Who Was Turrell Wylie?
Turrell Verl "Terry" Wylie (August 20, 1927 – August 25, 1984) was a prominent American scholar, Tibetologist, sinologist, and professor. He is widely recognized as one of the leading Western experts on Tibetan language, culture, and history in the 20th century.
He developed a system of Roman script to write down Tibetan language. This was highly necessary some time ago to enable publishing Tibetan texts, before the invention of Unicode. Now, we don't need to use Wylie as much as we did in the past; but some academics, especially in Europe, insist on continuous use of Wylie in academic publications instead of Tibetan script.
The Wylie Transliteration Chart
Two-Letter Combinations
| Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ཀ | ka | ག | ga | ཅ | ca | ཇ | ja |
| ཏ | ta | ད | da | ན | na | པ | pa |
| བ | ba | མ | ma | ཝ | wa | ཟ | za |
| ཡ | ya | ར | ra | ལ | la | ས | sa |
| ཧ | ha |
Three-Letter Combinations
Aspirates:
| Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ཁ | kha | ཆ | cha | ཐ | tha | ཕ | pha |
Non-aspirates:
| Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ང | nga | ཉ | nya | ཙ | tsa | ཛ | dza |
| ཞ | zha | ཤ | sha |
Four-Letter Combination
| Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|
| ཚ | tsha |
Vowels and A Chung
| Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ཨ | a | ཨི | i | ཨུ | u | ཨེ | e |
| ཨོ | o | འ | 'a |
Pay Special Attention To
The special use of the period (.) to indicate a ga prefixed to a ya root letter as opposed to a ga root letter with a ya subscript is unusual enough that it should be introduced separately. It is not a hard concept to understand, but it is easy to forget. It is an exception to other Wylie rules, with good reason. Repeated exercises at intervals are recommended.
Examples:
| Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie | Tibetan | Wylie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| གཡུ་ | g.yu | གཡོ་ | g.yo | གཡུལ་ | g.yul |
| གཡང་ | g.yang | གཡེང་ | g.yeng | གཡག་ | g.yag |
| གཡའ་ | g.ya' | གཡུང་ | g.yung | གཡེལད་ | g.yeld |
Wylie vs Phonetics: What's the Difference?
The Wylie system shows us the spelling of the word—how it is written. But in modern spoken dialects, Tibetan words have pronunciation which differs from how they are written.
When we would like to write down how the word is pronounced, we use phonetic transliteration.
The most common phonetic transliteration was created by David Germano and Nicolas Tournadre and was published on 12 December 2003. You can use a converter here: THL Phonetics Converter
A Practical Comparison
Here is a comparison of the famous Tibetan greeting:
| System | Representation |
|---|---|
| Tibetan Script | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། |
| Wylie | bkra shis bde legs |
| THL Phonetics | tra shi dé lek |
| Rigpa Phonetics | tashi delek |
As you can see, Wylie (bkra shis bde legs) preserves all the letters in the Tibetan spelling, while phonetic systems show you how to actually pronounce the word.
Other Phonetic Systems
Besides Rigpa and THL phonetics, there are many other phonetic systems available. What's important is to use them consistently.
Why Consistency Matters
If you have chosen the THL system of transliteration for your essay or abstract, keep using THL without mixing it with Rigpa or other systems.
The same is true for Wylie. Besides the transliteration system of Tibetan language by Turrell Wylie, there are other systems. Whichever you choose, it is advisable to stay consistent throughout your work.
Quick Summary
- Wylie: Shows spelling (how it's written)
- THL/Rigpa Phonetics: Shows pronunciation (how it's spoken)
- Key rule: Pick one system and stick with it!