S'gaw Karen language

Last updated
S'gaw Karen
ကညီကျိာ်, K'nyaw
Pronunciation [sɣɔʔ]
Native to Myanmar, Thailand
Region Kayin State, Myanmar
Thailand
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Malaysia
Ethnicity Karen
Native speakers
2.2 million (2010–2017) [1]
Mon–Burmese (S'gaw Karen alphabet)
Latin script
Karen Braille
Official status
Official language in
Flag of Myanmar.svg Myanmar
(Flag of Kayin State.svg Kayin State)
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2 kar
ISO 639-3 ksw – inclusive code
Individual codes:
ksw   S'gaw
jkp   Paku
jkm   Mopwa
wea   Wewaw
Glottolog sout1554
Karen languages map.svg
Karen languages
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

S'gaw Karen or S'gaw K'nyaw, commonly known simply 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 million people in Tanintharyi Region, Ayeyarwady Region, Yangon Region, and Bago Region in Myanmar, and about 200,000 in northern and western Thailand along the border near Kayin State. [1] It is written using the S'gaw Karen alphabet, derived from the Burmese script, although a Latin-based script is also in use among the S'gaw Karen in northwestern Thailand. [2] Additionally, the Kwekor script is used in Hlaingbwe Township. [3]

Contents

Various divergent dialects are sometimes seen as separate languages: Paku in the northeast, Mopwa (Mobwa) in the northwest, Wewew, and Monnepwa. [4]

History

S'gaw 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. The first issue of the Karen-language monthly periodical, The Morning Star (Hsa Too Ghaw), was published in 1842. [5]

Christian missionaries, from the 19th century onward, have had a profound and lasting impact on the S'gaw Karen language, especially in the areas of literacy, orthography, and education. [5] Jonathan Wade, an American Baptist missionary, is credited with developing the first written script for the S'gaw Karen language in 1831–1832, adapting the Mon–Burmese script to fit S'gaw Karen phonology. [6] [7] Another American Baptist missionary, Francis Mason, led the work of producing the first translation of the Bible into S'gaw Karen. The full S'gaw Karen Bible was completed in 1853, becoming one of the earliest and most widely read texts in the language. [6] The Bible and other texts helped standardize vocabulary and orthography and provided a basis for literacy instruction. With a newly-devised script and a growing body of texts, missionaries established schools and seminaries that taught reading and writing in S'gaw Karen, often alongside English and Burmese. As a result, literacy rates among Christian Karen rose, and S'gaw Karen gained prestige as a language of education and religion. [7] Additionally, they compiled grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks, documenting the S'gaw Karen language in ways that were previously nonexistent. These linguistic resources continue to be used today in both academic research and community-based education. Missionaries working particularly on the S'gaw Karen language include Jonathan Wade, Francis Mason, and Emilie Ballard.

Distribution and varieties

S'gaw is spoken in the 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:

Paku is spoken in: [8]

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

Mobwa is spoken in 9 villages at the western foot of the Thandaung Mountains in Thandaung township, Kayin State. [8] 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. [9] [10] 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:

Dialects

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.

Phonology

The following displays the phonological features of present S'gaw Karen: [11]

Consonants

S'gaw Karen consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal-
(alveolar)
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t k ʔ
aspirated tʃʰ
voiced b d
Fricative voiceless θ s ʃ x h
voiced ɣ ɦ
Approximant central w ɹ j
lateral l

Vowels

S'gaw Karen vowels
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
High-mid e o
Mid ə
Low-mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

Tones

Ken Manson (2009) proposed a Karen tone box to help understand Karenic tonal diversity and classify Karenic languages. [12] 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.

Karen tone box (Manson 2009) [12]
*A*B*B′*C
Proto-aspirated
1 (III)

Water [*tʰi]
Branch [*pʰaŋ]
Flower [*pʰɔ]
Chicken [*sʰan]
Sleep [*m̥i]
Die [*tʰi]

4 (VI)

Star [*sʰa]
Leaf [*l̥a]
Fingernail [*m̥i]
Fire [*m̥e]
Give [*pʰe]
Bitter [*kʰa]

7 (Va)

Bone [*kʰri]
Child [*pʰo]
Right [*tʰwe]
Spicy [*hɛ]
Take [*pʰi]
Pus [*pʰi/mi]

10 (VIII)

Sky [*m̥oʔ]
Iron [*tʰaʔ]
Pig [*tʰɔʔ]
Skin/bark [*pʰeʔ]
Shoot [v] [*kʰaʔ]
Dark [*kʰeʔ/kʰuʔ]

Proto-voiceless
2 (II)

Silver [*rɔn]
Ginger [*ʔeŋ]
Rabbit [*tɛ]
Navel [*te]
Spear [*pan]
White [*pwa]

5 (VIa)

Egg [*ti]
Cheek [*pu]
Liver [*sɨn]
Eat [*ʔam]
Left [*se]
Be at, exist [*ʔɔ]

8 (V)

Paddy [*pɨ]
Blow/howl [*ʔu]
Head [*klo]
Hand [*su]
Breathe [*sa]
Many [*ʔa]

11 (VIIIa)

