Emphasis-Conjunction Particles
This particle has three markers that are suffix-dependent:
| Suffix | Marker |
|---|---|
| ག ད། བ། ས། ད་དྲག | ཀྱང་། |
| ང་། མ། ན། ར། ལ། | ཡང་། |
| འ། or no suffix | ཡང། or -འང། |
Similarly to other particles, the -འང། marker will be affixed directly to a word or “replace” its འ། suffix, for example:
- མི། + འང་། → མིའང་།
- ནམ་མཁའ། + འང་། → ནམ་མཁའང་།
In verse, these are usually pronounced as one syllable, since they are commonly used to conserve on syllables for the meter, whereas in prose they would usually be pronounced as two, making them sound similar to མི་འང་། ནམ་མཁའ་འང་། etc.
This set of particles is said to have four usages:
- Positive Emphasis (མཐུན་པའི་རྒྱན།)
- Contrasting Emphasis (མི་མཐུན་པའི་རྒྱན།)
- Conjunction (སྡུད་པ།)
- Addition (བསྣན་པ།)
Positive Emphasis (མཐུན་པའི་རྒྱན།)
This usage is less common, since a similar construction is more commonly made with the “And” Particle (དང་སྒྲ།); it is used to emphasise something.
For example:
- “The scenery is really beautiful!” Lit “Even more beautiful than beautiful” ཡུལ་ལྗོངས་དེ་མཛེས་ཀྱང་མཛེས།
- “My mind is really joyful!” Lit “Even more joyful than joyful” རང་གི་སེམས་ནི་དགའ་ཡང་དགའ།
Affixed to verbs and adjectives, but not nouns.
Contrasting Emphasis (མི་མཐུན་པའི་རྒྱན།)
This usage is more common and is used to show contrast between two clauses. This can usually be translated as “but”, “however”, “although”, and so forth.
For example:
- “I planted the seeds, but sprouts didn’t grow.” Or “Sprouts didn’t grow although I planted seeds.”
ས་བོན་བཏབ་ཀྱང་མྱུ་གུ་མ་སྐྱེས། - “Although in general there are the three: virtuous, non-virtuous, and neutral actions; here, there are two: contaminated virtuous actions and non-virtuous actions.”
སྤྱིར་ལས་ལ་དགེ་མི་དགེ་ལུང་མ་བསྟན་གསུམ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། འདིར་ནི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་ཟག་བཅས་དང་མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་གཉིས་ཡིན།
Affixed to verbs and adjectives, but not nouns.
Conjunction (སྡུད་པ།)
This usage is also common and is used to express “also” or “even”.
For example:
- “I am also going to the market.” ང་ཡང་ཁྲོམ་ལ་འགྲོ།
- “If one discards even one’s flesh and bones, what need is there to mention anything else?”
ཤ་རུས་ཀྱང་འདོར་ན་གཞན་ལྟ་ཅི་སྨོས། - “Moreover…” དེ་ཡང་་་།
Mainly affixed to nouns, but will also sometimes be affixed to grammar particles and adjectives.
Addition (བསྣན་པ།)
This usage only applies to the ཡང་སྒྲ། and it is not suffix dependent since it is seen as connecting to the verb coming after through an explicit or implicit denyi particle. It is used to express “again”.
For example:
- “This was praised by the Conquerors again and again in many ways.”
རྒྱལ་བས་སྒོ་དུ་མ་ནས་ཡང་དང་ཡང་དུ་བསྔགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། - “In summer, one should wash one’s body frequently.” Lit “again and again.”
དབྱར་ཁ་གཟུགས་པོ་ཡང་ཡང་བཀྲུ་དགོས་སོ།
To simply say “again”, the terms ཡང་བསྐྱར།, སླར་ཡང་། and ཡང་གཅིག might be used.
Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles