Shan language
Encyclopedia
The Shan language is the native language of Shan people and spoken mostly in Shan State
, Burma. It is also used in pockets of Kachin State
in Burma, in northern Thailand
, and in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
, Yunnan Province, China. 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. It is called Tai Yai, or Tai Long in the Tai languages. The term "Shan" is an exonym believed to be a Burmese derivative of "Siam".
The number of Shan speakers is not known in part because that of the Shan population is unknown. Estimates of Shan people range from four million to 30 million, though the true number is somewhere around six million, with about half speaking the Shan language; 3.3 million is the number generally estimated. 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 script, which was derived from the Burmese script.
can be divided into three groups, roughly coinciding with geographical and modern administrational 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 language dialects
(Kam Muang, Yuan) 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 /pʰ/ becomes /f/ in the east. Prominent dialects are considered as separate languages, such as Khün (or Tai Khuen, called Kon Shan by the Burmese), which is spoken in Keng Tung valley, and Tai Lü (or Tai Lue). 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
Shan, spoken in Northern Sagaing Division
.
Brown (1965) divides the three dialects of Shan as follows:
Unlike in Thai
and Lao
there are no voiced plosives [d] and [b].
[a], [aː], [ɛ], [e], [i], [ɯ], [ə], [ɔ], [o], [u]
[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." Triphthongs are absent. Shan has no systematic distinction between long and short vowels characteristic of Thai.
contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone
of a syllable.
There are five to six tones in Shan, depending on the dialect. The sixth tone is only spoken in the north, in other parts it is only used for emphasis. Recently, some Shan scholars and teachers try to establish this tone in "correct" Standard Shan.
The following table shows an example of the phonemic
tones:
The Shan tones correspond to Thai tones as follows:
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:
Typical Shan words are monosyllabic. Multisyllabic words are mostly Pali loanwords, or Burmese words with the initial weak syllable /ə/.
The standard Shan script is an abugida
, all letters having an inherent vowel a. Ultimately deriving from the Brahmic system, vowels are represented in the form of diacritics placed around the consonants.
The Shan writing system is much less complex than the Thai writing system, and lacks the notions of high-class, mid-class and low-class consonants, distinctions which help the Thai alphabet to number some 44 consonants. Shan has just 18 consonants, and all tones are clearly indicated with unambiguous tonal markers at the end of the syllable (in the absence of any marker, the default is the rising tone).
The number of consonants in a textbook may vary: there are 18 universally-accepted Shan consonants , and four more which represent sounds not found in Shan, namely 'b,' 'd,' f,' and 'th' ([θ] as in 'thin'). The last four are quite rare. In addition, most editors include the 'dummy consonant' used to support leading vowels, but some do not. Thus, a given textbook may present 18-23 Shan consonants.
The representation of the vowels depends partly on whether the syllable has a final cosonant.
The tones are indicated by tone markers at the end of the syllable (represented by a dash in the following table), namely:
While the reformed script originally used only four diacritic tone markers, equivalent to the five tones spoken in the southern dialect, the Lashio-based Shan Literature and Culture Association now, for a number of words, promotes the use of the 'yak khuen' to denote the sixth tone as pronounced in the north.
Two other scripts are also still used to some extent. The so-called Lik To Yao ('long letters'), which derives from Lik Tai Mao, or Lik Hto Ngouk ('bean sprout script'), the old script of the Mao, or Chinese Shans, may be used in the north. In this systems, vowel signs are written behind the consonants.
Keng Tung Shan, or Tai Khün
, is written in the Yuan script (called Kon Shan in Burmese), which has come from Lanna
.
Shan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
, Burma. It is also used in pockets of Kachin State
Kachin State
Kachin State , is the northernmost state of Burma. It is bordered by China to the north and east; Shan State to the south; and Sagaing Division and India to the west. It lies between north latitude 23° 27' and 28° 25' longitude 96° 0' and 98° 44'. The area of Kachin State is . The capital of the...
in Burma, in northern Thailand
Northern Thailand
Thailand's northern region is geographically characterised by multiple mountain ranges which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar and Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them...
, and in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
Xishuangbanna is an autonomous prefecture in Yunnan Province, China. The capital city is Jinghong, the largest settlement in the area and one that straddles the Mekong River, called the Lancang River in Chinese.-Name:...
, Yunnan Province, China. Shan is a member of the Tai–Kadai language family, and is related to Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
. It has five tones, which do not correspond exactly to Thai tones, plus a "sixth tone" used for emphasis. It is called Tai Yai, or Tai Long in the Tai languages. The term "Shan" is an exonym believed to be a Burmese derivative of "Siam".
