Sound correspondences between Tibetic languages

Tibetic languages have high levels of dialectal variation; speakers of Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan cannot typically understand speakers of Amdo Tibetan varieties.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Descending from Old Tibetan, there are 50 recognized Tibetic languages, which branch into more than 200 dialects, which can be grouped into eight dialect continua. This article discusses sound correspondences between Old Tibetan and four modern Tibetic languages.

Phonological history of Tibetic languages Tibetic languages belong to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. All Tibetic languages descend from Old Tibetan, much as all Romance languages descend from Classical Latin.

Old Tibetan, like Proto-Tibeto-Burman and Proto-Sino-Tibetan, did not contain tone and used agglutinative morphology primarily consisting of single consonant affixes. Several Tibetic languages, such as Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan, joined the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area. In these languages, the affixes underwent complete loss or fossilization.

Onsets This table shows onset sound correspondences between different Tibetic languages. These rules are near-universally applicable, but differ in a few contexts; see Additional sound correspondences for more information. Tibetan ScriptWylie TransliterationOld TibetanLhasa TibetanKhams TibetanSettled Amdo TibetanNomadic Amdo TibetanཔpppHp1pསྤspspppʰདཔdpdphʷལྤlplppརྦrbrbpLpʰ3hbསྦsbsbp3bསྦྲsbrsbrʈ͡ʂ3ʈ͡ʂལྦlblbb3bའབ'bᵐbᵐbཕphpʰpʰHpʰ2pʰའཕ'phᵐpʰᵐpʰབbbpʰLpʰwརྨrmrmmHm1hmདམdmdmསྨsmsmmmʰསྨྲsmrsmrམmmmLm4mམྲmrmrཝwwwLw4ʀʷདབdbdbʔ1, w3ʀཏtttHt1tལྟltltརྟrtrthtསྟststttʰཏྭtwtʷtʷགཏgtgththtབཏbtbtvtབརྟbrtbrtvhtབལྟbltbltབསྟbstbstvtʰབལྡbldbldd3hdvdལཐlthltʰd2htʰསྡsdsdtLt3dཟླzlzll3ལྡldldd3མདmdmdhdརྡrdrdt3གདgdgdབདbdbdhdvdབསྡbsdbsdབརྡbrdbrdབཟླbzlbzll3vslའད'dⁿdd3ⁿdཐthtʰtʰHtʰ2tʰམཐmthmtʰd2htʰའཐ'thⁿtʰⁿtʰདddtʰLtʰ3tདྭdwdʷརྣrnrnnHn1hrགནgngnབརྣbrnbrnhrvrསྣsnsnnnʰབསྣbsnbsnhvnʰམནmnmnhnhnནnnnLn4nཀླklkllHl1lགླglglབླblblརླrlrlསླslslllʰབརླbrlbrlhlvlབསླbslbslhlʰལlllLl3lལྭlwlʷལྷlhl̥ɬHɬ~l1lʰཙtst͡st͡sHt͡s1t͡sརྩrtsrt͡sht͡sརྩྭrtswrt͡sʷསྩྭstswst͡sʷགཙgtsgt͡sབཙbtsbt͡sབརྩbrtsbrt͡sསྩstsst͡st͡st͡sʰབསྩbstsbst͡sht͡sht͡sʰརྫrdzrd͡zt͡sLt͡s3hd͡zགཛgdzgd͡zབརྫbrdzbrd͡zམཛmdzmd͡zd͡z3hd͡zའཛ'dzⁿd͡zⁿd͡zཚtsht͡sʰt͡sʰHt͡sʰ2t͡sʰཚྭtshwt͡sʰʷམཚmtshmt͡sʰht͡sʰའཚ'tshⁿt͡sʰⁿt͡sʰཛdzd͡zt͡sʰLt͡sʰ3t͡sསsssHs1sʰསྭswsʷསྲsrsrsʐགསgsgshsʰབསbsbsབསྲbsrbsrhsʐvsʐཟzzsLs3sཟྭzwzʷགཟgzgzhsབཟbzbzhsvsཀྲkrkrʈ͡ʂHʈ͡ʂ1ʈ͡ʂཏྲtrtrཔྲprprརྐྲrkrrkrhʈ͡ʂལྐྲlkrlkrདཀྲdkrdkrལྤྲlprlprདཔྲdprdprསྐྲskrskrʈ͡ʂʈ͡ʂʰསྤྲsprsprབཀྲbkrbkrhʈ͡ʂvʈ͡ʂབསྐྲbskrbskrhʈ͡ʂvʈ͡ʂʰབསྲbsrbsrs1hsʐvsʐལྒྲlgrlgrʈ͡ʂLɖ͡ʐ3hʈ͡ʂམགྲmgrmgrརྒྲrgrrgrʈ͡ʂ3དགྲdgrdgrདབྲdbrdbrརྦྲrbrrbrལྦྲlbrlbrɖ͡ʐ3སྒྲsgrsgrʈ͡ʂ3ʈ͡ʂʈ͡ʂʰསྦྲsbrsbrབསྒྲbsgrbsgrhʈ͡ʂvʈ͡ʂའགྲ'grᵑgrɖ͡ʐ3ⁿʈ͡ʂའདྲ'drⁿdrའབྲ'brᵐbrཁྲkhrkʰrʈ͡ʂʰHʈ͡ʂʰ2ʈ͡ʂʰཐྲthrtʰrཕྲphrpʰrམཁྲmkhrmkʰrhʈ͡ʂʰའཁྲ'khrᵑkʰrⁿʈ͡ʂʰའཕྲ'phrᵐpʰrགྲgrgrʈ͡ʂʰLʈ͡ʂʰ3ʈ͡ʂདྲdrdrགྲྭgrwgrʷབྲbrbrཧྲhrhrʂHʂ1sʐརrrɹLɹ3ʐརྭrwrʷརཧrhrhɹHh1hཀྱkykʲcHt͡ɕ1t͡ɕརྐྱrkyrkʲht͡ɕལྐྱlkylkʲདཀྱdkydkʲསྐྱskyskʲt͡ɕt͡ɕʰབཀྱbkybkʲht͡ɕvt͡ɕབརྐྱbrkybrkʲབསྐྱbskybskʲht͡ɕʰརྒྱrgyrgʲcLt͡ɕ3gསྒྱsgysgʲལྒྱlgylgʲd͡ʑ3དགྱdgydgʲt͡ɕ3ht͡ɕʰམགྱmgymgʲd͡ʑ3བགྱbgybgʲht͡ɕʰvt͡ɕʰབརྒྱbrgybrgʲབསྒྱbsgybsgʲའགྱ'gyᵑgʲᶮt͡ɕʰཁྱkhykʰʲcʰHt͡ɕʰ2t͡ɕʰམཁྱmkhymkʰʲht͡ɕʰའཁྱ'khyᵑkʰʲᶮt͡ɕʰགྱgygʲcʰLt͡ɕ3t͡ɕʰཧྱhyhʲçHh1hཅct͡ʃt͡ɕHt͡ɕ1t͡ɕཅྭcwt͡ʃʷགཅgcgt͡ʃht͡ɕལྕlclt͡ʃབཅbcbt͡ʃht͡ɕvt͡ɕཔྱpypʲɕལྤྱlpylpʲhɕདཔྱdpydpʲསྤྱspyspʲɕɕʰརྦྱrbyrbʲt͡ɕLt͡ɕ3hɕལྦྱlbylbʲd͡ʑ3སྦྱsbysbʲt͡ɕ3ɕɕʰརྗrjrd͡ʒhd͡ʑགཇgjgd͡ʒལྗljld͡ʒd͡ʑ3མཇmjmd͡ʒབརྗbrjbrd͡ʒt͡ɕ3hd͡ʑvhd͡ʑའཇ'jⁿd͡ʒd͡ʑ3ⁿd͡ʑའབྱ'byᵐbʲⁿɕཆcht͡ʃʰt͡ɕʰHt͡ɕʰ2t͡ɕʰམཆmchmt͡ʃʰht͡ɕʰའཆ'chⁿt͡ʃʰⁿt͡ɕʰཕྱphypʰʲɕའཕྱ'phyᵐpʰʲᶮɕʰཇjd͡ʒt͡ɕʰLt͡ɕʰ3t͡ɕབྱbybʲɕཤshʃɕHɕ1xཤྭshwʃʷxʷགཤgshgʃhxབཤbshbʃhxvxཞzhʒɕLɕ3ɕཞྭzhwʒʷགཞgzhgʒhʑབཞbzhbʒhʑvʑརྙrnyrɲɲHɲ1hɲསྙsnysɲɲɲʰསྨྱsmysmʲགཉgnygɲhɲམཉmnymɲརྨྱrmyrmʲབརྙbrnybrɲhɲvhɲབསྙbsnybsɲvhɲʰཉྭnywɲʷɲ4ɲཉnyɲɲLམྱmymʲm4གཡg.ygʲjHj1cཡyjjLj4jདབྱdbydbʲʔ1, w3ཀkkkHk1kཀྭkwkʷརྐrkrkhkལྐlklkདཀdkdkབཀbkbkkʷསྐskskkkʰབརྐbrkbrkhkvhkབསྐbskbskhkhkʰརྒrgrgkLk3hgདགdgdgལྒlglgg3མགmgmgསྒsgsgk3gབགbgbghgvgབསྒbsgbsgབརྒbrgbrghgvhgའག'gᵑgg3ᵑgཁkhkʰkʰHkʰ2kʰཁྭkhwkʰʷམཁmkhmkʰhkʰའཁ'khᵑkʰᵑkʰགggkʰLkʰ3kགྭgwgʷརྔrngrŋŋHŋ1hŋལྔlnglŋདངdngdŋམངmngmŋསྔsngsŋŋŋʰབརྔbrngbrŋhŋvhŋབསྔbsngbsŋhŋhŋʰངngŋŋLŋ4ŋཨNo consonantal onset∅ʔHʔ1∅འ'ɣʔ̞Lʔ4hཧhhhHh1ཧྭhwhʷ

