Tibetanབོད་སྐད་/Dzongkhaརྫོང་ཁ

[Unknown]

I learned book in Tibetan as parma. Maybe it's a dialectal thing?

It might be. I looked it up again just to be sure, but my book says 'thep' for book. It could also be an Honorific, Literary, or Classical form. Got to love how Tibetan has sooo many different forms of a word!

ཐེབ (Tep) peo gay "book" ming tsig tag tag ray. བ་རམ་ (Parma) "document" "written document" la ray. Kayrang dang Formiko tag tag ray.

ཐེབ (Tep) is the correct word for "book" in Tibetan. བ་རམ་ (Parma) means "document" as in "written document". So yes both you and Formiko are correct.

[Unknown]

Dang ngay kaynandzo sho pa gaw du; peo gay dang dzongkha chig pa ma yoray. Chig chay na mingla "Tibetanབོད་སྐད་" la ma tog je thoob ki ray.

Also I just want to let you know that Tibetan and Dzongkha are not mutually intelligible, so maybe the title can be changed to just "Tibetanབོད་སྐད་".

[księżycowy]

Yes, I know. However I've posted some links to Dzongkha specific sites. Also the languages are quite close (Dzongkha is considered a dialect of Tibetan), so why not just leave it?

[Unknown]

Yes, I know. However I've posted some links to Dzongkha specific sites. Also the languages are quite close, so why not just leave it?

Ok, diy yago ray. Ngay Dzongkha peo gay la dialect ray shin ma bayin. Gong da.

Ok, it's fine. I didn't know that Dzongkha is a dialect of Tibetan. Sorry.

[yangbowen]

A nice song in a Kham Tibetan dialect with Tibetan and English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I09eIsxWhIE

If you can read a little Tibetan and know how words are pronounced in Lhasa Tibetan, you can pick up some of the pronunciation differences between Lhasa Tibetan and other dialects from videos like this.

For example:
ཁྱེད་ལས་ལྷག་པར་མི་འདུག།
Lhasa: khye le lhakpar mindu
Kham: che le lhakpa məndü

[yangbowen]

Here is a Tibetan phonetics converter I thought someone might find useful or interesting: http://www.thlib.org/reference/translit ... verter.php

You can type or paste Tibetan text or Wylie transliterations and convert them to THL phonetic transcriptions.

So བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས ("bkra shis bde legs" in Wylie) is rendered as "tra shi dé lek".

[Unknown]

Here is a Tibetan phonetics converter I thought someone might find useful or interesting: http://www.thlib.org/reference/translit ... verter.php

You can type or paste Tibetan text or Wylie transliterations and convert them to THL phonetic transcriptions.

So བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས ("bkra shis bde legs" in Wylie) is rendered as "tra shi dé lek".

Tu jay chay!

[księżycowy]

Found some great digitalized classical texts here:
http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/samling/os/centr ... tral2.html

[leke]

A nice podcast with text: http://talktibetan.blogspot.fi/
There are also plenty of good video lectures on youtube.

[Meera]

This thread made me want to learn Tibetian

[yangbowen]

Would anyone be interested in me adding some Tibetan lessons to this thread? I went on a trip to Tibet and Nepal earlier this year which renewed my interest in Tibetan, and I thought perhaps I should offer to write some basic lessons with grammar and exercises as I continue learning, both for the benefit of others and for my own review.

[księżycowy]

Sorry for being a few days late, but yeah I'd love to see something going on here. Lessons or other stuff, whatever you feel like sharing!

[Lauren]

Is anyone currently interested in Tibetan or Dzongkha? I'm in love with Tibetan. Three years ago (as seen in this thread) I was interested in Tibetan, but back then I was interested in over 30 languages at least. Major wanderlust! But now that's settled down, and my interest in Tibetan has returned.

It has everything I love in languages; nasal vowels, retroflex consonants, and tones.

I'm seriously thinking about studying it. I'm learning a bit right now, but I won't make it official until I'm sure I'll stick with it. Hey, I've stuck with Basque for over two years, and am sticking with Hungarian, so why not Tibetan? '

Boy, is Tibetan's orthography a mess! The word for "here" (pronounced [dɛː]) is spelt like "hatahi" (or atai, depending on how you transliterate). [la] is spelt "lakhas"! Fortunately it doesn't get worse than that. Mostly it's just one or two consonants at the beginning and/or end of the word that aren't pronounced, and possibly change pronunciation. But look at the English word "one" and compare it to its pronunciation - way different!

Awhile back in this thread Formiko said most natives write phonetically, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe I just happened to have come across the few that do, but on YouTube I'd figure they'd write phonetically.

I can do this.

(Sorry if my writing is weird, it happens when I don't sleep at all. )

[księżycowy]

I'm quite interested in both. However I have no time for another language between work, grad studies and the few I'm already doing. They (or at least one of them) are on my "within the next few years" list.

I especially enjoy Dzongkha, it has some interesting sounds (in comparison to Tibetan).

[Meera]

Tibet really fascinates me but I don't really have the time to learn it.

[Lauren]

Well hopefully you'll learn it one day.

[johnklepac]

Boy, is Tibetan's orthography a mess! The word for "here" (pronounced [dɛː]) is spelt like "hatahi" (or atai, depending on how you transliterate). [la] is spelt "lakhas"! Fortunately it doesn't get worse than that. Mostly it's just one or two consonants at the beginning and/or end of the word that aren't pronounced, and possibly change pronunciation. But look at the English word "one" and compare it to its pronunciation - way different!

Awhile back in this thread Formiko said most natives write phonetically, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe I just happened to have come across the few that do, but on YouTube I'd figure they'd write phonetically.

Mongolian does something like this.

[księżycowy]

Mongolian does something like this.

What do you mean? Are you talking about how Mongolian is written? And if so, which writing system(s)?

[yangbowen]

Hi,

Sorry to offer to post lessons and then disappear! I've been busy, but I am working on it. It's nice to see that there might be some interest in Tibetan, even if it's only a couple people.

I agree, the orthography is very confusing. However, don't feel too discouraged. As you get used to seeing the various combinations of Tibetan letters and learning how to pronounce them, the pronunciation of new words will become more intuitive.

[yangbowen]

Awhile back in this thread Formiko said most natives write phonetically, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe I just happened to have come across the few that do, but on YouTube I'd figure they'd write phonetically.

So far, all of the Tibetan texts I have seen (blogs, books, websites, subtitles, and signs in Tibet) were written in the (presumably) proper orthography, rather than phonetically. Tibetans have varying degrees of literacy in Tibetan though, so maybe phonetic writing is common for informal things like handwritten notes if the person doesn't know the correct spelling...