Pyu language (Burma)


The Pyu language is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was mainly spoken in what is now Myanmar in the first millennium CE. It was the vernacular of the Pyu city-states, which thrived between the second century BCE and the ninth century CE. Its usage declined starting in the late ninth century when the Bamar people of Nanzhao began to overtake the Pyu city-states. The language was still in use, at least in royal inscriptions of the Pagan Kingdom if not in popular vernacular, until the late twelfth century. It became extinct in the thirteenth century, completing the rise of the Burmese language, the language of the Pagan Kingdom, in Upper Burma, the former Pyu realm.
The language is principally known from inscriptions on four stone urns found near the Payagyi pagoda and the multi-lingual Myazedi inscription.
These were first deciphered by Charles Otto Blagden in the early 1910s.
The Pyu script was a Brahmic script. The most recent scholarship suggests the Pyu script may have been the source of the Burmese script.

Classification

The Pyu language was a Sino-Tibetan language related to Old Burmese, although the degree of proximity is debated. The language is tentatively classified within the Lolo-Burmese languages by Matisoff and thought to most likely be Luish by Bradley. Van Driem feels it is best treated as an independent branch of Sino-Tibetan pending further evidence.

Usage

The language was the vernacular of the Pyu states. But Sanskrit and Pali appeared to have co-existed alongside Pyu as the court language. The Chinese records state that the 35 musicians that accompanied the Pyu embassy to the Tang court in 800–802 played music and sang in the Fàn language.

List of Pyu inscriptions

LocationInventory number
Śrī Kṣetra04
Pagan07
Śrī Kṣetra10
Pagan11
Śrī Kṣetra12
Śrī Kṣetra22
Śrī Kṣetra25
Śrī Kṣetra28
Śrī Kṣetra29
Myittha32
Myittha39
Śrī Kṣetra55
Śrī Kṣetra56
Śrī Kṣetra57
Śrī Kṣetra105
Śrī Kṣetra160
???163
Śrī Kṣetra164
Śrī Kṣetra167

Vocabulary

Below are selected Pyu basic vocabulary items from Gordon Luce. and Marc Miyake.
GlossLuce Miyake
onetåtaṁ
twohni°kni
threeho:, hau:hoḥ
fourpḷåplaṁ
fivepi°ŋa ṅa
sixtrutru
sevenknihniṁ
eighthråhraṁ
ninetkotko
tensū, sausu
twentytpū
bone, relicru
watertdu̱-
goldtha
dayphru̱
monthde
yearsni:
villageo
good; wellha
to be in pain, illhni°:
nearnessmtu
namemi
Iga°:
mygi
wifemaya:
consort, wife vo̱:
child, sonsa:
grandchildpli, pli°