Tibetan Braille

Tibetan Braille is the braille alphabet for writing the Tibetan language. It was invented in 1992 by German socialworker Sabriye Tenberken.[1] It is based on German braille, with some extensions from international usage. As in print, the vowel a is not written.

Tibetan Braille chart

Tibetan Braille follows the print orthography. (See Tibetan script.) This is often a poor match for how words are pronounced. Each syllable is rendered in the following order: pre-consonant, superscript consonant, head consonant, subscript consonant, vowel, post-consonant(s)[2] The invariable consonants are: Consonants ka Print Braille kha ga nga ca cha ja nya

Consonants Print Braille

ta

tha

da

na

pa

pha

ba

ma

Consonants tsa Print Braille

tsha

dza

zha

za

'a

sha

ha

Several consonants, wa, ya, ra, la, and sa, are provided with forms corresponding to the superscript and subscript positions in print:[3] Consonants Print Braille as base letter wa ya ra la sa

as superscript

as subscript

Several of the assignments which do not match international braille have German values: ch for c (ch), j for y [j], z [ts] for tsh, s [z] for z, sch [] for sh [], [s] for s. The assignments for zh and z match international conventions as well, as those letters are pronounced like sh and s. Letters which are not basic to the German alphabet (c, q, x, y) have been reassigned. Several of the aspirated consonants (ch, th, ph) are equivalent to the corresponding unaspirated consonant with an extra dot in the third row. The short vowel "a" is inherent in the head (main) consonant, and is not written explicitly. When a vowel occurs at the beginning of a word, it is carried by a null consonant big : Vowels Print (on ) Braille a i u e o

References
1. ^ Kronenberg, Paul. "Tibetan Braille Script". Braille without Borders. 2. ^ From email correspondence with Sabriye Tenberken: Single consonants are written without a "a". Only i e o and u are indicated. The order goes like this: first the pre consonant, this could be a b, m d ' etc. Then the main consonant. After the main consonant the vowel and then the post consonant. If the main consonant has a super or a sub script, an extra letter that indicates the super script or the subscript is put before and after the main consonant. However it has to be placed before the vowel. If you have a word with all letters possible, it looks as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Pre consonant superscript main consonant sub script vowel post consonant second post consonant

For example: bskrubs 3. ^ (Email correspondence/image) Tibetan Braille01.jpg, Braille without Borders

Tibetan alphabet
Tibetan
Type Abugida

Languages Tibetan Dzongkha Ladakhi Sikkimese Balti Tamang Sherpa Tshangla Gurung c. 650present

Time period

Parent systems

Proto-Sinaitic [a]
o

Phoenician [a] Aramaic [a] Brhm Gupta Siddha Tibetan

Child systems

Limbu Lepcha Phagspa

ISO 15924 Tibt, 330 Direction Unicode alias Unicode range [a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols. U+0F00U+0FFF Left-to-right Tibetan

The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script (Tibetan: , Wylie: dbu-can; "with a head") while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called um (Tibetan: , Wylie: dbu-med; "headless"). The alphabet is very closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity. Besides Tibet, it has also been used for Tibetan languages in Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.[1] The Tibetan alphabet is ancestral to the Limbu alphabet, the Lepcha alphabet,[2] and the multilingual 'Phags-pa script.[2] The Tibetan alphabet is romanized in a variety of ways.[3] This article employs the Wylie transliteration system.

History
The creation of the Tibetan alphabet is attributed to Thonmi Sambhota of the mid-7th century. Tradition holds that Thonmi Sambhota, a minister of Songtsen Gampo (569-649), was sent to India to study the art of writing, and upon his return introduced the alphabet. The form of the letters is based on an Indic alphabet of that period.[4] Three orthographic standardizations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of Buddhist scriptures, emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects, in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa, there is a great divergence between spelling (which reflects the 9th-century[contradictory] spoken Tibetan) and pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform, to write Tibetan "as it is pronounced", for example, writing "Kagyu" instead of "Bka'-rgyud". In contrast, the pronunciation of the Balti, Ladakhi and Burig languages adheres more closely to the archaic spelling. The Tibetan alphabet has 30 consonants, sometimes known as radicals, which are the basis of the script.[2]

ka /k/ ca /t/ ta /t/ pa /p/ tsa /ts/

kha /k/ ga /k, k/ nga // cha /t/ ja /t/ tha /t/ pha /p/ da /t, t/ nya // na /n/

ba /p, p/ ma /m/ wa /w/ (not originally part of the alphabet)[5]

tsha /ts/ dza /ts/ 'a /h/[7] la /l/ ha /h/[8]

zha //[6] za /s/ ya /j/ ra /r/

sha //[6] sa /s/ a //

Polychrome text left of center is the primary mantra of Tibetan Buddhism, Sanskrit O Mai Padme H (Tibetan: , Wylie: oMmanipad+mehU~M). Monochrome text right of center reads Sanskrit "O Vajrasattva Hm" (Tibetan: , Wylie: oM badzrasatwa hUM), an invocation to the embodiment of primeval purity. As in other Indic scripts, each consonant letter assumes an inherent /a/. However, a unique aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals, or they can be written in other forms, such as superscripts and subscripts. The superscript position above a radical is reserved for the consonants r, l, and s, while the subscript position under a radical is for the consonants y, r, l, and w. To understand how this works, one can look at the radical "ka" and see what happens when it becomes "kra" or "rka". In both cases, the symbol for "ka" is used, but when the r is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the r comes before the consonant and vowel, it is

added as a superscript.[2] R actually changes form when it is above most other consonants; thus rka. they are beneath other consonants; thus kwa; kra; kya.

