The Alphabet
The Tibetan alphabet consists of 30 consonants and four vowels. The consonants are traditionally arranged in a set of four columns and eight rows. You can click on each letters' phonetic equivalent to hear a native Tibetan say it. Use the download options on the right to save files f iles locally. The Thirty Consonants and Their Pronunciation Column Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 4 Row 1 ཀ Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Row 5 Row 6 Row 7 Row 8
ཅ ཏ པ ཙ ཞ ར ཧ
ka
ཁ kha
ག
ga
ང nga
cha ta pa tsa zha ra ha
ཆ ཐ ཕ ཚ ཟ ལ ཨ
ཇ ད བ ཛ འ
a da ba dza a sha
ན མ ཝ ཡ ས
chha tha pha tsha za la a
nya na ma wa ya sa
Each consonant has an inherent "a" sound. There are four other vowels in Tibetan. The vowels are not letters by themselves, but are drawn either above or below the consonant they modify. In the example below we use the last consonant of the alphabet as an example. The Four Vowels and Their Pronunciation Vowels Exampleཨ
i
u
ཨ
e
ཨ
o
The Reversed Letters
The six reversed letters are sometimes so metimes referred to as the Sanskrit letters, since their original purpose was for use in the translation of texts from Sanskrit. In modern Tibetan these letters have taken on a new role and therefore it's important for the student to recognize them. The Six Reversed Letters and Their Pronunciation ཉ ta ཊ tha ཋ da ཎ na ཥ kha ཀྵ kyha Examples of Reversed Letters Usage in Modern Tibetan Tibetan
English
Comments
ཁ་ཎ་ཋ་
Canada
མ་ཉ་ ་ཉ་
Car
If this word were spelled with nonreversed letters, its literal meaning could be "mouth-sick-now". By using reversed letters the meaning becomes obvious and the pronunciation is about the the same as in English. This word is pronounced roughly the same as the English word "motor". There are other words in Tibetan with the same meaning, ར་ར་ e.g. "num-kor-kar": མ་འཁར་ར་
Writing Tibetan
Throughout the centuries Tibetan has been written using different types of scripts. Two of those scripts, U-chen and U-me are the most common. co mmon. U-chen is the script you see on this site. It has been used for centuries to print religious books and today today it is used for books, newspapers and other media. U-me is more of a handwriting script, although it is sometimes used in books. Below is a guide on how to draw the U-chen script. Horizontal lines are drawn from left to right and vertical lines from the top down. The letters should align with the top line, thus the first line you draw is the base line.
The Superscribed Letters
Three consonants can be written on top of other consonants. Those superscribed letters are almost never pronounced themselves, but they change the pronunciation of the consonant they are placed on, by raising its tone pitch. For the beginner this change might be difficult to notice since it's only a slight variation from the pronunciation of the consonants when they have no superscribed letter. The Three Superscribed Letters Letter Name English Phonetic Name ར ་མག་ Ra-go (Ra-head)
ལ
་མག་
La-go (La-head)
ས
་མག་
Sa-go (Sa-head)
Each superscribed letter cannot be written on all consonants. Below is a list of all possible combinations and how to pronounce them. The Twelve Ra-go Letters and Their Pronunciation ka ga nga a nya nya* * ta da na ba ma tsa dza *Note how different from others the Ra-go is drawn when placed on Nya. The Ten La-go Letters and Their Pronunciation ka ga nga cha a ta da pa ba lha The Eleven Sa-go Letters and Their Pronunciation ka ga nga nya ta da na pa ba ma tsa
The Subscribed Letters
Four consonants can be written below or subscribed to other consonants. Most of the subscribed letters change the pronunciation of the consonant they are attached to. All of the subscribed letters, except one, are written in a different way than when they are written as base letters. In the following tables you can see how to draw those letters as well as how to pronounce them. The Four Subscribed Letters Letter Name English Phonetic (Name) ཡ ཡ་བཏགས་ Ya-ta (Ya-bound)
ར
་བཏགས་
Ra-ta (Ra-bound)
ལ
་བཏགས་
La-ta (La-bound)
ཝ
་ར་
Wa-sur (Wa-corner)
The Eight Ya-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation kya khya gya chya chhya ya nya hya The Thirteen Ra-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation tra thra dra tra thra dra na tra thra tra ma sa hra The Six La-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation la la* la* la* la* da *Pronounced the same as the first la-ta The Thirteen Wa-zur Letters ka kha ga nya da tsa tsha zha za ra la sha ha Wa-zur does not affect the pronunciation of the base letter and therefore we have omitted recording these letters. You can hear how they are pronounced on the Alphabet Alphabet page. page.
