Intha and Danu are southern Burmish languages of

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

, Burma, spoken respectively by the Intha and

Danu people The Danu people ( my, ဓနု) are a government-recognized ethnic group in Myanmar, predominantly populating the areas near the Pindaya Caves in Shan State. They speak the Danu language.

, the latter of whom are

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 th ...

descendants who migrated to

Inle Lake Inle Lake (, ), a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of , and one of the highest at an elevation of . D ...

in Shan State. Considered to be 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. P ...

, Danu has 93% lexical similarity with standard Burmese, while Intha has 95% lexical similar with standard Burmese. Intha and Danu differ from standard Burmese with respect to pronunciation of certain phonemes, and few hundred local vocabulary terms. Language contact has led to increasing

convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen * "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that united the four Wei ...

with standard Burmese. Both are spoken by about 100,000 people each.

Phonology

Both Danu and Intha are characterized by 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 likely due to the influence of 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 ''mi-nyaw'' (မိညော်), not ''kyaung'' (ကြောင်) as in standard Burmese.

Kinship terms

Script

Danu and Intha are written using the

Burmese alphabet The Burmese alphabet ( my, မြန်မာအက္ခရာ ''mranma akkha.ra'', ) is an abugida used for writing Burmese. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese ...

. Between 2013 and 2014, the Taunggyi branch of the Danu Literature and Culture Committee invented a new alphabet to transcribe the Danu language, taking inspiration from both the Pyu and Burmese scripts found on stone inscriptions. Within the

Danu Self-Administered Zone The Danu Self-Administered Zone ( my, ဓနု ကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရ ဒေသ ), as stipulated by the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, is a self-administered zone consisting of two townships in ...

(SAZ), adoption of this script remains divisive, with other township branches of the committee and politicians firmly opposed to its usage, arguing that the need for a specific Danu script is unjustified since Danu is a Burmese dialect. The script is currently not accepted by the Danu SAZ's administration. These recent developments have also prompted some actors in the Intha community to invent their own scripts.

References

{{Languages of Burma Burmese language