# Tibetan pinyin

The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Standard Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin or ZWPY (Chinese: 藏文拼音; pinyin: Zàngwén Pīnyīn), is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in China. It is based on the pronunciation used by China National Radio's Tibetan Radio, which is based on the Lhasa dialect. It has been used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script since 1982.
Tibetan pinyin is a phonetic transcription, and as such its spelling is tied to actual pronunciation (although tone is not marked). Wylie on the other hand is a transliteration system, where mechanical conversion to and from Tibetan and Latin script is possible. Within academic circles, Wylie transliteration (with a v replacing the apostrophe) is more commonly used.

## Overview
### Onsets overview

Independent onsets in the initial syllable of a word are transcribed as follows:
| ཀ་ | ཁ་ ག་ | ང་ | ཅ་ | ཇ་ ཆ་ | ཉ་ | ཏ་ | ད་ ཐ་ | ན་ | པ་ | ཕ་ བ་ | མ་ | ཙ་ | ཛ་ ཚ་ | ཝ་ | ཞ་ ཤ་ | ཟ་ ས་ | ཡ་ | ར་ | ལ་ | ཧ་ | ཀྱ་ | ཁྱ་ གྱ་ | ཧྱ་ | ཀྲ་ | ཁྲ་ གྲ་ | ཧྲ་ | ལྷ་ | རྷ་ |
| g | k | ng | j | q | ny | d | t | n | b | p | m | z | c | w | x | s | y | r | l | h | gy | ky | hy | zh | ch | sh | lh | rh |
For more general case, see #Onsets.

### Vowels and final consonant

The 17 vowels of the Lhasa dialect are represented in as follows:
| IPA | Tibetan pinyin | IPA | Tibetan pinyin |
| i | i | ĩ | in |
| e | ê | ẽ | en |
| ɛ | ai/ä | ɛ̃ | ain/än |
| a | a | ã | an |
| u | u | ũ | un |
| o | ô | õ | on |
| ɔ | o | ɔ̃ | ǒn |
| y | ü | ỹ | ün |
| ø | oi/ö | ø̃ | oin/ön |
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:
| IPA | Tibetan pinyin |
| ʔ̞ | b/• |
| ʔ | g/— |
| r | r |
| m | m |
| ŋ | ng |

## 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.
| IPA | Wylie transliteration | Tibetan pinyin | THL |
| pá | p, sp, dp, lp | b | p |
| pà | rb, sb, sbr | b | b |
| mpà | lb, ’b | b | b |
| pʰá | ph, ’ph | p | p |
| pʰà | b | p | b |
| bà | bh | bh | bh |
| má | rm, sm, dm, smr | m | m |
| mà | m, mr | m | m |
| wà | w, db, b | w | w |
| tá | t, rt, lt, st, tw, gt, bt, brt, blt, bst, bld | d | t |
| tà | rd, sd, gd, bd, brd, bsd | d | d |
| ntá | lth | d | |
| ntà | zl, bzl, ld, md, ’d | d | d |
| tʰá | th, mth, ’th | t | t |
| tʰà | d, dw | t | d |
| ná | rn, sn, gn, brn, bsn, mn | n | n |
| nà | n | n | n |
| lá | kl, gl, bl, rl, sl, brl, bsl | l | l |
| là | l, lw | l | l |
| l̥á | lh | lh | lh |
| tsá | ts, rts, sts, rtsw, stsw, gts, bts, brts, bsts | z | ts |
| tsà | rdz, gdz, brdz | z | dz |
| ntsà | mdz, ’dz | z | dz |
| tsʰá | tsh, tshw, mtsh, ’tsh | c | ts |
| tsʰà | dz | c | dz |
| sá | s, sr, sw, gs, bs, bsr | s | s |
| sà | z, zw, gz, bz | s | z |
| ʈʂá | kr, rkr, lkr, skr, tr, pr, lpr, spr, dkr, dpr, bkr, bskr, bsr | zh | tr |
| ʈʂà | rgr, lgr, sgr, dgr, dbr, bsgr, rbr, lbr, sbr | zh | dr |
| ɳʈʂà | mgr, ’gr, ’dr, ’br | zh | dr |
| ʈʂʰá | khr, thr, phr, mkhr, ’khr, ’phr | ch | tr |
| ʈʂʰà | gr, dr, br, grw | ch | dr |
| ʂá | hr | sh | hr |
| rà | r, rw | r | r |
| r̥á | rh | rh | |
| cá | ky, rky, lky, sky, dky, bky, brky, bsky | gy | ky |
| cà | rgy, lgy, sgy, dgy, bgy, brgy, bsgy | gy | gy |
| ɲcà | mgy, ’gy | gy | gy |
| cʰá | khy, mkhy, ’khy | ky | khy |
| cʰà | gy | ky | gy |
| çá | hy | hy | hy |
| tɕá | c, cw, gc, bc, lc, py, lpy, spy, dpy | j | ch |
| tɕà | rby, lby, sby, rj, gj, brj | j | j |
| ɲtɕà | lj, mj, ’j, ’by | j | j |
| tɕʰá | ch, mch, ’ch, phy, ’phy | q | ch |
| tɕʰà | j, by | q | j |
| ɕá | sh, shw, gsh, bsh | x | sh |
| ɕà | zh, zhw, gzh, bzh | x | zh |
| ɲá | rny, sny, gny, brny, bsny, mny, nyw, rmy, smy | ny | ny |
| ɲà | ny, my | ny | ny |
| já | g.y | y | y |
| jà | y, dby | y | y |
| ká | k, rk, lk, sk, kw, dk, bk, brk, bsk | g | k |
| kà | rg, lg, sg, dg, bg, brg, bsg | g | g |
| ŋkà | lg, mg, ’g | g | g |
| kʰá | kh, khw, mkh, ’kh | k | kh |
| kʰà | g, gw | k | g |
| ŋá | rng, lng, sng, dng, brng, bsng, mng | ng | ng |
| ŋà | ng | ng | ng |
| ʔá | —, db | — | — |
| ʔ̞à | ’ | — | — |
| há | h, hw | h | h |

