Central Tibetan

Central Tibetan
Central Tibetan
Ü-Tsang
དབུས་སྐད་, Dbus skad / Ükä; དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་, Dbus-gtsang skad / Ü-tsang kä
	The name of the language written in the Tibetan script
Pronunciation	[wýkɛʔ, wýʔtsáŋ kɛʔ]
Native to	India, Nepal, China (Tibet Autonomous Region)
Region	Tibet Autonomous Region
Native speakers	(1.2 million cited 1990–2014)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Central Tibetan; ; ; ; ;
Standard forms	Lasetian; Standard Tibetan;
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; bod – Lhasa Tibetan; dre – Dolpo; hut – Humla, Limi; lhm – Lhomi (Shing Saapa); muk – Mugom (Mugu); kte – Nubri; ola – Walungge (Gola); loy – Lowa/Loke (Mustang); tcn – Tichurong
Glottolog	tibe1272 Tibetan; sout3216 South-Western Tibetic (partial match); basu1243 Basum
ELP	Walungge
	Dolpo
	Lhomi
	Shingsaba is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Central Tibetan, also known as Dbus, Ü or Ü-Tsang, is the most widely spoken Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan.

Dbus and Ü are forms of the same name. Dbus is a transliteration of the name in Tibetan script, དབུས་, whereas Ü is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, [wy˧˥˧ʔ] (or [y˧˥˧ʔ]). That is, in Tibetan, the name is spelled Dbus and pronounced Ü. All of these names are frequently applied specifically to the prestige dialect of Lhasa.

Varieties

Dbus and Gtsang

There are many mutually intelligible Central Tibetan languages besides that of Lhasa, with particular diversity along the border and in Nepal:

Limi (Limirong), Mugum, Dolpo (Dolkha), Mustang (Lowa, Lokä), Humla, Nubri, Lhomi, Dhrogpai Gola, Walungchung Gola (Walungge/Halungge), Tseku

Basum (most divergent, possibly a separate language)

Ethnologue reports that Walungge is highly intelligible with Thudam.

Glottolog reports these South-Western Tibetic languages as forming a separate subgroup of languages within Central Tibetan languages, but that Thudam is not a distinct variety. On the opposite, Glottolog does not classify Basum within Central Tibetan but leaves it unclassified within Tibetic languages.

Tournadre (2013) classifies Tseku with Khams.^[4]

Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Amdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity with Khams Tibetan.^[5]

Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the Lhasa, Shigatse, Gar, Sherpa, Basum, Gertse, and Nagqu varieties.^[6]

Ngari Tibetan

Ngari Tibetan, more specifically Stöd Ngari (as opposed to the language of pre-1842 Lower Ngari that is now an independent language), is the endonym for a topolect spoken around Ngari Prefecture, T.A.R. Traditionally, it's considered a divergent variety of Dbusgtsang but not Dbusgtsang proper, however, some Western Khams Tibetan varieties such as Gêrzê Tibetan and Nagqu Tibetan are now considered part of the Ngari Tibetan areal group as well.^[7] In Indian-administrated Tibet since the 1846 British invasion of Spiti, a related topolect is now known under exonym "Lahuli and Spiti".

Consonants

IPA	Tibetan writing	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[k]	ཀ་	k	g
[kʰ]	ཁ་ ག་	kh, g	k
[ŋ]	ང་	ng	ng
[tɕ]	ཅ་	c	j
[tɕʰ]	ཆ་ ཇ་	ch, j	q
[ɲ]	ཉ་	ny	ny
[t]	ཏ་	t	d
[tʰ]	ཐ་ ད་	th, d	t
[n]	ན་	n	n
[p]	པ་	p	b
[pʰ]	ཕ་ བ་	ph, b	p
[m]	མ་	m	m
[ts]	ཙ་	ts	z
[tsʰ]	ཚ་ ཛ་	tsh, dz	c
[w]	ཝ་	w	w

IPA	Tibetan writing	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[ɕ]	ཞ་ ཤ་	zh, sh	x
[s]	ཟ་ ས་	z, s	s
[j]	ཡ་	y	y
[ɹ]	ར་	r	r
[l]	ལ་	l	l
[h]	ཧ་	h	h
[c]	ཀྱ་	gy	gy
[cʰ]	ཁྱ་ གྱ་	ky	ky
[tʂ]	ཀྲ་	kr	zh
[tʂʰ]	ཁྲ་ གྲ་	khr, gr	ch
[ʂ]	ཧྲ་	hr	sh
[ɬ]	ལྷ་	lh	lh

འ isn't commonly transliterated to Roman, in the Wade–Giles system ' is used.

