View source for Tibetan script

{{Short description|Tibetan writing system}}
{{Infobox writing system
| name        = Tibetan
| type        = [[Abugida]]
| time        = {{Circa|620}}–present
| languages   = {{hlist|list_style=line-height:1.3em;|[[Lhasa Tibetan|Tibetan]]|[[Dzongkha]]|[[Ladakhi language|Ladakhi]]|[[Sikkimese language|Sikkimese]]|[[Balti language|Balti]]|[[Sherpa language|Sherpa]]|[[Jirel language|Jirel]]|[[Yolmo language|Yolmo]]|[[Tshangla language|Tshangla]]|}}
| fam1         = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]
| fam2         = [[Proto-Sinaitic]]
| fam3         = [[Phoenician script|Phoenician]]
| fam4         = [[Aramaic script|Aramaic]]
| fam5        = [[Brahmi script|Brahmi]]
| fam6        = [[North India|Northern Brahmi]]
| fam7        = [[Gupta script|Gupta]]<ref>{{cite book | title = Language in South Asia |editor-last1 = Kachru |editor-first1 = Braj B. |editor-last2 = Kachru |editor-first2 = Yamuna |editor-last3 = Sridhar |editor-first3 = S. N. |chapter = Writing systems of major and minor languages |last1 = Daniels |first1 = Peter T. |pages = 285–308 |chapter-url = https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619069.017 | date = January 2008|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511619069.017 |isbn = 978-0-521-78653-9 }}</ref><ref name="masica">{{cite book |last1=Masica |first1=Colin |title=The Indo-Aryan languages |date=1993 |page=143}}</ref>
| sisters     = [[Meitei script|Meitei]],<ref name="Meithei" >{{cite book |last1=Chelliah |first1=Shobhana Lakshmi |title=A Grammar of Meithei |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=noCHVvu0P8oC |quote="Meithei Mayek is part of the Tibetan group of scripts, which originated from the Gupta Brahmi script" |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2011 |page=355 |isbn=9783110801118 |access-date=2023-03-19 |archive-date=2023-04-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413062923/https://books.google.com/books?id=noCHVvu0P8oC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{citation |last1=Singh |first1=Harimohon Thounaojam |title=The Evolution and Recent Development of the Meetei Mayek Script |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263852161 |publisher=Cambridge University Press India |page=28 |date=January 2011 }}</ref> [[Sharada script|Sharada]], [[Siddham script|Siddham]], [[Kalinga script|Kalinga]], [[Bhaiksuki script|Bhaiksuki]]
| children    = 
* [[Lepcha script|Lepcha]]
* [[Khema script|Khema]]
* [[Phagspa script|Phagspa]]
* [[Marchen script|Marchen]]
* [[Tamyig script|Tamyig]]
| native_name = {{bo-textonly|བོད་ཡིག་}}
| sample      = Om Mani Padme Hum mantra.svg
| caption     = The [[mantra]] "[[Om mani padme hum]]"
| imagesize   = 250px
| unicode     = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0F00.pdf U+0F00&ndash;U+0FFF] [http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2022.pdf Final&nbsp;Accepted&nbsp;Script&nbsp;Proposal of the First Usable Edition (3.0)]
| iso15924    = Tibt
}}
{{Contains special characters|Tibetan}}
{{Alphabet}}
{{Brahmic}}

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 [[Lhasa Tibetan|Tibetan]], [[Dzongkha]], [[Sikkimese language|Sikkimese]], [[Ladakhi language|Ladakhi]], [[Jirel language|Jirel]] and [[Balti language|Balti]]. Its exact origins are a subject of research but is traditionally considered to be developed by [[Thonmi Sambhota]] for King [[Songtsen Gampo]].

The printed form is called [[uchen script]] while the hand-written form used in everyday writing is called [[umê script]]. This writing system is especially used across the [[Himalayan Region]].

==History==
Little is known about the exact origins of Tibetan script.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The evolution of Tibetan typefaces: anatomy and historical development of Tibetan fonts |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/evolution-tibetan-typefaces-anatomy-and-historical-development-tibetan-fonts |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241129063152/https://www.inalco.fr/en/evolution-tibetan-typefaces-anatomy-and-historical-development-tibetan-fonts |archive-date=2024-11-29 |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales}}</ref> According to Tibetan [[historiography]], it was developed during the reign of King [[Songtsen Gampo]] by his minister Thonmi Sambhota, who was sent to India along with other scholars to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and other brahmi languages.<ref>''Tibet: A Political History'', p. 12. 1967. Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.</ref><ref>''The White Annals'', pp. 70–73. Gedun Choephel, translated by Samten Norboo. 1978. Tibetan Library and Archives, [[Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh|Dharamsala]], H.P., India.</ref> They developed the Tibetan script from the [[Gupta script]]<ref>Claude Arpi, ''Glimpses on the Tibet History'', Dharamsala: Tibet Museum, 2016.</ref> while at the [[Pabonka Hermitage]].

