Shan Language Guide

Also spoken in
Myanmar (Burma)
Script
Myanmar

Where it's spoken

Shan belongs to the family of Tai-Kadai languages. Along with Thai, Lao, Khamti and many others, it belongs to the Southwestern branch of Tai. One grammar sketch describes a variety of Shan spoken in the northern part of the Shan State in Myanmar, in the towns of Hsipaw, Namtu, and Lashio. The Shan-English dictionary used here bases its pronunciation on the central part of the Shan State, which it calls the most widely understood variety. Khamti Shan is described as spoken outside the borders of the current Shan State, further north.

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Script & pronunciation

Shan is written in the Myanmar script: the Unicode Standard says the extensions of the Myanmar block support letters and tone marks for Shan, among other languages. The Shan writing system that the dictionary describes was developed in the twentieth century by the Shan Literary Association in Taunggyi, Southern Shan State, and it is notable for making tone marking explicit.

The dictionary numbers tones from 1 (the unmarked tone) through 6, and this app's romanization puts a tone number after each syllable, as in ဢမ်ႇၸႂ်ႈ (am2-tsaue3, "No (that is not so)"). The grammar sketch reports five distinct tones for the northern variety it describes.

Unicode says the Myanmar script does not use whitespace between words. This app's cards do put spaces between the words of a phrase, as in ၶႃႈ ဢမ်ႇ ၵိၼ် လဝ်ႈ (khaa3 am2 kin1 lao3, "I do not drink alcohol").

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Grammar essentials

The grammar sketch of the northern variety describes Shan as a monosyllabic language and says that Shan, as a Tai-Kadai language, has little or no verbal morphology. In the northern variety described in the grammar sketch, clauses typically follow verb-object order, because the subject is often left out or set outside the clause as a topic. The card မီး ၶဝ်ႈသွႆး ႁႃႉ? (mi4 khao3-sawi4 haa5?, "Do you have noodles?") starts with the verb မီး, which the dictionary glosses as "have" among other meanings.

In the northern variety, the negation marker comes before the verb. The dictionary lists ဢမ်ႇ as a negative prefix, and it appears before the verb in ၶႃႈ ဢမ်ႇ ၵိၼ် လဝ်ႈ (khaa3 am2 kin1 lao3, "I do not drink alcohol").

In a noun phrase, the sketch places the number and classifier near the end, after the noun. The dictionary lists ၵေႃႉ as a classifier applied to persons, and the card သွင်ၵေႃႉ (sawng1-kaw5) means "Two people".

Sentence-final particles are common in natural conversation in the sketch, and it describes an interrogative particle that encodes the speaker's uncertainty. The dictionary lists ႁႃႉ as a direct interrogative affix, as in လီႁႃႉ "Is it good?", and the app's cards end yes/no questions with it, as in ၸဝ်ႈ လၢတ်ႈ ၵႂၢမ်းဢိင်းၵလဵတ်ႈ လႆႈ ႁႃႉ? (tsao3 laat3 kwaam4-ing4-ka1-let3 lai3 haa5?, "Do you speak English?").

The card for "Yes" is ၸႂ်ႈ (tsaue3). Its usage note says the word itself is the verb "be true, correct".

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Politeness & etiquette

The dictionary lists ၶႃႈ as a pronoun meaning "I, me, my (polite, used in addressing superiors or intimates)" and also as a verb particle, "[polite verbal or sentence ending]". The same spelling is also listed for other words, including "kill", "servant, slave", and "branch of a tree". Some of the app's cards begin with ၶႃႈ as "I", as in ၶႃႈ ဢမ်ႇ ၵိၼ် လဝ်ႈ (khaa3 am2 kin1 lao3, "I do not drink alcohol").

For "you", the dictionary glosses ၸဝ်ႈ as "lord, master, sir; title of nobility; thou, respectful I; owner, proprietor". The app's cards use ၸဝ်ႈ for the person addressed, as in ၸဝ်ႈ ယူႇတီႈလႂ်? (tsao3 yu2-ti3-laue1?, "Where do you live?").

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