Difference between revisions of "Tibetan phrasebook"

Latest revision as of 14:21, 15 January 2012

The Om mani padme hum mantra in Tibetan

Tibetan is the main language of Tibet, and its accompanying regions and among overseas Tibetan communities around the world. Tibetan is spoken by several million people in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the Chinese People’s Republic, the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as the neighboring countries Bhutan (around 4,000 speakers), India (over 124,000 speakers), and Nepal (around 60,000 speakers). Written Tibetan is used as the religious language in the countries where Tibetan Lamaistic Buddhism is practiced (e.g. in Mongolia and parts of China proper). Tibetan communities also exist in Taiwan, Norway, Switzerland and the United States of America.

[edit] Pronunciation guide

Tibetan spelling and pronunciation diverged around the 11th century, and there is no widely agreed standard on how to spell phonetic Tibetan with the Latin alphabet.

[edit] Vowels

ཨ 

Like "a" in "alone"; like "a" in "cat" (a).

ཷ 

Like "aw" in "paw" (å).

ེ 

Like "e" in "bet" (e).

ི 

Like "i" in "in" (i).

ཱི 

Like "ee" in "seen" (í).

ོ 

Like "o" in "so" (ó).

ྲྀ 

Like "e" in "father" (ö).

ཱུ 

Like "ue" in "glue" (ú).

ུ 

Like "oo" in "soon" (ū).

ུ 

Like "ee" in "seen" but with rounded lips (ü).

ེ 

Like "ay" in "day" (ą).

[edit] Consonants

ཀ 

Like "k" in "skill" (k).

ག 

Like "g" in "garden" (g).

ང 

Like "ng" in "sing" (ng).

ཅ 

Like "ch" in "charge" (ç).

ཇ 

Like "j" in "jar" (j).

ཉ 

Like "ny" in "canyon" (ñ).

ཏ 

Like "t" in "stop" (t).

པ 

Like "p" in "spot" (p).

ཙ 

Like "ts" in "weights" (ţ).

ཛ 

Like "ds" in "adds" (ds).

ཟ 

Like "z" in "zoo" (z).

ཞ 

Like "s" in "treasure" (ž).

ར 

Must be trilled - just like Italian "r" (r).

ས 

Like "s" in "suck" (s).

ཤ 

Like "sh" in "shut" (š).

[edit] Common diphthongs

ཁ 

Like "k" in "kill" (kh).

ཆ 

Like "ch h" in "punch hard" (çh).

ཐ 

Like "t" in "time" (th).

ཕ 

Like "p" in "pit" (ph).

ཚ 

Like "ts h" in "fights hard" (ţh).

[edit] Phrase list

Some phrases in this phrasebook still need to be translated. If you know anything about this language, you can help by plunging forward and translating a phrase.

[edit] Basics

Hello. 

Tashi deleg (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས)

Hello. (informal) 

Demu (བདེ་མོ།)

How are you? 

Khye-rang ku-zug de-po yin-pe ()

Fine, thank you. 

De-po yin. Thug je che.

What is your name? 

Khye-rang gi tshen-la ga-re zhu-gi yod? ()Or Khedrand ming Gangyin.

My name is ______ . 

Ngai ming ___ yin.

Nice to meet you. 

Khye-rang jel-ney ga-po joong ()

Please. 

Thuk-je zig ()

Thank you. 

Thuk-je-che (ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ།)

You're welcome. 

()Yin dang yin

Yes. 

Red (རེད།)

No. 

Ma-red

Excuse me.

gong-pa-ma-tsom / gong-ta

I'm sorry. 

Gong dag

Goodbye 

Chagpo nang, as in take care

Shug dan ja (when other person is staying): kha-lay-pheb (when other person is going)

I can't speak name of language [well]. 

nga pö-kay yak-po kyab gi mey

Do you speak English? 

khye-rang yin-ji-kay rgyab thub gi yin pe?

Is there someone here who speaks English? 

Dhir Engi shenyan yod Pai.

Help! 

Rog pa jed

Look out! 

Phar toe

Good morning. 

ngado deleg

Good evening. 

gondo deleg

Good night. 

Sim shag nang

Good night

I don't understand. 

Nai she gyi med

ha kho gi mey

Where is the toilet? 

Sang chod gawa yod red.

[edit] Problems

[edit] Numbers

One

  Chig

Two

  Nyi

Three

  Sum

Four

  Zhi

Five

  Nga

Six

  Dug

Seven

  Dun

Eight

  Gyed
 

Nine

  Gu

Ten

  Chu

Twenty

  Nyi-shu

Thirty

  Sum-chu

Forty

  Zhi-chu

Fifty

  Nga-chu

One Hundred

  Gya tham-pa

===Time===Due tsod

====Clock time====chutsod duetsod

====Duration====ring, kab

====Days====nyin ma

====Months====dawa

[edit] Writing time and date

yige dipai due dang tse

[edit] Colors

   tseun dok ཚོན་མདོག 

Blue སྔོན་པོ་

   ngeun po

Yellow སེར་པོ་

   ser po

Green ལྗང་ཁུ་

   jang koo

Red དམར་པོ་

   mar po

Brown

   gyar mook

Black ནག་པོ་

   nak po

Orange ལི་ཝང་

   li wang

White དཀར་པོ་

   kar po

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Bus and train

[edit] Directions

[edit] Taxi

[edit] Lodging

[edit] Money

[edit] Eating

Bon appetit! ཞལ་ལག་མཉེས་པོ་ནང་གོ

 shelak nye po nang ko

delicious ཞིམ་པོ་ སྤྼོ་པོ་(H)

 shimpo   t(r)opo (H)

meal གསོལ་ཚིགས

 sol tsi'

meal, food ཁ་ལག ཞལ་ལག

 kalak, shelak

[edit] Bars

[edit] Shopping

[edit] Driving

[edit] Authority

[edit] Learning more

• Listen to tibetan numbers on WikiBabel