This occurred {{Circa|620}}, towards the beginning of Songtsen Gampo's  reign. There were 21 [[Sutra]] texts held by the King which were translated afterwards. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts,<ref>William Woodville Rockhill, {{Google books|avFDAQAAMAAJ|Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution|page=671}}, United States National Museum, page 671</ref><ref>Berzin, Alexander. ''A Survey of Tibetan History - Reading Notes Taken'' by Alexander Berzin from Tsepon, W. D. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1967: http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617115552/http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html |date=2016-06-17 }}.</ref> for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution.

Earliest sources on Tibet, such as the [[Old Tibetan Chronicle]], do not mention any Thonmi Sambhota.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Roy Andrew |date=1963 |title=Thon-mi Sambhoṭa and His Grammatical Treatises |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/597167 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=485–502 |doi=10.2307/597167 |jstor=597167 |issn=0003-0279|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Scripts predating Songtsen Gampo might have existed but in any case do not appear to be widely used.<ref name=":0" /> Researchers postulate that Tibetan kings sought to develop a system of writing as their [[Tibetan Empire#History|territory expanded]]. The script resembling the version today was likely developed in the second half of the 11th century.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="zeisler 2006">{{cite book|chapter=Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the Great Tradition Another kind of global thinking|first=Bettina |last=Zeisler|date=2006|title=Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia|editor1=Anju Saxena|editor2=Lars Borin|page=178}}</ref> New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to the introduction of the script by [[Songtsen Gampo]] and [[Thonmi Sambhota]]. The incomplete [[Dunhuang manuscripts]] are their key evidence for their hypothesis,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phuntsok |first1=Thubten |title=བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་སྤྱི་དོན་པདྨ་ར་གཱའི་ལྡེ་མིག "A General History of Tibet"}}</ref> while the few discovered and recorded [[Old Tibetan Annals]] manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c.&nbsp;620 date of development of the original Tibetan script.

Three orthographic [[Standardization|standardisations]] were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of [[Buddhist scriptures]] emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language [[sound change|has changed]] by, for example, losing complex [[consonant cluster]]s. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the [[Standard Tibetan]] of [[Lhasa]], there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects the 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of [[spelling reform]], to write Tibetan ''as it is pronounced''; for example, writing ''[[Kagyu]]'' instead of ''Bka'-rgyud''.<ref name="i208">{{cite book | last=Gamble | first=R. | title=Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2018 | isbn=978-0-19-069078-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCRjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 | access-date=2024-05-12 | page=62}}</ref>

The nomadic [[Amdo Tibetan]] and the western dialects of the [[Ladakhi language]], as well as the [[Balti language]], come close to the [[Old Tibetan]] spellings.<ref name="zeisler 2006"/> Despite that, the grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of [[Classical Tibetan]] would be similar to writing Sanskrit orthography.<ref name="zeisler 2006"/> However, modern Buddhist practitioners in the Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or introduce a new spelling reform of Tibetan. <ref name="zeisler 2006"/>

==Description==

=== Basic alphabet ===
In the Tibetan script, the [[syllable]]s are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a ''tsek'' (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words.<ref name="x832">{{cite book | last1=Chan | first1=A. | last2=Noble | first2=A. | title=Sounds in Translation: Intersections of Music, Technology and Society | publisher=ANU E Press | series=DOAB Directory of Open Access Books | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-921536-55-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5JFo7oajsMC&pg=PA146 | access-date=2024-05-12 | page=146}}</ref>

The Tibetan alphabet has thirty letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants.<ref name="daniels">Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. ''The World's Writing Systems''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996,</ref> As in other [[Indic scripts]], each consonant letter assumes an [[inherent vowel]]; in the Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter {{bo-textonly|ཨ}} is also the base for dependent vowel marks.

