ཨ་ཁུ
a khu/*ʔa.kʰu/
The Tibetan word for uncle is ཨ་ཁུ. If unsure, use ཨ་ཁུ (a khu). Wiktionary also lists ཨ་ཞང (a zhang).
Meaning: brother (or brother-in-law) of someone’s parent (noun)
Ways to say it
| Tibetan | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| ཨ་ཁུ | a khu | /*ʔa.kʰu/ /ʔə˥˥.kʰu˥˥/ (Lhasa) |
| ཨ་ཞང | a zhang | /*ʔa.ʑaŋ/ /ʔa˥˥.ɕaŋ˥˥/ (Lhasa) |
Both forms are nouns used to refer to the brother or brother-in-law of one's parent.
Which one should you use?
The two forms provided are ཨ་ཞང (a zhang) and ཨ་ཁུ (a khu).
How do you pronounce it?
The pronunciation is a-khu (/*ʔa.kʰu/). It has two syllables.
Did you know?
- While ཨ་ཁུ is a general term for uncle, Tibetan has a complex system of honorifics where the word for a relative changes entirely if the person holds a high social or religious rank.
- In Tibetan culture, kinship terms like ཨ་ཁུ are often used to address any older male in the community, even those with no biological relation to the speaker.
- The distinction between ཨ་ཞང and ཨ་ཁུ often depends on whether the uncle is older or younger than the parent, rather than just the paternal or maternal line.
Example sentences for Tibetan are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “uncle” translations and entries ཨ་ཁུ, ཨ་ཞང, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
