Central Tibetan language, also known as Dbus Tibetan, Ü Tibetan or Ü-Tsang Tibetan, is the most widely spoken

Tibetic language The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the H ...

and the basis of

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" ...

. ''Dbus'' is the Wylie spelling of the name in

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or '' abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins ...

, , whereas ''Ü'' is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, (or ). All of these names are frequently applied specifically to the

prestige dialect Prestige in sociolinguistics is the level of regard normally accorded a specific language or dialect within a speech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestige varieties are language or dialect families which are generally c ...

of Lhasa.

Varieties

;Dbus and Gtsang There are many

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

Central Tibetan languages besides that of Lhasa, with particular diversity along the border and in Nepal: :

Limi Limi Valley is a high-altitude valley that forms the northernmost part of the Humla District of north-western Nepal. To its north, the Limi valley borders the Purang County of Tibet, China. Administrative Limi is a ward council of the Namkha r ...

(Limirong), Mugum,

Dolpo Dolpo ( ) is a high-altitude culturally Tibetan region in the upper part of the Dolpa District of western Nepal, bordered in the north by China.. Part of the region lies in Shey Phoksundo National Park. The sparse, agro-pastoral population, ...

(Dolkha),

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

(Lowa, Lokä), Humla, Nubri, Lhomi, Dhrogpai Gola, Walungchung Gola (Walungge/Halungge), Tseku : Basum (most divergent, possibly a separate language) ''Ethnologue'' reports that Walungge is highly intelligible with Thudam. ''Glottolog'' reports these South-Western Tibetic languages as forming a separate subgroup of languages within Central Tibetan languages, but that Thudam is not a distinct variety. On the opposite, ''Glottolog'' does not classify Basum within Central Tibetan but leaves it unclassified within Tibetic languages. Tournadre (2013) classifies Tseku with Khams. Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with

Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects. Amdo is one of the three branches of tradition ...

and 80% lexical similarity with

Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic languages, Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In ...

. Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

Shigatse Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

Gar Gars are an ancient group of ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. They comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba ...

Sherpa SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) is an organisation originally set up in 2002 to run and manage the SHERPA Project. History SHERPA began as an endeavour to support the establishment of a number of open ...

, Basum, Gertse, and

Nagqu Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declared the sixth prefecture-level city in Tibet after Lhas ...

varieties.Qu, Aitang 瞿霭堂; Jing, Song 劲松. 2017. ''Zangyu Weizang fangyan yanjiu'' 藏语卫藏方言研究. Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe 中国藏学出版社. .

Ngari Tibetan

Ngari Tibetan refers to a group of Tibetic dialects spoken in

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

, located in the westernmost part of the T.A.R, China. Although traditionally grouped under Central Tibetan (Dbusgtsang), Ngari varieties are considered more conservative and divergent, retaining several archaic features not found in

Lhasa Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" ...

. Some linguists have noted that dialects such as those spoken in Gêrzê County show transitional features between Central and Western Tibetan. However, the inclusion of dialects like Nagqu Tibetan, which is generally categorized under Central Tibetan proper, in a broader “Ngari areal group” is not widely accepted in current linguistic classifications. A related set of dialects is spoken in India’s Himachal Pradesh, particularly in the Spiti Valley and upper Kinnaur. These dialects share a close historical and linguistic relationship with Western Tibetic varieties of Ngari, though they have developed separately over time due to geographic and political separation. These Indian varieties are commonly referred to under exonyms such as Lahuli–Spiti or Kinnauri Tibetan, and are often treated as distinct Western Tibetic languages.

Consonants

འ The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or ''abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins are ...

isn't commonly transliterated to Roman, in the

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's '' A Chinese–English Dictionary'' ...

system ' is used.

Vowels

ཨ（◌）

Pronunciation

一"ai, ain, oi, oin" is also written to "ä, än, ö, ön".

Conjunct vowels

Last consonant

References

Languages of China Languages of Nepal Central Bodish languages Languages of Tibet Languages written in Tibetan script Vulnerable languages Endangered languages of China Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages {{st-lang-stub