Central Tibetan (Lhasa)

Full text

Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2024), 1–23
doi:10.1017/S0025100324000033
ILLUSTRATION OF THE IPA
Central Tibetan (Lhasa)
Yubin Zhang
Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California, USA
Email: yubinzha@usc.edu
(Received 28 May 2022; revised 18 November 2023; accepted 20 January 2024)
Central Tibetan (ISO 639-3, bod) is a Tibetic language that belongs to the Bodish branch
of the Tibeto-Burman subgroup within the Sino-Tibetan language family (Thurgood &
Lapolla, 2016). The Tibetic languages refer to a variety of languages that derive from Old
Tibetan, including Central Tibetan (Ü-Tsang Tibetan), Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan
(Tournadre, 2014; Tournadre & Suzuki, 2022; Zhang, 1996). The modern Tibetic languages
have many cognates and regular phonological correspondences with Classical Literary
Tibetan (Goldstein et al., 1991; Tournadre, 2014),acommonwrittenlanguagedevelopedin
the Tibetan cultural sphere, including regions of China, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Most Tibetic languages can be written with the Tibetan script, which preserves the old
phonology and orthography of Classical Literary Tibetan.
The Central Tibetan language includes subgroups such as Ü, Tsang, Nagari, etc. (Qu &
Jing, 2017; Tournadre & Dorje, 2003; Tournadre & Suzuki, 2022; Zhang, 1996). The Ü and
Tsang dialects are spoken in Lhasa and Shigatse regions respectively. The Ü variety spoken
in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (see Figure 1), is generally known as
standard spoken Tibetan. It is a regional common language in Central Tibet and is even
regarded as the lingua franca of the greater Tibetan areas, including the Amdo and Khams
regions, and of overseas Tibetan diasporic communities.
The current illustration describes the sound system of Lhasa Tibetan. It provides a com-
prehensive synthesis of previous accounts (Dawson, 1980b; DeLancey, 2003;Gong,2020;
T. Hu, 1980,2003; Tournadre & Dorje, 2003;Zhou,1983). Moreover, this paper extends pre-
vious work by presenting instrumental phonetic data, which provides further insight on
some critical issues about Lhasa Tibetan, e.g., the organization of its vowel, vowel harmony
and word-tone systems. Some of these issues remain to be further investigated in future
studies. The phonetic data comes from a male speaker (TN) and a female speaker (DY) in
their twenties. The two speakers were born in Lhasa and speak Lhasa Tibetan as a native
language. They are also fluent in Mandarin Chinese and have a good knowledge of English.
Their speech described in this illustration is representative of standard Central Tibetan and
broadly conforms to pronunciation standards adopted in standard Central Tibetan text-
books (Chang & Shefts, 1964; Goldstein & Nornang, 1970; Tournadre & Dorje, 2003;Zhou,
1983)
C
The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Phonetic Association.
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creative
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2 Zhang
Figure 1. (Colour online) Map of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The location of Lhasa is indicated by the red
triangle.
Consonants
labial alveolar retroflex palatal/ palatalized velar glottal
alveolo- velar
palatal
plosive pp
Htt
HkJkJHkk
HP
affricate ţţ
HtùtùH++
H
fricative sù1Ch
nasal mn ñN
approximant wôj
lateral lì
1Some previous work postulates a voiceless approximant like [®8](Dawson, 1980b; Sprigg, 1954; Tournadre &
Dorje, 2003). In the current dataset, there is no clear evidence for this sound. It might be a variant of the sound /ù/
in certain varieties of Lhasa or Central Tibetan.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 3
Onset consonant
/ph/2‘agentive particle’ /tùHhP/‘blood’
/pHi/‘cow’ /ùhN/‘alone’
/mi/‘female, mother’ /tChP/‘iron’
/wi/‘fox’ /tCHh/‘pair’
/th/‘horse’ /Ch/‘meat’
/tHh/‘rim, edge’ /ñi/‘fish’
/tsh/‘root’ /ji/‘above’
/tsHh/‘salt’ /kJi/‘hundred’
/sh/‘earth’ /kJHhP/‘freeze’
/ni/‘pain, ache’ /kh/‘the first letter in the
Tibetan alphabet’
/ôi/[üi]‘goat’ /kHh/‘mouth’
/lh/‘hire, rent’ /Ni/‘I’
/ìh/‘god’ /hh/‘the twenty-ninth
letter in the Tibetan
alphabet’
/tùh/‘hair’
Coda consonant
/kHhp/
[kH@@p]
‘needle’ /kHhN/,
/kHa)@˘/
‘house’
/kHhmP/‘region, body’ /kHhP/‘difficult, section’
(/kHE@l/),
/kHE@˘/
‘spin (yarn)’ /kHiô/[kHir]
/kHi˘/
‘dancing’
Plosives, affricates and fricatives
The plosives in Lhasa Tibetan contrast in four places of articulation – bilabial, alveo-
lar, palatalized velar and velar. The distinction between palatalized velar and velar can
2A broad phonemic transcription indicated by slashes / / is generally used in this illustration. To illustrate the
detailed phonetic realization in some cases, a phonetic transcription is provided using square brackets [].For
tonal transcription, the phonological high tone (H) and low tone (L) are indicated by the diacritics /h/and /i/on
the vowel respectively. Tone letters are only provided in some examples in the Tone section to illustrate detailed
phonetic pitch realization. For tones on disyllabic words, the transcription generally indicates the disyllabic tonal
patterns predicted by tonal templates rather than individual monosyllabic tones in isolation. For cases of word-
level phonological processes via combination of individual morphemes, e.g., [disyllabic word]<[syllable 1]+
[syllable 2], monosyllabic tones on each isolated syllable (on the right side of <) are also given. Vowel harmony
is only transcribed in the vowel harmony section. Additional transcriptions are given if the two speakers differ in
their pronunciations (denoted by DY and TN) or if one speaker shows pronunciation variants.