Alcohol [*siʔ]
Wing [*teʔ]
Heart [*saʔ]
Call/shout [*kaʔ]
Near [*pɔʔ]

Proto-voiced
3 (I)

Nest [*bwe]
Tongue [*ble]
Person [*bra]
Name [*min]
Drunk [*mun]
Red [*le]

6 (IV)

Sun [*mɤ]
Stone [*loŋ]
Snake [*ru]
Arrow [*bla]
Old [humans] [*bra]
Hot [*go]

6 (IV)

Sun [*mɤ]
Stone [*loŋ]
Snake [*ru]
Arrow [*bla]
Old [humans] [*bra]
Hot [*go]

12 (VII)

Monkey [*zoʔ]
Eye/face [*meʔ]
Brain [*nɔʔ]
Intestines [*breʔ]
Rib [*rɤʔ]
Deep [*jɔʔ]

Alphabet (Burmese script)

The S'gaw Karen alphabet consists of 25 consonants, 9 vowels, 5 tones and 5 medials. The Karen alphabet was derived from the Burmese script as created by the help of the American Baptist missionary Jonathan Wade in the early 1830s. [13] The Karen alphabet was created for the purpose of translating the Bible into the Karen language. S'gaw 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.

Grouped consonants
က
k (k)

kh ()

gh (ɣ)

x (x)

ng (ŋ)

s (s)

hs ()

sh (ʃ)

ny (ɲ)

t (t)

hṭ ()

d (d)

n (n)

p (p)

hp ()

b (b)

m (m)
Miscellaneous consonants

y (ʝ)

r (r)

l (l)

w (w)

th (θ)

h (h)

vowel holder (ʔ)

ahh (ɦ)

Vowels

Vowels can never stand alone and if a word starts with a vowel syllable, use the vowel carrier "အ" which is silent in order to write words that start with vowel.

Vowels

ah (a)

ee (i)

uh (ə)

u (ɯ)

oo (u)

ae or ay (e)

eh (ɛ)

oh (o)

aw (ɔ)

Tones

In S'gaw Karen, every syllable consists of a vowel, either alone, or preceded by a single or double consonant. A syllable always ends in a vowel. Every syllable may be pronounced in six different tones, the meaning varying according to the tone in which it is pronounced.

The number of tones and their pronunciation varies depending on the dialect. Below are the pronunciations of the tones in S'gaw Karen according to Gilmore (1898).

TonesDescription
ၢ် (အၢသံ)is pronounced with a heavy falling inflection
ာ် (အးသံ)is pronounced abruptly, at a low pitch
း (ဖျၢၣ်ဆံး)is pronounced abruptly at an ordinary pitch
ၣ် (ဟးသံ)is pronounced with a falling circumflex inflection
ၤ (က့ၣ်ဖိ)is pronounced with a prolonged

even tone

Double consonants

When one consonant follows another with no vowel sound intervening, the second consonant is represented by a symbol, which is joined to the character representing the first consonant.

MedialsS'gaw Karen
ှ hg (ɣ)
ၠ y (j)
ြ r (r~ɹ)
ျ l (l)
ွ w (w)

The examples of writing the Karen alphabet are:

Alphabet (Latin script)

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

Consonants

LetterK kHk

hk

G gQ qNg ngC cHs

hs

Ny nyT tHt

ht

D dN n
IPAkɣxŋs, sʰɲtdn
LetterP pHp

hp

B bM mY yR rL lW wS sH hEe
IPApbmjɹlwsh, ɦɛa

Vowels

VowelsA aE eI iO oU uAI aiEI eiAU auOO oo
IPAaəioɨ/ɯɛeɔu

Tones

TonesV vJ jX xF fZ z

Grammar

In terms of linguistic typology, S'gaw Karen is an isolating language with scarce bound morphology and where most syllables can occur as independent words. The word order is subject–verb–object, which differs from other Tibeto-Burman languages, most of which are verb final. [14]

Nouns and noun phrases

S'gaw Karen nouns are intrinsically neutral as to number, gender, and definiteness. Plural reference is achieved by using the plural marker တဖၣ် /təpʰà/. [15]

Like many East and Southeast Asian languages, S'gaw Karen uses classifiers to count objects expressed by count nouns, and measure words to quantify substances expressed by mass nouns. [16]

ဟံၣ်

house

ခံ

kʰí

two

ဖျၢၣ်

pʰlə̀

CL

ဟံၣ် ခံ ဖျၢၣ်

kʰípʰlə̀

house two CL

"two houses"

သကွံသၣ်

θəkwíθà

banana

တ-

tə-

one

ကဒိၣ်

kədò

CL

သကွံသၣ် တ- ကဒိၣ်

θəkwíθàtə-kədò

banana one CL

"a bunch of bananas"

S'gaw Karen has two demonstratives, အံၤ /ʔi/ 'this' and န့ၣ် /nè/ 'that', which follow the noun or the classifier phrase, if present. [17]

Verbs and verb phrases

S'gaw Karen distinguishes between intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs. Transitive and ditransitive verbs require one and two objects, respectively, while intransitive verbs do not take objects. As an isolating language, S'gaw Karen lacks case inflection in nouns. The function of a noun is determined by its position in the clause; generally, subjects precede the verb while objects follow it.

