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
|
|
church
|
| cʰ
|
|
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
|
|
judge, (UK) dew ([c] on a low tone)
|
| k
|
ཀ |
scat
|
| kʰ
|
ཁ ག |
cat
|
| l
|
ལ |
leap
|
| l̥
|
|
(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
|
|
like first part of shrew [ʂɹu]
|
| t
|
ཏ |
stop
|
| tʰ
|
ཐ ད |
top
|
| ʈ ~ ʈʂ
|
|
stream
|
| ʈʰ ~ ʈʂʰ
|
|
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
|
| 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˩
|
|