Rimes This table shows rime sound correspondences between different Tibetic languages. These rules are near-universally applicable for the final syllables of words, but may differ in other contexts; see Sound correspondences between Tibetic languages#Irregular sound correspondences for more information.

The exact pronunciation of the tones in Lhasa Tibetan depends on the initial-derived tone and the exact rime. In Khams Tibetan, 1 denotes /˥/, 2 denotes /˦/, 3 denotes /˨/, and 4 denotes /˩/. +Tibetan ScriptWylie TransliterationOld TibetanLhasa TibetanKhams TibetanAmdo Tibetanཨaaaˑ˥ (H) a˩˨ (L)aཨའུa'uaɣuau̯˥ (H) au̯˩˨ (L)ɑau̯ཨརararaː˥ (H) aː˩˨ (L)aɹaːཨལalalɛː˥ (H) ɛː˩˨ (L)ɛཨའིa'iaɣiai̯˥ (H) ai̯˩˨ (L)ɛˑai̯ཨདadatɛˑ˥˨ (H) ɛˑ˩˨ (L)ɛʔɛཨསasasɛ˥˨ (H) ɛ˩˧˨ (L)ɛཨགagakʌˑʡ˥˨ (H) ʌˑʡ˩˨ (L)aʔཨགསagsaksʌʡ˥˨ (H) ʌʡ˩˧˨ (L)ཨབabapʌˑʡ̆˥˨ (H) ʌˑʡ̆˩˨ (L)apཨབསabsapsʌʡ̆˥˨ (H) ʌʡ̆˩˧˨ (L)ཨངangaŋaŋ˥ (H) aŋ˩˨ (L)aŋཨངསangsaŋsaŋ˥˨ (H) aŋ˩˧˨ (L)ཨམamamam˥ (H) am˩˨ (L)amཨམསamsamsam˥˨ (H) am˩˧˨ (L)ཨནananɛ̃ː˥ (H) ɛ̃ː˩˨ (L)anཨིiiiˑ˥ (H) i˩˨ (L)iəཨིའིi'iiɣiN/Aiˑiːཨིདiditiˑ˥˨ (H) iˑ˩˨ (L)ɨʔiʔཨིསisisi˥˨ (H) i˩˧˨ (L)isཨིའུi'uiɣuiu̯˥ (H) iu̯˩˨ (L)N/Aཨིའུe'ueɣuཨིརiririːm˥ (H) iːm˩˨ (L)iɹiːཨིལililiilཨིགigikiˑʡ˥˨ (H) iˑʡ˩˨ (L)ɨʔiʔཨིགསigsiksiʡ˥˨ (H) iʡ˩˧˨ (L)ཨིབibipiˑʡ̆˥˨ (H) iˑʡ̆˩˨ (L)ipཨིབསibsipsiʡ̆˥˨ (H) iʡ̆˩˧˨ (L)ཨིངingiŋɪŋ˥ (H) ɪŋ˩˨ (L)iŋཨིངསingsiŋsɪŋ˥˨ (H) ɪŋ˩˧˨ (L)ཨིམimimɪm˥ (H) ɪm˩˨ (L)imཨིམསimsimsɪm˥˨ (H) ɪm˩˧˨ (L)ཨིནininĩː˥ (H) ĩː˩˨ (L)inཨུuuuˑ˥ (H) u˩˨ (L)uəཨུརururuː˥ (H) uː˩˨ (L)uɹuːཨུལululyː˥ (H) yː˩˨ (L)uəཨུའིu'iuɣiyː˥ (H) yː˩˨ (L)ui̯ཨུདudutyˑ˥˨ (H) yˑ˩˨ (L)ʉʔuʔཨུསususy˥˨ (H) y˩˧˨ (L)ཨུགugukuˑʡ˥˨ (H) uˑʡ˩˨ (L)ཨུགསugsuksuʡ˥˨ (H) uʡ˩˧˨ (L)ཨུབubupuˑʡ̆˥˨ (H) uˑʡ̆˩˨ (L)upཨུབསubsupsuʡ̆˥˨ (H) uʡ̆˩˧˨ (L)ཨུངunguŋʊŋ˥ (H) ʊŋ˩˨ (L)uŋཨུངསungsuŋsʊŋ˥˨ (H) ʊŋ˩˧˨ (L)ཨུམumumʊm˥ (H) ʊm˩˨ (L)umཨུམསumsumsʊm˥˨ (H) ʊm˩˧˨ (L)ཨུནununỹː˥ (H) ỹː˩˨ (L)unཨེeeeˑ˥ (H) e˩˨ (L)eཨེདedeteˑ˥˨ (H) eˑ˩˨ (L)eʔཨེསesese˥˨ (H) e˩˧˨ (L)ཨེརerereː˥ (H) eː˩˨ (L)eɹeːཨེལeleleelཨེའིe'ieɣieː˥ (H) eː˩˨ (L)eˑei̯ཨེགe.g.ekɛ̈ˑʡ˥˨ (H) ɛ̈ˑʡ˩˨ (L)eʔཨེགསegseksɛ̈ʡ˥˨ (H) ɛ̈ʡ˩˧˨ (L)ཨེབebepɛ̈ˑʡ̆˥˨ (H) ɛ̈ˑʡ̆˩˨ (L)epཨེབསebsepsɛ̈ʡ̆˥˨ (H) ɛ̈ʡ̆˩˧˨ (L)ཨེངengeŋɛŋ˥ (H) ɛŋ˩˨ (L)eŋཨེངསengseŋsɛŋ˥˨ (H) ɛŋ˩˧˨ (L)ཨེམememɛm˥ (H) ɛm˩˨ (L)emཨེམསemsemsɛm˥˨ (H) ɛm˩˧˨ (L)ཨེནenenẽː˥ (H) ẽː˩˨ (L)enཨོoooˑ˥ (H) o˩˨ (L)oཨོའུo'uoɣuou̯˥ (H) ou̯˩˨ (L)N/Aoʔཨོརororoː˥ (H) oː˩˨ (L)oɹoːཨོལololøː˥ (H) øː˩˨ (L)øolཨོའིo'ioɣiøː˥ (H) øː˩˨ (L)oi̯ཨོདodotøˑ˥˨ (H) øˑ˩˨ (L)ʊʔoʔཨོསososø˥˨ (H) ø˩˧˨ (L)ཨོགogokɔˑʡ˥˨ (H) ɔˑʡ˩˨ (L)ཨོགསogsoksɔʡ˥˨ (H) ɔʡ˩˧˨ (L)ཨོབobopɔˑʡ̆˥˨ (H) ɔˑʡ̆˩˨ (L)opཨོབསobsopsɔʡ̆˥˨ (H) ɔʡ̆˩˧˨ (L)ཨོངongoŋɔŋ˥ (H) ɔŋ˩˨ (L)oŋཨོངསongsoŋsɔŋ˥˨ (H) ɔŋ˩˧˨ (L)ཨོམomomɔm˥ (H) ɔm˩˨ (L)omཨོམསomsomsɔm˥˨ (H) ɔm˩˧˨ (L)ཨོནononø̃ː˥ (H) ø̃ː˩˨ (L)on

