Shan 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 Kra–Dai language family and is related to Thai language. 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.
In 2019, Ethnologue estimated there were 3.3 million Shan speakers, including 3.2 million in Myanmar.
History
Historically, the dominance of Shan as a regional lingua franca made it the source of many loanwords in other regional languages, especially
Jingpo language and
Palaung language.
Shan has also served as an intermediary of loanwords from
Burmese language into these languages.
Influence from Burmese
By the same token, Shan has been significantly influenced by Burmese, mediated by centuries of historical and ongoing contact and exchange between Burmese and Shan speakers, especially between the Burmese royal court and Shan principalities.
For instance, the lack of a sound in most Shan dialects is attributed to Burmese influence; this sound is present in the closely-related Khün and Northern Thai languages. Shan vocabulary has been significantly enriched by Burmese contact, with Burmese loan words appearing throughout the Shan lexicon,
including loanwords borrowed from
Pali via Burmese. Burmese appears to have also influenced Shan grammar, with respect to the use of complex prepositions and certain word patterns that do not exist in closely related Tai languages.
Influence from Thai
Due to labour migration in recent decades, one million ethnic Shan now live in Thailand.
As a result of ongoing language contact,
Thai language has increasingly become a competing source of loanwords into Shan, especially for scientific and political concepts.
These Thai loanwords are often more difficult to detect, because of phonetic and structural similarities between Shan and Thai.
Some recent phonological developments, like the reversal of the historical > shift especially among younger Shan speakers, is attributed to contact with Thai.
Names
The Shan language has a number of names in different
Tai languages and
Burmese language.
-
In Shan, the spoken language is commonly called kwam tai (ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး, , ). The written language is called lik tai (လိၵ်ႈတႆး, ).
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In Burmese language, it is called hram: bhasa (ရှမ်းဘာသာ, ), whence the English word "Shan". The term "Shan," which was formerly spelt hsyam: (သျှမ်း) in Burmese, is an exonym believed to be a Burmese derivative of "Siam" (an old term for Thailand).
-
In Thai language and Southern Thai, it is called phasa thai yai (ภาษาไทใหญ่, , ) or more informally or even vulgarly by some phasa ngiao (ภาษาเงี้ยว, , an outdated term that now sounds like the word for "snake").
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In Northern Thai, it is called kam tai (กำไต, , literally "Tai peoples language") or more informally or even vulgarly by some kam ngiao (กำเงี้ยว, ), ).
-
In Lao language, it is called phasa tai yai (ພາສາໄທໃຫຍ່, , ) or more informally or even vulgarly by some phasa ngiao (ພາສາງ້ຽວ, ).
-
In Tai Lü, it is called kam ngio (ᦅᧄᦇᦲᧁᧉ, ).
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 language words, eastern Shan is somewhat closer to Northern Thai language and Lao language 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 and , when combined with certain vowels and final consonants, are pronounced (written ky), (written khy) and (written my). In Chinese Shan, initial becomes . In southwestern regions is often pronounced as . Initial only appears in the east, while in the other two dialects it merges with .
J. Marvin Brown divides the three dialects of Shan State as follows:[Brown, J. Marvin. 1965. From Ancient Thai To Modern Dialects and Other Writings on Historical Thai Linguistics. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, reprinted 1985.]
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Northern — Lashio, Burma; contains more Chinese influences
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Southern — Taunggyi, Burma (capital of Shan State); contains more Burmese influences
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Eastern — Kengtung, Burma (in the Golden Triangle); closer to Northern Thai and Lao
Prominent divergent dialects are considered separate languages, such as Khün (called Kon Shan by the Burmese), which is spoken in Kengtung valley. Chinese Shan is also called Tai Mao, referring to the old Shan State of Mong Mao. Tai Long is used to refer to the Southern Shan State dialect spoken in southern and central regions west of the Salween River,
Phonology
Consonants
Shan has 19 consonants. Unlike
Thai language and
lao language (
Isan language) there are no voiced plosives /d/ and /b/.
Vowels and diphthongs
Shan has ten vowels and 13 diphthongs:
Shan has less vowel complexity than Thai, and Shan people learning Thai have difficulties with sounds such as "ia," "ua," and "uea" . Triphthongs are absent. Shan has no systematic distinction between long and short vowels characteristic of Thai.
Tones
Shan has
phoneme 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 such as m, n, ŋ, w, and j and open syllables.
- * The symbol in the first transcription 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 phoneme tones:
|
| thick |
| very |
| face |
| paddy field |
| aunt, uncle |
| (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.
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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 such as p, t, and k.
|
| post |
| steal |
| differ from others |
| drag |
Syllable structure
The
syllable structure of Shan is C(G)V((V)/(C)), which is to say the
syllable onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a
semivowel, and the
syllable rime 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: , , , , , , and .
Some representative words are:
-
CV also
-
CVC market
-
CGV to go
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CGVC broad
-
CVV far
-
CGVV water buffalo
Typical Shan words are monosyllabic. Multisyllabic words are mostly Pali loanwords, or Burmese words with the initial weak syllable .
Pronouns
|
|
|
| I/me (informal) |
| I/me (formal) "servant, slave" |
| we/us two (familiar/dual) |
| we/us (general) |
| we/us (formal) "we servants, we slaves" |
|
| you (formal) "master, lord" |
| you two (familiar/dual) |
| you (formal/singular, general/plural) |
| you (formal/singular, general/plural) "you masters, you lords" |
|
| they/them two (familiar/dual) |
| he/she/it (formal), or they/them (general) |
| he/she/it (formal), or they/them (formal) "they masters, they lords" |
| 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.
Further reading
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Sai Kam Mong. The History and Development of the Shan Scripts. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2004.
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The Major Languages of East and South-East Asia. Bernard Comrie (London, 1990).
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A Guide to the World's Languages. Merritt Ruhlen (Stanford, 1991).
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Shan for English Speakers. Irving I. Glick & Sao Tern Moeng (Dunwoody Press, Wheaton, 1991).
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Shan – English Dictionary. Sao Tern Moeng (Dunwoody Press, Kensington, 1995).
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Shan phonology and morphology. Aggasena Lengtai. (MA thesis, Mahidol University, 2009).
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An English and Shan Dictionary. H. W. Mix (American Baptist Mission Press, Rangoon, 1920; Revised edition by S.H.A.N., Chiang Mai, 2001).
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Grammar of the Shan Language. J. N. Cushing (American Baptist Mission Press, Rangoon, 1887).
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Myanmar – Unicode Consortium [1]
External links
