The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from

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 ...

.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area''. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. According to Nicolas Tournadre, there are 50 Tibetic languages, which branch into more than 200 dialects, which could be grouped into eight dialect continua. These Tibetic languages are spoken in

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 ...

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 ...

Baltistan Baltistan (); also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet, is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan and constitutes a northern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, and

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

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' ...

is the major literary language, particularly for its use in

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...

scriptures and literature. Tibetan languages are spoken by some 6 million people, not all of whom are Tibetan.
preprint
With the worldwide spread of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

, the Tibetan language has also spread into the western world and can be found in many Buddhist publications and prayer materials, while western students also learn the language for the translation of Tibetan texts. Outside 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 ...

itself,

Lhasa Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" ...

is spoken by approximately 200,000 exiled Tibetans who have moved from Tibet to

and other countries. Tibetan is also spoken by groups of ethnic minorities in

who have lived in close proximity to Tibetans for centuries, but nevertheless retain their own languages and cultures. Although the

Qiang people The Qiang people (Qiangic languages, Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an List of ethnic groups in China, ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approx ...

s of

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 ...

are classified by

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 ...

as ethnic Tibetan, the

Qiangic languages Qiangic (''Chʻiang, Kyang, Tsiang'', Chinese: 羌語支, "''Qiang'' language group"; also Rmaic, formerly known as Dzorgaic) is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, incl ...

are not Tibetan, but rather form their own branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family.

was not a

tonal 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 emphasi ...

, but many varieties such as Central and Khams Tibetan have developed tone registers. Amdo and Ladakhi-Balti are without tone. Tibetan

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, ...

can generally be described as

agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglu ...

Terminology

Although the term "Tibetic" had been applied in various ways within the Sino-Tibetan research tradition, Nicolas Tournadre defined it as a phylum derived from

. Following Nishi (1987) and Beyer (1992), he identified several lexical innovations that can be used as a diagnosis to distinguish Tibetic from the other languages of the family, such as "seven". The "Tibetic languages" in this sense are a substitute for the term "Tibetan languages/dialects" used in the previous literature; the distinction between "language" and "dialect" is not straightforward, and labeling varieties of Tibetic as "Tibetan dialects" could be misleading not only because those "dialects" are often mutually-unintelligible, but also the speakers of Tibetic do not necessarily consider themselves as ethnic Tibetan, as is the case with

Sherpas The Sherpa people () are one of the Nepalese ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. The majority of Sherpas live in the eastern regions of Nepal, namely the Solukhum ...

Ladakhis Ladakhis, Ladakhi people, or Ladakspa are an ethnic group and first-language speakers of the Ladakhi language living in Ladakh in India and Tibet in China. A small number of Ladakhis are also found in Baltistan, Pakistan. History Ladakh has ...

, Baltis, Lahaulas, Sikkimese and Bhutanese.

Origins

Marius Zemp (2018) hypothesizes that Tibetan originated as a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

with the West Himalayish language Zhangzhung as its

superstratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for 'layer') or strate is a historical layer of language that influences or is influenced by another language through contact. The notion of "strata" was first developed by the Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia A ...

, and Rgyalrongic as its

substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...

(both languages are part of the broader Sino-Tibetan family). However, there are many grammatical differences between the Rgyalrongic and Tibetic languages; Rgyalrongic tend to use prefixes such as *kə-, *tə-, etc., while Tibetic languages use suffixes such as -pa/-ba, -ma, -po/-bo, -mo, etc. Similarly, Tamangic also has a West Himalayish superstratum, but its substratum is derived from a different Sino-Tibetan branch. Only a few language clusters in the world are derived from a common language which is identical to or closely related to an old literary language. This small group includes the Tibetic languages, as descendants from

(7th–9th centuries), but also the

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

with

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, the

Arabic languages Varieties of Arabic (or dialects or vernaculars) are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. Arabic is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family that originated in the Arabian Peninsula. There are considerable variation ...

(or "dialects") with

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

, the

Sinitic languages The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a language group, group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a p ...

with

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...

, the modern

Indic languages Indic languages may refer to: * Indo-Aryan languages, a subgroup of the Indo-European languages spoken mainly in the north of the Indian subcontinent (used in the context of Indo-European studies) * Languages of the Indian subcontinent, all the indi ...

with

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...

