Tibetan language

The Tibetan (Tibetan: བོད་ སྐད Wylie bod skad ) belongs to the Tibeto-Burman languages of Asia . It is spoken by about six million people, most of whom live in Tibet ( People's Republic of China ). There are also around 130,000 Tibetans in exile, mainly in Nepal , India and Bhutan . The language is written using the Tibetan alphabet , which is likely derived from a type of ancient Indian Brahmi script .

Tibetan ( བོད་ ཡིག )
Spoken in	China (regions: Tibet , Qinghai , Gansu , Sichuan , Yunnan ), India (regions: border areas with Tibet), Pakistan ( Baltistan ), Nepal , Bhutan
speaker	6 million
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burmese Tibetan Tibetan
Official status
Official language in	Tibet
Language codes
ISO 639 -1	bo
ISO 639 -2	( B ) tib	( T ) bod
ISO 639-3	bod

Official and sociolinguistic status

Along with standard Chinese, Tibetan is the official language of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and other parts of China with a Tibetan population.

The Tibetans are one of the least assimilated ethnic groups in China. 84% of Tibetans in Tibet communicate primarily in Tibetan.

Legal situation

The 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China states:

"All nationalities are free to use and develop their own language and script [...]"

- Article 4

"In exercising their functions, the organs of self-government of the regions with national autonomy use the language or languages ​​used in the area concerned in accordance with the provisions of the autonomy regulations of the respective areas, both spoken and written."

- Article 121

In 1987, the Tibetan Government issued "Provisional Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Teaching, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language and Script", and in 1988 "Detailed Implementing Regulations of the Provisional Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Teaching, Use and Development Development of the Tibetan Language and Writing ”and, in 2002, the“ Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Teaching, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language and Writing ”

For the development and standardization of the language, the State Committee for the Terminological Standardization of Tibetan ( བོད་ ཡིག་ བརྡ་ ཚད་ ལྡན་ དུ་ སྒྱུར་ བའི་ ལས་དོན་ ཡོན་ ལྷན་ཁང་ གིས་ བསྒྲིགས , Chinese  藏語 術語 標準化 工作 委員會  /  藏语 术语 标准化 工作 委员会 ) responsible.

Literacy

According to the data of the last two censuses, the illiteracy rate among Tibetans was 69.39% in 1990 (compared with 22.21% of the total population in China); by the year 2000 it could be reduced by 31.47% to 47.55% (total population: 9.08%).

school-system

Tibet

In 98% of the primary schools in Tibet, the language of instruction is Tibetan and 92% of the primary school teachers are Tibetan; at the same time, Chinese is taught as a foreign language. In 2002, there were 181 textbooks covering 16 subjects in Tibetan and while eight glossaries of scientific terminology were created, mathematics, physics, and chemistry are generally taught in Chinese in middle schools. The texts in the textbooks on the Tibetan language and literature ( gaiyig སྐད་ ཡིག་ , Chinese  语文 , Pinyin yǔwén ) come from 47% modern and contemporary Tibetan literature, 29% from traditional Tibetan literature and 24% from translations from Chinese . At Tibetan universities and colleges, the language of instruction is mostly Chinese, except in subjects related to Tibetan history, language and literature, and traditional Tibetan medicine.

According to the regulations, Han Chinese in Tibet should also learn Tibetan, but this regulation is generally ignored today.

Exiles in India

At the Tibetan schools in India the language of instruction was exclusively English until 1985; Today some elementary schools teach partly in Tibetan for the first five years, from the sixth year only in English and all middle school textbooks are in English.

media

In Tibet alone, 14 magazines and 10 daily newspapers are published in Tibetan, there are also a handful of regional and national Tibetan newspapers and magazines in other parts of China, there are numerous radio and television stations as well as films in Tibetan (in the varieties of Lhasa and Kamba) ; nine publishers in China regularly publish books in Tibetan, around a thousand titles appear annually; Government, justice, administration, etc. as well as street signs and advertising are bilingual according to the regulations.

