Central Tibetan

Template:Infobox language

Central Tibetan language, also known as Ü-Tsang dialect,^[1] Dbus Tibetan, or Ü Tibetan, is the most widely spoken Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan.

Dbus is the Wylie spelling of the name in Tibetan script, Template:Lang, whereas Ü is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, Template:IPA (or Template:IPA). 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.^[2]

Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Amdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity with Khams Tibetan.^[3]

Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the Lhasa, Shigatse, Gar, Sherpa, Basum, Gertse, and Nagqu varieties.^[4]

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 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.^[5] In Indian-administrated Tibet since the 1846 British invasion of Spiti, a related topolect is now known under the exonym "Lahuli and Spiti".

Consonants

IPA	Tibetan writing	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	k	g
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	kh, g	k
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ng	ng
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	c	j
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ch, j	q
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ny	ny
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	t	d
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	th, d	t
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	n	n
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	p	b
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ph, b	p
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	m	m
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ts	z
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	tsh, dz	c
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	w	w

IPA	Tibetan writing	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	zh, sh	x
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	z, s	s
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	y	y
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	r	r
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	l	l
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	h	h
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	gy	gy
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	ky	ky
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	kr	zh
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	khr, gr	ch
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	hr	sh
Template:IPAblink	Template:Bo-textonly	lh	lh

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

Vowels

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

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin	IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
Template:IPA	a	a
Template:IPA	al, a'i	ai/ä	Template:IPA	an	ain/än
Template:IPA	i, il, i'i	i	Template:IPA	in	in
Template:IPA	u	u
Template:IPA	ul, u'i	ü	Template:IPA	un	ün
Template:IPA	e, el, e'i	ê	Template:IPA	en	ên
Template:IPA	o	o
Template:IPA	ol, o'i	oi/ö	Template:IPA	on	oin/ön

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

Conjunct vowels

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
Template:IPA	a'u	au
Template:IPA	i'u, e'u	iu

Last consonant

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
Template:IPA	d, s	none
Template:IPA		n
Template:IPA	g, gs	g
Template:IPA	ng, ngs	ng
Template:IPA	b, bs	b
Template:IPA	m, ms	m
Template:IPA	r	r

References

Template:InterWiki

↑ http://www.minwang.com.cn/cncr/mzyy70/mzyyjcz/634701/index.html 卫藏方言 U-Tsang dialect
↑ 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).
↑ 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. Template:ISBN.
↑ 西藏的语言多样性及其分类. 中国藏学.

Template:Sino-Tibetan languages Template:Bodic languages Template:Languages of China

Template:Authority control

[1] ttp://www.minwang.com.cn/cncr/mzyy70/mzyyjcz/634701/index.html 卫藏方言 U-Tsang dialect

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

[3] China. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth Edition(2016).

[4] 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. Template:ISBN.

[5] 西藏的语言多样性及其分类. 中国藏学.

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