Shö is a

Kuki-Chin language The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

of Burma and Bangladesh. There are perhaps three distinct dialects, Asho (Khyang), Chinbon, and Shendu. Mayin and Longpaw are not mutually intelligible, but have been subsumed under the ISO code for Chinbon because Mayin-Longpaw speakers generally understand Chinbon. Minkya is similarly included because most Minkya speakers understand Mayin.

Geographical distribution

Chinbon (Uppu) is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar. *

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...

Kanpetlet Kanpetlet (, ) is a town in the Chin State of West Myanmar and the home of the Kanpetlet Township administration body. It is known for Mt. Victoria, the highest peak in the Chin Hills and one of the highest in Western Myanmar, and Natmataung Nat ...

and

Paletwa Paletwa (, ) is one of the westernmost towns of Myanmar, in Chin State 18 kilometres from the border with Bangladesh. Its population in 2014 was about 97,000. Demographics Rakhine is the Lingua Franca of the region, while Kuki-Chin languages a ...

townships *

Magway Region Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, ...

Saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mo ...

and

Sidoktaya Sidoktaya, also Sitoktaya or Setoketaya ( my, စေတုတ္တရာမြို့) is a town and seat of Sidoktaya Township in Minbu District of Magway Division, situated in middle west region of Burma. It is bordered with Salin t ...

townships *

Rakhine State Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...

Minbya Minbya (Mongbra) ( my, မင်းပြားမြို့, ) is a town in Rakhine State, in the westernmost part of Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating ...

township Asho is spoken in

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( my, ဧရာဝတီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division), is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is bor ...

Bago Region Bago Region ( my, ပဲခူးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Pegu Division and Bago Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the southern central part of the country. It is bordered by Magway Region ...

, and

, Myanmar. VanBik (2009:38) lists the following Asho dialects. *Settu (spoken from

Sittwe Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptyi ...

Thandwe Thandwe ("Thandway" in Arakanese; ; formerly Sandoway) is a town and major seaport in Rakhine State, the westernmost part of Myanmar. Thandwe is very ancient, and is said to have been at one time the capital of Rakhine State, then called Arakan. ...

— mostly Sittwe to

Ann Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

) *Laitu (spoken in

Sidoktaya Township Sidoktaya Township ( my, စေတုတ္တရာ မြို့နယ်) is a Townships of Myanmar, township of Minbu District in the Magway Region of Myanmar. The principal town is Sidoktaya. References

Townships of Magway Regi ...

) *Awttu (spoken in

Mindon Township Mindon Township ( my, မင်းတုန်းမြို့နယ်) is a township of Thayet District in the Magway Region of Burma (Myanmar) Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions ...

) *Kowntu (spoken in Ngaphe, Minhla,

Minbu Minbu ( my, မင်းဘူးမြို့) is a city in Magwe Division, Myanmar. , the city has an urban population of 22,962. The area consists of low plain-land towards the Ayeyarwady River, and of undulating country inland rising highe ...

) *Kaitu (spoken in

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

, Magway) *Lauku (spoken in Myepone, Kyauk Phyu,

) Shendu is spoken in

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...

, India.

Phonology

The Asho dialect (K’Chò) has 26 to 30 consonants and ten to eleven vowels depending on the dialect. * Voiced plosives /b d ɡ z/ are only heard in the Plains dialect. * In the Plains dialect, dental plosives /t̪ t̪ʰ/ are pronounced as alveolar tʰ along with /d/ being only alveolar. * Velar plosives /k kʰ/ may be palatalized as affricates ʃ tʃʰbefore front vowels. * In some dialects a voiceless is heard in place of /ʃ/. * /j/ may also be heard as a fricative in free variation among dialects. Diphthongs: * Sounds /ʏ ʉ/ only occur in the Hill dialect. In the Plains dialect, /ʊ u/ is heard in place of /ʏ ʉ/. * An shortened �̆is heard in unstressed syllables. * /ɤ/ can sometimes be heard as more central . * A prevelarized /ˠi/ occurs in the Plains dialect.

Morphology

Similar to other Kukish languages, many Asho verbs have two distinct stems. This stem alternation is a Proto-Kukish feature, which has been retained to different degrees in different Kukish languages.

References

Kuki-Chin languages Languages of Bangladesh {{st-lang-stub