View source for Social:Standard Tibetan

{{Infobox language
| name = Standard Tibetan
| nativename = {{bo-textonly|བོད་སྐད་}}, ''Bod skad / Böké''<br />{{bo-textonly|ལྷ་སའི་སྐད་}}, ''Lha-sa'i skad / Lhaséké''
| states = [[Place:Tibet|Tibet]] (Western China), Nepal, {{wipe|India}}
| region = Tibet Autonomous Region, [[Place:Kham|Kham]]
| speakers = 1.2 million<!--There are not 5–10 million native speakers of *Standard* Tibetan-->
| date = 1990 census
| ref = e18
| speakers2 = 
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = Tibeto-Kanauri ?
| fam3 = Bodish
| fam4 = [[Social:Tibetic languages|Tibetic]]
| fam5 = [[Social:Central Tibetan language|Central Tibetan]]
| ancestor = Old Tibetan
| ancestor2 = [[Social:Classical Tibetan|Classical Tibetan]]
| script = Tibetan alphabet<br />Tibetan Braille
| nation = {{flag|China}} (Tibet Autonomous Region)<br />{{flag|Nepal}} (Upper Mustang)<br />{{flag|India}} (Ladakh)
| agency = Committee for the Standardisation of the Tibetan Language{{NoteTag|{{bo |t = བོད་ཡིག་བརྡ་ཚད་ལྡན་དུ་སྒྱུར་བའི་ལས་དོན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་གིས་བསྒྲིགས་ |w = bod yig brda tshad ldan du sgyur ba'i las don u yon lhan khang gis bsgrigs }}; {{zh |s = 藏语术语标准化工作委员会 }} }}
| iso1 = bo
| iso2b = tib
| iso2t = bod
| iso3 = bod
| lingua = 70-AAA-ac
| notice = IPA
| glotto = tibe1272
| glottorefname = Tibetan
}}

'''Standard Tibetan'''{{NoteTag|{{bo|t=བོད་སྐད་|w=Bod skad|s=Böké|z=Pögä}}, {{IPA-bo|pʰø̀k˭ɛʔ|IPA}}; also {{bo|t=བོད་ཡིག་|w=Bod yig|s=Böyik|z=Pöyig}}{{Citation needed|date=November 2012}}}} is a widely spoken form of the [[Social:Tibetic languages|Tibetic languages]] that has many commonalities with the speech of Lhasa, an Ü-Tsang ([[Social:Central Tibetan language|Central Tibetan]]) dialect. For this reason, Standard Tibetan is often called '''Lhasa Tibetan'''.{{NoteTag|{{bo|t=ལྷ་སའི་སྐད་|w=Lha-sa'i skad|s=Lhaséké|z=Lasägä}}}} Tibetan is an official{{NoteTag|Local languages such as Tibetan have official status [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ethnic/2009-08/12/content_8559268.htm "according to the provisions of the self-government regulations for ethnic autonomous areas"] ("What is the right of self-government of ethnic autonomous areas?" Updated August 12, 2009). With specific reference to the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), the use of Tibetan (no dialect specified, taken to mean all dialects) is [http://www.gov.cn/english/official/2009-03/02/content_1248355_4.htm given priority over the Han Chinese language] ("Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet", official Chinese government site, retrieved October 15, 2010).}} language of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The written language is based on [[Social:Classical Tibetan|Classical Tibetan]] and is highly conservative.

== Registers ==
Like many languages, Standard Tibetan has a variety of [[Social:Register (sociolinguistics)|language registers]]:
* ''Phal-skad'' ("demotic language"): the vernacular speech.
* ''Zhe-sa'' ("polite respectful speech"): the formal spoken style, particularly prominent in Lhasa.
* ''Chos-skad'' ("religious {or book} language"): the literary style in which the scriptures and other classical works are written.<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Tibet |volume=12 |pages=916–928}}</ref>

== Grammar ==

=== Syntax and word order ===
Tibetan is an ergative language. Grammatical constituents broadly have head-final word order:
* adjectives generally follow nouns in Tibetan, unless the two are linked by a genitive particle
* objects and adverbs precede the verb, as do adjectives in copular clauses
* a noun marked with the genitive case precedes the noun which it modifies
* demonstratives and numerals follow the noun they modify

