Shan language

Shan
Shan
Tai Yai
တႆး
Pronunciation	[lik.táj]
Native to	Myanmar
Region	Shan State
Ethnicity	Shan, Dai, Ahom, Kula
Native speakers	4.7 million (2017)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern Northwestern (Shan) Shan; ; ; ;
Dialects	Standard Shan (Tachileik Shan); Khamti (Hkamti Shan); Khün (Kengtung Shan); Tai Laing (Red Shan); Tai Nuea (Chinese Shan; Aitan (Assamese Shan); Phake (Buri Dihing Shan); Ahom (Old Shan);
Writing system	Mon–Burmese (Shan alphabet)
Official status
Recognised minority; language in	Myanmar
Language codes
ISO 639-2	shn
ISO 639-3	shn
Glottolog	shan1277
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The Shan language (written Shan: လိၵ်ႈတႆး, pronounced [lik táj] ^ⓘ, spoken Shan: ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး, pronounced [kwáːm táj] ^ⓘ or ၽႃႇသႃႇတႆး, pronounced [pʰàːsʰàː táj]; Template:Lang-my, pronounced [ʃáɰ̃ bàðà]; Template:Lang-th, pronounced [pʰāː.sǎː.tʰāj.jàj]) is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in pockets in other parts of Myanmar, in Northern Thailand, in Yunnan, in Laos, in Cambodia, in Vietnam and decreasingly in Assam and Meghalaya. Shan is a member of the Tai–Kadai language family and is related to Thai. It has five tones, which do not correspond exactly to Thai tones, plus a sixth tone used for emphasis. The term Shan is also used for related Northwestern Tai languages, and it is called Tai Yai or Tai Long in other Tai languages. Standard Shan, which is also known as Tachileik Shan, is based on the dialect of the city of Tachileik.

The number of Shan speakers is not known in part because the Shan population is unknown. Estimates of Shan people range from four million to 30 million,^{[citation needed]} with about half speaking the Shan language.^{[citation needed]} Ethnologue estimates that there are 4.6 million Shan speakers in Myanmar; the Mahidol University Institute for Language and Culture gave the number of Shan speakers in Thailand as 95,000 in 2006,^[1] though including refugees from Burma they now total about one million.^[2] Many Shan speak local dialects as well as the language of their trading partners. Due to the civil war in Burma, few Shan today can read or write in Shan alphabet, which was derived from the Burmese alphabet.

Names

The Shan language has a number of names in different Tai languages and Burmese.

In Shan, the language is commonly called kwam tai (ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး, Shan pronunciation: [kwáːm.táj], lit. 'Tai language').
In Burmese, it is called hram: bhasa (ရှမ်းဘာသာ, [ʃáɰ̃ bàðà]), whence the English word "Shan". The term "Shan," which was formerly spelt သျှမ်း (hsyam:) in Burmese, is an exonym believed to be a Burmese derivative of "Siam" (an old term for Thailand).
In Thai and Southern Thai, it is called phasa thai yai (ภาษาไทใหญ่, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.sǎː.tʰāj.jàj], lit. 'big/great Tai language') or more informally or even vulgarly by some phasa ngiao (ภาษาเงี้ยว, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.sǎː.ŋía̯w], an outdated term that now sounds like the word for "snake").
In Northern Thai, it is called kam tai (กำไต, Northern Thai pronunciation: [kām.tāj], literally "Tai language") or more informally or even vulgarly by some kam ngiao (กำเงี้ยว, Northern Thai pronunciation: [kām.ŋíaw]), lit. 'Shan language').
In Lao, it is called phasa tai yai (ພາສາໄທໃຫຍ່, Lao pronunciation: [pʰáː.sǎː.tʰáj.ɲāj], lit. 'big/great Tai language') or more informally or even vulgarly by some phasa ngiao (ພາສາງ້ຽວ, Lao pronunciation: [pʰáː.sǎː.ŋîaw]).
In Tai Lü, it is called kam ngio (ᦅᧄᦇᦲᧁᧉ, Template:IPA-khb).

Dialects

The Shan dialects spoken in Shan State can be divided into three groups, roughly coinciding with geographical and modern administrative boundaries, namely the northern, southern, and eastern dialects. Dialects differ to a certain extent in vocabulary and pronunciation, but are generally mutually intelligible. While the southern dialect has borrowed more Burmese words, Eastern Shan is somewhat closer to northern Thai languages and Lao in vocabulary and pronunciation, and the northern so-called "Chinese Shan" is much influenced by the Yunnan-Chinese dialect. A number of words differ in initial consonants. In the north, initial /k/, /kʰ/ and /m/, when combined with certain vowels and final consonants, are pronounced /tʃ/ (written ky), /tʃʰ/ (written khy) and /mj/ (written my). In Chinese Shan, initial /n/ becomes /l/. In southwestern regions /m/ is often pronounced as /w/. Initial /f/ only appears in the east, while in the other two dialects it merges with /pʰ/.

