Consonants[]
Shan has 19 consonants. Unlike Thai and Lao there are no voiced plosives [d] and [b].
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | [p] | [pʰ] | [t] | [tʰ] | [k] | [kʰ] | [ʔ]1 | ||||||
| Nasal | [m] | [n] | [ɲ] | [ŋ] | |||||||||
| Fricative | ([f])2 | [s] | [h] | ||||||||||
| Affricate | [t͡ɕ] | ||||||||||||
| Trill | ([r])3 | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | [j] | [w] | |||||||||||
| Lateral | [l] | ||||||||||||
- 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:
| Front | Central-Back | Back |
|---|---|---|
| /i/ | /ɨ/~/ɯ/ | /u/ |
| /e/ | /ə/~/ɤ/ | /o/ |
| /ɛ/ | /a/ /aː/ |
/ɔ/ |
[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" [ɯa]. Triphthongs are absent. Shan has no systematic distinction between long and short vowels characteristic of Thai.
Tones[]
Shan has phonemic 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 sounds such as [m], [n], [ŋ], [w], and [j] and open syllables.
| No. | Description | IPA | 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) | ˦˨ˀ | 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) | a᷈ | |
- * 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 tones:
| Tone | Shan | IPA | Transliteration | 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.
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 sounds such as [p], [t], and [k].
| Tone | Shan | Phonemic | Phonetic | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | လၵ်း | /lák/ | [lak˥] | lak: | post |
| creaky | လၵ်ႉ | /la̰k/ | [la̰k˦˨ˀ] | lak. | steal |
| low | လၢၵ်ႇ | /làːk/ | [laːk˩] | laak, | differ from others |
| mid | လၢၵ်ႈ | /lāːk/ | [laːk˧˨] | laak; | drag |
Syllable structure[]
The syllable 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:
- 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/.