Classification

The more divergent languages are spoken in the north and east, likely due to

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...

with the Qiangic, Rgyalrongic languages. The divergence exhibited in Khalong may also be due to

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

. In addition, there is Baima, which retains an apparent Qiangic

, and has multiple layers of borrowing from Amdo, Khams, and Zhongu, but does not correspond to any established branch of Tibetic. The two major Tibetic languages used for broadcasting within China are

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" ...

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 ...

Tournadre & Suzuki (2023)

Tournadre & Suzuki (2023) recognize 8 geographical ''sections'', each with about 7-14 ''groups'' of Tibetic dialects. This classification is a revision of Tournadre (2014). *Tibetic ** South-eastern section (14 groups): *** Nagchu (traditionally called Hor dialects) ***Drachen/Bachen ***Kyegu ***Pämbar ***Khyungpo ***Rongdrak ***Minyak Rabgang ***Northern route（ Chamdo） (Chab-mdo), （ Derge） (sde-dge), （ Kandze） (dkar-mdzes) ***Southern route ( Markham, Bathang, Lithang) *** Dzayül ***Derong-nJol ***Chagthreng ***Pomborgang ***Semkyi Nyida **Eastern section (11 groups): *** Čone *** Thewo-tö *** Thewo-mä *** Drugchu ***Pälkyi/Pashi ***Khöpokhok ***Sharkhok ***Thromjekhok *** Zhongu ***Throchu *** Baima **

North-eastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

section (14 groups): ***Tsho Ngönpo (or Kokonor) ***Tsongkha ***Labrang-Rebgong ***Rwanak (Banak) pastoralist group *** Ngawa ***Arik ***Hwari (Pari) ***Mewa pastoralists’ group (with settlements in Kham) ***Washül pastoralists’group (with migrations into Kham) ***Gorkä (divergent) *** Gyälrongo-spheric Amdo (divergent) ***Dungnak and rTarmnyik (near Western Yughur in

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

) (divergent) ** Central section (8 groups): ***Ü ***Tsang ***Phänpo ***Tö pastoralists’ dialects (Drogpä Tö-kä) ***Eastern Tö cultivators’ dialects (Sharchok Rongpä Tö-kä) ***Western Tö cultivators’ dialects (Nubchok Rongpä Tö-kä) *** Kongpo ***Lhokha **Southern section (7 groups): ***

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language ...

***Lhoke ***Choča-ngača (also called Tsamang-Tsakhaling) *** Brokpa (Mera Sakteng pastoralists’ dialect) ***Dur pastoralists’ dialect *** Lakha or Säphuk pastoralists’ dialect *** Dromo **South-western section (9 groups): *** Humla (or Limirong) ***Karmarong (Mugu) *** Dölpo and Tichyurong ***Lo-Mönthang (often called Lokä/

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

) *** Kyirong- Yolmo *** Jirel *** Sherpa *** Lhomi *** Gola **Western section (8 groups): *** Spiti ***Khunu-Töt *** Garzha ***Pangi ***Paldar ***Durbuk Jangpa dialect ***Nyoma Jangpa dialect ***Jadang (or Dzathang) dialect **North-western section (7 groups): *** Balti *** Purik *** Nubra ***Sham ***

Leh Leh () is a city in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Kashmir_dispute, disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:TE ...

(Central Ladakh) ***Zanhar ***Kharu

Tournadre (2014)

Tournadre (2014) classifies the Tibetic languages as eight geolinguistic continua, consisting of 50 languages and over 200 dialects. This is an updated version of his work in 2008. The Eastern and Southeastern branches have lower internal

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 ...

, but it is more limited in the Northwestern branch and between certain southern and northern Khams dialects. These continua are spread across five countries with one exception, this being Sangdam, a Khams dialect in Kachin,

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. *Tibetic **North-Western: Ladakhi, Zangskari, Balti, Purki **Western: Spiti, Garzha, Khunu, Jad **Central: Dbus, Tsang, Phenpo, Lhokha, Tö, Kongpo (in （Kongpo） with Basum) **South-Western: Sherpa and Jirel; other languages/dialects along the Sino-Nepalese border: Humla, Mugu, Dolpo, Lo-ke, Nubri, Tsum,

Langtang Langtang Valley () also known as Lamtang Valley is a Himalayan valley in the mountains of north-central Nepal, known for its trekking routes and natural environment. Administrative The Langtang Valley lies in Rasuwa District, Rasuwa dist ...

