掸语

撣語有19個輔音。與泰語和老撾語不同，撣語沒有[d]和[b]兩個濁口腔塞音，古內爆濁音今讀濁鼻塞音。

¹ 聲門爆破音一般標記在未終止的短元音後，或者在一個元音前的無聲“a”。

² 開頭的[f]只見於某些方言詞中，其他方言區一般發音為[pʰ]。

³ 顫音很少見，一般用於英語或巴利語外來詞中。很多撣族人不會發[r]這個音，有時發[l]作為替代。

撣語有10個元音，13個雙元音：

[iu], [eu], [ɛu]; [ui], [oi], [ɯi], [ɔi], [əi]; [ai], [aɯ], [au]; [aːi], [aːu]

和泰語相比，撣語的元音的比較簡單。撣族人在學習泰語時很難發出ia、ua、uea（[ɯa]）等雙元音。此外，撣語沒有三元音，在長元音和短元音方面也沒有泰語那樣系統性的區別。

根據方言差異，撣語有五個或六個聲調。第六個聲調只在北部方言出現。

下表是未經覈對的六個音節表示的聲調，即以[m]、[n]、[ŋ]、[w]等響音結尾的閉音節，和以[j]結尾的開音節。

^* The symbol in the first column corresponds to conventions used for other tonal languages; the second is derived from the Shan orthography.

下表是具體音位的聲調示例:

撣語聲調與泰語聲調對應，如下所示:

1. 撣語的升調接近泰語的升調。
2. The Shan low tone is equivalent to the Thai low tone.
3. The Shan mid-tone is different from the Thai mid-tone. It falls in the end.
4. The Shan high tone is close to the Thai high tone. But it is not rising.
5. The Shan falling tone is different from the Thai falling tone. It is short, creaky and ends with a glottal stop.

The table below presents four phonemic tones in checked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in a glottal stop [ʔ] and obstruent sounds such as [p], [t], and [k].

The syllable structure of Shan is C(G)V((V)/(C)), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide, and the rhyme consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong alone. (Only in some dialects, a diphthong may also be followed by a consonant.) The glides are: -w-, -y- and -r-. There are seven possible final consonants: /ŋ/, /n/, /m/, /k/, /t/, /p/, and /ʔ/.

Some representative words are:

• CV /kɔ/ also
• CVC /kàːt/ market
• CGV /kwàː/ to go
• CGVC /kwaːŋ/ broad
• CVV /kǎi/ far
• CGVV /kwáːi/ water buffalo

Typical Shan words are monosyllabic. Multisyllabic words are mostly Pali loanwords, or Burmese words with the initial weak syllable /ə/.