S'gaw Karen language

The S'gaw, commonly known as the Karen language belongs to the Karenic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The S'gaw language has been used as the official language in the Kayin State of Myanmar and of the Karen National Union (KNU) organization who have waged a war against the Burmese government since early 1949. A Bible translation was published in 1853.

S'gaw is spoken in Ayeyarwady delta area, in the Ayeyarwady, Bago, Kayin, and Rangon Regions. S’gaw speakers are frequently interspersed with Pwo Karen speakers.

S'gaw dialects are:

• Eastern dialect of S’gaw Karen (Pa’an)
• Southern dialect of Western Kayah (Dawei)
• Delta dialect of S’gaw Karen

Paku is spoken in:[1]

• northern Kayin State: hills southeast of Taungoo in eastern Bago Region, bordering Kayin State
• southern Kayah State (also known as Karenni State).

Paku dialects are Shwe Kyin, Mawchi, Kyauk Gyi, Bawgali, the names of which are based on villages.

• Kyauk Gyi and Shwe Kyin are spoken in Taungoo District, eastern Bago Region, near the Kayin State border.
• Mawchi is spoken in Kayah State.
• Bawgali is spoken in north Kayin State.

Mobwa is spoken in 9 villages at the western foot of the Thandaung Mountains in Thandaung township, Kayin State.[1] There are also some in Taungoo township, Bago Region.

Mobwa dialects are Palaychi (Southern Mobwa) and Dermuha (Southern Mobwa).

Karen people in the Andaman Islands: S'gaw Karen is also spoken in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Union Territory of India.[4][5] The total population in the Andamans is about 2000 people, living in eight villages in the Mayabunder and Diglipur tehsils of the North and Middle Andaman district:

• Mayabunder tehsil - Webi, Deopur, Lataw, Lucknow (Burmadera), Karmatang-9 and 10
• Diglipur tehsil- Borang, Chipon

The S'gaw Karen language has at least 3 dialects. They are mutually intelligible to each other however there may be words that sound unfamiliar to one another.

• Northern dialect - also known as southern dialect of Kayah State is the S'gaw dialect that does not have the th sound in their language or dialect. They replace the southern and eastern dialects th with s. For example: while the southern and eastern would say moe tha boe, the northern dialect would say moe sa boe. This dialect used the Roman alphabet for their writing system.
• Southern dialect and Eastern (Pa'an) dialect - these two dialects are very similar but there may be words that each may not understand due to regional location which allowed the dialects to grow apart. These two dialect used the Myanmar script as their writing system.
• There are also different accents in the Karen language.

The following displays the phonological features of present S'gaw Karen:[6]

The Karen alphabet consist of 25 consonants, 9 vowels, 5 tones and 5 medials. The Karen alphabet was derived from the Burmese scriptas created by the help of the English missionaries around the early 1860s. The Karen alphabet was created for the purpose of translating the Bible into the Karen language. Karen script is written from left to right and requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains spaces after each clause to enhance readability.

• က has a sound intermediate between k and g; as in g for good
• ခ is the aspirate of က. It is pronounced like kh as heard in the word camp.
• ဂ has no analogue in the European languages.
• ဃ is pronounced like ch in the German bach, or the Scottish loch.
• င is pronounced like ng as heard in sing
• စ has a sound intermediate between s and z.
• ဆ is the aspirate of စ. It has the sound of ssh, as heard in the phrase hiss him.
• ရှ is pronounced like sh as heard in shell
• ည is pronounced like ñ as heard in cañon
• တ has a sound intermediate between t and d; say t without air coming out
• ထ is the aspirate of တ. It is pronounced like ht as heard in the word hot
• ဒ is pronounced like d as heard in day
• န is pronounced like n as heard in net
• ပ has a sound intermediate between b and p; say p without air coming out
• ဖ is pronounced like p as heard in pool
• ဘ is pronounced like b in ball
• မ is pronounced like m as heard in mall
• ယ is pronounced like y as heard in backyard
• ရ is pronounced like r as heard in room
• လ is pronounced like l as heard in school
• ဝ is pronounced like w as heard in wonderful
• သ is pronounced like th as heard in thin
• ဟ is pronounced like h as heard in house
• အ as a consonant, has no sound of its own; it is a mere stem to which vowel signs are attached. Vowel carrier
• ဧ is pronounced as a ɦ sound. See: breathy-voiced glottal approximant

Ken Manson (2009) proposed a Karen tone box to help understand Karenic tonal diversity and classify Karenic languages.[7] It is similar to William Gedney's Tai tone box (see Proto-Tai language#Tones). The tone box contains diagnostic words for use during field elicitation.

The Karen Latin alphabet has 24 consonants, 9 vowels and 5 tones. The tones are written with alphabetic letters.

S'gaw Karen language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• S'gaw Karen Grammar This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• S'gaw Karen Dictionary
• S'gaw Karen Bible
• S'gaw Karen Picture Bible
• SEAlang Library S'gaw Karen Dictionary
• Drum Publication Group
• Free Anglo-Karen Dictionary
• Drum Publication Group—Online S'gaw Karen language materials. Includes an online English - S'gaw Karen Dictionary.
• Karen Teacher Working Group—Several Karen fonts available for download.