Tibetan pinyin

TheSASM/GNC/SRC romanizationofStandard Tibetan,commonly known asTibetan pinyinorZWPY(Chinese:Tàng vănBính âm;pinyin:Zàngwén Pīnyīn), is the officialtranscriptionsystem for the Tibetan language in China.It is based on the pronunciation used byChina National Radio's Tibetan Radio,which is based on theLhasa dialect.It has been used within China as an alternative to theWylie transliterationfor writing Tibetan in theLatin scriptsince 1982.

Tibetan pinyin is a phonetic transcription, and as such its spelling is tied to actual pronunciation (although tone is not marked).Wylie on the other hand is atransliterationsystem, where mechanical conversion to and from Tibetan and Latin script is possible. Within academic circles, Wylie transliteration (with avreplacing theapostrophe) is more commonly used.

Overview

Onsets overview

Independent onsets in the initial syllable of a word are transcribed as follows:

ཀ་

ཁ་ ག་

ང་

ཅ་

ཇ་ ཆ་

ཉ་

ཏ་

ད་ ཐ་

ན་

པ་

ཕ་ བ་

མ་

ཙ་

ཛ་ ཚ་

ཝ་

ཞ་ ཤ་

ཟ་ ས་

ཡ་

ར་

ལ་

ཧ་

ཀྱ་

ཁྱ་ གྱ་

ཧྱ་

ཀྲ་

ཁྲ་ གྲ་

ཧྲ་

ལྷ་

རྷ་

g

k

ng

j

q

ny

d

t

n

b

p

m

z

c

w

x

s

y

r

l

h

gy

ky

hy

zh

ch

sh

lh

rh

For more general case, see#Onsets.

Vowels and final consonant

The 17vowelsof the Lhasa dialect are represented in as follows:

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

Ending a syllable,-ris usually not pronounced, but it lengthens the preceding vowel. In the same place,-nusually nasalises the preceding vowel. Consonants at the end of a syllable are transcribed as follows:

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

Single syllable orthography

The tone of asyllabledepends mostly on its initialconsonant.In this table, each initial is given in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) with the vowelaand a tone mark to present tone register (high/low).

Onsets

Below is a comprehensive transcription table of onsets of an initial syllable of a word. If the syllable to transcribe is not the first syllable of a word, see#Onset variation.

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

Rimes

Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect.If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, seeCoda variation.

Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌" ).

Tibetan	ཨ།	ཨའུ།	ཨར།	ཨལ། ཨའི།	ཨད། ཨས།	ཨག། ཨགས།	ཨབ། ཨབས།	ཨང༌། ཨངས།	ཨམ། ཨམས།	ཨན།
Wylie	a	a'u	ar	al a'i	ad as	ag ags	ab abs	ang angs	am ams	an
Pinyin	a	au	ar	ai/ä		ag	ab	ang	am	ain/än
IPA	[a]	[au̯]	[aː]	[ɛː]	[ɛ]	[ʌʡ]~[ɤʡ]	[ʌʡ̆]~[ɤʡ̆]	[aŋ]	[am]	[ɛ̃ː]
Tibetan	ཨི།	ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ།	ཨིར།	ཨིལ། ཨའི།	ཨིད། ཨིས།	ཨིག། ཨིགས།	ཨིབ། ཨིབས།	ཨིང༌། ཨིངས།	ཨིམ། ཨིམས།	ཨིན།
Wylie	i	i'u	ir	il a'i	id is	ig igs	ib ibs	ing ings	im ims	in
Pinyin	i	iu	ir	i		ig	ib	ing	im	in
IPA	[i]	[iu̯]	[iː]	[iː]	[i]	[iʡ]	[iʡ̆]	[ɪŋ]	[ɪm]	[ĩː]
Tibetan	ཨུ།		ཨུར།	ཨུལ། ཨུའི།	ཨུད། ཨུས།	ཨུག། ཨུགས།	ཨུབ། ཨུབས།	ཨུང༌། ཨུངས།	ཨུམ། ཨུམས།	ཨུན།
Wylie	u		ur	ul u'i	ud us	ug ugs	ub ubs	ung ungs	um ums	un
Pinyin	u		ur	ü		ug	ub	ung	um	ün
IPA	[u]		[uː]	[yː]	[y]	[uʡ]	[uʡ̆]	[ʊŋ]	[ʊm]	[ỹː]
Tibetan	ཨེ།		ཨེར།	ཨེལ། ཨེའི།	ཨེད། ཨེས།	ཨེག། ཨེགས།	ཨེབ། ཨེབས།	ཨེང༌། ཨེངས།	ཨེམ། ཨེམས།	ཨེན།
Wylie	e		er	el e'i	ed es	eg egs	eb ebs	eng engs	em ems	en
Pinyin	ê		êr	ê		êg	êb	êng	êm	ên
IPA	[e]		[eː]	[eː]	[e]	[ɛ̈ʡ]	[ɛ̈ʡ̆]	[ɛŋ]	[ɛm]	[ẽː]
Tibetan	ཨོ།	ཨོའུ།	ཨོར།	ཨོལ། ཨོའི།	ཨོད། ཨོས།	ཨོག། ཨོགས།	ཨོབ། ཨོབས།	ཨོང༌། ཨོངས།	ཨོམ། ཨོམས།	ཨོན།
Wylie	o	o'u	or	ol o'i	od os	og ogs	ob obs	ong ongs	om oms	on
Pinyin	ô	ou	ôr	oi/ö		ôg	ôb	ông	ôm	oin/ön
IPA	[o]	[ou̯]	[oː]	[øː]	[ø]	[ɔʡ]	[ɔʡ̆]	[ɔŋ]	[ɔm]	[ø̃ː]

