Central Tibetan
Ü-Tsang
དབུས་སྐད་,Dbus skad /Ükä དབུས་གཙང་སྐད་,Dbus-gtsang skad /Ü-tsang kä
The name of the language written in the Tibetan script
Pronunciation	[wýkɛʔ,wýʔtsáŋkɛʔ]
Native to	China Tibet Qinghai Garzê Ngawa
Region	Tibet (Ü-Tsang,Amdo andKham)
Native speakers	(1.2 million cited 1990–2014)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Central Tibetan
Standard forms	Lasetian Standard Tibetan
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: bod – Lhasa Tibetan dre – Dolpo hut – Humla, Limi lhm – Lhomi (Shing Saapa) muk – Mugom (Mugu) kte – Nubri ola – Walungge (Gola) loy – Lowa/Loke (Mustang) tcn – Tichurong
Glottolog	tibe1272  Tibetan sout3216  South-Western Tibetic (partial match) basu1243  Basum
ELP	Walungge
	Dolpo
	Lhomi
Areas where Tibetan language is spoken
Shingsaba is classified as Vulnerable by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Central Tibetan language, also known as orÜ-Tsang dialect^[2],Dbus Tibetan, orÜ Tibetan, is the most widely spokenTibetic language and the basis ofStandard Tibetan.

Dbus is the Wylie spelling of the name inTibetan script,དབུས་, whereasÜ is the pronunciation of the same in Lhasa dialect,[wy˧˥˧ʔ] (or[y˧˥˧ʔ]). All of these names are frequently applied specifically to theprestige dialect of Lhasa.

Dbus and Gtsang

There are manymutually intelligible Central Tibetan languages besides that of Lhasa, with particular diversity along the border and in Nepal:

Limi (Limirong),Mugum,Dolpo (Dolkha),Mustang (Lowa, Lokä),Humla,Nubri, Lhomi, Dhrogpai Gola,Walungchung Gola (Walungge/Halungge),Tseku

Basum (most divergent, possibly a separate language)

Ethnologue reports that Walungge is highly intelligible with Thudam.

Glottolog reports these South-Western Tibetic languages as forming a separate subgroup of languages within Central Tibetan languages, but that Thudam is not a distinct variety. On the opposite,Glottolog does not classify Basum within Central Tibetan but leaves it unclassified within Tibetic languages.

Tournadre (2013) classifies Tseku withKhams.^[3]

Central Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity withAmdo Tibetan and 80% lexical similarity withKhams Tibetan.^[4]

Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects, documents theLhasa,Shigatse,Gar,Sherpa,Basum,Gertse, andNagqu varieties.^[5]

Ngari Tibetan, orNgari dialect^[6] refers to a group of Tibetic dialects spoken inNgari Prefecture, located in the westernmost part of theT.A.R, China.

Although traditionally grouped underCentral Tibetan (Dbusgtsang), Ngari varieties are considered more conservative and divergent, retaining several archaic features not found inLhasa Tibetan.

Some linguists have noted that dialects such as those spoken inGêrzê County show transitional features between Central and Western Tibetan. However, the inclusion of dialects likeNagqu Tibetan, which is generally categorized under Central Tibetan proper, in a broader “Ngari areal group” is not widely accepted in current linguistic classifications.

A related set of dialects is spoken inIndia’s Himachal Pradesh, particularly in theSpiti Valley andupper Kinnaur. These dialects share a close historical and linguistic relationship with Western Tibetic varieties of Ngari, though they have developed separately over time due to geographic and political separation.

These Indian varieties are commonly referred to under exonyms such asLahuli–Spiti orKinnauri Tibetan, and are often treated as distinctWestern Tibetic languages.

• འ isn't commonly transliterated to Roman, in theWade–Giles system ' is used.

ཨ（◌）

一"ai, ain, oi, oin" is also written to "ä, än, ö, ön".

• Lhasa Tibetan
• Amdo Tibetan
• Ladakhi language
• Balti language
• Ü-Tsang

Central Tibetan edition ofWikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Languages of China
• Languages of Nepal
• Central Bodish languages
• Languages of Tibet
• Languages written in Tibetan script
• Vulnerable languages
• Endangered languages of China
• Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 26
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Standard Tibetan-language text
• Pages with Standard Tibetan IPA
• Language articles with old speaker data
• Language articles with manual ELP links
• Pages with plain IPA