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{{Infobox Writing system
|name=Tibetian
|type=[[Abugida]]
|time=[[650]] to the present
|languages=[[Tibetan language|Tibetan]]<br>[[Dzongkha language|Dzongkha]]<br>[[Ladakhi language|Ladakhi]]
|iso15924=Tibt
}}
{{Contains special characters|Indic}}
The '''Tibetan script''' is an [[abugida]] of [[Brahmic family|Indic]] origin used to write the [[Tibetan language]] as well as the [[Dzongkha language]], [[Ladakhi language]] and sometimes the [[Balti language]]. The printed form of the script is called [[uchen script]] ({{bo|w=dbu-can|t=དབུ་ཅན་|lang=yes}}; "with a head") while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called [[umey script|umé script]] ({{bo|w=dbu-med|t=དབུ་མེད་|lang=yes}}; "headless"). Besides Tibet, the writing system is also used in [[Bhutan]] and in parts of [[India]] and  [[Nepal]].

The script is romanized in a variety of ways, this article employs the [[Tibetan transliteration (Wylie)|Wylie transliteration]] system.

==History==
{{alphabet}}
[[Image:Om Mani Padme Hum.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Polychrome text left of center is the primary [[mantra]] of [[Tibetan Buddhism]], [[Om Mani Padme Hum]]. Monochrome text right of center reads "Om Vajrasattva Hum", an invocation to the embodiement of primeval wisdom.]]
The creation of the '''Tibetan script''' is attritubeted to[[Thonmi Sambhota]] in the mid-[[7th century]]. Thonmi Sambhota was one of the ministers of Songtsen Gampo who was the 33rd king of Tibet.

The form of the [[letter]]s is based on an [[Indic script|Indic alphabet]] of that period, but which specific Indic script inspired the Tibetan alphabet remains controversial.

Although the Tibetan script is assumed to accurately reflect the pronunciation of [[Tibetan language|Tibetan]] at the time of its invention, in all modern dialects, in particular Lhasa, the pronuncation and spelling differ significantly, due to phonetic change. This is why some people are in favour of transliterating Tibetan "as it is pronounced". One thus often sees Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud.

==Description==
[[Image:Tibetancar.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The number plate of a car registered in [[Jammu and Kashmir]], in Roman and Tibetan scripts.]]

The Tibetan script has 30 [[consonant]]s, which are deemed to possess an inherent sound ''a''. The [[vowel]]s are a, i, u, e, o. As in other Indic scripts, each consonant letter includes an inherent a, and the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus  ཀ ka, ཀི ki, ཀུ ku, ཀེ ke, ཀོ ko. Old Tibetan included a 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.

[[Syllable]]s are separated by a [[tseg]] ་; since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words.

Although some Tibetan dialects are [[tone language|tonal]], because the language had no tone at the time of the scripts invention, tones are not written. However, since tones developed from segmental features they can ususlly be correctly predicted by the spelling of Tibetan words.

{| cellpadding="8" style="font-size: x-large"
|-
|ཀ ka {{IPA|[ká]}} ||ཁ kha {{IPA|[kʰá]}}||ག ga {{IPA|[ɡà/kʰà]}}||ང nga {{IPA|[ŋà]}}
|-
|ཅ ca {{IPA|[tɕá]}}||ཆ cha {{IPA|[tɕʰá]}}||ཇ ja {{IPA|[dʑà/tɕʰà]}}||ཉ nya {{IPA|[ɲà]}}
|-
|ཏ ta {{IPA|[tá]}}||ཐ tha {{IPA|[tʰá]}}||ད da {{IPA|[dà/tʰà]}}||ན na {{IPA|[nà]}}
|-
|པ pa {{IPA|[pá]}}||ཕ pha {{IPA|[pʰá]}}||བ ba {{IPA|[bà/pʰà]}}||མ ma {{IPA|[mà]}}
|-
|ཙ tsa {{IPA|[tsá]}}||ཚ tsha {{IPA|[tsʰá]}}||ཛ dza {{IPA|[dzà/tsʰà]}}||ཝ wa {{IPA|[wà]}}
|-
|ཞ zha {{IPA|[ʑà]}}||ཟ za {{IPA|[zà]}}||འ 'a {{IPA|[ʔà]}}||ཡ ya {{IPA|[jà]}}
|-
|ར ra {{IPA|[rà]}}||ལ la {{IPA|[là]}}||ཤ sha {{IPA|[ɕá]}}||ས sa {{IPA|[sá]}}
|-
|ཧ ha {{IPA|[há]}}||ཨ a {{IPA|[ʔá]}}
|}