### 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 "◌").
| Tibetan | ཨ། | ཨའུ། | ཨར། | ཨལ། ཨའི། | ཨད། ཨས། | ཨག། ཨགས། | ཨབ། ཨབས། | ཨང༌། ཨངས། | ཨམ། ཨམས། | ཨན། |
| Wylie | a | a'u | ar | al a'i | ad as | ag ags | ab abs | ang angs | am ams | an |
| Pinyin | a | au | ar | ai/ä | ai/ä | ag | ab | ang | am | ain/än |
| IPA | [a] | [au̯] | [aː] | [ɛː] | [ɛ] | [ʌʡ] ~ [ɤʡ] | [ʌʡ̆] ~ [ɤʡ̆] | [aŋ] | [am] | [ɛ̃ː] |
| Tibetan | ཨི། | ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ། | ཨིར། | ཨིལ། ཨའི། | ཨིད། ཨིས། | ཨིག། ཨིགས། | ཨིབ། ཨིབས། | ཨིང༌། ཨིངས། | ཨིམ། ཨིམས། | ཨིན། |
| Wylie | i | i'u | ir | il a'i | id is | ig igs | ib ibs | ing ings | im ims | in |
| Pinyin | i | iu | ir | i | i | ig | ib | ing | im | in |
| IPA | [i] | [iu̯] | [iː] | [iː] | [i] | [iʡ] | [iʡ̆] | [ɪŋ] | [ɪm] | [ĩː] |
| Tibetan | ཨུ། | | ཨུར། | ཨུལ། ཨུའི། | ཨུད། ཨུས། | ཨུག། ཨུགས། | ཨུབ། ཨུབས། | ཨུང༌། ཨུངས། | ཨུམ། ཨུམས། | ཨུན། |
| Wylie | u | | ur | ul u'i | ud us | ug ugs | ub ubs | ung ungs | um ums | un |
| Pinyin | u | | ur | ü | ü | ug | ub | ung | um | ün |
| IPA | [u] | | [uː] | [yː] | [y] | [uʡ] | [uʡ̆] | [ʊŋ] | [ʊm] | [ỹː] |
| Tibetan | ཨེ། | | ཨེར། | ཨེལ། ཨེའི། | ཨེད། ཨེས། | ཨེག། ཨེགས། | ཨེབ། ཨེབས། | ཨེང༌། ཨེངས། | ཨེམ། ཨེམས། | ཨེན། |
| Wylie | e | | er | el e'i | ed es | eg egs | eb ebs | eng engs | em ems | en |
| Pinyin | ê | | êr | ê | ê | êg | êb | êng | êm | ên |
| IPA | [e] | | [eː] | [eː] | [e] | [ɛ̈ʡ] | [ɛ̈ʡ̆] | [ɛŋ] | [ɛm] | [ẽː] |
| Tibetan | ཨོ། | ཨོའུ། | ཨོར། | ཨོལ། ཨོའི། | ཨོད། ཨོས། | ཨོག། ཨོགས། | ཨོབ། ཨོབས། | ཨོང༌། ཨོངས། | ཨོམ། ཨོམས། | ཨོན། |
| Wylie | o | o'u | or | ol o'i | od os | og ogs | ob obs | ong ongs | om oms | on |
| Pinyin | ô | ou | ôr | oi/ö | oi/ö | ôg | ôb | ông | ôm | oin/ön |
| IPA | [o] | [ou̯] | [oː] | [øː] | [ø] | [ɔʡ] | [ɔʡ̆] | [ɔŋ] | [ɔm] | [ø̃ː] |

## Intersyllable influence
### Onset variation
#### Bare low aspirated variation

* k*, q*, t*, p*, x*, s*, ky*, ch* become g*, j*, d*, b*, ?*, ?*, gy*, zh* respectively
* pa* (་བ) and po* (་བོ) become wa and wo respectively

### Coda variation

Sometimes there is intersyllabic influence:
| Tibetan script | Tibetan pinyin | Wylie (EWTS) | Lhasa IPA | Explanation |
| མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ། | Mapam Yumco | ma-pham g.yu-mtsho | | forward shift of prefix མ |
| ཁྲ་འབྲུག་དགོན་པ། | Changzhug Gönba | khra-’brug dgon-pa | | shift of the prefix འ (ཨ་ཆུང a chung), creating a final nasal consonant |

## Encoding

The IETF language tag for Tibetan pinyin is bo-Latn-pinyin.

## Examples

| Tibetan Script | Wylie | Tibetan pinyin | THL | other transcriptions |
| གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ | Gzhis-ka-rtse | Xigazê | Zhikatse | Shigatse, Shikatse |
| བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ | Bkra-shis-lhun-po | Zhaxilhünbo | Trashilhünpo | Tashilhunpo, Tashilhümpo, etc. |
| འབྲས་སྤུང་ | ’Bras-spung | Zhaibung | Dräpung | Drebung |
| ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ | Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan | Qoigyi Gyaicain | Chökyi Gyältshän | Choekyi Gyaltsen |
| ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ | Thub-bstan Rgya-mtsho | Tubdain Gyaco | Thuptän Gyatsho | Thubten Gyatso, Thubtan Gyatso, Thupten Gyatso |