Irregular Pronunciation
In spoken Tibetan each letter will generally translate into the same basic sound. This sound, as explained in previous lessons, is usually affected in the same way based on the letter's position within a syllable (e.g. initial, suffix, etc), and by neighboring letters (e.g. prefix, vowel, etc). There are some instances where pronunciation is different from this. Note though that spoken Tibetan has many different dialects and therefore many variations of speech exist. The examples below apply to the Lhasa dialect.
| 1. When 0- is the only letter in a syllable, it is pronounced "wa", rather than "ba"ķ | ||
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | Translation |
| :{-0- | re-wa | Hope |
| S-0- | da-wa | Moon, Month, Name of a person |
| 0bo-0- | zhu-wa | To melt |
| 2. 0- is also sometimes pronounced in a different way when it's an initial | ||
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | Translation |
| +0$-&- | wang-cha | Power |
| +0v- | u | Head (Honorific) |
| 3. Some words have an additional nasal sound, as if the letter , were present | ||
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | Translation |
| 1m-8`o#- | mīn-dug | Is not, Not to be (2nd and 3rd person) |
| #-8H=- | gan-drë | How |
| !r-S- | kün-da | Spouse (Honorific) |
| +-W- | dan-ta | Now |
| 4. Various irregular pronunciations: | ||
| Tibetan | Pronunciation | Translation |
| +#},-.- | Not gön-pa, but gom-pa | Monastery |
| W;-P{- | Not gyël-tse, but gyang-tse | Name of a city in Tibet |