Chapter I: The Article

11. Peculiarities of the Tibetan article. 1. What have been called Articles by Csoma and Schmidt, are a number of little affixes: པ་ བ་ མ་ པོ་ བོ་ མོ་, and some similar ones, which might perhaps be more adequately termed denominators, since their principal object is undoubtedly to represent a given root as a noun, substantive or adjective, as is most clearly perceptible in the instance of the roots of verbs, to which པ་ or བ་ impart the notion of the Infinitive and Participle, or the nearest abstract and nearest concrete nouns that can possibly be formed from the idea of a verb. These affixes are not, however,—except in this case—essential to a noun, as many substantives and adjectives and most of the pronouns are never accompanied by them, and even those which usually appear connected with them, will drop them upon the slightest occasion. 2. Almost the only case in which a syntactical use of them, like that of the English definite Article, is perceptible, is that mentioned § 20. 3; a formal one, that of distinguishing the Gender, occurs in a limited number of words, where མོ་ denotes the female, པོ་ the masculine. Thus: རྒྱལ་པོ་ gyál-po ‘king’, རྒྱལ་མོ་ gyál-mo ‘queen’. Or, if the word in the masculine (or rather common) gender has no article, མོ་ is added: སེང་གེ་ séṅ-ge ‘lion’, སེང་གེ་མོ་ ‘lioness’. 3. In most instances, by far, their only use is to distinguish different meanings of homonymous roots, e.g. སྟོན་པ་ (s)tón-pa (tó̤n-pa), ‘teacher’; སྟོན་མོ་ (s)tón-mo (tó̤n-mo) ‘feast’; སྟོན་ཁ་ (s)tón-kʽa (tó̤n-kʽa) ‘autumn’. Even this advantage, however, is given up, as soon as a composition takes place, and then the meaning can only be inferred from the context, or known from usage: མིང་སྟོན་ (from སྟོན་མོ་) ‘name feast’ (given on the occasion of naming or christening an infant); སྟོན་ཟླ་ (from སྟོན་ཁ་) ‘autumnal month’. In some instances the putting or omitting of these articles is optional; more frequently the usage varies in different provinces. 4. The peculiar nature of these affixes is most clearly shown by the manner in which they are connected with the indefinite article § 13.

Note. The affixes བ་ བོ་ are after vowels and after the consonants ང་ ར་ ལ་ always pronounced wa and wo, instead of ba and bo; thus, དཀའ་བ་ ka-wa ‘difficult’; རེ་བ་ re-wa ‘hope’; གང་བ་ gaṅ-wa (gh°) ‘full’; ཟེར་བ་ zer-wa (ser-wa) ‘to say’; མྱལ་བ་ nyal-wa ‘hell’; ཇོ་བོ་ jo-wo (jho-wo) ‘lord, master’.

12. Difference of the Articles among each other. 1. The usage of པ་ བ་ མ་ is the most general and widest of all, as they occur with all sorts of substantives and other nouns. པ་ is particularly used for denoting a man who is in a certain way connected with a certain thing (something like والا and دار in Hindustāni and Persian): གྲྭ་ ḍa ‘school’, གྲྭ་པ་ (literally: scholar) ‘disciple, novice’; ཆུ་ c̀ʽu ‘water’, ཆུ་པ་ ‘water-carrier’ (پانى والا); རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟ་པ་ ‘horseman’; དབུས་ ‘the province of Ṳ̄’, དབུས་པ་ ‘a man from Ṳ̄’, ཁྱེའུ་ kʽyëu ‘boy’, ལོ་ lo ‘year’, གཉིས་ ñi(s) ‘two’, hence: ཁྱེའུ་ལོ་གཉིས་པ་ ‘a two years’ boy’. If the feminine is required མ་ is either added to, or—more commonly—used instead of, the former: དབུས་མ་ ‘a woman from Ṳ̄’; བུ་མོ་ལོ་གཉིས་མ་ ‘a two years’ girl’. The performer of an action is more frequently denoted by པོ་ (or, in more solemn language, པ་པོ་), though, in conversation at least, མཁན་ kʽan (kʽe̱n), is preferred; བྱེད་པ་ j̀ed-pa ‘to do, make; doing, making’: བྱེད་པོ་, བྱེད་པ་པོ་, བྱེད་མཁན་ ‘the doer, maker’. 2. The appendices ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ occur with a limited number of nouns only, especially the names of the seasons, with numerals, and some pronouns. (ཀོ་ seems to be a vulgar form of pronunciation for ཀ་).

13. The indefinite Article. This is the numeral one (§ 13), only deprived of its prefix, viz.: ཅིག་, which form it retains, if the preceding word ends with ག་ ད་ བ་, as: ཁབ་ཅིག་ kʽab-c̀ig, a needle; it is changed to ཤིག་ after ས་, རས་ཤིག་ ras-s̀ig, rä-s̀ig, a cloth; to ཞིག་ z̀ig (s̀ig) in all other cases. Some authors use ཅིག་ after any termination indiscriminately. It is, of course, always without accent. The articles པ་ བ་ etc. are not superseded by the indefinite article e.g. སྟོན་པ་ ‘teacher, the teacher’, སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ ‘a teacher’. It is used even after a plurality: thus, ཆུ་མིག་བཞི་ཞིག་དེ་རུ་ཡོད་ ‘there were some four wells’, and even: མང་ཞིག་གདའ་སྟེ་ ‘there being a multitude of them’ (from Mil.). Very often it is placed after the interrogative pronouns (v. 27), and sometimes its original meaning is obscured so much that it occurs even after known and definite subjects, where one would expect the demonstrative (see f. i. Dzl. 25, 1. 28, 6. 128, 14).