THE VERB.
30. Introductory remarks. The Tibetan verbs must be regarded as
denoting, not an action, or suffering, or condition of any subject, but
merely a coming to pass, or, in other words, they are all impersonal
verbs, like taedet, miseret etc. in Latin, or it suits etc. in English.
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. From the same reason the
acting subject of a transitive verb must regularly appear in the
Instrumental case, as the case of the subject of a neuter verb,—which,
in European languages, is the Nominative—, ought to be regarded, from a
Tibetan point of view, as an Accusative expressing the object of an
impersonal verb, just as ‘poenitet me’ is translated by ‘I repent’. But
it will perhaps be easier to say: The subject of a transitive verb, in
Tibetan, assumes regularly the form of the instrumental, of a neuter
verb that of the nominative which is the same as the accusative. Thus,
ངས་ཁྱོད་རྡུང་ is properly: རྡུང་ a beating happens, ཁྱོད་ regarding you, ངས་ by
me = I beat you. In common life the object has often the form of the
dative, ཁྱོད་ལ་, to facilitate the comprehension. But often, in modern
talk as well as in the classical literature, the acting subject, if
known as such from the context, retains its Nominative form. Especially
the verba loquendi are apt to admit this slight irregularity.
31. Inflection of verbs. This is done in three different ways:
a) by changing the form of the root. Such different forms are, at most,
four in number, which may be called, according to the tenses of our own
grammar to which they correspond, the Present-, Perfect-, Future-, and
Imperative-roots; e.g. of the Present-root གཏོང་བ་ ‘to give’ the Perfect
root is བཏང་, the Future-root གཏང་, the Imperative root ཐོང་; of འཚག་པ་
‘to filter, bolt’ respectively: བཙགས་ tsag(s) (Ü: tsā), བཙག་ tsag, ཚོག་
tʽsog. The Present root, which implies duration, is also occasionally
used for the Imperfect (in the sense of the Latin and Greek languages)
and Future tenses. 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
sometimes: so the aspirates are often converted in the Perfect and
Future into their surds, besides other more irregular changes. Only a
limited number of verbs, however, are possessed of all the four roots,
some cannot assume more than three, some two, and a great many have
only one. To make up in some measure for this deficiency:
b) some auxiliary verbs have been made available: for the Present tense
ཡིན་, འདུག་, ལགས་ and others, all of which mean ‘to be’ (§ 39); for the
Perfect ཚར་, ཟིན་, སོང་; for the Future འགྱུར་, འོང་, and the substantive
རྒྱུ་.
c) By adding various monosyllabic affixes, the Infinitive, Participles,
and Gerunds are formed. These affixes as well as the auxiliary verbs
are connected partly with the root, partly with the Infinitive, resp.
its terminative, partly with the Participle.
Note. The spoken language, at least in WT, recognises even in
four-rooted verbs seldom more than the Perfect root.
32. The Infinitive mood. The syllables པ་ pa or, after the final
consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ and vowels, བ་ wa are added to the root, whereby it
assumes all the qualities and powers of a noun. In verbs of more roots
than one, each of them can, of course, in this way be converted into a
substantive, or, in other words, each tense has its Infinitive, except
the Imperative. From one-rooted verbs the different Infinitives may be
formed by the above mentioned auxiliaries: thus, the Inf. Perf., by
adding ཡིན་པ་ to the Infinitive of the verb in question, or ཚར་བ་,
ཟིན་པ་, སོང་བ་ to the root, and the Inf. Fut. by adding འགྱུར་བ་ to the
Supine (terminative of the infinitive, 41. B) thus, མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར་བ་
visurum esse, visum iri.
Note. The spoken language uses, in WT almost exclusively, a termination
pronounced c̀as in Turig and Balti, c̀es, c̀e in Ladak, c̀e in Lahoul etc.,
j̀a in Kunawar, s̀e in Tsaṅ etc., the etymology of which is doubtful, as
it is not to be found in any printed book. Lamas in Ladak and Lahoul
spell it ཅེས་.
