ཇོ་ཇོ
jo jo/*d͡ʑo.d͡ʑo/
The Tibetan word for brother is ཇོ་ཇོ (jo jo). Wiktionary also lists ཅོ་ཅོག (co cog) and ཇོ་ལགས.
Meaning: male sibling (noun)
Ways to say it
| Tibetan | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ཇོ་ཇོ | jo jo | /*d͡ʑo.d͡ʑo/ /t͡ɕo˥˥.t͡ɕo˥˨/ (Lhasa) |
|
| ཅོ་ཅོག | co cog | ||
| ཇོ་ལགས | honorific | ||
| འོག་མ | 'og ma | /*ɣok.ma/ /ʔo(k̚)ˀ˩˨.ma˥˨/ (Lhasa) |
|
| ནུ་བོ | nu bo | ||
| ཨོ་ལགས | honorific |
The word refers to a male sibling.
Which one should you use?
While ཇོ་ཇོ is a standard form, ཅོ་ཅོག (co cog), འོག་མ ('og ma) and ནུ་བོ (nu bo) are also used to denote a brother. ཇོ་ལགས and ཨོ་ལགས are specialized honorific forms.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
When you need to refer to a brother in a respectful or honorific manner, use the form ཇོ་ལགས.
How do you pronounce it?
The two-syllable word is pronounced as //*dʑo.dʑo/. The romanization is jo jo.
Did you know?
- The word ཇོ་ཇོ shares a linguistic root with ཇོ་མོ, which is used to mean 'mistress' or a high-ranking woman.
- The term འོག་མ literally translates to 'the one below', reflecting a hierarchy based on birth order.
- Tibetan speakers may use these words for 'brother' to address close friends or peers, even if they share no biological relation.
Example sentences for Tibetan are not verified yet.
Example conversation
Two siblings are talking about their family at home.
- དཀར་མོ། Karmoབསྟན་འདུས། ཁྱེད་རེའི་ཇོ་ཇོ་ག་པོ་རེད།Tenzin, khyed re jo jo ga po red/Tenzin, your brother is a good person.
- བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzinབཀྲ་ཤིས་ དཀར་མོ། ཐགས་པ་རེད་ལགས།tashi Karma, thags pa red lags/Thank you, Karma.
- དཀར་མོ། Karmoཁོང་གིས་ཁྱེད་ལ་རོགས་པ་བྱས་པས།khong gis khyed la rogs pa byas pas/He helped you, didn't he?
- བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzinཨོ་ལགས། ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་རོགས་པ་བྱས་སོ།o lags, khong gis nga la rogs pa byas so/Yes, he did help me.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “brother” translations and entries ཇོ་ཇོ, འོག་མ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries ཇོ་ཇོ, འོག་མ, CC BY-SA 4.0.
