Tibetan pinyin
The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China for personal name and place names. It is based on the Lhasa dialect of Standard Tibetan and reflects the pronunciation very accurately, except that it doesn't mark tone. It is used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script; for use within academic circles, Wylie transliteration is more commonly used.
Overview
Onsets overview
Independent onset occurred in initial syllable of a word is transcribed as following:
ཀ་ | ཁ་ ག་ |
ང་ | ཅ་ | ཆ་ ཇ་ |
ཉ་ | ཏ་ | ཐ་ ང་ |
ན་ | པ་ | ཕ་ བ་ |
མ་ | ཙ་ | ཚ་ ཛ་ |
ཝ་ | ཞ་ ཤ་ |
ཟ་ ས་ |
ཡ་ | ར་ | ལ་ | ཧ་ | ཀྱ་ | ཁྱ་ གྱ་ |
ཀྲ་ | ཁྲ་ གྲ་ |
ཧྲ་ | ལྷ་ |
g | k | ng | j | q | ny | d | t | n | b | p | m | z | c | w | x | s | y | r | l | h | gy | ky | zh | ch | sh | lh |
For more general case, see #Onsets.
Vowels and final consonant
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 | ẽ | en |
ɛ | ai/ä | ɛ̃ | ain/än |
a | a | ã | |
u | u | ũ | un |
o | o | õ | on |
ɔ | o | ||
y | ü | Error: {{IPA}}: missing language tag | 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 |
Single syllable orthography
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).
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 |
---|---|---|
pá | p, sp, dp, lp | b |
pà | rb, sb, sbr | b |
mpà | lb, ’b | b |
pʰá | ph, ’ph | p |
pʰà | b | p |
má | rm, sm, dm, smr | m |
mà | m, mr | m |
wà | w, db, b[1] | w |
tá | t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld | d |
ntá | lth | d |
tà | rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd | d |
ntà | zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d | d |
tʰá | th, mth, ’th | t |
tʰà | d, dw | t |
ná | rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn | n |
nà | n | n |
lá | kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl | l |
là | l, lw | l |
l̥á | 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 |
sá | s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr | s |
sà | 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 |
rà | r, rw | r |
cá | ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky | gy |
cà | 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, phy, ’phy | q |
tɕʰà | j, 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 |
já | g.y | y |
jà | y | y |
ká | k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk | g |
kà | 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 | ’ | — |
há | h, hw | h |
Rimes
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word. If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see #Coda variation.
Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌").
ཨ། | ཨའུ། | ཨག། ཨགས། |
ཨང༌། ཨངས། |
ཨབ། ཨབས། |
ཨམ། ཨམས། |
ཨར། | ཨལ། ཨའི། |
ཨད། ཨས། |
ཨན། |
ain/än |
a ||
au ||
ag ||
ang ||
ab ||
am ||
ar ||
ai/ä ||
ai/ä ||
|||||||||
ཨི། ཨིལ། ཨའི། |
ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ། |
ཨིག། ཨིགས། |
ཨིད། ཨིས། |
ཨིང༌། ཨིངས། |
ཨིབ། ཨིབས། |
ཨིམ། ཨིམས། |
ཨིར། | ཨིན། | |
in || |
i ||
iu ||
ig ||
i ||
ing ||
ib ||
im ||
ir ||
|||||||||
ཨུ། | ཨུག། ཨུགས། |
ཨུང༌། ཨུངས། |
ཨུབ། ཨུབས། |
ཨུམ། ཨུམས། |
ཨུར། | ཨུལ། ཨུའི། |
ཨུད། ཨུས། |
ཨུན། | |
ün || |
u ||
ug ||
ung ||
ub ||
um ||
ur ||
ü ||
ü ||
|||||||||
ཨེ། ཨེལ། ཨེའི། |
ཨེག། ཨེགས། |
ཨེད། ཨེས། |
ཨེང༌། ཨེངས། |
ཨེབ། ཨེབས། |
ཨེམ། ཨེམས། |
ཨེར། | ཨེན། | ||
ên || || |
ê ||
êg ||
ê ||
êng ||
êb ||
êm ||
êr ||
|||||||||
ཨོ། | ཨོག། ཨོགས། |
ཨོང༌། ཨོངས། |
ཨོབ། ཨོབས། |
ཨོམ། ཨོམས། |
ཨོར། | ཨོལ། ཨོའི། |
ཨོད། ཨོས། |
ཨོན། | |
oin/ön || |
o ||
og ||
ong ||
ob ||
om ||
or ||
oi/ö ||
oi/ö ||
Intersyllable influence
Onset variation
- Bare low aspirated variation
- k*, q*, t*, p*, x*, s*, ky*, ch* become g*, j*, d*, b*, ?*, ?*, gy*, zh* resp.
- pa* (་བ) and po* (་བོ) become wa and wo resp.
Coda variation
- Ngoinjug of next syllable
- Prenasalization of next syllable
Examples
Sometimes there's intersyllable influence, e.g.:
Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | Expl |
---|---|---|---|---|
མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ། | Mapam Yumco | ma-pham g.yu-mtsho | bo | 前加字提前 (How to translate Tibetan concept "前加字" in English?) |
ཁྲ་འབྲུག་དགོན་པ། | Changzhug Gönba | khra-’brug dgon-pa | [ʈ͡ʂʰaŋʈ͡ʂ˭uk k˭ø̃p˭a] |
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 |
See also
- Standard Tibetan
- Tibetan alphabet
- Wylie transliteration
- THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription
- Hanyu pinyin
Notes
- ^ as in Namjagbarwa
References
- Zhōngguó Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng hànyǔ pīnyīn Zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ 中国少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法
- Guójiā cèhuìjú dìmíng yánjiūsuǒ 国家测绘局地名研究所 (Institute for Place Names of the State Survey Bureau; ed.). Zhōngguó dìmínglù 中国地名录 / Gazetteer of China. (Beijing, Zhōngguó dìtú chūbǎnshè 中国地图出版社 1997); ISBN 7-5031-1718-4. Contains official spellings for place names.
- Zàngwén Pīnyīn Jiàocái – Lāsàyīn 藏文拼音教材•拉萨音 / bod yig gi sgra sbyor slob deb, lha sa'i skad (Course in the Pöyig Kigajor of Lhasa dialect; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1983), ISBN 7-105-02577-8. Pöyig Kigajor (ZWPY) is a modified version of the official transcription "Tibetan pinyin" (ZYPY), with tone letters.
- Wylie, Turrell: A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1959, 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