Onomastic,orthographic, dialectal and dialectical borders: The Lisu and Lahu

Two large minority groups of China, Burma and Thailand, the Lisu and the Lahu, have each reinforced their identity through the use of standard dialects and writing systems. They also maintain regular contact despite continuing migration over very large distances. The level of political recognition that they have received differs from country to country, and the names used by majority groups to refer to them also differ, but despite this a transnational unity has been maintained or even enhanced in the last hundred years.