Extinct 13th century Linguist list pyx | ISO 639-3 pyx Glottolog burm1262 | |
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Region Pyu city-states, Pagan Kingdom Language family Sino-Tibetan
Lolo–Burmese?
Sak?
Pyu | ||
The Pyu language (Burmese: ပျူ ဘာသာ, [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.
Contents
The language is principally known from inscriptions on four stone urns (7th and 8th centuries) found near the Payagyi pagoda (in the modern Bago Township) and the multi-lingual Myazedi inscription (early 12th century). These were first deciphered by Charles Otto Blagden in the early 1910s.
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
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 Fàn (梵 "Sanskrit") language.