| Also Known As: Lip'a,Lesuo,Li-hsaw,Lishu,Chedi,Li,Cheli,Leisu,Yawyin,Lisaw,Loisu,Yaw-yen,Leshuoopa,Yeh-jeh,Liso,Yaw Yin,Khae,Lissu,Yeh-jen,Yobin,Lu-tzu,Yao Yen,Chung,Lusu,Li-shaw,Southern Lisu,Central Lisu,Lisu
Description:
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.
The Lisu alphabet currently in use throughout Lisu-speaking regions in China, Myanmar and Thailand was primarily developed by two Protestant missionaries from different missionary organizations. The more famous of the two is James O. Fraser, a British evangelist from the China Inland Mission. His colleague, who developed the original version of the alphabet (later revised and improved with Fraser and various colleagues from the C.I.M.) was Sara Ba Thaw, a polyglot Karen preacher based in Myitkyina, Burma, who belonged to the American Methodist Mission.
Ba Thaw had prepared a simple Lisu catechism by 1915. The script now widely known as the..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of Lisu Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="41.371138" lon="108.144011" type="map">
32.904293, 110.467709, China
49.837982, 105.820313, Asia</googlemap>
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