The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Standard Tibetan pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
IPA |
Tibetan |
English approximation
|
Consonants
|
b
|
བ
|
bog [p] on a low tone
|
c
|
ཀྱ
|
church
|
cʰ
|
ཁྱ གྱ
|
church
|
ɕ
|
ཞ ཤ
|
sheep
|
d
|
ད
|
dog ([t] on a low tone)
|
dz
|
ཛ
|
adz ([ts] on a low tone)
|
dʑ
|
ཇ |
jeep ([tɕ] on a low tone)
|
ɡ
|
ག
|
gone ([k] on a low tone)
|
h
|
ཧ |
head
|
j
|
ཡ |
yes
|
ɟ
|
གྱ
|
judge, (UK) dew ([c] on a low tone)
|
k
|
ཀ |
scat
|
kʰ
|
ཁ ག |
cat
|
l
|
ལ |
leap
|
l̥
|
ལྷ |
(voiceless l, like hl)
|
m
|
མ |
moon
|
n
|
ན |
noon
|
ɲ
|
ཉ |
canyon
|
ŋ
|
ང |
song
|
p
|
པ |
spin
|
pʰ
|
ཕ བ |
pin
|
ɹ
|
ར |
the r in drink
|
s
|
ཟ ས |
song
|
ʂ
|
ཧྲ |
like first part of shrew [ʂɹu]
|
t
|
ཏ |
stop
|
tʰ
|
ཐ ད |
top
|
ʈ ~ ʈʂ
|
ཀྲ |
stream
|
ʈʰ ~ ʈʂʰ
|
ཁྲ གྲ |
trunk
|
tɕ
|
ཅ |
beach
|
tɕʰ
|
ཆ ཇ |
cheer
|
ts
|
ཙ |
cats
|
tsʰ
|
ཚ ཛ |
tsunami
|
w
|
ཝ |
water
|
z
|
ཟ |
zoo ([s] on a low tone)
|
ʑ
|
ཞ |
genre ([ɕ] on a low tone)
|
ʔ
|
ཨ |
oh-oh!
|
ʕ
|
འ |
like ɦ but more pharyngeal
|
|
IPA
|
Tibetan |
English approximation
|
Vowels
|
a
|
|
between fat and father
|
e
|
|
Spanish e (in Sp. open syllables)
|
ɛ
|
|
bed
|
i
|
|
see
|
ɪ
|
|
sit but more centralised
|
o
|
|
Spanish o (in Sp. open syllables)
|
ø
|
|
French eu, German ö
|
ɔ
|
|
dawn (mid-west US accent)
|
u
|
|
moon
|
ʊ
|
|
good but more centralised
|
ʌ
|
|
cup, RP
|
y
|
|
French u, German ü
|
̃
|
|
nasal vowel
|
Tones
|
IPA |
Description
|
sí
|
high level: si˥
|
sî
|
high falling: si˥˧
|
sǐ
|
low rising: si˩˧
|
sì
|
low level: si˩
|
|