Chapter IX: The Conjunction

44. The written language possesses very few, the spoken still fewer, Conjunctions, most of which are coordinative. The common word for ‘and’ is དང་ which we have seen above in the sense of ‘with’, གསེར་དང༌། དངུལ་དང༌། ལྕགས་ལ་སོགས་པ་ ‘gold and silver and iron and collection (i.e. and so on)’, though the position of the s̀ad (10.) after the word དང་ shows that it is always considered as belonging to the preceding member of the sentence, similar, in this respect, to the Latin ‘que’; nor can it in any case begin a sentence. Very seldom, and only in later literature, it appears as combining two verbs, if not, indeed, the root ought to be regarded there as abbreviation for the infinitive. Further: ཡང་ ‘also, too’. When belonging to a single word or notion it is put after it in an enclitical way like ‘quoque’ in Latin. It is changed according to the termination of the preceding word, into ཀྱང་ after ག་ ད་ བ་ ས་ [9], into འང་ often after vowels (cf. 6). Thus: བུ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ཁྲིད་དེ་ ‘taking also a son (with him)’. When repeated, it has the signification of Latin ‘et—et—’, མ་ཡང་ཤི། བུ་ཡང་ཤིའོ༎ ‘both mother and son died’. Often, especially in negative sentences, it means ‘even’, གཅིག་ཀྱང་མ་རྙེད་དོ་ ‘even one (they) did not find—not even one’. This is the only means for expressing ‘none, no, nothing’, མི་སུ་ (or གང་) ཡང་མ་འོངས་ (resp. ཡོངས་) ‘nobody came’; དེ་ན་ཅི་ཡང་ (ཅིའང་, or ཅང་) མེད་ ‘there is nothing’ (cf. 29). When combined with verbs, བཙལ་ཡང་མ་རྙེད་དོ་ ‘even searching (they) did not find’, it serves as another expression for ‘though’ or also ‘but’ (s. 41. A. 7. b): thus, ‘though they searched, they etc.’ or ‘they searched, but they etc.’. Standing for itself (not leaning on the preceding word) it means ‘again, once more’ (when it is to be regarded as adverb), དེར་ཡང་འཁམས་ནས་ ‘there (I) fainting once more etc.’. In the beginning of a sentence it is ‘and, again, moreover’, and may occasionally be rendered by ‘however, but’. ཡང་ན་, ‘or’; repeated, ཡང་ན༌༌༌༌ ཡང་ན༌༌༌༌ ‘either—or—’.—‘Or’ is expressed also by the interrogative affix of the finite verb (34. 1.), འམ་ etc., གསེར་དངུལ་འམ། ཟངས་ཀྱི་བུམ་པོ་ ‘a bottle of gold, silver, or copper’.—འོན་ཀྱང་ ‘nevertheless, but’, vulg: ཡིན་ཀྱང་ occurs much less frequently in Tibetan than in the European languages.

The only Subordinate Conjunctions are: 1. གལ་ཏེ་ ‘if’, introducing conditional sentences ending in ན་ (41. A. 4). But, as the conditional force really rests on the closing ན་, the initial གལ་ཏེ་ may be put or omitted at pleasure; 2. ཅི་སྟེ་ ‘but if’; གལ་ཏེ་ནུས་ན༌༌༌༌ ‘if I can ...’, ཅི་སྟེ་མི་ནུས་ན་ ‘but if not ...’; this last is found only in books.