Pyu language (Burma)

Pyu
Pyu alphabets
Region	Pyu city-states, Pagan Kingdom
Extinct	13th century
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Lolo–Burmese? Sak? Pyu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pyx
Linguist list	pyx
Glottolog	burm1262

The Pyu language (Burmese: ပျူ ဘာသာ, IPA: [pjù bàðà]; also Tircul language) is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was mainly spoken in present-day central Burma (Myanmar) in the first millennium CE. It was the vernacular of the Pyu city-states, which thrived between the second century BCE and the 9th century CE. Its usage declined starting in the late 9th century when the Bamar people of the Kingdom 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 12th century. It became extinct in the 13th century, completing the rise of the Burmese language, the language of the Pagan Kingdom, in Upper Burma, the former Pyu realm.

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

Pyu city-states circa 8th century; Pagan shown for comparison only, not contemporary to the Pyu cities

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 (now known as Sak) 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 Fan (Sanskrit) language.