Symbols
59Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Alphabet
The 22 letters of the Jinghpaw alphabet in order. F, Q, V and X are not used, and there are no accents because tones are not written. Many sounds take two or three letters: hp, ht, hk, ky, gy, chy, ng, ny, sh, ts and the vowel aw.
Punctuation
The apostrophe splits a syllabic n from the next letter, as in N'Mai Hka and N'hkum; quotation marks are the English kind.
Currency
The Myanmar kyat has no Unicode sign and is written K or Ks (K 5,000); the Chinese yuan ¥ is used by Jingpo speakers in Yunnan and widely in the Kachin border trade.
Where it's spoken
Kachin State and northern Shan State in Myanmar, Dehong in Yunnan, China, and the Singpho villages of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India.
Kachin in emoji
Most Kachin are Christians, and the Jinghpaw Bible was one of the first big books in the language; the Manau festival is danced to drums; the crossed swords stand for the Kachin flag; Hkakabo Razi and the jade of Hpakant are in Kachin State.
On the map
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The Kachin (Jinghpaw) alphabet
Kachin is the everyday English name for Jinghpaw (also spelled Jingpho, and Jingpo in China), the main language of the Kachin peoples of northern Myanmar. It is written in the Latin alphabet, in the order A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z. The letters F, Q, V and X are not part of it, and C is not used alone: it appears in the digraphs ch and chy, as in Chyeju (thanks). Most unmarked Jinghpaw text can be typed with an ordinary English keyboard, though fuller spelling also uses marked vowels; people searching for a "Kachin font" usually need nothing more than these characters.
The current standard orthography was devised in the 1890s by the American Baptist missionary Ola Hanson, who also wrote a Kachin–English dictionary and translated the Bible. The Jinghpaw Bible (Chyum Laika) and the hymnbook made the alphabet the shared written form for Kachin people across their many dialects, and it is still the spelling of schoolbooks, songs (mahkawn), newspapers and Facebook posts today.
How Jinghpaw spelling works: hp, ht, hk, aw and the apostrophe
Jinghpaw has more consonants than English letters, so it spells them with combinations. An h written before p, t or k marks the aspirated, breathy version: hp in Jinghpaw and Lahpai, ht in Lahtaw, hk in hka (river), as in Mali Hka and N'Mai Hka, the two rivers that join to form the Irrawaddy. The spellings ky, gy and chy represent distinct consonant sounds. ng and ny are single nasal sounds, and sh and ts work as their English look-alikes suggest. Among the vowels, aw is one sound, the open o of Jinghpaw itself and of Wunpawng, a Jinghpaw word for the Kachin people collectively.
Jinghpaw is tonal, but its standard spelling usually leaves tones unmarked. Fuller spellings also use marked vowels such as ă, è, ē, ö and ŭ; readers use context to distinguish tonal homophones. An apostrophe can mark a glottal stop, though glottal stops are often omitted in standard spelling; the apostrophe is also kept in names such as N'hkum and N'Mai. The straight ' and the curly ’ are both used; phones and word processors usually produce the curly one.
How to type Kachin letters on a keyboard and phone
The usual unmarked Jinghpaw spelling can be typed with A–Z and punctuation on an English keyboard; fuller spellings also use marked vowels such as ă, è, ē, ö and ŭ, which require an input method that supports them. The curly apostrophe ’ is Alt0146 on Windows, OptionShift] on a Mac, or available by holding the apostrophe key on many phone keyboards. Curly quotes “ ” are Alt0147 and Alt0148, Option[ and OptionShift[ on a Mac.
Prices in Myanmar are in kyat, which has no Unicode sign and is written K or Ks before the amount (K 5,000). In Dehong in Yunnan, and in much of the trade across the Kachin border, the Chinese yuan is used.
Where Kachin is spoken
Jinghpaw is spoken by an estimated 600,000 to 1,000,000 people in Myanmar , most of them in Kachin State, whose capital is Myitkyina, and in the north of Shan State. Across the border in Yunnan, China , the Jingpo are one of the country's officially recognised peoples and write the language in a Latin script introduced there in 1957. In India the closely related Singpho is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
"Kachin" is an umbrella label for several peoples and languages; lists of Kachin groups vary, and whether Lisu are included is disputed. Jinghpaw is the dominant Kachin language and a lingua franca among many Kachin groups. It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family, so it is distantly related to Burmese, whose own script is completely different; see the Burmese, Shan, Mon and Rohingya collections for the other languages of Myanmar .
Kachin emoji: Manau, faith and the Kachin flag
The great Kachin celebration is the Manau, a festival dance in which hundreds of people move in long lines around tall painted Manau poles, led by dancers in hornbill-feather headdresses, to the beat of big drums ; the Kachin State Day Manau in Myitkyina is held around 10 January. Most Kachin are Christians, mainly Baptists and Catholics, so are common emoji in Kachin chats, and Christmas is one of the biggest days of the year.
There is no widely supported Kachin flag emoji; a Kachin (MM-11) tag sequence exists, but people commonly use or build the flag from . Kachin State is also home to Hkakabo Razi , the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, and to the jade mines of Hpakant , the world's main source of jadeite.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyKachin Alphabet combos
11Worth knowing
- The Irrawaddy, Myanmar's great river, begins in Kachin State at Myitsone, where the Mali Hka and the N'Mai Hka meet; hka is the Jinghpaw word for river.
- Jinghpaw uses 22 basic Latin letters; tones are usually left unmarked, though fuller spellings use marked vowels such as ă, è, ē, ö and ŭ.
- Hkakabo Razi in the far north of Kachin State, at about 5,880 metres, is usually given as the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, with permanent snow and glaciers on its upper slopes although it stands close to the tropics.
Questions people ask
7What is the Kachin alphabet?
Jinghpaw (Kachin) uses 22 basic Latin letters: A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z. F, Q, V and X are not used, and C appears in ch and chy. Many sounds are written with two letters, such as ch, hp, ht, hk, ky, gy, ng, ny, sh and ts; aw is a vowel combination.
Does the Kachin language have its own script?
No. Jinghpaw's current standard orthography uses the Latin alphabet and was devised by Ola Hanson in the 1890s, after earlier Roman-script attempts. It does not use the Burmese script, and in China the Jingpo write it in a Latin script of their own.
Is Kachin the same as Jinghpaw?
"Kachin" is a collective label for several peoples and languages. Jinghpaw is the dominant language and a lingua franca among many Kachin groups; whether Lisu are included in the Kachin category is disputed, so "Kachin language" usually means Jinghpaw but can be ambiguous.
How do you say thank you in Kachin?
Chyeju kaba sai (thank you very much), or simply Chyeju. Chy is one Jinghpaw digraph; C also appears in ch.
How do you say I love you in Kachin language?
Ngai nang hpe tsaw ra ai. Ngai is I, nang is you, hpe marks the object and tsaw ra means to love.
How do I type Kachin on my phone?
The usual unmarked Jinghpaw spelling can be typed with A–Z on an English keyboard. Fuller spellings also use marked vowels such as ă, è, ē, ö and ŭ, which require an input method that supports them; the apostrophe and quotation marks are on standard keyboards too.
Is there a Kachin flag emoji?
There is no widely supported Kachin flag emoji; a Kachin (MM-11) tag sequence exists but has limited support, so people use the Myanmar flag or red and green hearts with crossed swords .
