Tibetan script

Tibetan
བོད་ཡིག་
The mantra "Om mani padme hum"
Script type
Time period
c. 620–present
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
Languages
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Sister systems
Meitei,[3][4] Sharada, Siddham, Kalinga, Bhaiksuki
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Tibt (330), ​Tibetan
Unicode
Unicode alias
Tibetan
U+0F00–U+0FFF Final Accepted Script Proposal of the First Usable Edition (3.0)
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
This article contains Tibetan script. Without proper rendering support, you may see very small fonts, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Tibetan characters.
History of the alphabet
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmi script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic
Southern Brahmic

The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or abugida, derived from Brahmic scripts and Gupta script, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It was originally developed c. 620 by Tibetan minister Thonmi Sambhota for King Songtsen Gampo.[5][6]

The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali,[7] Nepali[8] and Old Turkic. The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script. This writing system is used across the Himalayas and Tibet.

The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.[9] The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha,[10] Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script,[10] and is also closely related to Meitei.[3]

  1. ^ Daniels, Peter T. (January 2008). "Writing systems of major and minor languages". In Kachru, Braj B.; Kachru, Yamuna; Sridhar, S. N. (eds.). Language in South Asia. pp. 285–308. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511619069.017. ISBN 978-0-521-78653-9.
  2. ^ Masica, Colin (1993). The Indo-Aryan languages. p. 143.
  3. ^ a b Chelliah, Shobhana Lakshmi (2011). A Grammar of Meithei. De Gruyter. p. 355. ISBN 9783110801118. Archived from the original on 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2023-03-19. Meithei Mayek is part of the Tibetan group of scripts, which originated from the Gupta Brahmi script
  4. ^ Singh, Harimohon Thounaojam (January 2011), The Evolution and Recent Development of the Meetei Mayek Script, Cambridge University Press India, p. 28
  5. ^ Tibet: A Political History, p. 12. 1967. Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
  6. ^ The White Annals, pp. 70-73. Gedun Choephel, translated by Samten Norboo. 1978. Tibetan Library and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India.
  7. ^ Manzardo, Andrew E. "Impression Management and Economic Growth: The Case of the Thakalis of Dhaulagiri Zone" (PDF). Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  8. ^ Karmācārya, Mādhavalāla (2001). Results of the Nepal German Project on High Mountain Archaeology: Ten documents from Mustang in the Nepali language (1667-1975 A.D.). VGH Wissenschaftsverlag. ISBN 978-3-88280-061-6.
  9. ^ Chamberlain 2008
  10. ^ a b Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. The World's Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996,