{{Short description|Tibetic language}} {{Infobox language | name = Central Tibetan | altname = Ü-Tsang | nativename = {{lang|bo|དབུས་སྐད་}}, {{Transliteration|bo|Dbus skad}} / {{Transliteration|bo|Ükä}}<br/>{{lang|bo|དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་}}, {{Transliteration|bo|Dbus-gtsang skad}} / {{Transliteration|bo|Ü-tsang kä}} | pronunciation = {{IPA|bo|wýkɛʔ, wýʔtsáŋ kɛʔ|}} | states = China * Tibet * Qinghai * Garzê * Ngawa | region = Tibet (Ü-Tsang, Amdo and Kham) | speakers = {{sigfig|1.223400|2}} million<!-- Date is for 1,070,000 speakers in China. Date for remaining number unknown. --> | date = 1990–2014 | ref = e26 | image = Tibetanirv.png | imagecaption = The name of the language written in the Tibetan script | script = Tibetan script | familycolor = Sino-Tibetan | fam2 = Tibeto-Burman | fam3 = Tibeto-Kanauri (?) | fam4 = Bodish | fam5 = Tibetic | stand1 = Lasetian | stand2 = Standard Tibetan | lc1 = bod | ld1 = Lhasa Tibetan | lc2 = dre | ld2 = Dolpo | lc3 = hut | ld3 = Humla, Limi | lc4 = lhm | ld4 = Lhomi (Shing Saapa) | lc5 = muk | ld5 = Mugom (Mugu) | lc6 = kte | ld6 = Nubri | lc8 = ola | ld8 = Walungge (Gola) | lc9 = loy | ld9 = Lowa/Loke (Mustang) | lc10 = tcn | ld10 = Tichurong | glotto = tibe1272 | glottoname = Tibetan | glotto2 = sout3216 | glottoname2 = South-Western Tibetic (partial match) | glottorefname2 = South-Western Tibetic | glotto3 = basu1243 | glottoname3 = Basum | ELP = 4918 | ELPname = Walungge | ELP2 = 4105 | ELPname2 = Dolpo | ELP3 = 5642 | ELPname3 = Lhomi | map = Tibetan_language_distributon.jpg | mapcaption = {{center|Areas where Tibetan language is spoken}} | map2 = Lang Status 80-VU.svg | mapcaption2 = {{center|Shingsaba is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger''.}} }}
'''Central Tibetan language''', also known as '''Ü-Tsang dialect''',<ref>http://www.minwang.com.cn/cncr/mzyy70/mzyyjcz/634701/index.html 卫藏方言 U-Tsang dialect</ref> '''Dbus Tibetan''', or '''Ü Tibetan''', is the most widely spoken Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan.
''Dbus'' is the Wylie spelling of the name in Tibetan script, <big>{{lang|bo|དབུས་}}</big>, whereas ''Ü'' is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, {{IPA|bo|wy˧˥˧ʔ|}} (or {{IPA|[y˧˥˧ʔ]}}). All of these names are frequently applied specifically to the prestige dialect of Lhasa.
== Varieties == ;Dbus and Gtsang There are many mutually intelligible Central Tibetan languages besides that of Lhasa, with particular diversity along the border and in Nepal:
: Limi (Limirong), Mugum, Dolpo (Dolkha), Mustang (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.<ref>N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." ''Lalies'', 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [http://www.nicolas-tournadre.net/wp-content/uploads/multimedia/2005-aire.pdf]</ref>
Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Amdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity with Khams Tibetan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=China |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909075938/http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages |archive-date=2016-09-09 |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth Edition}}</ref>
Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the Lhasa, Shigatse, Gar, Sherpa, Basum, Gertse, and Nagqu varieties.<ref>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. {{ISBN|9787802534230}}.</ref>
===Ngari Tibetan=== '''Ngari Tibetan''', more specifically '''Stöd Ngari''' (as opposed to the language of pre-1842 Lower Ngari that is now an independent language), is the endonym for a topolect spoken around Ngari Prefecture, T.A.R. Traditionally, it is considered a divergent variety of Dbusgtsang but not Dbusgtsang proper, however, some Western Khams Tibetan varieties such as Gêrzê Tibetan and Nagqu Tibetan are now considered part of the Ngari Tibetan areal group as well.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=江荻 |title=西藏的语言多样性及其分类 |journal=中国藏学 |issue=Jun 2022}}</ref> In Indian-administrated Tibet since the 1846 British invasion of Spiti, a related topolect is now known under the exonym "Lahuli and Spiti".