Vowels

ཨ（◌）

ཨ།	ཨའུ།	ཨག། ཨགས།	ཨང༌། ཨངས།	ཨབ། ཨབས།	ཨམ། ཨམས།	ཨར།	ཨལ། ཨའི།	ཨད། ཨས།	ཨན།
a	au	ag	aŋ	ab	am	ar	ai/ä	ai/ä	ain/än
ཨི། ཨིལ། ཨའི།	ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ།	ཨིག། ཨིགས།	ཨིང༌། ཨིངས།	ཨིབ། ཨིབས།	ཨིམ། ཨིམས།	ཨིར།		ཨིད། ཨིས།	ཨིན།
i	iu	ig	iŋ	ib	im	ir		i	in
ཨུ།		ཨུག། ཨུགས།	ཨུང༌། ཨུངས།	ཨུབ། ཨུབས།	ཨུམ། ཨུམས།	ཨུར།	ཨུལ། ཨུའི།^{[VOW 1]}	ཨུད། ཨུས།	ཨུན།
u		ug	uŋ	ub	um	ur	ü	ü	ün
ཨེ། ཨེལ། ཨེའི།		ཨེག། ཨེགས།	ཨེང༌། ཨེངས།	ཨེབ། ཨེབས།	ཨེམ། ཨེམས།	ཨེར།		ཨེད། ཨེས།	ཨེན།
ê		êg	êŋ	êb	êm	êr		ê	ên
ཨོ།		ཨོག། ཨོགས།	ཨོང༌། ཨོངས།	ཨོབ། ཨོབས།	ཨོམ། ཨོམས།	ཨོར།	ཨོལ། ཨོའི།	ཨོད། ཨོས།	ཨོན།
o		og	oŋ	ob	om	or	oi/ö	oi/ö	oin/ön

^ 特殊

Pronunciation

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin	IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[a]	a	a
[ɛ]	al, a'i	ai/ä	[ɛ̃]	an	ain/än
[i]	i, il, i'i	i	[ĩ]	in	in
[u]	u	u
[y]	ul, u'i	ü	[ỹ]	un	ün
[e]	e, el, e'i	ê	[ẽ]	en	ên
[o]	o	o
[ø]	ol, o'i	oi/ö	[ø̃]	on	oin/ön

一"ai, ain, oi, oin" is also written to "ä, än, ö, ön".

Conjunct vowels

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[au]	a'u	au
[iu]	i'u, e'u	iu

Last consonant

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[ʔ]	d, s	none
[n]		n
[k/ʔ]	g, gs	g
[ŋ]	ng, ngs	ng
[p]	b, bs	b
[m]	m, ms	m
[r]	r	r

References

^ Lhasa Tibetan at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Dolpo at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Humla, Limi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Lhomi (Shing Saapa) at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Mugom (Mugu) at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Nubri at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ Endangered Languages Project data for Dolpo.
^ Endangered Languages Project data for Lhomi.
^ N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]
^ "China". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth Edition. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09.
^ Qu, Aitang 瞿霭堂; Jing, Song 劲松. 2017. Zangyu Weizang fangyan yanjiu 藏语卫藏方言研究. Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe 中国藏学出版社. ISBN 9787802534230.
^ 江荻. "西藏的语言多样性及其分类". 中国藏学 (Jun 2022).

This Sino-Tibetan languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[Special-8] 特殊

[e26-1] Lhasa Tibetan at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Dolpo at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Humla, Limi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Lhomi (Shing Saapa) at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Mugom (Mugu) at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Nubri at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)

[ELP2-2] Endangered Languages Project data for Dolpo.

[ELP3-3] Endangered Languages Project data for Lhomi.

[4] N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]

[5] "China". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth Edition. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09.

[6] Qu, Aitang 瞿霭堂; Jing, Song 劲松. 2017. Zangyu Weizang fangyan yanjiu 藏语卫藏方言研究. Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe 中国藏学出版社. ISBN 9787802534230.

[7] 江荻. "西藏的语言多样性及其分类". 中国藏学 (Jun 2022).

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