The ''h'' or [[apostrophe]] (’) usually signifies [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]], but in the case of zh and sh it signifies [[palatalization]] and the single letter h represents a voiceless glottal fricative.

[[Old Tibetan]] had no letter w, which was instead a digraph for 'w.
===Consonantal Variations===
* The Sanskrit "cerebral" ([[retroflex]]) consonants are represented by the letters ta, tha, da, na, and sha turned vertically to give ཊ ṭa (Ta), ཋ ṭha (Tha), ཌ ḍa (Da), ཎ ṇa (Na), and ཥ ṣa (Sa).
* As in other Indic scripts, clustered consonants are often stacked vertically. Unfortunately, some fonts and applications do not support this behavior for Tibetan, so these examples may not display properly; you might have to download a font such as [http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/xml/show.php?xml=/tools/tibfonts.xml&l=uva10928423419921 Tibetan Machine Uni].
**W, r, and y change form when they are beneath another consonant; thus ཀྭ kwa; ཀྲ kra; ཀྱ kya. R also changes form when it is above most other consonants; thus རྐ rka. An exception is the cluster རྙ rnya.

== Tibetan in Unicode ==

The [[Unicode]] Tibetan block is U+0F00 &ndash; U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts (you will need Unicode fonts covering this block installed to view the table properly in your [[web browser]]):

«Cut»

== See also ==
* [[Tibetan Pinyin]]
* [[THDL Simplified Phonetic Transcription]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.lotsawahouse.org/school/id68.html The Tibetan Alphabet]
* [http://www.medecinetibet.org/medicine-calligraphy/tibetan-calligraphy/alphabet-tibet-ka.htm Description of the design of each letter].
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~c.fynn/tibetan/calligraphy/Tibetan-Calligraphy.html  Tibetan Calligraphy] - how to write the Tibetan script.
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~c.fynn/tibetan/fonts/jomolhari.html Jomolhari Font] - Unicode compatible. [http://www.thdl.org/xml/show.php?xml=/tools/tibfonts.xml&l=uva200607171100 Download]
* [http://www.nitartha.org/downloads.html#FontFiles 2 fonts] - not Unicode compatible.
* [http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/tibetan.html 2 fonts]: 1 Macintosh, not Unicode compatible.
* [http://www.medecinetibet.org/medicine-calligraphy/tibetan-calligraphy/origins-tibetan-calligraphy.htm Origins of tibetan calligraphy]: History of tibetan script and guide to tibetan script.
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tibetan.htm Omniglot's Guide to the Tibetan writing system]
* [http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/tools/fonts.html Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library] - articles on Unicode font issues; free cross-platform OpenType font - Unicode compatible.
* [https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/free-tibetan/ free Tibetan fonts project.]
* [http://noyeslodge.cornell.edu/medialib/ti/twc Tibetan writing course].
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~c.fynn/tibetan/writing/index.html Elements of The Tibetan writing system].
* [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/5/01839/12103 Introduction to Tibetan Orthography], at [[Kuro5hin]]

[[:Category:Brahmic scripts]]
[[:Category: Abugida writing systems]]

[[br:Skritur tibetek]]
[[de:Tibetische Schrift]]
[[eo:Tibeta alfabeto]]
[[ja:チベット文字]]
[[nn:Tibetansk skrift]]
[[ru:Тибетский алфавит]]
[[sk:Tibetské písmo]]
[[th:อักษรทิเบต]]
[[zh:藏文字母]]