Myanmar News Articles: Shan in exile seek to preserve language in digital age

CHAING MAI- The first, two-day seminar on Shan language and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), aiming to find solutions to enhance the Shan language through digital technology, was held on January 18-19, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The main two issues discussed during the two-day seminar were standardization of Shan dialects and the Shan Unicode font.

The Shan have encountered communication barriers for both political and geographical reasons, Shan living in Burma speak words mixed with Burmese, and likewise the Tai living in China, Vietnam and India speak words mixed with the national languages.

According to Puen Kham, a Shan language expert, Shan language and ICT are linked as we live in the digital age which affects almost every aspect of our lives. Moreover, he pointed out that the Shan should find and use words used by their ethnic Thai and Lao cousins, instead of Burmese and Chinese. However, he elaborated that if some words borrowed from Burmese and Chinese are widely used, then their use could be continued.

Sai Paing Pha, a Shan ICT specialist explained that the problem is that people use different fonts, namely Unicode and Zawgyi Tai, and people using Unicode can't read Zawgyi Tai font and vice versa. Hence, he urged those who use Zawgyi Tai, especially Sao Su Kham a revered Shan monk and inventor of the font to revoke the Zawgyi Tai font.

Jai Long a PhD candidate and Shan ICT specialist, also stated that Zawgyi Tai font was destroying the Shan Unicode and Shan language, and urged Zawgyi Tai users to solely use the Unicode system.

Sai Aung Htay, another participant, said: "All young people here use facebook, don't you? I believe that many young Shan would like to type Shan but it is frustrating when we just see squares and can't read them."

Tai speakers mainly live in Burma, China, Lao, Thailand, Vietnam and Assam in India. Thailand and Lao are the only countries where Tai is the official language. In Burma, the Shan language was banned from being taught in state schools for over a half century by the military regime.

Seng Murng Mungkorn, the president of the Thaiyai Education and Culture Association, Thailand, addressing the two-day seminar on language and ICT, said: "Language is very important for humankind; whether an ethnic group survives depends on language, literature and adjusting to the environment, even in the digital age."

The seminar was attended by about 100 participants from different sectors, including construction workers, domestic workers, civil society organizations and individuals. The event was cohosted by the Thaiyai Education and Culture Association; Shan Literature and Culture Association of Chiang Mai.