
Intha and Danu constitute southern
Burmish languages of
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ( L ...
, Burma, spoken by the
Danu and
Intha people. They are considered
dialects of Burmese by the
Government of Myanmar
Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
...
.
Danu is spoken by the
Danu people, Intha by the
Intha, a group of
Bamar
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of ...
descendants who migrated to
Inle Lake in Shan State. Both are spoken by about 100,000.
[ Both are characterized by a retention of the medial (for the following consonant clusters in Intha: ). Examples include:
*"full": Standard Burmese () → (), from old Burmese
*"ground": Standard Burmese () → (), from old Burmese
There is no voicing with the presence of either aspirated or unaspirated consonants. For instance, (Buddha) is pronounced in standard Burmese, but in Intha. This is probably due to influence from the ]Shan language
The Shan language (written Shan: , , spoken Shan: , or , ; my, ရှမ်းဘာသာ, ; th, ภาษาไทใหญ่, ) is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in p ...
.
Furthermore, ( in standard Burmese) has merged to () in Intha.
Rhymes
Rhyme correspondences to standard Burmese follow these patterns:
Vocabulary
Danu has noticeable vocabulary differences from standard Burmese, spanning areas such as kinship terms, food, flora and fauna, and daily objects. For example, the Danu term for 'cat' is ' (
), not ''kyaung'' (ကြောင်) as in standard Burmese.
Kinship terms
References
{{Languages of Burma
Burmese language