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དགེ་ལ་ Genla

Discipline · in Language

ཁ་སྐད་

Spoken Tibetan

kha skad

The spoken language and its dialects: the Lhasa standard of the diaspora, the dialects of Ü-Tsang, Kham and Amdo, and the distance between what is written and what is said.

This page is a placeholder. It exists so that the structure does; the text will follow, and will be checked by a teacher of the field before it is called finished.

Written Tibetan is one language; spoken Tibetan is several. The dialects of Ü-Tsang, Kham and Amdo differ enough that speakers from distant regions reach for the written language, or another language, to understand each other. In exile a Lhasa-based standard has become the common speech, and it is what most learners are taught.

The pages here will cover the sounds of the spoken language, tone in the central dialects, the differences between the regions, and the everyday phrases a learner needs first.