The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China for personal names and place names. It is based on the Lhasa dialect of Standard Tibetan and reflects the pronunciation except that it does not mark tone. It is used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script within academic circles; Wylie transliteration (with a v replacing the apostrophe) is more commonly used.
Contents
Onsets overview
Independent onsets in the initial syllable of a word are transcribed as follows:
For more general case, see #Onsets.
Vowels and final consonant
The 17 vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in as follows:
Ending a syllable, -r is usually not pronounced, but it lengthens the preceding vowel. In the same place, -n usually nasalises the preceding vowel. Consonants at the end of a syllable are transcribed as follows:
Single syllable orthography
The tone of a syllable depends mostly on its initial consonant. In this table, each initial is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with the vowel a and a tone mark to present tone register (high/low).
Onsets
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of onsets of an initial syllable of a word. If the syllable to transcribe is not the first syllable of a word, see #Onset variation.
Rimes
Below is a comprehensive transcription table of rimes of a final syllable of a word, with IPA transcription for the Lhasa dialect. If the syllable to transcribe is not the final syllable of a word, see #Coda variation.
Take "ཨ" to be the consonant (not "◌").
Onset variation
Coda variation
Examples
Sometimes there is intersyllablic influence: