Tibetan pinyin

Short description: Official transcription system for the Tibetan language in China

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]

Tibetan pinyin is a phonetic transcription, and as such its spelling is tied to actual pronunciation (although tone is not marked).[3] 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.

## Contents

* 1 Overview
* 1.1 Onsets overview
* 1.2 Vowels and final consonant
* 2 Single syllable orthography
* 2.1 Onsets
* 2.2 Rimes
* 3 Intersyllable influence
* 3.1 Onset variation
* 3.2 Coda variation
* 4 Encoding
* 5 Examples
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 8.1 Citations
* 8.2 Sources

## 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་

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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 17 vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in as follows:

IPA | Tibetan
pinyin | IPA | Tibetan
pinyin

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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

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ʔ̞ | 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 | THL

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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

### Rimes

Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect.[4] 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།

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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* become g*, j*, d*, b*, ?*, ?*, gy*, zh* respectively
* pa* (་བ) and po* (་བོ) become wa and wo respectively

### Coda variation

Sometimes there is intersyllabic influence:

Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | Explanation

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མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ། | Mapam Yumco | ma-pham g.yu-mtsho | [mapʰam jumtsʰo] | forward shift of prefix མ
ཁྲ་འབྲུག་དགོན་པ། | Changzhug Gönba | khra-’brug dgon-pa | [ʈ͡ʂʰaŋʈ͡ʂ˭uk k˭ø̃p˭a] | shift of the prefix འ (ཨ་ཆུང a chung),
creating a final nasal consonant

## Encoding

The IETF language tag for Tibetan pinyin is `bo-Latn-pinyin`.[5]

## Examples

Tibetan Script | Wylie | Tibetan pinyin | THL | other transcriptions

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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

## Notes

1. ↑ as in Namjagbarwa

## References

### Citations

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng Hànyǔ pīnyīn zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ, "少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法...（三）藏语...说明：（1）藏语地名的音译转写，以中央人民广播电台藏语广播的语音为依靠。"
2. ↑ Romanization of Tibetan Geographical Names – UNGEGN
3. ↑ "Geographical names of Tibet AR (China)". Institute of the Estonian Language. 2018-06-03. https://www.eki.ee/knab/valik/cn54inf.htm. "Tibetan names have been romanized according to the official scheme, the so-called Tibetan pinyin. The romanization is based on actual pronunciation and is not always predictable if only written form is known."
4. ↑ Brush, Beaumont. "The Status of Coronal in the Historical Development of Lhasa Tibetan Rhymes". SIL. http://www.sil.org/silewp/1997/001/silewp1997-001.pdf.
5. ↑ "Language subtag registry" (in en). IANA. https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry.

### Sources

* (in zh) Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng Hànyǔ pīnyīn zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ, http://www.moe.gov.cn/ewebeditor/uploadfile/2015/01/12/20150112161436994.pdf
* 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, SinoMaps Press 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

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