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4 Zhang
Figure 2. (Colour online) The first, second and third formant frequency trajectories for syllables /ki/and /kJi/.
The syllable /ki/is taken from the disyllabic word ‘favorite’ (TN: [kiCO@/]and DY: [kiCO$˘]). The syllable /kJi/
is taken from the disyllabic word ‘China’ ([kJinh/]). One example token for each speaker and each consonant
category is selected for the illustration.
be discerned from the formant transition (see Figure 2). For example, a notable differ-
ence between /k/and /kJ/followed by /a/lies in the second formant frequency transition.
Compared with /ka/, the second formant frequency transition of /kJa/exhibits a large and
steep fall.
The plosives also contrast in aspiration – voiceless aspirated and voiceless unaspirated3.
The voice onset time (VOT) of the two categories is presented in Figure 3. The aspirated
plosives have longer VOT than the unaspirated ones.
Deaspiration can occur for the aspirated plosives and affricates in the second syllable
of a disyllabic word (Dawson, 1980b), e.g., DY: [kJikO@P]<[kJi]+[kHO@P]‘Chinese hotpot.’
Both aspirated and unaspirated stops can undergo intervocalic voicing4, e.g., DY: [kJigE@P]
<[kJi]+[kE@P]‘the Chinese language.’ In some cases, intervocalic plosive can become an
approximant, e.g., TN: [kJiîO@P]<[kJi]+[kHO@P]‘Chinese hotpot.’
The fricatives in Lhasa Tibetan have four places of articulation – alveolar, alveolo-palatal,
retroflex and glottal. The smoothed long-term average spectra (LTAS) of the fricatives are
3Note that the speaker TN sometimes produces prenasalization for the initial unaspirated plosive in certain
monosyllabic words, e.g., [Ngi/]‘be clogged’ and [Ngim/]‘eat powdered food/medicines (past tense).’ The pre-
nasalization reflects the nasal or some other sonorants in a consonant cluster of Old Tibetan. Because it is produced
inconsistently and plays a limited contrastive role, prenasalization is treated as a pronunciation variant for TN.
For most Lhasa Tibetan speakers, the nasal in this case can surface in disyllabic words as a resyllabified nasal (see
the fossilized consonants section), but generally does not occur in monosyllabic words.
4Only extreme cases of intervocalic voicing without notable voiceless portion during the consonant are
transcribed as a voiced stop in the current illustration.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 5
Figure 3. The VOT (mean +sd) of the initial voiceless aspirated and unaspirated plosives for speakers DY and TN.
For each speaker and each aspiration category, eight plosive tokens (two repetitions for each place of articulation)
are used in the acoustic analysis.
Figure 4. (Colour online) The smoothed long-term average spectra (LTAS) of the alveolar, alveolo-palatal,
retroflex and glottal fricatives for speakers DY and TN. The fricative portion segmented from the speech sig-
nal is used for the analysis. For each speaker, the fricative spectra are averaged across two repetitions of the tokens
/sh/,/Ch/,/ùhN/and /hh/.
showninFigure4. For DY, the alveolo-palatal fricatives have more energy than the alveolar
fricatives in the lower-frequency region (e.g., 0–5000 Hz), whereas the opposite is true in the
higher-frequency region. However, for TN, the difference is much smaller. The speaker DY
also exhibits a canonical distinction in spectral peak, that is, the alveolar fricative exhibits a
higher-frequency spectral peak than the alveolo-palatal one, but TN exhibits no difference
in spectral peak. The articulatory mechanisms underlying this speaker-specific acoustic
difference remain to be determined in future studies.
Realization of /ô/
The approximant /ô/has four realizations [ô],[ü],[R]and [r]. Example waveforms and spec-
trograms are shown in Figure 5.The/ô/in DY’s production of [ô-NCO@P]‘longest’ can be
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6 Zhang
Figure 5. Waveforms and spectrograms for different realizations of /®/: (1) initial approximant [®-], (2) initial
fricative [Ω-], (3) intervocalic flap [-R-], (4) initial trill [r-], (5) final trill [-r], and (6) long vowel [-V˘].
transcribed as an approximant [ô]without notable frication. The [ü]realization of /ô/occurs
in TN’s production of /ôi/[üi]‘goat.’ A flap [R]is present in DY’s production of /kJiôçP/[kJi
RçP]‘the Chinese people.’ The /ô/can also be realized as a trill [r], e.g., in initial position, TN:
/ôe$ mO)$˘/[re$ mO)$˘]‘envision,’ or in final position, TN: /kHiô/[kHir]‘dancing.’
Consonant deletion and compensatory vowel lengthening
The coda /ô/is frequently dropped in colloquial speech5, resulting in compensatory length-
ening of the vowel [V˘], e.g., TN: /kHiô/[kHi˘]‘dancing’ (see Figure 5). In colloquial speech,
/l/is not pronounced and the vowel is lengthened, e.g., (/kHE@l/), /kHE@˘/‘spin (yarn)’. The coda
/N/can be reduced in colloquial speech, leading to vowel lengthening and nasalization as
illustrated by the example /kHhN/,/kHa)@˘/‘house.’ The reduction or deletion of a glottal stop
[P]can also cause compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel, e.g., TN: [tùO$˘ îJç] <
[tùO$P]+[kJHç] ‘nomad’s dog.’
