Language/Tibetan/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation
< Language | Tibetan | Pronunciation
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Rate this lesson: 
Tibetan Alphabet, IPA Pronuncation, Video, Virtual Keyboard...
Hello Tibetan learners,
In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Tibetan alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.
You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.
- Tibetan is spoken mainly in Tibet, and also in parts of India and Nepal.
- There are 1.2 million speakers of Standard Tibetan, also known as Lhasa Tibetan, the Tibetic language with the most speakers.
Tibetan Alphabet and Pronunciation
Tibetan Alphabet
| Unaspiratedhigh | Aspiratedmedium | Voicedlow | Nasallow | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | |
| Guttural | ཀ | /ka/ | ཁ | /kʰa/ | ག | /ɡa/ | ང | /ŋa/ |
| Palatal | ཅ | /tʃa/ | ཆ | /tʃʰa/ | ཇ | /dʒa/ | ཉ | /ɲa/ |
| Dental | ཏ | /ta/ | ཐ | /tʰa/ | ད | /da/ | ན | /na/ |
| Labial | པ | /pa/ | ཕ | /pʰa/ | བ | /ba/ | མ | /ma/ |
| Dental | ཙ | /tsa/ | ཚ | /tsʰa/ | ཛ | /dza/ | ཝ | /wa/ |
| low | ཞ | /ʒa/ | ཟ | /za/ | འ | /ɦa/ ⟨ʼa⟩ | ཡ | /ja/ |
| medium | ར | /ra/ | ལ | /la/ | ཤ | /ʃa/ | ས | /sa/ |
| high | ཧ | /ha/ | ཨ | |||||
Source: http://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/sungk/Sample-Lesson-1.pdf
Pronunciation in English
Source: http://www2.lawrence.edu/fast/sungk/Sample-Lesson-1.pdf
Consonants
| Letter | Name | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| ཀ | ka | /ka/ |
| ཁ | Ka | /kʰa̤/ |
| ག | ga | /ɡa/ |
| ང | n̰a | /ŋa/ |
| ཅ | ca | /tɕa/ |
| ཆ | Ca | /tɕʰa̤/ |
| ཇ | ja | /dʑa/ |
| ཉ | ña | /ɲa/ |
| ཏ | ta | /ta/ |
| ཐ | Ta | /tʰa̤/ |
| ད | da | /da/ |
| ན | na | /na/ |
| པ | pa | /pa/ |
| ཕ | Pa | /pʰa̤/ |
| བ | ba | /ba/ |
| མ | ma | /ma/ |
| ཙ | tsa | /tsa/ |
| ཚ | TSa | /tsʰa̤/ |
| ཛ | dza | /dza/ |
| ཝ | wa | /wa/ |
| ཞ | ža | /ʒa/ |
| ཟ | za | /za/ |
| འ | 'a | /ʔ̬a/ |
| ཡ | ya | /ja/ |
| ར | ra | /ra/ |
| ལ | la | /la/ |
| ཤ | ša | /ʃa/ |
| ས | sa | /sa/ |
| ཧ | ha | /ha̤/ |
| ཨ | a | /a/ |
Vowels
| Diacritic | ◌ | ི | ུ | ེ | ོ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | a | i | u | e | o |
| IPA | /a/ | /ɪ/ | /ʊ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɔ/ |
Video - Tibetan Alphabet Pronunciation by a Native Speaker