The number of Shan speakers is not known in part because that of the Shan population is unknown. Estimates of Shan people range from four million to 30 million, though the true number is somewhere around six million, with about half speaking the Shan language; 3.3 million is the number generally estimated. Many Shan speak local dialects as well as the language of their trading partners. Due to the civil war in Burma
Internal conflict in Burma
The internal conflict in Burma is a term that is employed to refer to the current violence in Burma that has existed since approximately April 1948 between the Burmese government and the various ethnic groups in the country. More recently, the conflict has been against the military regime that has...
, few Shan today can read or write in Shan script, which was derived from the Burmese script.
Dialects
The Shan dialects spoken in Shan StateShan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
can be divided into three groups, roughly coinciding with geographical and modern administrational 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
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
words, Eastern Shan is somewhat closer to northern Thai language dialects
Northern Thai language
Northern Thai, Lanna, or Kham Mueang is the language of the Thai Yuan people of Lannathai, Thailand. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao...
(Kam Muang, Yuan) and Lao
Lao language
Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...
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 /pʰ/ becomes /f/ in the east. Prominent dialects are considered as separate languages, such as Khün (or Tai Khuen, called Kon Shan by the Burmese), which is spoken in Keng Tung valley, and Tai Lü (or Tai Lue). Chinese Shan is also called (Tai) Mao, referring to the old Shan State of Mong Mao
Mong Mao
Mong Mao or Mao kingdom was an ethnically Dai state that controlled several smaller Tai states or chieftainships along the frontier of what is now Myanmar and China in the Dehong region of Yunnan with a capital near the modern-day border town of Ruili...
. 'Tai Long' is used to refer to the dialect spoken in southern and central regions west of the Salween River
Salween River
The Salween is a river, about long, that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous watershed of that extends into the countries China, Burma and Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and undammed Salween, one of the...
. There are also dialects still spoken by a small number of people in Kachin State
Kachin State
Kachin State , is the northernmost state of Burma. It is bordered by China to the north and east; Shan State to the south; and Sagaing Division and India to the west. It lies between north latitude 23° 27' and 28° 25' longitude 96° 0' and 98° 44'. The area of Kachin State is . The capital of the...
and Khamti
Khamti
The Khamti, whose name is also spelled as Hkamti by the Burmese and Khampti by the Assamese, is a sub-group of the Shan people found in the Sagaing Division, Hkamti District in northwestern Burma as well as Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh in India. Smaller numbers can be found in parts of Assam...
Shan, spoken in Northern Sagaing Division
Sagaing Division
Sagaing Region is an administrative region of Burma , located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east...
.
Brown (1965) divides the three dialects of Shan as follows:
- Northern — LashioLashioLashio is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about northeast of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao river. The population grew from around 5000 in 1960 to 88,590 in 1983. It is currently estimated at around 130,000.Lashio is the...
, Burma; contains more Chinese influences - Southern — TaunggyiTaunggyi-Transportation:The main access to Taunggyi is by road. A railway line that passes through Taunggyi was recently built in 1995, but at the moment it offers no passenger service. Regular railway passenger service to the rest of the country is through the town of Shwenyaung, twelve miles to the...
, Burma (capital of Shan StateShan StateShan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
); contains more Burmese influences - Eastern — Kengtung, Burma (located in the Golden TriangleGolden Triangle (Southeast Asia)The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent and Pakistan, it has been one of the most...
); closer to Northern Tai and Lao
Consonants
Shan has 18 consonants.Unlike in Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
and Lao
Lao language
Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...
there are no voiced plosives [d] and [b].
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Labio- dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Post- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | [ p ] ပ |
[ pʰ ] ၽ |
[ t ] တ |
[ tʰ ] ထ |
[ k ] ၵ |
[ kʰ ] ၶ |
[ ʔ ]1 ဢ |
||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
[ m ] မ |
[ n ] ၼ |
[ ɲ ] ၺ |
[ ŋ ] င |
|||||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
([ f ])2 ၾ |
[ s ] သ |
[ h ] ႁ |
||||||||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
[ ts ] ၸ |
||||||||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
([ r ])3 ရ |
||||||||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
[ j ] ယ |
[ w ] ဝ |
|||||||||||
| Lateral approximant |
[ l ] လ |
||||||||||||
- 1 The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent 'a' before a vowel.
- 2 Initial [f] is only found in eastern dialects in words that are pronounced with [pʰ] elsewhere.
- 3 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:[a], [aː], [ɛ], [e], [i], [ɯ], [ə], [ɔ], [o], [u]
[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." Triphthongs are absent. Shan has no systematic distinction between long and short vowels characteristic of Thai.