== Numerals ==
[[File:Stone tablets with prayers in Tibetan language at a Temple in McLeod Ganj.jpg|right|thumb|Stone tablets with prayers in Tibetan at a Temple in McLeod Ganj]]
[[File:Pejas, scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism, at a library in Dharamsala.jpg|right|thumb|''Pejas'', scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism, at a library in Dharamsala, India]]

Unlike many other languages of [[Place:East Asia|East Asia]]  and especially [[Social:Chinese language|Chinese]], another Sino-Tibetan language, there are no numeral auxiliaries or measure words used in counting in Tibetan although words expressive of a collective or integral are often used after the tens, sometimes after a smaller number.<ref name=EB1911/>

In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic [[Social:Sanskrit|Sanskrit]], are expressed by symbolical words.<ref name="EB1911" />

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Tibetan Numerals
| {{bo-textonly|༠}} || {{bo-textonly|༡}} || {{bo-textonly|༢}} || {{bo-textonly|༣}} || {{bo-textonly|༤}} || {{bo-textonly|༥}} || {{bo-textonly|༦}} || {{bo-textonly|༧}} || {{bo-textonly|༨}} || {{bo-textonly|༩}} 
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Hindu numerals
| ०|| १ || २ || ३ || ४ || ५ || ६ || ७ || ८ || ९
|- style="text-align:center;"
! [[Arabic numerals|Arabic numerals]]
| 0 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9
|}

== Writing system ==
Tibetan is written with an Indic script, with a historically conservative orthography that reflects Old Tibetan phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. It is also helpful in reconstructing Proto Sino-Tibetan and [[Social:Old Chinese|Old Chinese]].

[[Social:Wylie transliteration|Wylie transliteration]] is the most common system of [[Social:Romanization|romanization]] used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the Latin alphabet (such as employed on much of this page). [[Social:Tibetan pinyin|Tibetan pinyin]], however, is the official romanization system employed by the government of the People's Republic of China. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as ''Chomolungma'' for [[Earth:Mount Everest|Mount Everest]].

== Phonology of modern Lhasa Tibetan ==
The following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in Lhasa, the most influential variety of the spoken language.

=== Vowels ===
Tournadre and Sangda Dorje describe eight vowels in the standard language:

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
|+ class="nowrap" | Vowel [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]]s of Standard Tibetan
!
! Front
! Back
|-
! Close
| {{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|y}}
| {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! Close-mid
| {{IPA link|e}} {{IPA link|ø}}
| {{IPA link|o}}
|-
! Open-mid
| {{IPA link|ɛ}}
|
|-
! Open
|
| {{IPA link|ɑ}}
|}

Three additional vowels are sometimes described as significantly distinct: {{IPA|[ʌ]}} or {{IPA|[ə]}}, which is normally an allophone of {{IPA|/a/}}; {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, which is normally an allophone of {{IPA|/o/}}; and {{IPA|[ɛ̈]}} (an unrounded, centralised, mid front vowel), which is normally an allophone of {{IPA|/e/}}. These sounds normally occur in closed syllables; because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants, there are cases in which one syllable ends with the same sound as the one following it. The result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, ''zhabs'' (foot) is pronounced {{IPA|[ɕʌp]}} and ''pad'' (borrowing from Sanskrit ''padma'', lotus) is pronounced {{IPA|[pɛʔ]}}, but the compound word, ''zhabs pad'' is pronounced {{IPA|[ɕʌpɛʔ]}}. This process can result in minimal pairs involving sounds that are otherwise allophones.

Sources vary on whether the {{IPA|[ɛ̈]}} phone (resulting from {{IPA|/e/}} in a closed syllable) and the {{IPA|[ɛ]}} phone (resulting from {{IPA|/a/}} through the i-mutation) are distinct or basically identical.

Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetan's suffixes, normally ''‘i'' (འི་), at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan; the feature is sometimes omitted in phonetic transcriptions. In normal spoken pronunciation, a lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds {{IPA|[r]}} and {{IPA|[l]}} when they occur at the end of a syllable.

