1. Alphabet

1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the la nya tsha form of the Indian letters by thon mi sam bho ta minister of king srong btsan sgam po about the year 632 (s. Kopp. II, 56). The Indian letters out of which the single Tibetan characters were formed are given in the following table in their Nāgari shape.

(See our own 'Standard & Extended Wylie diagrams Sambhota' for images of the Tibetan script and how it relatse to the Wylie transliteration used on this wiki.)

It is seen in this table that several signs have been added to express sounds that are unknown in Sanscrit.

Click here to go to the front page of the Second Edition of H.A. Jaeschke's 'Tibetan Grammar'