Tones
Shan is a tonal language, which means phonemicPhoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
of a syllable.
There are five to six tones in Shan, depending on the dialect. The sixth tone is only spoken in the north, in other parts it is only used for emphasis. Recently, some Shan scholars and teachers try to establish this tone in "correct" Standard Shan.
| No. | Description | Contour | 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 | falling (creaky) | 42 ˦˨ | Short, creaky, strongly falling with lax final glottal stop | âʔ, â̰ | a. |
| 6 | emphatic | 343 ˧˦˧ | Starting mid level, then slightly rising, with a drop at the end (similar to tones 3 and 5) |
- * 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
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
tones:
| Tone | Shan | Phonemic | Transcription | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rising | ၼႃ | /nǎː/ | na | thick |
| low | ၼႃႇ | /nàː/ | na, | very |
| mid | ၼႃႈ | /nāː/ | na; | face |
| high | ၼႃး | /náː/ | na: | paddy field |
| creaky | ၼႃႉ | /na̰/ | na. | aunt, uncle |
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.
Syllable structure
The syllableSyllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
structure of Shan is C(G)V((V)/(C)), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
, and the rhyme
Syllable rime
In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
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/.
Writing systems
The Shan script is characterised by its circular letters, very similar to Burmese. The old Shan script used until the 1960s did not differentiate all vowels and diphthongs and had only one tone marker. Therefore, a single form could represent up to 15 sounds, and hence meanings. Hence, only the well trained were able to read Shan. This has been mended in a reform, making Shan quite easy to read, with all tones indicated unambiguously.The standard Shan script is an abugida
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
, all letters having an inherent vowel a. Ultimately deriving from the Brahmic system, vowels are represented in the form of diacritics placed around the consonants.
The Shan writing system is much less complex than the Thai writing system, and lacks the notions of high-class, mid-class and low-class consonants, distinctions which help the Thai alphabet to number some 44 consonants. Shan has just 18 consonants, and all tones are clearly indicated with unambiguous tonal markers at the end of the syllable (in the absence of any marker, the default is the rising tone).
The number of consonants in a textbook may vary: there are 18 universally-accepted Shan consonants , and four more which represent sounds not found in Shan, namely 'b,' 'd,' f,' and 'th' ([θ] as in 'thin'). The last four are quite rare. In addition, most editors include the 'dummy consonant' used to support leading vowels, but some do not. Thus, a given textbook may present 18-23 Shan consonants.
The representation of the vowels depends partly on whether the syllable has a final cosonant.
The tones are indicated by tone markers at the end of the syllable (represented by a dash in the following table), namely:
| Sign | Name | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| (not marked) | pao | 1 |
| (ják) | 2 | |
| (ják tsam) | 3 | |
| (tsam naː) | 4 | |
| (tsam tau) | 5 | |
| (ják kʰɯn) | 6 |
While the reformed script originally used only four diacritic tone markers, equivalent to the five tones spoken in the southern dialect, the Lashio-based Shan Literature and Culture Association now, for a number of words, promotes the use of the 'yak khuen' to denote the sixth tone as pronounced in the north.
Two other scripts are also still used to some extent. The so-called Lik To Yao ('long letters'), which derives from Lik Tai Mao, or Lik Hto Ngouk ('bean sprout script'), the old script of the Mao, or Chinese Shans, may be used in the north. In this systems, vowel signs are written behind the consonants.
Keng Tung Shan, or Tai Khün
Khün language
The Khün language or Tai Khün language is the language of the Tai Khün people of Kengtung, Shan state, Myanmar. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao.-Phonology:-External links:*...
, is written in the Yuan script (called Kon Shan in Burmese), which has come from Lanna
Lanna
The Kingdom of Lanna was a kingdom centered in present-day northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th centuries. The cultural development of the people of Lanna, the Tai Yuan people, had begun long before as successive Tai Yuan kingdoms preceded Lanna...
.
Pronouns
| Pronoun | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ၵဝ် | kǎw | I/me (informal) |
| တူ | tǔ | I/me (informal) |
| ၶႃႈ | kʰaː | I/me (formal) |
| ႁႃး | haː | We two, Us two(general/dual) |
| ႁဝ်း | háw | we/us (general) |
| မႂ်း | máɯ | you (informal) |
| ၸဝ်ႈ | tsâu | you (formal) |
| သူ | sʰǔ | you (formal/singular, general/plural) |
| မၼ်း | man | he/she/it |
| ၶဝ် | kʰǎw | they/them |
| 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.Further reading
- Sai Kam Mong. The History and Development of the Shan Scripts. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2004. ISBN 9749575504