The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Standard Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin or ZWPY (Chinese : 藏文 拼音 ; pinyin :Zàngwén Pīnyīn), is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in China. [1] It is based on the pronunciation used by China National Radio's Tibetan Radio, [1] which is based on the Lhasa dialect. It has been used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script since 1982. [2] [3]
Tibetan pinyin is a phonetic transcription, and as such its spelling is tied to actual pronunciation (although tone is not marked). [4] Wylie on the other hand is a transliteration system, where mechanical conversion to and from Tibetan and Latin script is possible. Within academic circles, Wylie transliteration (with a v replacing the apostrophe) is more commonly used.
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.
The 17 vowels of 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, -r is usually not pronounced, but it lengthens the preceding vowel. In the same place, -n usually 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 |
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).
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 [note 1] , 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 |
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect. [5] If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see Coda 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] |
Sometimes there is intersyllabic influence:
| Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | 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་ཆུང a chung), creating a final nasal consonant |
The IETF language tag for Tibetan pinyin is bo-Latn-pinyin. [6]
| 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 |
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