== Consonants == {| |valign=top| {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" !IPA!!Tibetan writing!!Wade–Giles !Tibetan Pinyin |- |{{IPAblink|k}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཀ་}} || k |g |- |{{IPAblink|kʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཁ་ ག་}} || kh, g |k |- |{{IPAblink|ŋ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ང་}} || ng |ng |- |{{IPAblink|tɕ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཅ་}} || c |j |- |{{IPAblink|tɕʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཆ་ ཇ་}} || ch, j |q |- |{{IPAblink|ɲ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཉ་}} || ny |ny |- |{{IPAblink|t}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཏ་}} || t |d |- |{{IPAblink|tʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཐ་ ད་}} || th, d |t |- |{{IPAblink|n}}|| {{bo-textonly|ན་}} || n |n |- |{{IPAblink|p}}|| {{bo-textonly|པ་}} || p |b |- |{{IPAblink|pʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཕ་ བ་}} || ph, b |p |- |{{IPAblink|m}}|| {{bo-textonly|མ་}} || m |m |- |{{IPAblink|ts}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཙ་}} || ts |z |- |{{IPAblink|tsʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཚ་ ཛ་}} || tsh, dz |c |- |{{IPAblink|w}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཝ་}} || w |w |} |valign=top| {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" !IPA!!Tibetan writing!!Wade–Giles !Tibetan Pinyin |- |{{IPAblink|ɕ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཞ་ ཤ་}} || zh, sh |x |- |{{IPAblink|s}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཟ་ ས་}} || z, s |s |- |{{IPAblink|j}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཡ་}} || y |y |- |{{IPAblink|ɹ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ར་}} || r |r |- |{{IPAblink|l}}|| {{bo-textonly|ལ་}} || l |l |- |{{IPAblink|h}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཧ་}} || h |h |- |{{IPAblink|c}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཀྱ་}} || gy |gy |- |{{IPAblink|cʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཁྱ་ གྱ་}} || ky |ky |- |{{IPAblink|tʂ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཀྲ་}} || kr |zh |- |{{IPAblink|tʂʰ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཁྲ་ གྲ་}} || khr, gr |ch |- |{{IPAblink|ʂ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ཧྲ་}} || hr |sh |- |{{IPAblink|ɬ}}|| {{bo-textonly|ལྷ་}} || lh |lh |} |} * འ is not commonly transliterated to Roman, in the Wade–Giles system ' is used.