The Prefixes
A prefix is an unpronounced letter at the beginning of a syllable. Although the prefixes are never pronounced, they modify the pronunciation of some root letters (the letter letter that follows them). them). When consonants from the third column of the alphabet are prefixed, they lose aspiration while remaining low in tone. The nasal consonants in the fourth row, when prefixed, should be pronounced in a higher tone than when not prefixed. The Five Prefixes
ག ད
བ
མ
འ
Examples of Words with Prefixes Word Pronunciation Meaning གནམ་ nahm Sky གས་ ས་ nyî Two དཀར་པ་ kar-po White དར་ཁ་ yar-kha Summer བཙན་པ་ ན་པ་ tsön-pa Prisoner བན་ག་ dün-thak Week མཚ་ tsho Lake མངར་མ་ ngar-mo Sweet འཁར་ལ ར་ལ་ kor-lo Wheel འས་ trë Rice
The Suffixes
A suffix is the last letter in a syllable. Tibetan also has a secondary suffix. Ten letters can act as suffixes, and two letters can act as secondary suffixes. The suffix will always affect the pronunciation of the syllable, but not in the same way. A suffix will either add its own sound to the root letter (omitting the inherent "a" sound), modify the vowel of the root letter, or have both of these effects. The Ten Suffixes
ག མ
ང འ
ད ར
ན ལ
བ ས
Six suffixes add their own sound, without the inherent "a", to the root letter. In the examples below we use the first letter in the alphabet as a root letter, but this could be any of the 30 consonants. The Six Suffixes Which Add Their Own Sound Suffix Example PronunciationNotes Pronunciation Notes This suffix is ག ཀག་ kag sometimes not fully pronounced. ང ཀང་ kang བ ཀབ་ kab མ ཀམ་ kam This suffix does not add its own sound འ ཀའ ka since it's already present in the root letter. ར ཀར་ kar Two suffixes do not add their own sound to the syllable, but they do modify the sound of the root letter's vowel. The Two Suffixes Which Modify the Root Letter's Vowel
SuffixExample SuffixExamplePronunciation PronunciationSuffix SuffixExample ExamplePronunciation Pronunciation ད ཀད་ ཀ ཀས་ kë kë ཀད་ ད་ ཀས་ ས་ kï kï ད་ ས་ kü kü ཀད་ ད་ ཀས་ ས་ kê kê ཀད་ ད་ ཀས་ ས་ kö kö
Two suffixes modify the sound of the root letter's vowel, and add their own sound. The Two Suffixes Which Add Their Sound and Modify SuffixExample SuffixExamplePronunciation PronunciationSuffix SuffixExample ExamplePronunciation Pronunciation ན ཀན་ ལ ཀལ་ kën kël ཀན་ ན་ ཀལ་ ལ་ kïn kïl ན་ ལ་ kün kül ཀན་ ན་ ཀལ་ ལ་ kên kêl ཀན་ ན་ ཀལ kön köl Secondary Suffixes
ས and ད are are the only letters which can be secondary suffixes. In modern Tibetan ད is is not used anymore as a secondary suffix. Secondary suffixes do not add their own sound, nor do they affect the pronunciation of the root letter. Examples of Words With a Secondary Suffix Word Pronunciation Meaning གས་པ གས་པ་ drog-po Friend གས་ chag Iron སམས་ མས་ sêm Mind
The Syllable
A syllable can contain as little as one letter or as many as six letters. the end of syllable is marked by a dot, called a Tsheg, which is placed at the upper right side of the last letter in the syllable. Each syllable is a combination of all types of letters mentioned in previous lessons. The root letter is the most most critical letter in each syllable. This letter is the starting point for the sound of the syllable and ther efore it's very important to identify it when reading. If you, for example, mistake a prefix for a root letter, you will end up pronouncing the word differently from what it should be. Beginners often find it difficult to know if a letter is a prefix or not. Rather than focus on the first letter and try to figure out if it's a prefix or not, you should process the whole syllable syllable and focus on finding the root letter. There are some simple guidelines you can follow to identify the root letter. The Five Rules for Identifying the Root Letter A letter with a vowel is always the root letter, except when it's the phrase connector འ Letters Letters which have superscribed or subscribed letters are always root letters In a two letter syllable with no vowel, the first letter is always the root letter In a three letter syllable the middle letter is usually the root letter. This is not the case if the last letter is the secondary suffix = in which case sometimes the root letter will be the first letter and sometimes the second letter will be In a four letter syllable the second letter is always the root letter
Below is a word which is made up of two syllables. These two syllables contain all of the seven types of letters we have studied in previous lessons.