33. The Participle. 1. This is in the written language entirely like
the Infinitive ཡིན་པ་ ‘being’, གཏོང་བ་ ‘giving’, བཏང་བ་ ‘having
given’.—2. Whether the meaning is active or passive, however, can only
be inferred from the context, e.g. བཏང་བའི་དངུལ་ is of course ‘the money
given’, but དངུལ་བཏང་བའི་མི་ ‘the man having given, or, that has given,
the money’; the Tibetan participle means nothing but that the action or
condition is connected in some way with a person or thing. But it is
natural that in the present participle the active idea should be the
more frequent one, as well as in the preterit the passive.—3. In the
instance of Intensive verbs (formed with བྱེད་པ་ 38.1) the usage of
scientific authors has strictly connected the active sense with those
formed with བྱེད་, as གཏོང་བྱེད་ toṅ-j̀ed, toṅ-j̀ʽĕʼ, instead of གཏོང་བར་བྱེད་པ་,
‘doing give, giving, giver’, and the passive to those with བྱ་, as
གཏོང་བྱ་ toṅ j̀a, toṅ j̀ʽa 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....’
Note. In the spoken language, of WT at least, the Participle is formed
by མཁན་, 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.): དངུལ་བཏང་མཁན་གྱི་མི་ ṅul taṅ kʽan-ni mi (s. 15, Note) ‘the man
giving the money’, བཏང་མཁན་གྱི་དངུལ་ ‘the money given’.
འདས་ཞག་གོན་ཆས་བཙོངས་མཁན་གྱི་བླ་མ་ ‘the lama who brought a coat for sale the
other day’. བུ་མོ་རྗེ་བཙུན་ལ་སྒོ་ཁུང་སྟོན་མཁན་དེ་ ‘the girl who had shewn the door
to 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 གསོད་པར་བྱ་བའི་ལུག་ or གསོད་བྱའི་ལུག་) is expressed, in the
most Western provinces, by: sád c̀as-si lug, Lad.: sád-c̀es-si lug, Lah.
etc.: sád c̀eï lug, Tsaṅ: söʼ-s̀ē-kyi lug གསོད་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ལུག་, and, most like
the classical language, in Kun.: sód j̀ā̤ lug.
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:
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.
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 the exception of the last one, e)
commonly, when the principal verb is the verb substantive ཡིན་, ཡོད་ etc.
(40. 1.).
Examples. a) སོང་ ‘go!’, འདི་རུ་ཤོག་ ‘come here!’.—b) མཐོང་ངམ་མི་མཐོང་ ‘do you
see or not?’—c) དེ་ན་སུ་ཡོད་ ‘who is there?’, ནམ་བསླེབ་ ‘when did (he, you
etc.) arrive?’.—d) ཁང་པ་ཤིག །མི་བསད ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཚང་མ་མེད་པར་བྱས་སོ། ‘the houses
were destroyed, the men killed, the whole town annihilated’.—e)
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 a is heard,
e.g. the question མཐོང་ངམ་ ‘do (you) see’ and the answer མཐོང་ངོ་ ‘(I)
see’, are commonly spoken in WT: tʽoṅ-ṅa? tʽoṅ.
35. Present Tenses. 1. 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’. This is common in the dialect
of WT especially.—b) The Participle connected with ཡིན་, མཐོང་བ་ཡིན་ ‘I
see’. In WT this, of course, is changed to མཐོང་མཁན་ཡིན་.—c) One of the
Gerunds (41, A) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་, as མཐོང་སྟེ་ (or ནས་ or གི་ or ཞིང་), འདུག་
or ཡོད་ ‘(I) see, am seeing’; it must, however, be remarked that both
ways of expression, b) and c), are not very frequent.—d) གིན་ཡོད་ or འདུག་
is the proper form for the compound English present: མཐོང་གིན་འདུག་ ‘(I)
am seeing’, འབྲི་གིན་འདུག་ ‘(I) am writing (just now)’.
36. Preterit Tenses. 1. Simple Preterit, Perfect or Aorist Tense; this
is the Perfect root: བཏང་, at the close of the sentence བཏང་ངོ༌། ‘gave,
have given, was given’; in one-rooted verbs it has, of course, the same
form as the present: མཐོང་(ངོ་) ‘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་ j̀ʽuṅ is used in a similar way: ཁྱིས་རྨུག་བྱུང་ ‘the dog has
bitten’.—b) The root with ཟིན་ (more in books), or ཚར་ (more in common
language), the true Perfect as the tense of accomplished action:
བཏང་ཟིན་, བཏང་ཚར་ ‘have given etc.’, ‘the action of giving is past’,
མི་སོང་ཚར་ ‘the man has already left’.—c) The Participle connected with
ཡིན་ occurs more frequently in the past sense than otherwise. Here, in
the common talk of WT, པ་ is used, even in those cases where the books
have བ་, ཡི་གེ་བཀལ་པ་ཡིན་ yí-ge kál-pa yin, or, contracted, kál-pen, ‘the
letter has been sent off’, in books: བཀལ་བ་ཡིན་ (s. 11, Note), even
གླ་བཏངས་པ་ཡིན་ la táṅs-pa yin, táṅs-pen, ‘the wages have been paid’ i.o.