Although some Tibetan dialects are [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]], the language had no tone at the time of the script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from [[Segment (linguistics)|segmental]] features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:75%;"
|- align=center style="font-size:small;"
!
!style="background:beige;" colspan=2 | Unaspirated<br />''high''
!style="background:#d6f5d6;" colspan=2 | [[Aspirated consonant|Aspirated]]<br />''medium''
!style="background:#ffcce6;" colspan=2 | [[Voiced]]<br/ >''low''
!style="background:#99bbff;" colspan=2 | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]<br />''low''
|- align=center style="font-size:small;"
!
! Letter
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! Letter
! IPA
! Letter
! IPA
! Letter
! IPA
|- align=center
| '''''[[Guttural]]''''' ||style="background:beige; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཀ}} || {{IPA|/ka/}} ||style="background:#d6f5d6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཁ}} || {{IPA|/kʰa/}} ||style="background:#ffcce6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ག}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced|These voiced values are historical. They have been devoiced in modern Standard Tibetan.}} || {{IPA|/ɡa/}}  ||style="background:#99bbff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ང}} || {{IPA|/ŋa/}}
|- align=center
| '''''[[Palatal]]''''' ||style="background:beige; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཅ}} || {{IPA|/tʃa/}} ||style="background:#d6f5d6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཆ}} || {{IPA|/tʃʰa/}} ||style="background:#ffcce6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཇ}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}} || {{IPA|/dʒa/}} ||style="background:#99bbff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཉ}} ||  {{IPA|/ɲa/}}
|- align=center
| '''''[[Dental consonant|Dental]]''''' ||style="background:beige; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཏ}} || {{IPA|/ta/}} ||style="background:#d6f5d6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཐ}} || {{IPA|/tʰa/}} ||style="background:#ffcce6; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ད}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}} || {{IPA|/da/}} ||style="background:#99bbff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ན}} || {{IPA|/na/}}
|- align="center"
|'''''[[Labial consonant|Labial]]'''''|| style="background:beige; font-size:24px;" | {{bo-textonly|པ}} || {{IPA|/pa/}}|| style="background:#d6f5d6; font-size:24px;" | {{bo-textonly|ཕ}} || {{IPA|/pʰa/}}|| style="background:#ffcce6; font-size:24px;" | {{bo-textonly|བ}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}}|| {{IPA|/ba/}}|| style="background:#99bbff; font-size:24px;" | {{bo-textonly|མ}} || {{IPA|/ma/}}
|- align="center"
|'''''[[Dental consonant|Dental]]'''''
| style="background:beige; font-size:24px;" |{{bo-textonly|ཙ}}||{{IPA|/tsa/}}|| style="background:#d6f5d6; font-size:24px;" |{{bo-textonly|ཚ}}||{{IPA|/tsʰa/}}|| style="background:#ffcce6; font-size:24px;" |{{bo-textonly|ཛ}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}} ||{{IPA|/dza/}}|| style="background:#EEEFE4; font-size:24px;" |{{bo-textonly|ཝ}}||{{IPA|/wa/}}
|- align=center
|style="background:#d9b3ff;" | '''''low''''' ||style="background:#d9b3ff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཞ}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}} || {{IPA|/ʒa/}} ||style="background:#d9b3ff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཟ}}{{efn-lr|name=voiced}} || {{IPA|/za/}}  ||style="background:#d9b3ff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|འ}} || {{IPA|/ɦa/}}<ref>{{cite journal
 |last         = Hill
 |first        = Nathan W.
 |year         = 2005b
 |title        = Once more on the letter འ
 |journal      = Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
 |volume       = 28
 |issue        = 2
 |pages        = 111–141
 |doi = 10.32655/LTBA.28.2.04
 |url          = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/5632/1/once_more_on_the_letter.pdf
 |access-date  = 2022-06-01
 |archive-date = 2022-06-16
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20220616054618/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/5632/1/once_more_on_the_letter.pdf
 |url-status   = live
}}; {{cite journal
 |last         = Hill
 |first        = Nathan W.
 |year         = 2009
 |title        = Tibetan <ḥ-> as a plain initial and its place in Old Tibetan phonology
 |journal      = Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
 |volume       = 32
 |issue        = 1
 |pages        = 115–140
 |doi = 10.32655/LTBA.32.1.03
 |url          = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/7625/1/04-Hill-Dialect-reflexes-of-Tib-v.pdf
 |access-date  = 2022-06-01
 |archive-date = 2022-06-01
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20220601181159/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/7625/1/04-Hill-Dialect-reflexes-of-Tib-v.pdf
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> {{angle bracket|ʼa}} ||style="background:#d9b3ff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཡ}} ||  {{IPA|/ja/}}
|- align=center  
|style="background:#b3ffff;" | '''''medium''''' ||style="background:#b3ffff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ར}} || {{IPA|/ra/}} ||style="background:#b3ffff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ལ}} || {{IPA|/la/}} ||style="background:#b3ffff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཤ}} || {{IPA|/ʃa/}} ||style="background:#b3ffff; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ས}} || {{IPA|/sa/}}
|- align=center
|style="background:#ffffcc;" | '''''high''''' ||style="background:#ffffcc; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཧ}} || {{IPA|/ha/}} ||style="background:#ffffcc; font-size:24px;"| {{bo-textonly|ཨ}} || {{IPA|/a/}} {{angle bracket|ꞏa}}
|}
{{notelist-lr}}

===Consonant clusters===
[[File:Tibetan syllable structure.svg|thumb|400px|Components of a Tibetan syllable]]

[[File:Tibetan map of the Kizil Caves (13th entury CE).jpg|thumb|Tibetan map of the [[Kizil Caves]], [[Tarim Basin]]. 13th century CE]]
One aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as [[subscript and superscript]] forming [[consonant cluster]]s.

