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Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a
standardized dialect A standard language (or standard variety, standard dialect, standardized dialect or simply standard) is any language variety that has undergone substantial codification in its grammar, lexicon, writing system, or other features and that stands o ...
of Tibetan spoken by the people of
Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
, the capital of the
Tibetan Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Hanyu Pinyin, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the Tibet Area, a former administrative divisio ...
. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" classification of the
Tibetic languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the ...
, the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being
Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic languages, Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In ...
and
Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects. Amdo is one of the three branches of tradition ...
). In terms of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...
, speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at a basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve the word-initial
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s, which makes them very far from
Classical Tibetan Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 7th century until the modern day (along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, it is one of the handful of 'living' ...
, especially when compared to the more
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Amdo Tibetan.


Registers

Like many languages, Lhasa Tibetan has a variety of language registers: * ( Wylie: , literally "
demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...
language"): the vernacular speech. * ( Wylie: , "
honorifics An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
or deference, courtesy"): the formal spoken style, particularly prominent in
Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
. * ( Wylie: , literally "letters language" or "
literary language Literary language is the Register (sociolinguistics), register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic writing, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. ...
"): the written literary style; may include below. * ( Wylie: , literally "doctrine language" or "
religious language Religious language may refer to: *Sacred language *Problem of religious language The problem of religious language considers whether it is possible to talk about God meaningfully if the traditional conceptions of God as being incorporeal, infin ...
"): the literary style in which the scriptures and other classical works are written.


Grammar


Syntax and word order

Tibetan is an
ergative language The term ergative is used in grammar in three different meanings: * Ergative case, the grammatical case of the subject of a transitive verb in an ergative-absolutive language * Ergative–absolutive language, a language in which the subject of a ...
, with what can loosely be termed subject–object–verb (SOV) word order. Grammatical constituents broadly have
head-final In linguistics, head directionality is a proposed Principles and parameters, parameter that classifies languages according to whether they are head-initial (the head (linguistics), head of a phrase precedes its Complement (linguistics), complement ...
word order: * adjectives generally follow nouns in Tibetan, unless the two are linked by a
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
* objects and adverbs precede the verb, as do adjectives in copular clauses * a noun marked with the genitive case precedes the noun which it modifies *
demonstrative Demonstratives (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning ...
s and numerals follow the noun they modify.


Nouns and pronouns

Tibetan nouns do not possess
grammatical gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
, although this may be marked lexically, nor do they inflect for
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
. However, definite human nouns may take a plural marker . Tibetan has been described as having six cases:
absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative ...
, agentive,
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
,
ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages. It is used to indicate motion away from something, make comparisons, and serve various o ...
,
associative In mathematics, the associative property is a property of some binary operations that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic, associativity is a valid rule of replacement for express ...
and
oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry * Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the ...
. These are generally marked by particles, which are attached to entire noun phrases, rather than individual nouns. These suffixes may vary in form based on the final sound of the root. Personal pronouns are inflected for
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
, showing singular, dual and plural forms. They can have between one and three registers. The Standard Tibetan language distinguishes three levels of
demonstrative Demonstratives (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning ...
: proximal "this", medial "that", and distal "that over there (yonder)". These can also take case suffixes.


Verbs

Verbs in Tibetan always come at the end of the
clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...
. Verbs do not show agreement in
person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
,
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
or
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
in Tibetan. There is also no
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...
distinction between active and
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of ...
; Tibetan verbs are neutral with regard to voice. Tibetan verbs can be divided into classes based on volition and valency. The volition of the verb has a major effect on its
morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...
and
syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
. Volitional verbs have imperative forms, whilst non-volitional verbs do not: compare "Look!" with the non-existent * "*See!". Additionally, only volitional verbs can take the egophoric copula . Verbs in Tibetan can be split into monovalent and divalent verbs; some may also act as both, such as "break". This interacts with the volition of the verb to condition which nouns take the
ergative case In grammar, the ergative case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that identifies a nominal phrase as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutive languages. Characteristics In such languages, the ergative case is typically m ...
and which must take the
absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative ...
, remaining unmarked. Nonetheless, distinction in transitivity is orthogonal to volition; both the volitional and non-volitional classes contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs. The aspect of the verb affects which verbal suffixes and which final auxiliary copulae are attached. Morphologically, verbs in the unaccomplished aspect are marked by the suffix or its other forms, identical to the
genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...
for nouns, whereas accomplished aspect verbs do not use this suffix. Each can be broken down into two subcategories: under the unaccomplished aspect,
future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ex ...
and progressive/general; under the accomplished aspect,
perfect Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection; completeness, and excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film and television * ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * ''Perfect'' (20 ...
and aorist or simple perfective.
Evidentiality In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
is a well-known feature of Tibetan verb morphology, gaining much scholarly attention, and contributing substantially to the understanding of evidentiality across languages. The evidentials in Standard Tibetan interact with aspect in a system marked by final copulae, with the following resultant modalities being a feature of Standard Tibetan, as classified by
Nicolas Tournadre Nicolas Tournadre is a professor at the University of Provence specializing in morphosyntax and typology. He is a member of the LACITO lab of the CNRS. His research mainly deals with ergative morphosyntax and grammatical semantics of tense, as ...
: *Assertive *Allocentric intentional egophoric *Allocentric intentional egophoric/Imminent danger *Experiential egophoric *Habitual/Generic assertive *Inferential *Intentional egophoric *Intentional/Habitual egophoric *Receptive egophoric *Testimonial