Dialects and levels of style

Before the time of the People's Republic of China, there were three different forms of Tibetan: first, the liturgical language practiced in the monasteries ( Chos-shad ), and second, the courtly language, the strongly formalized she-sa, which is still the language of the educated upper class Lhasas today. Thirdly, “People's Tibetan” ( Phal-skad ), the colloquial language with numerous dialects that are often difficult to understand due to the vastness of the country. Numerous honorary titles are used, especially in the upper style levels. As in many Asian languages, commonly used words have different forms to express hierarchical differences. All of these variants lacked a modern vocabulary. Starting in the 1960s, linguists have developed a "New Tibetan" in which spelling and pronunciation coincide and which has been expanded to include additional words. B. School lessons in physics, chemistry, etc. became possible. The modern media also use this variant developed on the basis of the Lhasa dialect.

The modern Tibetan dialects can be classified as follows:

Dialect group	Subgroup	Local dialects
dBus-gTsang (Ü-Tsang) approx. 1 million speakers	Ü (dBus)	Lhasa , Phenyül ( ´phan-yul ), Tölung Dechen ( stod lung bde chen ), Meldro Gongkar ( mal gro gong skar ), Chushur ( chu shur ), Lhagyari ( lha rgya ri ), Tsetang ( rtse thang )
	Tsang (gTsang)	Shigatse ( gzhis ka tse ), Gyantse ( rgyal rtse ), Lhatse ( lha tse ), Dingri ( ding ri ), Sakya ( sa skya ), Dromo ( gro mo )
Khams (Kham) around 1.5 million speakers	Northern dialects	Kardze: Kangding (Dardo), Nyagchukha ( nyag chu kha ), Draggo ( brag ´go ), Nyagrong ( nyag rong ), Kardze ( dkar mdzes ), Dainkog, Dege ( sde dge ) Qinghai - Yüru ( yus hru ) (Kyegu Do ( skye rgu mdo )): Nangchen ( nang chen ) Chamdo along the road
	Southern dialects	Kardze: Litang ( li thang ), Bathang ( ´ba´ thang ), Yidun (Daxod), Derong ( sde rong ), Dabpa ( ´dab pa ) Dechen and Chamdo: Markham ( smar khams ), Calho
	Nomad dialects	Northern Chamdo: Tengchen ( steng chen ), dragon ( sbra chen ) Nagchu ( nag chu ) Yüru ( yus hru ) (Kyegu): Thridu ( khri ´du ), Qoima
A-mdo (Amdo) approx. 800,000 speakers	Peasant dialects	Xiahe (Labrang), Luqu, Tianzhu (Ra'gyei), Ledu (Nianbai), Rongren (Rêbgong), Tongde, Chiga
	Nomad dialects	Zêkog, Marqu, Xinghai, Qilian, Gangca, Haiyan (Chinkuxung), Jigzhi, Baima, Gadê Ngawa

Dzongkha , the official language in Bhutan , is very close to Tibetan or is a dialect of Tibetan. Tibetan dialects are also spoken in Nepal ( Sherpa and Mustang ), India ( Ladakhi ), and Pakistan ( Baltistan ). The Tibetan exile - Koine based on the dBus dialect.

Phonology

Classical Tibetan and modern written Tibetan language do not differ phonologically from one another in their written form.

However, various Tibetan dialects have developed, some of which are incomprehensible to one another. The modern written language is pan-dialectal, i.e. H. is used by speakers of different dialects.

Some Central Tibetan dialects have developed tones, but because Eastern dialects like Amdo and Western ones like Balti have no phonemic tones, Tibetan cannot be consistently referred to as a tonal language .

Written language

The actual pronunciation of Classical Tibetan is a reconstruction based on its written form and modern Tibetan dialects. In the following illustration, in addition to the Tibetan script, Wylie's transcription and a possible reconstruction in international phonetic transcription (IPA) are given.