5Due to the long written tradition of Lhasa Tibetan, some words have both formal (literary) and colloquial
pronunciations (see Zhou, 1984 for a detailed discussion). The formal form, which generally reflects aspects of tra-
ditional pronunciations represented by the Tibetan orthography, is used on formal occasions, such as in education,
religion and broadcasting settings, whereas the colloquial form is used in daily conversations.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 7
Fossilized consonants
Fossilized Disyllabic Monosyllabic Orthography Gloss
consonants forms forms
p[C-ptCu@]<[C-]+[tCu@]‘forty’
kTN: [tCu@k su@m]<[tCu@]+[su@m]‘thirteen’
DY: [tCO@k su@m]
(colloquial)
N[n][tHinth]<[tHi]+[th]‘now’
N[ï][ku@ïtùh]<[ku@]+[tùi]‘statue, image’
N[m][kJu$m tsHE)$˘]<[kJu$]+[tsHE)@˘]‘reason’
In Lhasa Tibetan, some consonant segments are silent when a morpheme is produced in
isolation but emerge when combined with another morpheme in a phonological word. This
phenomenon is called fossilized consonants (DeLancey, 2003). These fossilized consonants
are modern reflexes of consonants in a complex onset of Classical Literary Tibetan. A more
general term used in the literature for describing this phenomenon is ‘ghost segments,’
which are either not realized phonetically or occur only in some specific contexts. A well-
known example of ghost consonants is French liaison, where the liaison consonants are
silent in isolation but can emerge between two words (Côté, 2011).
For the first example shown in the table, the morpheme ‘ten’ is pronounced as [tCu@]
in isolation. The prefix letter , which reflects Old Tibetan prefix consonant b(Wylie, 1959),
is silent. However, when this morpheme occurs finally in a disyllabic word like ‘forty,’ a
resyllabified [p]is added to the preceding syllable [C-]‘four’ as a coda. Then, the disyllabic
word ‘forty’ is pronounced as [C-ptCu@]. The productivity of fossilized consonants varies for
different consonants. The fossilized nasal seems to be more productive than other fossilized
consonants (DeLancey, 2003).
Vowels
Monophthongs
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8 Zhang
Short vowels Long vowels Nasalized vowels
ii˘Ú)˘ /ô-/‘hill’ /ô-˘/‘fall’ /ôÚ)$˘/‘price’
[ü-][ü-˘][üÚ)$˘]
ee˘e)˘ /ñe$/‘near’ /ñe@˘/,/ñe@ô/‘manage’ /ñe)@˘/‘pilant’
EE˘E)˘ /sE@P/‘kill’ /sE@˘/‘clear’ /sE)@˘/‘hear
(honorific)’
yy˘y)˘ /ky@P/‘thread’ /ky@˘/‘urge’ /ky)@˘/‘all’
OO˘O)˘ /tO@P/‘praise’ /tO@˘/‘puncture’ /tO)@˘/‘show’
uu˘u)˘ /su$P/‘be DY: /su$˘/,‘corner’ DY: /su@N/‘speak
pricked’ /su$ô/[sU$r]TN: /su)@˘P/(honorific)’
TN: /su$˘/
oo˘o)˘ /ko$/‘head’ DY: ‘elapse’ DY: /ko$N/‘night’
/ko$˘/[kO$˘],TN:/ko)$˘/
/ko$ô/[kO$r]
TN:
/ko$˘/[kO$˘]
aa˘a)˘ /sh/‘earth’ DY: ‘new’ DY: /shN/‘conceal’
/sh˘/,/shô/TN: /sa)@˘/
TN: /sh˘/
Figure 6. The acoustic vowel space of the eight short vowels (DY: left; TN: right). Each cross denotes the mean
F1 and F2. The tokens for the formant frequency analysis are taken from the short vowel example list. The formant
frequency values shown are averaged across all the data points of the vowel portion and across two repetitions of
each token. The formant frequency is measured using the formant tracking algorithm implemented in PRAAT.
Despite some discrepancies in previous accounts of the Lhasa Tibetan vowel system, it
is generally agreed that Lhasa Tibetan distinguishes eight short vowels – /i, e, E,y,O,u,
o, a6/(Dawson,1980a; DeLancey, 2003;Gong,2020;T.Hu,2003;Zhou,1983). Figure 6shows
the acoustic vowel space of the eight short vowels.
6The symbol /a/is used to denote a low central vowel for typographic convenience.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 9
Figure 7. Example waveforms and spectrograms for short, long and nasalized vowels produced by TN – (1) short
[i]in /®-/[Ω-]‘hill’; (2) long [i˘]in /®-˘/[Ω-˘]‘fall’; (3) nasalized [Ú)˘]in /®Ú)$˘/[ΩÚ)$˘]‘price.’
The vowels in Lhasa Tibetan can also differ in nasalization and length. Example wave-
forms and spectrograms for short, long and nasalized vowels produced by TN are shown in
Figure 7. The long vowels of Lhasa Tibetan reflect Old Tibetan coronal sonorant codas. The
nasalized vowels of Lhasa Tibetan reflect Old Tibetan alveolar nasal coda and sometimes
velar nasal coda. The conditioning environments for vowel lengthening and nasalization
are not completely lost in Lhasa Tibetan. For example, the coda /l/is generally not pro-
nounced and the coda /ô/is frequently dropped in colloquial speech, but these codas can
be retained in more formal speech. The velar nasal coda /N/can be reduced, causing vowel
lengthening and nasalization, but it is not completely lost.
Diphthongs
iu pH-u‘calf’
au tiu‘spouse’
Diphthongs are relatively rare in Lhasa Tibetan native words. The sequence /iu/and /au/,
originating from syllable fusion, can be treated as diphthongs. The diphthong system of
other Central Tibetan dialects, like Ngari Tibetan, is more fully developed than that of Lhasa
Tibetan (Qu & Tan, 1983; Qu & Jing, 2017). The diphthong resulting from syllable fusion
exhibits different acoustic patterns from two consecutive vowels in an unfused syllable. For
example, the diphthong [iu]in [tiu]originates from syllable fusion – [tiu]</tiwí/‘spouse.’
In this example, the unfused form exhibits two intensity bursts, but the fused form exhibits
only one (see Figure 8for an example from DY). Moreover, the unfused form has a clearer
formant structure for individual syllables and a longer duration than the fused form.
