| Shö | |
| States: | Burma, Bangladesh |
| Ethnicity: | Asho Chin |
| Speakers: | 50,000 |
| Date: | 1983–2011 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Speakers2: | plus an unknown number of Shendu |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Central Tibeto-Burman (?) |
| Fam4: | Kuki-Chin–Naga |
| Fam5: | Kuki-Chin |
| Fam6: | Southern |
| Lc1: | cnb |
| Ld1: | Chinbon Chin |
| Lc2: | csh |
| Ld2: | Asho Chin |
| Lc3: | shl |
| Ld3: | Shendu |
| Glotto2: | chin1478 |
| Glottoname2: | Chinbon Chin |
| Glotto3: | asho1236 |
| Glottoname3: | Asho Chin |
| Glotto4: | shen1247 |
| Glottoname4: | Shendu |
Shö is a Kuki-Chin language dialect cluster of Burma and Bangladesh. There are perhaps three distinct dialects, Asho (Khyang), Chinbon, and Shendu.
Mayin and Longpaw are not mutually intelligible, but have been subsumed under the ISO code for Chinbon because Mayin-Longpaw speakers generally understand Chinbon.[1] Minkya is similarly included because most Minkya speakers understand Mayin.[2]
Chinbon (Uppu) is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar.[3]
Kanpetlet and Paletwa townships
Minbya township
Asho is spoken in Ayeyarwady Region, Bago Region, and Magway Region, and Rakhine State, Myanmar.
VanBik (2009:38)[4] lists the following Asho dialects.
Shendu is spoken in Mizoram, India.
The Asho dialect (K’Chò) has 26 to 30 consonants and ten to eleven vowels depending on the dialect.
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /t̪ʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | |||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Back | ||||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ / pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Diphthongs: pronounced as /ei, ai, au/
Similar to other Kukish languages, many Asho verbs have two distinct stems. This stem alternation is a Proto-Kukish feature, which has been retained to different degrees in different Kukish languages.[5]