The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China for personal name and place names. It is based on the Lhasa dialect of Standard Tibetan and reflects the pronunciation very accurately, except that it doesn't mark tone. It is used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script; for use within academic circles, Wylie transliteration is more commonly used.
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Independent onset occured in initial syllable of a word is transcribed as following:
| ཀ་ | ཁ་ ག་ |
ང་ | ཅ་ | ཆ་ཇ་ | ཉ་ | ཏ་ | ཐ་ ང་ |
ན་ | པ་ | ཕ་ བ་ |
མ་ | ཙ་ | ཚ་ ཛ་ |
ཝ་ | ཞ་ ཤ་ |
ཟ་ ས་ |
ཡ་ | ར་ | ལ་ | ཧ་ | ཀྱ་ | ཁྱ་ གྱ་ |
ཀྲ་ | ཁྲ་ གྲ་ |
ཧྲ་ | ལྷ་ |
| g | k | ng | j | q | ny | d | t | n | b | p | m | z | c | w | x | s | y | r | l | h | gy | ky | zh | ch | sh | lh |
For more general case, see #Onsets.
The seventeen vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in Tibetan pinyin 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 | |
| u | u | ũ | un |
| o | o | õ | on |
| ɔ | o | ||
| y | ü | ün | |
| ø | oi/ö | ø̃ | oin/ön |
Syllable-final -r is usually not spoken, but lengthens the preceding vowel. Syllable-final -n of the written forms usually nasalises the preceding vowel. This is how syllable-final consonants are transcribed:
| IPA | Tibetan pinyin |
|---|---|
| p | b |
| ʔ | g/— |
| r | r |
| m | m |
| ŋ | ng |
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).
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 |
|---|---|---|
| pá | p, sp, dp, lp | b |
| pà | rb, sb, sbr | b |
| mpà | lb, ’b | b |
| pʰá | ph, ’ph | p |
| pʰà | b | p |
| má | rm, sm, dm, smr | m |
| mà | m, mr | m |
| wà | w, db, b[1] | w |
| tá | t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld | d |
| ntá | lth | d |
| tà | rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd | d |
| ntà | zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d | d |
| tʰá | th, mth, ’th | t |
| tʰà | d, dw | t |
| ná | rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn | n |
| nà | n | n |
| lá | kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl | l |
| là | l, lw | l |
| l̥á | lh | lh |
| tsá | ts, rts, sts, rtsw, stsw, gts, bts, brts, bsts | z |
| tsà | rdz, gdz, brdz | z |
| ntsà | mdz, ’dz | z |
| tsʰá | tsh, tshw, mtsh, ’tsh | c |
| tsʰà | dz | c |
| sá | s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr | s |
| sà | z, zw, gz, bz | s |
| ʈá | kr, rkr, lkr, skr, tr, pr, lpr, spr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr | zh |
| ʈà | rgr, lgr, sgr, dgr, dbr, bsgr, rbr, lbr, sbr | zh |
| ɳʈà | mgr, ’gr, ’dr, ’br | zh |
| ʈʰá | khr, thr, phr, mkhr, ’khr, ’phr | ch |
| ʈʰà | gr, dr, br, grw | ch |
| ʂá | hr | sh |
| rà | r, rw | r |
| cá | ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky | gy |
| cà | rgy, lgy, sgy, dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy | gy |
| ɲcà | mgy, ’gy | gy |
| cʰá | khy, mkhy, ’khy | ky |
| cʰà | gy | ky |
| tɕá | c, cw, gc, bc, lc, py, lpy, spy, dpy | j |
| tɕà | rby, lby, sby, rj, gj, brj, dby | j |
| ɲtɕà | lj, mj, ’j, ’by | j |
| tɕʰá | ch, mch, ’ch, phy, ’phy | q |
| tɕʰà | j, by | q |
| ɕá | sh, shw, gsh, bsh | x |
| ɕà | zh, zhw, gzh, bzh | x |
| ɲá | rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw, rmy, smy | ny |
| ɲà | ny, my | ny |
| já | g.y | y |
| jà | y | y |
| ká | k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk | g |
| kà | rg, lg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg | g |
| ŋkà | lg, mg, ’g | g |
| kʰá | kh, khw, mkh, ’kh | k |
| kʰà | g, gw | k |
| ŋá | rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng | ng |
| ŋà | ng | ng |
| ʔá | —, db | — |
| ʔà | ’ | — |
| há | h, hw | h |
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word. If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see #Coda variation.
Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌").
| ཨ། | ཨའུ། | ཨག། ཨགས། |
ཨང༌། ཨངས། |
ཨབ། ཨབས། |
ཨམ། ཨམས། |
ཨར། | ཨལ། ཨའི། |
ཨད། ཨས། |
ཨན། |
| a | au | ag | ang | ab | am | ar | ai/ä | ai/ä | ain/än |
| ཨི། ཨིལ། ཨའི། |
ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ། |
ཨིག། ཨིགས། |
ཨིད། ཨིས། |
ཨིང༌། ཨིངས། |
ཨིབ། ཨིབས། |
ཨིམ། ཨིམས། |
ཨིར། | ཨིན། | |
| i | iu | ig | i | ing | ib | im | ir | in | |
| ཨུ། | ཨུག། ཨུགས། |
ཨུང༌། ཨུངས། |
ཨུབ། ཨུབས། |
ཨུམ། ཨུམས། |
ཨུར། | ཨུལ། ཨུའི། |
ཨུད། ཨུས། |
ཨུན། | |
| u | ug | ung | ub | um | ur | ü | ü | ün | |
| ཨེ། ཨེལ། ཨེའི། |
ཨེག། ཨེགས། |
ཨེད། ཨེས། |
ཨེང༌། ཨེངས། |
ཨེབ། ཨེབས། |
ཨེམ། ཨེམས། |
ཨེར། | ཨེན། | ||
| ê | êg | ê | êng | êb | êm | êr | ên | ||
| ཨོ། | ཨོག། ཨོགས། |
ཨོང༌། ཨོངས། |
ཨོབ། ཨོབས། |
ཨོམ། ཨོམས། |
ཨོར། | ཨོལ། ཨོའི། |
ཨོད། ཨོས། |
ཨོན། | |
| o | og | ong | ob | om | or | oi/ö | oi/ö | oin/ön |
Sometimes there's intersyllable influence, e.g.:
| Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | Expl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ། | Mapam Yumco | w=ma-pham g.yu-mtsho/ | [] | 前加字提前 (How to tranlate Tibetan concept "前加字" in English?) |
| ཁྲ་འབྲུག་དགོན་པ། | Changzhug Gönba | w=khra-’brug dgon-pa/ | [ʈ͡ʂʰaŋʈ͡ʂ˭uk k˭ø̃p˭a] |
| Tibetan Script | Wylie | Tibetan pinyin | Tournadre | 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 |
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