Classical Tibetan

Classical Tibetan
RegionTibet, North Nepal, Sikkim
Era9th century onwards
Early form
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3xct
xct
Glottologclas1254

Classical Tibetan, sometimes called Chöke in Bhutan, is a liturgical language of Tibetan Buddhism that dates from the 9th century. It particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from other languages, especially Sanskrit. It is one of the handful of 'living' classical languages along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, though it meaningfully differs from Modern Standard Tibetan.