HungHay8926976 at 22:25, 10 May 2026

2026-05-10T22:25:23Z

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{{Short description|Tibetic language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Central Tibetan
| altname = Ü-Tsang
| nativename = {{lang|bo|དབུས་སྐད་}}, {{Transliteration|bo|Dbus skad}} / {{Transliteration|bo|Ükä}} {{lang|bo|དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་}}, {{Transliteration|bo|Dbus-gtsang skad}} / {{Transliteration|bo|Ü-tsang kä}}
| pronunciation = {{IPA|bo|wýkɛʔ, wýʔtsáŋ kɛʔ|}}
| states = [[China]]
* [[Tibet Autonomous Region|Tibet]]
* [[Qinghai]]
* [[Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture|Garzê]]
* [[Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture|Ngawa]]
| region = [[Tibet]] ([[Ü-Tsang]], [[Amdo]] and [[Kham]])
| speakers = {{sigfig|1.223400|2}} million
| date = 1990–2014
| ref = e26
| image = Tibetanirv.png
| imagecaption = The name of the language written in the Tibetan script
| script = [[Tibetan script]]
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = [[Tibeto-Burman]]
| fam3 = [[Tibeto-Kanauri languages|Tibeto-Kanauri]] (?)
| fam4 = [[Bodish languages|Bodish]]
| fam5 = [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic]]
| stand1 = Lasetian
| stand2 = [[Standard Tibetan]]
| lc1 = bod
| ld1 = [[Lhasa Tibetan]]
| lc2 = dre
| ld2 = Dolpo
| lc3 = hut
| ld3 = [[Humla Tibetan language|Humla]], Limi
| lc4 = lhm
| ld4 = Lhomi (Shing Saapa)
| lc5 = muk
| ld5 = [[Mugom dialect|Mugom]] (Mugu)
| lc6 = kte
| ld6 = [[Nubri language|Nubri]]
| lc8 = ola
| ld8 = Walungge (Gola)
| lc9 = loy
| ld9 = Lowa/Loke (Mustang)
| lc10 = tcn
| ld10 = [[Tichurong language|Tichurong]]
| glotto = tibe1272
| glottoname = Tibetan
| glotto2 = sout3216
| glottoname2 = South-Western Tibetic (partial match)
| glottorefname2 = South-Western Tibetic
| glotto3 = basu1243
| glottoname3 = Basum
| ELP = 4918
| ELPname = Walungge
| ELP2 = 4105
| ELPname2 = Dolpo
| ELP3 = 5642
| ELPname3 = Lhomi
| map = Tibetan_language_distributon.jpg
| mapcaption = {{center|Areas where Tibetan language is spoken}}
| map2 = Lang Status 80-VU.svg
| mapcaption2 = {{center|Shingsaba is classified as Vulnerable by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''.}}
}}

'''Central Tibetan language''', also known as '''Ü-Tsang dialect''',<ref>http://www.minwang.com.cn/cncr/mzyy70/mzyyjcz/634701/index.html 卫藏方言 U-Tsang dialect</ref> '''Dbus Tibetan''', or '''Ü Tibetan''', is the most widely spoken [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic language]] and the basis of [[Standard Tibetan]].

''Dbus'' is the Wylie spelling of the name in [[Tibetan script]], <big>{{lang|bo|དབུས་}}</big>, whereas ''Ü'' is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, {{IPA|bo|wy˧˥˧ʔ|}} (or {{IPA|[y˧˥˧ʔ]}}). 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), [[Mugom dialect|Mugum]], [[Dolpo]] (Dolkha), [[Mustang (kingdom)|Mustang]] (Lowa, Lokä), [[Humla Tibetan language|Humla]], [[Nubri (language)|Nubri]], Lhomi, Dhrogpai Gola, [[Walungchung Gola]] (Walungge/Halungge), [[Tseku language|Tseku]]
: [[Basum language|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 Tibetan|Khams]].<ref>N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." ''Lalies'', 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [http://www.nicolas-tournadre.net/wp-content/uploads/multimedia/2005-aire.pdf]</ref>

Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with [[Amdo Tibetan]] and 80% lexical similarity with [[Khams Tibetan]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=China |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909075938/http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages |archive-date=2016-09-09 |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth Edition}}</ref>

Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the [[Lhasa]], [[Shigatse]], [[Gar County|Gar]], [[Sherpa language|Sherpa]], [[Basum language|Basum]], [[Gertse County|Gertse]], and [[Nagqu]] varieties.<ref>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}}.</ref>

===Ngari Tibetan===
'''Ngari Tibetan''', more specifically '''Stöd Ngari''' (as opposed to the language of pre-1842 [[Maryul|Lower Ngari]] that is now an [[Ladakhi language|independent language]]), is the endonym for a topolect spoken around [[Ngari Prefecture]], [[Tibet Autonomous Region|T.A.R.]] Traditionally, it is 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.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=江荻 |title=西藏的语言多样性及其分类 |journal=中国藏学 |issue=Jun 2022}}</ref> In Indian-administrated [[Tibet]] since the 1846 British invasion of Spiti, a related topolect is now known under the exonym "[[Lahuli–Spiti languages|Lahuli and Spiti]]".

