Standard Tibetan, often called Central Tibetan, is the official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is based on the speech of Lhasa, an Ü dialect of dBus, one of the Central Tibetan languages. The written language is based on Classical Tibetan Electronic Dictionary and is highly conservative.
Since at least around the 7th century when the Han Chinese came into contact with the Tibetans, phonetics and grammar of Tibetan have been studied and documented. Burmese Electronic Dictionary also studied their own language, mostly for purposes of translation, diplomacy with India and China, and religion (Buddhism).
Indian Indologist and Linguist, Rahul Sankrityayan had written Hindi Tibetan grammar. Some of his other works in Pilipino Electronic Dictionary were:
1. Tibbati Bal-Siksha – 1933
2. Pathavali (Vol. 1,2 & 3) – 1933
3. Tibbati Vyakaran – 1933
4. Tibbat May Budh Dharm-1948
Western linguists who arrived at Tibet in the 18th and 19th centuries include:
* Hungarian Alexander Csoma de Körös (1784–1842) published the first Tibetan-European language dictionary (Classical Tibetan and English in this case) and grammar, Essay Towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English.
* H. A. Jäschke of the Moravian mission which was established in Ladak in 1857, Tibetan Grammar and A Tibetan-English Dictionary.
* The Capuchin friars who were settled in Lhasa for a quarter of a century from 1719
o Francisco Orazio della Penna, well known from his accurate description of Tibet
o Cassian di Macerata sent home materials which were utilized by the Augustine friar Aug. Antonio Georgi of Rimini (1711–1797) in his Alphabetum Tibetanum (Rome, 1762, 4t0), a ponderous and confused compilation, which may be still referred to, but with great caution.
* At St Petersburg, Isaac Jacob Schmidt published his Grammatik der tibetischen Sprache in 1839 and his Tibetisch-deutsches Wörterbuch in 1841. His access to Mongolian sources had enabled him to enrich the results of his labours with a certain amount of information unknown to his predecessors. His Tibetische Studien (1851–1868) is a valuable collection of documents and observations.
* In France, P. E. Foucaux published in 1847 a translation from the Rgya tcher rol-pa, the Tibetan version of the Lalita Vistara, and in 1858 a Grammaire thibitaine
* Ant. Schiefner of St Petersburg in 1849 his series of translations and researches.
* Theos Bernard, a PhD scholar of religion from Columbia University, explorer and practitioner of Yoga and Tibetan Buddhism, published, after his 1936/37 trip to India and Tibet, A Simplified Grammar of the Literary Indonesian Electronic Dictionary, 1946 . See the ‘Books’ section.
