Waic languages

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title: "Waic languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-myanmar", "languages-of-yunnan", "palaungic-languages", "wa-people"] topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waic_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

Field	Value
name	Waic
ethnicity	Wa people
region	Burma, China
familycolor	Austro-Asiatic
fam2	Khasi–Palaungic
fam3	Palaungic
glotto	waic1245
glottorefname	Waic
::

The Waic languages are spoken in Shan State, Burma, in Northern Thailand, and in Yunnan province, China.

Classification

Gérard Diffloth reconstructed Proto-Waic in a 1980 paper. His classification is as follows (Sidwell 2009). (Note: Individual languages are highlighted in italics.)

Waic
- Samtau (later renamed "Blang" by Diffloth)
  - Samtau
- Wa–Lawa–La
  - Wa proper
    - Wa
  - Lawa
    - Bo Luang
    - Umphal

The recently discovered Meung Yum and Savaiq languages of Shan State, Burma also belong to the Wa language cluster.

Other Waic languages in Shan State, eastern Myanmar are En and Siam (Hsem), which are referred to by Scott (1900) as En and Son. Hsiu (2015) classifies En, Son, and Tai Loi in Scott (1900) as Waic languages, citing the Waic phonological innovation from Proto-Palaungic *s- h- instead of the Angkuic phonological innovation from Proto-Palaungic *s- s-.

References

Myint Myint Phyu. (2013). "A Sociolinguistic Survey of Selected Meung Yum and Savaiq Varieties". Payap University.
Phung Wei Ping. (2013). "A Phonological Description of Meung Yum and Phonological Comparison of Meung Yum with Three Wa Dialects in China". Payap University.
Shintani Tadahiko. 2016. ''The Siam (Hsem) language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA), 107. Tokyo: ILCAA.
Shintani Tadahiko. 2016. ''The Va (En) language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA), 108. Tokyo: ILCAA.
Scott, J. G. 1900. ''Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States''. Superintendent, Government Printing, Rangoon.
Hsiu, Andrew. 2015. [http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1127808 ''The Angkuic languages: a preliminary survey'']. Paper presented ICAAL 6 (6th [[International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics]]), Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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