The diphthong is comparable in duration to the long vowel and the nasalized vowel. All
these vowels are longer in duration than the short vowel. Figure 9displays the acoustic
duration of each vowel category – short vowel, long vowel, nasalized vowel and diphthong.
Vowel variants
In addition to these vowels, some researchers postulate additional vowels /I,U,O,@/
(Dawson, 1980a, 1980b; Gong, 2020). These vowels typically occur as allophonic variants
in certain conditioning environments, e.g., before specific codas, as a result of syllable
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10 Zhang
Figure 8. Examples of syllable fusion (data from DY). The waveforms and spectrograms illustrate the fused form
[tiu](left) and unfused form [tiwo@](right) of the word ‘spouse.’
Figure 9. The vowel duration of the four vowel categories – short, long, nasalized and diphthong (DY: left; TN:
right). The dot and error bar show mean ±standard deviation based on tokens taken from the vowel example list.
(Number of tokens: TN – short: 16, long: 16, nasalized: 16, diphthong: 4; DY – short: 16, long: 15, nasalized: 10,
diphthong: 4).
fusion in colloquial speech, and in vowel harmony, but they have been argued to be more
contrastive when the original conditioning environments are lost. Due to the emerging
contrastive role of these vowels, some proposals have incorporated these additional vow-
els into the vowel system of Lhasa Tibetan, and analyze the system as having one set of
constricted or RTR (retracted tongue root) vowels /I,E,U,O,@,a/and another set of uncon-
stricted or ATR (advanced tongue root) vowels /i, e, u, o, y, O/(Dawson, 1980a, 1980b; Gong,
2020).
However, this analysis is not fully supported by the current data. Gong (2020)arguesthat
the vowels [I,U]occur before the coda /-ô/, e.g., /t-ô/[tÍR]‘here (formal)’ and /su@ô/[sU@ô]‘who
(formal)’, or in long vowels when the coda /-ô/is dropped, e.g., /t-˘/[t͢]‘here (colloquial)’
and /su@˘/[sU@˘]‘who (colloquial).’ The examples in the latter case are cited as evidence for
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 11
the phonemic status of [I]and [U]. However, in our data, we only found allophonic variants
[I,U]before /-ô/, as in the formal forms of ‘here’ and ‘who.’ The colloquial forms of them
are pronounced as [tE$˘]and [sO@˘]instead of [t͢]and [sU@˘]. There is no evidence that the two
speakers in the current study represent [I]and [U]as phonemes. Moreover, Gong (2020)
provides additional examples of the vowel [U]resulting from syllable fusion and argues for
its phonemic status, e.g., [kHU@˘](colloquial) < /kHu@ wh˘/(formal) ‘liquid, soup’ and [tCU$˘](col-
loquial) < /tC-wi˘/(formal) ‘flea.’ However, for our speakers, the colloquial fused form of
‘liquid, soup’ is [kHO@˘]. For the colloquial form of ‘flea,’ the two speakers differ in their pro-
nunciations – DY: [tC-p]and TN: [tCO$:]. These data suggest some variability of the colloquial
pronunciations in the Lhasa Tibetan speech community.
For the vowel [O], previous description and our data suggest that it occurs before the
coda -P(Gong, 2020), e.g., /lo$P/[lO$P]‘come back.’ This vowel also occurs in long vowels with
dropped /-ô/, e.g., /ko$˘/[kO$˘]‘elapse (colloquial)’ and, in syllable fusion, e.g., [tHO@˘](colloquial)
</tHíwh˘/(formal) ‘hammer’ (also in the colloquial forms of ‘liquid, soup’ and TN’s ‘flea’ as
discussed above). For the vowel [@], previous description and our data suggest that it occurs
before the coda /-p/, e.g., /tHhp/[tH@@p]‘canteen’ or in syllable fusion, e.g., [k@$m](colloquial)
(DY) < /kHiNp
Hu@/(formal) ‘pea pod’ (DY, TN) (Gong, 2020; Qu & Jing, 2017). Moreover, the
reduced variant of /a/in the final position of a disyllabic word can also be transcribed as [@]
(Dawson, 1980b), e.g., ‘flag’ /tHiôtCHh/[tHiRtC@@](DY, see Figure 11 for an illustration of its
reduced F1).
The vowels [O]and [@]originating from syllable fusion seem to be more contrastive
than the other proposed additional vowels, but the contrast occurs primarily in colloquial
speech. It is still likely that the conditioning environments are not fully lost in formal
speech. One solution is to treat the emerging vowel contrast as part of a ‘colloquial’ sound
system as opposed to a canonical ‘formal’ system (Zhou, 1984). A further issue is whether
some of these additional vowels can be analyzed as diphthongs. For example, Zhou (1984)
treats the [I]and [U]conditioned by /-ô/as diphthongs [ie]and [uo]. Taken together, while
the proposal of additional vowels offers insight into the complexity of the Lhasa Tibetan
vowel system, there are theoretical and empirical issues that need to be addressed in
future studies. Supporting instrumental data are required to fully reveal the categorical
or gradient properties of these vowel variants in various contexts.
Vowel harmony: Regressive harmony
Harmonizing condition Control
a[kJi£RçP]‘the Chinese
people’
[kJinhP]‘China’
E[lE£$PüçP]‘type of
work,
industry’
[lE$PnE@P]‘job
position’
eDY: [ôe£$ ty)$˘]‘hope’ DY: [ôe$ mO)$˘]‘envision’
TN: [ôe£$n dy)$˘]TN: [re$ mO)$˘]
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12 Zhang
O[pHO£$Plu@P]‘Tibetan
sheep’
[pHO$PsE@P]‘Tibetan
food’
o[to£$ nu$m]‘gasoline’ [tO$˘ tCe@]‘vajra’
Figure 10. (Colour online) Illustration of regressive raising harmony (left: DY; right: TN). The F1 values shown
are averaged across all the data points of the whole vowel portion and across two repetitions of each token. The
red line represents the harmonized non-high vowel in the harmonizing condition while the blue line represents the
original non-high vowel in the control condition.