To understand how this works, one can look at the radical {{bo-textonly|ཀ}} /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes {{bo-textonly|ཀྲ}} /kra/ or {{bo-textonly|རྐ}} /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for {{bo-textonly|ཀ}} /ka/ is used, but when the {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/ is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript.  On the other hand, when the {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript.<ref name="daniels" /> {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/ actually changes form when it is above most other consonants, thus {{bo-textonly|རྐ}} rka.  However, an exception to this is the cluster {{bo-textonly|རྙ}} /ɲa/.  Similarly, the consonants {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, and {{bo-textonly|ཡ}} /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus {{bo-textonly|ཀྲ}} /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; {{bo-textonly|ཀྱ}} /ca/.

Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance, the consonants {{bo-textonly|ག}} /kʰa/, {{bo-textonly|ད}} /tʰa/, {{bo-textonly|བ}} /pʰa/, {{bo-textonly|མ}} /ma/ and {{bo-textonly|འ}} /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants {{bo-textonly|ག}} /kʰa/, {{bo-textonly|ན}} /na/, {{bo-textonly|བ}} /pʰa/, {{bo-textonly|ད}} /tʰa/, {{bo-textonly|མ}} /ma/, {{bo-textonly|འ}} /a/, {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ང}} /ŋa/, {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/, and {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position is solely for the consonants {{bo-textonly|ད}} /tʰa/ and {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/.<ref name="daniels" />

====Head letters====
The head ({{bo-textonly|མགོ}} in Tibetan, Wylie: ''mgo'') letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/, and {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/.

*When {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/, and {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/ are in superscript position with {{bo-textonly|ཀ}} /ka/, {{bo-textonly|ཅ}} /t͡ʃa/, {{bo-textonly|ཏ}} /ta/, {{bo-textonly|པ}} /pa/ and {{bo-textonly|ཙ}} /t͡sa/, there are no changes to their sounds in Lhasa Tibetan, for example:
**{{bo-textonly|རྐ}} /ka/, {{bo-textonly|རྟ}} /ta/, {{bo-textonly|རྤ}} /pa/, {{bo-textonly|རྩ}} /t͡sa/
**{{bo-textonly|ལྐ}} /ka/, {{bo-textonly|ལྕ}} /t͡ʃa/, {{bo-textonly|ལྟ}} /ta/, {{bo-textonly|ལྤ}} /pa/, 
**{{bo-textonly|སྐ}} /ka/, {{bo-textonly|སྟ}} /ta/, {{bo-textonly|སྤ}} /pa/, {{bo-textonly|སྩ}} /t͡sa/
*When {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/, and {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/ are in superscript position with {{bo-textonly|ག}} /kʰa/, {{bo-textonly|ཇ}} /t͡ʃʰa/, {{bo-textonly|ད}} /tʰa/, {{bo-textonly|བ}} /pʰa/ and {{bo-textonly|ཛ}} /t͡sʰa/, they lose their aspiration and become voiced in Lhasa Tibetan, for example:
**{{bo-textonly|རྒ}} /ga/, {{bo-textonly|རྗ}} /d͡ʒa/, {{bo-textonly|རྡ}} /da/, {{bo-textonly|རྦ}} /ba/, {{bo-textonly|རྫ}} /dza/
**{{bo-textonly|ལྒ}} /ga/, {{bo-textonly|ལྗ}} /d͡ʒa/, {{bo-textonly|ལྡ}} /da/, {{bo-textonly|ལྦ}} /ba/, 
**{{bo-textonly|སྒ}} /ga/, {{bo-textonly|སྡ}} /da/, {{bo-textonly|སྦ}} /ba/
*When {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/, and {{bo-textonly|ས}} /sa/ are in superscript position with the nasal consonants {{bo-textonly|ང}} /ŋa/, {{bo-textonly|ཉ}} /ɲya/, {{bo-textonly|ན}} /na/ and {{bo-textonly|མ}} /ma/, they receive a high tone in Lhasa Tibetan, for example:
**{{bo-textonly|རྔ}} /ŋa/, {{bo-textonly|རྙ}} /ɲa/, {{bo-textonly|རྣ}} /na/, {{bo-textonly|རྨ}} /ma/
**{{bo-textonly|ལྔ}} /ŋa/
**{{bo-textonly|སྔ}} /ŋa/, {{bo-textonly|སྙ}} /ɲa/, {{bo-textonly|སྣ}} /na/, {{bo-textonly|སྨ}} /ma/
*When {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/ is in superscript position with {{bo-textonly|ཧ}} /ha/, it becomes a [[Lateral consonant#Approximants|voiceless alveolar lateral approximant]] in Lhasa Tibetan:
**{{bo-textonly|ལྷ}} /l̥a/,

====Sub-joined letters====
The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants {{bo-textonly|ཡ}} /ja/, {{bo-textonly|ར}} /ra/, {{bo-textonly|ལ}} /la/, and {{bo-textonly|ཝ}} /wa/.  In this position they are described as {{bo-textonly|བཏགས}} (Wylie: ''btags'', IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example {{bo-textonly|བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ}} (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for {{bo-textonly|ཝ}}, which is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example {{bo-textonly|ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ}} (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/).