Syllable sounds

Simple initials

ka

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཀ	ka	​k​
ཁ	kha	​kʰ​
ག	ga	​ɡ​
ང	nga	​ŋ​

approx

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཅ	approx	​t̠͡ɕ​
ཆ	cha	​t̠͡ɕʰ​
ཇ	Yes	​d̠͡ʑ​
ཉ	nya	​ɲ​

ta

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཏ	ta	​d​
ཐ	tha	​tʰ​
ད	there	​t​
ན	n / A	​n​

pa

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
པ	pa	​p​
ཕ	pha	​pʰ​
བ	ba	​b​
མ	ma	​m​

tsa

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཙ	tsa	​ts​
ཚ	tsha	​tsʰ​
ཛ	dza	​dz​
ཝ	wa	​w​

zha

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཞ	zha	​ʑ​
ཟ	za	​z​
འ	'a	​ɦ​
ཡ	ya	​j​

ra

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ར	ra	​r​
ལ	la	​l​
ཤ	sha	​ɕ​
ས	sa	​s​

Ha

Tibetan	Wylie	IPA
ཧ	Ha	​H​
ཨ	a	-

Combined initials

In addition to the simple initials listed above, consonant combinations as syllable initials are also possible. Traditionally, a distinction is made between basic sounds with consonants above, below and in front of the spelling.

Vowels

The Tibetan written language distinguishes five vowels: a , i , u , e and o .

Syllable endings

The following simple consonants (in Wylie transcription) occur at the end of the syllable: -g , -ng , -d , -n , -b , -m , - ' , -r , -l and -s . The following consonant combinations can also occur: -gs , -ngs , -bs and -ms .

Lhasa dialect

As a dialect of the capital of the Autonomous Region of Tibet and of most of the Tibetan community in exile, the Lhasa dialect plays a special role. The following illustration describes the phonetic inventory of the Lhasa dialect in international phonetic transcription and the official transcription in China (which is based on the Chinese pinyin transcription), and the written equivalents in Wylie transcription are given.

Sounds

The Lhasa dialect has four tones. The vowel a is used here for the specification in IPA . When given in numbers, 1 denotes the lowest pitch, 5 the highest.

register	contour	IPA	IPA	Digits	length	official (CHIV-803-1982)	ZWPY
high	just	á	a˥	55	short	1	f
high	falling	âː	a˥˩	51	long	2	H
deep	increasing	à	a˩˧	13	short	3	v
deep	rising or falling somewhat	ǎː	a˩˧˨	132	long	4th	w

The register is determined by the syllable sound (see below). The consonants * g , * gs , * b , * bs , * d , * s , * ngs and * ms at the end of the syllable of the written forms cause a syllable to fall in the treble ( × ́ → × ̂ː ) or a syllable is pronounced rising in the bass ( × ̀ → × ̌ː ).

Syllable sounds

The prenasalized initials ( mp, nt, nts, ɳʈʂ, ɲc, ɲtɕ, ŋk ) are not pronounced prenasalized by all speakers or in all contexts.

The tone of a syllable depends on the initial consonant. For illustration, the initial sounds in phonetic transcription are each provided with the vowel a and a tone for the respective register (high or low).

IPA	Wylie	officially
pá	p, sp, dp, lpa	b
pà	rb, sb, db, sbr	b
mpà	lb, 'b	b
pʰá	ph, 'ph	p
pʰà	b	p
má	rm, sm, dm	m
mà	m, mr	m
wà	w, db	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
n / A	rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn	n
n / A	n	n
lá	kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl	l
là	l, lw	l
ɬá	lh	lh
tsá	ts, rts, sts, tsw, 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
ʈʂá	kr, tr, pr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr	zh
ʈʂà	dgr, dbr, bsgr, sbr	zh
ɳʈʂà	mgr, 'gr,' dr, 'br	zh
ʈʂʰá	khr, thr, phr, mkhr, 'khr,' phr	ch
ʈʂʰà	gr, dr, br, grw	ch
ʂá	Mr	sh
rà	r, rw	r
cá	ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky	gy
cà	dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy	gy
ɲcà	mgy, 'gy	gy
cʰá	khy, mkhy, 'khy	ky
cʰà	gy	ky
tɕá	c, cw, gc, bc, lca, py, dpy	j
tɕà	rj, gj, brj, dby	j
ɲtɕà	lj, mj, 'j,' by	j
tɕʰá	ch, mch, 'ch	q
tɕʰà	j	q
tɕʰá	phy, 'phy	q
tɕʰà	by	q
ɕá	sh, shw, gsh, bsh	x
ɕà	zh, zhw, gzh, bzh	x
ɲá	rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw	ny
ɲà	ny, my	ny
Yes	gy	y
Yes	y	y
ká	k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk	G
kà	rg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg	G
ŋkà	lg, mg, 'g	G
kʰá	kh, khw, mkh, 'kh	k
kʰà	g, gw	k
n / A	rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng	ng
n / A	ng	ng
ʔá	-, db	-
ʔà	'	-
Ha	h, hw	H