བཏང་བ་ཡིན་.—d) Gerunds in ཏེ་ (WT) or ནས་ (CT) with ཡོད་ or འདུག་ (the same
as 35. 2. c); also (in Ü Tsaṅ and later books) the mere Perfect root
with ཡོད་, the ཏེ་ or ནས་ being dropped: སོང་ཡོད་ ‘has gone’.
37. Future Tenses. 1. Simple Future. The Future-root, གཏོང་(ངོ་) ‘shall,
will give, be given’.—2. Compound Future. a) The auxiliary verb འགྱུར་བ་
(to grow, become) added to the Terminative case of the Infinitive:
གཏོང་བར་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 disappears,
however, gradually from the literature of the later period, and is
replaced by the two following compositions.—b) རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ connected with the
root: མཐོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ ‘shall, will see’, གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ ‘shall, will give’ etc.
(རྒྱུ་ is originally a substantive, meaning material, cause, occasion).—c)
the root with འོང་ or ཡོང་, སླེབ་ཡོང་ ‘will arrive’, or, i.o. the root, the
Term. Inf., སླེབ་པར་འོང་.—Both b) and c) are even now in common use in CT,
whereas in WT:—d) ཡིན་ connected with the root is the general form:
མཐོང་ཡིན་ tʽoṅ yin, vulg.: tʽóṅin ‘shall, will see’, བཏང་ཡིན་ táṅin,
‘shall, will give’, བཀལ་ཡིན་ kállin ‘will send’, ཚ་ཡིན་ c̀ʽa yin, c̀ʽa’in,
c̀ʽän ‘will go’.—e) In books the Participle with ཡིན་ (35. 2. b, 36. 2 c)
occurs sometimes also as Future.
38. Imperative mood. 1. This is usually the shortest possible form of
the verb, which often loses its prefixed letters, though in some
instances a final ས་ is added. In many verbs with the vowel a, and in
some with e these vowels are changed into o, besides other alterations
of the consonants. Particularly often the surds or sonants of the other
tense-roots are changed to their aspirates in the Imperative. Thus, ཐོང་
‘give!’, from གཏོང་བ་; ལྟོས་ Ld: ltos, CT: tō̤ ‘look!’, from ལྟ་བ་; ཐོབ་
‘throw!’, from འདེབས་པ་. In one-rooted verbs it is, of course, like the
Present, but it can always be sufficiently distinguished by adding the
particle ཅིག་ (ཤིག་ or ཞིག་, according to 13.). This is used in the
classical literature indiscriminately in addressing the highest and the
lowest persons (or, in other words, as well to command, as to pray),
but according to the modern custom of CT only when addressing servants
and inferior people.—2. In forbidding, the Present-root is used with
the negative particle མ་, མ་གཏོང་ ‘do not give!’, མ་ལྟ་ ‘do not look!’,
མ་འདེབས་ ‘do not throw!’—3. In praying or wishing (Precative or
Optative) either the same forms as under 1. are used, or the
Imperatives of འགྱུར་བ་ ‘to come’ or འོང་ ‘to come’ (the latter, ཤོག་, of a
quite different root) are connected with the Termin. Infin.
མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག་ or ཤོག་ཅིག་ ‘may (I, you, he etc.) see!’—4. 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་; ལྟོས་ ‘look!’
from ལྟ་ཅེས་; བཏོབ་ ‘throw!’ from བཏབ་ཅེས་ (Perf. of འདེབས་པ་). Instead of
ཅིག་, which is not much used, བཏོང་ (‘give!’) is often added to the roots
of other verbs (s. 39), thus, བཏོན་བཏོང་ ton toṅ ‘take out!’ from བཏོན་ཅེས་
(འདོན་པ་). Or the Imperative is paraphrased by དགོས་ gos (Ld.), gō̤, goi
‘must’, added to the root of the verb: བསད་དགོས་ ‘must be killed’.—In CT
the changing of the vowel seems to be usually omitted, but the ཅིག་ is
more used. Here, also, the Perfect root is not so exclusively
preferred.
