Intha dialect

Intha
Region	Inle Lake
Ethnicity	Intha
Native speakers	90,000 (2000)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Lolo–Burmese Burmish Southern Burmese Intha
Language codes
ISO 639-3	int
Glottolog	inth1238[2]

The Intha dialect of Burmese is spoken by the Intha people, a group of Bamar descendants who migrated to Inle Lake in Shan State. The dialect is spoken by 90,000.^[3] The Intha dialect is characterized by a retention of the /-l-/ medial (for the following consonant clusters: /kl- kʰl- pl- pʰl- ml- hml-/). Examples include:

• "full": Standard Burmese ပြည့် ([pjḛ]) → ပ္လည့် ([plḛ]), from old Burmese ပ္လည်
• "ground": Standard Burmese မြေ ([mjè]) → မ္လေ ([mlè]), from old Burmese မ္လိယ်

There is no voicing with the presence of either aspirated or unaspirated consonants. For instance, ဗုဒ္ဓ (Buddha) is pronounced [boʊʔda̰] in standard Burmese, but [poʊʔtʰa̰] in the Intha dialect. This is probably due to influence from the Shan language.

Furthermore, သ (/θ/ in standard Burmese) has merged to /sʰ/ (ဆ) in the Intha dialect.

Rhymes

Rhyme correspondences to standard Burmese follow these patterns:^[4]

Written Burmese	Standard Burmese	Intha dialect	Notes
-ျင် -င်	/-ɪɴ/	/-ɛɴ/
-ဉ်	/-ɪɴ/	/-ɪɴ/
ိမ် -ိန် ိုင်	/-eɪɴ -eɪɴ -aɪɴ/	/-eɪɴ/
-ျက် -က်	/-jɛʔ -ɛʔ/	/-aʔ/
-တ် -ပ်	/-aʔ/	/-ɛʔ/
-ည်	/--ɛ, -e, -i/	/-e/	/-i/ if initial is a palatal consonant
ိတ် ိပ် ိုက်	/-eɪʔ -eɪʔ -aɪʔ/	/-aɪʔ/

Rhymes

Open syllables	weak = ə full = i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u
Closed	nasal = ɪɴ, eɪɴ, ɛɴ, aɴ, ɔɴ, oʊɴ, ʊɴ stop = ɪʔ, aɪʔ, ɛʔ, aʔ, ɔʔ, oʊʔ, ʊʔ

References

1. Intha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Intha". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Lewis, M. Paul (2009). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Intha: A language of Myanmar. ISBN 978-1-55671-216-6. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
4. Barron, Sandy; John Okell; Saw Myat Yin; Kenneth VanBik; Arthur Swain; Emma Larkin; Anna J. Allott; Kirsten Ewers (2007). Refugees From Burma: Their Backgrounds and Refugee Experiences (PDF) (Report). Center for Applied Linguistics. pp. 16–17. Retrieved 2010-08-20.