The Pa'O language (also spelled Pa-O or Pa-oh; blk, ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ, ); my, ပအိုဝ်းဘာသာ), sometimes called Taungthu, is a
Karen language
The Karen () or Karenic languages are tonal languages spoken by some seven million Karen people. They are of unclear affiliation within the Sino-Tibetan languages. The Karen languages are written using the Karen script. The three main branches ...
spoken by one and a half million
Pa'O people
, 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 ...
in Myanmar.
The language is primarily written using a system of phonetics devised by Christian missionaries, and many of the materials now available for it on the Internet derive from Christian missionary involvement, although most of the Pa'O are generally reported to be Buddhists (without real statistics, etc.).
The language is also referred to by the
exonyms
An endonym (from Greek language, Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a Location, geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that p ...
"Black Karen" and "White Karen", both of which are terms used in contrast to "
Red Karen" (Karenni), also of Myanmar.
Dialects include
Taunggyi
Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi- Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth ...
and
Kokareit.
Phonology
The following displays the phonological features of the Pa'O (Taungthu) language:
Consonants
* /p, t, k, ʔ/ and /m, n, ŋ/ can occur as final consonants. Stops may also be heard as unreleased
̚, t̚, k̚
Vowels
References
Karenic languages
{{Myanmar-stub