Zaiwa

Zaiwa (autonym Zaiwa mying; ISO 639-3 atb), also known as Atsi, is a Northern Burmish language of the Sino-Tibetan family. It is spoken across the China–Myanmar border, chiefly in western Yunnan’s Dehong Prefecture and in adjoining parts of Kachin and northern Shan states; in China, Zaiwa communities are officially included within the Jingpo nationality. Zaiwa is tonal, distinguishes vowel phonation types, generally places verbs after their objects, and has borrowed extensively from Jinghpaw, Burmese, Dehong Dai, and regional Chinese. It is a distinct language, not a dialect of Jinghpaw or Burmese, despite close cultural and multilingual ties. Missionaries used the Fraser alphabet and early romanizations, while a revised Latin orthography has been used in China since the mid-twentieth century; literacy and written use nevertheless remain uneven across communities.