The vowels {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/y/}}, {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/ø/}}, and {{IPA|/ɛ/}} each have nasalized forms: {{IPA|/ĩ/}}, {{IPA|/ỹ/}}, {{IPA|/ẽ/}}, {{IPA|/ø̃/}}, and {{IPA|/ɛ̃/}}, respectively, which historically  results from {{IPA|/in/}}, {{IPA|/en/}}, etc. In some unusual cases, the vowels {{IPA|/a/}}, {{IPA|/u/}}, and {{IPA|/o/}} may also be nasalised.

=== Tones ===
The Lhasa dialect is usually described as having two tones: high and low. However, in monosyllabic words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. The high tone can be pronounced with either a flat or a falling contour, and the low tone can be pronounced with either a flat or rising-falling contour, the latter being a tone that rises to a medium level before falling again. It is normally safe to distinguish only between the two tones because there are very few minimal pairs that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in certain words ending in the sounds [m] or [ŋ]; for instance, the word ''kham'' ({{bo|t=ཁམ་}}, "piece") is pronounced {{IPA|[kʰám]}} with a high flat tone, whereas the word ''Khams'' ({{bo|t=ཁམས་}}, "the [[Place:Kham|Kham]] region") is pronounced {{IPA|[kʰâm]}} with a high falling tone.

In polysyllabic words, tone is not important except in the first syllable. This means that from the point of view of phonological typology, Tibetan could more accurately be described as a pitch-accent language than a true [[Social:Tone (linguistics)|tone language]], in which all syllables in a word can carry their own tone.

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ class="nowrap" | Consonant [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]]s of Standard Tibetan
! 
! colspan="2" | Bilabial
! colspan="2" | Alveolar
! colspan="2" | Retroflex
! colspan="2" | Palatal
! colspan="2" | Velar
! Glottal
|-
! Nasal
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|m}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|n}}
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|ɲ}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|
|-
! Stop
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|pʰ}}  || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|p}}
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|tʰ}}  || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|t}} 
| rowspan="2" style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|ʈʰ}} ~ {{IPA|ʈʂʰ}} || rowspan="2" style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|ʈ}} ~ {{IPA link|ʈʂ}}
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|cʰ}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|c}} 
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|kʰ}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
! Affricate
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|tsʰ}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|ts}}
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA|tɕʰ}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|tɕ}}
| colspan="2" | 
| 
|-
! Fricative
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|s}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|ʂ}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|ɕ}}
| colspan="2" | 
| {{IPA link|ɦ|h}}
|-
! Approximant
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|w}} ~ {{IPA link|ɥ}}
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA link|ɹ̥}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|ɹ}}
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|j}}
| colspan="2" | 
|
|-
! Lateral
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right: none;" | {{IPA link|l̥}} || style="border-left: none;" | {{IPA link|l}}
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|ʎ}}
| colspan="2" | 
|
|}

The unaspirated stops {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/c/}}, and {{IPA|/k/}} typically become voiced in the low tone and are pronounced {{IPA|[b]}}, {{IPA|[d]}}, {{IPA|[ɟ]}}, and {{IPA|[ɡ]}}, respectively. The sounds are regarded as allophones. Similarly, the aspirated stops {{IPA|[pʰ]}}, {{IPA|[tʰ]}}, {{IPA|[cʰ]}}, and {{IPA|[kʰ]}} are typically lightly aspirated in the low tone. The dialect of the upper social strata in Lhasa does not use voiced stops in the low tone.
# The alveolar trill ({{IPA|[r]}}) is in complementary distribution of the alveolar approximant {{IPA|[ɹ]}}; therefore, both are treated as one phoneme.
# The voiceless alveolar lateral approximant {{IPA|[l̥]}} resembles the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative {{IPA|[ɬ]}} found in languages such as [[Social:Welsh language|Welsh]] and [[Biography:Zulu language|Zulu]] and is sometimes transcribed {{angbr IPA|ɬ}}.
# The consonants {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/r/}}, {{IPA|/l/}}, and {{IPA|/k/}} may appear in syllable-final positions. The Classical Tibetan final {{IPA|/n/}} is still present, but its modern pronunciation is normally realized as a nasalisation of the preceding vowel, rather than as a discrete consonant (see above). However, {{IPA|/k/}} is not pronounced in the final position of a word except in very formal speech. Also, syllable-final {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} are often not clearly pronounced but  realized as a lengthening of the preceding vowel. The phonemic glottal stop {{IPA|/ʔ/}} appears only at the end of words in the place of {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, or {{IPA|/k/}}, which were pronounced in Classical Tibetan but have since been elided. For instance, the word for [[Place:Tibet|Tibet]] itself was ''Bod'' in Classical Tibetan but is now pronounced {{IPA|[pʰø̀ʔ]}} in the Lhasa dialect.

