Khün, or Tai Khün (Tai Khün: , ; th, ไทเขิน ), also known as Kengtung tai, Kengtung Shan, is the language of the Tai Khün people of

Kengtung th , เชียงตุง , other_name = Kyaingtong , settlement_type = Town , imagesize = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = Myanmar , pushpin_label_position = left , ...

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 ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. It is a

Tai language The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...

that is closely related to Thai and Lao. It is also spoken in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Geographical distribution

In China, there are about 10,000 Tai Khuen () people in the following areas of Yunnan province (Gao 1999).Gao Lishi 高立士. 1999. 傣族支系探微. 中南民族学院学报 (哲学社会科学版). 1999 年第1 期 (总第96 期). *

Menglian County Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the southwest of Yunnan Province, China, bordering Ximeng County to the north, Lancang County to the north, northeast, and east, and Burma's Shan State to the south and w ...

孟连县: in Mengma Town 勐马镇, and in Meng'aba 勐阿坝 (12 villages total) *

Ximeng County Ximeng Va Autonomous County (; Va: or ) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er City, in the southwest of Yunnan Province, China, bordering Myanmar's Shan State to the west. Wa/Va people, who speak the Wa language Wa (Va) ...

西盟县: in Mengsuo 勐梭 * Lincang Prefecture (small, scattered population)

Phonology

Tones

There are contrastive five or six tones in Khün.Owen, R. W. (2012). A tonal analysis of contemporary Tai Khuen varieties. ''Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS)'' 5:12-31. The varieties spoken in Keng Tung City, Kang Murng, and Kat Fah have five tones, and the variety spoken in Murng Lang has six tones. Keng Tung City, Kang Murng, and Murng Lang are part of

Kengtung Township Kengtung Township ( shn, ၸႄႈဝဵင်းၵဵင်းတုင်, my, ကျိုင်းတုံမြို့နယ်; also spelled ''Kyaingtong'', Kengtong, th, เมืองเชียงตุง or ''Mueang Chiang Tun ...

Smooth syllables

The table below presents the tones in the varieties spoken in Keng Tung City, Kang Murng, Kat Fah, and Murng Lang. These tones occur in smooth syllables which are open syllables or closed syllables ending in a sonorant sound, such as /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /w/, or /j/.

Checked syllables

Three of the five or six phonemic tones occur in checked syllables which are closed syllables ending in a

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

(/ʔ/) or an obstruent sound, such as /p/, /t/, or /k/. The table below presents the three tones in the varieties spoken in Keng Tung City, Kang Murng, and Kat Fah.

References

*Owen, R. Wyn. 2012.
A tonal analysis of contemporary Tai Khuen varieties
. ''Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS)'' 5:12-31. *Petsuk, Rasi (1978). ''General characteristics of the Khün language''. Mahidol University MA thesis.

External links

Khün alphabet
Languages of Laos Languages of Thailand Languages of Myanmar Tai languages {{tk-lang-stub