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 oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...

s spoken by some 4.5 million

Karen people The Karen ( ), also known as the Kayin, are an ethnolinguistic group of peoples who speak Karenic languages and are indigenous to southern and southeastern Myanmar, including the Irrawaddy Delta, Irrawaddy delta and Kayin State. The Karen ac ...

. They are of unclear affiliation within the

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

. The Karen languages are written using the Karen script. The three main branches are Sgaw (commonly known as Karen), Pwo and Pa'O. 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 and the

Chinese languages The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split b ...

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

Tai languages The Tai, Zhuang–Tai, or Daic languages (Ahom language, Ahom: 𑜁𑜪𑜨 𑜄𑜩 or 𑜁𑜨𑜉𑜫 𑜄𑜩 ; ; or , ; , ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai languages, Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spo ...

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 : Pwo and Sgaw 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 ** Pwo *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 **Yinbaw/Kayan ** Yintale *Central: vowel raising (e.g. *a > ɛ) ** Western Kayah, Eastern Kayah ** Geba, Bwe **Paku (?) **Geker/Kayan Geku, 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) ** Sgaw, 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 (2012:x) Shintani Tadahiko (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 ****'' Pwo'' ****Mobwa *****'' Mopwa'' *****'' Blimaw'' ****Pako-Sgaw *****'' 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 are spoken in Kayah State, southern

Shan State Shan State (, ; , ) is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha Province, Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai Province, Chia ...

, and northern

Karen State Kayin State (, ; ; , ), formerly known as Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The capital city is Hpa-An, also spelled Pa-An. The terrain of the state is mountainous; with the Dawna Range running along the state in a NNW–SSE direction, and ...

. 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 Kayah State, 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 /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are pr ...

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. Below is a classification of the Karenic languages by Hsiu (2019) based on a phylogenetic analysis of Shintani's published lexical data. The results support the overall structure of Shintani's (2012) classification. *Karenic ** Pa'o ***Northern ***Southern **Karen ***Kayan (Padaungic) ****Kayin Phyu ****Yathu Gekho **** Thaidai **** Padaung cluster: Padaung, Yinbaw, Kangan ("lowland") Kayan, Kakhaung ("highland") Kayan **** Gekho cluster: Gekho, Kadaw, Taungmying ****Nagi (Nangki) Kayan ****Latha ("North") Kayan, Zayein ****Thamidai *** Kayah (Karenni) ****West Kayah, Manaw ****Yingtalay ***Manu-Bwe ****Manu ****Bwe *****East Kayaw *****West Kayaw ***** Bwe ***** Geba ***Mopwa-Pwo-Sgaw **** Mopwa, Blimaw ****Pwo-Sgaw ***** Pwo *****Sgaw cluster ****** Sgaw ******Monebwa, Paku ******Thalebwa

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 The Pa'O (; , , or ; ; Eastern Poe Karen: တံင်သူ; ; also spelt Pa-O or Paoh) are an ethnic minority living in Myanmar, with a population of roughly 1,200,000 accounting for approximately 2.1% of the total population in Myanmar. Oth ...

**Southern

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