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Tibetan · Tibetan letters
Tibetan Alphabet
Tibetan script has 30 consonants (learned in the chart above, row by row), each with a built-in a, and four vowel signs written above or below. Syllables end with a dot (tsheg) and can stack letters on top of and under the main letter; many of those extra letters are silent in Lhasa speech but change the tone or the sound. The sounds follow the simple phonetic spelling used in the lessons (Lhasa pronunciation); each card also gives the Wylie spelling scholars use. Example words show where the letter is the main letter of the first syllable. Tibetan also has its own digits (༡ ༢ ༣ …).
Consonants · Row 1 Chart · Consonants · Row 2 Chart · Consonants · Row 3 Chart · Consonants · Row 4 Chart · Consonants · Row 5 Chart · Stacks Chart
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Consonants · Row 1: velars (throat)
ཀkaRow 1 (velars, throat) · column 1: high tone, unaspirated · Wylie ka · k as in 'skin', no puff of airཀོ་ཕི་ (kophi) coffee
ཁkhaRow 1 (velars, throat) · column 2: high tone, aspirated · Wylie kha · k with a puff of airཁང་མིག་ (khangmik) room
གgaRow 1 (velars, throat) · column 3: low tone (breathy in Lhasa, voiced in Amdo) · Wylie ga · in Lhasa a breathy kགོ་ (go) to understand
ངngaRow 1 (velars, throat) · column 4: low tone, nasal · Wylie nga · ng as in 'sing', also at the start of a wordང་ (nga) I
Consonants · Row 2: palatals
ཅchaRow 2 (palatals) · column 1: high tone, unaspirated · Wylie ca · ch, no puff of airཅི་ནི་ (chini) sugar
ཆchhaRow 2 (palatals) · column 2: high tone, aspirated · Wylie cha · ch with a puff of air (the lessons write ch)ཆུ་ (chu) water
ཇjaRow 2 (palatals) · column 3: low tone (breathy in Lhasa, voiced in Amdo) · Wylie ja · in Lhasa a breathy chཇ་ (ja) tea
ཉnyaRow 2 (palatals) · column 4: low tone, nasal · Wylie nya · ny as in 'canyon'ཉ་ (nya) fish
Consonants · Row 3: dentals
ཏtaRow 3 (dentals) · column 1: high tone, unaspirated · Wylie ta · t, no puff of airཏོག་ཙམ་ (tok-tsam) a little
ཐthaRow 3 (dentals) · column 2: high tone, aspirated · Wylie tha · t with a puff of air (not English 'th')ཐུག་པ་ (thukpa) noodle soup
དdaRow 3 (dentals) · column 3: low tone (breathy in Lhasa, voiced in Amdo) · Wylie da · in Lhasa a breathy tདེ་རིང་ (déring) today
ནnaRow 3 (dentals) · column 4: low tone, nasal · Wylie na · nནག་པོ་ (nakpo) black
Consonants · Row 4: labials (lips)
པpaRow 4 (labials, lips) · column 1: high tone, unaspirated · Wylie pa · p, no puff of airཔད་མ་ (péma) lotus
ཕphaRow 4 (labials, lips) · column 2: high tone, aspirated · Wylie pha · p with a puff of air (not f)ཕ་ཡུལ་ (phayul) homeland
བbaRow 4 (labials, lips) · column 3: low tone (breathy in Lhasa, voiced in Amdo) · Wylie ba · in Lhasa a breathy p; often w between vowelsབུད་མེད་ (bümé) woman
མmaRow 4 (labials, lips) · column 4: low tone, nasal · Wylie ma · mམིག་ (mik) eye
Consonants · Row 5: dental affricates (ts)
ཙtsaRow 5 (dental affricates, ts) · column 1: high tone, unaspirated · Wylie tsa · ts, no puff of airཙམ་པ་ (tsampa) roasted barley flour
ཚtshaRow 5 (dental affricates, ts) · column 2: high tone, aspirated · Wylie tsha · ts with a puff of air (the lessons write ts)ཚ་པོ་ (tsapo) hot