===Vowel marks===

The [[vowel]]s used in the alphabet are {{bo-textonly|ཨ}} /a/, {{bo-textonly|ཨི}} /i/, {{bo-textonly|ཨུ}} /u/, {{bo-textonly|ཨེ}} /e/, and {{bo-textonly|ཨོ}} /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus  {{bo-textonly|ཀ}} /ka/, {{bo-textonly|ཀི}} /ki/, {{bo-textonly|ཀུ}} /ku/, {{bo-textonly|ཀེ}} /ke/, {{bo-textonly|ཀོ}} /ko/.  The vowels {{bo-textonly|ཨི}} /i/, {{bo-textonly|ཨེ}} /e/, and {{bo-textonly|ཨོ}} /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while the vowel {{bo-textonly|ཨུ}} /u/ is placed underneath consonants.<ref name="daniels" /> [[Old Tibetan]] included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in [[loanword]]s, especially transcribed from the [[Sanskrit]].

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center;"
!Vowel mark
!IPA
!Vowel mark
!IPA
!Vowel mark
!IPA
!Vowel mark
!IPA
|- style="text-align:center;"
|{{bo-textonly|ི}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{bo-textonly|ུ}} || {{IPA|/u/}} || {{bo-textonly|ེ}} || {{IPA|/e/}} || {{bo-textonly|ོ}} || {{IPA|/o/}}
|}

===Numerical digits===
{{main|Tibetan numerals}}

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Tibetan numerals
| {{bo-textonly|༠}} || {{bo-textonly|༡}} || {{bo-textonly|༢}} || {{bo-textonly|༣}} || {{bo-textonly|༤}} || {{bo-textonly|༥}} || {{bo-textonly|༦}} || {{bo-textonly|༧}} || {{bo-textonly|༨}} || {{bo-textonly|༩}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Devanagari numerals]]
| ० || १ || २ || ३ || ४ || ५ || ६ || ७ || ८ || ९
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Arabic numerals]]
| 0 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Tibetan fractions
| {{bo-textonly|༳}} ||{{bo-textonly|༪}} ||{{bo-textonly|༫}} || {{bo-textonly|༬}} || {{bo-textonly|༭}} || {{bo-textonly|༮}} || {{bo-textonly|༯}} || {{bo-textonly|༰}} || {{bo-textonly|༱}} || {{bo-textonly|༲}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Arabic fractions
| -0.5 || 0.5 || 1.5 || 2.5 || 3.5 || 4.5 || 5.5 || 6.5 || 7.5 || 8.5
|}