== Verbal system ==
The standard Tibetan verbal system distinguishes four tenses and three evidential moods.<ref>
{{cite journal
 | last = Hill
 | first = Nathan W. 
 | title = ḥdug as a testimonial marker in Classical and Old Tibetan
 | journal = Himalayan Linguistics
 | volume = 12
 | issue = 1
 | page = 2
 | date = 2013
 | language =
 | url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/16698/
 | jstor =
 | issn =
 | doi =
 | id =
 | mr =
 | zbl =
 | jfm =
 | access-date = }}
</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!  !! Future !! Present !! Past !! Perfect
|-
| Personal || V-''gi-yin'' || V-''gi-yod'' || V-''pa-yin'' / ''byuṅ'' || V-''yod''
|-
| Factual || V-''gi-red'' || V-''gi-yod-pa-red'' || V-''pa-red'' || V-''yod-pa-red''
|-
| Testimonial ||  ------- || V-''gi-ḥdug'' || V-''soṅ'' || V-''bźag''
|}
The three moods may all occur with all three grammatical persons, though early descriptions associated the personal modal category with European first-person agreement.<ref>
{{cite journal
 | last = Hill 
 | first = Nathan W. 
 | title = Contextual semantics of 'Lhasa' Tibetan evidentials
 | journal = SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics
 | volume = 10
 | issue = 3
 | pages = 47–54
 | date = 2013
 | language =
 | url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/17855/
 | jstor =
 | issn =
 | doi =
 | id =
 | mr =
 | zbl =
 | jfm =
 | access-date = }}
</ref>