Intersyllable influence

Onset variation

Bare low aspirated variation

• k*,q*,t*,p*,x*,s*,ky*,ch*becomeg*,j*,d*,b*,?*,?*,gy*,zh*respectively
• pa*(་བ) andpo*(་བོ) becomewaandworespectively

Coda variation

Sometimes there is intersyllabic influence:

Tibetan script	Tibetan pinyin	Wylie(EWTS)	LhasaIPA	Explanation
མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ།	Mapam Yumco	ma-pham g.yu-mtsho	[mapʰamjumtsʰo]	forward shift of prefix མ
ཁྲ་འབྲུག་དགོན་པ།	Changzhug Gönba	khra-’brug dgon-pa	[ʈ͡ʂʰaŋʈ͡ʂ˭ukk˭ø̃p˭a]	shift of the prefix འ (ཨ་ཆུངa chung), creating a final nasal consonant

Encoding

TheIETFlanguage tagfor Tibetan pinyin isbo-Latn-pinyin.

Examples

Tibetan Script	Wylie	Tibetan pinyin	THL	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

See also

• Hanyu pinyin
• Standard Tibetan
• THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription
• Tibetan script
• Wylie transliteration
• Roman Dzongkha

References

Sources

• Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng Hànyǔ pīnyīn zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎThiếu sổ dân tộc ngữ địa danh hán ngữ bính âm tự mẫu âm dịch chuyển tả pháp(PDF)(in Chinese) – via Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Jiaoyubu.
• Guójiā cèhuìjú dìmíng yánjiūsuǒ quốc gia trắc hội cục địa danh nghiên cứu sở (Institute for Place Names of the State Survey Bureau;ed.).Zhōngguó dìmínglùTrung quốc địa danh lục /Gazetteer of China.(Beijing,SinoMaps PressTrung quốc địa đồ xuất bản xã 1997);ISBN7-5031-1718-4.Contains official spellings for place names.
• Zàngwén Pīnyīn Jiàocái – LāsàyīnTàng văn bính âm giáo tài • lạp tát âm / bod yig gi sgra sbyor slob deb, lha sa'i skad (Course in thePöyig Kigajorof Lhasa dialect;Běijīng bắc kinh, Mínzú chūbǎnshè dân tộc xuất bản xã 1983),ISBN7-105-02577-8.Pöyig Kigajor(ZWPY) is a modified version of the official transcription "Tibetan pinyin" (ZYPY), with tone letters.
• Wylie, Turrell:A Standard System of Tibetan TranscriptionIn:Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies1959, p. 261-267.
• David Germano, Nicolas Tournadre:THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription of Standard Tibetan(Tibetan & Himalayan Library, December 12, 2003).
• The Transliteration and Transcription of Tibetan(Tibetan & Himalayan Library)
• Romanization of Tibetan Geographical Names–UNGEGN