39. Intensive verbs. 1. Very frequent in books is the connection of the
four-rooted verb བྱེད་པ་ (Pf. བྱས་, Fut. བྱ་, Imp. བྱོས་) ‘to do’, elegantly
བགྱིད་པ་ (Pf. བགྱིས་, Fut. བགྱི་, Imp. གྱིས་), respectfully མཛད་པ་ (Imp. མཛོད་)
with the Term. Inf. of another verb, to intensify the action of the
latter. By this means not only one-rooted verbs can be made to
participate in the advantages of the four-rooted, as མཐོང་བར་བྱེད་ ‘see’,
མཐོང་བར་བྱས་ ‘saw’, མཐོང་བར་བྱ་ ‘shall, will see’, མཐོང་བར་བྱོས་ ‘see!’, but
also several other periphrastical phrases are gained for speaking more
precisely than otherwise would be possible. The Future tense བྱ(འོ)༌
serves, besides its proper notion of futurity, particularly to express
the English auxiliaries ‘must, ought etc.’: thus, བརྗོད་པར་མི་བྱའོ་ ‘must
not be uttered, ought not to be uttered’, sometimes it may be
translated by the Imperative mood. The spoken language, at least of WT,
is devoid of this convenience, and possesses nothing of the kind except
the above mentioned intensive form of the Imperative, formed by བཏོང་
(s. 38., Note).—2. Another class of intensive verbs are formed by
connecting two synonyms, as འཇིགས་སྐྲག་པ་ ‘to be afraid’, literally ‘to be
fear-frightened’, and other similar ones.
40. Substantive and Auxiliary Verbs. 1. To be a) ཡིན་པ་, in elegant and
respectful speech ལགས་པ་ lag-pa, Ü: lā-pa (the latter word never used
in WT) is the mere means of connecting the attribute with its subject,
as: མི་འདི་ལ་དྭགས་པ་ཡིན་ ‘this man is a Ladakee’, དེ་ཁྱེད་ལགས་སམ་ ‘is it you,
Sir?’. Therefore the question སུ་ཡིན་ is to be understood ‘who are you’
or ‘who is he’ etc., the personal pronoun being often let to be
guessed.—ཡིན་ itself is often omitted in daily life in WT as well as in
poetry, e.g. ཨི་ཁུར་རུ་མཱ་ལྕིན་ཏེ་ ‘this load (is) very heavy’ WT. Negatively:
མ་ཡིན་, མིན་ vulg. མན་, resp. མ་ལགས་.—b) ཡོད་པ་ yod-pa, yöʼ-pa, eleg.
མཆིས་པ་ c̀ʽī-pa, resp. བཞུགས་པ་ z̀ug(s)-pa, Ü: z̀ū-pa, negat.: མེད་, མ་མཆིས་,
མི་བཞུགས་ means ‘to exist’, or ‘to be present’, ‘to be found at a place’,
therefore the question སུ་ཡོད་ is to be understood: ‘Who is here? Who is
there?’—ཡོད་ and བཞུགས་པ་ are in general use, མཆིས་པ་ is seldom heard.
When connected with the Dative of a substantive it expresses the
English ‘to have, to have got’, as: ང་ལ་དངུལ་ཡོད་ ‘I have money’;
ང་ལ་ཟུག་ཡོད་ ‘I have pain’. In this case the respectful term is not
གཞུགས་པ་ but མངའ་བ་ ṅa-wa: རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་སྙུན་མི་མངའ་འམ་ ‘has not the King an
indisposition?’ i.e. ‘is Your Majesty ill?’.—c) འདུག་པ་ dug-pa (eleg.
གདའ་བ་ is seldom heard), resp. བཞུགས་པ་, ‘to be present, stay, be found
at a place’; negat. མི་འདུག་. Both འདུག་པ་ and ཡོད་པ་ can be used instead
of ཡིན་པ་, though not this instead of them.—d) རེད་པ་ rĕʼ-pa = འདུག་པ་,
negat. མ་རེད་ in Spiti and CT, seldom in books.—e) མོད་པ་ mod-pa, möʼ-pa
has a somewhat emphatical sense: ‘to be (something) in a high degree’,
‘to be (somehow) in plenty’. It occurs most frequently in the Gerund
with ཀྱི་ (41.), when it frequently has the sense of ‘though’, but never
with a negative.—f) སྣང་བ་ naṅ-wa, originally ‘to appear, to be visible,
extant’, negat. མི་སྣང་. Sometimes in books, and common in certain
districts.—g) 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. 35. sq.
