The Karen () or Karenic languages are

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

s spoken by some seven million

Karen people The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language� ...

. They are of unclear affiliation within the

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

. The Karen languages are written using the

Karen script The S'gaw Karen alphabet ( ksw, ကညီလံာ်ခီၣ်ထံး) is an abugida used for writing Karen. It was derived from the Burmese script in the early 19th century, and ultimately from either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of Sou ...

. The three main branches are

Sgaw S’gaw, S'gaw Karen, or S’gaw K’Nyaw, commonly known as Karen, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the S'gaw Karen people of Myanmar and Thailand. A Karenic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, S'gaw Karen is spoken by over 2 mill ...

Pwo {{for, Pwo languages, Pwo languages Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become navigators (''palu'') and are initiated in the associated secrets. Many islanders in th ...

and

Pa'O Pa'O may refer to: * Pa'O language The Pa'O language (also spelled Pa-O or Pa-oh; blk, ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ, ); my, ပအိုဝ်းဘာသာ), sometimes called Taungthu, is a Karen language spoken by one and a half ...

. Karenni (also known as Kayah or Red Karen) and Kayan (also known as Padaung) are a branch of Karen languages. They are unusual among the Sino-Tibetan languages in having a subject–verb–object word order; other than Karen,

Bai BAI or Bai may refer to: BAI Organizations *BAI Communications, telecommunications infrastructure company *BAI (organization), professional organization for financial services in the United States *Badminton Association of India, India's gove ...

and the

Chinese languages The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there i ...

, Sino-Tibetan languages have a subject–object–verb order. This is likely due to influence from neighboring

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * Ang ...

and

Tai languages The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...

Classification

Because they differ from other Tibeto-Burman languages in morphology and syntax, Benedict (1972: 2–4, 129) removed the Karen languages from Tibeto-Burman in a Tibeto-Karen branch, but this is no longer accepted. A common geographical classification distinguishes three groups: ;Northern : Pa’o ;Central :The area of greatest diversity, including Kayah (Red Karen or Karenni), Kayaw (Brek), Bwe (Bghai), Geba and many more. ;Southern :

and

Kayan (Padaung) is transitional between the northern and central groups. The languages with the most speakers are Sgaw, Pwo and Pa’o.

Manson (2011)

Manson (2011) classifies the Karen languages as follows, with each primary branch characterized by phonological innovations: ;Karen *Peripheral: proto-voiceless stop initials appearing as aspirated stops (e.g. *p > pʰ) ** Pa’o **

*Northern: merger of nasal finals (e.g. *am, *an > aɴ), merger of stop-final rhymes with the open counterpart (e.g. *aʔ, *a > a) ** Kayan **

Lahta Lahta, or Zayein, is a Karenic language of Burma. Distribution Lahta is spoken in: *Shan State: Pekhon Township, Pekhon (Phaikum)Shintani Tadahiko. 2014. ''The Zayein language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 102. Tokyo: Res ...

**Yinbaw **

Yintale Karenni or Red Karen (Kayah Li: ; my, ကရင်နီ), known in Burmese as Kayah ( my, ကယား), is a Karen dialect continuum spoken by over half a million Kayah people (Red Karen) in Burma. The name ''Kayah'' has been described as "a ...

*Central: vowel raising (e.g. *a > ɛ) ** Western Kayah, Eastern Kayah ** Geba, Bwe **Paku (?) **Geker, Gekho (?; may be Central or Southern) **Kayaw, Manu (?; may be Central or Southern) *Southern: merger of nasal-final rhymes, with the rhyme subsequently raised (e.g. *am, *aŋ > ɔ) **

, Paku **Dermuha, Palaychi The classifications of Geker, Gekho, Kayaw, and Manu are ambiguous, as they may be either Central or Southern.

Shintani (2012)

Shintani Tadahiko Tadahiko Shintani ( ja, 新谷忠彦, Shintani Tadahiko, born October 1946) is a Japanese linguist and Professor Emeritus of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, specializing in the phonology of New Caledonian languages and Southeast Asian ...

(2012:x)

(2012). ''A handbook of comparative Brakaloungic languages''. Tokyo: ILCAA. gives the following tentative classification, proposed in 2002, for what he calls the "Brakaloungic" languages, of which Karen is a branch. Individual languages are marked in italics. ;Brakaloungic *Pao **'' Pao'' *Karen **Kayah-Padaung ***'' Kayah'' ***Pado-Thaido-Gekho ****'' Thaidai'' ****Pado-Gekho *****'' Gekho'' *****Padaung ******'' Padaung'' (''Kayan'') ******''Gekho'' (''Yathu Gekho'') **Bwe ***Bweba-Kayaw ****'' Kayaw'' ****Bweba *****'' Geba'' *****'' Bwe'' **Sgaw-Pwo ***''

'' ***Mobwa ****'' Mopwa'' ****'' Blimaw'' ***Pako-Sgaw ****''

'' ****Pakubwa *****'' Paku'' *****''Monebwa'' *****''Thalebwa'' However, at the time of publication, Shintani (2012) reports that there are more than 40 Brakaloungic languages and/or dialects, many of which have only been recently reported and documented. Shintani also reports that Mon influence is present in all Brakaloungic languages, while some also have significant Burmese and Shan influence. The

Kayan languages Kayan may refer to: Ethnography * Kayan people (Myanmar) * Padaung language * Kayan people (Borneo) * Kayan language (Borneo), dialect cluster spoken in Borneo * Kayan–Murik languages, group of Austronesian languages that includes the Kayan dia ...

are spoken in

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 ...

, southern

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ( L ...

, and northern

Karen 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 ...

. There are four branches according to Shintani (2016), namely Kangan ("lowland dwellers"), Kakhaung ("highland dwellers"), Lawi ("South"), and Latha ("North"). Nangki (sometimes called Langki), documented in Shintani (2016), is one of the Kayan languages belonging to the Kakhaung subgroup. It is spoken only in one village. Kadaw is spoken in

, and has

nasalized vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...

s but no final nasal consonants.Shintani Tadahiko. 2015. ''The Kadaw language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 106. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). It has more Burmese than Shan influence. Thamidai is yet another Karenic language.Shintani, Tadahiko. 2020. ''The Thamidai language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 126. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).

Luangthongkum (2019)

Luangthongkum (2019) recognizes three branches of Proto-Karen, namely Northern, Central, and Southern, but is agnostic about how the three branches fit together. ;Karenic *''Northern'' **Northern

Pa-O , native_name_lang = my , image = Pa O Tribe Kalaw Shan Myanmar.jpg , caption = A Pa'O woman near Kalaw, southern Shan State , population = 1,400,000 (2014 est.) , popplace = Myanmar, Thailand , rels ...

**Southern

*''Central'' ** Kayan ** Kayah **Western Bwe ( Blimaw, Geba) ** Kayaw *''Southern'' **Northern

**Southern

**Northern

**Southern

''Note'': Western Bwe Karen (Blimaw, Geba) preserves the implosives or preglottalised obstruents ɓ/ʔb and ɗ/ʔd, as well as voiceless sonorants such as hn, hl, and so forth.

Reconstruction

References

* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill.

External links

Free Anglo-Karen Dictionary

A grammar of the Sgaw Karen

Drum Publication Group
��Online Sgaw Karen language materials. Includes an online English - Sgaw Karen Dictionary.
Karen Teacher Working Group
��Several Karen fonts available for download. {{Authority control

Classification

Manson (2011)

Shintani (2012)

Luangthongkum (2019)

Reconstruction

References

Further reading

External links