, Kyirong, Yolmo, Gyalsumdo, Kagate, Lhomi, Walungge, Tokpe Gola. **Southern:

, Drengjong, Tsamang, Dhromo Lakha, Dur Brokkat, Mera Sakteng Brokpa-ke **South-Eastern: Hor Nagchu, Hor Bachen, Yushu, Pembar, Rongdrak, Minyak, Dzayul, Derong-Jol, Chaktreng, Muli-Dappa, Semkyi Nyida ***'Northern route' dialects: ' Chamdo (Chab-mdo), Derge (sde-dge), and Kandze (dkar-mdzes) ***'Southern route' dialects: Markham (smar-khams), Bathang ('ba'-thang), Lithang (li-thang) **Eastern: Drugchu, Khöpokhok, Thewo-Chone, Baima, Sharkhok, Palkyi (or Pashi; four

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s, including Chos-rje), and Zhongu **North-Eastern *** Amdo ***Gser-Rdo:Sun, Jackson T.-S. 2021.
Gser-Rdo: A New Tibetic Language Across the Rngaba-Dkarmdzes Border
'. Gserpa, Khalong

Tournadre (2005, 2008)

Tournadre (2005) classifies the Tibetic languages as follows. *Tibetic ** Central Tibetan ***The basis of

that includes various Nepalese varieties ** Khams ** Amdo **Dzongkha–Lhokä ***

, Sikkimese, Lakha, Naapa, Chocangaca, Brokkat, Brokpa and probably Groma ** Ladakhi–Balti *** Ladakhi, Burig, Zangskari, Balti ** Lahuli–Spiti ** Kyirong–Kagate **Sherpa–Jirel *** Sherpa, Jirel The other languages ( Thewo-Chone, Zhongu, Khalong, Dongwang, Gserpa, Zitsadegu, Drugchu, Baima) are not

mutually intelligible 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 intellig ...

, but are not known well enough to classify. mDungnag, a Tibetan language spoken in

, is also divergent and is not mutually intelligible with either Khams or Amdo.Shao, Mingyuan 邵明园 (2018). ''Hexi Zoulang binwei Zangyu Dongnahua yanjiu'' 河西走廊濒危藏语东纳话研究 tudy on the mDungnag dialect, an endangered Tibetan language in Hexi Corridor Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Publishing House 中山大学出版社. Tournadre (2013) adds Tseku and Khamba to Khams, and groups Thewo-Chone, Zhongu, and Baima as an Eastern branch of Tibetic.

Bradley (1997)

According to Bradley, the languages cluster as follows (dialect information from the ''Tibetan Dialects Project'' at the University of Bern): *Tibetic **Western Archaic Tibetan (non-tonal), including Ladakhi, Balti and Burig **

(including Thewo-Chone) (non-tonal) **

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 ...

(tonal) ** Western Innovative Tibetan (Lahuli–Spiti) (slightly tonal) ***Dialects of Upper

and

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...

, of the Northwest Indian Border Area (

Lahaul and Spiti district The Lahaul and Spiti district is a high-altitude district in Himachal Pradesh, north India. This entirely mountainous district consists of two geographically distinct as well as formerly separate political-administrative units, called Lahaul ( ...

and

), and of

Zanda County 13-06-2025 Zanda County or Tsamda County (, zh, s=札达县) is a county in the Ngari Prefecture to the extreme west of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its seat of power is at Tholing, the former capital of the Guge kingdom. Zanda is said ...

(westernmost Tibet) ** Central Tibetan (slightly tonal) ***Most dialects of

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

in western Tibet, of the northern Nepalese border area in Nepal, Tsang dialects of Shigatse Prefecture, and Ü dialects ( Lhokha,

, etc.). The basis of

. **Northern Tibetan (slightly tonal) ***Dialects of Gêrzê, of

Nagqu Prefecture Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Autonomous regions of China, Chinese autonomous region of Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declare ...

in north-central Tibet, and of Nangqên County in South

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

(Considered dialects of Khams by Tournadre) **Southern Tibetan (slightly tonal) *** Groma language of Chumbi Valley in southern Tsang, Sikkimese in India, Sherpa and Jirel in Nepal, and various languages of

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, Brokkat, Brokpa, Chocangaca, Lakha,

Laya dialect Laya (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''la-ya-kha'', ''la-yag-kha'') is a Tibetic languages, Tibetic variety spoken by indigenous peoples, indigenous Layaps inhabiting the high mountains of north ...