2. འགྱུར་བ་ originally ‘to be changed, turned into something’ then ‘to
become, to grow’, auxiliary for the Future tense in the old classical
language, as mentioned in 37. Since this can be considered as the
intransitive or passive sense, opposed to བྱེད་པ་ ‘to make, render’, the
connection of འགྱུར་བ་ with the Term. 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.
3. ‘must’ is expressed by དགོས་པ་ ‘to be necessary’ (s. 38. Note). In WT
this is used in a very wide sense for any possible modification of the
notion of necessity: ‘I must, should, want to, ought’ and even ‘I will,
wish, beg (for something)’ is nothing but ང་ལ་དགོས་ ‘to me is necessary’
which may be, in the last mentioned case, rendered somewhat more
politely by adding ཞུ་ z̀u ‘pray!’ ང་ལ་ཨ་ལུ་དགོས་ཞུ་ ‘I want potatoes,
pray!’ is as much to say as ‘Will you kindly give me some potatoes’. In
books and more refined language several other verbs are used in the
same sense, viz. རིགས་པ་ ‘it is right to’ (usually with the Genit.
Infin.), རུང་བ་ ‘it is meet, decent’, འདོད་པ་ ‘to wish, desire’, both
with the Supine; དགའ་བ་ ‘to like’ with the Dat. Inf. The popular
substitute of the last, especially in use in WT, is འཐད་པ་, of similar
meaning, added to the root.
41. Gerunds and Supines. We retain these terms, employed by former
grammarians, but observe that they do not refer to the form, but to the
meaning, as well as that Gerund is not to be understood in the same
signification as in Latin, but as the Gérondif of some French
grammarians, or what Shakespeare calls Past conjunctive participle in
Hindi. These forms are of the greatest importance in Tibetan, being the
only substitutes for most of those subordinate clauses which we are
accustomed to introduce by conjunctions. They are formed by the two
monosyllabic affixes ཏེ་ (so after the closing consonants ན་ ར་ ལ་ ས་);
དེ་ after དེ་, སྟེ་ after ག་ ང་ བ་ མ་ and vowels and ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ or ཞིང་
according to the same rule as ཅིག་ 13.), both of which are added to the
root, or by the terminations mentioned in 15. as composing the
declension of nouns, which are added partly to the root, partly to the
Infinitive or Participle.
A. Gerunds. All the following forms can be rendered by the English
Participle ending in ing, but the more accurate distinctions must be
expressed by various conjunctions.
1. ཏེ་ (དེ་ etc.), the most frequent of all these endings. It is added to
the Present-root as well as to the Perfect-root: གཏོང་སྟེ་ ‘giving’,
བཏོང་སྟེ་ ‘having given’, and stands for all clauses beginning with when,
as, since, after etc. Also in the spoken language of WT it is used most
frequently.—Examples: ཕྲུ་གུ་ཆུས་ཁྱེར་ཏེ་ཤིའོ་ ‘the child, having been carried
away by the water, died’; རྒྱལ་པོ་ཤི་སྟེ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱལ་ས་བཟུང་ངོ་ ‘the king
having died, the prince occupied the throne (king’s-place)’;
ཆུ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་དེ་རུ་ཡོད་དེ་འགྲུལ་མི་ཐུབ་བོ་ ‘as there is a great water, we cannot
go’.
2. ཅིང་ (ཤིང་ etc.), of a similar sense, chiefly used for smaller clauses
within a large one, མི་དགའ་ཞིང་ཁྲོས་ཏེ་ ‘when, being displeased, he became
angry’, or ‘growing displeased and angry’. Often it denotes two actions
going on at the same time, or two states of a thing existing together,
and then can only be translated by ‘and’, thus, མཐའ་མེད་ཅིང་མུ་མེད་
‘without end and boundary’; ཤ་ལ་ཟ་ཞིང་ཁྲག་ལ་འཐུང་བ་ ‘to eat flesh and
drink blood’ [8]. It stands also in a causal sense: ‘by doing etc.’,
as: ཉ་བཤོར་ཞིང་འཚོའོ་ ‘(we) live by catching fish’. 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.—Examples. ནམ་ལངས་ནས་སོང་ ‘when the
night had risen (viz. at daybreak) he went’; ལང་ནས་སོང་ ‘after you will
have risen, go!’ དེ་མཐོང་ནས་སྐད་ཕྱུང་སྟེ་ངུས་སོ་ ‘when I saw that, raising
clamour, I wept’.