Numerals

Unlike many other languages of
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
such as Burmese, Chinese,
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
and
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, there are no numeral auxiliaries or
measure word In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun. Many languages use measure words, and East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, ...
s used in counting in Tibetan. However, words expressive of a collective or integral are often used after the tens, sometimes after a smaller number. In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
, are expressed by symbolical words. The written numerals are a variant of the
Hindu–Arabic numeral system The Hindu–Arabic numeral system (also known as the Indo-Arabic numeral system, Hindu numeral system, and Arabic numeral system) is a positional notation, positional Decimal, base-ten numeral system for representing integers; its extension t ...
, forming a base-10 positional counting system that is attested early on in Classical Tibetan texts. Tibetan makes use of a special connector particle for the units above each multiple of ten. Between 100 and 199, the connective ''dang'', literally "and", is used after the hundred portion. Above ''saya'' million, the numbers are treated as nouns and thus have their multiples following the word. The numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10 change spelling when combined with other numerals, reflecting a change in pronunciation in combination. Ordinal numbers are formed by adding a suffix to the cardinal number, (''-pa''), with the exception of the ordinal number "first", which has its own lexeme, (''dang po'').


Writing system

Tibetan is written with an
Indic script The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used b ...
, with a historically conservative orthography that reflects
Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the earliest attested form of Tibetan language, reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to the early 9th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Tibetan King Sadnaleg ...
phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. It is also helpful in reconstructing Proto Sino-Tibetan and
Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
.
Wylie transliteration Wylie transliteration is a method for Transliteration, transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English-language typewriter. The system is named for the American scholar Turrell V. Wylie, who created the system ...
is the most common system of
romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...
used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
(such as employed on much of this page), while linguists tend to use other special transliteration systems of their own. As for transcriptions meant to approximate the pronunciation, Tibetan pinyin is the official romanization system employed by the government of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, while English language materials use the THL transcription system. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as ''Chomolungma'' for
Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
. Tibetan orthographic syllable structure is (C1C2)C3(C4)V(C5C6) Not all combinations are licit.


Phonology

The following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in
Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
, the most influential variety of the spoken language. The structure of a Lhasa Tibetan
syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
is relatively simple; no
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
is allowed and codas are only allowed with a single consonant. Vowels can be either short or long, and
long vowels In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...
may further be
nasalized In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation in British English) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . ...
.
Vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
is observed in two syllable words as well as verbs with a
finite Finite may refer to: * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marked for person and/or tense or aspect * "Finite", a song by Sara Gr ...
ending. Also, tones are contrastive in this language, where at least two tonemes are distinguished. Although the four-tone analysis is favored by linguists in China, DeLancey (2003) suggests that the falling tone and the final or are in
contrastive distribution Contrastive may refer to one of several concepts in linguistics: *Contrast (linguistics) *Contrastive linguistics *Contrastive distribution *Contrastive analysis *Contrastive rhetoric *Contrastive focus reduplication *Contrastive stress *Contrastiv ...
, describing Lhasa Tibetan syllables as either high or low.


Consonants

# In the low tone, the unaspirated are voiced , whereas the aspirated stops and affricates lose some of their aspiration. Thus, in this context, the main distinction between and is voicing. The dialect of the upper social strata in Lhasa does not use voiced stops and affricates in the low tone. # An
alveolar trill The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, and postalveolar consonant, postalve ...
() is in complementary distribution of the
alveolar approximant The voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants are types of consonantal sounds used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase lett ...
; therefore, both are treated as one phoneme. # The consonants , , , , , and may appear in syllable-final positions. The Classical Tibetan final is still present, but its modern pronunciation is normally realized as a nasalisation of the preceding vowel, rather than as a discrete consonant (see above). However, is not pronounced in the final position of a word except in very formal speech. Also, syllable-final and are often not clearly pronounced but realized as a lengthening of the preceding vowel. The phonemic
glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
appears only at the end of words in the place of , , or , which were pronounced in Classical Tibetan but have since been elided. For instance, the word for
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
itself was ''Bod'' in Classical Tibetan but is now pronounced in the Lhasa dialect.


