Akha is a member of the Southern Loloish branch of the Lolo-Burmese language family. It is spoken by about 620,000 people in Myanmar, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. In particular, it is spoken in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Lincang Prefecture in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China; in Keng Tung district of Shan State in the northeast of Myanmar; in Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son Provinces in northern Thailand; in Phongsaly Province in northern Laos, and in Phongsaly and Lai Châu provinces in northwestern Vietnam.
Other names for Akha include Ahka, Aini (哈尼), Aka, Ak'a, Ekaw Ikaw and Yani. It is known as A˯ka˯daw˯, Avkavdawv, Avkav, 哈尼 (Hāní), Hà Nhì, อาข่า (Xā k̄h̀ā), ອາຄ່າການ (a kha kan) or အခါ အီကော (aahkar ae kaw) by those who speak it.
There are quite a few dialects of Akha because the Akha people live in small isolated villages in remote mountainous areas, and there can be significant differences in the language used in each village. Therefore, Akha dialects are not all mutually intelligible.
Akha is closely related to Hani and Honi, which are more or less mutually intelligible with each other. They are classified as closely related but separate Hani languages by Western scholars, while Chinese scholars classify them as dialects of Hani, and the people who speak them as one ethnic group.
The Akha people have an rich oral tradition and believe in memorizing and reciting knowledge. They call this their "Heart Book", as the knowledge is written in the heart.
There are several ways to write Akha with the Latin, Thai and Burmese scripts which were developed during the 20th century by missionaries and others, including Matthew McDaniel, Inga-Lill Hansson, David Bradley and Paul Lewis. The most widely-used script is the one developed by Paul Lewis in 1950. It is commonly referred to as the 'Baptist script', and is used in Myanmar and Thailand. There are also orthographies based on Chinese pinyin, which are used in China.
Download alphabet charts for Akha (Excel)
Source: https://www.bible.com/bible/1722/LUK.11.AHK
Source: https://www.bible.com/bible/1/LUK.11.KJV
Information about Akha | Numbers | Tower of Babel | New Akha script
Information about the Akha language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akha_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akha_people
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Língua_akha
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Акха_(язык)
http://www.akha.dk/
https://akha.org/content/language/
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/ahk
http://www.language-archives.org/language/ahk
https://www.academia.edu/28518049/The_current_status_of_Akha
Akha, Burmese/Myanmar, Lahu, Lipo, Marma, Nisu, Nuosu, Sani
Akha, Bisu, Isan, Kuy, Northern Khmer, Northern Pwo, Nyah Kur, Pāli, Sanskrit, Thai, Thai Song, Urak Lawoi’
Aiton, Akha, Arakanese, Burmese, Eastern Pwo Karen, Jingpho, Khamti, Marma, Palaung, Pa'O, S'gaw Karen, Tai Laing, Tai Phake, Western Pwo
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page created: 19.09.24. Last modified: 20.09.24
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