4. ན་ ‘in (doing something)’ again for clauses with ‘since, when, as’,
but in most cases by far for ‘if’ and conditional ‘when’: འགྲོ་ན་ ‘if,
or, when (I) go, or went’; ཤི་ཚར་ན་ ‘when, after (he) has died’, ‘if he
is already dead’; ཤི་ན་ ‘if (he) die, should die’, ‘if (he) died’, ‘when
(he) dies’; བྱེད་ན་ ‘if ... do, did’; བྱ་ན་ ‘if ... were to do’. It is
added to the root, seldom to the infinitive, and as common in talking
as in books.
5. ལ་ is of more various use. 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’; དབྱིབས་ལེགས་ཤིང་ལྟ་ན་སྡུག་ལ་མཛེས་པ་
‘pretty, being of a good figure and nice to behold’. When added to the
Infinitive, it denotes: a) of course, the real Dative, or the usual
meanings of the postposition ལ་ with a substantive; thus,
གསོད་པ་ལ་དགའ་བ་ ‘to rejoice at killing, be fond of killing’. b) nearly
the same as ཏེ་ or ‘as’ in English, e.g.
ལམ་གྱི་བར་དུ་ལྷ་རྟེན་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་ལ་ཤིང་རྟ་ལས་བབ་བོ་ ‘as there was an idol-shrine in
the middle of the way, (she) alighted from (her) chariot’;
རྒྱལ་པོ་ཉིན་རེ་བཞིན་དུ་དེར་ཁྲུས་བྱེད་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་ལ་ ‘as the king went there daily to
bathe’; འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ནང་ན་མི་འོང་བ་ལ་འདི་རུ་འོང་བ་ཅི་ཡིན་ ‘as (it) does not occur
in the (whole) world, what is (its) occurring here, or, how is it that
it occurs here?’. Finally, in the language of common life ལ་ is added
to the repeated root in order to express the English ‘while, whilst’:
ངས་ཤ་གཏུབ་གཏུབ་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཤིང་ཁྱོང་ ṅā̤ s̀a tub-túb-la kʽyód-dī (15., Note) s̀iṅ
kʽyoṅ WT, or ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཤིང་བཀུར་ཤོག་ kʽyöʼ-kyī s̀iṅ kur-s̀og CT ‘while I am
cutting the meat into pieces, bring you (some) wood’.
6. ལས་ added only to the Infinitive, literally ‘out of (the doing)’.
This may mean a) ‘after’, ཉལ་བ་ལས་ལང་བ་ ‘to rise from lying, after
having lain’; དུར་ན་ཞག་གསུམ་འདུག་པ་ལས་དུར་ནས་བྱུང་ ‘after having been three
days in the grave (I) came out of the grave’.—b) ‘while’, in which case
the root of the verb may be repeated, as: སོང་སོང་བ་ལས་བྲམ་ཟེ་ཞིག་དང་ཕྲད་དོ་
‘out of my walking i.e. when walking along, (I) met with a brahman’;
ང་ཤ་གཏུབ་གཏུབ་པ་ལས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཤིང་བཀུར་ཏེ་ཤོག་ (the above mentioned example (s.
ལ་) translated into classical language); c) also the English ‘being
about to’ is, in books, often expressed by this Gerund:
ནང་དུ་སོང་བ་ལས་སྒོ་བཅད་དོ་ ‘when (I) was about to enter, the door was shut’;
ཤི་བ་ལས་ཕྱིར་སོས་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ་ ‘when (I) was going to die, (I) was restored to
life again’. Which of the three is the real meaning, will in most cases
be clear from circumstances. This gerund is not used in talking, at
least in WT.
7. ཀྱིས་ (གྱིས་ etc.) or ཀྱི་ (གྱི་ etc.), or the Instrumental and Genitive
cases of the root, mean a) ‘by doing something’ or ‘because’, e.g.