Syllable endings

There are 17 vowels in the Lhasa dialect: i, ĩ, e, ẽ, ɛ, ɛ̃, a, ã, u, ũ, o, õ, ɔ, y, ỹ, ø and ø̃ . Together with the consonants p, q, r, m and ɴ these form the following syllable endings:

IPA	a	ouch	aq		aɴ	ap	at the	ar
officially	a	ouch	ag		nec	from	at the	ar
Wylie	a	a'u	ag / ags		ang / angs	from / abs	am / ams	ar
IPA	ɛ			ɛˀ					ɛ̃
officially	ai / ä			ai / ä					ain / än
Wylie	al / a'i			ad / as					on
IPA	e		eq	eˀ	eɴ	ep	em	he	ẽ
officially	ê		êg	ê	closely	êp	êm	he	ên
Wylie	e / el / e'i		eg / egs	ed / es	eng / engs	eb / ebs	em / ems	he	en
IPA	O			O					O
officially	oi / ö			oi / ö					oin / ön
Wylie	ol / o'i			od / os					on
IPA	i	iu	iq	iˀ	iɴ	ip	in the	ir	ĩ
officially	i	iu	ig	i	ing	ib	in the	ir	in
Wylie	i / il / i'i	i'u / e'u	ig / igs	id / is	ing / ings	ib / ibs	im / ims	ir	in
IPA	u		uq		uɴ	up	around	ur
officially	u		ug		ung	ub	around	ur
Wylie	u		ug / ugs		ung / ungs	ub / ubs	around / around	ur
IPA	y			yˀ					ỹ
officially	ü			ü					ün
Wylie	ul / u'i			ud / us					U.N
IPA	O		oq		oɴ	op	om	or
officially	O		above		ong	op	om	or
Wylie	O		og / ogs		ong / ongs	ob / obs	om / oms	or

The final -r is often omitted and only leads to the elongation of the vowel. The final -n of the written forms usually leads to the nasalization of the preceding vowel.

Sandhi

There are also some phonetic changes in two-syllable and polysyllabic words. (In the following examples, the written form in Wylie transliteration is preceded by an asterisk, followed by the pronunciation in IPA in square brackets and the official transcription in round brackets.)

• The second syllable of a two-syllable word is spoken with a low tone instead of a high tone.

* 'a ma → [ ámá ] (ama)

* da lo → [ tʰaló ] (talo)

* kha lag → [ kʰálâːˀ ] (kalag)

• The second syllable is pronounced with a high note instead of a low note and the aspiration is dropped if its initial sound was originally aspirated, unless its written form begins with * b .

* nya kha → [ ɲàká ] (nyaga)

* o cha → [ òtɕá ] (oja)

When * bu is the second syllable, it is pronounced [ pú ]. If * ba or * bo is the second syllable, they are pronounced [ wá ] (wa) or [ wó ] (wo).

• If the first syllable carries the high falling tone, it is spoken in two-syllable words in high level sound ( x ː → x ); if the first syllable carries the deep rising tone, it is spoken in the deep level tone ( x ̌ː → × ); if the second syllable carries the deep rising tone, it is spoken in the high falling tone ( x ̌ → × ).

