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Glite Dictionary
Shan

Shan

13 9.9
A Tai language spoken in parts of Laos and Myanmar
  • noun
translation icon : shan
  • Many Shan people in Myanmar celebrate traditional festivals with colorful dances and music.
  • Shan State
  • Shan people
  • Shan music

Examples

  • Sai Mao's Burmese-language songs about Shanland and Shan people are happy, cute, and nostalgic in their content.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Understand, life is precious to the Shan Guonese.

    Mortal Engines (2018)

  • They are Shan from Myanmar, just over the border.

    Thirteen Lives (2022)

  • The students in my class are learning the Shan language as part of their cultural studies.

  • In Louangphabang Province, locals often speak Shan as their first language.

Compounds

Chinese Shan
  • Specialized
9.9

A language spoken in southwest Yunnan, China, by the Shan people

Kunlan Shan
9.8

A mountain range in western China running east about 1,000 miles from the Indian border

Tian Shan
7.0

A large mountain range in Central Asia stretching across China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan

Tyan Shan
8.2

A high mountain range in Central Asia with tall snowy peaks and glaciers

Surface Forms

Shan singular
Shans plural

Etymology

Shan is the name of a people and their language from Southeast Asia, and it comes from the name the people use for themselves and belongs to the Tai family, the same family as Thai and Lao. So Shan today means the Shan people or the language they speak.