ཛdzaRow 5 (dental affricates, ts) · column 3: low tone (breathy in Lhasa, voiced in Amdo) · Wylie dza · a breathy tsམཛེས་པོ་ (dzepo) beautiful (མ in front is silent)
ཝwaRow 5 (dental affricates, ts) · column 4: low tone; w, not a nasal (the exception) · Wylie wa · w; rareཝ་ (wa) fox
Consonants · Rows 6–8 (no column pattern)
ཞzhaRow 6 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie zha · sh said low (written zh)ཞིམ་པོ་ (zhimpo) delicious
ཟzaRow 6 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie za · s said low (written z)ཟ་ (za) to eat
འaRow 6 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie ' (a-chung) · carries a bare vowel, or is a silent prefixའོ་མ་ (oma) milk
ཡyaRow 6 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie ya · y as in 'yes'ཡག་པོ་ (yakpo) good
རraRow 7 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie ra · rརིང་པོ་ (ringpo) long, tall
ལlaRow 7 (outside the column pattern) · low tone · Wylie la · lལམ་ (lam) road
ཤshaRow 7 (outside the column pattern) · high tone · Wylie sha · sh as in 'shop'ཤ་ (sha) meat
སsaRow 7 (outside the column pattern) · high tone · Wylie sa · sསེར་པོ་ (serpo) yellow
ཧhaRow 8 (outside the column pattern) · high tone · Wylie ha · hཧ་ཅང་ (hachang) very
ཨaRow 8 (outside the column pattern) · high tone · Wylie a · carries a bare vowelཨ་མ་ (ama) mother
Vowel signs & marks
ཀིkigigu ི above the letter · i as in 'ski'ཉིན་མོ་ (nyinmo) day
ཀུkuzhabkyu ུ under the letter · u as in 'rule'ཆུ་ (chu) water
ཀེkedrengbu ེ above the letter · e as in 'café'སེར་པོ་ (serpo) yellow
ཀོkonaro ོ above the letter · o as in 'go'ལོ་ (lo) year
་(syllable dot)tsheg · ends every syllable, a bit like a spaceབཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། (tashi delek) hello
།(end of phrase)shad · a vertical stroke that ends a phrase or sentence, like a full stopབཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། (tashi delek) hello
Endings (suffix letters)
ག-ksuffix ག · a short, clipped k (often barely heard)ནག་པོ་ (nakpo) black
ང-ngsuffix ང · ngཁང་མིག་ (khangmik) room
ད(silent)suffix ད · silent; turns a into é, o into ö, u into üཡོད་ (yö) to have, there is
ན-nsuffix ན · n; turns a into e, o into ö, u into üདོན་ (dön) meaning
བ-psuffix བ · a short, clipped pཐུབ་ (thub) can
མ-msuffix མ · mལམ་ (lam) road
འ(silent)suffix འ · silent, no changeདགའ་ (ga) to like
ར-rsuffix ར · r, softཏར་ (tar) to pay
ལ-lsuffix ལ · a soft l; turns a into e, o into ö, u into üཉལ་ (nyel) to sleep
ས(silent)suffix ས · silent; turns a into é, o into ö, u into üནས་ (né) from
Stacks: ra-, la- & sa-mgo (letter on top)
རྐkara-mgo: ར on top is silent · said like ཀརྐང་པ་ (kangpa) foot
རྒgara-mgo · said like ག, low tone without breathརྒན་པོ་ (genpo) old man
རྔngara-mgo · ng with a high toneརྔ་ (nga) drum
རྗjara-mgo · said like ཇ, low tone without breathརྗེས་ལ་ (jé-la) later
རྙnyara-mgo · ny with a high toneརྙིང་པ་ (nyingpa) old
རྟtara-mgo · said like ཏརྟ་ (ta) horse
རྡdara-mgo · said like ད, low tone without breathརྡོ་ (do) stone
རྣnara-mgo · n with a high toneརྣ་བ་ (nawa) ear
རྨmara-mgo · m with a high toneརྨ་ (ma) wound
རྩtsara-mgo · said like ཙརྩེད་མོ་ (tsémo) game
རྫdzara-mgo · said like ཛ, low tone without breathརྫོང་ (dzong) fortress
ལྔngala-mgo: ལ on top is silent · ng with a high toneལྔ་ (nga) five
ལྕchala-mgo · said like ཅལྕགས་ (chak) iron
