THE ADVERB.
42. We may distinguish three classes of adverbs: 1. Primitive adverbs.
2. Adverbs formed from Adjectives. 3. Adverbs formed from Substantives
or Pronouns.
1. Very few Primitive Adverbs occur; the most usual are: ད་ ‘now’, ནམ་
‘when’, སང་ (books and CT) or ཐོ་རེ་ (WT) ‘to morrow’, and a few similar
ones; ཡང་ ‘again’, and the two negatives མི་ and མ་, the latter of which
is used in prohibitive sentences, and with a past tense, as མི་གཏོང་ ‘(I)
do not give’, མི་གཏང་ ‘(I) shall not give’, but: མ་བཏང་ ‘did not give’,
མ་གཏོང་ (WT: མ་བཏང་) ‘do not give!’ The verbs ཡིན་, ལགས་, མཆིས་, རེད་ have
always མ་ instead of མི་ before them (40.). Another particle of this
kind, of a merely formal value, is ནི་, which is added to any word or
group of words in order to single it out and distinctly separate it
from everything that follows. It is, therefore, often very useful in
lessening the great indistinctness of the language, especially so when
separating the subject from the attribute: མི་དེ་ནི་ལ་དྭགས་པ་ཡིན་ ‘that man
is a Ladakee’. (There is scarcely an adequate word to be found in our
modern languages, but the Greek γε, or μεν—δε—, are very similar.) In
talking it is seldom heard, and, when used, in WT pronounced: ནིང་.
2. Adverbs may be formed from any Adjective by putting it in the
Terminative case. བཟང་པོ་ ‘good’, བཟང་པོར་ ‘well’; རབ་ ‘principal’, རབ་ཏུ་
‘principally, very’; དྲག་པོ་ ‘violent’, དྲག་པོར་ or དྲག་ཏུ་ ‘violently’.
3. Nearly all the local Adverbs are formed from Substantives or
Pronouns with some local Postposition: གོང་ ‘the place (space) above,
upper part’, གོང་ན་ ‘above’, གོང་ཏུ་ ‘upwards’, གོང་ནས་ ‘from above
(downwards)’; འདི་ ‘this’, འདི་ན་ ‘in this, here’, འདི་རུ་, འདིར་ ‘hither,
here’ (cf. 15.), འདི་ནས་ ‘hence’; དེ་ ‘that’, དེ་ན་ ‘there’, དེ་རུ, དེར་
‘thither, there’, དེ་ནས་ ‘from there, thence, then, after that’.
Note. In talking the simple adjective is used, mostly, instead of its
adverb (2. class): མགྱོགས་པ་ for —པར་ ‘quickly, soon’.