Foreword Ⅰ .................................................... Li Yuming／1
Foreword Ⅱ ................................................... Huang Xing／1
A Brief Introduction .....................................................／1
Chapter 1 The Origins and Nature of Tibetan Writing System ..............／1
1.1 Some Inferences to Tibetan Origins ..............................／1
1.2 The Nature of Tibetan as Alphabetic Writing System ..............／4
Chapter 2 The Pronunciation and Construction of Tibetan Scripts .........／7
2.1 An Introduction to Tibetan Writing System .......................／7
2.2 Tibetan Graphs: Consonant Characters ............................／10
2.3 Tibetan Graphs: Vowel Characters ................................／17
2.4 Tibetan Character Pronunciation .................................／19
2.5 Structures of Tibetan Spelling and Their Frequencies ............／27
Chapter 3 Types of Tibetan Characters and Their Functions ...............／35
3.1 Classification of Tibetan Characters: Graph and Picture .........／35
3.2 Accounts for Classification of Tibetan Graph Characters .........／36
3.3 Accounts for Classification of Tibetan Picture Characters .......／43
Chapter 4 A Scheme for the Transliteration of Tibetan
into Roman Characters ........................................／48
4.1 The Aim and Scope of Tibetan Transliteration ....................／48
4.2 A Comparison among Different Schemes on Tibetan Transliteration .／49
4.3 The Systematic and Practising Principles of
Tibetan Transliteration ........................................／56
4.4 The Whole Scheme of Tibetan Transliteration .....................／58
4.5 Some Rules of Transliteration and Returning Rules to the Origin .／68
Chapter 5 Computer Codes for Tibetan Characters .........................／73
5.1 The Upsurge and Development of Tibetan Character Codes ..........／73
5.2 ISO／IEC Codes or Unicode Codes for Tibetan . ...................／75
5.3 GB: Pre-Composed Graphs and Their Coded Sets ....................／83
5.4 Application of Tibetan Character Codes ..........................／86
Chapter 6 Statistics and Entropies of Tibetan Characters ................／89
6.1 The Entropy of Tibetan Alphabetic Characters ....................／89
6.2 The Entropy of Tibetan Pre-Composed Characters ..................／95
6.3 The Entropy of Tibetan Syllabic Words ...........................／99
Chapter 7 A Sorting Order for Tibetan Characters and Its Algorithm ......／101
7.1 The History of Sorting Orders of Tibetan Dictionaries ...........／101
7.2 Differences in Sorting Orders Among Tibetan Dictionaries ........／105
7.3 Word Constructing Orders and Grades of Distinctive Constitutions ／109
7.4 The Character Sequence and Their Assignment with Values .........／112
7.5 A Mathematical Sorting Model for Tibetan E-Dictionary ...........／118
7.6 The Algorithm of Tibetan Sorting Order and Its Charts ...........／120
Chapter 8 Alphabetic Characters
(Consonant Characters, Vowel Characters) .....................／125
Chapter 9 Non-Alphabetic Characters
(Diacritical Marks, Numeric Symbols, Punctuations) ...........／171
Chapter 10 Picture Symbols
(Textual Marks, Honorific Marks, Cantillation Signs,
Calendar Drawings, Astronogical Signs, Ornament Symbols) .....／203
Appendix .................................................................／227
Ⅰ：A Table of Comparison Between Tibetan and Roman Characters .......／227
Ⅱ：Index of Bilingua Characters of Tibetan and Roman Characters .....／232
Ⅲ：A Table of Comparison Between Tibetan and Sanskrit Characters ....／234
Ⅳ：The Tibetan Chart of the Unicode Standard 5.1 ....................／236
Ⅴa：Subject Index of Chinese-English Lexicons .......................／238
Ⅴb：Subject Index of English-Chinese Lexicons .......................／247
Ⅵ：The Reading Method of Tibetan Characters with Sanskrit Origin
(author: dharma dhaa dzahq, translator: Zhou Jiwen) ..............／256
References ...............................................................／261
Afterword ................................................................／270
This is a work specialized in the research of Tibetan character, involving many fields in the nature, the construction and the application attribute of Tibetan writing system. The sub-title of the book is “character, pronunciation, code, frequency, sorting order, picture symbol, and the rule for the transliteration of Tibetan into Roman characters”. In other words, to learn the nature of the frequency, code, sorting order and transliteration of the Tibetan character is the must thing to do when dong research on the Tibetan character. This paper can be regarded as a complete guide to the information of Tibetan character; it is of high value as practical tool.