Vowels

The vowels of Lhasa Tibetan have been characterized and described in several different ways, and it continues to be a topic of ongoing research. Tournadre and Sangda Dorje describe eight vowels in the standard language: Three additional vowels are sometimes described as significantly distinct: or , which is normally an allophone of ; , which is normally an allophone of ; and (an unrounded, centralised, mid front vowel), which is normally an allophone of . These sounds normally occur in closed syllables; because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants, there are cases in which one syllable ends with the same sound as the one following it. The result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, ''zhabs'' (foot) is pronounced and ''pad'' (borrowing from Sanskrit ''padma'', lotus) is pronounced , but the compound word, ''zhabs pad'' (lotus-foot, government minister) is pronounced . This process can result in
minimal pair In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate t ...
s involving sounds that are otherwise allophones. Sources vary on whether the phone (resulting from in a closed syllable) and the phone (resulting from through the
i-mutation I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
) are distinct or basically identical. Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetan's suffixes, normally i'' (འི་), at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan; the feature is sometimes omitted in phonetic transcriptions. In normal spoken pronunciation, a lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds and when they occur at the end of a syllable. The vowels , , , , and each have nasalized forms: , , , , and , respectively. These historically result from , , , , , and are reflected in the written language. The vowel quality of , and has shifted, since historical , along with all other coronal final consonants, caused a form of umlaut in the Ü/Dbus branch of Central Tibetan. In some unusual cases, the vowels , , and may also be nasalised.


Tones

The Lhasa dialect is usually described as having two tones: high and low. However, in monosyllabic words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. The high tone can be pronounced with either a flat or a falling contour, and the low tone can be pronounced with either a flat or rising-falling contour, the latter being a tone that rises to a medium level before falling again. It is normally safe to distinguish only between the two tones because there are very few
minimal pair In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate t ...
s that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in certain words ending in the sounds or for instance, the word ''kham'' (, "piece") is pronounced with a high flat tone, whereas the word ''Khams'' (, "the
Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...
region") is pronounced with a high falling tone. In polysyllabic words, tone is not important except in the first syllable. This means that from the point of view of phonological
typology A typology is a system of classification used to organize things according to similar or dissimilar characteristics. Groups of things within a typology are known as "types". Typologies are distinct from taxonomies in that they primarily address t ...
, Tibetan could more accurately be described as a
pitch-accent language A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by volume or length, as in some other l ...
than a true
tone language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasis ...
, in the latter of which all syllables in a word can carry their own tone.


Verbal system

The Lhasa Tibetan verbal system distinguishes four tenses and three evidential moods. The three moods may all occur with all three grammatical persons, though early descriptions associated the personal modal category with European first-person agreement.


Scholarship

In the 18th and 19th centuries several Western linguists arrived in Tibet: * The
Capuchin friars The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbr. OFMCap) is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of Franciscans, Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three "Religious institute#Nomenclature, F ...
who settled in
Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
for a quarter of century from 1719: ** Francesco della Penna, well known from his accurate description of Tibet, ** Cassian di
Macerata Macerata () is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy, the county seat of the province of Macerata in the Marche region. It has a population of about 41,564. History The historical city centre is on a hill between the Chienti and Potenza (ri ...
sent home materials which were used by the Augustine friar Aug. Antonio Georgi of Rimini (1711–1797) in his ''Alphabetum Tibetanum'' (Rome, 1762, 4t0), a ponderous and confused compilation, which may be still referred to, but with great caution. * The Hungarian
Sándor Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Csoma de Kőrös (; born Sándor Csoma; 27 March 1784/811 April 1842) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian philologist and Orientalist, author of the first Standard Tibetan, Tibetan–English language, English dictionary and grammar book. H ...
(1784–1842), who published the first Tibetan–European language dictionary (Classical Tibetan and English in this case) and grammar, ''Essay Towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English''. * Heinrich August Jäschke of the Moravian mission which was established in
Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...
in 1857, ''Tibetan Grammar'' and ''A Tibetan–English Dictionary''. * At St Petersburg, Isaac Jacob Schmidt published his ''Grammatik der tibetischen Sprache'' in 1839 and his ''Tibetisch-deutsches Wörterbuch'' in 1841. His access to Mongolian sources had enabled him to enrich the results of his labours with a certain amount of information unknown to his predecessors. His ''Tibetische Studien'' (1851–1868) is a valuable collection of documents and observations. * In France, P. E. Foucaux published in 1847 a translation from the ''Rgya tcher rol-pa'', the Tibetan version of the ''Lalita Vistara'', and in 1858 a ''Grammaire thibétaine''. * Ant. Schiefner of St Petersburg in 1849 his series of translations and researches. * Theos Casimir Bernard, a PhD scholar of religion from Columbia University, explorer and practitioner of Yoga and Tibetan Buddhism, published, after his 1936/37 trip to India and Tibet, . See the 'Books' section. Indian
indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...
and linguist Rahul Sankrityayan wrote a Tibetan grammar in
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
. Some of his other works on Tibetan were: # Tibbati Bal-Siksha, 1933 # Pathavali (Vols. 1, 2, 3), 1933 # Tibbati Vyakaran, 1933 # Tibbat May Budh Dharm, 1948 * Japanese linguist Kitamura Hajime published a grammar and dictionary of Lhasa Tibetan