===Punctuation marks===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! Symbol/<br />Graphemes !! Name !! Function
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༄༅། །}} || {{bo-textonly|ཡིག་མགོ}}<br />''[[yig mgo]]'' ||  marks beginning of a text, before a headline, front page of a [[pecha]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༃}} || {{bo-textonly|གཏེར་ཡིག་མགོ}}<br />''[[yig mgo|gter yig mgo]]'' ||  used in place of the ''[[yig mgo]]'' in [[Terma (religion)|terma]] texts
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༁}} || {{bo-textonly|ཡིག་མགོ་ཨ་ཕྱེད}}<br />''[[yig mgo|yig mgo a phyed]]'' ||  used in place of the ''[[yig mgo]]'' in [[Terma (religion)|terma]] texts
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༆}} || {{bo-textonly|དཔེ་རྙིང་ཡིག་མགོ}}<br />''[[yig mgo|dpe rnying yig mgo]]'' ||  a variant of the ''[[yig mgo]]'' found in very old Tibetan texts
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༉}} || {{bo-textonly|བསྐུར་ཡིག་མགོ}}<br />''[[yig mgo|bskur yig mgo]]'' || list enumerator ([[Dzongka]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|་}} || {{bo-textonly|ཚེག}}<br />''tseg'' || [[syllable]] [[delimiter]], also used as a spacer to [[Typographic alignment#Justified|justify]] text in [[pecha]]s
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|།}} || {{bo-textonly|ཤད}}<br />''[[Danda|shad]]'' || [[full stop]], [[comma]], or [[semicolon]] (marks end of a sentence or clause, and originates from the [[danda]] of Indic scripts)
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|། །}} || {{bo-textonly|ཉིས་ཤད}}<br />''nyis [[Danda|shad]]'' || marks end of a paragraph or topic (cp. [[pilcrow]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༎ །།}} || {{bo-textonly|བཞི་ཤད}}<br />''bzhi [[Danda|shad]]'' || marks end of a chapter or entire section
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|། །།}} || {{bo-textonly|གསུམ་ཤད}}<br />''gsum [[Danda|shad]]'' || same as ''bzhi [[Danda|shad]]'', but used when the preceding character is ཀ or ག
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༑}} || {{bo-textonly|རིན་ཆེན་སྤུངས་ཤད}}<br />''rin chen spungs [[Danda|shad]]'' || replaces ''[[Danda|shad]]'' after single, [[Widows and orphans|orphaned]] syllables, indicating to the reader that the preceding syllable continues from text on the previous line
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༏}} || {{bo-textonly|ཚེག་ཤད}}<br />''tsheg [[Danda|shad]]'' || variant of ''rin chen spungs [[Danda|shad]]''
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༐}} || {{bo-textonly|ཉིསཚེག་ཤད}}<br />''nyis tsheg [[Danda|shad]]'' || variant of ''rin chen spungs [[Danda|shad]]''
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༈}} || {{bo-textonly|སྦྲུལ་ཤད}}<br />''sbrul [[Danda|shad]]'' || marks the start of a new text, often in a collection of texts, separates chapters, and surrounds inserted text
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༔}} || {{bo-textonly|གཏེར་ཤད}}<br />''[[Terma (religion)|gter]] [[Danda|shad]]'' || replaces ''[[Danda|shad]]'' and variants thereof in [[Terma (religion)|terma]] texts
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༒}} || {{bo-textonly|རྒྱ་གྲམ་ཤད}}<br />''rgya gram [[Danda|shad]]'' || sometimes used in place of the ''[[yig mgo]]'' in [[Terma (religion)|terma]] texts
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༸}} || {{bo-textonly|ཆེ་མགོ}}<br />''che mgo'' || literally, "big head"—used preceding a reference to the [[Dalai Lama]] or the name of another important [[lama]] or [[tulku]] that demands great respect
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༴}} || {{bo-textonly|བསྡུས་རྟགས}}<br />''bsdus rtags'' || repetition
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༓}} || {{bo-textonly|འཛུད་རྟགས་མེ་ལོང་ཅན}}<br />'''dzud rtags me long can'' || [[Caret (proofreading)|caret]] (indicates text insertion)
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༼}} || {{bo-textonly|ཨང་ཁང་གཡོན་འཁོར}}<br />''ang khang g.yon 'khor'' || left roof bracket
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༽}} || {{bo-textonly|ཨང་ཁང་གཡས་འཁོར}}<br />''ang khang g.yas 'khor'' || right roof bracket
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༺}} || {{bo-textonly|གུག་རྟགས་གཡོན}}<br />''gug rtags g.yon''|| left bracket
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|༻}} || {{bo-textonly|གུག་རྟགས་གཡས}}<br />''gug rtags g.yas'' || right bracket
|}

==Extended use==
[[File:Unknown Tibetan Sanskrit Text.jpg|thumb|250px|A text in Tibetan script suspected to be [[Sanskrit]] in content. From the personal artifact collection of Donald Weir.]]
The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as [[Balti language|Balti]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Sanskrit]], often has additional and/or modified [[graphemes]] taken from the basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds.

===Extended alphabet===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! Letter !! Used in !! Romanization & IPA
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཫ}} || [[Balti language|Balti]] || qa {{IPA|/qa/}} ([[/q/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཬ}} || [[Balti language|Balti]] || ɽa {{IPA|/ɽa/}} ([[/ɽ/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཁ༹}} || [[Balti language|Balti]] || xa {{IPA|/χa/}} ([[/χ/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ག༹}} || [[Balti language|Balti]] || ɣa {{IPA|/ʁa/}} ([[/ʁ/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཕ༹}} || [[Chinese language|Chinese]] || fa {{IPA|/fa/}} ([[/f/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|བ༹}} || [[Chinese language|Chinese]] || va {{IPA|/va/}} ([[/v/]])
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|གྷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || gha {{IPA|/ɡʱ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཛྷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || jha {{IPA|/ɟʱ, d͡ʒʱ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཊ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṭa {{IPA|/ʈ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཋ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṭha {{IPA|/ʈʰ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཌ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ḍa {{IPA|/ɖ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཌྷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ḍha {{IPA|/ɖʱ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཎ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṇa {{IPA|/ɳ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|དྷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || dha {{IPA|/d̪ʱ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|བྷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || bha {{IPA|/bʱ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཥ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṣa {{IPA|/ʂ/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཀྵ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || kṣa {{IPA|/kʂ/}}
|}

*In [[Balti language|Balti]], consonants ka, ra are represented by reversing the letters {{bo-textonly|ཀ ར}} (ka, ra) to give {{bo-textonly|ཫ ཬ}} (qa, ɽa).
*The [[Sanskrit]] [[retroflex consonants]] ṭa, ṭha, ḍa, ṇa, ṣa are represented in Tibetan by the letters {{bo-textonly|ཏ ཐ ད ན ཤ}} (ta, tha, da, na, sha)
*It is a classical rule to transliterate Sanskrit [[Ca (Indic)|ca]], [[Cha (Indic)|cha]], [[Ja (Indic)|ja]], [[Jha (Indic)|jha]], to Tibetan {{bo-textonly|ཙ ཚ ཛ ཛྷ}} (tsa, tsha, dza, dzha), respectively. Nowadays, {{bo-textonly|ཅ ཆ ཇ ཇྷ}} (ca, cha, ja, jha) can also be used.

