Karenni or Red Karen (Kayah Li: ; my, ကရင်နီ), known in Burmese as Kayah ( my, ကယား), is a Karen

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

spoken by over half a million

Kayah people The Karenni ( my, ကရင်နီ, ), also known as the Kayah ( my, ကယားလူမျိုး) or Kayah Li ( Karenni: ), are a Karen people native to the Kayah State of Myanmar (Burma). According to a 1983 census, the Karenni consis ...

(Red Karen) in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The name ''Kayah'' has been described as "a new name invented by the Burmese to split them off from other Karen". Eastern Kayah is reported to have been spoken by 260,000 in Burma and 100,000 in Thailand in 2000, and Western Kayah by 210,000 in Burma in 1987. They are rather divergent. Among the Western dialects are Yintale and kayahManu (''Manumanaw'' in Burmese).

Distribution and varieties

Eastern Kayah is spoken in: *

Shadaw Shadaw ( my, ရှားတောမြို့) is a town in the Kayah State of eastern part of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British E ...

township,

Kayah State Kayah State ( my, ကယားပြည်နယ်, formerly Karenni State) is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and we ...

(east of the

Thanlwin River , ''Mae Nam Salawin'' ( , name_etymology = , image = Sweet_View_of_Salween_River_in_Tang_Yan_Township,_Shan_State,_Myanmar.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Salween River in Shan State, Myanmar , map ...

) * Langkho district, Shan State Eastern Kayah dialects are Upper Eastern Kayah and Lower Eastern Kayah, which are mutually intelligible. The speech variety of Huai Sua Thaw village (Lower Eastern) is prestigious for both dialect groups. The Eastern Kayah have difficulty understanding the Western Kayah. Western Kayah is spoken in

and

Kayin State Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...

, east of the

. It is also spoken in Pekon township in southern Shan State. *northern dialect: Shan State (north of

Loikaw Loikaw (, ) is the capital of Kayah State in Myanmar. It is located in the Karen Hills area, near the State's northern tip, just above an embayment on the Pilu River. The inhabitants are mostly Kayah (Karenni). Myanmar's largest hydropower p ...

) *southern dialect: Hpruso and Dimawso townships (south of

) Western Kayah dialects are part of a dialect continuum of Central Karen varieties stretching from Thailand. They include: *Northern dialect of Western Kayah *Southern dialect of Western Kayah *Dawtama *Dawnnyjekhu *Sounglog *Chi Kwe *Wan Cheh Yintale, reportedly a variety of Western Kayah, is spoken in 3 villages of

Hpasawng HpaSaung ( my, ဖားဆောင်းမြို့, MLCTS: ''hpaa.chaung.mrui'') is a town in the Kayah State of eastern part of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions req ...

township,

Bawlakhe Bawlakhe ( my, ဘော်လခဲမြို့) is a town in the Kayah State of eastern part of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British ...

district,

. Yintale dialects are Bawlake and Wa Awng. Kawyaw, reportedly similar to Western Kayah, is spoken in 23 villages along the border of

Bawlake Bawlakhe ( my, ဘော်လခဲမြို့) is a town in the Kayah State of eastern part of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British ...

and Hpruso townships, in the West Kyebogyi area of

. Kawyaw dialects are Tawkhu and Doloso, which have been reported to be difficult to mutually understand.

Writing system

According to Aung 2013, Manumanaw Karen does not yet have a standardized script. Catholic missionaries developed a spelling using the Latin script which is used in religious documents, including the translation of the Bible. A Manumanaw Karen literature committee has been set up and is developing literacy programs with SIL, using spelling based on Burmese script , so that it is accepted by Catholics and Baptists. The tones are indicated using the

caron A caron (), háček or haček (, or ; plural ''háčeks'' or ''háčky'') also known as a hachek, wedge, check, kvačica, strešica, mäkčeň, varnelė, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, flying bird, inverted chevron, is a diacritic mark (� ...

, the acute accent or without the addition of these on the vowels: , . The diaeresis below is used to indicate the breathy voice on the vowels: . Seven digraphs are used. The five vowels of the alphabet are supplemented by four accented letters representing their own vowels. Tones are represented using the acute accent and the

over the vowel. The breathy voice is indicated with an umlaut below the vowel letter. Breathy voiced vowel letters can also have a diacritic indicating the tone.

References

External links

*
Eastern Kayah Li basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{Languages of Burma Karenic languages

Distribution and varieties

Writing system

References

Further reading

External links