Language/Tibetan/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation
Hello Tibetan learners,
Tibetan is spoken mainly in Tibet, and also in parts of India and Nepal. There are 1.2 million speakers of Standard Tibetan, also known as Lhasa Tibetan, the Tibetic language with the most speakers. In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Tibetan alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker. You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.
Once you've digested the content of this lesson, you may be interested in these relevant subjects: Education, Animals.
Tibetan Alphabet and Pronunciation[edit | edit source]
Tibetan Alphabet[edit | edit source]
Unaspiratedhigh | Aspiratedmedium | Voicedlow | Nasallow | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | |
Guttural | ཀ | /ka/ | ཁ | /kʰa/ | ག | /ɡa/ | ང | /ŋa/ |
Palatal | ཅ | /tʃa/ | ཆ | /tʃʰa/ | ཇ | /dʒa/ | ཉ | /ɲa/ |
Dental | ཏ | /ta/ | ཐ | /tʰa/ | ད | /da/ | ན | /na/ |
Labial | པ | /pa/ | ཕ | /pʰa/ | བ | /ba/ | མ | /ma/ |
Dental | ཙ | /tsa/ | ཚ | /tsʰa/ | ཛ | /dza/ | ཝ | /wa/ |
low | ཞ | /ʒa/ | ཟ | /za/ | འ | /ɦa/ ⟨ʼa⟩ | ཡ | /ja/ |
medium | ར | /ra/ | ལ | /la/ | ཤ | /ʃa/ | ས | /sa/ |
high | ཧ | /ha/ | ཨ |
Source: http://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/sungk/Sample-Lesson-1.pdf
Pronunciation in English[edit | edit source]
Source: http://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/sungk/Sample-Lesson-1.pdf
Consonants[edit | edit source]
Letter | Name | IPA |
---|---|---|
ཀ | ka | /ka/ |
ཁ | Ka | /kʰa̤/ |
ག | ga | /ɡa/ |
ང | n̰a | /ŋa/ |
ཅ | ca | /tɕa/ |
ཆ | Ca | /tɕʰa̤/ |
ཇ | ja | /dʑa/ |
ཉ | ña | /ɲa/ |
ཏ | ta | /ta/ |
ཐ | Ta | /tʰa̤/ |
ད | da | /da/ |
ན | na | /na/ |
པ | pa | /pa/ |
ཕ | Pa | /pʰa̤/ |
བ | ba | /ba/ |
མ | ma | /ma/ |
ཙ | tsa | /tsa/ |
ཚ | TSa | /tsʰa̤/ |
ཛ | dza | /dza/ |
ཝ | wa | /wa/ |
ཞ | ža | /ʒa/ |
ཟ | za | /za/ |
འ | 'a | /ʔ̬a/ |
ཡ | ya | /ja/ |
ར | ra | /ra/ |
ལ | la | /la/ |
ཤ | ša | /ʃa/ |
ས | sa | /sa/ |
ཧ | ha | /ha̤/ |
ཨ | a | /a/ |
Vowels[edit | edit source]
Diacritic | ◌ | ི | ུ | ེ | ོ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | a | i | u | e | o |
IPA | /a/ | /ɪ/ | /ʊ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɔ/ |
Video - Tibetan Alphabet Pronunciation by a Native Speaker[edit | edit source]
Tibetan Online Virtual Keyboard[edit | edit source]
Sources[edit | edit source]
- http://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/sungk/Sample-Lesson-1.pdf
- https://omniglot.com/writing/tibetan.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_script