The Alphabet

The Tibetan alphabet consists of 30 consonants and four vowels. The consonants are
traditionally arranged in a set of four columns and eight rows.

You can click on each letters' phonetic equivalent to hear a native Tibetan say it.
Use the download options on the right to save files locally.

The Thirty Consonants and Their Pronunciation

Column
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 4

Row 1 ཀ ka ཁ kha ག ga ང nga

Row 2 ཅ cha ཆ chha ཇ ja nya
Row 3 ཏ ta ཐ tha ད da ན na
Row 4 པ pa ཕ pha བ ba མ ma
Row 5 ཙ tsa ཚ tsha ཛ dza ཝ wa
Row 6 ཞ zha ཟ za འ a ཡ ya
Row 7 ར ra ལ la ཤ sha ས sa
Row 8 ཧ ha ཨ a

Each consonant has an inherent "a" sound. There are four other vowels in Tibetan. The
vowels are not letters by themselves, but are drawn either above or below the consonant
they modify. In the example below we use the last consonant of the alphabet as an
example.

The Four Vowels and Their Pronuniation

Vowels
Example ཨ i u ཨ e ཨ o
The Reversed Letters
The six reversed letters are sometimes referred to as the Sanskrit letters, since their
original purpose was for use in the translation of texts from Sanskrit. In modern Tibetan
these letters have taken on a new role and therefore it's important for the student to
recognize them.

The Six Reversed Letters and Their Pronunciation

ཉ ta
ཊ tha
ཋ da
ཎ na
ཥ kha
ཀྵ kyha
Examples of Reversed Letters Usage in Modern Tibetan

Tibetan English Comments

ཁ་ཎ་ཋ་ Canada If this word were spelled with non-
reversed letters, its literal meaning
could be "mouth-sick-now". By
using reversed letters the meaning
becomes obvious and the
pronunciation is about the same as
in English.
མ ་ཉ་ Car This word is pronounced roughly
the same as the English word
"motor". There are other words in
Tibetan with the same meaning,
e.g. "num-kor-kar": མ་འཁ ར་ ར་
Writing Tibetan

Throughout the centuries Tibetan has been written using different types of scripts. Two
of those scripts, U-chen and U-me are the most common. U-chen is the script you see on
this site. It has been used for centuries to print religious books and today it is used for
books, newspapers and other media. U-me is more of a handwriting script, although it is
sometimes used in books.

Below is a guide on how to draw the U-chen script. Horizontal lines are drawn from left
to right and vertical lines from the top down. The letters should align with the top line,
thus the first line you draw is the base line.
 The Superscribed Letters

Three consonants can be written on top of other consonants. Those superscribed letters
are almost never pronounced themselves, but they change the pronunciation of the
consonant they are placed on, by raising its tone pitch. For the beginner this change
might be difficult to notice since it's only a slight variation from the pronunciation of the
consonants when they have no superscribed letter.

The Three Superscribed Letters

Letter Name English Phonetic Name
ར ར་མག ་ Ra-go (Ra-head)
ལ ལ་མག ་ La-go (La-head)
ས ས་མག ་ Sa-go (Sa-head)

Each superscribed letter cannot be written on all consonants. Below is a list of all
possible combinations and how to pronounce them.

The Twelve Ra-go Letters and Their Pronunciation

ka ga nga ja nya* ta
da na ba ma tsa dza
*Note how different from others the Ra-go is drawn
when placed on Nya.
The Ten La-go Letters and Their Pronunciation
ka ga nga cha ja ta
da pa ba lha
The Eleven Sa-go Letters and Their Pronunciation
ka ga nga nya ta da
na pa ba ma tsa

The Subscribed Letters

Four consonants can be written below or subscribed to other consonants. Most of the
subscribed letters change the pronunciation of the consonant they are attached to. All of
the subscribed letters, except one, are written in a different way than when they are
written as base letters. In the following tables you can see how to draw those letters as
well as how to pronounce them.