== Vowels == {| class="wikitable" |- | ཨ།|| ཨའུ།|| ཨག།<br/>ཨགས། |ཨང༌།<br/>ཨངས།|| ཨབ།<br/>ཨབས།|| ཨམ།<br/>ཨམས།|| ཨར། |ཨལ།<br/>ཨའི།|| ཨད།<br/>ཨས།|| ཨན། |- | a || au || ag |aŋ|| ab || am || ar |ai/ä|| ai/ä || ain/än |- | ཨི།<br/>ཨིལ།<br/>ཨའི།|| ཨིའུ།<br/>ཨེའུ།|| ཨིག།<br/>ཨིགས། |ཨིང༌།<br/>ཨིངས།|| ཨིབ།<br/>ཨིབས།|| ཨིམ།<br/>ཨིམས།|| ཨིར། | || ཨིད།<br/>ཨིས།||ཨིན། |- | i || iu || ig |iŋ|| ib || im || ir | || i ||in |- | ཨུ།|| || ཨུག།<br/>ཨུགས། |ཨུང༌།<br/>ཨུངས།|| ཨུབ།<br/>ཨུབས།|| ཨུམ།<br/>ཨུམས།|| ཨུར། |ཨུལ།<br/>ཨུའི།|| ཨུད།<br/>ཨུས།|| ཨུན། |- | u || || ug |uŋ|| ub || um || ur |ü|| ü ||ün |- | ཨེ།<br/>ཨེལ།<br/>ཨེའི།|| || ཨེག།<br/>ཨེགས། |ཨེང༌།<br/>ཨེངས།|| ཨེབ།<br/>ཨེབས།|| ཨེམ།<br/>ཨེམས།|| ཨེར། | || ཨེད།<br/>ཨེས།||ཨེན། |- | ê || || êg |êŋ|| êb || êm || êr | || ê ||ên |- | ཨོ།|| || ཨོག།<br/>ཨོགས། |ཨོང༌།<br/>ཨོངས།|| ཨོབ།<br/>ཨོབས།|| ཨོམ།<br/>ཨོམས།|| ཨོར། |ཨོལ།<br/>ཨོའི།|| ཨོད།<br/>ཨོས།||ཨོན། |- | o || || og |oŋ|| ob || om || or |oi/ö|| oi/ö ||oin/ön |}
=== Pronunciation === {| class="wikitable" ! IPA !!Wade–Giles!! Tibetan Pinyin ! IPA !!Wade–Giles!! Tibetan Pinyin |----- | {{IPA|[a]}} || a || a | colspan =3 | |----- | {{IPA|[ɛ]}} || al, a'i || ai/ä || {{IPA|[ɛ̃]}} || an|| ain/än |----- | {{IPA|[i]}} || i, il, i'i || i || {{IPA|[ĩ]}} || in|| in |----- | {{IPA|[u]}} || u|| u | colspan=3 | |----- | {{IPA|[y]}} || ul, u'i || ü || {{IPA|[ỹ]}} || un|| ün |----- | {{IPA|[e]}} || e, el, e'i || ê || {{IPA|[ẽ]}} || en|| ên |----- | {{IPA|[o]}} || o|| o | colspan= 3 | |----- | {{IPA|[ø]}} || ol, o'i || oi/ö || {{IPA|[ø̃]}} || on|| oin/ön |} 一"ai, ain, oi, oin" is also written to "ä, än, ö, ön".
==== Conjunct vowels ==== {| class="wikitable" ! IPA !!Wade–Giles!! Tibetan Pinyin |----- | {{IPA|[au]}} || a'u || au |----- | {{IPA|[iu]}} || i'u, e'u|| iu |}
=== Last consonant === {| class="wikitable" ! IPA !! Wade–Giles!! Tibetan Pinyin |----- | {{IPA|[ʔ]}} || d, s|| none |----- | {{IPA|[n]}} || || n |- | {{IPA|[k/ʔ]}} || g, gs|| g |----- | {{IPA|[ŋ]}} || ng, ngs|| ng |----- | {{IPA|[p]}} || b, bs|| b |----- | {{IPA|[m]}} || m, ms|| m |----- | {{IPA|[r]}} || r|| r |}
==See also== *Lhasa Tibetan *Amdo Tibetan *Ladakhi language *Balti language *Ü-Tsang * Sound correspondences between Tibetic languages
==References== {{interWiki|code=bo|Central Tibetan}} {{reflist}}
{{Sino-Tibetan languages}} {{Bodic languages}} {{Languages of China}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Languages of China Category:Languages of Nepal Category:Central Bodish languages Category:Languages of Tibet Category:Languages written in Tibetan script Category:Vulnerable languages Category:Endangered languages of China Category:Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages