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The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Standard Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin or ZWPY (Chinese: 藏文拼音; pinyin: Zàngwén Pīnyīn), is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in China.^[1] It is based on the pronunciation used by China National Radio's Tibetan Radio,^[1] which is based on the Lhasa dialect. It has been used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script since 1982.^[2]^[3]

Tibetan pinyin is a phonetic transcription, and as such its spelling is tied to actual pronunciation (although tone is not marked).^[4] Wylie on the other hand is a transliteration system, where mechanical conversion to and from Tibetan and Latin script is possible. 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་	ཇ་ ཆ་	ཉ་	ཏ་	ད་ ཐ་	ན་	པ་	ཕ་ བ་	མ་	ཙ་	ཛ་ ཚ་	ཝ་	ཞ་ ཤ་	ཟ་ ས་	ཡ་	ར་	ལ་	ཧ་	ཀྱ་	ཁྱ་ གྱ་	ཧྱ་	ཀྲ་	ཁྲ་ གྲ་	ཧྲ་	ལྷ་	རྷ་
g	k	ng	j	q	ny	d	t	n	b	p	m	z	c	w	x	s	y	r	l	h	gy	ky	hy	zh	ch	sh	lh	rh

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	ũ	un
o	ô	õ	on
ɔ	o	ɔ̃	ǒn
y	ü	ỹ	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
ʔ̞	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	THL
pá	p, sp, dp, lp	b	p
pà	rb, sb, sbr	b	b
mpà	lb, ’b	b	b
pʰá	ph, ’ph	p	p
pʰà	b	p	b
bà	bh	bh	bh
má	rm, sm, dm, smr	m	m
mà	m, mr	m	m
wà	w^{[note 1]}, db, b	w	w
tá	t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld	d	t
tà	rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd	d	d
ntá	lth	d
ntà	zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d	d	d
tʰá	th, mth, ’th	t	t
tʰà	d, dw	t	d
ná	rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn	n	n
nà	n	n	n
lá	kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl	l	l
là	l, lw	l	l
l̥á	lh	lh	lh
tsá	ts, rts, sts, rtsw, stsw, gts, bts, brts, bsts	z	ts
tsà	rdz, gdz, brdz	z	dz
ntsà	mdz, ’dz	z	dz
tsʰá	tsh, tshw, mtsh, ’tsh	c	ts
tsʰà	dz	c	dz
sá	s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr	s	s
sà	z, zw, gz, bz	s	z
ʈʂá	kr, rkr, lkr, skr, tr, pr, lpr, spr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr	zh	tr
ʈʂà	rgr, lgr, sgr, dgr, dbr, bsgr, rbr, lbr, sbr	zh	dr
ɳʈʂà	mgr, ’gr, ’dr, ’br	zh	dr
ʈʂʰá	khr, thr, phr, mkhr, ’khr, ’phr	ch	tr
ʈʂʰà	gr, dr, br, grw	ch	dr
ʂá	hr	sh	hr
rà	r, rw	r	r
r̥á	rh	rh
cá	ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky	gy	ky
cà	rgy, lgy, sgy, dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy	gy	gy
ɲcà	mgy, ’gy	gy	gy
cʰá	khy, mkhy, ’khy	ky	khy
cʰà	gy	ky	gy
çá	hy	hy	hy
tɕá	c, cw, gc, bc, lc, py, lpy, spy, dpy	j	ch
tɕà	rby, lby, sby, rj, gj, brj	j	j
ɲtɕà	lj, mj, ’j, ’by	j	j
tɕʰá	ch, mch, ’ch, phy, ’phy	q	ch
tɕʰà	j, by	q	j
ɕá	sh, shw, gsh, bsh	x	sh
ɕà	zh, zhw, gzh, bzh	x	zh
ɲá	rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw, rmy, smy	ny	ny
ɲà	ny, my	ny	ny
já	g.y	y	y
jà	y, dby	y	y
ká	k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk	g	k
kà	rg, lg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg	g	g
ŋkà	lg, mg, ’g	g	g
kʰá	kh, khw, mkh, ’kh	k	kh
kʰà	g, gw	k	g
ŋá	rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng	ng	ng
ŋà	ng	ng	ng
ʔá	—, db	—	—
ʔ̞à	’	—	—
há	h, hw	h	h

Rimes

Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect.^[5] If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see Coda variation.

Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌").