* thabs jus → [ tʰátɕŷ ] (tajü)

* bod yig → [ pʰø̀ˀjî ] (poiyi)

• If the first syllable of the written form ends in * g , * gs , * ng or * ngs , * po becomes [ kó ] as the second syllable :

* yag po → [ jàkó ] (yago)

* mang po → [ màŋkó ] (manggo)

• If a syllable begins with * g , * j , * d , * b or * dz , a super-written * l or a pre-written * m or * 'have the effect of prenasalization or nasalization of the preceding syllable:

* bod ljongs → [ pʰø̰̀tɕôŋ ] or [ pʰø̀ⁿtɕôŋ ] (poinjong)

* rta mgo → [ táŋkó ] (danggo)

* mi 'bor → [ mìmpór ] (mimbor)

* mi 'dug → [ mìntû ] (mindu)

• If the second syllable of the prefix * b wears, it is the first syllable as the final position [⁠ p ⁠] connected.

* bzhi bcu → [ ɕìptɕú ] (xibju)

* bcu bzhi → [ tɕùpɕí ] (jubxi)

• The suffix * ba is pronounced [ wá ] or [ wa ]; in colloquial language it fuses with the preceding syllable.

* ka ba → [ kʰáː ] (kawa)

* dra ba → [ ʈʂʰàː ] (zhawa)

* ko ba → [ kóː ] (gowa)

* du ba → [ tʰʊò ] (tuwa)

* mche ba → [ tɕʰɛ́ ] (qêwa)

* lji ba → [ ⁿtɕɪě ] (jiwa)

• The suffix * 'u causes the formation of diphthongs. (The suffixes * 'o [⁠ ò ⁠] , * ' at the [ AM ] and * 'nec [ aN ] form separate syllables.)

* i'u , * e'u → [ ɪu ] (iu)

* a'u → [ au ] (au)

• The syllables * 'u , * ' o and * 'e are used in loan words and form long vowels or diphthongs.

* ma'o tse tung → [ màu tsé túŋ ] ( Mao Zedong )

* kro'u en la'e → [ ʈʂóu én lɛ̀ː ] ( Zhou Enlai )

grammar

Tibetan is one of the ergative languages and is inflected .

As in Chinese , abstract nouns are often formed by putting together opposing adjectives . Example: tsha-grang literally "hot-cold", d. H. "Temperature".

morphology

Nouns

In the classical written language, nine cases are marked with suffixes that are largely preserved in the modern written language:

• Absolute (not marked)
• Genitive ( -gi , -gyi , -kyi , -'i , -yi )
• Ergative / instrumental ( -gis , -gyis , -kyis , -'is , -yis )
• Locative ( -na )
• Allative ( -la )
• Terminative ( -ru , -su , -tu , -du , -r )
• Comitative ( -dang )
• Ablative ( -nas )
• Elative ( LAS )

There are several plural suffixes ( -rnams , -dag ), but they are not used if the context indicates that the word in question is plural.

Verbs

The Tibetan verb morphology is based on agglutination - verbs inflect person and number, which is made clear by endings, but only distinguish the first person from the other two - as well as root flexion - here we work with tone and ablaut. Each verb has up to four different stems, traditionally referred to by Tibetan grammarians as present (lda-ta) , past ('das-pa) , future (ma-'ongs-pa) and imperative (skul-tshigs) . The different tribes are usually formed by ablaut, e.g. B. byed , byas , bya , byos "make". The exact function of these original forms is still controversial today.

Very few verbs can form all four stem forms. This lack of temporal forms of expression is compensated for in modern Tibetan with auxiliary verbs or the addition of suffixes .

syntax

The sentence order is basically subject-object-verb. Adjectives come after the noun. Adverbial clauses come before the verb. Nouns in the genitive come before the governing noun.

font

→ Main articles : Tibetan Script  and Tibetan Literature

The Tibetan alphabet is said to have been created by Thonmi Sambhota in the 7th century . According to legend, he not only invented the Tibetan script, but also the language itself, which he is said to have fully described in a two-volume work.

See also

• THDL transcription

literature

General

• Jīn Péng 金鹏 (ed.): Zàngyǔ jiǎnzhì 藏语 简 志 (an outline of the Tibetan language ; Běijīng 北京 , Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族 出版社 1983).
• Qú Ǎitáng 瞿 霭 堂 : Zàngzú de yǔyán hé wénzì 藏族 的 语言 和 文字 ( Tibetan language and writing ; Běijīng 北京, Zhōngguó Zàngxué chūbǎnshè 中国 藏 学 出版社 1996), ISBN 7-80057-278-1 .

