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1.1 The Consonants གསལ་བྱེད་སུམ་ཅུ།

Frequent Expressions in Tibetan

Practice the following frequent expressions with the help of the audio file provided.


Number Tibetan Transliteration English
1. བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། Tashi DeLek Hello!
2. སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། NgaDro DeLek Good morning.
3. ཉིན་མོ་བདེ་ལེགས། NyinMo DeLek Good afternoon.
4. མཚན་མོ་བདེ་ལེགས། TsenMo DeLek Good evening/night.
5. ག་ལེར་ཕེབས། GaLer Phep Go well
6. ག་ལེར་བཞུགས། GaLer Zhug Stay well
7. གཟིམ་འཇགས་གནང་གོ། ZimJak NangGo Have a good sleep.
8. སང་ཉིན་མཇལ་ཡོང་། SangNyin JelYong See you tomorrow.

The Thirty Consonants

The Tibetan language has thirty consonants, categorized into seven and a half sections, each containing four alphabets.

Listen to the audio file and practice the alphabets.

Number Alphabets English Phonetics
1.

ཀ་ ཁ། ག་ ང་།

ka kha ga nga
2.

ཅ། ཆ། ཇ། ཉ།

cha chaa ja nya
3.

ཏ། ཐ། ད། ན།

ta tha da na
4.

པ། ཕ། བ། མ།

pa pha ba ma
5.

ཙ། ཚ། ཛ། ཝ།

tsa tsaa dza wa
6.

ཞ། ཟ། འ། ཡ།

zha za aa ya
7.

ར། ལ། ཤ་ ས།

ra la sha sa
8.

ཧ། ཨ།

ha Aa

Origination of the Phonetic Sound of the Consonants

The five non-aspirated high-tone:

  • ཀ
  • ཅ།
  • ཏ།
  • པ།
  • ཙ།

The nine aspirated high-tone:

  • ཁ།
  • ཆ།
  • ཐ།
  • ཕ།
  • ཚ།
  • ཤ
  • ས།
  • ཧ།
  • ཨ།

The twelve aspirated low-tone:

  • ག
  • ཇ།
  • ད།
  • བ།
  • ཛ།
  • ཝ།
  • ཞ།
  • ཟ།
  • འ།
  • ཡ།
  • ར།
  • ལ།

The four nasal non-aspirated low-tone:

  • ང་།
  • ཉ།
  • ན།
  • མ།

Challenge Yourself

Activity 1: Identify Letters

Use the following expressions to identify the letters of the alphabet. You can do this activity with a partner or on your own.

Type of Expression Tibetan Transliteration English
Question  འདི་ག་རེ་རེད། Dhi GaRe Rey? What is this?
Answer འདི་ རེད། Dhi Rey This is .

Single-letter Words

Memorize the following single-letter words using the audio file provided.

Number Tibetan Grammatical Category English
1. ཁ། Noun mouth
2. ང་། Pronoun I
3. ཆ། Noun pair
4. ཇ། Noun tea
5. ཉ། Noun fish
6. ན། Verb sick
7. ཕ། Noun father
8. བ། Noun cow
9. མ། Noun mother
10. ཝ། Noun fox
11. ཟ། Verb to eat
12. ཡ། Noun the other pair
13. ར། Noun goat
14. ཤ། Noun meat
15. ས། Noun earth, ground

Challenge Yourself

Activity 2: Choose the Words

Activity 3: Drag the Words

Activity 4: Speaking

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Key Takeaways

  • There are 30 Basic Letters (Consonants)

    • These are called root letters (མིང་གཞི་) and form the base of Tibetan spelling and phonetics.

  • Alphabetic Order Reflects Pronunciation

    • The traditional order groups letters by place of articulation, helpful for understanding sound patterns.

  • Tibetan Alphabet is Used Across Variants

    • It’s used in Classical Tibetan, Modern Standard Tibetan, and regional dialects with slight pronunciation differences.

  • Script Variants

    • The most common forms are:

      • Uchen (དབུ་ཅན་) – formal script used in print

      • Umeh (དབུ་མེད་) – cursive style used in handwriting

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Basic Tibetan Copyright © by Jampa Khedup; Sonam Tsering; Rajiv Ranjan; and Erlin Barnard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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