This word is pronounced drem-tön and it means "show" or "exhibition". According to the guidelines above, the root letter in the first syllable is ག. This letter has both a vowel and a subscribed letter which means it must be the root letter. letter. In the second syllable syllable ཏ is the root letter and ས is superscribed. That syllable is therefore pronounced tön, rather than sön.
The Sentence
In Tibetan, words are made up of one or more syllables. Written Tibetan uses a dot, called a Tsheg, to separate syllables, but words are not separated at all. The sentence is terminated with a vertical stroke called Shë. Let's look at a simple sentence to illustrate this:
ང་བད་པ་ཡ ད་པ་ཡན ན ང་ བད་པ་ ད་པ་
ཡན ན
I Tibetan am. I am Tibetan.
One difference between English and Tibetan is the arrangement of words within a sentence. The sequence of words in a basic Tibetan sentence, like the one above, is: subject - object - verb. Lets have a look at another more complicated sentence:
ཁ་ས་མ་ག་པ ་ག་པ་འད ་འདའའ་ཁང་པ་ག ་ ཁང་པ་གང་ཆ ང་ཆན་པ ན་པ་ཞ ་ཞག་གཟ ག་གཟགས་ས གས་སང་ ང་ ཁ་ས་
མ་
ག་པ་ འདའའ་ ཁང་པ
གང་ཆ ང་ཆན་པ ན་པ་
ཞག་ ག་ གཟགས་ གས་
སང་ ང་
Yesterday man rich this house expensive an bought did Yesterday this rich man bought an expensive house.
Here the first word is a time reference. Words like "today", "tomorrow", "yesterday", etc, are often placed at the beginning of a sentence, before the subject, but they can also be placed after the subject. The subject in this sentence is the noun "man", which is followed by the adjective "rich" and the demonstrative pronoun "this". Adjectives and demonstrative pronouns usually follow the subject they refer to.
Therefore, "this rich man" is written "man rich this" and "expensive house" is written "house expensive". The word "house" is the object in this sentence and it is qualified with the adjective "expensive". The indefinite article "an" is placed after the object and its adjective (in spoken Tibetan the indefinite article is often o ften omitted). The sentence is terminated with the past tense of the verb "buy" and an auxiliary verb "did". We will learn more about auxiliary verbs and other grammar terms in later lessons; for now just study how the Tibetan sentence is built. Note that this sentence ends with with both a Tsheg ( ་) and a Shë ( ) . This is only done when the last letter before the Shë is ང་
ག་ Note also that the Shë is omitted omitted when the sentence sentence ends with the letter ག་ Identifying The Words
For the beginner the most challenging feature of the Tibetan sentence is the lack of separation between words. The first two letters in the sentence above illustrate this. The first letter, ཁ ,is a word and can mean "surface", the second letter, ས is also a word and can mean "earth". However, together they are also a word and then the meaning is "yesterday". Since there is no space after a word, the reader must figure out each word based on context and location in the sentence. Looking up these two letters in a dictionary might lead you to think that this sentence is starting with a reference to the surface of earth. However, the rest of the sentence, its context, and the lack of an agentive case connector, indicates that these two letters are not words by themselves, but rather the word "yesterday". From this you can see it's good to first f irst evaluate a sentence as a whole, by identifying it's various elements, rather than translate it word by word. To reach the level of being able to identify each word in a sentence is not as difficult as it might look. If you study the grammar, memorize
words, and practice reading you will soon be able to translate simple texts.
