SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN TIBETAN FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD TIBETAN LEARN MORE ABOUT TIBETAN བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། [tʃɑ ʃi tɛ lɛ] AND THEIR LANGUAGE /tra shi dé lek./ Hello. 1. The Tibetan population is estimated to be about 6.5 million, and can be found mostly ཁྱེད་རང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས། in China, India, and Nepal. [kʰerɑŋ kusu tɛpo jin pɛ] /khyé rang kusu dé po yin pé?/ How are you? 2. A member of the Tibetao-Burman language group, Standard Tibetan shares many ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན། structural similarities to other Tibetao- [ŋa tɛpo jin] Burman languages, including Burmese. /nga dé po yin./ I’m fine. 3. The whole of Tibet, including the U-Tsang, ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ག་རེ་ཞུ་གི་ཡོད། Kham, and Amdo provinces, spans over [kʰɛrɑŋ ki ʦʰɛn lɑ kʰɑrɛ ʃu ki jø] 976,000 square miles across Asia and has an /khyé rang gi tsen la ga ré zhu gi yö?/ overage altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level. What is your name? 4. Commonly called the “Roof of the World,” ངའི་མིང་ལ་ ཇཱོན་ ཟེར་གི་ཡོད། [ŋɛ miŋla ʤɑn rɛ ki jø] Tibet is home to the Himalayan mountain /ngé ming la John zer gi yö./ range featuring Mount Everest which at My name is John. 29,029 feet above sea level is the highest mountain in the world. ཁྱེད་རང་ག་ནས་ཡིན། [kʰɛrɑŋ kʰɑnɛ jin] /khyé rang ga né yin?/ 5. Tibet is the source of many of Asia’s largest Where are you from? rivers (including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, Salween, and Tsangpo) and provides water for ང་ ... ནས་ཡིན། over one billion people. [ŋɑ ... nɛ jin] /nga ... né yin./ I’m from … ABOUT US The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ། (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for [tʰu ʤɛ tʃʰɛ] learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian /tuk jé ché./ languages. Thank you. For more information, go to www.iub.edu/~celcar.

རྗེས་མ་མཇལ་ཡོང་། 718 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, [ʤɛma ʤjɛ•joŋ] Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 /jé ma jel yong./ Phone: (812) 856-1230 Fax: (812) 856-1206 Center for Languages of the Goodbye. E-mail : [email protected] Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE TIBETANS AND and the Tibetic languages. Tibetan languages are typically broken down into seven major dialects: WHAT IS TIBETAN CULTURE LIKE? WHERE DO THEY LIVE? Central Tibetan (basis of Standard Tibetan), For many The Tibetan people, Northern Tibetan, Southern Tibetan, Western centuries, Tibetan or Tibetans, are an Archaic Tibetan, Western Innovative Tibetans, culture has been ethnic group native Amdo Tibetan, and Khams Tibetan. influenced by to a region in Asia Tibetan nouns and verbs tend to be the cultures of that spans over monosyllabic and many dialects, including neighboring 976,000 square Standard Tibetan, use two tones (high and countries, such as miles, including low) to differentiate in lexical and grammatical Nepal, India, and the Sichuan, meaning between the sounds. Tibetan is an China. However, Qinghai, Gansu, and ergative language (meaning the direct object the greatest Yunnan provinces of the People’s Republic of transitive verbs use the same form as the influence on of China. What many people now refer to as subject of intransitive Tibetan culture has been Buddhism, which has Tibet, also known as the Tibetan Autonomous verbs) and uses a subject- been the main religion of the region since the Region (TAR), is actually just a portion of Tibet object-verb word order. 7th century. (463,000 sq mi made up of U-Tsang and a small Another linguistic feature Art plays a key role in Tibetan culture. Tibetan portion of Kham). TAR is a plateau region just that Tibetan languages north of the Himalayan Mountain ranges, and craftsmen practice an array of artistic styles, shares with other Sino- including painting, carvings, and weaving on a is just south of China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Tibetan languages is the Region, southwest of Qinghia, and west of variety of mediums. Furthermore, Tibetan art lack of articles, definite or most traditionally reflects the religious beliefs of Sichaun. TAR also shares international borders indefinite. to its west and south with India, Nepal, Bhutan, the culture. and Myanmar. WHAT ALPHABET DO THE TIBETAN USE? Tibetan cuisine is influenced by the livestock Today, the Tibetan population is estimated to and crops of the region. Many dishes feature be about 6.5 million with approximately 6.2 Since the 7th century, Tibetan has been written goat, yak, or mutton meat, and dairy products million living in China, significant populations using the Uchen script, a block style script such as yogurt, butter, and cheese are made from in India (190,000), Nepal (60,000), and smaller, modeled on the Devanāgarī alphabet, which is yak or goat milk. Staple crops include barley and but still significant populations of Tibetans most commonly used to write Indian languages. rice, which are used make noodles, dumplings, living in Australia, Bhutan, Canada, Taiwan, the The Tibetan alphabet is made up of thirty basic and breads. Some traditional Tibetan dishes United States, and the United Kingdom. letters and is written left to right in horizontal include tsampa (roasted barley), Sha Phaley lines, similar to Romanized alphabets. However, (meat and cabbage in bread), thukpa (a noodle WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS TIBETAN? unlike Roman alphabets, each letter in the dish with vegetables and meat), and a traditional Tibetan alphabet represents a consonant-vowel Tibetan dessert is thue, which is made from sound unit. dried yak cheese, brown sugar, and butter. Standard Tibetan, also known as Lhasa Tibetan, Most Tibetans belongs to the Bodic branch of the Western Similar to enjoy drinking tea, Tibeto-Burman group of languages within the Arabic, the with yak butter larger Sino-Tibetan language family. The Sino- Tibetan alphabet tea or jasmine tea Tibetan language family includes more than 400 also uses being among their varieties of language spoken by over 1.3 billion diacritics in favorites varieties. people throughout Asia, including Chinese, and order to change the Tibeto-Burmese subgroup includes Burmese, the sound value of the letters.