Chapter VII: 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’.