However, an exception to this is the cluster rnya. Similarly, the consonants w, r, and y change form when

Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance, the consonants g, d, b, m, and a ("a chung") can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be he d by the ten consonants g, n, b, d, m, a, r, n, s, and . he third position, the postpostscript position, is solely for the consonants d and s.[2] The vowels used in the alphabet are a, i, u, e, and o. While the vowel a is included in each consonant or radical, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. The vowels i, e, and o are placed above consonants as diacritics, while the vowel u is placed underneath consonants.[2] Old Tibetan included a gigu 'verso' of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords, especially transcribed from the Sanskrit. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right.[9] Syllables are separated by a tseg (); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal, the language had no tone at the time of the script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. As in other Indic scripts, clustered consonants are often stacked vertically. Unfortunately, some fonts and applications do not support this behavior for Tibetan, so these examples may not display properly; you might have to download a font such as Tibetan Machine Uni.

Transliteration of Sanskrit

The number plate of a car registered in Jammu and Kashmir, in Roman and Tibetan scripts.

Vowels
Devanagari IAST Tibetan Dependent vowel signs Devanagari IAST Tibetan Dependent vowel signs

au

ai

Consonants
Devanagari IAST Tibetan Devanagari IAST Tibetan

ka

da

kha

dha

ga

na

gha

pa

pha

ca

ba

cha

bha

ja

ma

jha

ya

ra

la

ha

va

ha

sa

ta

ha

tha

ka

The Sanskrit "cerebral" (retroflex) consonants (a, ha, a, a, a) are represented by the reversing the letters (ta, tha, da, na, sha) to give (Ta, Tha, Da, Na, Sa). It is a classic rule to transliterate (ca cha ja jha) to (tsa tsha dza dzha), respectively. Nowadays, (ca cha ja jha) can also be used.

Unicode
Tibetan was originally one of the scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

Tibetan[1][2] Unicode.org chart (PDF) 0 U+0F0x U+0F1x U+0F2x U+0F3x U+0F4x U+0F5x U+0F6x U+0F7x U+0F8x U+0F9x U+0FAx U+0FBx U+0FCx 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+0FDx U+0FEx U+0FFx Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 6.1 2.^ Unicode code points U+0F77 and U+0F79 are deprecated as of Unicode version 6.0

Notes
1. ^ Chamberlain 2008 2. ^ a b c d e f Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. The Worlds Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 3. ^ See for instance [1] [2] 4. ^ Which specific Indic script inspired the Tibetan alphabet remains controversial. Recent study suggests Tibetan script was based on an adaption from Khotan of the Indian Brahmi and Gupta scripts taught to Thonmi Sambhota in Kashmir (Berzin, Alexander. A Survey of Tibetan History - Reading Notes Taken by Alexander Berzin from Tsepon, W. D. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1967: http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/ebooks/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html).

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

^ Old Tibetan had no letter w, which was instead a digraph for 'w. ^ a b In the case of zh and sh the h signifies palatalization. ^ The h or apostrophe () usua y signifies aspiration. ^ The single letter h represents a voiceless glottal fricative. ^ Asher, R. E. ed. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Tarrytown, N. Y.: Pergamon Press, 1994. 10 vol.

References

Asher, R. E. ed. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon Press, 1994. 10 vol. Beyer, Stephan V. (1993). The Classical Tibetan Language. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru. Chamberlain, Bradford Lynn. 2008. Script Selection for Tibetan-related Languages in Multiscriptal Environments. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:117132. Csoma de Krs, A exander. (1983). A Grammar of the Tibetan Language. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru. Csoma de Krs, A exander (19801982). Sanskrit-Tibetan-English Vocabulary. 2 vols. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru. Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. The Worlds Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Das, Sarat Chandra: he Sacred and Ornamenta Characters of ibet. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 57 (1888), pp. 4148 and 9 plates. Das, Sarat Chandra. (1996). An Introduction to the Grammar of the Tibetan Language. Reprinted by Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Jschke, Heinrich August. (1989). Tibetan Grammar. Corrected by Sunil Gupta. Reprinted by Delhi: Sri Satguru.

External links

Tibetan Calligraphyhow to write the Tibetan script. Learning to Write Tibetan by Don-grub[clarification needed] (PDF 14 MB / DjVu 6.11 MB) Unicode area U0F00-U0FFF, Tibetan script (162KB) Encoding Model of the Tibetan Script in the UCS An index of documents related to the encoding of Tibetan in the Unicode / ISO 10646 standards Jomolhari FontUnicode compatible. Download[dead link] Overview of Tibetan Unicode fonts Tibetan scripts and conservation by Tashi Mannox 2 fontsnot Unicode compatible. 2 fonts: 1 Macintosh, not Unicode compatible. Origins of Tibetan Calligraphy: History and guide to Tibetan script. Omniglot's Guide to the Tibetan writing system Tibetan Scripts, Fonts & Related IssuesTHDL articles on Unicode font issues; free cross-platform OpenType fontsUnicode compatible. Elements of the Tibetan writing system. Introduction to Tibetan Orthography, at Kuro5hin Free Tibetan Fonts Project Ancient Scripts: Tibetan Daicing Alphabet of Tibetan Transliteration (DAO) & Daicing Tibetan Keyboard