Editing Tibetan script (section)

==History==
Little is known about the exact origins of Tibetan script.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The evolution of Tibetan typefaces: anatomy and historical development of Tibetan fonts |url=https://www.inalco.fr/en/evolution-tibetan-typefaces-anatomy-and-historical-development-tibetan-fonts |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241129063152/https://www.inalco.fr/en/evolution-tibetan-typefaces-anatomy-and-historical-development-tibetan-fonts |archive-date=2024-11-29 |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales}}</ref> According to Tibetan [[historiography]], it was developed during the reign of King [[Songtsen Gampo]] by his minister Thonmi Sambhota, who was sent to India along with other scholars to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and other brahmi languages.<ref>''Tibet: A Political History'', p. 12. 1967. Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.</ref><ref>''The White Annals'', pp. 70–73. Gedun Choephel, translated by Samten Norboo. 1978. Tibetan Library and Archives, [[Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh|Dharamsala]], H.P., India.</ref> They developed the Tibetan script from the [[Gupta script]]<ref>Claude Arpi, ''Glimpses on the Tibet History'', Dharamsala: Tibet Museum, 2016.</ref> while at the [[Pabonka Hermitage]].

This occurred {{Circa|620}}, towards the beginning of Songtsen Gampo's  reign. There were 21 [[Sutra]] texts held by the King which were translated afterwards. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts,<ref>William Woodville Rockhill, {{Google books|avFDAQAAMAAJ|Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution|page=671}}, United States National Museum, page 671</ref><ref>Berzin, Alexander. ''A Survey of Tibetan History - Reading Notes Taken'' by Alexander Berzin from Tsepon, W. D. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1967: http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617115552/http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html |date=2016-06-17 }}.</ref> for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution.

Earliest sources on Tibet, such as the [[Old Tibetan Chronicle]], do not mention any Thonmi Sambhota.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Roy Andrew |date=1963 |title=Thon-mi Sambhoṭa and His Grammatical Treatises |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/597167 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=485–502 |doi=10.2307/597167 |jstor=597167 |issn=0003-0279}}</ref> Scripts predating Songtsen Gampo might have existed but in any case do not appear to be widely used.<ref name=":0" /> Researchers postulate that Tibetan kings sought to develop a system of writing as their [[Tibetan Empire#History|territory expanded]]. The script resembling the version today was likely developed in the second half of the 11th century.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="zeisler 2006">{{cite book|chapter=Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the Great Tradition Another kind of global thinking|first=Bettina |last=Zeisler|date=2006|title=Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia|editor1=Anju Saxena|editor2=Lars Borin|page=178}}</ref> New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to the introduction of the script by [[Songtsen Gampo]] and [[Thonmi Sambhota]]. The incomplete [[Dunhuang manuscripts]] are their key evidence for their hypothesis,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phuntsok |first1=Thubten |title=བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་སྤྱི་དོན་པདྨ་ར་གཱའི་ལྡེ་མིག "A General History of Tibet"}}</ref> while the few discovered and recorded [[Old Tibetan Annals]] manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c.&nbsp;620 date of development of the original Tibetan script.

Three orthographic [[Standardization|standardisations]] were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of [[Buddhist scriptures]] emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language [[sound change|has changed]] by, for example, losing complex [[consonant cluster]]s. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the [[Standard Tibetan]] of [[Lhasa]], there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects the 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of [[spelling reform]], to write Tibetan ''as it is pronounced''; for example, writing ''[[Kagyu]]'' instead of ''Bka'-rgyud''.<ref name="i208">{{cite book | last=Gamble | first=R. | title=Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2018 | isbn=978-0-19-069078-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCRjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 | access-date=2024-05-12 | page=62}}</ref>

The nomadic [[Amdo Tibetan]] and the western dialects of the [[Ladakhi language]], as well as the [[Balti language]], come close to the [[Old Tibetan]] spellings.<ref name="zeisler 2006"/> Despite that, the grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of [[Classical Tibetan]] would be similar to writing Sanskrit orthography.<ref name="zeisler 2006"/> However, modern Buddhist practitioners in the Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or introduce a new spelling reform of Tibetan. <ref name="zeisler 2006"/>