Tibetan pinyin
The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China for personal names and place names. It is based on the Lhasa dialect of Standard Tibetan and reflects the pronunciation very accurately except that it does not mark tone. It is used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script for use within academic circles, Wylie transliteration (with a v replacing the apostrophe) is more commonly used.
Overview
Onsets overview
Independent onsets in the initial syllable of a word are transcribed as follows:
| ཀ་ | ཁ་ ག་ | ང་ | ཅ་ | ཆ་ ཇ་ | ཉ་ | ཏ་ | ཐ་ ད་ | ན་ | པ་ | ཕ་ བ་ | མ་ | ཙ་ | ཚ་ ཛ་ | ཝ་ | ཞ་ ཤ་ | ཟ་ ས་ | ཡ་ | ར་ | ལ་ | ཧ་ | ཀྱ་ | ཁྱ་ གྱ་ | ཀྲ་ | ཁྲ་ གྲ་ | ཧྲ་ | ལྷ་ |
| g | k | ng | j | q | ny | d | t | n | b | p | m | z | c | w | x | s | y | r | l | h | gy | ky | zh | ch | sh | lh |
For more general case, see #Onsets.
Vowels and final consonant
The 17 vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in as follows:
| IPA | Tibetan pinyin | IPA | Tibetan pinyin |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | i | ĩ | in |
| e | ê | ẽ | en |
| ɛ | ai/ä | ɛ̃ | ain/än |
| a | a | ã | an |
| u | u | i | un |
| o | o | õ | on |
| ɔ | o | ||
| y | ü | 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 |
|---|---|
| p | b |
| ʔ | g/— |
| r | r |
| m | m |
| ŋ | ng |
Single syllable orthography
The tone of a syllable depends mostly on its initial consonant. In this table, each initial is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with the vowel a and a tone mark to present tone register (high/low).
Onsets
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of onsets of an initial syllable of a word. If the syllable to transcribe is not the first syllable of a word, see #Onset variation.
| IPA | Wylie transliteration | Tibetan pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| pá | p, sp, dp, lp | b |
| pà | rb, sb, sbr | b |
| mpà | lb, ’b | b |
| pʰá | ph, ’ph | p |
| pʰà | b | p |
| má | rm, sm, dm, smr | m |
| mà | m, mr | m |
| wà | w, db, b[1] | w |
| tá | t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld | d |
| ntá | lth | d |
| tà | rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd | d |
| ntà | zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d | d |
| tʰá | th, mth, ’th | t |
| tʰà | d, dw | t |
| ná | rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn | n |
| nà | n | n |
| lá | kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl | l |
| là | l, lw | l |
| l̥á | lh | lh |
| tsá | ts, rts, sts, rtsw, stsw, gts, bts, brts, bsts | z |
| tsà | rdz, gdz, brdz | z |
| ntsà | mdz, ’dz | z |
| tsʰá | tsh, tshw, mtsh, ’tsh | c |
| tsʰà | dz | c |
| sá | s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr | s |
| sà | z, zw, gz, bz | s |
| ʈʂá | kr, rkr, lkr, skr, tr, pr, lpr, spr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr | zh |
| ʈʂà | rgr, lgr, sgr, dgr, dbr, bsgr, rbr, lbr, sbr | zh |
| ɳʈʂà | mgr, ’gr, ’dr, ’br | zh |
| ʈʂʰá | khr, thr, phr, mkhr, ’khr, ’phr | ch |
| ʈʂʰà | gr, dr, br, grw | ch |
| ʂá | hr | sh |
| rà | r, rw | r |
| cá | ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky | gy |
| cà | rgy, lgy, sgy, dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy | gy |
| ɲcà | mgy, ’gy | gy |
| cʰá | khy, mkhy, ’khy | ky |
| cʰà | gy | ky |
| tɕá | c, cw, gc, bc, lc, py, lpy, spy, dpy | j |
| tɕà | rby, lby, sby, rj, gj, brj, dby | j |
| ɲtɕà | lj, mj, ’j, ’by | j |
| tɕʰá | ch, mch, ’ch, phy, ’phy | q |
| tɕʰà | j, by | q |
| ɕá | sh, shw, gsh, bsh | x |
| ɕà | zh, zhw, gzh, bzh | x |
| ɲá | rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw, rmy, smy | ny |
| rà | ny, my | ny |
| já | g.y | y |
| jà | y | y |
| ká | k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk | g |
| kà | rg, lg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg | g |
| ŋkà | lg, mg, ’g | g |
| kʰá | kh, khw, mkh, ’kh | k |
| kʰà | g, gw | k |
| ŋá | rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng | ng |
| ŋà | ng | ng |
| ʔá | —, db | — |
| ʔà | ’ | — |
| há | h, hw | h |
Rimes
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect.[2] If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see #Coda variation.
Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌").
| ཨ། | ཨའུ། | ཨར། | ཨལ། ཨའི། | ཨག། ཨགས། | ཨབ། ཨབས། | ཨད། ཨས། | ཨང༌། ཨངས། | ཨམ། ཨམས། | ཨན། |
| a | au | ar | ai/ä | ag | ab | ai/ä | ang | am | ain/än |
| [a] | [au̯] | [aː] | [ɛ:] | [aʡ] | [əp̚] | [ɛ] | [aŋ] | [am] | [ɛ̃ː] |
| ཨི། | ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ། | ཨིར། | ཨིལ། ཨའི། | ཨིག། ཨིགས། | ཨིབ། ཨིབས། | ཨིད། ཨིས། | ཨིང༌། ཨིངས། | ཨིམ། ཨིམས། | ཨིན། |
| i | iu | ir | i | ig | ib | i | ing | im | in |
| [i] | [iu̯] | [iː] | [iː] | [iʡ] | [ip̚] | [i] | [iŋ] | [im] | [ĩː] |
| ཨུ། | ཨུར། | ཨུལ། ཨུའི། | ཨུག། ཨུགས། | ཨུབ། ཨུབས། | ཨུད། ཨུས། | ཨུང༌། ཨུངས། | ཨུམ། ཨུམས། | ཨུན། | |
| u | ur | ü | ug | ub | ü | ung | um | ün | |
| [u] | [uː] | [yː] | [uʡ] | [up̚] | [y] | [uŋ] | [um] | [ỹː] | |
| ཨེ། | ཨེར། | ཨེལ། ཨེའི། | ཨེག། ཨེགས། | ཨེབ། ཨེབས། | ཨེད། ཨེས། | ཨེང༌། ཨེངས། | ཨེམ། ཨེམས། | ཨེན། | |
| ê | êr | ê | êg | êb | ê | êng | êm | ên | |
| [e] | [eː] | [eː] | [eʡ] | [ep̚] | [e] | [eŋ] | [em] | [ẽː] | |
| ཨོ། | ཨོར། | ཨོལ། ཨོའི། | ཨོག། ཨོགས། | ཨོབ། ཨོབས། | ཨོད། ཨོས། | ཨོང༌། ཨོངས། | ཨོམ། ཨོམས། | ཨོན། | |
| o | or | oi/ö | og | ob | oi/ö | ong | om | oin/ön | |
| [o] | [oː] | [øː] | [oʡ] | [op̚] | [ø] | [oŋ] | [om] | [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
- Ngoinjug of next syllable
- Prenasalization of next syllable
Examples
Sometimes there is intersyllablic influence:
| Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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] |
Examples
| Tibetan Script | Wylie | Tibetan pinyin | Tournadre | other transcriptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ | Gzhis-ka-rtse | Xigazê | Zhikatse | Shigatse, Shikatse |
| བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ | Bkra-shis-lhun-po | Zhaxilhünbo | Trashilhünpo | Tashilhunpo, Tashilhümpo, etc. |
| འབྲས་སྤུང་ | ’Bras-spung | Zhaibung | Dräpung | Drebung |
| ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ | Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan | Qoigyi Gyaicain | Chökyi Gyältshän | Choekyi Gyaltsen |
| ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ | Thub-bstan Rgya-mtsho | Tubdain Gyaco | Thuptän Gyatsho | Thubten Gyatso, Thubtan Gyatso, Thupten Gyatso |
See also
- Standard Tibetan
- Tibetan alphabet
- Wylie transliteration
- THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription
- Hanyu pinyin
Notes
- ↑ as in Namjagbarwa
- ↑ Brush, Beaumont. "The Status of Coronal in the Historical Development of Lhasa Tibetan Rhymes" (PDF). SIL. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
References
- Zhōngguó Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng hànyǔ pīnyīn Zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ 中国少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法
- Guójiā cèhuìjú dìmíng yánjiūsuǒ 国家测绘局地名研究所 (Institute for Place Names of the State Survey Bureau; ed.). Zhōngguó dìmínglù 中国地名录 / Gazetteer of China. (Beijing, 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