The Drájyór system has been devised by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu on the base of previous work done by Chinese linguists, who started from the hanyu pinyin 汉语拼音 system. Despite its many qualities, it has not been adopted as a standard and it has been in use only during the years in which Chögyal Namkhai Norbu taught in the university of Naples, and is still in use within the Dzogchen Community.

The basic unit of Tibetan language is the syllable. It is generally composed of an initial consonant, in Drájyór mostly a single roman letter, with a few sounds represented by two letters (GY- and DR-) one vowel and, in most cases, a final consonant.

In the following interactive table, inspired by the traditional Tibetan order of consonants, but adapted to the Drajyor phonetic transcription system, syllables are ordered in columns (1-6) and lines (1-14) according to their phonetic characteristics. The columns (in lines 1-4, the first three of the fifth, 8 and 9) group sounds on the base of criteria such as voice (phonetics), tone (high or low), aspiration (absent, strong, slight) and prenasalization (note that the intensity of prenasalization differs greatly in different Tibetan dialects. In Central Tibet it is audible only when found between the two syllables of disyllabic words in which the first ends with a vowel and the second starts with a prenasalization.

Example: tib.: མཁའ་འགྲོ་ , wylie: mkha' 'gro, drájyór: KÀDRÒ). In Eastern Tibet it is more evident also at the beginning of words.

The six columns contain respectively:

1 - unvoiced, high tone, non aspirated

2 - unvoiced, low tone, slightly aspirated

3 - voiced, low tone, non aspirated

4 - voiced, low tone, non aspirated

5 - unvoiced, high tone, aspirated

6 - unvoiced, high tone, aspirated and prenasalized

The first 5 lines contain respectively:

1 - the consonants pronounced in the throat (velars),

2 - with the tongue touching the palate (alveo-palatals)

3 - with the tip of the tongue behind the teeth (dentals)

4 - closing the lips (bilabials)

5 - alveolar affricates

Lines 8 and 9 contain respectively:

8 - velar + ya sund

9 - apical postalveolar retroflex stops (curling the tongue backwards )

The other lines contain miscellaneous sounds which are easier to reproduce by listening to them rather than to describe them, if that is not already the case with the ones described above.

A note on line 14. The first three letters of this line are:

A is an 'a' vowel starting from a closed throat (the 'a' common in western languages)

HĂ is an 'a' vowel starting from an open throat

HA is simply an aspiration

Accents, or their absence, are very important to assess.

Accents, or their absence, define how the consonant before the vowel on which they sit is pronounced, not the vowel itself.

There are four possibilities:

1. no accent: high tone, unvoiced, except in lines 10-13 where consonants are in low tone.

2. Caron or háček accent ( ˇ at times seen as ˘ ) denotes a low tone, unvoiced, slightly aspirated consonant. The consonants marked with this accent (in column 2) become voiced (and listed in column 3 in rows 1-9) when marked with acute ( ´ ) or grave ( ` column 4) accents. They also become voiced when found in syllables beyond the first, in two or more syllable words (see below).

3. Acute accent ( ´ ) indicates low tone, voiced, non aspirated consonants (third column, lines 1-9). In other instances see the heading.

4. Grave ( ` ) accent adds a pre-nasalisation to the consonant in the previous column (lines 1-9, silent in Central Tibetan).