===Extended vowel marks and modifiers===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! Vowel Mark !! Used in !! Romanization & IPA
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཱ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ā {{IPA|/aː/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཱི}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ī {{IPA|/iː/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཱུ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ū {{IPA|/uː/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཻ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ai {{IPA|/ɐi̯/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཽ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || au {{IPA|/ɐu̯/}} 
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ྲྀ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṛ /r̩/
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཷ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ṝ {{IPA|/r̩ː/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ླྀ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ḷ {{IPA|/l̩/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཹ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || ḹ {{IPA|/l̩ː/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཾ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || aṃ {{IPA|/◌̃/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ྃ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || aṃ {{IPA|/◌̃/}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|ཿ}} || [[Sanskrit]] || aḥ {{IPA|/h/}}
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+
|-
! Symbol/<br />Graphemes !! Name !! Used in !! Function
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|྄}} || ''[[Virama|srog med]]'' || [[Sanskrit]] || ''suppresses the [[inherent vowel]] sound''
|- style="text-align:center;"
| {{bo-textonly|྅}} || ''[[Avagraha|paluta]]'' || [[Sanskrit]] || ''used for prolonging vowel sounds''
|}

=== Consonant clusters ===
In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions.

== Romanization and transliteration ==

Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in the [[Latin script]]. Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound.{{NoteTag|See for instance [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_bo.pdf] [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_dz.pdf]}} While the [[Wylie transliteration]] system is widely used to Romanize [[Standard Tibetan]], others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012).

Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), [[Tibetan pinyin]] (TP), [[Dzongkha]] phonetic (DP), [[ALA-LC Romanization]] (A)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/tibetan.pdf |title=ALA-LC Romanization of Tibetan script (PDF) |website=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=2017-12-29 |archive-date=2018-04-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413080847/http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/tibetan.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription]] (THL).

{| class="wikitable"
|-a lign=center style="font-size:small;"
! Letter
! [[Wylie transliteration|W]]
! [[Tibetan pinyin|TP]]
! DP
! [[ALA-LC Romanization|A]]
! [[THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription|THL]]
! style="border-left:2px solid black;" | Letter
! W
! TP
! DP
! A
! THL
! style="border-left:2px solid black;" | Letter
! W
! TP
! DP
! A
! THL
! style="border-left:2px solid black;" | Letter
! W
! TP
! DP
! A
! THL
|-align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཀ}} || ka || g || ka || ka || ka || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཁ}} || kha || k || kha || kha || kha || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ག}} || ga* || k* || kha* || ga* || ga* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ང}} || nga || ng || nga || nga || nga
|- align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཅ}} || ca || j || ca || ca || cha || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཆ}} || cha || q || cha || cha || cha || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཇ}} || ja* || q* || cha* || ja* || ja* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཉ}} ||  nya || ny || nya || nya || nya
|-align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཏ}} || ta || d || ta || ta || ta || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཐ}} || tha || t || tha || tha || ta || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ད}} || da* || t* || tha* || da* || da* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ན}} || na || n || na || na || na
|- align=center
|{{bo-textonly|པ}} || pa || b || pa || pa || pa || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཕ}} || pha || p || pha || pha || pa || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|བ}} || ba* || p* || pha* || ba* || ba* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|མ}} || ma || m || ma || ma || ma
|-align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཙ}} || tsa || z || tsa || tsa || tsa || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཚ}} || tsha || c || tsha || tsha || tsa || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཛ}} || dza* || c* || tsha* || dza* || dza* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཝ}} || wa || w || wa || wa || wa
|- align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཞ}} || zha* || x* || sha* || zha* || zha* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཟ}} || za* || s* || sa* || za* || za* || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|འ}} || 'a || - || a || 'a || a || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཡ}} || ya || y || ya || ya || ya
|-align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ར}} || ra || r || ra || ra || ra || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ལ}} || la || l || la || la || la || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཤ}} || sha || x || sha || sha || sha || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ས}} ||  sa || s || sa || sa || sa
|- align=center
|{{bo-textonly|ཧ}} || ha || h || ha || ha || ha || style="border-left:2px solid black;" | {{bo-textonly|ཨ}} || a || a || a || a || a || style="border-left:2px solid black;" colspan="12" | &nbsp;
|-
|align="center" colspan=24 style="font-size:88%;" |* – Only in [[loanwords]]
|}

==Input method and keyboard layout==
===Tibetan===
[[File:Tibetan Keyboard.png|thumb|420px|[[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]] keyboard layout]]
The first version of Microsoft Windows to support the Tibetan keyboard layout is MS [[Windows Vista]]. The layout has been available in [[Linux]] since September 2007. In [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows.

