Tibetan script

E79081

abugida writing system

Tibetan script is an abugida writing system historically used for the Tibetan language and various Himalayan languages, characterized by its distinctive stacked consonants and association with Buddhist literature.

Aliases (2)

Dzongkha script ×1
Tibetan alphabet ×1

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	abugida → writing system →
associatedWith	Buddhist literature → Himalayan religious manuscripts → Tibetan Buddhism → classical Tibetan texts →
consonantCount	30 base consonant letters →
culturalSignificance	medium for transmission of Buddhist philosophy → symbol of Tibetan identity →
derivedFrom	Brahmi script → Gupta script →
direction	left-to-right →
hasPunctuation	double shad mark → shad mark → tsheg syllable marker →
hasWritingStyle	Uchen → Ume → cursive styles →
historicalUse	administrative documents in Tibet → religious commentaries → writing Buddhist canonical texts →
ISO15924	Tibt →
modernUse	official script of Bhutan for Dzongkha → used in Tibetan Autonomous Region of China → used in parts of India and Nepal →
numeralSystem	Tibetan numerals →
primaryRegion	Bhutan → Himalayan region → Ladakh → Sikkim → Tibet →
religiousFunction	mantras and inscriptions → manuscripts and prayer books →
scriptFamily	Brahmic scripts →
standardLanguageForm	Classical Tibetan →
unicodeBlock	Tibetan (U+0F00–U+0FFF) →
usedFor	Balti language → Dzongkha language → Ladakhi language → Sikkimese language → Tibetan language → various Himalayan languages →
vowelRepresentation	vowels indicated by diacritics around consonants →
writingSystemFeature	consonant clusters written vertically → inherent vowel /a/ → stacked consonants → syllable-based orthography → vowel diacritics →
writingSystemType	alphasyllabary →

Referenced by (5)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Bhutan → Ngalop ("Dzongkha script") →	usesScript
Brahmi script →	hasDescendant
Dzongkha ("Tibetan alphabet") →	usesAlphabet
Sino-Tibetan languages →	writingSystemUsed