Tibetan people mainly speak Tibetan language, wheter they live in eastern Central Asia, or overseas. Beside them, in areas in or around Kashmir such as Ladakh and Baltistan Tibetan language is spoken as well. It's a region between India and northern Pakistan. Buddhist scriptures were mainly written in Tibetan. According to some notable classification, Tibetan belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. What is a difference between Tibetan and other Himalayan languages? It's hard to say. Tibetan language is divided into numerous dialects, spoken by Tibetan people from different regions. Peoples who speak in fact Tibetan language, but don't live on Tibetan territory, then on areas like Ladakhi, Sikkimese, Dzongkha and Sherpa, they consider their languages separate from Tibetan. The reason is hidden into politcs. While Tibetan language is divided into numerous dialects and forms, it's really hard to define the standard form of Tibetan language. Approximately, six million people speak throughout Tibetan Plateau and 150,000 exile-Tibetans in India. Qiangic language is spokone by the Qiangic people who are considered as ethnic Tibetan, but the Qiangic language is recognized as branch Sino-Tibetan group of languages, not as Tibetan dialect. Centra and Kham dialects are tonal Tibetan languages, even in general Tibetan language shouldn't be considered as tonal language. Main Tibetan dialects are – Lhasa, Kham and Amdo dialects.
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| Tibetan man laughing. Photo by Sukanto Debnath |
Tibetan dialect chart:
| Western Innovative Tibetan | Ngari dialects: Tholing (Tibet AR, China: Ngari Area), Ladakhi dialects of Upper Ladakh and Zanskar (India), North West Indian Border Area dialects: Lahul, Spiti, Uttarakhand (India) |
| Western Archaic Tibetan | Purik dialects (India), Ladakhi dialects (India), Balti dialects (Pakistan, India) |
| Northern Tibetan | dialects of Southern Qinghai Province, China (Nangchen), dialects of Nakchu Area (Tibet AR, China), Ngari dialects (Gertse) |
| Southern Tibetan | Tsang dialects (Tromowa valley), dialects of Bhutan, dialects of Sikkim (India) |
| Central Tibetan | Tsang dialects (Tibet AR, China: Shigatse Area), Ü dialects (Tibet AR, China: Lhoka Area, Lhasa municipality), Ngari dialects (Tibet AR, China: Ngari Area), Northern Nepalese Border Area dialects (Nepal) |
| Eastern Amdo Tibetan | Amdo dialects of Sichuan Province, Amdo dialects of Gansu Province, Amdo dialects of Qinghai Province, etc. |
| Eastern Kham Tibetan | Kham dialects of Sichuan Province, China, Kham dialects of Yunnan Province, China, Kham dialects of Qinghai Province, Kham dialects of Chamdo Area (Tibet AR, China) |
Tibetan language has been studied by Tibetans and Chinese from many centuries ago, at beginning mainly related with diplomacy and translation. Hindi-Tibetan grammar was written by Rahul Sankrityayan, Indian linguist and indologist. Important Western linguists who visited Tibetan in the 18th and 19th centuries and studied Tibetan language were Hungarian Alexander Csoma de Körös (1784–1842; works: first Tibetna-European language dictionary, grammar Essay towards a dictionary Tibetan and English), Caouchin friars Cassian di Macerata (Alphabetum Tibetanum) and Francisco Orazio delle Penna, H. A. Jäschke (Tibetan-English dictionary and Tibetan Grammar), Theos Bernard (Simplified Grammar of the Literary of the Tibetan Language), Isaac Jacob Schmidt (Grammatik der tibetischen Sprache, Tibetische Studien and Tibetisch-deutsches Wörterbuch), P. E. Foucaux (Lalita Vistara, Grammaire thibitaine, Rgya tcher rol-pa) and many others. Primary education is mainly, of not all, conducted in the Tibetan language. Tibetan secondary education is coducted in both languages – Tibetan and Chinese. Tertiary education can be conducted in Tibetan language if students want to study humanistic disciplines at Chinese Minority colleges. It's interesting that many studies in India where many Tibetans-in-exile live, are conducted on English. Many Tibetans, especially older population, are illiterate and many families are too poor to be able to educate their children. According to some statistics, 98 percent of instructions in the Tibet Autonomous Region is held on Tibetan. Even secondary education is bilingual, only around 40 percent Tibetans reach it, so Tibetan language can't be considered endangered and suprresed by Chinese language, spoken by majority people of China.