Prominent dialects are considered as separate languages, such as Khün (called Kon Shan by the Burmese), which is spoken in Kengtung valley, and Tai Lü. Chinese Shan is also called (Tai) Mao, referring to the old Shan State of Mong Mao. 'Tai Long' is used to refer to the dialect spoken in southern and central regions west of the Salween River. There are also dialects still spoken by a small number of people in Kachin State and Khamti spoken in northern Sagaing Region.

J. Marvin Brown (1965)^[3] divides the three dialects of Shan as follows:

Northern — Lashio, Burma; contains more Chinese influences
Southern — Taunggyi, Burma (capital of Shan State); contains more Burmese influences
Eastern — Kengtung, Burma (in the Golden Triangle); closer to Northern Tai and Lao

Phonology

Consonants

Shan has 19 consonants. Unlike Thai and Lao there are no voiced plosives [d] and [b].

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ မ	/n/ ၼ	/ɲ/ ၺ	/ŋ/ င
Plosive	unaspirated	/p/ ပ	/t/ တ	/tɕ/ ၸ	/k/ ၵ	/ʔ/^[a] ဢ
Plosive	aspirated	/pʰ/ ၽ	/tʰ/ ထ		/kʰ/ ၶ
Fricative		(/f/)^[b] ၾ	/s/ သ			/h/ ႁ
Trill			(/r/)^[c] ရ
Approximant				/j/ ယ	/w/ ဝ
Lateral			/l/ လ

^ The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent 'a' before a vowel.
^ Initial [f] is only found in eastern dialects in words that are pronounced with [pʰ] elsewhere.
^ The trill is very rare and mainly used in Pali and some English loan words, sometimes as a glide in initial consonant clusters. Many Shans find it difficult to pronounce [r], often pronouncing it [l].

Vowels and diphthongs

Shan has ten vowels and 13 diphthongs:

Front	Central-Back	Back
/i/	/ɨ/~/ɯ/	/u/
/e/	/ə/~/ɤ/	/o/
/ɛ/	/a/ /aː/	/ɔ/

[iu], [eu], [ɛu]; [ui], [oi], [ɯi], [ɔi], [əi]; [ai], [aɯ], [au]; [aːi], [aːu]

Shan has less vowel complexity than Thai, and Shan people learning Thai have difficulties with sounds such as "ia," "ua," and "uea" [ɯa]. Triphthongs are absent. Shan has no systematic distinction between long and short vowels characteristic of Thai.

Tones

Shan has phonemic contrasts among the tones of syllables. There are five to six tonemes in Shan, depending on the dialect. The sixth tone is only spoken in the north; in other parts it is only used for emphasis.

Contrastive tones in unchecked syllables

The table below presents six phonemic tones in unchecked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in sonorant sounds such as [m], [n], [ŋ], [w], and [j] and open syllables.

No.	Description	IPA	Description	Transcription^*
1	rising (24)	˨˦	Starting rather low and rising pitch	ǎ	a (not marked)
2	low (11)	˩	Low, even pitch	à	a,
3	mid-falling (32)	˧˨	Medium level pitch, slightly falling in the end	a (not marked)	a;
4	high (55)	˥	High, even pitch	á	a:
5	high-falling and creaky (42)	˦˨ˀ	Short, creaky, strongly falling with lax final glottal stop	âʔ, â̰	a.
6	emphatic (343) or middle (33)	˧˦˧ / ˧	Starting mid level, then slightly rising, with a drop at the end (similar to tones 3 and 5)	a᷈	a-

^* The symbol in the first column corresponds to conventions used for other tonal languages; the second is derived from the Shan orthography.

The following table shows an example of the phonemic tones:

Tone	Shan	IPA	Transliteration	English
rising	ၼႃ	/nǎː/	na	thick
low	ၼႃႇ	/nàː/	na,	very
mid-falling	ၼႃႈ	/nà̱ː/	na;	face
high	ၼႃး	/náː/	na:	paddy field
high-falling and creaky	ၼႃႉ	/nâ̰(ː)/	na.	aunt, uncle
emphatic or middle	ၼႃႊ	/nāː/	na-	(for interjection / transcription)

The Shan tones correspond to Thai tones as follows:

The Shan rising tone is close to the Thai rising tone.
The Shan low tone is equivalent to the Thai low tone.
The Shan mid-tone is different from the Thai mid-tone. It falls in the end.
The Shan high tone is close to the Thai high tone. But it is not rising.
The Shan falling tone is different from the Thai falling tone. It is short, creaky and ends with a glottal stop.