Grammars

• Ghulam Hassan Lobsang: Short Sketch of Balti Grammar: Tibetan Dialect Spoken in Northern Pakistan . University of Bern, Institute for Linguistics, Bern, 1995.
• Isaak Jakob Schmidt: Grammar of the Tibetan language. Published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences. St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1839.
• Peter Schwieger: Handbook on the grammar of the classical Tibetan written language . IITBS, Halle (Saale) 2006, ISBN 978-3-88280-073-9 .
• Zhōu Jìwén 周季文 , Xiè Hòufāng 谢后芳 : Zàngyǔ Lāsàhuà yǔfǎ 藏语 拉萨 话语 法 ( grammar of the Lhasa dialect ; Běijīng 北京 , Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族 出版社 2003), ISBN 7-105-05659-2 .
• Wáng Zhìjìng 王志敬 : Zàngyǔ Lāsà kǒuyǔ yǔfǎ 藏语 拉萨 口语 语法 ( grammar of the Tibetan vernacular of Lhasa ; Běijīng 北京, Zhōngyāng mínzú dàxué chūbǎnshè 中央 民族 大学 出版社 1994), ISBN 7-81001-359-9 . 1994 .

Dictionaries

The first dictionary compiled by a European comes from the Italians da Ascoli, da Tours and Domenico da Fano. It reached Europe in 1714 and is preserved as an unpublished manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The first four pages of the manuscript deal with the Tibetan script, while pages 5–41 form the Latin-Tibetan dictionary, entitled:

• Vocabulario Thibettano scritto con caratteri proprii ed esplicato con lettere Latine, e modo di pronunciarlo; estratto del Padre Domenico da Fano Capucino del Ditionario, ch'egli haveva fatto e portato in Europe, quando venne l'anno 1714 per (?) informare la sacra congregazione de propaganda fide dello stato di quella Novella missione per trattare in Roma lo stabilimento di esta mission.

The second dictionary written by Europeans (Tibetan-Italian) comes from Horazio della Penna (1690–1745). It was translated into English by FCG Schroeter and has appeared in print:

• John Marshman (Ed.): A dictionary of the Botanta or Butan language, printed from a manuscript copy by Schroeter , Serampore, 1826.

The third dictionary, written by a European, comes from Csoma de Körös, who is considered the founder of Tibetology:

• Csoma de Körös, Alexander: Tibetan-English Dictionary , Reprinted by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1984. First published in Calcutta in 1834 under the following title: Essay towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English. Prepared, with the assistance of Bandé Sangs-rgyas Phun-thsogs . Printed by the Baptist Mission Press.
• Isaac Jacob Schmidt: Tibetan-German dictionary , with German word index. Published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences. St.Petersburg / Leipzig 1841, 784 pages. Reprint Biblio-Verlag Otto Zeller, Osnabrück 1969.
• Stuart H. Buck: Tibetan-English Dictionary . Sri Satguru Publications, New Delhi, 1997 (first published by The Catholic University of America Press, 1969). 833 pages.
• Sarat Chandra Das; Rai Baradur: Tibetan-English Dictionary (Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot 1902). Countless reprints. Tibetan-English-Sanskrit. Somewhat worse than Jäschke.
• Lama Dawasamdup Kazi: An English Tibetan Dictionary. Containing a vocabulary of approximately twenty thousand words with their Tibetan Equivalents. Baptist Mission Press, University of Calcutta, 1919. Reprinted by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi 1994.
• Heinrich August Jäschke : A Tibetan-English Dictionary (London, 1881; countless reprints). A standard work.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein; TN shelling; JT Surkhang: The New Tibetan-English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan (University of California Press 2001), ISBN 0-520-20437-9 .
• Melvin C. Goldstein: English-Tibetan Dictionary of Modern Tibetan (Paljor 2002), ISBN 81-85102-46-5 .
• Eberhardt Richter: Tibetan-German Dictionary . VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig, 1966 (444 pages).
• Tashi Tsering: English-Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary . Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, Beijing, 1988 (1233 pages).
• Zhāng Yísūn 张怡 荪 (ed.): Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo / Zàng-Hàn dà cídiǎn 藏汉 大 辞典 ( Large Tibetan-Chinese dictionary; Běijīng 北京 , mi rigs dpe skrun khang / Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族 出版社 1985). Comprehensive standard dictionary, Tibetan-Tibetan-Chinese.
• bod rgya shan sbyar gyi lha sa'i kha skad tshig mdzod བོད་ རྒྱ་ ཤན་ སྦྱར་ གྱི་ ལྷ་ སའི་ ཁ་ སྐད་ ཚིག་ མཛོད ། / Zàng-Hàn duìzhào Lāsà kǒuyǔ cídiǎn 藏汉 对照 拉萨 口语 词典 ( Tibetan-Chinese dictionary of the colloquial language of Lhasa; Běijīng 北京 , mi rigs dpe skrun khang / Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族 出版社 1983)
• Dictionary of the written Tibetan language. On behalf of the Commission for Central and East Asian Studies of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in commission at Verlag CH Beck, Munich. So far 9 deliveries 2005-2010.