, Lunana dialect. ;Other Some classifications group Khams and Amdo together as Eastern Tibetan (not to be confused with East Bodish, whose speakers are not ethnically Tibetan). Some, like Tournadre, break up Central Tibetan. Phrases such as 'Central Tibetan' and 'Central Bodish' may or may not be synonymous: Southern (Central) Tibetan can be found as Southern Bodish, for example; 'Central Tibetan' may mean dBus or all tonal lects apart from Khams; 'Western Bodish' may be used for the non-tonal western lects while 'Western Tibetan' is used for the tonal lects, or 'Bodish' may even be used for other branches of the

Tibeto-Kanauri languages The Tibeto-Kanauri languages, also called Bodic, Bodish–Himalayish, and Western Tibeto-Burman, are a proposed intermediate level of classification of the Sino-Tibetan languages, centered on the Tibetic languages and the Kinnauri dialect cluste ...

Lexical similarity

Amdo Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan and Khams Tibetan, while Khams Tibetan has 80% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan.

Geographical distribution

The Tibetic-speaking area spans six countries:

(PRC),

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and

. Tibetan is also spoken in diaspora communities in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

(e.g. Little Tibet, Toronto),

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

China

Within

, the great majority of Tibetic speakers are officially classified into the Tibetan ethnicity which however includes speakers of other Trans-Himalayan languages such as Rgyalrongnic. Aside from

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

, there are several

autonomous prefecture Autonomous prefectures ( zh, c=自治州, p=zìzhìzhōu) are one type of autonomous administrative divisions of China, autonomous administrative division in China, existing at the Prefecture-level divisions of China, prefectural level, with eith ...

s for the ethnicities in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, and

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

Nepal

, or more technically, Standard Tibetan (natively called ) is used among post-1950s Tibetan emigrants to

. Other Tibetic varieties such as Sherpa, Jirel and Yolmo are spoken in

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

along the China-Nepal border.

Bhutan

The

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

, a Tibetic language originally spoken in the western region. Although non-Tibetic languages (

Tshangla Tshangla is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Bodish branch closely related to the Tibetic languages. Tshangla is primarily spoken in Eastern Bhutan and acts as a lingua franca in the region; it is also spoken in the adjoining Tawang tract in the ...

, East Bodish) are dominant in many parts of the country, Dzongkha is also widely used there as a second-language. Other Tibetic varieties of Bhutan include Choča-ngača, Brokpa and Lakha.

Pakistan

Within areas administrated by

, Balti is spoken in

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

India

Within areas administrated by

, some Tibetic varieties are spoken in

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

( Kinnaur, Lahul and Spiti),

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

(

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

and

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

), as well as

. As with

and

, there reside a number of Tibetan refugees across the country, notably in Dharamshala where the headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration is located.

Myanmar

, a variant of

is spoken near the

Hkakabo Razi Hkakabo Razi (, ; ) is believed to be Myanmar's highest mountain. The -tall mountain is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia as well. It is located in the northern Myanmar state of Kachin State, Kachin in an outlying subrange of the Greater Him ...

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

which is adjacent to

Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northwestern Yunnan, China. The titular ethnic group is the Lisu people, who make up nearly half of the prefecture's population. The state is long and narrow, with an area of 14,5 ...

and

. Suzuki (2012) describes the phonology of the Sangdam dialect, as well as giving a brief overview of Tibetic varieties in the country. He estimates there are about 300 Khams Tibetan speakers inhabiting at least four villages in Dazundam Village Tract, Pannandin Sub-township, Nogmong Township, Putao District, Kachin State. The four villages he mentions are Tahaundam, "Shidudan" , Sandam, Madin, the second of which he provides no romanization because the placename is uncharted on the map available to him. According to Suzuki's

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

, they migrated from

Zayu County Zayul County ()
KNAB, retrieved 5 July 2021. Rawang people are the ethnic majority of the area, the Tibetans also have a command of Rawang, which is mainly used for interethnic communication; those with primary education can speak and write Burmese as well, while they are illiterate in their own language.

