Chapter II: The Substantive

14. The Number. The Plural is denoted by adding the word རྣམས་ nam, or, more rarely, དག་ dag (dʽag), ཚོ་, or a few other words, which originally were nouns with the common notion of plurality. But this mark of the Plural is usually omitted, when the plurality of the thing in question may be known from other circumstances, e.g. when a numeral is added: thus, མི་ ‘man’, མི་རྣམས་ ‘men’, མི་གསུམ་ ‘three men’. When a substantive is connected with an adjective, the plural sign is added only once, viz. after the last of the connected words: མི་བཟང་པོ་རྣམས་ ‘the good men’.

Note. The conversational language uses the words རྣམས་ etc. seldom, in WT scarcely ever (an exception s. 24. Remarks), but adds, when necessary, such words as: all, many, some; two, three, seven, eight, or other suitable numerals (cf. § 20, 5.).

15. Declension. The regular addition of the different particles or single sounds by which the cases are formed is the same for all nouns, whether substantives or adjectives, pronouns or participles. Only in some cases, in the Dative and Instrumental, the noun itself is changed, when, ending in a vowel, it admits of a closer connection with the corrupted case-sign. We may reckon in Tibetan seven cases, expressive of all the relations, for which cases are used in other languages, viz: nominative and accusative, genitive, instrumental, dative, locative, ablative, terminative and vocative. 1. The unaltered form of the noun has some of the functions of our Nominative and those of the Accusative and Vocative. 2. The sign of the Genitive is ཀྱི་ after words with the finals ད་ བ་ ས་; གྱི་ after ན་ མ་ ར་ ལ་, གི་ after ག་ and ང་; after vowels i is simply added by means of an འ་ thus: འི་, which then will form a diphthong with the vowel of the noun (cf. § 6), or if, in versification, two syllables are required, i appears supported by an ཡ་ forming a distinct word. 3. The Instrumental or Agent is expressed by the particles ཀྱིས་, གྱིས་ or གིས་ after the respective consonants as specified above; after vowels simply ས་ is added, or, in verse, sometimes ཡིས་.

Note. The instrumental is, in modern pronunciation, except in Northern Ladak, scarcely discernible from the genitive, and there are but few if any, even among lamas, who are not liable to confound both cases in writing.

In the language of common life, in WT, the different forms of the particle of the genitive and instrumental, after consonants, ཀྱི་ གྱི་ etc. are never heard, but everywhere the final consonant is doubled and the vowel i added to it, thus: ལུས་, G. lus-si (Ld.), lṳ̄-i; ལམ་, G. lam-mi; གསེར་ (gold), G. ser-ri etc; or, in other words, all nouns ending in consonants are formed like those ending with ག་ (see the example མིག་). In those ending with a vowel no irregularity takes place.

4. The Dative adds indiscriminately the postposition ལ་ la, denoting the relation of space in the widest sense, expressed by the English prepositions in, into, at, on, to. 5. The Locative is formed by the postposition ན་ na ‘in’. 6. The Ablative by ནས་ nā̤ or ལས་ lā̤ ‘from’ (the latter especially with the meaning: from among), all three likewise without any discriminating regard to the ending of the noun. 7. The Terminative is expressed by the postpositions རུ་ or ར་ after vowels; ཏུ་ after final ག་ and བ་ and, in certain words, ད་ ར་ ལ་; སུ་ after ས་; དུ་ generally after ན་ ར་ ལ་ and the other final consonants. All these postpositions denote the motion to or into. 8. The Vocative is not different from the Nominative (as stated above), if not distinguished by the interjection ཀྱེ་ oh!, and can only be known from the context.

Examples of declension. As example of the declension of consonantal nouns we may take 1. for those in s (respectively d, b), ལུས་ lus, lṳ̄, ‘body’; 2. for those in m (n, r, l), ལམ་ lam ‘way’; 3. for those in g (ṅ), མིག་ mig ‘eye’,—of that of vocalic nouns: 4. ཁ་ kʽa or kʽa-wa ‘snow’.

Singular.

1. 2. N. Acc. ལུས་ lus, lṳ̄ ལམ་ lam Gen. ལུས་ཀྱི་ lus-kyi, lṳ̄-kyi; ལམ་གྱི་ lam-gyi; lam-mi lus-si, lṳ̄i Inst. ལུས་ཀྱིས་ lus-kyis, ལམ་གྱིས་ lam-gyis, -gyī; lam-mī lṳ̄-kyī; lus-sī, lṳ̄ī Dat. ལུས་ལ་ lus-la, lṳ̄-la ལམ་ལ་ lam-la Loc. ལུས་ན་ lus-na ལམ་ན་ lam-na Abl. ལུས་ནས་ lus-nā̤ ལམ་ནས་ lam-nā̤ Term. ལུས་སུ་ lus-su ལམ་དུ་ lam-du

3. 4. N. Acc. མིག་ mig ཁ་ kʽa; ཁ་བ་ kʽa-wa Gen. མིག་གི་ mig-gi ཁའི་ kʽai; ཁ་བའི་ kʽa-wai Inst. མིག་གིས་ mig-gis, -gī ཁས་ kʽā̤; ཁ་བས་ kʽa-wā̤ Dat. མིག་ལ་ mig-la ཁ་ལ་ kʽa-la; ཁ་བ་ལ་ kʽa-wa-la Loc. མིག་ན་ mig-na ཁ་ན་ kʽa-na; ཁ་བ་ན་ kʽa-wa-na Abl. མིག་ནས་ mig-nā̤ ཁ་ནས་ kʽa-nā̤; ཁ་བ་ནས་ kʽa-wa-nā̤ Term. མིག་ཏུ་ mig-tu ཁ་རུ་, ཁར་ kʽa-ru, kʽar; ཁ་བ་རུ་, ཁ་བར་ kʽa-wa-ru, kʽa-war.

Plural.

As the plural signs are simply added to the nouns, without affecting their form, we here only give examples of declension with the two most frequent plural particles. As example for དག་ the plural of the pron. དེ་ ‘that’ has been chosen.

N. Acc. ལུས་རྣམས་ lus(lṳ̄-)-nam(s) དེ་དག་ de-dag
Gen. ལུས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ lus-nam(s)-kyi དེ་དག་གི་ de-dag-gi
Inst. ལུས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ lus-nam(s)-kyis དེ་དག་གིས་ de-dag-gis
Dat. ལུས་རྣམས་ལ་ lus-nam(s)-la དེ་དག་ལ་ de-dag-la
Loc. ལུས་རྣམས་ན་ lus-nam(s)-na དེ་དག་ན་ de-dag-na
Abl. ལུས་རྣམས་ནས་ lus-nam(s)-nā̤ དེ་དག་ནས་ de-dag-nā̤
Term. ལུས་རྣམས་སུ་ lus-nam(s)-su དེ་དག་ཏུ་ de-dag-tu