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Tibetan pinyin

 
Wikipedia: Tibetan pinyin
Tibetan pinyin
Chinese name
Chinese 藏文拼音
Tibetan name
Tibetan བོད་
ཡིག་གི་སྒྲ་སྦྱོར་

Tibetan pinyin is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China. It is based on the Lhasa dialect and reflects the pronunciation very accurately, except that it doesn't mark tone. It is used inside of China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin alphabet.

Contents

Initials

The tone of a syllable depends mostly on its initial consonant. In this table, each initial is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with the vowel a and a tone mark to present tone register (high/low).

IPA Wylie transliteration Tibetan pinyin
p, sp, dp, lp b
rb, sb, sbr b
mpà lb, ’b b
pʰá ph, ’ph p
pʰà b p
rm, sm, dm, smr m
m, mr m
w, db w
t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld d
ntá lth d
rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd d
ntà zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d d
tʰá th, mth, ’th t
tʰà d, dw t
rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn n
n n
kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl l
l, lw l
ɬá lh lh
tsá ts, rts, sts, rtsw, stsw, gts, bts, brts, bsts z
tsà rdz, gdz, brdz z
ntsà mdz, ’dz z
tsʰá tsh, tshw, mtsh, ’tsh c
tsʰà dz c
s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr s
z, zw, gz, bz s
ʈá kr, rkr, lkr, skr, tr, pr, lpr, spr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr zh
ʈà rgr, lgr, sgr, dgr, dbr, bsgr, rbr, lbr, sbr zh
ɳʈà mgr, ’gr, ’dr, ’br zh
ʈʰá khr, thr, phr, mkhr, ’khr, ’phr ch
ʈʰà gr, dr, br, grw ch
ʂá hr sh
r, rw r
ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky gy
rgy, lgy, sgy, dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy gy
ɲcà mgy, ’gy gy
cʰá khy, mkhy, ’khy ky
cʰà gy ky
tɕá c, cw, gc, bc, lc, py, lpy, spy, dpy j
tɕà rby, lby, sby, rj, gj, brj, dby j
ɲtɕà lj, mj, ’j, ’by j
tɕʰá ch, mch, ’ch q
tɕʰà j q
tɕʰá phy, ’phy q
tɕʰà by q
ɕá sh, shw, gsh, bsh x
ɕà zh, zhw, gzh, bzh x
ɲá rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw, rmy, smy ny
ɲà ny, my ny
g.y y
y y
k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk g
rg, lg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg g
ŋkà lg, mg, ’g g
kʰá kh, khw, mkh, ’kh k
kʰà g, gw k
ŋá rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng ng
ŋà ng ng
ʔá —, db
ʔà
h, hw h

Vowels and final consonants

The seventeen vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in Tibetan pinyin as follows:

IPA Tibetan
pinyin
IPA Tibetan
pinyin
i i ĩ in
e ê en
ɛ ai/ä ɛ̃ ain/än
a a ã an
u u ũ un
o o õ on
ɔ o
y ü ün
ø oi/ö ø̃ oin/ön

Syllable-final -r is usually not spoken, but lengthens the preceding vowel. Syllable-final -n of the written forms usually nasalises the preceding vowel. This is how syllable-final consonants are transcribed:

IPA Tibetan
pinyin
p b
ʔ g/—
r r
m m
ŋ ng

Examples

Tibetan Script Wylie Tibetan pinyin Tournadre other transcriptions
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ Gzhis-ka-rtse Xigazê Zhikatse Shigatse, Shikatse
བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ Bkra-shis-lhun-po Zhaxilhünbo Trashilhünpo Tashilhunpo, Tashilhümpo, etc.
འབྲས་སྤུང་ ’Bras-spung Zhaibung Dräpung Drebung
ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan Qoigyi Gyaicain Chökyi Gyältshän Choekyi Gyaltsen
ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ Thub-bstan Rgya-mtsho Tubdain Gyaco Thuptän Gyatsho Thubten Gyatso, Thubtan Gyatso, Thupten Gyatso

References

Footnotes


See also



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