== Consonants ==
{|
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]!![[Tibetan writing]]!![[Wade–Giles]]
![[Tibetan Pinyin]]
|-
|{{IPAblink|k}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཀ་]]}} || k
|g
|-
|{{IPAblink|kʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཁ་]] [[ག་]]}} || kh, g
|k
|-
|{{IPAblink|ŋ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ང་]]}} || ng
|ng
|-
|{{IPAblink|tɕ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཅ་]]}} || c
|j
|-
|{{IPAblink|tɕʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཆ་]] [[ཇ་]]}} || ch, j
|q
|-
|{{IPAblink|ɲ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཉ་]]}} || ny
|ny
|-
|{{IPAblink|t}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཏ་]]}} || t
|d
|-
|{{IPAblink|tʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཐ་]] [[ད་]]}} || th, d
|t
|-
|{{IPAblink|n}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ན་]]}} || n
|n
|-
|{{IPAblink|p}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[པ་]]}} || p
|b
|-
|{{IPAblink|pʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཕ་]] [[བ་]]}} || ph, b
|p
|-
|{{IPAblink|m}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[མ་]]}} || m
|m
|-
|{{IPAblink|ts}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཙ་]]}} || ts
|z
|-
|{{IPAblink|tsʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཚ་]] [[ཛ་]]}} || tsh, dz
|c
|-
|{{IPAblink|w}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཝ་]]}} || w
|w
|}
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]!![[Tibetan writing]]!![[Wade–Giles]]
![[Tibetan Pinyin]]
|-
|{{IPAblink|ɕ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཞ་]] [[ཤ་]]}} || zh, sh
|x
|-
|{{IPAblink|s}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཟ་ ས་]]}} || z, s
|s
|-
|{{IPAblink|j}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཡ་]]}} || y
|y
|-
|{{IPAblink|ɹ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ར་]]}} || r
|r
|-
|{{IPAblink|l}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ལ་]]}} || l
|l
|-
|{{IPAblink|h}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཧ་]]}} || h
|h
|-
|{{IPAblink|c}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཀྱ་]]}} || gy
|gy
|-
|{{IPAblink|cʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཁྱ་]] [[གྱ་]]}} || ky
|ky
|-
|{{IPAblink|tʂ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཀྲ་]]}} || kr
|zh
|-
|{{IPAblink|tʂʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཁྲ་]] [[གྲ་]]}} || khr, gr
|ch
|-
|{{IPAblink|ʂ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ཧྲ་]]}} || hr
|sh
|-
|{{IPAblink|ɬ}}|| {{bo-textonly|[[ལྷ་]]}} || lh
|lh
|}
|}
* [[འ]] is not commonly transliterated to Roman, in the [[Wade–Giles]] system ' is used.

== Vowels ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| [[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།]]|| [[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
|}

=== Pronunciation ===
{| class="wikitable"
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] !![[Wade–Giles]]!! [[Tibetan Pinyin]]
! IPA !!Wade–Giles!! Tibetan Pinyin
|-----
| {{IPA|[a]}} || a || a
| colspan =3 |
|-----
| {{IPA|[ɛ]}} || al, a'i || ai/ä || {{IPA|[ɛ̃]}} || an|| ain/än
|-----
| {{IPA|[i]}} || i, il, i'i || i || {{IPA|[ĩ]}} || in|| in
|-----
| {{IPA|[u]}} || u|| u
| colspan=3 |
|-----
| {{IPA|[y]}} || ul, u'i || ü || {{IPA|[ỹ]}} || un|| ün
|-----
| {{IPA|[e]}} || e, el, e'i || ê || {{IPA|[ẽ]}} || en|| ên
|-----
| {{IPA|[o]}} || o|| o
| colspan= 3 |
|-----
| {{IPA|[ø]}} || ol, o'i || oi/ö || {{IPA|[ø̃]}} || on|| oin/ön
|}
一"ai, ain, oi, oin" is also written to "ä, än, ö, ön".

==== Conjunct vowels ====
{| class="wikitable"
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] !![[Wade–Giles]]!! [[Tibetan Pinyin]]
|-----
| {{IPA|[au]}} || a'u || au
|-----
| {{IPA|[iu]}} || i'u, e'u|| iu
|}

=== Last consonant ===
{| class="wikitable"
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] !! [[Wade–Giles]]!! [[Tibetan Pinyin]]
|-----
| {{IPA|[ʔ]}} || d, s|| none
|-----
| {{IPA|[n]}} || || n
|-
| {{IPA|[k/ʔ]}} || g, gs|| g
|-----
| {{IPA|[ŋ]}} || ng, ngs|| ng
|-----
| {{IPA|[p]}} || b, bs|| b
|-----
| {{IPA|[m]}} || m, ms|| m
|-----
| {{IPA|[r]}} || r|| r
|}

==See also==
*[[Lhasa Tibetan]]
*[[Amdo Tibetan]]
*[[Ladakhi language]]
*[[Balti language]]
*[[Ü-Tsang]]
* [[Sound correspondences between Tibetic languages]]

==References==
{{interWiki|code=bo|Central Tibetan}}
{{reflist}}

{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Bodic languages}}
{{Languages of China}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Languages of China]]
[[Category:Languages of Nepal]]
[[Category:Central Bodish languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Tibet]]
[[Category:Languages written in Tibetan script]]
[[Category:Vulnerable languages]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of China]]
[[Category:Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages]]

Central Tibetan - Revision history

HungHay8926976 at 22:25, 10 May 2026