== Counting system ==
Standard Tibetan has a base-10 counting system.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/manualofstandard00nico|title=Manual of Standard Tibetan: Language and civilization|last=Tournadre|first=Nicolas|last2=Dorje|first2=Sangda|date=2003|publisher=Snow Lion Publications|isbn=1559391898|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|pages=|oclc=53477676}}</ref> The basic units of the counting system of Standard Tibetan is given in the table below in both the Tibetan script and a [[Social:Romanization|Romanisation]] for those unfamiliar with Written Tibetan.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Written
Tibetan
!Tibetan
(Roman)
![[Arabic numerals|Arabic]]
[[Arabic numerals|numerals]]
!
!Written
Tibetan
!Tibetan
(Roman)
!Arabic
numerals
!
!Written
Tibetan
!Tibetan
(Roman)
!Arabic
numerals
|-
|{{bo-textonly|གཅིག}}་
|chig
|1
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་}}
|nyishu tsa ji
|21
|
|{{bo-textonly|བཞི་བརྒྱ་}}
|zhi kya
|400
|-
|{{bo-textonly|གཉིས་}}
|nyi
|2
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩགཉིས་}}
|nyishu tsa nyi
|22
|
|{{bo-textonly|ལྔ་བརྒྱ་}}
|nyi kya
|500
|-
|{{bo-textonly|གསུམ་}}
|sum
|3
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩགསུམ་}}
|nyishu tsa sum
|23
|
|{{bo-textonly|དྲུག་བརྒྱ་}}
|drug kya
|600
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཞི་}}
|zhi
|4
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩབཞི་}}
|nyishu tsa zhi
|24
|
|{{bo-textonly|བདུན་བརྒྱ་}}
|dün kya
|700
|-
|{{bo-textonly|ལྔ་}}
|nga
|5
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་ལྔ་}}
|nyishu tsa nga
|25
|
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱད་བརྒྱ་}}
|kyed kya
|800
|-
|{{bo-textonly|དྲུག་}}
|drug
|6
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩདྲུག་}}
|nyishu tsa drug
|26
|
|{{bo-textonly|དགུ་བརྒྱ་}}
|ku kya
|900
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བདུན་}}
|dün
|7
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩབདུན་}}
|nyishu tsa dün
|27
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཆིག་སྟོང་}}
|chig tong
|1000
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱད་}}
|gyed
|8
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩབརྒྱད་}}
|nyishu tsa gyed
|28
|
|ཁྲི
|khri
|10,000
|-
|{{bo-textonly|དགུ་}}
|gu
|9
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ་རྩདགུ་}}
|nyishu tsa gu
|29
|
|
|
|
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་}}
|chu
|10
|
|{{bo-textonly|སུམ་ཅུ}}
|sum cu
|30
|
|{{bo-textonly|སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གཅིག}}
|sum cu so chig
|31
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་གཅིག་}}
|chugchig
|11
|
|{{bo-textonly|བཞི་བཅུ}}
|ship cu
|40
|
|{{bo-textonly|བཞི་ཅུ་ཞེ་གཅིག}}
|ship cu she chig
|41
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་གཉིས་}}
|chunyi
|12
|
|{{bo-textonly|ལྔ་བཅུ}}
|ngap cu
|50
|
|{{bo-textonly|ལྔ་བཅུ་ང་གཅིག}}
|ngap cu nga chig
|51
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་གསུམ་}}
|choksum
|13
|
|{{bo-textonly|དྲུག་ཅུ}}
|trug cu
|60
|
|{{bo-textonly|དྲུག་ཅུ་རེ་གཅིག}}
|trug cu re chig
|61
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་བཞི་}}
|chushi
|14
|
|{{bo-textonly|བདུན་ཅུ}}
|dün cu
|70
|
|{{bo-textonly|བདུན་ཅུ་དོན་གཅིག}}
|dün cu dhon chig
|71
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅོ་ལྔ་}}
|chonga
|15
|
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱད་ཅུ}}
|gyed cu
|80
|
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱད་ཅུ་གྱ་གཅིག}}
|gyed cu gya chig
|81
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་དྲུག་}}
|chudrug
|16
|
|{{bo-textonly|དགུ་བཅུ}}
|gup cu
|90
|
|{{bo-textonly|དགུ་བཅུ་གོ་གཅིག}}
|gup cu go chig
|91
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་བདུན་}}
|chubdun
|17
|
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱ་}}
|kya
|100
|
|{{bo-textonly|བརྒྱ་དང་གཅིག}}
|kya tang chig
|101
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅོ་བརྒྱད་}}
|chobgyed
|18
|
|{{bo-textonly|རྒྱ་དང་ལྔ་བཅུ་}}
|kya tang ngap cu
|150
|
|
|
|
|-
|{{bo-textonly|བཅུ་དགུ་}}
|chudgu
|19
|
|{{bo-textonly|ཉིས་བརྒྱ་}}
|nyi kya
|200
|
|
|
|
|-
|{{bo-textonly|ཉི་ཤུ།་}}
|nyishu
|20
|
|{{bo-textonly|སུམ་བརྒྱ་}}
|sum kya
|300
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|འབུམ
|bum
|100,000
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|ས་ཡ
|saya
|1,000,000
(1 Million)
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|བྱེ་བ
|che wa
|10,000,000
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|དུང་ཕྱུར
|tung chur
|100,000,000<ref>{{Cite web|last=lywa|date=2015-04-02|title=Tibetan Numbers|url=https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/tibetan-numbers|access-date=2020-06-30|website=www.lamayeshe.com|language=en}}</ref>
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|ཐེར་འབུམ
|ter bum
|1,000,000,000
(1 Billion)
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|}

