Oronyms in northern Burma: Asymmetry between highland and lowland place names

In Burma, which is home to around 130 languages, place names have a diverse set of etymologies. Although they are among the earliest evidence of human settlement and movement, there have been few discussions of place names in Burma, let alone northern Burma. This study, as a preliminary step in toponomastic studies in Burma, explores mountain names (oronyms) in northern Burma, where the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Kachin people and the Tai-speaking Shan people are among the major populations. For the present study, 484 oronyms were gathered and plotted on the map, showing the widespread distribution of Kachin oronyms in contrast to the marginal distribution of Shan oronyms. This situation is not parallel to the situation of the principal town names, where Shan place names prevail. This asymmetry could in part be due to the contrasting ecological settings occupied by the Kachins and Shans in northern Burma, with uplands on one side and lowlands on the other. One implication of this study is the possibility that not only the horizontal plane (longitude and latitude) but also the vertical direction (altitude) plays some role in the distributional pattern of place names in northern Burma.