The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating the Tibetan language using the keys on a typical English language typewriter. It is used for reconstructing the original Tibetan script and is not intended to act as a guide to proper pronunciation. The scheme was introduced by Turrell Wylie in 1959 and has become the standard transliteration scheme in Tibetan studies.

Due to language evolution, Tibetan suffers from a wide divergence between how words are spelled and how they are actually pronounced. An analogous situation occurred in English which now suffers from many of the same spelling oddities (silent letters, complex rules for spelling, exceptions to the rules, sounds mapped to non-obvious combinations of letters, etc.). Thus in considering a system for transliterating Tibetan there is an unavoidable choice to be made between a system that accurately reproduces the sound of Tibetan versus a system that enables the reconstruction of the original text. Older systems of transcription attempted to split the difference to the detriment of both goals. The strength of the Wylie system is that it focuses entirely on the accurate reconstruction of the original Tibetan spelling. (Linguists wishing to transcribe spoken Tibetan now rely on the International Phonetic Alphabet which focuses entirely on pronunciation).

The expanding use of Unicode and the wide availability of Tibetan computer fonts is reducing the need for Roman script transliteration systems, but given its wide use since the 1960s the Wylie transliteration scheme is likely to remain an essential tool in Tibetan studies for years to come.

External Links

(Both require downloading of Tibetan fonts to work properly)

• The Wylie Translation Table at Nitartha International
• THDL Extended Wylie Transliteration Scheme(A project of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library to expand and adapt the Wylie transliteration system for computer use.)

See also

• Tibetan alphabet
• U-chen script

References

• Wylie, Turrell (1959). A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p. 261-267