I'm just back from a weekend trip from Naypyidaw to Inle Lake, in Shan state. I have made this trip many times, and always follow the same route eastwards, over the hills to the small town of Pinlaung, then head north and skirt around Inle Lake to reach Nyaung Shwe.

I have seen the same road signs on each occasion. The first sign is maybe 50 Km east of Naypyidaw, and then several similar signs until I reach Pin Laung.

The sign has 2 languages. The first is in Burmese (Myanmar-sa) script. I had naturally assumed that this was indeed Myanmar-sa.

The second language on the sign is in Roman (ie English letter) script, with some accent or tone marks similar to French acute accents.

In my ignorance, I assumed that this second language was Shan. But I have just discovered that Shan language is written using the Burmese or Mon script!

That means that the first language on the signpost could be either Myanmar-sa or Shan (probably Myanmar-sa), and the second language is ???

No, stupid me didn't snap a photo of the sign - I'll do that on my next trip.

The second language looked a little like Hmong language. But are there any Hmong communities in that region?

Just curious... maybe it was Karen language since I seem to be just skirting the region where Karen is spoken

Update -
No! Karen also uses the Burmese script....