The Four Subscribed Letters

Letter Name English Phonetic (Name)
ཡ ཡ་བཏགས་ Ya-ta (Ya-bound)
ར ར་བཏགས་ Ra-ta (Ra-bound)
ལ ལ་བཏགས་ La-ta (La-bound)
ཝ ཝ་ ར་ Wa-sur (Wa-corner)
The Eight Ya-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation
ky
a khya gya chya chhya jya nya hya
The Thirteen Ra-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation
tra thra dra tra thra dra na
tra thra tra ma sa hra
The Six La-ta Letters and Their Pronunciation
la la* la* la* la* da
*Pronounced the same as the first la-ta
The Thirteen Wa-zur Letters
ka kha ga nya da tsa tsha
zha za ra la sha ha
Wa-zur does not affect the pronunciation of the base letter and therefore we have
omitted recording these letters. You can hear how they are pronounced on the Alphabet
page.

The Prefixes

A prefix is an unpronounced letter at the beginning of a syllable. Although the prefixes

are never pronounced, they modify the pronunciation of some root letters (the letter that
follows them). When consonants from the third column of the alphabet are prefixed,
they lose aspiration while remaining low in tone. The nasal consonants in the fourth
row, when prefixed, should be pronounced in a higher tone than when not prefixed.

The Five Prefixes

གད བ མ འ
Examples of Words with Prefixes
Word Pronunciation Meaning
གནམ་ nahm Sky
ག ས་ nyî Two
དཀར་
པ ་ kar-po White
ད ར་
ཁ་ jyar-kha Summer
བཙ ན་ tsön-pa Prisoner
པ་
བན་ག་ dün-thak Week
མཚ ་ tsho Lake
མངར་
མ ་ ngar-mo Sweet
འཁ ར་ལ ་ kor-lo Wheel
འ ས་ trë Rice

The Suffixes

A suffix is the last letter in a syllable. Tibetan also has a secondary suffix. Ten letters
can act as suffixes, and two letters can act as secondary suffixes. The suffix will
always affect the pronunciation of the syllable, but not in the same way. A suffix will
either add its own sound to the root letter (omitting the inherent "a" sound), modify
the vowel of the root letter, or have both of these effects.

The Ten Suffixes

གངདམའར ན བ
ལ ས
Six suffixes add their own sound, without the inherent "a", to the root letter. In the
examples below we use the first letter in the alphabet as a root letter, but this could be
any of the 30 consonants. The Six Suffixes Which Add Their Own Sound

Suffix Example PronunciationNotes

This suffix is
ག ཀག་ kag sometimes not fully
pronounced.
ང ཀང་ kang
བ ཀབ་ kab
མ ཀམ་ kam
This suffix does not
add its own sound
འ ཀའ ka since it's already
present in the root
letter.
ར ཀར་ kar
Two suffixes do not add their own sound to the syllable, but they do modify the
sound of the root letter's vowel.

The Two Suffixes Which Modify the Root Letter's Vowel

Suffix Example Pronunciation SuffixExamplePronunciation

ད ཀད་ kë ཀ ཀས་ kë
ཀ ད་ kï ཀ ས་ kï
ད་ kü ས་ kü
ཀ ད་ kê ཀ ས་ kê
ཀ ད་ kö ཀ ས་ kö
Two suffixes modify the sound of the root letter's vowel, and add their own sound.
The Two Suffixes Which Add Their Sound and Modify

Suffix Example Pronunciation SuffixExamplePronunciation

ན ཀན་ kën ལ ཀལ་ kël
ཀ ན་ kïn ཀ ལ་ kïl
ན་ kün ལ་ kül
ཀ ན་ kên ཀ ལ་ kêl
ཀ ན་ kön ཀལ köl
Secondary Suffixes

ས and ད are the only letters which can be secondary suffixes. In modern Tibetan ད
is not used anymore as a secondary suffix. Secondary suffixes
do not add their own sound, nor do they affect the pronunciation of the root letter.

Examples of Words With a Secondary Suffix

Word Pronunciation Meaning

གས་པ ་ drog-po Friend
གས་ chag Iron
ས མས་ sêm Mind

The Syllable

A syllable can contain as little as one letter or as many as six letters. the end of syllable
is marked by a dot, called a Tsheg, which is placed at the upper right side of the last
letter in the syllable.

Each syllable is a combination of all types of letters mentioned in previous lessons. The
root letter is the most critical letter in each syllable. This letter is the starting point for
the sound of the syllable and ther efore it's very important to identify it when reading. If
you, for example, mistake a prefix for a root letter, you will end up pronouncing the
word differently from what it should be. Beginners often find it difficult to know if a
letter is a prefix or not. Rather than focus on the first letter and try to figure out if it's a
prefix or not, you should process the whole syllable and focus on finding the root letter.
There are some simple guidelines you can follow to identify the root letter.