== Scholarship ==
In the 18th and 19th centuries several Western linguists arrived in Tibet:
* The Capuchin friars who settled in Lhasa for a quarter of century from 1719:<ref name=EB1911/>
** Francesco della Penna, well known from his accurate description of Tibet,<ref name=EB1911/>
** Cassian di Macerata sent home materials which were used by the Augustine friar Aug. Antonio Georgi of Rimini (1711–1797) in his ''Alphabetum Tibetanum'' (Rome, 1762, 4t0), a ponderous and confused compilation, which may be still referred to, but with great caution.<ref name=EB1911/>
* The Hungarian Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (1784–1842), who published the first Tibetan–European language dictionary (Classical Tibetan and English in this case) and grammar, ''Essay Towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English''.
* Heinrich August Jäschke of the Moravian mission which was established in Ladakh in 1857,<ref name=EB1911/> ''Tibetan Grammar'' and ''A Tibetan–English Dictionary''.
* At St Petersburg, Isaac Jacob Schmidt published his ''Grammatik der tibetischen Sprache'' in 1839 and his ''Tibetisch-deutsches Wörterbuch'' in 1841. His access to Mongolian sources had enabled him to enrich the results of his labours with a certain amount of information unknown to his predecessors. His ''Tibetische Studien'' (1851–1868) is a valuable collection of documents and observations.<ref name=EB1911/>
* In France, P. E. Foucaux published in 1847 a translation from the ''Rgya tcher rol-pa'', the Tibetan version of the ''Lalita Vistara'', and in 1858 a ''Grammaire thibétaine''.<ref name=EB1911/>
* Ant. Schiefner of St Petersburg in 1849 his series of translations and researches.<ref name=EB1911/>
* Theos Casimir Bernard, a PhD scholar of religion from Columbia University, explorer and practitioner of Yoga and Tibetan Buddhism, published, after his 1936/37 trip to India and Tibet, {{Citation | year=1946 | title=A Simplified Grammar of the Literary Tibetan Language}}. See the 'Books' section.

Indian indologist and linguist Rahul Sankrityayan wrote a Tibetan grammar in [[Social:Hindi|Hindi]]. Some of his other works on Tibetan were:
# Tibbati Bal-Siksha, 1933
# Pathavali (Vols. 1, 2, 3), 1933
# Tibbati Vyakaran, 1933
# Tibbat May Budh Dharm, 1948

* Japanese linguist Kitamura Hajime published a grammar and dictionary of Lhasa Tibetan

== Contemporary usage ==
In much of Tibet, primary education is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach [[Social:Middle school|middle school]]. However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan [[Social:Secondary school|secondary school]]s. In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba, Sichuan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/classroom-04092020184114.html|title=Classroom Instruction Switch From Tibetan to Chinese in Ngaba Sparks Worry, Anger|date=9 April 2020|accessdate=12 April 2020|authors=Lobe Socktsang, Richard Finney.|translator=Dorjee Damdul}}</ref> Students who continue on to [[Social:Tertiary education|tertiary education]] have the option of studying humanistic disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China.<ref>Postiglione, Jiao and Gyatso. "Education in Rural Tibet: Development, Problems and Adaptations". ''China: An International Journal''. Volume 3, Number 1, March 2005, pp. 1–23</ref> That contrasts with Tibetan schools in Dharamsala, India, where the Ministry of Human Resource Development curriculum requires academic subjects to be taught in English from middle school.<ref>Maslak, Mary Ann. "School as a site of Tibetan ethnic identity construction in India". China: An International Journal. Volume 60, Number 1, February 2008, pp. 85–106</ref> Literacy and enrollment rates continue to be the main concern of the Chinese government. Much of the adult population in Tibet remains illiterate, and despite [[Social:Compulsory education|compulsory education]] policies, many parents in rural areas are unable to send their children to school.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

In February 2008, Norman Baker, a UK MP, released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day claiming, "The Chinese government are following a deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/report-reveals-determined-chinese-assault-tibetan-language |title=Report reveals determined Chinese assault on Tibetan language  |author= |date= |work= Press Release – 21st February 2008|publisher= Free Tibet|accessdate=7 February 2010}}</ref> However, Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has noted that "within certain limits the PRC does make efforts to accommodate Tibetan cultural expression" and "the cultural activity taking place all over the Tibetan plateau cannot be ignored."<ref>Elliot Sperling, "Exile and Dissent: The Historical and Cultural Context", in ''TIBET SINCE 1950: SILENCE, PRISON, OR EXILE'' 31–36 (Melissa Harris & Sydney Jones eds., 2000).</ref>

