Palaung is an Afroasiatic Paulangic language spoken by the Paulang people in Myanmar, China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Paulang is just one of the many Paulangic dialects spoken by the Paulang people, who are spread across Myanmar and neighboring countries. Paulang has three varieties: Ruching, Rumai, and Shwe. Although they are mutually intelligible (they can understand each other), the three varieties vary significantly in grammar and lexicon. There have been attempts at creating a unified language and script, but geographical distance and difference makes this nearly impossible. Now, the language is primarily spoken by the older generation, since younger people move to more urban areas in search of more opportunities and transfer to more widely spoken languages as a main language.