Lahu hkâw
Lahu
Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Loloish)
Lahu (Ladhof) is a Loloish (Yi-branch) Tibeto-Burman language spoken across the highlands of southwestern China (Yunnan), eastern Myanmar (Shan State), northern Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai), Laos, and Vietnam, with ~750K speakers. It is divided into Lahu Na (Black Lahu) and Lahu Shi (Yellow Lahu). The Latin orthography developed by missionaries in the early 20th century has 7 distinct tones marked by superscript symbols (ˆ ˇ ˉ etc. plus underscore) — a sophisticated tone-marking system. Lahu has SOV word order and clause-final tense-aspect-mood particles.
Where it is spoken
20 core words in Lahu
Water
ɨˆ
/ɯ̂/
Fire
a-mí
/amí/
Sun
mvuhˇ-nyiˉ
/muʔ ɲí/
Moon
ha-pa
/hapa/
Mother
e
/e/
Father
a-pa
/apa/
Eat
caˆ
/tsâ/
Drink
dawˇ
/dàʔ/
Love
haˆ
/hâ/
Heart
nyiˉ-ma
/ɲíma/
Tree
shi-pa
/ʃìpa/
House
yaˇ
/jâʔ/
Dog
phuˇ-pheh
/pʰùpʰɛʔ/
Cat
maˇ-niˆ
/mâníʔ/
Hand
lɔˆ
/lɔ̂/
Eye
mɛhˇ
/mɛ̂ʔ/
Hello
ô-bo-haˇ
/óbohâʔ/
Thank you
a-bo-shaˇ
/abôʃâʔ/
One
tê
/tê/
Good
daˇ
/dâʔ/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Loloish) languages
| Meaning | Lahu | Lisu | Burmese | Rakhine | Ladakhi | Sherpa | Sikkimese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ɨˆ /ɯ̂/ | yi /ji/ | ရေ /jè/ | ရေ /ɹeː/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | a-mí /amí/ | a-mi /ami/ | မီး /mí/ | မီး /mí/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | mvuhˇ-nyiˉ /muʔ ɲí/ | mei-lo /mejlo/ | နေ /nè/ | နေ /nè/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | ha-pa /hapa/ | cha-mi /tʃami/ | လ /la̰/ | လ /la/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Mother | e /e/ | ma /ma/ | အမေ /ʔəmè/ | အမေ /ʔəmeː/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | a-pa /apa/ | a-pa /apa/ | အဖေ /ʔəpʰè/ | အဖေ /ʔəpʰeː/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ |
| Eat | caˆ /tsâ/ | dza /tsa/ | စား /sá/ | စား /sá/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | dawˇ /dàʔ/ | dao /dao/ | သောက် /θauʔ/ | သာက် /θaˀ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ |
| Love | haˆ /hâ/ | gu-hpa /ɡupʰa/ | အချစ် /ʔətɕʰɪʔ/ | အချစ် /ʔəkʰjiˀ/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | བློ་ཆོ /lotɕʰo/ | དགའ /ɡa/ |
| Heart | nyiˉ-ma /ɲíma/ | ni-ma /nima/ | နှလုံး /n̥əlóuɴ/ | နှလုံး /n̥əlóuɴ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ |
| Tree | shi-pa /ʃìpa/ | shi-pa /ʃipa/ | သစ်ပင် /θɪʔpìɴ/ | သစ်ပင် /θiˀpìɴ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | སྡོང་པོ /dompo/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | yaˇ /jâʔ/ | hkyim /tɕim/ | အိမ် /ʔèiɴ/ | အိမ် /ʔèiɴ/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ནང /naŋ/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ |
| Dog | phuˇ-pheh /pʰùpʰɛʔ/ | kwe /kwɛ/ | ခွေး /kʰwé/ | ခွေး /kʰwé/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ |
| Cat | maˇ-niˆ /mâníʔ/ | a-nyi /aɲi/ | ကြောင် /tɕàuɴ/ | ကြောင် /tɕàuɴ/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ |
| Hand | lɔˆ /lɔ̂/ | la /la/ | လက် /lɛʔ/ | လက် /lɛˀ/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག /lak/ |
| Eye | mɛhˇ /mɛ̂ʔ/ | mai-mei /majmei/ | မျက်စိ /mjɛʔ sḭ/ | မျက်စိ /mjɛˀsì/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hello | ô-bo-haˇ /óbohâʔ/ | ngo-lan /ŋolan/ | မင်္ဂလာပါ /mìɴɡəlà bà/ | မင်္ဂလာပါ /mìɴɡəlà pà/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | ཏ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལེ /ʈʰaɕi tɕʰele/ | ཁམས་བཟང /kʰamsaŋ/ |
| Thank you | a-bo-shaˇ /abôʃâʔ/ | ti-tu /titu/ | ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ် /tɕézú tìɴ bà dɛ̀/ | ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ် /tɕézú tìɴ pà dɛ̀/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕe/ |
| One | tê /tê/ | ti /ti/ | တစ် /tɪʔ/ | တစ် /tiˀ/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | ཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Good | daˇ /dâʔ/ | nyi /ɲi/ | ကောင်း /káuɴ/ | ကောင်း /káuɴ/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ལེགས་པོ /lekpo/ |
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