Writing systems

Most Tibetic languages are written in one of two

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 ...

and most other Tibetic languages are 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 ...

with a historically conservative orthography (see below) that helps unify the Tibetan-language area. Some other Tibetan languages (in India and Nepal) are written in the related

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

script, which is also used to write

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 ...

, Nepali and many other languages. However, some Ladakhi and Balti speakers write with the Urdu script; this occurs almost exclusively in

. The Tibetan script fell out of use in Pakistani

hundreds of years ago upon the region's adoption of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. However, increased concern among Balti people for the preservation of their

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

and traditions, especially in the face of strong Punjabi cultural influence throughout Pakistan, has fostered renewed interest in reviving the Tibetan script and using it alongside the

Perso-Arabic script The Persian alphabet (), also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left script, right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic script with four additional letters: (the sounds 'g', 'zh', ' ...

. Many shops in Baltistan's capital Skardu in Pakistan's "Northern Areas" region have begun supplementing signs written in the Perso-Arabic script with signs written in the Tibetan script. Baltis see this initiative not as separatist but rather as part of an attempt to preserve the cultural aspects of their region which has shared a close history with neighbours like

Kashmiris Kashmiris () also known as Koshurs are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group speaking the Kashmiri language and originating from the Kashmir Valley, which is today located in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union terr ...

and Punjabis since the arrival of Islam in the region many centuries ago.

Historical phonology

phonology is rather accurately rendered by the script. The finals were pronounced devoiced although they are written as voiced, the prefix letters assimilated their voicing to the root letters. The graphic combinations ''hr'' and ''lh'' represent voiceless and not necessarily aspirate correspondences to ''r'' and ''l'' respectively. The letter ' was pronounced as a voiced guttural fricative before vowels but as homorganic prenasalization before consonants. Whether the gigu ''verso'' had phonetic meaning or not remains controversial. For instance, ''Srongbtsan Sgampo'' would have been pronounced (now pronounced in Lhasa Tibetan) and babs'' would have been pronounced (pronounced in Lhasa Tibetan). Already in the 9th century the process of cluster simplification,

devoicing In phonology, voicing (or sonorization) is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment; shift in the opposite direction is referred to as devoicing or surdization. Most commonl ...

and

tonogenesis 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 ...

had begun in the central dialects, as can be shown by Tibetan words transliterated into other languages, particularly

but also Uyghur. The combination of the abovementioned evidence enables us to form the following outline of the evolution of Tibetan. In the 9th century, as shown by the bilingual Tibetan– Chinese treaty of 821–822 found in front of

's Jokhang, the complex initial clusters had already been reduced, and the process of tonogenesis was likely well underway. The next change took place in Tsang (Gtsang) dialects: The ''ra''-tags were altered into

retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

consonants, and the ''ya''-tags became palatals. Later on the superscribed letters and finals ''d'' and ''s'' disappeared, except in the east and west. It was at this stage that the language spread in Lahul and Spiti, where the superscribed letters were silent, the ''d'' and ''g'' finals were hardly heard, and ''as'', ''os'', ''us'' were pronounced ''ai'', ''oi'', ''ui''. The words introduced from Tibet into the border languages at that time differ greatly from those borrowed at an earlier period. Other changes are more recent and restricted to Ü and Tsang. In Ü, the vowel sounds ''a'', ''o'', ''u'' have now mostly umlauted to ''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'' when followed by the coronal sounds ''i'', ''d'', ''s'', ''l'' and ''n''. The same holds for Tsang with the exception of ''l'', which merely lengthens the vowel. The medials have become aspirate tenues with a low intonation, which also marks words having a simple initial consonant; while the former aspirates and the complex initials simplified in speech are uttered with a high tone, shrill and rapidly.

Reconstruction

Proto-Tibetic

Proto-Tibetic, the hypothetical

proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...

ancestral to the Tibetic languages, has been reconstructed by Tournadre (2014). Proto-Tibetic is similar to, but not identical to, written Classical Literary Tibetan. The following phonological features are characteristic of Proto-Tibetic (Tournadre 2014: 113). *The prefixes *s(ǝ)-, *d(ǝ)-/g(ǝ)-, *m(ǝ)-, and *b(ǝ)-, which have been retained from Proto-Tibeto-Burman. *s(ǝ)- is primarily used with animals and body parts, as well as *d(ǝ)-/*g(ǝ)- and *m(ǝ)-/*r(ǝ)-. * Palatalization of dental and

alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants (; UK also ) are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated wi ...