Textbooks

• Ellen Bartee, Nyima Droma [nyi ma sgrol ma]: A beginning textbook of Lhasa Tibetan (Běijīng 北京 , Zhōngguó Zàngxué chūbǎnshè 中国 藏 学 出版社 2000), ISBN 7-80057-430-X .
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Lobsang Phuntshog, Gelek Rimpoche: Essentials of modern literary Tibetan . A reading course and reference grammar (University of California Press 2001), ISBN 0-520-07622-2 .
• Stephen Hodge: An Introduction to Classical Tibetan . Aris & Philipps, Warminster, England, 1990. ISBN 0-85668-548-8 (limp).
• Zàngwén pīnyīn jiàocái - Lāsàyīn 藏文 拼音 教材 • 拉萨 音 / bod yig gi sgra sbyor slob deb, lha sa'i skad བོད་ ཡིག་ གི་ སྒྲ་ སྦྱོར་ སློབ་ དེབ ། ལྷ་ སའི་ སྐད ། ( Teaching material for the transcription of Tibetan, Lhasa dialect ; Běijīng 北京 , Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族 出版社 1983), ISBN 7-105-02577-8 .
• Michael Hahn : Textbook of the classical Tibetan written language (Swisttal-Odendorf, Indica et Tibetica Verlag 1996), ISBN 3-923776-10-1 .
• Christine Sommerschuh: Introduction to the Tibetan written language. Textbook for teaching and in-depth self-study (BoD-Verlag, 2008), ISBN 978-3-8370-1214-9 .
• Peter Schwieger: Handbook on the grammar of the classical Tibetan written language. International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH, Halle 2006.
• Nicolas Tournadre, Sangda Dorje: Manual of Standard Tibetan (Snow Lion 2003), ISBN 978-1-55939-189-4 .
• Florian Reissinger: Tibetan word for word (Kauderwelsch 2011), ISBN 978-3-89416-541-3

Web links

Wikipedia in Tibetan

• The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (thdl.org)
• Ethnologue: Central Tibetan ( bod ), Amdo Tibetan ( adx ), Khams Tibetan ( khg )
• The Tibetan Language Student (learntibetan.net)
• Tibetan. The Rosetta Project
• Online keyboard for Tibetan
• Tibetan names
• Tibetan-German dictionary

