Central Tibetan

Central Tibetan
Ü-Tsang
དབུས་སྐད་, Dbus skad / Ükä དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་, Dbus-gtsang skad / Ü-tsang kä
The name of the language written in the Tibetan script
Pronunciation	[wýkɛʔ, wýʔtsáŋ kɛʔ]
Native to	Tibet, India, Nepal, China
Region	Ngari, Ü-Tsang, Amdo, Kham, Himachal Pradesh
Native speakers	(1.2 million cited 1990–2014)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Central Tibetan
Standard forms	Lasetian Standard Tibetan
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: bod – Lhasa Tibetan dre – Dolpo hut – Humla, Limi lhm – Lhomi (Shing Saapa) muk – Mugom (Mugu) kte – Nubri ola – Walungge (Gola) loy – Lowa/Loke (Mustang) tcn – Tichurong
Glottolog	tibe1272  Tibetan sout3216  South-Western Tibetic (partial match) basu1243  Basum
ELP	Walungge
	Dolpo
	Lhomi
Shingsaba is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Central Tibetan language, also known as Dbus Tibetan, Ü Tibetan or Ü-Tsang 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, དབུས་, whereas Ü is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, [wy˧˥˧ʔ] (or [y˧˥˧ʔ]). 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.

Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Amdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity with Khams Tibetan.

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

Ngari Tibetan

Ngari Tibetan refers to a group of Tibetic dialects spoken in Ngari Prefecture, located in the westernmost part of the T.A.R, China.

Although traditionally grouped under Central Tibetan (Dbusgtsang), Ngari varieties are considered more conservative and divergent, retaining several archaic features not found in Lhasa Tibetan.

Some linguists have noted that dialects such as those spoken in Gêrzê County show transitional features between Central and Western Tibetan. However, the inclusion of dialects like Nagqu Tibetan, which is generally categorized under Central Tibetan proper, in a broader “Ngari areal group” is not widely accepted in current linguistic classifications.

A related set of dialects is spoken in India’s Himachal Pradesh, particularly in the Spiti Valley and upper Kinnaur. These dialects share a close historical and linguistic relationship with Western Tibetic varieties of Ngari, though they have developed separately over time due to geographic and political separation.

These Indian varieties are commonly referred to under exonyms such as Lahuli–Spiti or Kinnauri Tibetan, and are often treated as distinct Western Tibetic languages.

Consonants

IPA Tibetan writing Wade–Giles Tibetan Pinyin [k] ཀ་ k g [kʰ] ཁ་ ག་ kh, g k [ŋ] ང་ ng ng [tɕ] ཅ་ c j [tɕʰ] ཆ་ ཇ་ ch, j q [ɲ] ཉ་ ny ny [t] ཏ་ t d [tʰ] ཐ་ ད་ th, d t [n] ན་ n n [p] པ་ p b [pʰ] ཕ་ བ་ ph, b p [m] མ་ m m [ts] ཙ་ ts z [tsʰ] ཚ་ ཛ་ tsh, dz c [w] ཝ་ w w

IPA Tibetan writing Wade–Giles Tibetan Pinyin [ɕ] ཞ་ ཤ་ zh, sh x [s] ཟ་ ས་ z, s s [j] ཡ་ y y [ɹ] ར་ r r [l] ལ་ l l [h] ཧ་ h h [c] ཀྱ་ gy gy [cʰ] ཁྱ་ གྱ་ ky ky [tʂ] ཀྲ་ kr zh [tʂʰ] ཁྲ་ གྲ་ khr, gr ch [ʂ] ཧྲ་ hr sh [ɬ] ལྷ་ lh lh

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

Vowels

ཨ（◌）

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
[a]	a	a
[ɛ]	al, a'i	ai/ä	[ɛ̃]	an	ain/än
[i]	i, il, i'i	i	[ĩ]	in	in
[u]	u	u
[y]	ul, u'i	ü	[ỹ]	un	ün
[e]	e, el, e'i	ê	[ẽ]	en	ên
[o]	o	o
[ø]	ol, o'i	oi/ö	[ø̃]	on	oin/ön

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

Conjunct vowels

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[au]	a'u	au
[iu]	i'u, e'u	iu

Last consonant

IPA	Wade–Giles	Tibetan Pinyin
[ʔ]	d, s	none
[n]		n
[k/ʔ]	g, gs	g
[ŋ]	ng, ngs	ng
[p]	b, bs	b
[m]	m, ms	m
[r]	r	r

See also

• Lhasa Tibetan
• Amdo Tibetan
• Ladakhi language
• Balti language
• Ü-Tsang