Tibetan	ཨ།	ཨའུ།	ཨར།	ཨལ། ཨའི།	ཨད། ཨས།	ཨག། ཨགས།	ཨབ། ཨབས།	ཨང༌། ཨངས།	ཨམ། ཨམས།	ཨན།
Wylie	a	a'u	ar	al a'i	ad as	ag ags	ab abs	ang angs	am ams	an
Pinyin	a	au	ar	ai/ä		ag	ab	ang	am	ain/än
IPA	[a]	[au̯]	[aː]	[ɛː]	[ɛ]	[ʌʡ] ~ [ɤʡ]	[ʌʡ̆] ~ [ɤʡ̆]	[aŋ]	[am]	[ɛ̃ː]
Tibetan	ཨི།	ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ།	ཨིར།	ཨིལ། ཨའི།	ཨིད། ཨིས།	ཨིག། ཨིགས།	ཨིབ། ཨིབས།	ཨིང༌། ཨིངས།	ཨིམ། ཨིམས།	ཨིན།
Wylie	i	i'u	ir	il a'i	id is	ig igs	ib ibs	ing ings	im ims	in
Pinyin	i	iu	ir	i		ig	ib	ing	im	in
IPA	[i]	[iu̯]	[iː]	[iː]	[i]	[iʡ]	[iʡ̆]	[ɪŋ]	[ɪm]	[ĩː]
Tibetan	ཨུ།		ཨུར།	ཨུལ། ཨུའི།	ཨུད། ཨུས།	ཨུག། ཨུགས།	ཨུབ། ཨུབས།	ཨུང༌། ཨུངས།	ཨུམ། ཨུམས།	ཨུན།
Wylie	u		ur	ul u'i	ud us	ug ugs	ub ubs	ung ungs	um ums	un
Pinyin	u		ur	ü		ug	ub	ung	um	ün
IPA	[u]		[uː]	[yː]	[y]	[uʡ]	[uʡ̆]	[ʊŋ]	[ʊm]	[ỹː]
Tibetan	ཨེ།		ཨེར།	ཨེལ། ཨེའི།	ཨེད། ཨེས།	ཨེག། ཨེགས།	ཨེབ། ཨེབས།	ཨེང༌། ཨེངས།	ཨེམ། ཨེམས།	ཨེན།
Wylie	e		er	el e'i	ed es	eg egs	eb ebs	eng engs	em ems	en
Pinyin	ê		êr	ê		êg	êb	êng	êm	ên
IPA	[e]		[eː]	[eː]	[e]	[ɛ̈ʡ]	[ɛ̈ʡ̆]	[ɛŋ]	[ɛm]	[ẽː]
Tibetan	ཨོ།	ཨོའུ།	ཨོར།	ཨོལ། ཨོའི།	ཨོད། ཨོས།	ཨོག། ཨོགས།	ཨོབ། ཨོབས།	ཨོང༌། ཨོངས།	ཨོམ། ཨོམས།	ཨོན།
Wylie	o	o'u	or	ol o'i	od os	og ogs	ob obs	ong ongs	om oms	on
Pinyin	ô	ou	ôr	oi/ö		ôg	ôb	ông	ôm	oin/ön
IPA	[o]	[ou̯]	[oː]	[øː]	[ø]	[ɔʡ]	[ɔʡ̆]	[ɔŋ]	[ɔm]	[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

Sometimes there is intersyllabic 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]	shift of the prefix འ (ཨ་ཆུང a chung), creating a final nasal consonant

Encoding

The IETF language tag for Tibetan pinyin is bo-Latn-pinyin.^[6]

Examples

Tibetan Script	Wylie	Tibetan pinyin	THL	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

Notes

^ as in Namjagbarwa

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng Hànyǔ pīnyīn zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ, "少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法...（三）藏语...说明：（1）藏语地名的音译转写，以中央人民广播电台藏语广播的语音为依靠。"
^ Romanization of Tibetan Geographical Names – UNGEGN
^ "一种基于拼音的藏文智能输入法". Google Patents. 2014-04-10. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
^ "Geographical names of Tibet AR (China)". Institute of the Estonian Language. 2018-06-03. Retrieved 7 July 2020. Tibetan names have been romanized according to the official scheme, the so-called Tibetan pinyin. The romanization is based on actual pronunciation and is not always predictable if only written form is known.
^ Brush, Beaumont. "The Status of Coronal in the Historical Development of Lhasa Tibetan Rhymes" (PDF). SIL. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
^ "Language subtag registry". IANA. Retrieved 15 April 2021.

Sources

Shǎoshù mínzúyǔ dìmíng Hànyǔ pīnyīn zìmǔ yīnyì zhuǎnxiěfǎ 少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法 (PDF) (in Chinese) – via Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Jiaoyubu.
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