[[Mac OS]]-X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani.

===Dzongkha===
[[File:Dzongkha Keyboard layout Main.svg|thumb|300px|[[Dzongkha]] keyboard layout]]
{{Main|Dzongkha keyboard layout}}
The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme is designed as a simple means for inputting [[Dzongkha]] text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the [[Dzongkha Development Commission]] (DDC) and the [[Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Bhutan|Department of Information Technology]] (DIT) of the [[Royal Government of Bhutan]] in 2000.

It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the [[Unicode]] & [[Universal Coded Character Set|ISO 10646]] standards since the initial version. Since the arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongka and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key.

The Dzongka keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of [[XFree86]].

==Unicode==

{{Main|Tibetan (Unicode block)}}

Tibetan was originally one of the scripts in the first version of the [[Unicode]] Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000&ndash;U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the [[Burmese script]] in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0.

The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00&ndash;U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts:

{{Unicode chart Tibetan}}

== See also ==
* [[Tibetan calligraphy]]
* [[Tibetan Braille]]
* [[Dzongkha Braille]]
* [[:Category:Tibetan typefaces|Tibetan typefaces]]
* [[Wylie transliteration]]
* [[Tibetan pinyin]]
* [[Roman Dzongkha]]
* [[THDL Simplified Phonetic Transcription]]
* [[Tise]], input method for Tibetan script
* [[Limbu script]]

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* Asher, R. E. ed.  ''The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics''.  Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon Press, 1994.  10 vol.
* Beyer, Stephan V. (1993). ''The Classical Tibetan Language''. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru.
* Chamberlain, Bradford Lynn. 2008. Script Selection for Tibetan-related Languages in Multiscriptal Environments. ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' 192:117–132.
* Csoma de Kőrös, Alexander. (1983). ''A Grammar of the Tibetan Language''. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru.
* Csoma de Kőrös, Alexander (1980–1982). ''Sanskrit-Tibetan-English Vocabulary''. 2 vols. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru.
* Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright.  ''The World's Writing Systems''.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
* Das, Sarat Chandra: "The Sacred and Ornamental Characters of Tibet". ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'', vol. 57 (1888), pp.&nbsp;41–48 and 9 plates.
* Das, Sarat Chandra. (1996). ''An Introduction to the Grammar of the Tibetan Language''. Reprinted by Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
* Jacques, Guillaume 2012. [https://www.academia.edu/2322359/A_new_transcription_system_for_Old_and_Classical_Tibetan A new transcription system for Old and Classical Tibetan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809210141/http://www.academia.edu/2322359/A_new_transcription_system_for_Old_and_Classical_Tibetan |date=2017-08-09 }}, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 35.3:89-96. 
* Jäschke, Heinrich August. (1989). ''Tibetan Grammar''. Corrected by Sunil Gupta. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://sites.google.com/site/chrisfynn2/home/tibetanscriptfonts/howtowritethetibetanscript  Tibetan Calligraphy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128174741/https://sites.google.com/site/chrisfynn2/home/tibetanscriptfonts/howtowritethetibetanscript |date=2013-01-28 }}—Online guide for writing Tibetan script.
* [https://sites.google.com/view/chrisfynn/home/tibetanscriptfonts/thetibetanwritingsystem Elements of the Tibetan writing system].
* [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0F00.pdf Unicode area U0F00-U0FFF, Tibetan script (162KB)]
* [http://www.thlib.org/tools/#wiki=/access/wiki/site/26a34146-33a6-48ce-001e-f16ce7908a6a/encoding%20model%20of%20the%20tibetan%20script%20in%20the%20ucs.html Encoding Model of the Tibetan Script in the UCS]
* [http://www.digitaltibetan.org/index.php/Digital_Tibetan Digital Tibetan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710141837/http://digitaltibetan.org/index.php/Digital_Tibetan |date=2017-07-10 }}—Online resource for the digitalization of Tibetan.
* [http://www.thlib.org/tools/#wiki=/access/wiki/site/26a34146-33a6-48ce-001e-f16ce7908a6a/home.html Tibetan Scripts, Fonts & Related Issues]—[[THDL]] articles on Unicode font issues; free cross-platform OpenType fonts—Unicode compatible.
* [http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/free-tibetan/ Free Tibetan Fonts Project]
* [http://www.ancientscripts.com/tibetan.html Ancient Scripts: Tibetan]

{{Tibetan language}}
{{list of writing systems}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tibetan script| ]]
[[Category:Dzongkha language]]
[[Category:Brahmic scripts]]
[[Category:Writing systems without word boundaries]]