Possession Particles

This includes the following particles: པ། པོ། བ། བོ། མ། མོ། ཅན། མཁན། ལྡན།

Difference with Nominalising Particles (which also use these particles):

• The possession particles indicate a person as the possessor (sometimes metaphorically) of a noun, adjective or verb
• The nominalising particles indicate other usages that do not fall under the definition of the possession particles, i.e. not indicating persons. They are either a root part of many words (i.e. not something that is affixed) or are used to nominalise verbs, refer to specific parts of speech, create adjectives, and so forth

The possession particles are grouped into different usages as follows:

• The པ། and བ། are suffix dependent and can be affixed to any part of speech.
• The མ། and མོ། are not suffix dependent, have the same usage as the previous two, but additionally indicate a female person.
• The པོ། and མཁན། are not suffix dependent and are only affixed to verbs.
• The ཅན། and ལྡན། are not suffix dependent and are affixed to things, qualities, and attributes.

The པ། and བ། are suffix dependent, as follows:

For example:

• “Tibet” → “Tibetan” བོད། → བོད་པ།
• “To count / calculate” → “Accountant” རྩིས། → རྩིས་པ།

With the last two rows, it depends on whether the (resultant) word has an odd or even number of syllables, for example:

• “Inner” → “Buddhist” [Lit. “Inner-being”] ནང་། → ནང་པ།
• “To guard the door” → “Door keeper/guard” སྒོ་སྲུང་། → སྒོ་སྲུང་བ།

The མ། མོ། particles additionally mark the person as being female; these are not suffix dependent. For example:

• “To liberate” → “The [female] liberator” [i.e. Tara] སྒྲོལ། → སྒྲོལ་མ།
• “Beautiful” → “Beautiful person [female]” མཛེས་པོ། → མཛེས་མ།

In the context of the བདག་སྒྲ།, the པོ་སྒྲ། is only affixed to nominalised verbs and will have the same meaning as using the མཁན་སྒྲ། particle directly with verbs, i.e. to indicate the doer (agent) of an action. For example:

• “The goer” འགྲོ་བ་པོ། = འགྲོ་མཁན།
• “The doer” བྱེད་པ་པོ། = བྱེད་མཁན།
• “The meditator” སྒོམ་པ་པོ། = སྒོམ་མཁན།

In the first case, this form will often be used when the verb form would make it ambiguous. For example:

• གཅོད་པ། → གཅོད་པ་པོ།
• Here, གཅོད་པ། is more likely to be read as the verb (i.e. “cutting”) rather than the agent (i.e. the cutter), so the extra པོ་སྒྲ། is added.
• However, this seems to be optional, since text will often use འགྲོ་བ། for “migrators” and སྟོན་པ། for “the Teacher”, and so forth.

Moreover, there are abbreviations whereby the མཁན་སྒྲ། can be affixed to nouns and so forth, for example:

• “The potter” = “The pot maker” རྫ་མཁན། = རྫ་མ་བཟོ་མཁན།

Finally, the ཅན་སྒྲ། and ལྡན་སྒྲ། are similar to the མཁན་སྒྲ། but used for objects, attributes, and qualities. For example:

• “Sentient beings” [Lit. “mind-possessors”] སེམས་ཅན།
• “Intelligent” [Lit. “awareness-possessors”] བློ་ལྡན།

Please note that the ལྡན་སྒྲ། technically requires a Dang particle (དང་སྒྲ།), so these are also abbreviations for བློ་(གྲོས་)དང་ལྡན་པ། and so forth.

See: Nominalising Particles
Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles