| Central Tibetan | |
| Also Known As: | Ü-Tsang |
| Nativename: | Tibetan: དབུས་སྐད་, / Tibetan: དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་, / |
| Pronunciation: | in Tibetan pronounced as /wýkɛʔ, wýʔtsáŋ kɛʔ/ |
| States: | India, Nepal, China (Tibet Autonomous Region) |
| Region: | Tibet Autonomous Region |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 1990–2014 |
| Ref: | e26 |
| Script: | Tibetan script |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Tibeto-Kanauri (?) |
| Fam4: | Bodish |
| Fam5: | Tibetic |
| Stand1: | Lasetian |
| Stand2: | Standard Tibetan |
| Lc1: | bod |
| Ld1: | Lhasa Tibetan |
| Lc2: | dre |
| Ld2: | Dolpo |
| Lc3: | hut |
| Ld3: | Humla, Limi |
| Lc4: | lhm |
| Ld4: | Lhomi (Shing Saapa) |
| Lc5: | muk |
| Ld5: | Mugom (Mugu) |
| Lc6: | kte |
| Ld6: | Nubri |
| Lc8: | ola |
| Ld8: | Walungge (Gola) |
| Lc9: | loy |
| Ld9: | Lowa/Loke (Mustang) |
| Lc10: | tcn |
| Ld10: | Tichurong |
| Glotto: | tibe1272 |
| Glottoname: | Tibetan |
| Glotto2: | sout3216 |
| Glottoname2: | South-Western Tibetic (partial match) |
| Glottorefname2: | South-Western Tibetic |
| Glotto3: | basu1243 |
| Glottoname3: | Basum |
| Elp: | 4918 |
| Elpname: | Walungge |
| Elp2: | 4105 |
| Elpname2: | Dolpo |
| Elp3: | 5642 |
| Elpname3: | Lhomi |
| Map2: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
Central Tibetan, also known as Dbus, Ü or Ü-Tsang, is the most widely spoken Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan.
Dbus and Ü are forms of the same name. Dbus is a transliteration of the name in Tibetan script, Tibetan: དབུས་, whereas Ü is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect, in Tibetan pronounced as /wy˧˥˧ʔ/ (or pronounced as /[y˧˥˧ʔ]/). That is, in Tibetan, the name is spelled Dbus and pronounced Ü. All of these names are frequently applied specifically to the prestige dialect of Lhasa.
Limi (Limirong), Mugum, Dolpo (Dolkha), Mustang (Lowa, Lokä), Humla, Nubri, Lhomi, Dhrogpai Gola, Walungchung Gola (Walungge/Halungge), Tseku
Basum (most divergent, possibly a separate language)
Ethnologue reports that Walungge is highly intelligible with Thudam.
Glottolog reports these South-Western Tibetic languages as forming a separate subgroup of languages within Central Tibetan languages, but that Thudam is not a distinct variety. On the opposite, Glottolog does not classify Basum within Central Tibetan but leaves it unclassified within Tibetic languages.
Tournadre (2013) classifies Tseku with Khams.[1]
Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Amdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity with Khams Tibetan.[2]
Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents the Lhasa, Shigatse, Gar, Sherpa, Basum, Gertse, and Nagqu varieties.[3]
Ngari Tibetan, more specifically Stöd Ngari (as opposed to the language of pre-1842 Lower Ngari that is now an independent language), is the endonym for a topolect spoken around Ngari Prefecture, T.A.R. Traditionally, it's considered a divergent variety of Dbusgtsang but not Dbusgtsang proper, however, some Western Khams Tibetan varieties such as Gêrzê Tibetan and Nagqu Tibetan are now considered part of the Ngari Tibetan areal group as well.[4] In Indian-administrated Tibet since the 1846 British invasion of Spiti, a related topolect is now known under exonym "Lahuli and Spiti".
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ཨ（◌）
| ཨ། | ཨའུ། | ཨག། ཨགས། | ཨང༌། ཨངས། | ཨབ། ཨབས། | ཨམ། ཨམས། | ཨར། | ཨལ། ཨའི། | ཨད། ཨས། | ཨན། | |
| a | au | ag | aŋ | ab | am | ar | ai/ä | ai/ä | ain/än | |
| ཨི། ཨིལ། ཨའི། | ཨིའུ། ཨེའུ། | ཨིག། ཨིགས། | ཨིང༌། ཨིངས། | ཨིབ། ཨིབས། | ཨིམ། ཨིམས། | ཨིར། | ཨིད། ཨིས། | ཨིན། | ||
| i | iu | ig | iŋ | ib | im | ir | i | in | ||
| ཨུ། | ཨུག། ཨུགས། | ཨུང༌། ཨུངས། | ཨུབ། ཨུབས། | ཨུམ། ཨུམས། | ཨུར། | ཨུལ། ཨུའི།[5] | ཨུད། ཨུས། | ཨུན། | ||
| u | ug | uŋ | ub | um | ur | ü | ü | ün | ||
| ཨེ། ཨེལ། ཨེའི། | ཨེག། ཨེགས། | ཨེང༌། ཨེངས། | ཨེབ། ཨེབས། | ཨེམ། ཨེམས། | ཨེར། | ཨེད། ཨེས། | ཨེན། | |||
| ê | êg | êŋ | êb | êm | êr | ê | ên | |||
| ཨོ། | ཨོག། ཨོགས། | ཨོང༌། ཨོངས། | ཨོབ། ཨོབས། | ཨོམ། ཨོམས། | ཨོར། | ཨོལ། ཨོའི། | ཨོད། ཨོས། | ཨོན། | ||
| o | og | oŋ | ob | om | or | oi/ö | oi/ö | oin/ön |
| Wade–Giles | Tibetan Pinyin | IPA | Wade–Giles | Tibetan Pinyin | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /[a]/ | a | a | ||||
| pronounced as /[ɛ]/ | al, a'i | ai/ä | pronounced as /[ɛ̃]/ | an | ain/än | |
| pronounced as /[i]/ | i, il, i'i | i | pronounced as /[ĩ]/ | in | in | |
| pronounced as /[u]/ | u | u | ||||
| pronounced as /[y]/ | ul, u'i | ü | pronounced as /[ỹ]/ | un | ün | |
| pronounced as /[e]/ | e, el, e'i | ê | pronounced as /[ẽ]/ | en | ên | |
| pronounced as /[o]/ | o | o | ||||
| pronounced as /[ø]/ | ol, o'i | oi/ö | pronounced as /[ø̃]/ | on | oin/ön | |
| Wade–Giles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /[au]/ | a'u | au | |
| pronounced as /[iu]/ | i'u, e'u | iu |
| Wade–Giles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /[ʔ]/ | d, s | none | |
| pronounced as /[n]/ | n | ||
| pronounced as /[k/ʔ]/ | g, gs | g | |
| pronounced as /[ŋ]/ | ng, ngs | ng | |
| pronounced as /[p]/ | b, bs | b | |
| pronounced as /[m]/ | m, ms | m | |
| pronounced as /[r]/ | r | r |