Lisu Language

Lisu is a tonal Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (southwestern China), northern Burma, and Thailand and a small part of India. It is the language of the Lisu minority. Lisu has many dialects that originate from the country in which they live. : Hua Lisu, Pai Lisu, and Lu Shi Lisu dialects are spoken in China. Although they are mutually intelligible, some have many more loan words from other languages than others. The Lisu language is close... more

Lisu is a tonal Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (southwestern China), northern Burma, and Thailand and a small part of India. It is the language of the Lisu minority. Lisu has many dialects that originate from the country in which they live. : Hua Lisu, Pai Lisu, and Lu Shi Lisu dialects are spoken in China. Although they are mutually intelligible, some have many more loan words from other languages than others. The Lisu language is closely related to the Lahu and Akha languages and is also related to Burmese, Kachin, and Yi languages. Lisu can be split up into three dialects: northern, central, and southern, with northern being the standard. Sam Pollard's Miao (today's Hmong) script was used to write Lipo patois (lpo), a patois of central Yi dialect, which is also considered as eastern Lisu language. The Lisu alphabet currently in use throughout Lisu-speaking regions in China, Myanmar and Thailand was primarily developed by two Protestant missionaries from different... less