Tai Laing (, variously spelt Tai Lai or Tai Nai), also known as Shan-ni (, ), 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 Si ...

of Burma, related to Khamti. It is written in its own variant of

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse) ...

, and though not taught in schools, is experiencing a cultural revival, albeit still small. There is no census of speakers, but they are estimated to number around 100,000.

History

The Tai Laing settled in the

Indawgyi Lake Indawgyi Lake ( ) is one of the largest inland lakes in Southeast Asia. It is located in Mohnyin Township in the Kachin State of Myanmar. The lake measures east to west, and north to south. There are over 20 villages around the lake. The predomin ...

valley, in modern-day

Kachin State Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet and Yunnan, specifically and respectively); Sh ...

, Myanmar, establishing city-states including Mongyang,

Mogaung Mogaung ( my, မိုးကောင်း ; ( Shan: မိူင်းၵွင်း) is a town in Kachin State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line. History Mogaung or Möngkawng was the name and capital (roya ...

Wuntho Wuntho ( my, ဝန်းသို) or Waing Hso ( shn, ဝဵင်းသိူဝ်) was a native state of Upper Burma when Burma (Myanmar), was under British control. It had an area of around with 150,000 inhabitants and lay midway between ...

, and

Momeik Momeik ( my, မိုးမိတ်), also known as Mong Mit ( Shan: ) in Shan, is a town situated on the Shweli River in northern Shan State of Myanmar (Burma). Transport It is connected by road to Mogok and its ruby mines, and via Mogok t ...

. Tai Laing has had long-term close contact with several

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

, including Burmese speakers to the south, Lolo-Burmese, Nungish, and Jingpho-Luish languages to the east and north and

Naga languages The Naga languages are a geographic and ethnic grouping of languages under the Kuki-Chin-Naga languages, spoken mostly by Naga peoples. Northern Naga languages do not fall within the group, in spite of being spoken by Naga groups; instead, th ...

to the west. These languages have influenced the phonology and grammar of Tai Laing, including the frequency of disyllabic words and presence of different grammatical markers, and variation in word order. Following the

1962 Burmese coup d'état The 1962 Burmese coup d'état on 2 March 1962 marked the beginning of one-party rule and the political dominance of the army in Burma (now Myanmar) which spanned the course of 26 years. In the coup, the military replaced the civilian AFPFL-g ...

, restrictive language policies were promulgated by the military regime. The Kachin Independence Organization also repressed Tai Laing speakers, who lived in contested territory. In the 1990s, a military ceasefire enabled the Tai Laing to recover manuscripts, publish literacy books, and teach the language in summer schools. During the

2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms The 2011–2020 Myanmar political reforms were a series of political, economic and administrative reforms in Myanmar undertaken by the military-backed government. These reforms include the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from ...

, Khin Pyone Yee was appointed Kachin State's Minister of Shan Affairs. She spearheaded a program to institutionalize Tai Laing education materials and curricula. While Tai Laing is experiencing a linguistic revival driven by youth, many Tai Laing are now bilingual or monolingual in Burmese, due to assimilation and intermarriage with Burmese speakers.

Names

Alternate names for Tai Laing are Red Tai, Shan Bamar, Shan Kalee, Shan-ni (ရှမ်းနီ), Tai Laeng, Tai Lai, Tai Lang, Tai Nai, and Tai Naing (''Ethnologue'').

Distribution

Tai Laing is spoken in

Homalin Township Homalin Township ( my, ဟုမ္မလင်း မြို့နယ် ) is a township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of Burma. The principal town is Homalin.

Sagaing Region Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...

, along the Chindwin, Irrawaddy, and Uru rivers. It is also spoken in

from

Bhamo Bhamo ( my, ဗန်းမော်မြို့ ''ban: mau mrui.'', also spelt Banmaw; shn, မၢၼ်ႈမူဝ်ႇ; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥨᥝᥱ; zh, 新街, Hsinkai) is a city in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, south of the s ...

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; (Eng; ''mitchinar'') Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ) is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina is on the west bank of the ...

townships (''Ethnologue'').

Dialects

There are two subgroups of Tai Laing, namely Tai Nai and Tai Lai. The Tai Nai live along the railway line between

and

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 fou ...

. The Tai Lai live along the river south of

(''Ethnologue'').

References

Languages of Myanmar Tai languages {{tk-lang-stub