The vowel harmony in Lhasa Tibetan is described as a type of vowel height raising har-
mony (Chang & Shefts, 1964;Dawson,1980b; DeLancey, 2003; Miller, 1966; Sprigg, 1961;
Ulving, 2008). The high vowels [i, y, u, @]in a phonological word, raise the non-high vowels
[a, E,e,O,o]of adjacent syllables. The harmonized or raised non-high vowels [a£, E£, e£, O£,
o£]become more similar to vowels [@,e,i,y,u]. There is both regressive and progressive
vowel harmony in Lhasa Tibetan.
In regressive harmony, the high vowel of the second syllable raises the non-high vowel of
the first syllable. The table above displays the speech materials used for examining regres-
sive harmony. The materials consist of two groups of disyllabic words, which represent
the ‘non-high +high’ harmonizing condition and ‘non-high +non-high’ control condi-
tion respectively. In the harmonizing condition, the first non-high vowel is supposed to be
raised by the second high vowel due to regressive harmony. Figure 10 illustrates the mean
F1 for the harmonized non-high vowel in the harmonizing condition and the original non-
high vowel in the control condition. The harmonized non-high vowel generally has lower
mean F1 than the original non-high vowel for both speakers, suggesting that the regressive
raising harmony is an active phonological process for both speakers.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 13
Vowel harmony: progressive harmony
Harmonizing condition Control
aDY: [j-PtC@@],‘documents’ DY: [tHiRtC@@],‘flag’
TN: [j-PtCHh]TN: [tHirtCHh]
EDY: [tH@@p tCE£@P],‘kitchen DY: [sitC(H)E@P]‘food’
TN: [tH@@p tCHE£@P]ware’ TN: [sitCHE@P]
eDY: [j-Pke@]‘letters’ [se@N ge@]‘lion’
TN: [j-Pge£@]
ODY: [ô-NCO£@P]‘longest’ DY: [kiCO$˘]‘favourite’
TN: [ôÚ)$˘CO£$˘]TN: [kiCO@P]
o[tCHu@N go£@]‘water DY: [tùHiPkí] ‘Luhuo (place
source’ TN: [tùHi˘kí] name)’
In progressive harmony, the high vowel of the first syllable raises the non-high vowel
of the second syllable. The table above shows the test materials for examining progres-
sive harmony. The materials consist of two groups of disyllabic words, which represent
the ‘high +non-high’ harmonizing condition and ‘non-high +non-high’ control condi-
tion respectively. In the harmonizing condition, the second non-high vowel is supposed
to be raised by the first high vowel due to progressive harmony. Figure 11 illustrates the
mean F1 for the harmonized non-high vowel in the harmonizing condition and the orig-
inal non-high vowel in the control condition. For TN, the harmonized non-high vowel
generally has lower mean F1 than the original non-high vowel, although the vowel /a/
seems to be less affected by progressive harmony than the other vowels. For DY, progres-
sive harmony seems to be inconsistent because only the vowels /E,O,o/exhibit lower F1
in the harmonizing condition than the control condition. However, one limitation of the
current study is that the sample size is small. In future investigations, more data need
to be collected from more speakers to reveal a fuller picture of vowel patterns in Lhasa
Tibetan.
The current transcription of harmonized vowels [a£, E£, e£, O£, o£]does not assume a cate-
gorical shift from non-high vowels [a, E,e,O,o]to vowels [@,e,i,y,u]. Indeed, TN’s F1
data suggests that the raised vowel [E£]does not seem to have the same height as the vowel
[e](see Figures 10 and 11). In a more complex system with additional vowels as proposed
by Gong (2020), the non-high vowels [a, E,e,O,o,O]are typically analyzed as raised cat-
egorically to vowels [@,I,i,y,u,U]. The vowels [@,I,U]are treated as raised variants of
[a, E,O]. However, this analysis might not hold if vowel categories like [I,U]do not exist
for some Lhasa Tibetan speakers as discussed in the vowel variants section or if vowel har-
mony is gradient in Lhasa Tibetan. It is unclear how native speakers produce and perceive a
raised vowel in harmony. For example, it is unknown whether native speakers represent the
raised [O£]as a variant similar to [o],[U]or [u]. The categorical or gradient nature of vowel
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14 Zhang
Figure 11. (Colour online) Illustration of progressive raising harmony (left: DY; right: TN). The F1 values shown
are averaged across all the data points of the whole vowel portion and across two repetitions of each token. The
red line represents the harmonized non-high vowel in the harmonizing condition while the blue line represents the
original non-high vowel in the control condition. Note that the progressive raising harmony is less consistent for
DY. Mo r e o v e r, DY ’ s /a/in the word-final position exhibits some reduction, resulting in an [´]-like vowel, which has
lower F1 than the canonical [a].
harmony in Lhasa Tibetan remains to be investigated using a more rigorous experimental
design.
Syllabic structure
A typical syllable of Lhasa Tibetan has the structure (C)V(˘)(C)(C). All the syllables must
have a vowel nucleus, which can be either a short V or a long V˘, while onset and coda con-
sonants are optional. The rhymes can be classified into short rhymes and long rhymes. A
short rhyme contains a short vowel V or a short vowel with an obstruent coda (VC[+obs]) like
/-p/or /-P/. A long rhyme contains a long vowel (V˘), a short vowel with a sonorant coda
(VC[+son]), or a nasalized vowel (V)˘). The rhyme length of VC[+son]Plike VNPis controver-
sial.F.Hu&Xiong(2010)foundthatVNPhas longer duration than VP, suggesting a long
rhyme for VNP. However, in the current dataset, only TN’s production supports the dura-
tional difference between VPand VNP(see the monosyllabic tones section for a more detailed
discussion).