Additional sound correspondences

Lhasa Tibetan In multisyllabic words, the first syllable's tone transforms into /˥/ if the onset gives it a high tone (H) and transforms into /˩/ if the onset gives it a low tone (L).

The tone of the consecutive syllables change according to the following table: +Original Tone of Non-Initial SyllableNew Tone of Non-Initial Syllable Derived from Tone Sandhi/˥˦//˥/ (if the first syllable is H) /˩˦/ (if the first syllable is L)/˥//˩˨//˩˧//˥˨//˥˨//˩˧˨/ Several words and syllabic affixes in Lhasa Tibetan do not follow the regular rules for deriving tone and instead receive their tone from the noun or verb they modify. These words and affixes include མ (negation word), ཨ (second person imperative marker), ཏུ (first person plural imperative marker), ལ (dative and locative suffix), and ཝ (agenitive suffix).

Colloquial Lhasa Tibetan (but not formal readings) omit ཝ when it appears as the final syllable in a word. The vowel in the previous syllable lengthens if it existed as /a/, /o/, or /e/ in Old Tibetan; it forms a diphthong pronounced as [o] followed by the vowel if it existed as /i/ or /u/ in Old Tibetan.

Noninitial syllables always deaspirate any written aspirated consonants. If a syllable with an open coda in Old Tibetan (no written final consonant) is followed by a syllable with a prefixed or superjoined letter, then the prefixed or superjoined letter becomes the final consonant of the previous syllable.

If a word contains [i], [u], or [y] along with what would result in [a], [e], or [o], then [a] becomes [ə], [e] becomes [e̝], and [o] becomes [o̝].

Khams Tibetan Bisyllabic words with a first syllable possessing tones 1 or 2 tend to retain the first syllable's tone in the second syllable, although some speakers pronounce both syllables according to the standard rules in certain words. Trisyllabic words have a falling contour in the final syllable. Quadrisyllabic words are pronounced like two consecutive bisyllabic words.

Amdo Tibetan If a syllable with an open coda in Old Tibetan (no written final consonant) is followed by a syllable with a prefixed or superjoined letter, then the prefixed or superjoined letter becomes the final consonant of the previous syllable.

See also

Amdo Tibetan Khams Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription Tibetan pinyin Wylie transliteration

References