Tibetan language

Standard Tibetan
ལྷ་སའི་སྐད་
lha-sa'i skad
Native toChina
Native speakers
(1.3 million cited 1990 census)
ca. 5 million of broader Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan
  • (Tibeto-Burman)
    • Tibeto-Kanauri
      • Bodish
        • Tibetic
          • Central Tibetan
            • Standard Tibetan
Early forms
Old Tibetan
  • Classical Tibetan
Tibetan alphabet
Tibetan Braille
Official status
Official language in
 China
Regulated byCommittee for the Standardisation of the Tibetan Language[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1bo
ISO 639-2tib (B)
bod (T)
ISO 639-3bod

The Tibetan language or Standard Tibetan is a Tibetic language spoken in Tibet, a region of China. It is one of the many Han–Tibetan languages. It has been spoken for many centuries (since at least the 6th century, possibly earlier).

Tibetan has many dialects and Standard Tibetan is one of them. People who speak different dialects often cannot easily communicate with each other orally.

The Tibetan written language is not known by most Tibetans and is not taught in many Tibetan areas.

References

  1. Tibetan: བོད་ཡིག་བརྡ་ཚད་ལྡན་དུ་སྒྱུར་བའི་ལ ས་དོན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་གིས་བསྒྲིགས
    Chinese: 藏语术语标准化工作委员会