Romanization of Dzongkha B Gn/P Cgn 2010 Agr E E Me Nt

Checked for validity and accuracy – October 2017 ROMANIZATION OF DZONGKHA B GN/P CGN 2010 AGR E E ME NT

This romanization system for Dzongkha was developed by the Dzongkha Development Commission. Bhutan's Ministry of Home Affairs approved this system in 1997 and mandated that the Bhutanese government use standardized spellings of geographical names and official guidelines for romanization. The tabulation shown below is derived from the version available on the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems website1. A number of fonts to display Dzongkha are available. The Bhutanese government provides several Unicode compliant fonts.2

Dzongkha Roman Dzongkha Roman Dzongkha Roman

1. ka 11. da 21. zha ཀ ད ཞ 2. kha 12. na 22. za ཁ ན ཟ 3. ga 13. pa 23. z ག པ འ 4. nga 14. pha 24. ya(c) ང ཕ ཡ 5. cha 15. ba, wa (a) 25. ra(d) ཅ བ ར 6. chha 16. ma 26 la ཆ མ ལ 7. ja 17. tsa 27. sha ཇ ཙ ཤ 8. nya 18. tsha 28. sa ཉ ཚ ས 9. ta 19. dza 29 ha ཏ ཛ ཧ 10. tha 20. wa(b) 30 a ཐ ཝ ཨ a) The character is romanized as either ba or wa depending on dialect. See special note number 1. བ b) The subscript variant of the character (wa): is not romanized: ka, da, tsha. ཝ ◌ྭ    c) The subscript variant of the character is (ya), e.g. See syllable initial consonant combination table for ཡ ◌ྱ . romanized forms.

1 http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ 2 http://www.dzongkha.gov.bt/IT/DzongkhaTools4Unicode.en.html Please note that BGN and PCGN do not endorse any font or font manufacturer and only provide informational resources and reference material for the users of its romanization guides.

d) The superscript variant of character (ra) is not romanized: ka, da, dza. The subscript variant of this ར    character is ◌ྲ: see syllable initial consonant combination table for romanized forms. Vowels (where ཨ stands for any consonant character):

Dzongkha ཨ  ʹ   Roman a(a) i u(b) e o(c) a) Romanized e or ay if followed by a suffix ད་ ན་ འ་ ས་ b) Romanized ue or u if followed by a suffix ད་ ན་ འ་ ས་ c) Romanized oe or o if followed by a suffix ད་ ན་ འ་ ས་ Syllable-initial Consonant Combinations (This list is not complete. Only those consonant clusters with non-standard romanizations are given. Also see “General guidelines before transliterating”.):

Roman Roman Roman Roman Dzongkha Dzongkha Dzongkha Dzongkha

1. cha, k a A 7. ya 13. thra 19. sa  ད   2. chha, 8. nya 14. dr a 20. hra  kha A    3. j a, gya A 9. tra 15. tra 21. wa B    དབ 4. cha, 10. thra 16. thra 22. da  pcha    5. chha, 11. dr a 17. dr a 23. lha  pchha    6. ja, bja 12. tra 18. s hra   

A) Palatal variants ch, chh, j are generally used before a, o, and u. B) Not romanized if followed by any other vowel than a.

Syllable Endings (suffixes):

Dzongkha Roman Dzongkha Roman

1. g, k or not 6. m ག r omani z ed མ 2. ng, or not 7. not r omani z ed ང romani z ed འ 3. not r omani z ed 8. r , or not ད ར r omani z ed 4. n, or not 9. l, or not ན r omani z ed ལ r omani z ed 5. b, p 10. not r omani z ed བ ས

General guidelines before transliterating:

1) Dzongkha words are divided into syllables by a special symbol called tsheg ( ) as in the word ་ མ་ thim-phu: Thimphu. Geographical names greater than three syllables are divided after the second syllable: e.g. (four syllables) tra-shi-yang-tse: Trashi Yangtse. བ་鍲ས་ང་杺

2) A syllable may be composed of several elements, including prefixed, superscript, subscript and suffixed consonant characters often stacked upon one another, e.g. s (superscript) upon k upon ya (subscript)  generating skya.

3) Prefixed consonants are not romanized, e.g. Dungna [ (prefix) (root with vowel marking) གང་ ནག ག  (suffix) (syllable break) (root) (suffix)] and Gasa [ (prefix) (root) (suffix) ང ་ ན ག མགར་ས མ ག ར ་ (syllable break) (root)]. ས

4) Superscript consonants are not romanized with the exception of lha, e.g. Sakteng [  བསགས་ང བ (prefix) (root) (suffix) (secondary suffix) (syllable break) (root with superscript and ས ག ས ་  vowel marking) (suffix)]; Tangsibji [ (root with superscript) (suffix) (syllable break) ང ང་་ས  ང ་

(root with vowel marking) (syllable break) (root with subscript, superscript, and vowel marking)  ་  (suffix)], but Lhuentse [ (root with subscript and vowel marking) (suffix) (syllable ས ན་་  ན ་ beak) (root with vowel marking)]. 

5) Suffixed consonants are romanized or not romanized based on local pronunciation, e.g. ང་ ཁག Drungkhag [ (root with subscript and vowel marking) (suffix) (syllable break) (root)  ང ་ ཁ ག (suffix)], Wangchhuk [ (prefix) (root) (suffix) (syllable break) (root with subscript དབང་  ག ད བ ང ་  and vowel marking) (suffix)], Ta [ (root with superscript) (suffix)]. ག ག  ག

6) Secondary suffixed consonants are not romanized; however, there are exceptions, e.g. བར་མཚམས Bartsham (root) (suffix) (syllable break) (prefix) (root) (suffix) (secondary [བ ར ་ མ ཚ མ ས suffix)], Dangchhu [ (root with subscript) (suffix) (secondary suffix) (syllable break) ངས་  ང ས ་ (root with vowel marking)]. Zhemgang (prefix) (root) (suffix)  གཞལམ་ང [ག ཞ ལ མ (secondary suffix) (syllable break) (root with superscript) (suffix)] is an exception in which the ་  ང suffix is not romanized but the secondary suffix is romanized.

Special Notes:

1) Pronunciation of Dzongkha names may vary according to local usage and there are several exceptions to the present romanization guidelines.

2) Additional characters that are found mainly in words of Indic provenance are romanized as follows: tra, thra, dra, na, kha, chha. ཊ ཋ ཌ ཎ ཥ ཀྵ