According to community estimates (2023), Danau is spoken by about 3,000 people in six villages near Aungban, Kalaw Township, Shan State.
The Danu settled in the Pindaya region after returning from wars in Thailand,[6] and speak a variant of Burmese that is characterized by minor differences in pronunciation.
The Danau live primarily in the villages of Taungpohla, Thaethit, Htinyugon, Chaunggya and Naung In, within a short distance of the towns of Aungban and Heho.
The current situation is in contrast to the prediction made by the linguist Gordon H. Luce in 1965, when he called Danau a 'dying' language.
[7] The Danau people are primarily farmers, growing sesame, turmeric, ginger, chili, groundnut and potato for local consumption and for sale at nearby markets.
Speakers use ad-hoc Burmese and Pa'O inspired spelling to represent their language in informal situations, especially on social media and karaoke videos.
Since 2020, a systematic way of writing Danau in Burmese script has been developed by members of the language community in cooperation with a team of international linguists.
The internal structure of phrases is inconsistent in terms of head and dependent arrangements, showing influence from verb-final Tibeto-Burman, especially Burmese, and equally mixed Karenic Pa'O.
In coda position, only /ʔ/, /h/, and /ɴ/ are distinguished, although some speakers retain apparently more conservative pronunciations with specified place of articulation (/k, t, p/ and /ŋ, n, m/) in some words.
Danau has a rich vowel inventory, including monophthongs and diphthongs: i ɪ, ɯ, u, ʊ, e, ɛ, ə, ɔ, o, a, ɐ, ɒ, ai, au, ou, ei, ɛe, eə.