Shan Language - Writing Systems

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, 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 (ၵ ၶ င ၸ သ ၺ တ ထ ၼ ပ ၽ မ ယ ရ လ ဝ ႁ ဢ), and four more which represent sounds not found in Shan, namely 'b,' 'd,' f,' and 'th' ( as in 'thin'). The last four (ဎ ဗ ၾ ႀ) 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.