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. [5] 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’. 2. The Adjective stands after
the Substantive to which it belongs: thus, རི་མཐོན་པོ་ ri-tʽón-po, C:
ri-tʽo̤n-po, ‘the high hill’, when, of course, the case-signs are joined
to the Adjective: རི་མཐོན་པོའི་ ‘of the high hill’, རི་མཐོན་པོ་རྣམས་ ‘the high
hills’ etc.
Or the Adjective may be put in the Gen. before the Substantive:
མཐོན་པོའི་རི་, and then the latter only is declined: 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 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་ [6]), 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. But also the position usual in
our European languages occurs, thus:
རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་བསོད་ནམས་རི་རབ་ལྷུན་པོ་བས་འཕངས་མཐོའོ་ ‘the merit of becoming a
priest is relatively higher than mount Meru’;
བོད་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་གཞན་ལས་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན་ནོ་ ‘the king of Tibet is greater than the other
ones’. The particle བས་ (པས་) may be put, in the same manner, after
adverbs. Thus, སྔར་བས་གསལ་བར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཏོ་ ‘(their eyes) became more
keen-sighted than before’. Or, after infinitives,
གཞན་སོང་བ་བས་ནུ་བོས་སོང་ན་ཕན་ ‘it is better (for him) that his younger
brother should go (with him) than another’. ལས་ 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: གསུམ་མན་ན་མེད་ ‘there are not more than (only) three’); or
‘nothing but’, ‘only’, རི་དྭགས་ཤོར་བ་ལས་དགའ་བ་མེད་ ‘there is no pleasure
(for us) but hunting, h. is our only pl.’.
2. An Adverb which augments the notion of the adjective itself, is
ལྷག་པར་ ‘more’; this can be added ad libitum: རྟ་བས་ཁྱི་ལྷག་པར་ཆུང་བ་ཡིན་.
3. Another adverb, ཇེ་ means: ‘more and more’, ‘gradually more’, e.g.
ཇེ་ཉེ་ཇེ་ཉེ་སོང་སྟེ་ ‘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་ ‘of (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 སང་ instead of བས་ or ལས་, and
མཱ་ (mā, always with a strong 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
large’ is expressed in books by ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེན་པོ་, in speaking, in WT by mā́
c̀ʽén-po, in CT by c̀ʽem-po c̀ʽem-po.