སྦྱོར་ཀློག་ sbyor klog

Also called:

• Tibetan spelling
• jorlok

Tibetan has its own native system of spelling known as jorlok (སྦྱོར་ཀློག་). Standalone consonants are spelled the same way they’re pronounced; for example, in order to spell ང་ we just say nga.

However, in order to spell a consonant that carries one of the four vowel letters (such as in the syllable ངོ་), we follow the procedure below:

1. Pronounce the consonant letter by itself (ང་ nga)
2. Say the name of the vowel letter that’s attached to it (ན་རོ་ naro)
3. Pronounce the resulting syllable (ངོ་ ngo)

It’s kind of like we’re doing addition: ང་ nga + ན་རོ་ naro = ངོ་ ngo.

So, if someone is asked to spell the syllable ངོ་, they would say:

Spelling prefix letters

Prefix letters are spelled by saying the prefix letter followed by the word འོག་, o(k) which means “after”. The prefix letter is then incorporated into the spelling of the rest of the word (see below). For example:

• ཀུ་ (no prefix letter)
  • Spelling: ཀ་ཞབས་ཀྱུ་ཀུ། (ka shapkyu ku)
• དཀུ་ (prefix letter ད་)
  • Spelling: ད་འོག་དཀའ་ཞབས་ཀྱུ་དཀུ (t^ha-o ka shapkyu ku)

Note that the འ་ in དཀའ་ is only there because དཀ་ by itself is not permitted in Tibetan writing.

Sound change incorporation in jorlok:

When spelling, any sound change that a letter causes is generally incorporated into the spelling. For example, prefix letters cause main letters such as ག་ to become voiced. Therefore, when spelling the word དགུ་, the main letter ག་ can be pronounced as a voiced ga rather than as k^ha. To illustrate:

• དགུ་
  • Spelling: ད་འོག་དགའ་ཞབས་ཀྱུ་དགུ་ (t^ha-o ga shapkyu gu)

Spelling suffix and post-suffix letters

Suffix and post-suffix letters are spelled by 1) saying the name of the suffix letter (and the post-suffix letter, if there is one), and then 2) pronouncing the resulting syllable. When spelling, post-suffix ས་ is often said as “se” rather than “sa”. For example:

• ཐག་
  • Spelling: ཐ་ག་ཐག་ (t^ha k^ha t^hak)
• འགོས་
  • Spelling: འ་འོག་འགའ་ན་རོ་འགོ་ས་འགོས་ (a-o ga naro go sa gö)
• ཐུགས་
  • Spelling: ཐ་ཞབས་ཀྱུ་ཐུ་ག་སེ་ཐུགས་ (t^ha shapkyu t^hu k^ha se t^huk)

Spelling superscript and subscript letters

Superscript and subscript letters are both spelled using the word བཏགས་ tā, which means “attached (below).” This appears to be a modern convention; in Sakya Paṇḍita’s time, for example, these letters were spelled with the syllable སྟ་ instead of བཏགས་.

Superscript letters are spelled by 1) saying the name of the superscript letter, and then 2) saying the name of the main letter followed by བཏགས་, and then 3) saying the resulting syllable. For example:

• ལྔ་
  • Spelling: ལ་ང་བཏགས་ལྔ་ (la ngata nga)
• སྐོར་
  • Spelling: ས་ཀ་བཏགས་སྐ་ན་རོ་སྐོ་ར་སྐོར་ (sa kata ka naro ko ra kor)

Subscript letters are spelled by 1) saying the name of the subscript letter followed by the word བཏགས་, and then 2) saying the name of the resulting syllable. For example:

• བླ་
  • Spelling: བ་ལ་བཏགས་བླ་ (p^ha lata la)
• སྐྱོ་
  • Spelling: ས་ཀ་བཏགས་སྐ་ཡ་བཏགས་སྐྱ་ན་རོ་སྐྱོ་ (sa kata ka yata kya naro kyo)
• བསྒྲིམས་
  • Spelling: བ་འོག་བསའ་ག་བཏགས་བསྒ་ར་བཏགས་བསྒྲ་གི་གུ་བསྒྲི་མ་ས་བསྒྲིམས་ (p^hao sa gata ga rata dra k^hik^hu dri ma se drim)

The subscript ཝ་ is spelled either as ཝ་ཟུར་ or as ཝ་བཏགས་.

“Lazy” pronunciation

In general, unstressed words in Standard Tibetan tend to be pronounced 1) low tone and 2) in their weak form. Therefore, when doing jorlok, the words འོག་ and བཏགས་ are typically pronounced simply as “o” and “ta”, and བཏགས་ is typically pronounced low-tone. Likewise, the vowels, suffix letters, and post-suffix letters such as ས་ are unstressed in jorlok, so they tend to be pronounced low-tone as well.

Spelling multi-syllable words

Typically, when spelling a word of multiple syllables, you spell our all its syllables one-by-one in a row, and then at the end, you just read out the final word.