PRONOUNS.
24. Personal Pronouns. First person: ང་ ṅa; ངེད་ ṅed, ṅĕʼ; ངོས་ ṅos
(Ld.); ཁོ་བོ་ kʽo-wo, masc., and ཁོ་མོ་ kʽo-mo, fem.; བདག་ dag ‘self’—‘I’;
Second person: ཁྱོད་ kʽyod (kʽyöʼ), ཁྱེད་ kʽyed (kʽyĕʼ) ‘thou, you’; Third
person: ཁོ་ kʽo, ཁོང་ kʽoṅ—‘he, she, it’.
The plural is formed by adding ཅག་, རྣམས་, ཅག་རྣམས་ or ཚོ་, but very
often, if circumstances show the meaning with sufficient certainty, the
sign of the plural is altogether omitted. 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. ཁྱོད་ is used in books in addressing even the highest persons,
but in modern conversation only among equals or to inferiors; ཁྱེད་ is
elegant and respectful, especially in books.—
3. person. ཁོ་ seldom occurs in books, where the demonstr. pron. དེ་ (§
26) is generally used instead; ཁོང་ is common to both the written and
the spoken language, and used, at least in the latter, as respectful.
But it must be remarked that the pronoun of the third person is in most
cases entirely omitted, even when there is a change of subject.—Instead
of ང་ཅག་ and ཁྱོད་ཅག་ the people of WT use ང་ཞ་ and ཁྱོ་ཞ་; the vulgar
plural of ཁོ་ is ཁོ་པ་.—
To each of these pronouns may be added: རང་ raṅ or ཉིད་ ñid, ñĭʼ ‘self’,
and in conversational language ང་རང་, ཁྱོད་རང་, ཁོ་རང་ are, perhaps, even
more frequently used than the simple forms, without any difference in
the meaning. ཉིད་ is more prevalent in books, except the compound ཉིད་རང་
ñi-raṅ, which is in modern speech the usual respectful pronoun of
address, like ‘Sie’ in German.
Note. 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 even his actions, must be called. The
terms, most frequently occurring, have special expressions, as སྐུ་
(s)ku, instead of ལུས་ lus, lṳ̄, ‘body’; དབུ་ u, i.o. མགོ་ go ‘head’; ཐུགས་
tʽug(s) (Ü: tʽū), i.o. སེམས་ sem(s) ‘soul’, or ཡིད་ yid, yĭʼ, ‘mind’; ཡབ་
yab, i.o. ཕ་ (vulg: ཨ་ཕ་), ‘father’; ན་བཟའ་ na-za, i.o. གོས་ gos, gō̤,
‘coat’, ‘dress’; ཆིབས་ c̀ʽib(s), i.o. རྟ་ (r)ta, sta ‘horse’; བཞུགས་པ་
z̀ug(s)-pa (Ü: z̀ū-pa), i.o. སྡོད་པ་ dod-pa, döʼ-pa ‘to sit’; མཛད་པ་
dzad-pa, dzäʼ-pa i.o. བྱེད་པ་ j̀ed-pa, j̀hĕʼ-pa ‘to make’ and many others.
If there is no such special word, any substantive may be rendered
respectful by adding སྐུ་ or ཐུགས་ respectively (so, སྐུ་ཚེ་ i.o. ཚེ་
‘lifetime’; ཐུགས་ཁྲོ་བ་ i.o. ཁྲོ་བ་ ‘anger’) and any verb by adding མཛན་པ་,
according to 39, 1. Another class of what might be called elegant terms
are to be used when conversing with an honoured person (or also by a
high person speaking of himself), such as བགྱིད་པ་ gyid-pa, gyĭʼ-pa ‘to
do’; མཆིས་པ་ c̀ʽī-pa ‘to be’; སླད་དུ་ lad-du, läʼ-du i.o. ཕྱིར་དུ་ ‘for the
sake of’, without reference to the said person himself. Even uneducated
people know, and make use of, most of the ‘respectful’ terms, but the
merely ‘elegant’ ones are, at least in WT, seldom or never heard in
conversation.
25. Possessive pronouns. The Possessive is simply expressed by the
Genitive of the Personal, ངའི་, ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ etc. ‘His’, ‘her’, ‘its’, when
referring to the acting subject (suus), must be expressed by རང་གི་ or
ཉིད་ཀྱི་ ‘his own’; otherwise (ejus) by ཁོའི་, ཁོང་གི་, དེའི་. In C, in the
latter case, ང་ཅན་, ཁྱོད་ཅན་, ཁོ་ཅན་ are used.