Contemporary usage

In much of Tibet,
primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...
is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach
middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...
. However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
s. In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba, Sichuan. Students who continue on to
tertiary education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
have the option of studying
humanistic Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China. This contrasts with Tibetan schools in
Dharamsala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibetan ...
, India, where the Ministry of Human Resource Development curriculum requires academic subjects to be taught in English from middle school. In February 2008,
Norman Baker Norman John Baker (born 26 July 1957) is a Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes (UK Parliament constituency), Lewes in ...
, a British Member of Parliament, released a statement to mark
International Mother Language Day International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally reco ...
claiming, "The Chinese government are following a deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue". However,
Tibetologist Tibetology () refers to the study of things related to Tibet, including its history, religion, language, culture, politics and the collection of Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious significance. The last may mean a collection of ...
Elliot Sperling has noted that "within certain limits the
PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...
does make efforts to accommodate Tibetan cultural expression" and "the cultural activity taking place all over the Tibetan plateau cannot be ignored." Some scholars also question such claims because most Tibetans continue to reside in rural areas where Chinese is rarely spoken, as opposed to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities where Chinese can often be heard. In the ''Texas Journal of International Law'', Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error. Tibetan was the main language of instruction in 98% of TAR primary schools in 1996; today, Mandarin is introduced in early grades only in urban schools.... Because less than four out of ten TAR Tibetans reach secondary school, primary school matters most for their cultural formation."


Machine translation software and applications

An incomplete list of machine translation software or applications that can translate Tibetan language from/to a variety of other languages. * 藏译通 – Zangyitong, a mobile app for translating between Tibetan and Chinese. * 青海弥陀翻译 – A Beta-version WeChat Mini Program that translate between Tibetan language to/from Chinese. (invitation from WeChat users only) * 腾讯民汉翻译 – A WeChat Mini Program that translate between Tibetan language to/from Chinese. * THL Tibetan to English Translation Tool – A webpage that annotates Tibetan text various English meanings and translations, with 10+ dictionaries integrated. A downloadable version is also available. * 中国社科院 藏汉(口语)机器翻译 – A demonstrative website (slow in response) translating Tibetan to Chinese, developed by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It works well on Tibetan text from official Chinese News websites. * Panlex – A multilingual translation website with a few Tibetan words. *
Microsoft Translator Microsoft Translator or Bing Translator is a multilingual machine translation cloud service provided by Microsoft. Microsoft Translator is a part of Microsoft Cognitive Services and integrated across multiple consumer, developer, and enterprise pro ...
– Has an option to Translate Tibetan. *
Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingualism, multilingual neural machine translation, neural machine translation service developed by Google to translation, translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a web applic ...
– Whose support for Tibetan is supported.


Example text

From Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...
in Tibetan, written in the
Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or '' abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins ...
:


See also

* Central Tibetan *
Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects. Amdo is one of the three branches of tradition ...
*
Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic languages, Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In ...
*
Languages of Bhutan There are two dozen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family except for Nepali, which is an Indo-Aryan language, and the Bhutanese Sign Language. Dzongkha, the national language, is the only native language of Bhu ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * ** * * * * * * " ... contains a facsimile of the original publication in manuscript, the first printed version of 1883, and the later Addenda published with the Third Edition."—P. of cover. * * * * * * * * *


External links


Translations of Tibetan texts, Tibetan language courses & publications by Erick Tsiknopoulos and the Trikāya Translation Committee.
{{Authority control Languages of China Central Bodish languages Languages of Tibet Languages of Bhutan Languages of Nepal Languages written in Tibetan script Sacred languages