Some scholars also question such claims because most Tibetans continue to reside in rural areas where Chinese is rarely spoken, as opposed to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities where Chinese can often be heard. In the ''Texas Journal of International Law'', Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error. Tibetan was the main language of instruction in 98% of TAR primary schools in 1996; today, Mandarin is introduced in early grades only in urban schools.... Because less than four out of ten TAR Tibetans reach secondary school, primary school matters most for their cultural formation."<ref>Sautman, B. 2003. “Cultural Genocide and Tibet,” Texas Journal of International Law 38:2:173-246</ref>

Recently, the Yushul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate People's Court sentenced Tashi Wangchuk to five years in prison on 22 May 2018. Part of the evidence used in court was a ''New York Times'' video entitled, "Tashi Wangchuk: A Tibetan’s Journey for Justice" by Jonah M. Kessel. The accompanying text states,  "To his surprise, he could not find one, even though nearly everyone living in this market town on the Tibetan plateau here is Tibetan. Officials had also ordered other monasteries and a private school in the area not to teach the language to laypeople. And public schools had dropped true bilingual education in Chinese and Tibetan, teaching Tibetan only in a single class, like a foreign language, if they taught it at all. 'This directly harms the culture of Tibetans,' said Mr. Tashi, 30, a shopkeeper who is trying to file a lawsuit to compel the authorities to provide more Tibetan education. 'Our people’s culture is fading and being wiped out.'"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/world/asia/china-tibet-language-education.html|title=Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China|last=Wong|first=Edward|date=28 November 2015|work={{wipe|The New York Times}}|access-date=2019-03-19|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The most important Tibetan branch of language under threat is, however, the Ladakhi language of the Western Tibetan group, in the Ladakh region of India. In [[Place:Leh|Leh]], a slow but gradual process is underway whereby the Tibetan vernacular is being supplanted by English and Hindi, and there are signs of a gradual loss of Tibetan cultural identity in the area.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} The adjacent Balti language is also in severe danger, and unlike Ladakhi, it has already been replaced by [[Social:Urdu|Urdu]] as the main language of [[Place:Baltistan|Baltistan]], particularly due to settlers speaking Urdu from other areas moving to that area.

== Machine translation software and applications ==
An incomplete list of machine translation software or applications that can translate Tibetan language from/to a variety of other languages.

* 藏译通 - Zangyitong, a mobile app for translating between Tibetan and Chinese.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/2019-11/23/c_1125266355.htm |title=藏语翻译软件应用"藏译通"上线-新华网 |publisher=Xinhuanet.com |date= |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1171124.shtml |title=AI-based Tibetan-Putonghua translation app empowers ethnic culture - Global Times |publisher=Globaltimes.cn |date=2019-11-25 |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>
* 青海弥陀翻译 – A Beta-version WeChat Mini Program that translate between Tibetan language to/from Chinese. (invitation from WeChat users only)
* 腾讯民汉翻译 – A WeChat Mini Program that translate between Tibetan language to/from Chinese.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://new.qq.com/omn/20190430/20190430A0A1CN.html |title=腾讯推出民汉翻译小程序 |publisher=New.qq.com |date=2019-04-30 |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>
* THL Tibetan to English Translation Tool - A webpage that annotates Tibetan text various English meanings and translations, with 10+ dictionaries integrated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictionaries/tibetan-dictionary/translate.php |title=The Tibetan and Himalayan Library |publisher=Thlib.org |date= |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> A downloadable version is also available.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thlib.org/tools/wiki/Tibetan%20Translation%20Tool.html |title=The Tibetan and Himalayan Library |publisher=Thlib.org |date= |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>
* 中国社科院 藏汉(口语)机器翻译 - A demonstrative website (slow in response) translating Tibetan to Chinese, developed by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It works well on Tibetan text from official Chinese News websites.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tibetan.iea.cass.cn:8081/tool/mt/ |title=藏语自然语言处理展示台 |publisher=Tibetan.iea.cass.cn:8081 |date= |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>
* Panlex - A multilingual translation website with a few Tibetan words.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.panlex.org/?lang=eng-000 |title=PanLex Translator |publisher=Translate.panlex.org |date= |accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>

