Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Chinese: 傣那语; pinyin: Dǎinàyǔ; Burmese: တိုင်းလေ; Thai: ภาษาไทเหนือ, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj nɯ̌a]), also called Dehong Tai (Chinese: 德宏傣语; pinyin: Déhóng Dǎiyǔ; Thai: ภาษาไทใต้คง, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj tâːj.kʰōŋ]) and Chinese Shan, is one of the languages spoken by the Dai people in China, especially in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Yunnan Province.
[2] Zhou (2001:13) classifies Tai Nuea into the Dehong (德宏) and Menggeng (孟耿) dialects.
Tai Nuea is a tonal language with a very limited inventory of syllables with no consonant clusters.
The original Tai Nuea spelling did not generally mark tones and failed to distinguish several vowels.
In the Thai and Tai Lü writing systems, the tone value in the pronunciation of a written syllable depends on the tone class of the initial consonant, vowel length and syllable structure.
(a common greeting)ᥐᥝkau33Iᥛᥨᥝᥴmou35canᥖᥣᥢᥲtan42speakᥑᥣᥛᥰxam55languageᥖᥭᥰtai55Taiᥖᥬᥲtaɯ42Deᥑᥨᥒᥰxong55hongᥐᥝ ᥛᥨᥝᥴ ᥖᥣᥢᥲ ᥑᥣᥛᥰ ᥖᥭᥰ ᥖᥬᥲ ᥑᥨᥒᥰkau33 mou35 tan42 xam55 tai55 taɯ42 xong55I can speak language Tai De hongI can speak Dehong Tai/ Tai Nuea.Tai Nuea has official status in some parts of Yunnan (China), where it is used on signs and in education.
Yunnan People's Radio Station (Yúnnán rénmín guǎngbō diàntái 云南人民广播电台) broadcasts in Tai Nuea.
In Thailand, a collection of 108 proverbs was published with translations into Thai and English.