To n e s
Tibetan tones originate from laryngeal features of the onset and coda consonants in Old
Tibetan (Huang, 1995;Sun,1997,2003). Compared with Khams and Amdo Tibetan dialects,
Lhasa Tibetan represents a relatively advanced stage of Tibetan tonogenesis, where lexical
tones are relatively stable and distinctive.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 15
Monosyllabic tones
Phonological tone Tone letters Rhyme type Pitch pattern
H54rV short high level
51 ÜVC[+obs]short high falling
55 äV˘,VC
[+son],V
)˘long high level
51 ÜVC[+son]P,V
)˘P(long high falling)
L13ÄV short low rising
131 VC[+obs]short low rising-falling
114 V˘,VC
[+son],V
)˘long low rising
131 VC[+son]P,V
)˘P(long low rising-falling)
h[kar]‘order, Buddha’s teachings’
[kaPÜ]‘hinder, refuse’
[ka˘ä]‘pillar, column’
[kamPÜ]‘become dry (past tense)’
i[kaÄ]‘saddle’
[kaP]‘be clogged’
(TN: [NgaP])
[ka˘ ]‘install’
[kamP]‘eat powdered food or
(TN: [NgamP]) medicines (past tense)’
There is general consensus that Lhasa Tibetan has two lexical tones based on overall
pitch height – the high tone H hand the low tone L i(DeLancey, 2003;T.Hu,1980,2003;
Lim, 2018;Sedlhˇ
ccek, 1959; Sprigg, 1955,1981,1993;Sun,1997;Zhou,1983). While a two-
tone analysis sufficiently captures the tonal contrast in Lhasa Tibetan, the pitch realization
varies significantly according to rhyme types. Researchers have proposed various analyses
for capturing these pitch patterns by incorporating either a falling versus non-falling pitch
contour distinction or a short versus long tone length distinction into their tonal descrip-
tion (T. Hu, 1980,2003;Sun,1997;Zhou,1983). For example, a four-tone description with a
falling/non-falling distinction further subdivides H and L into high-level, high-falling, low
rising and low rising-falling tones. The falling pitch contour is carried by checked sylla-
bles with a final bilabial plosive /-p/or a final glottal plosive /-P/. Another type of four-tone
description incorporates tone length difference – short high tone, long high tone, short low
tone and long low tone. Long tones are carried by syllables with long rhymes (V˘,VC
[+son]
and V)˘), whereas short tones are carried by syllables with short rhymes (V and VC[+obs]).
Pitch contour and tonal length can be combined with pitch height in different ways,
yielding different six-tone and eight-tone descriptions (Dawson, 1980b; F. Hu & Xiong, 2010;
T. Hu, 1980). One such six-tone description includes short high level tone, long high level
tone, short low rising tone, long low rising tone, high falling tone, and low rising-falling
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16 Zhang
Figure 12. (Colour online) The F0 tracks of Lhasa Tibetan monosyllabic tones (left: DY; right: TN) based on
one repetition of the tokens in the example list of monosyllabic tones. The F0 tracks begin from the vocalic
portion of the rhyme (time point 0). Note that for DY, the long high falling and long low rising-falling tones are not
distinguishable from the short high falling and short low rising-falling tones, whereas the production of TN exhibits
some distinction in tone length.
tone (Dawson, 1980b; T. Hu, 1980). F. Hu & Xiong (2010) further propose an eight-tone
description which subdivides the high falling and low rising-falling tones based on tone
length – long high falling, short high falling, long low rising-falling and short low rising-
falling tones. Their proposal is based on the finding that the falling and rising-falling
contours realized on the VC[+son]Prhyme like VNPhave longer duration than those realized
on the VPrhyme.
In this illustration, a two-tone analysis is adopted, but to illustrate the various pitch real-
izations, the materials for monosyllabic tones cover as many rhyme types in Lhasa Tibetan
as possible. The F0 trajectories of the monosyllabic tones are displayed in Figure 12.The
pitch height patterns of both speakers are consistent with a two-tone analysis. For the
detailed pitch realizations, the speaker TN exhibits eight patterns based on rhyme types,
although the difference in tonal length between VNPand VPrhymes is smaller than that
reported in F. Hu & Xiong (2010). However, the speaker DY does not show a tone length
difference for the falling tone and the rising-falling tone, which is more consistent with the
six-tone description (Dawson, 1980b; T. Hu, 1980).