དགོས་ཀྱིས་འདོང་ངོ་ ‘we come (here), because it is necessary’.
ཁོ་མོས་གྲོགས་བུ་ཡིས་སྙིང་མ་ཆུང་ཞིག་ ‘since I am resolved to help you, do not be
depressed!’ This, originally, is a function of the Instrumental only,
but in later times the other cases also are used in this meaning.—b)
more frequently they are used adversatively, ‘though’, especially when
connected with མོད་ (40. 1. e), ཅེས་སྨྲས་མོད་ཀྱིས་ཅིས་ཡིད་ཆེས་པར་འགྱུར་ ‘though
(you) did say so, by what shall (I) believe (it)?’ In other cases it
may be left untranslated when the next sentence will commence with
‘but’: ཟས་བཟང་པོ་མི་འདོད་ཀྱིས་ཟས་ཐ་མལ་པ་ཟོས་སོ་ ‘not liking delicate food, he
ate vulgar food’ or ‘he did not like d. f., but preferred v. f.’. 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’; ལྟས་པས་ ‘when (he) looked’.
9. Also གིན་ the proper use of which has been shewn above (35. 2. d.)
must be mentioned once more as it occurs in a similar sense to ཅིང་,
སྨོན་ལམ་འདེབས་གིན་སོང་ཞིག་ ‘walk on praying (preces faciendo)!’;
བྲང་བརྡུང་གིན་ངུས་པས་ ‘beating (her own) breast and weeping’.
B. Supines. They are expressed simply by the Terminative Case of the
Infinitive or of the Root, མཐོང་བར་ or ཐོང་དུ་ ‘to see’. In many instances
the use of either is optional, in others one is preferred. 1. Their use
is: with adjectives like the Latin supine in u, e.g. བསླབ་ཏུ་དཀའ་བ་
‘difficult to learn’; with verbs expressing ‘to go, to send’ etc., also
‘to pray’ etc. like that in um: ལེན་ཏུ་སོང་ ‘go to fetch’, གནང་དུ་གསོལ་ ‘(I)
beg (you) to permit,—for permission’. In these cases the root is most
common, but the Inf. བསླབ་པར་, or གནང་བར་, ལེན་པར་ may also be used. 2.
Another use of the Supine is a) with verbs of sensation and, less
frequently, with those of declaration, where we use sentences with
‘that’ or the Participle or Infinitive: མ་འོང་བར་མཐོང་ནས་ ‘seeing (his)
mother coming’ (instead of which, however, འོང་བ་ may be said as well);
༌༌༌བའི་དུས་ལ་བབ་པར་ཤེས་ནས་ ‘knowing that the time of ...ing had arrived’
(lit: ‘that it had come down to the time’); རྒྱལ་པོའི་བུ་ཡིན་པར་དྲན་ནས་
‘remembering him to be the king’s son’ or ‘that he was...’.—b) in an
adverbial sense, when we say ‘so that’, especially in negative
sentences, ‘so that not’, ‘without ...ing’, སུས་ཀྱང་མ་ཚོར་བར་ ‘so that
nobody may (did) perceive it’, or ‘without anybody perceiving it’.
Note 1. The modern language of WT uses in the first instance (B. 1.)
either the simple Infinitive, བསླབ་ཅེས་ཁག་པོ་ (or དཀག་པོ་), or the same
with ལ་, བསླབ་ཅེས་ལ་ཁག་པོ་, or with ཕྱི་ལ་ (for the ཕྱིར་ of the books s. 7.
2.), བསླབ་ཅེས་ཕྱི་ལ་ཁག་པོ་; in the second either the same forms, or a
particular one, which consists in repeating the final consonant of the
root with the vowel a, to which also ལ་ may be added: thus, ལེན་ན་སོང་,
ཁྱོད་རང་ལ་ཐུག་ག་ལ་ཡོངས་སོང་ ‘(I) have come to meet you’; in the third, the
direct Imperative adding ཞུ་ for the sake of civility, དགོངས་ཞུ་ ‘pray
permit!’