The Five Rules for Identifying the Root Letter

  A letter with a vowel is always the root letter, except when
it's the phrase connector འ Letters which have superscribed
or subscribed letters are always root letters
 In a two letter syllable with no vowel, the first letter is
always the root letter
 In a three letter syllable the middle letter is usually the root
letter. This is not the case if the last letter is the secondary
suffix = in which case sometimes the root letter will be the
first letter and sometimes the second letter will be
 In a four letter syllable the second letter is always the root
letter
Below is a word which is made up of two syllables. These two syllables contain all of
the seven types of letters we have studied in previous lessons.

This word is pronounced drem-tön and it means "show" or "exhibition". According to the
guidelines above, the root letter in the first syllable is ག. This letter has both a vowel and a
subscribed letter which means it must be the root letter. In the second syllable ཏ is the root letter
and ས is superscribed. That syllable is therefore pronounced tön, rather than sön.
The Sentence
In Tibetan, words are made up of one or more syllables. Written Tibetan uses a dot, called a
Tsheg, to separate syllables, but words are not separated at all. The sentence is terminated with
a vertical stroke called Shë. Let's look at a simple sentence to illustrate this:
ང་
བ ད་པ་ཡ ན

ང་ བ ད་པ་ ཡན

I Tibetan am
 One difference between English and Tibetan is the arrangement of words within
a sentence. The sequence of words in a basic Tibetan sentence, like the one
above, is: subject - object - verb.

Lets have a look at another more complicated sentence:

ཁ་ས་མ ་ ག་པ ་འད འ ་ཁང་པ་ག ང་ཆ ན་པ ་ཞ ག་གཟ གས་ས ང་

ཞ
ཁ་ས་ མ་ ག་པ ་ འད འཁང་པ ག ང་ཆ ན་པ ་ ག གཟ གས་ ས ང་

Yesterday man rich this house expensive an bought did

Yesterday this rich man bought an expensive house.

Here the first word is a time reference. Words like "today", "tomorrow", "yesterday",
etc, are often placed at the beginning of a sentence, before the subject, but they can also
be placed after the subject. The subject in this sentence is the noun "man", which is
followed by the adjective "rich" and the demonstrative pronoun "this". Adjectives and
demonstrative pronouns usually follow the subject they refer to.

Therefore, "this rich man" is written "man rich this" and "expensive house" is written
"house expensive". The word "house" is the object in this sentence and it is qualified
with the adjective "expensive". The indefinite article "an" is placed after the object
and its adjective (in spoken Tibetan the indefinite article is often omitted). The
sentence is terminated with the past tense of the verb "buy" and an auxiliary verb
"did". We will learn more about auxiliary verbs and other grammar terms in later
lessons; for now just study how the Tibetan sentence is built.

Note that this sentence ends with both a Tsheg (་) and a Shë ( ) . This is only done
when the last letter before the Shë is ང་

Note also that the Shë is omitted when the sentence ends with the letter ག་

Identifying The Words

For the beginner the most challenging feature of the Tibetan sentence is the lack of
separation between words. The first two letters in the sentence above illustrate this. The
first letter,ཁ,is a word and can mean "surface", the second letter, ས is also a word and
can mean "earth".

However, together they are also a word and then the meaning is "yesterday". Since there
is no space after a word, the reader must figure out each word based on context and
location in the sentence. Looking up these two letters in a dictionary might lead you to
think that this sentence is starting with a reference to the surface of earth. However, the
rest of the sentence, its context, and the lack of an agentive case connector, indicates that
these two letters are not words by themselves, but rather the word "yesterday". From this
you can see it's good to first evaluate a sentence as a whole, by identifying it's various
elements, rather than translate it word by word.

To reach the level of being able to identify each word in a sentence is not as difficult
as it might look. If you study the grammar, memorize words, and practice reading
you will soon be able to translate simple texts.

Irregular Pronunciation
In spoken Tibetan each letter will generally translate into the same basic sound. This
sound, as explained in previous lessons, is usually affected in the same way based on the
letter's position within a syllable (e.g. initial, suffix, etc), and by neighboring letters (e.g.
prefix, vowel, etc). There are some instances where pronunciation is different from this.
Note though that spoken Tibetan has many different dialects and therefore many
variations of speech exist. The examples below apply to the Lhasa dialect.