26. Reflective and Reciprocal pronouns. 1. The Reflective pronoun,
‘myself’, ‘yourself’ etc. is expressed by རང་, ཉིད་, also བདག་. But in
the case of the same person being the subject and object of an action,
it must be paraphrased, so for ‘he precipitated himself from the rock’
must be said ‘he precipitated his own body etc.’ རང་གི་ལུས་; for ‘he
rebuked himself’—‘he rebuked his own soul’ རང་གི་སེམས་.—2. The reciprocal
pronoun ‘each other’ or ‘one another’ is rendered by ‘one—one’, as
གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་བསད་ ‘by one one was killed’, ‘they killed one another’;
གཅིག་ལ་གཅིག་ན་རེ་ ‘to one one said’, ‘they said to each other’.
27. Demonstrative pronouns. 1. འདི་ di, ‘this’; དེ་ de, dhe ‘that’ are
those most frequently used, both in books and speaking. The Plural is
generally formed by དག་, but also by རྣམས་ and ཚོ་. More emphatical are
འདི་ཀ་, འདི་ག་, འདི་ཀོ་, འདི་གོ་, ‘just this’, ‘this same’; དེ་ཀ་ etc. ‘that
same’.—The vulgar dialect also uses ཧ་གྱི་ hắ-gyi and ཕ་གྱི་ pʽắ-gyi for
‘that’, ‘yonder’, and, in WT, ཨི་, ཨི་པོ་ for ‘this’ and ཨ་ for ‘that’;
ཕ་གྱི་ occurs even in books.—2. It is worth remarking that the
distinction of the nearer and remoter relation is, even in common
language, scrupulously observed. If reference is made to an object
already mentioned, དེ་ is used; if to something following, འདི་; e.g.
དེ་སྐད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་སོ་ ‘that speech he said’, ‘thus he said’; འདི་སྐད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་
‘this speech he said’, ‘he said thus, spoke the following words’.
28. Interrogative pronouns. They are སུ་ su ‘who?’; གང་ gaṅ, ghaṅ
‘which?’; ཅི་ c̀i ‘what?’; to these the indefinite article ཞིག་ is often
added, སུ་ཞིག་ etc. The two former can also assume the plural termination
དག་, སུ་དག, གང་དག་.—In CT གང་ is frequently used instead of ཅི་.
29. Relative pronouns. 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་ ‘one who gets (unto whom come) many presents’. Cf.
also 33. Only those indefinite sentences which in English are
introduced by ‘he who’, ‘who ever’, ‘that which’, ‘what’ etc. can be
adequately expressed in Tibetan, by using the interrogative pronouns
with the participle (seldom the naked root) of the verb, or adding ན་
(‘if—’ v. 41, A. 4.) to the latter. Instead of ཅི་ in this case ཇི་ is
written more correctly. Thus: སུ་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་མཆིས་པ་བདག་ལ་སྟོན་པར་གྱུར་ན་ ‘if
anybody who possesses the good faith teach it me’;
ཁྱོད་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་དག་ཀྱང་འགྲོགས་ཏེ་ ‘when those of you who wish to go are
assembled’; ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་འདི་ཇི་འདོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཆར་བཞིན་དུ་འབེབས་སོ་ ‘this jewel
(cintāmaṇi) will make come down like rain whatever is wished for’;
ཁྱོད་ཅི་ཟེར་ཁྱོད་ཇི་སྨྲས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བྱའོ་ ‘whatever you may say and ask of me
according to that I will act, or I will grant you whatever you ask’.
བདག་གིས་མཐུ་ཇི་ཡོད་པས་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཆུ་བཅུས་ཏེ་ ‘having scooped the water of the sea
with what force I have’; རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཇི་ལྟ་བུ་ཞིག་རྙེད་པ་བདག་ལ་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ་ ‘I beg
you to show me what sort of jewel you have found (got)’;
རྒང་གྱེ་རྗེས་གང་རིགས་པར་གསེར་གྱི་བྱེ་མར་གྱུར་ཏོ་ ‘his footprints, in what place
soever they fell (v. lex. s. v. རིགས་), became gold-sand’.
But the participle is treated as if no relative was preceding, thus
སྔར་ཇི་སྐད་སྨྲས་པ་ལས་མ་ཟློགས་སོ་ ‘he did not recede from (recall) the word he
had spoken before’; vulg., WT, ང་གང་བསྡད་པའི་ཁང་མིག་ ‘the room where I
sat’.