Shan language

Shan
Tai Yai
ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး (kwáam tái), လိၵ်ႈတႆး (līk tái)
Pronunciation	[kwáːm táj] ⓘ [lik táj] ⓘ
Native to	Myanmar
Region	Shan State
Ethnicity	Shan, Dai, Kula
Native speakers	4.7 million (2017)[1]
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern Northwestern (Shan) Shan
Dialects	Standard (Eastern) Khün Tai Nuea Khamti Tai Laing Aiton Phake Khamyang Turung
Writing system	Mon–Burmese (Shan alphabet)
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Myanmar
Language codes
ISO 639-2	shn
ISO 639-3	shn
Glottolog	shan1277
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The Shan language is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in pockets in other parts of Myanmar, in Northern Thailand, in Yunnan, in Laos, in Cambodia, in Vietnam and decreasingly in Assam and Meghalaya. Shan is a member of the Kra–Dai language family and is related to Thai. It has five tones, which do not correspond exactly to Thai tones, plus a sixth tone used for emphasis. The term Shan is also used for related Northwestern Tai languages, and it is called Tai Yai or Tai Long in other Tai languages. Standard Shan, which is also known as Tachileik Shan, is based on the dialect of the city of Tachileik.^{[citation needed]}

The number of Shan speakers is not known in part because the Shan population is unknown. Estimates of Shan people range from four million to 30 million,^{[citation needed]} with about half speaking the Shan language.^{[citation needed]} Ethnologue estimates that there are 4.6 million Shan speakers in Myanmar; the Mahidol University Institute for Language and Culture gave the number of Shan speakers in Thailand as 95,000 in 2006,^[1] though including refugees from Burma they now total about one million.^[2] Many Shan speak local dialects as well as the language of their trading partners.