Khün language

Khun
Kengtung Shan
Kengtung tai
ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿᨡᩨ᩠ᨶ
Pronunciation/táj kʰɯ̌ːn/
Native toMyanmar (Shan State), Thailand
RegionKengtung
Native speakers
(100,000 cited 1990)
Kra–Dai
Tai Tham script, Thai script
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3kkh
Glottologkhun1259

Khün, or Tai Khün (Tai Khün: ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿᨡᩨ᩠ᨶ, /taj˧˧.kʰɯːn˧˨˥/; Shan: တႆးၶိုၼ် Thai: ไทเขิน [tʰaj kʰɤ̌ːn]), also known as Kengtung tai, Kengtung Shan, is the language of the Tai Khün people of Kengtung, Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It is also spoken in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, and Yunnan Province, China.

The Khün varieties share 93% to 100% lexical similarity. Khun is closely related to other Tai languages. Khün shares 90% to 95% lexical similarity with Northern Thai language, 92% to 95% with , 93% to 97% with Shan, and 80% to 83% with standard Thai.

Tai Khun is traditionally written using a variant of the Tai Tham script.