Zaiwa (autonym: '; Tsaiwa, Tsaiva, 载瓦; Burmese: ဇိုင်ဝါး/အဇီး) is a

Burmish language The Burmish languages are Burmese, including Standard Burmese, Arakanese and other Burmese dialects such as the Tavoyan dialects as well as non-literary languages spoken across Myanmar and South China such as Achang, Lhao Vo, Lashi, and Za ...

spoken in parts of southwest

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and eastern

Burma 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 ...

. There are around 100,000 speakers. It is also known as ''Atsi'', its name in Jingpo. Other names for the language include Atzi, Azi, Aci, Aji, Atshi, Atsi-Maru, Maru, Zi, Tsaiwa, Szi and Xiaoshanhua. '' Pela (Bola)'', with 400 speakers, was once classified as a dialect. From the 1950s Zaiwa was written using the Roman script. A Gospel of Mark was published in Zaiwa in 1938 in the

Fraser alphabet The Fraser or Old Lisu script is an artificial abugida invented around 1915 by Sara Ba Thaw, a Karen preacher from Myanmar and improved by the missionary James O. Fraser, to write the Lisu language. It is a single- case (unicameral) alphabet. It ...

and in 1951 in the Roman script.

Distribution

There are more than 70,000 Zaiwa speakers in Yunnan, China, including in: *Bangwa (邦瓦), Longchuan County, Dehong Prefecture *Zhanxi (盏西),

Yingjiang County Yingjiang County (; th, เมืองหล้า) is a county in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan province, China, bordering Burma's Kachin State to the west. Geography Yingjiang county has a border of with Kachin State, Myanmar in the west. Th ...

, Dehong Prefecture *Xishan (西山),

Mangshi Mangshi (; tdd, ᥝᥥᥒᥰ ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥑᥩᥢᥴ; Jingpho language, Jingpho: Mangshi Myu), former name Luxi (), is a county-level city and the seat of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, western Yunnan province, China. Mangshi has ...

, Dehong Prefecture The ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'' lists Bengwa, Longzhun and Tingzhu as dialects. In Myanmar, the Sadon (Sadung) dialect is the standard variety.

Tones

Zaiwa has five tones. Three of these five tones are in unchecked syllables and the remaining two are in checked syllables. The tones are distinguished through a numbering system of one to five; one being the lowest pitch and five the highest pitch.

Distribution

Tones

References

Further reading