s before ''y'' (/j/). *Consonant change from

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may also refer to: Biology and healthcare * Lateral (anatomy), a term of location meaning "towards the side" * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, an intrinsic muscle of the larynx * Lateral release ( ...

to dental position after /m/ (e.g., *ml > *md). *Distinctive aspirated initial stops. This phenomenon is attested by alternating aspirated and non-aspirated consonants in

orthography. Examples include gcig ~ gchig (གཅིག་ ~ གཆིག་) 'one'; phyin-chad ~ phyin-cad (ཕྱིན་ཆད་ ~ ཕྱིན་ཅད་) 'from now on'; ci ~ chi (ཅི་ ~ ཆི་) 'what'; and cu ~ chu (ཅུ་ ~ ཆུ་) 'water'. Reconstructed Proto-Tibetic forms from Tournadre (2014) include: * *g(ǝ)-tɕik 'one' * *g(ǝ)-nyis 'two' * *g(ǝ)-su- 'three' * *b(ǝ)-ʑi 'four' * *l(ǝ)-ŋa 'five' * *d(ǝ)-ruk 'six' * *b(ǝ)-dun 'seven' * *b(ǝ)-rgyat 'eight' * *d(ǝ)-gu 'nine' * *b(ǝ)-tɕu 'ten' * *s(ǝ)-dik-pa 'scorpion' * *s(ǝ)-bal 'frog' * *s(ǝ)-tak 'tiger' * *s(ǝ)-b-rul 'snake' * *s(ǝ)-pra 'monkey' * *s(ǝ)-kra 'hair' * *s(ǝ)-nyiŋ 'heart' * *s(ǝ)-na 'nose' * *d(ǝ)-myik 'eye' * *m(ǝ)-go 'head' * *r(ǝ)-na 'ear'

Pre-Tibetic

Pre-Tibetic is a hypothetical pre-formation stage of Proto-Tibetic. *ty-, *ly-, *sy- were not palatalized in Pre-Tibetic, but underwent palatalization in Proto-Tibetic (Tournadre 2014: 113-114). Posited

sound change In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...

s from Pre-Tibetic to Proto-Tibetic include *ty- > *tɕ-, *sy- > *ɕ-, *tsy- > *tɕ-, and *ly- > *ʑ-. However, Tournadre (2014: 114) notes that many Bodish languages such as Basum, Tamang, and Kurtöp ( East Bodish) have not undergone these changes (e.g., Bake ( Basum) ''ti'' 'what' vs. Proto-Tibetic *tɕ(h)i and Bake ''tɨ'' 'one' vs. Proto-Tibetic *g(ǝ)-tɕ(h)ik; Kurtöp ''^Hla:'' 'iron' and Bumthap ''lak'' 'iron' vs. Proto-Tibetic *ltɕaks). Some Pre-Tibetic reconstructions, along with reconstructed Proto-Tibetic forms and orthographic Classical Literary Tibetan, from Tournadre (2014: 114-116) are listed below.

Comparison of numerals

The

numerals A numeral is a figure (symbol), word, or group of figures (symbols) or words denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English ...

in different Tibetan/Tibetic languages are: For the Central or Eastern Tibetic languages:

References

* * * * * * * *

Footnotes

External links

*
Languages on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas
— Nicolas Tournadre
Overview of Old Tibetan Synchronic phonology
by Nathan Hill

at CNRS-LACITO *[https://web.archive.org/web/20140324094654/http://thetibetpost.com/en/outlook/opinions-and-columns/3811-chinas-tibet-policy-continued-attempt-at-erasing-tibetan-language China's Tibet policy continued attempt at erasing Tibetan language] {{DEFAULTSORT:Tibetan languages Languages attested from the 7th century Agglutinative languages Languages of China Bodic languages Languages of Tibet Languages of Bhutan Languages of Nepal Languages of Pakistan Languages of India

Terminology

Origins

Classification

Tournadre & Suzuki (2023)

Tournadre (2014)

Tournadre (2005, 2008)

Bradley (1997)

Lexical similarity

Geographical distribution

China

Nepal

Bhutan

Pakistan

India

Myanmar

Writing systems

Historical phonology

Reconstruction

Proto-Tibetic

Pre-Tibetic

Comparison of numerals

References

Footnotes

Further reading

External links