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Khun
Kengtung Shan Kengtung tai
ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿᨡᩨ᩠ᨶ
Pronunciation	/táj kʰɯ̌ːn/
Native to	Myanmar (Shan State), Thailand
Region	Kengtung
Native speakers	(100,000 cited 1990)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern (Thai) Northwestern Khun
Writing system	Tai Tham script, Thai script
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Myanmar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kkh
Glottolog	khun1259

Khün, or Tai Khün (Tai Khün: ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿᨡᩨ᩠ᨶ, /taj˧˧.kʰɯːn˧˨˥/; Shan: တႆးၶိုၼ် Thai: ไทเขิน [tʰaj kʰɤ̌ːn]), also known as Kengtung tai, Kengtung Shan, is the language of the Tai Khün people of Kengtung, Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, and Yunnan Province, China.

The Khün varieties share 93% to 100% lexical similarity. Khun is closely related to other Tai languages. Khün shares 90% to 95% lexical similarity with Northern Thai language, 92% to 95% with Lü, 93% to 97% with Shan, and 80% to 83% with standard Thai.

Tai Khun is traditionally written using a variant of the Tai Tham script.

Geographical distribution

In China, there are about 10,000 Tai Khuen (Chinese: 傣艮/傣痕) people in the following areas of Yunnan province (Gao 1999).

• Menglian County 孟连县: in Mengma Town 勐马镇, and in Meng'aba 勐阿坝 (12 villages total)
• Ximeng County 西盟县: in Mengsuo 勐梭
• Lincang Prefecture (small, scattered population)

Phonology

1. The glottal stop is implied after a short vowel without final, or silent before a vowel.
2. The is often used with Sanskrit and Pali loanwords.

Tones

There are contrastive five or six tones in Khün. 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.

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 (/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.

See also

• Northern Thai language
• Shan language

References

1. Khun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. ^ bloggang.com (thai)
3. Jenny, Mathias (2021-08-23), Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias (eds.), "Writing systems of MSEA", The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 879–906, doi:10.1515/9783110558142-036, ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2, retrieved 2024-12-06
4. 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).
5. ^ Owen, R. W. (2012). A tonal analysis of contemporary Tai Khuen varieties. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS) 5:12–31.

• 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

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