another is compared (like the Hind. سے‎) and this then precedes the compared one, finally follows the adjective in the positive: རྟ་བས་ (or ལས་) ཁྱི་ཆུང་བ་ཡིན་ ‘horse—than dog small is’, just as in Hindūstāni: گھوڑى سے كتّا چھوٹا ھَى‎. ”

“ These affixes are not, however,—except in this case—essential to a noun, as many substantives and adjectives and most of the pronouns are never accompanied by them, and even those which usually appear connected with them, will drop them upon the slightest occasion. 2. Almost the only case in which a syntactical use of them, like that of the English definite Article, is perceptible, is that mentioned § 20. 3; a formal one, that of distinguishing the Gender, occurs in a limited number of words, where མོ་ denotes the female, པོ་ the masculine. ”

“ Diminutives are formed by adding the termination འུ་, often with an alteration of the preceding vowel: རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟེའུ་ ‘little horse, foal’; མི་ ‘man’, མིའུ་ ‘little man, dwarf’; རྡོ་ ‘stone’, རྡེའུ་ ‘small stone, calculus’. If a word ends with a consonant, only u is added, and a new syllable formed: ལུག་ ‘sheep’, ལུ་གུ་ ‘lamb’.
47. Derivation of Adjectives. 1. Possessive adjectives are regularly expressed by adding the syllable ཅན་, or the phrase དང་ལྡན་པ་, abridged ལྡན་ to any substantive, མགོ་ཅན་ ‘having a head’; མི་མགོ་ཅན་ ‘having the head of a man’ ”

“ 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་དགའ་ལ་ཁྲོས་ཏེ་) , 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་ལ་ལྟོས་ ‘going look!’, ‘go and look!’ ལོང་ལ་སོང་ ‘rise and go!’. This particle, like the above-mentioned, implies the verb ‘to be’, especially when added to adjectives denoting a personal quality. མི་སྡུག་ལ་ཐུང་ངུ་ཡིན་ཏེ་ ‘being ugly and short’ ”

“ Inf. of another verb must, in many cases, be rendered by the passive voice in our languages. In WT the verb ཆ་ཅེས་ 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་བ་ is used instead. ”

“ In those ending with a vowel no irregularity takes place.
4. The Dative adds indiscriminately the postposition ལ་ 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 ན་ na ‘in’. 6. The Ablative by ནས་ nā̤ or ལས་ lā̤ ‘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 ”

“ 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་སྡུ་བ་) , 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་དྲག་—, assume ཏོ་ and ཏམ་.—2. ”

“ The performer of an action is more frequently denoted by པོ་ (or, in more solemn language, པ་པོ་) , though, in conversation at least, མཁན་ kʽan (kʽe̱n) , is preferred; བྱེད་པ་ j̀ed-pa ‘to do, make; doing, making’: བྱེད་པོ་, བྱེད་པ་པོ་, བྱེད་མཁན་ ‘the doer, maker’. 2. The appendices ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ occur with a limited number of nouns only, especially the names of the seasons, with numerals, and some pronouns. (ཀོ་ seems to be a vulgar form of pronunciation for ཀ་) . ”

“ 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་ཅེས་ ”

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“ In the Mongol pronunciation of Tibetan words, however, they have been corrupted into c̀, c̀ʽ, j̀ respectively, a well known instance of which is the common pronunciation Kanj̀ur i.o. kangyur, or eleg. ka-gyur (བཀའ་འགྱུར་) . པྱ་, ཕྱ་, བྱ་ are almost everywhere spoken without any difference from ཅ, ཆ, ཇ (except in the Western dialect before e and i, where the y is dropped and པ, ཕ, བ alone are pronounced) . མྱ is spoken ny = ཉ. 3. r occurs at the foot of the gutturals, dentals, labials, of ན, མ, ས, and ཧ, in the shape of ྲ. ”

“ If therefore such a dot is found after two or more consonants, this will indicate that all of them, some way or other, form one syllable with only one vowel in it: ཀ་ར་ ka-ra, ཀར་ kar (cf. §§ 5. 8 ) .
5. Final consonants. 1. Only the following ten: ག་ ང་ ཏ་ ན་ བ་ མ་ འ་ ར་ ལ་ ས་ (and the four with affixed ས, v. 5) occur at the end of a syllable. 2. It must be observed, that ག་ ད་ བ་ as finals are never pronounced like the English g, d, b in leg, bad, cab, but are transformed differently in the different provinces. In Ladak they sound like k, t, p e.g. སོག་ = sock, གོད་ = got, ཐོབ་ = top. 3. ”

“ Derivation of Substantives. As most of what belongs under this head has already been mentioned in 11. and 12. only the formation of abstract nouns remains to be spoken of. 1. The unaltered adjective may be used as an abstract noun, especially with the article བ་, as: གྲང་བ་དྲོ་བར་འགྱུར་ ‘the cold is changed into warmth’.—To this may be added the pronoun ཉིད་ (གྲང་བ་ཉིད་ ‘ipsum frigidum’) ”

“ 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་པོ་འོ་ ‘is the first’ = དང་པོ་ཡིན་. 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. ”

“ 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་ཏུ་དཀའ་བ་ཡིན་པས་ ‘because it is very difficult’ ”

“ 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་རིགས་ཆེ་ཞིང་མཐོ་བ་སྟེ་ ‘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. ”

“ 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་བོ་, ཁོ་མོ་ in easy conversation with persons of equal rank, or to inferiors.
2. person. ”

“ Thus, e.g., འདི་མ་བྱས་ན་མི་འཚོའོ་ ‘if we did not do that, we could not live’ (i.e. we cannot earn our sustenance in any other manner) ; ཅིའི་ཕྱེར་ཁྱོད་ཟེར་བ་ནི་མི་ཉན་ ‘why should not I hear (grant) what you say (your wish) ?’; བརྡ་མ་བཀྲོལ་ཞིང་རྟགས་མ་མཐོང་ན་མི་རྟོགས་པར་འདུག་ ‘if (you) had not explained it, and (we) had not seen the signs, we would not have understood it’; མིས་མི་རྙེད་པས་སྤྲུལ་པ་ཅིག་བཏག་དགོས་ ‘as a man would not find it, I must send an emanation’; vulg., WT, ཨི་ཟུག་ཐག་རིང་མ་ཡིན་ན་ངའི་རྩར་འགྲོ་དུ་ཡོང་ཡིན་ ‘if the distance was not so great, they would come to me (visit me) ’. ”