1. When བ is the only letter in a syllable, it is pronounced "wa", rather than "ba"

Tibetan Pronunciation Translation

ར ་བ་ re-wa Hope

Moon, Month, Name of a

་བ་ da-wa
person
བ ་བ་ zhu-wa To melt

2. བ is also sometimes pronounced in a different way when it's an initial

Tibetan Pronunciation Translation
དབང་ཆ་ wang-cha Power

ད་ u Head (Honorific)
3. Some words have an additional nasal sound, as if the letter ན were present
Tibetan Pronunciation Translation
མ་ Is not, Not to be (2nd and 3rd
འ ག mîn-dug
ག་ person)
འ ས་ gan-drë How

་་ kün-da Spouse (Honorific)

ད་ ་ dan-ta Now

4. Various irregular pronunciations:

Tibetan Pronunciation Translation

ད ན་པ་ Not gön-pa, but

ག gom- Monastery
pa
Not gyël-tse, but
ལ་ ་ Name of a city in Tibet
gyang-tse
Spelling

It might not seem very important to learn how to spell in Tibetan, but it can come in
handy, especially if you have a teacher. You will frequently find yourself asking your
teacher how a word is spelled and then you must know the Tibetan way of spelling.

Spelling is done by syllable. If a letter is a vowel or a part of a stack of letters, you must
give the overall sound of all letters spelled up to that point. This process is repeated until
all letters have been accounted for in the syllable. If a word consists of more than one
syllable you must first fully spell the first syllable, and give the final sound for it, before
moving onto the next one. Letter stacks are pronounced from top down, e.g. first the
superscribed letter and then the initial letter. Vowels are spelled last.

To spell properly you have to memorize the alphabet , as well as names of vowels,
prefixes, and the words for subscribed and reversed letters.

How to Pronounce Various Letters When Spelling

Type Letter Tibetan Name Pronunciation

Vowels ག་ ་ gi-gu
ཕབས་ ་ zhap-kyu
འ ང་ ་ dreng-pu
ན་
ར ་ na-ro
ག་
ག་ འ ད་ ga-ö
Prefixes
ད་ da-ö
ད་ འ ད་
བ་ pa-ö

བ་ འ ད་
 མ་ མ་འ ད་ ma-ö
འ་ འ་འ ད་ a-ö
ར་
Superscribed ར་ མག ་ ra letter + ta
ལ་ ལ་མག ་ la letter + ta
ས་
ས་ མག ་ sa letter + ta

Subscribed ཡ་ ཡ་བཏགས་ ya-ta

ར་ ར་བཏགས་ ra-ta
ལ་ ལ་བཏགས་ la-ta
ཝ་ ཝ་ ར་ wa-zur

Reversed
ཉ་ ཏ་ལ ག་ ta-log
Letters

ཊ་ ཐ་ལ ག་ tha-log
ཋ་ ད་ལ ག་ da-log
ཎ་ ན་ལ ག་ na-log
ཥ་ ཤ་ལ ག་ sha-log
ཀྵ་ ཀྵ་ལ ག་ ka-sha-log

In the following spelling examples the yellow letters represent the accumulated sound
as it is after a vowel or a stack. The green letters are the final sound of a syllable.
Spelling Examples
ལག་པ་ Hand

la ga lag / pa = lag-pa
ད་ཅ ར་ Noise
sa ka-ta ka da kë / cha na-ro cho ra chor = kë-chor

ག ང་བཤད་ Talk, Speech

ga-ö sa zhap-kyu su nga sung / pa sha da shë = sung-shë
ག་ ་ Pen

sa ma-ta ma ya-ta nya zhab-kyu nyu ga nyug / ga zhap-kyu gu = nyu-gu

མ ་ཉ་ Car

ma na-ro mo / ta-log ta = mo-ta

ག་བ ལ་ Suffering, Unsatisfactory, Misery

sa da-ta da zhap-kyu du ga dug / pa-ö sa nga-ta nga la ngël = dug-

ngël
ང་ ་ Compassion

sa nya-ta nya gi-gu nyi nga nying / ra ja-ta ja dreng-pu je = nying-

je