ལྗjala-mgo · said like ཇ, low tone without breathལྗང་ཁུ་ (jangkhu) green
ལྟtala-mgo · said like ཏལྟ་ (ta) to look
ལྡdala-mgo · said like ད, low tone without breathལྡེ་མིག་ (démik) key
ལྤpala-mgo · said like པལྤགས་པ་ (pakpa) skin
ལྷlhala-mgo with ཧ · a breathy, voiceless l (lh)ལྷ་ས་ (Lhasa) Lhasa
སྐkasa-mgo: ས on top is silent · said like ཀསྐར་མ་ (karma) minute; star
སྒgasa-mgo · said like ག, low tone without breathསྒོ་ང་ (gonga) egg
སྔngasa-mgo · ng with a high toneསྔོན་པོ་ (ngönpo) blue
སྙnyasa-mgo · ny with a high toneསྙིང་ (nying) heart
སྟtasa-mgo · said like ཏསྟོང་པ་ (tongpa) empty
སྡdasa-mgo · said like ད, low tone without breathསྡོད་ (dö) to stay, live
སྣnasa-mgo · n with a high toneསྣ་ (na) nose
སྤpasa-mgo · said like པསྤུ་ (pu) body hair
སྦbasa-mgo · said like བ, low tone without breathསྦོམ་པོ་ (bompo) thick, big
སྨmasa-mgo · m with a high toneསྨན་ (men) medicine
Stacks: ya-, ra- & la-btags (letter below)
ཀྱkyaya-btags: ཡ below becomes ྱ · ky, high toneཀྱང་ (kyang) also, but
ཁྱkhyaya-btags · ky with a puff of airཁྱེད་རང་ (khyerang) you
གྱgyaya-btags · gy, low toneགྱོན་ (gyön) to wear
པྱchaya-btags · p + y is said ch (like ཅ)དཔྱིད་ཀ་ (chika) spring (season)
ཕྱchhaya-btags · ph + y is said ch with a puff of air (like ཆ)ཕྱི་དྲོ་ (chindro) afternoon
བྱjaya-btags · b + y is said j (like ཇ)བྱ་ (ja) bird
མྱnyaya-btags · m + y is said ny (like ཉ)མྱུར་པོ་ (nyurpo) fast
ཀྲtrara-btags: ར below becomes ྲ · k + r is said tr, high toneཀྲུང་གོ་ (Trunggo) China
ཁྲthrara-btags · kh + r is said tr with a puff of airཁྲོམ་ (throm) market
གྲdrara-btags · g + r is said dr, low toneགྲང་མོ་ (drangmo) cold
དྲdrara-btags · d + r is said dr, low toneདྲན་ (dren) to remember
ཕྲthrara-btags · ph + r is said tr with a puff of airཕྲ་མོ་ (thramo) thin, fine
བྲdrara-btags · b + r is said dr, low toneའབྲས་ (dré) rice (འ in front is silent)
སྲsara-btags · s + r is said sསྲིན་བུ་ (sinbu) insect
ཀླlala-btags: ལ below · the top letter is silent; said l, high toneཀློག་ (lok) to read
གླlala-btags · said l, high toneགླུ་ (lu) song
བླlala-btags · said l, high toneབླ་མ་ (lama) lama, teacher
ཟླdala-btags · z + l is said dཟླ་བ་ (dawa) moon, month
སླlala-btags · said l, high toneསླ་པོ་ (lapo) easy
རླlala-btags · said l, high toneརླུང་ (lung) wind
Prefix letters & wa-zur
གཉིསnyiprefix ག in front of ཉ · silent, but it gives the nasal a high toneགཉིས (nyi) two
དཀརkarprefix ད in front of ཀ · silentདཀར་པོ་ (karpo) white
བཞིzhiprefix བ in front of ཞ · silentབཞི (zhi) four
མཐོངthongprefix མ in front of ཐ · silent at the start of a word; can add an n or m sound inside a wordམཐོང་ (thong) to see
འགྲོdroprefix འ in front of གྲ · silent at the start of a word; can add an n or m sound inside a wordའགྲོ་ (dro) to go
ཚྭtsawa-zur ྭ · a small wa under the letter; silent, it only tells words apartཚྭ་ (tsa) salt
Numbers
༠0 · lékordigit zeroཀླད་ཀོར་ (lékor) zero
༡1 · chikdigit oneགཅིག (chik) one
༢2 · nyidigit twoགཉིས (nyi) two
༣3 · sumdigit threeགསུམ (sum) three
༤4 · zhidigit fourབཞི (zhi) four
༥5 · ngadigit fiveལྔ (nga) five
༦6 · drukdigit sixདྲུག (druk) six
༧7 · dündigit sevenབདུན (dün) seven
༨8 · gyédigit eightབརྒྱད (gyé) eight
༩9 · gudigit nineདགུ (gu) nine
༡༠10 · chutwo digits, like 10བཅུ (chu) ten (counting: ཅུ་ཐམ་པ chutampa)
Basic Tibetan phrases