== See also ==
* Amdo Tibetan language
* Khams Tibetan language
* Languages of Bhutan

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Citation
 | last=Bernard | first=Theos C.
 | year=1946
 | title=A Simplified Grammar of the Literary Tibetan Language
 | place =Santa Barbara, California
 | publisher =Tibetan Text Society
 | isbn =
 | postscript=.
}}
* {{Citation
 | year=1902
 | title=Tibetan–English Dictionary (with Sanskrit Synonyms)
 | location=Calcutta | publisher=Bengal Secretariat Book Depot
 | url=https://archive.org/details/atibetanenglish00dasgoog
 | postscript=.
}}. Reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Dehli, {{ISBN|81-208-1713-3}}.
* {{Citation
 | last=Hodge | first=Stephen
 | year=2003
 | title=An Introduction to Classical Tibetan
 | place =
 | publisher =Orchid Press
 | isbn =974-524-039-7
 | postscript=.
}}
* {{Citation
 | year=2004
 | title=A short practical grammar of the Tibetan language, with special reference to the spoken dialects
 | place =London
 | publisher =Hardinge Simpole
 | isbn =1-84382-077-3
 | postscript=.
}} " ... contains a facsimile of the original publication in manuscript, the first printed version of 1883, and the later Addenda published with the Third Edition."—P. [4] of cover./ First edition published in Kye-Lang in Brit. Lahoul by the author, in manuscript, in 1865.
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=kqACAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage|title=Romanized Tibetan and English dictionary|first=Heinrich August|last=Jäschke|authormask=2|year=1866|publisher=|accessdate=2011-06-30}}(Original from Oxford University)
* {{cite book|title=A Tibetan–English dictionary, with special reference to the prevailing dialects: To which is added an English-Tibetan vocabulary|first=Heinrich August|last=Jäschke|authormask=2|year=1881|publisher=Unger Brothers (T. Grimm)|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/atibetanenglish00jsgoog}}
* {{cite book|title=Tibetan grammar|first=Heinrich August|last=Jäschke|authormask=2|editor=Heinrich Wenzel|year=1883|publisher=Trübner & co.|edition=2nd|location=London|volume=7|series=Trübner's collection of simplified grammars|url=https://archive.org/details/TibetanGrammarByH.A.Jschke}}
* Kopp, Teresa Kunkel. 1998. ''Verbalizers in Lhasa Tibetan.'' PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Arlington.
* Naga, Sangye Tandar. (2010). "Some Reflections on the Mysterious Nature of Tibetan Language" In: ''The Tibet Journal'', Special issue. Autumn 2009 vol XXXIV n. 3-Summer 2010 vol XXXV n. 2. "The Earth Ox Papers", edited by Roberto Vitali, pp.&nbsp;561–566.
* {{cite book |title=Hand-book of colloquial Tibetan: A practical guide to the language of Central Tibet|first=Graham |last=Sandberg |year=1894 |publisher=Thacker, Spink & Co. |location=Calcutta |url = https://archive.org/details/handbookcolloqu00sandgoog }}(Original from Harvard University)
* {{Citation
 | first1=Nicolas
 | last1=Tournadre
 | first2=Sangda
 | last2=Dorje
 | year=2003
 | title=Manual of Standard Tibetan
 | place=New York
 | publisher=Snow Lion Publications
 | isbn=1-55939-189-8
 | postscript=.
 | url=https://archive.org/details/manualofstandard00nico
 }}
* Hahn, Michael. “Foundational Questions of Tibetan Morphology.” ''The Tibet Journal'', vol. 33, no. 2, 1 July 2008, pp.&nbsp;3–19.

== External links ==
{{interwiki|code=bo}}
* [http://www.incks.com/en/tibetan.html Online Keyboard for Tibetan]

{{-}}
{{Languages of China}}


[[Category:Languages of China]]

{{Sourceattribution|Standard Tibetan|1}}