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tibetan languages. In: About World Languages. Retrieved November 22, 2018 (American English). 
2. ^ Gerard A. Postiglione: China's National Minority Education. Culture, Schooling, and Development . Routledge, 1999, p. 114.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} 中国 出台 藏 语言 使用 法规 ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Xinhua , May 22, 2002 / china-language.gov.cn , June 21, 2002). 
4. ↑ Constitution of the People's Republic of China from 1982 on Verassungen.net (viewed in December 2008, link corrected on July 3, 2012)
5. ↑ “ 西藏自治区 学习 、 使用 和 发展 藏 语文 的 若干 规定 (试行) ” (German: “Provisional regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the teaching, use and development of the Tibetan language and writing”)
6. ↑ “ 西藏自治区 学习 、 使用 和 发展 藏 语文 的 若干 规定 (试行) 的 实施 细则 ” (German: “Detailed Implementing Regulations for the Provisional Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Teaching, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language and Writing” )
7. ↑ “ 西藏自治区 学习 、 使用 和 发展 藏 语文 的 规定 ” (German: “Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the teaching, use and development of the Tibetan language and writing”)
8. ↑ china-language.gov.cn  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( china-language.gov.cn , March 18, 2008)  
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China: 西藏 文化 的 保护 与 发展 藏 语言 文字 的 学习 、 使用 和 发展 ( China.com.cn , October 25, 2008)
10. ↑ བོད་ ཡིག་ བརྡ་ ཚད་ ལྡན་ དུ་ སྒྱུར་ བའི་ ལས་དོན་ ཨུ་ ཡོན་ ལྷན་ཁང་ གིས་ བསྒྲིགས (Ed.): བོད་ ཀྱི་ སྤྱི་ སྐད་ སྐོར་ གྱི་ ཆེད ་ རྩོམ་ ཕྱོགས་ བསྒྲིགས (Beijing, མི་རིགས་ དཔེ་ སྐྲུན་ ཁན / 民族 出版社 1999), ISBN 7-105-03018-6 ; 全国 术语 标准化 技术 委员会 少数民族 语 语 分 技术 委员会 藏语 工作 委员会 2006年度 工作 会议 在 北京 召开 ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( 教育部 语言 文字 应用 研究所 , January 12, 2001); 藏语 专 词 术语 混乱 的 症结 在 哪里 ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (China Tibet Information Center, March 22, 2006)
     
     
11. ↑ Minglang Zhou: Legislating Literatcy for Linguistic and Ethnic Minorities in Contemporary China . In: Anthony J. Liddicoat (Ed.): Language planning and policy: Issues in Language Planning and Literacy . Multilingual Matters, Clevedon / Tonawanda / North York 2007, pp. 102–121, here p. 117.
12. ^ Catriona Bass: Education in Tibet. Policy and Practice Since 1950 . Tibet Information Network / Zed, 1998, p. 233.
13. ↑ Minglang Zhou, Hongkai Sun: Language Policy in the People's Republic of China . Kluwer, 2004, p. 226.
14. ^ Ellen Bangsbo: Teaching and Learning in Tibet. A Review of Research and Policy Publications . Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2004, p. 16.
15. ^ Catriona Bass: Education in Tibet. Policy and Practice Since 1950 . Tibet Information Network / Zed, 1998, p. 235.
16. ↑ June Teufel Dreyer, Barry Sautman (Ed.): Contemporary Tibet. Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region . ME Sharpe 2006, p. 78.
17. ^ Dagmar Bernstorff, Hubertus von Welck: Exile as Challenge. The Tibetan Diaspora . Orient Longman 2002, p. 271; Ashild Kolas, Monika P. Thowsen: On the Margins of Tibet. Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier . University of Washington Press, 2006, p. 176; A. Tom Grunfeld: The Making of Modern Tibet . ME Sharpe, 1996, pp. 179, 198.
18. ↑ Among the most influential are ༄ ༅ ༎ སྦྲང་ ཆར ༎ ("Spring Rain ") from Qinghai and ༄ ༅ ༎ ཟླ་ ཟེར ༎ ("Moonlight") from Gansu. See Toni Huber: Amdo Tibetans in Transition. Society and Culture in the Post-Mao Era . Brill, 2000, p. 40.
19. ↑ Below that ༄ ༅ ༎ ཀྲུང་ གོའ ི་ བོད་ ཀྱི་ ཤེས་ རིག ༎ (“Tibetology in China”) in Beijing.
20. ↑ Also with Radio China International : tibetan.chinabroadcast.cn and tibetan.chinabroadcast.cn
21. ^ Auboyer, Jeannine et Béguin, Gilles: Dieux et démons de l'Himalaya. Art du Bouddhisme lamaique. Secrétariat d'Etat à la Culture. Editions des musées nationaux, Paris 1977, p. 286. ISBN 2-7118-0058-X