Shö, or Asho, is a Kuki-Chin language of Myanmar, with a few thousand speakers in Bangladesh. This language is known as Asho Khyang in Bangladesh.[2]

A written script was developed by Rev. Lyman Stilson in 1842.[3]

Geographical distribution

Asho is spoken in Ayeyarwady Region, Bago Region, and Magway Region, and Rakhine State, Myanmar. VanBik (2009:38)[4] lists the following Asho dialects.

Phonology

Asho (K'Chò) has 26 to 30 consonants and ten to eleven vowels depending on the dialect.

Asho consonant phonemes in the Hill dialect[5]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
-v +v
Plosive plain p t̪ k ʔ
aspirated pʰ t̪ʰ kʰ
implosive ɓ ɗ
Nasal voiced m n ɲ ŋ
voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
Fricative plain s ʃ h ɦ
aspirated sʰ
lateral ɬ
Approximant w l j
  • Voiced plosives /b d ɡ z/ are only heard in the Plains dialect.
  • In the Plains dialect, dental plosives /t̪ t̪ʰ/ are pronounced as alveolar [t tʰ], along with /d/ being only alveolar.
  • Velar plosives /k kʰ/ may be palatalized as affricates [tʃ tʃʰ] before front vowels.
  • In some dialects a voiceless [j̊] is heard in place of /ʃ/.
  • /j/ may also be heard as a fricative [ʒ] in free variation among dialects.
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i / ˠiʉ u
Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ
Close-mid e(ə̆) ɤo
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Diphthongs: ei, ai, au

  • Sounds /ʏ ʉ/ only occur in the Hill dialect. In the Plains dialect, /ʊ u/ is heard in place of /ʏ ʉ/.
  • A shortened [ə̆] is heard in unstressed syllables.
  • /ɤ/ can sometimes be heard as more central [ɘ].
  • A prevelarized /ˠi/ occurs in the Plains dialect.

Morphology

Similar to other Kukish languages, many Asho verbs have two distinct stems. This stem alternation is a Proto-Kukish feature, which has been retained to different degrees in different Kukish languages.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Asho Chin at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ↑ "Asho Khyang in Bangladesh people group profile". Joshua Project. Retrieved April 1, 2026.
  3. ↑ Lian, Salai Van Cung; Salem-Gervais, Nicolas (November 2020). "How Many Chin Languages Should Be Taught in Government Schools? Ongoing developments and structural challenges of language-in-education policy in Chin State". Parami Journal of Education. 1 (1).
  4. ↑ VanBik, Kenneth (2009). Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. UC Berkeley. ISBN 0-944613-47-0.
  5. ↑ Tignor, Daniel (2018). A Phonology of Hill (kone-Tu) Asho (MA thesis). University of North Dakota.
  6. ↑ Kee Shein Mang (2006). A Syntactic and Pragmatic Description of Verb Stem Alternation in K’chò, a Chin Language (PDF) (MA thesis). Payap University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-26.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shö_language