Contrastive tones in checked syllables

The table below presents four phonemic tones in checked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in a glottal stop [ʔ] and obstruent sounds such as [p], [t], and [k].

Tone	Shan	Phonemic	Phonetic	Transliteration	English
high	လၵ်း	/lák/	[lak˥]	lak:	post
creaky	လၵ်ႉ	/la̰k/	[la̰k˦˨ˀ]	lak.	steal
low	လၢၵ်ႇ	/làːk/	[laːk˩]	laak,	differ from others
mid	လၢၵ်ႈ	/lāːk/	[laːk˧˨]	laak;	drag

Syllable structure

The syllable structure of Shan is C(G)V((V)/(C)), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide, and the rhyme consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong alone. (Only in some dialects, a diphthong may also be followed by a consonant.) The glides are: -w-, -y- and -r-. There are seven possible final consonants: /ŋ/, /n/, /m/, /k/, /t/, /p/, and /ʔ/.

Some representative words are:

CV /kɔ/ also
CVC /kàːt/ market
CGV /kwàː/ to go
CGVC /kwaːŋ/ broad
CVV /kǎi/ far
CGVV /kwáːi/ water buffalo

Typical Shan words are monosyllabic. Multisyllabic words are mostly Pali loanwords, or Burmese words with the initial weak syllable /ə/.

Pronouns

Person	Pronoun	IPA	Meaning^[4]
first	ၵဝ်	kǎw	I/me (informal)
	တူ	tǔ	I/me (informal)
	ၶႃႈ	kʰaː	I/me (formal) "servant, slave"
	ႁႃး	háː	we/us two (familiar/dual)
	ႁဝ်း	háw	we/us (general)
	ႁဝ်းၶႃႈ	háw.kʰaː	we/us (formal) "we servants, we slaves"
second	မႂ်း	máɰ	you (informal/familiar)
	ၸဝ်ႈ	tsaw	you (formal) "master, lord"
	ၶိူဝ်	kʰə̌ə	you two (familiar/dual)
	သူ	sʰǔ	you (formal/singular, general/plural)
	သူၸဝ်ႈ	sʰǔ.tsaw	you (formal/singular, general/plural) "you masters, you lords"
third	မၼ်း	mán	he/she/it (informal/familiar)
	ၶႃ	kʰǎa	they/them two (familiar/dual)
	ၶဝ်	kʰǎw	he/she/it (formal), or they/them (general)
	ၶဝ်ၸဝ်ႈ	kʰǎw.tsaw	he/she/it (formal), or they/them (formal) "they masters, they lords"
	ပိူၼ်ႈ	pɤn	they/them, others

Resources

Given the present instabilities in Burma, one choice for scholars is to study the Shan people and their language in Thailand, where estimates of Shan refugees run as high as two million, and Mae Hong Son Province is home to a Shan majority. The major source for information about the Shan language in English is Dunwoody Press's Shan for English Speakers. They also publish a Shan-English dictionary. Aside from this, the language is almost completely undescribed in English.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b Shan at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ "Refugee Conundrum: Little movement in Myanmar's repatriation schemes".
^ Brown, J. Marvin. 1965. From Ancient Thai To Modern Dialects and Other Writings on Historical Thai Linguistics. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, reprinted 1985.
^ "SEAlang Library Shan Lexicography". sealang.net. Retrieved Apr 27, 2020.

External links

[4] The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent 'a' before a vowel.

[5] Initial [f] is only found in eastern dialects in words that are pronounced with [pʰ] elsewhere.

[6] The trill is very rare and mainly used in Pali and some English loan words, sometimes as a glide in initial consonant clusters. Many Shans find it difficult to pronounce [r], often pronouncing it [l].

[e25-1] Shan at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[2] "Refugee Conundrum: Little movement in Myanmar's repatriation schemes".

[3] Brown, J. Marvin. 1965. From Ancient Thai To Modern Dialects and Other Writings on Historical Thai Linguistics. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, reprinted 1985.

[7] "SEAlang Library Shan Lexicography". sealang.net. Retrieved Apr 27, 2020.

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