Polysyllabic tones
Disyllabic tones Monosyllabic tones Orthography Gloss
HH: hh [tCHuä lOPÜ]<[tCHur]+[lOPÜ]‘hydroelectric’
55ä51Ü[taPätCEPÜ]<[taPÜ]+[tCEPÜ]‘examine’
DY: [paôäCyPÜ]<[paôä]+[CyPÜ]‘print (photos)’
TN: [parä CyPÜ]
[loä tùOPÜ]<[lor]+[tùHOP]‘intellect’
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 17
[kEPäjiPÜ]<[kEPÜ]+[jiP]‘spoken/written
language’
DY: [NONä kOPÜ]<[NO)˘ä]+[kOP ]‘prevent’
TN: [NONä gOPÜ]
HH: hh [kHaä tCur]<[kHar]+[tCHur]‘saliva’
55ä54r[tCa˘ä kJur]<[tCaPÜ]+[kJur]‘hook’
[amä tCir]<[amä]+[tCHir]‘doctor, physician’
[tCiä lor]<[tCir]+[loÄ]‘year (AD)’
[mE˘ä mar]<[mEPÜ]+[maÄ]‘wounded person’
[namä tùur]<[namä]+[tùHuÄ]‘airplane’
HH: hh [tCHuä mE)˘ä]<[tCHur]+[mE)˘ä]‘liquid
55ä55ämedicines’
[lOPäñE)˘ä]<[lOPÜ]+[ñE)˘ä]‘movie’
DY: [mE)˘ä ga)˘ä]<[mE)˘ä]+[kHa)˘ä]‘hospital’
TN: [mE)˘ä îa)˘ä]
[kHaä ñÚ)˘ä]<[kHar]+[ñÚ)˘]‘the day before
yesterday’
[kJuPäme˘ä]<[kJuPÜ]+[me˘ ]‘nausea’
[Ny˘ä lO˘ä]<[Ny˘ä]+[lO˘]‘paper money’
LH: ih DY: [kJaü gEPÜ]<[kJaÄ]+[kEPÜ]‘the Chinese
11ü51ÜTN: [NgJaü gEPÜ]language’
[lEPüîu)(˘)PÜ]<[lEP ]+[kHu)(˘)PÜ]‘office’
[tHarü tCOPÜ]<[tHaô]+[tCOPÜ]‘prayer flag’
DY: [koü lOPÜ]<[koÄ]+[lOP ]‘Golog (place
name)’
TN: [Ngoü lOPÜ]
DY: [pHOñPütCo)PÜ]<[pHOP]+[tCo)(˘)P]‘(Central) Tibet’
TN: [pHOñPüdýo)˘PÜ]
[CE)˘ü daPÜ]<[CE)˘ ]+[tHaP]‘others’
LH: ih DY: [naü tsar]<[naÄ]+[tsHar]‘disease’
11ü54rTN: [naü dzar]
DY: [tùOPük
JHir]<[tùOP ]+[kJHir]‘nomad’s dog’
TN: [tùO˘ü îJir]
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18 Zhang
DY: [ky)˘ü gar]<[ky)˘ ]+[kHar]‘winter’
TN: [ky)˘ü kar]
[ñiü mar]<[ñiÄ]+[maÄ]‘day, sun’
DY: [kHaNPüüir]<[kHaNP]+[ôiÄ]‘snow mountains’
TN: [kHaNPürir]
[lamü tùor]<[lam ]+[tùoÄ]‘luck’
LL: ii [meü lo)˘ ]<[meÄ]+[lo)˘ ]‘mirror’
11ü114 DY: [laPüNaô]<[laP]+[Naô]‘forearm’
TN: [laPüNar ]
[CuNü lam ]<[CuN ]+[lam ]‘main road’
[loü sa˘ ]<[loÄ]+[sa˘ä]‘new year’
DY: [laPük
Je˘ ]<[laP]+[kJHe˘ä]‘passport,
TN: [laPük
JHe˘ ]certificate’
[ñE˘ü îa)˘ ]<[ñE˘]+[kHa)˘ä]‘bedroom’
Lhasa Tibetan has been analyzed as possessing a template-based word-tone system,
where polysyllabic tone patterns follow specific tonal templates (Sprigg, 1955,1981,1993;
Sun, 1997). According to the template-tone analysis, disyllabic tonal templates include HH
(55ä51Ü,55ä54r,55ä55ä), LH (11ü51Ü,11ü54r) and LL (11ü114 )(T.Hu,1980;Qu,1981;
Sedlhˇ
ccek, 1959; Sprigg, 1955,1981,1993;Sun,1997).
In Lhasa Tibetan disyllabic words, there is non-final pitch contour reduction,that is, gen-
erally only level pitches (11üand 55ä) are allowed in non-final syllables. For instance, non-
finalL(13Ä, 131 and 114 ) becomes level 11ü, and non-final H (54r,51Üand 55ä) becomes
level 55ä. Moreover, the H versus L tones are generally only contrastive on the first syllable.
For the second syllable with a short rhyme, it carries a default H (51Ü,54r). However, for
the second syllable with a long rhyme like V˘,VC
[+son]and V)˘, it acquires its pitch height
from the first syllable, regardless of its original monosyllabic tone specification. For exam-
ple, the second syllable with a long rhyme bears an L tone (114 )whenprecededbyanL
tone (13Ä, 131 and 114 ), e.g., [ñE˘ü îa)˘ ]<[ñE˘]+[kHa)˘ä]‘bedroom,’ whereas it bears
an H tone (55ä) when preceded by an H tone (54r,51Üand 55ä), e.g., [mE)˘ä ga)˘ä](DY)/[mE)˘ä
îa)˘ä](TN) < [mE)˘ä]+[kHa)˘ä]‘hospital.’ The pitch tracks of disyllabic tones are shown in
Figure 13.
For trisyllabic tones, tonal templates like LHH and HHH have been proposed (Lim, 2018;
Qu, 1981;Qu&Tan,1983;Sun,1997). Based on this proposal, the L versus H contrast is only
licensed word-initially while the second syllable and the third syllable bear H tones only.
Moreover, the pitch contour difference is allowed on the third syllable only. Quadrisyllabic
tonal templates can be analyzed as the combination of two disyllabic tonal patterns, e.g.,
HHHH, LHHH, HHLH and LHLH (Lim, 2018;Qu&Tan,1983). However, it should be noted
that trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic tonal patterns cannot always be predicted based on these
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 19
Figure 13. (Colour online) The F0 tracks of Lhasa Tibetan disyllabic tones (top: DY; bottom: TN). For each tonal
template, there are six tokens taken from the example list of disyllabic tones. The F0 trajectories are aligned by the
end of the first syllable (indicated by a dashed line corresponding to time point 0).
templates. Due to morphological or semantic factors, the grouping of syllables into phono-
logical words in trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic words can vary considerably, complicating
the template-based analysis of trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic tones (see Lim, 2018 and Qu,
1981 formoredetails).
Neutral tones
Disyllabic forms Monosyllabic forms Orthography Gloss
[mhth]<[ma]+[th]‘don’t look’
[mhku@˘]<[ma]+[ku@˘]‘don’t send’
[mitCHe@P]<[ma]+[tCHe$P]‘don’t do’
[miïtùí] <[ma]+[tùo$]‘don’t go’
[miñtCE$˘]<[ma]+[tCE$˘]‘don’t see
(honorific)’
Certain grammatical words in Lhasa Tibetan can be analyzed as carrying neutral tones
(or toneless). The neutral tone acquires its pitch from its adjacent syllable. For example, the
tone specification of the negator /ma/‘not’ is altered depending on the monosyllabic tone
of the following syllable.
