Speech Marks

They are suffix dependent:

However, the ཤེས་སྒྲ། and ཤེ་ན། are rarely seen, often replaced by the ཞེས་སྒྲ། and ཞེ་ན།.

Their function is to directly or indirectly quote or report speech. However, since they are often used in conjunction with a verb related to speech (e.g. གསུང་བ། ཟེར་བ། བཤད་པ། སྨོས་པ།), it would be more accurate to say that they tend to act as speech marks (but that only marking the end of the speech).

For example:

• Just as it says in the Bodhisattvacharyavatara: “There is nothing whatsoever that does not become easier when habituated.” སྤྱོད་འཇུག་ལས། གོམས་ན་སླ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བའི། ཆོས་དེ་གང་ཡང་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན། ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར།
• There is a purpose for stating in the Clarifier of the Path to Liberation that in general, the object designated as the property of the negandum in the proof of that exists...
  ཐར་ལམ་གསལ་བྱེད་དུ། དེ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་དགག་བྱའི་ཆོས་སུ་བཏགས་པའི་དོན་དེ་སྤྱིར་ཡོད་ཅེས་སྨོས་པ་ལ་དགོས་པ་ཡོད་དེ།

The difference between direct and indirect reported speech is not always obvious (even if the latter goes so far as paraphrasing) without checking the text it is being quoted from. However, the usual formulation for a direct quote is to use the Fifth Case ལས་སྒྲ།, while indirect reported speech is more likely to use a Seventh Case.

However, these are just rules of thumb.

These can also be used to refer to whole sections of texts, for example:

• The Sutra says from “…” and up to “…” མདོ་ལས། ་་་། ཞེས་པ་ནས། ་་་། ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

At other times, these particles will be treated as if they are the verb ཟེར་བ།, mainly for the purposes of using quotes as a part of the sentence (e.g. as the subject). The main way this is done is to nominalise them as ཞེས་པ། and ཅེས་པ།, whereby they are often used to define or give an etymology for a term.

For example:

• “Liberation” is freedom from bondage. ཐར་པ་ཞེས་པ་ནི་བཅིངས་པ་ལས་གྲོལ་བའོ།
• Moreover, the afflictions of “abandoning the manifest afflictions” [refers to…]
  ཉོན་མོངས་མངོན་གྱུར་སྤོང་ཞེས་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱང་།
• “…” and “…” have already previously been quoted… ་་་། ཞེས་པ་དང་། ་་་། ཞེས་སོགས་ནི་སྔར་དྲངས་ཟིན་ལ།
• Mistaking the mere words “view of emptiness”… སྟོང་ཉིད་ལྟ་བ་ཞེས་པའི་ཚིག་ཙམ་ལ་འཁྲུལ་ནས་་་

Another way is to use ཅེས་བྱ་བ། or ཞེས་བྱ་བ། to refer to the object (ལས།), i.e. that which will be said (ཟེར་བྱ།). For example:

• That ultimate mind is called the “first supramundane mind.”
  དོན་དམ་པའི་སེམས་དེ་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པའི་སེམས་དང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱའོ།
• That so called “Dependent-Arising,” it is like this… རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི་འདི་ལྟ་སྟེ།

The ཅེ་ན། ཞེ་ན། ཤེ་ན། function to form rhetorical questions of the form “If it is said…”, which is usually followed by the author answering that question. This can simply be a device the author uses to move on to the next topic or it is also used to present objections or wrong views that the author wishes to address.

For example:

• If it is said, “If hearers and solitary realisers are born from Kings of Subduers, what are those Kings of Subduers born from?” ཉན་རང་གཉིས་ཐུབ་དབང་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན་ན། ཐུབ་པའི་དབང་པོ་དེ་རྣམས་གང་ལས་བལྟམས་ཤེ་ན།
• If it is said, “In that case, is the ignorance that is among the twelve links an object of abandonment of the path of seeing or of meditation?” འོ་ན་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ནང་ཚན་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་མ་རིག་པ་དེ་མཐོང་སྤངས་དང་སྒོམ་སྤངས་གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན།
• If it is said, “... Therefore, it is suitable to refer to that established as the property of the subject as the first mode of the sign.” དེས་ན་ཆོས་ཅན་གྱི་ཆོས་སུ་གྲུབ་པ་རྟགས་ཚུལ་དང་པོར་བརྗོད་རིགས་སོ་ཞེ་ན།
• If it is said, “The butter-lamp acts to illuminate itself.” གལ་ཏེེ་མར་མེེས་རང་གིིས་རང་གསལ་བར་བྱེེད་དོོ་ཞེེ་ན།

This rhetorical question construction (the first two above examples) is very common and comfortable in Tibetan; often used in colloquial conversations as well (with ཟེར་ན།). However, a literal translation into English is often quite humorous.

For example, to give a reason for what they just said, a Tibetan speaker might say, “རྒྱུ་མཚན་ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན།” and continue to tell you the reason without even pausing. This literally translates to saying “If you ask what the reason is, [it is…]”, which in English conversation would sound quite funny but is the equivalent of just saying “the reason is…”. The everyday word for “because” (གང་ཡིན་ཟེར་ན།) is also such a rhetorical question.

Also in terms of expressing the opponent's position or objection (last two above examples), it is used conversationally: “If they say x, then I will respond y.”

Translation:

• In terms of the rhetorical question: Since it is not a reported question by an opponent but rather the author's way of introducing the next topic, it is often better to leave out the “If it is said,” in favour of just leaving the author's question as an introduction or outline for the next topic to be discussed.
• In terms of expressing the opponent's position: Since it mainly functions to clarify who is saying what in the debate/discussion, it is better to think of the ཅེ་ན། ཞེ་ན། ཤེ་ན། as marking the end of the opponent's position and forgoing the conditional.

Up a level: Grammar particles