In the case of B. 2., instead of མ་འོང་བར་མཐོང་ནས་, the expression in
common use will be ཨ་མ་ཡོང་ or ཡོང་ང་མཐོང་ནས་; instead of སུས་ཀྱང་མ་ཚོར་བར་,
either the same form, མ་ཚོར་ར་, or the Gerund, མ་ཚོར་ཏེ་.—In CT those
examples would respectively, stand thus, བསླབ་ཏུ་ or བསླབ་བ་ or
བསླབ་པའི་དོན་དུ་དཀག་པོ་ láb-tu, láb-ba (sounding almost lă-wa), láb-pa̤
dʽo̤n-dʽu kag-po; in the third instance a peculiar word, ‘rog’, is used,
which is said to be originally the same as གྲོགས་ (རོགས་) ‘friend,
assistant’, and serves now as the respectful substitute of ཅིག་,
Particle of the Imperative, གནང་རོག་ ‘pray permit!’, སྟེར་རོག་ ‘pray give!’
Instead of མ་ཚོར་ར་ etc. the most usual form in CT will be the simple
Participle, མ་ཤེས་པ་.
Note 2. All the forms, of course, where པ་ or བ་ are met with might in
certain cases belong to the Participle, and not to the Infinitive.
Note 3. The reader will have missed any mention of tenses of the class
of Pluperfect, Past Future etc., and, indeed, there exists no form of
the kind, and they can only be rendered by a Gerund, e.g.
ཡི་གེ་བྲིས་ཟིན་ནས་བཀལ་སོང་ ‘when (he) had written the letter, (he) sent (it)
off’; ཡི་གེ་བྲིས་ཟིན་ནས་བཀལ་བར་འགྱུར་ (WT: བཀལ་ཡིན་, CT: བཀལ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་) ‘when (he)
shall have written the letter, (he) will send (it) off’. Neither have
the Conditional or Subjunctive any special form. 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)’. Here may
be added, that also the intention of, or attempt at, doing something is
expressed by the simple verb: thus, བདག་གིས་བཀག་ཡང་མ་བཏུབ་ཀྱིས་ ‘though I
did try to hinder him, I could not’; བདག་གི་ཉེ་གནས་ཆུར་མཆོངས་པ་མཐོང་ནས།
ཆུར་མ་ཕྱིན་པར་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་མཐུས་བླངས་སོ་ ‘as he saw his own disciple on the point
of springing into the water (and that he had sprung off the bank), he
held him back by the force of his magic, so that he did not touch the
water’ (s. 41. B. 2. b.). Especially the gerunds in ལས་ (41. A. 6.)
have often this meaning: བདག་སྲོག་དང་བྲལ་བ་ལས་སྲོག་གི་སྐྱབས་བྱས་སོ་ ‘when I was
about to be parted from life, he saved it’;
སྦྲུལ་ཁྲོས་ནས་གདུག་པ་ཕྱུང་པ་ལས་ཡང་འདི་སྙམས་བསམས་སོ་ ‘the snake, having become
angry, though she intended (or: had at first int.) to let out her
poison, reflected thus’. As will be seen from these examples, the
action, in such cases, is thought to have begun in fact.
A Survey of the principal forms of the Finite Verb.
Present:
གཏོང་, W བཏང་འདུག་ give
མཐོང་བ་ཡིན་ མཐོང་མཁན་ཡིན་ I see intens. མཐོང་བར་བྱེད་
C མཐོང་སྟེ་འདུག་ (or ཡོད་)
W མཐོང་གིན་འདུག་ (or ཡོད་); C མཐོང་གི་འདུག་ I am seeing
Perfect:
བཏང་ W བཏང་སོང་ gave, have given
མཐོང་ C མཐོང་བྱུང་ saw, W སོང་སྟེ་ཡོད་ C སོང་ཡོད་
went went
བཏང་ཟིན་ བཏང་ཚར་ I have given, intens. མཐོང་བར་བྱས་བཏངས་པ་ཡིན་ has been given
Future:
གཏང་ W བཏང་ཡིན་ shall, will give
མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར་ C མཐོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ intens. མཐོང་བར་བྱ་
shall, will see
སླེབ་ཡོང་, སླེབ་པར་འོང་ will arrive
Imperative:
ཐོང་ W བཏོང་ give! བཏོན་བཏོང་ take out!
བསད་དགོས་ kill!
མཐོང་ཅིག་ see! intens. མཐོང་བར་བྱོས་
negat. མ་གཏོང་མ་བཏང་ do not
give! མཐོང་བར་མ་བྱེད་