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20 Zhang
Transcription of the recorded passage
Orthographic version (semi-colloquial7)
Transcription
A broad phonemic transcription is adopted in this section. Vowel harmony and plosive
deaspiration are not transcribed. Phonological tones are indicated by diacritics. Many
functional words are transcribed as having a phonological low tone, which is generally
realized as a low level pitch. Minor and major breaks are indicated by | and Ñrespectively.
Abbreviations used for the gloss: DEF =definite; INDEF =indefinite; ERG =ergative; OBL
=oblique; ASS =associative; GEN =genitive; INS =instrumental; ABL =ablative; FAC =
factual; PST =past; PERF =perfect; FUT =future; NMLZ =nominalizer.
tHe@NPC-P|tCHiN-lu$N-tHiNñ-mh-ñçP-kH-pHE)@˘ts
Hy)@˘p
Hiô
time one north-wind-ASS sun-two-ERG mutual between
Once upon a time, the North Wind and the Sun were arguing with each other
tCO)$˘t
HiNjO$Pme@Pkíôli|tsO@Ple@NPtCHE$P-piôe$PÑt
He$-tHy@PthPthPkHí-
strength have or not about argue did-PST.FAC that-time exactly he-
about which of them was stronger. Then, they just saw
-ñçP-kH-ty)$˘t
Hu$m--C-PtCHÚ)@(˘)P-pitHíNÑ m--tHe$PtCHhôkHO@P-CçP
two-ERG in front person-INDEF went-NMLZ see person-DEF.ERG rain coat-INDEF
a person passing by in front of them. The person wore
7The register of this passage is treated as semi-colloquial. The lexicon and grammar of the passage are based
on colloquial Lhasa Tibetan rather than the written language Classical Literary Tibetan. However, since it is
a written passage, it still contains some literary elements in sentence structure, lexicon and pronunciation.
The semi-colloquial register is still more formal to some extent than the casual colloquial speech used in daily
conversations.
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Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21
kJHO)$˘-jO$Ppiôe$PÑk
Hí-ñçP-kH-sy@Pm--tHe$PkJHO)$˘-pE$˘
wear-PERF.FAC he-two-ERG who.ERG person-DEF.ERG wear-NMLZ.GEN
a rain coat. They said that the one who could
tCHhôkHO@P-tHe$pHy@PtHu@p-nh|su@litCO)$˘t
HiNjO$P-piô
rain coat-DEF take off can-if who-OBL strength exist-NMLZ.OBL
make the person take his rain coat off should be
tsçP-nhtù-P-kçôe$PCe$PCE@P-piôe$PÑ
think-if alright-FUT.FAC so said-PST.FAC
considered stronger than the other.
tHe$mhtHhP|tCHiN-lu$N-kH-kHiN-ny@P-kH-lu@N
immediately north-wind-ERG whatever-ability-INS wind
Then, the North Wind blew as hard as
kJip-piôe$PÑshmjy@˘-lE$tE$P-pi-C-P-li|kHO@Plu@N-Cu@PkHitsHO@P
did-PST.FAC thought-ABL passed-NMLZ-INDEF-OBL he.ERG wind-strength how much
he could. Unexpectedly, the more he blew
tCHe@-wikJip-nhjiN|m-tHe$˘tCHhôkHO@PtHe$wE@PtHimt
Hu$
big-NMLZ did-although person-DEF.GEN rain coat more than that tightly
the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak
tCHÚ)@(˘)P-piôe$PÑt
HhôP |tCHiN-lu$Nt
HhpCe@Pjo$NPsu$tso$PnE$|
went-PST.FAC finally north-wind strategies all finished after
around him. Lastly, the North Wind ran out of strategies and
lO@PtíNm--tCHe@Pkhme@PtCHu$NÑ te$˘-tCe$Psu$|ñ-mhDY: tHO)@(˘)P
TN: tHO)@˘
give up not-do no way but to become that.GEN-after sun came out
he had to give up. Then, the Sun went out,
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22 Zhang
nE$|ñ--O@PshCçôP ìhtu$tsHe@ô-wE$˘-tHy$P|
after sun-light ground.OBL especially shine-NMLZ.GEN-time
and the sunlight shone brightly over the ground.
m-tHe$PlimsiNtCHhôkHO@PmiôpHy@P-piôe$PÑt
He$ô-te)$˘|
person-DEF.ERG immediately rain coat downward took off-PST.FAC that.OBL-based on
The person immediately took off his rain coat. Therefore,
tCHiN-lu$N-kH-sísíCíô-wiôkHE@PlhNP-piôe$PÑ
north-wind-ERG his own lose-NMLZ.OBL confessed-PST. FAC
the North wind confessed that he lost the contest.
Acknowledgments I am grateful to my two consultants Tenzin Norbu and Dekyi Yungdron for participat-
ing in this study and to Yangchen Lhamo for her help with the translation of the recorded passage ‘The North
Wind and the Sun.’ I also thank the audio manager André Radtke, the editors Marija Tabain and Marc Garellek,
and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Thanks are due as well to Ngawang Lopsang
Choepel, Tsering Sangmo, Tupten Galtso, Galsang Gyatso, Ogyen Bamo, Zongba Yangji, TsewangNogdrup, Thupten
Rinchen, Champa Dolker, Dekyi Yangdron and Tsering Chugye for sharing their knowledge of Central Tibetan, and
to Zhendong Liu for checking interlinear gloss in the passage section.
Supplementary material To view supplementary material for this article, please visit https://doi.org/
10.1017/S0025100324000033
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