Irregular Pronunciation
In spoken Tibetan each letter will generally translate into the same basic sound. This sound, as explained in previous lessons, is usually affected in the same way based on the letter's position within a syllable (e.g. initial, suffix, etc), and by neighboring letters (e.g. prefix, vowel, etc). There are some instances where pronunciation is different from this. Note though that spoken spoken Tibetan has many many different dialects and therefore many variations of speech exist. The examples below apply to the Lhasa dialect. 1. When བ is the only letter in a syllable, it is pronounced "wa", rather than "ba" Tibetan Pronunciation Translation
ར་བ་ ་བ་
re-wa
་བ་
da-wa
བ་བ་
zhu-wa
Hope Moon, Month, Name of a person To melt
2. བ is also sometimes pronounced in a different way when it's an initial Tibetan Pronunciation Translation
དབང་ཆ་
wang-cha
Power
ད་
u
Head (Honorific)
3. Some words have an additional nasal sound, as if the letter ན were present Tibetan Pronunciation Translation
Is not, Not to be (2nd and 3rd
མ་འག ་འག
mîn-dug
ག་འས་
gan-drë
How
་་
kün-da
Spouse (Honorific)
ད་་
dan-ta
Now
person)
4. Various irregular pronunciations: TibetanPronunciation Tibetan Pronunciation
དགན་པ་ ན་པ་ ལ་་
Not gön-pa, but gompa Not gyël-tse, but gyang-tse
Translation
Monastery
Name of a city in Tibet
Spelling
It might not seem very important to learn how to spell in Tibetan, but it can come in handy, especially if you have a teacher. You will frequently find yourself asking your teacher how a word is spelled and then you must know the Tibetan way of spelling. Spelling is done by syllable. If a letter is a vowel or a part of a stack of letters, you must give the overall sound of all letters spelled up to that point. This process is repeated until all letters have been been accounted for in the syllable. If a word consists of more than one syllable you must first fully spell the first syllable, and give the final sound for it, before moving onto the next one. Letter stacks are pronounced from top down, e.g. first the superscribed letter and then the initial letter. Vowels are spelled last. To spell properly you have to memorize the alphabet , as well as names of vowels, prefixes, and the words for subscribed and reversed letters. How to Pronounce Various Letters When Spelling Type
Letter
ག་་ ་་
gi-gu
ཕབས་་
zhap-kyu
འང་་ ང་་
dreng-pu
ན་ར་
na-ro
ག་
ག་འད་ ད་
ga-ö
ད་
ད་འད་ ད་
da-ö
བ་
བ་འད་ ད་
pa-ö
Vowels
Prefixes
Tibetan Name Pronunciation
Superscribed
Subscribed
Reversed Letters
མ་
མ་འད་ ད་
ma-ö
འ་
འ་འད་ ད་
a-ö
ར་
ར་མག་
ra letter + ta
ལ་
ལ་མག་
la letter + ta
ས་
ས་མག་
sa letter + ta
ཡ་
ཡ་བཏགས་
ya-ta
ར་
ར་བཏགས་
ra-ta
ལ་
ལ་བཏགས་
la-ta
ཝ་
ཝ་ར་
wa-zur
ཉ་
ཏ་ལག་ ག་
ta-log
ཊ་
ཐ་ལག་ ག་
tha-log
ཋ་
ད་ལག་ ག་
da-log
ཎ་
ན་ལག་ ག་
na-log
ཥ་
་ལག་ ག་
sha-log
ཀྵ་
ཀྵ་ལག་ ག་
ka-sha-log
In the following spelling examples the yellow letters represent the accumulated sound as it is after a vowel or a stack. The green letters are the final sound of a syllable.
Spelling Examples
ལག་པ་
Hand
la ga lag lag / / pa pa = = lag-pa
ད་ཅར་ ར་
Noise
sa ka-ta ka ka da da kë kë / / cha na-ro cho cho ra ra chor chor = = kë-chor
གང་བཤད་
Talk, Speech
ga-ö sa zhap-kyu su su nga nga sung sung / / pa sha da shë shë = = sung-shë
ག་་
Pen
sa ma-ta ma ma ya-ta ya-ta nya nya zhab-kyu zhab-kyu nyu nyu ga ga nyug nyug / / ga zhapkyu gu gu = = nyu-gu
མ་ཉ་ ་ཉ་
Car
ma na-ro mo mo / / ta-log ta ta = = mo-ta
ག་བལ་
Suffering, Unsatisfactory, Misery
sa da-ta da da zhap-kyu zhap-kyu du du ga ga dug dug / / pa-ö sa nga-ta nga nga la la ngël = ngël = dug-ngël
ང་་
Compassion
sa nya-ta nya nya gi-gu gi-gu nyi nyi nga nga nying nying / / ra ja-ta ja ja-ta ja dreng-pu dreng-pu je = je = nying-je