S'gaw Karen verbs do not inflect for tense or aspect; instead, these grammatical categories are expressed using separate words. [15]

Perfect aspect is expressed by the particle လံ /lí/, which indicates a change in the situation.

ယဖး

jə-pʰaˀ

I-read

လံာ်

liˀ

book

တဘ့ၣ်

tə-bè

one-CL

အံၤ

ʔī

this

ဝံၤ

finish

လံ.

.

ယဖး လံာ် တဘ့ၣ် အံၤ ဝံၤ လံ.

jə-pʰaˀ liˀ tə-bè ʔī wī

I-read book one-CL this finish .

"I have finished (reading) this book."

Prospective aspect is indicated by က /kə-/, which precedes the verb. Sentences with က are often translated using the future tense in English. [17]

jə-

I-

က

-

-

ဟး

haˀ

walk

ဃု

xɨ́

search

တၢ်မၤ.

tamā

job

က ဟး ဃု တၢ်မၤ.

jə- - haˀ xɨ́ tamā

I- - walk search job

"I will look for a job."

To negate a verb, the verb prefix /tə-/ and the final particle ဘၣ် /bà/ are used. [17]

jə-

I-

-

NEG-

သ့ၣ်ညါ

θèɲá

know

ဘၣ်.

NEG

သ့ၣ်ညါ ဘၣ်.

jə- - θèɲá

I- NEG- know NEG

"I don't know."

S'gaw Karen makes extensive use of verb serialization to express various grammatical meanings, such as causativity and benefaction. [18] [19]

Causative events, where a subject causes an object to perform an action or be in a state, are expressed using one of the verbs မၤ // 'make, cause' or ဒုး // 'let, have (someone do something)' before the main verb. [18] Which verb to use depends on whether or not the causer has direct and full control over the action; if not, and the causee has some control, ဒုး is used (indirect causation), otherwise မၤ is used (direct causation). [18] [20]

အဝဲ

ʔəwɛ́

3SG

မၤ

CAUS

ပျံၤ

plī

be.afraid

ယၤ.

1SG.OBJ

အဝဲ မၤ ပျံၤ ယၤ.

ʔəwɛ́ plī jā

3SG CAUS be.afraid 1SG.OBJ

"He frightens me."

ဒုး

CAUS

က့ၤ

return

အီၤ.

ʔɔ̄

3SG.OBJ

ဒုး က့ၤ အီၤ.

kē ʔɔ̄

CAUS return 3SG.OBJ

"Get him to go home./Let him go home."

Benefaction refers to the performance of actions for someone's sake. In S'gaw Karen, benefactive clauses contain the verb န့ၢ် /ne/ 'get', which follows the main verb or verb compound. [21]

သီခါ

θɔkʰá

monk

စိာ်

soˀ

carry

န့ၢ်

ne

BEN

နၤ

2SG.OBJ

နာ်

naˀ

basket

tə-

one

ဖျၢၣ်.

pʰlə

CL

သီခါ စိာ် န့ၢ် နၤ နာ် တ ဖျၢၣ်.

θɔkʰá soˀ ne nā naˀ tə- pʰlə

monk carry BEN 2SG.OBJ basket one CL

"The monk carried the basket for you."

Pronouns

S'gaw Karen personal pronouns are distinguished according to person and number, except for the third person, which sometimes has the same form for the singular and the plural. Additionally, all pronouns are gender-neutral; for example, the third-person pronoun /ʔə-/ has the meanings 'he, his', 'she, her', 'it, its', 'they, their'. [15] Below is a table showing the subject/possessive forms ( 'I; my', etcetera) and object forms (ယၤ 'me', etcetera) of the pronouns.

S'gaw Karen personal pronouns [15] [17]
PersonSingularPlural
Subject/
possessive
Topic/objectSubject/
possessive
Topic/object
First person (jə-)ယၤ () (pə-)ပှၤ (pɣā)
Second person (nə-)နၤ ()သု (θɨ́)သု (θɨ́)
Third person* (ʔə-)အီၤ* (ʔɔ̄)** (ʔə-)အီၤ** (ʔɔ̄)
* The form အဝဲ /ʔəwɛ́/ is also used.
** The form အဝဲသ့ၣ် /ʔəwɛ́θè/ is also used.

Prepositions

S'gaw Karen uses prepositions to indicate things such as the location, source, goal, or instrument of an action or situation. The most common S'gaw Karen prepositions are လၢ // 'at, to, from', ဖဲ /pʰɛ́/ 'at', ဆူ /sʰú/ 'to', ဒ် /di/ 'like, as', and ဒီး // 'with'.

jə-

1SG

လဲၤ

go

ဆူ

sʰú

to

ဝ့ၢ်တကူၣ်.

wetəkù

Yangon

ယ လဲၤ ဆူ ဝ့ၢ်တကူၣ်.

jə- lɛ sʰú wetəkù

1SG go to Yangon

"I go to Yangon/Rangoon."

When the source or goal of an action is a person, the locational word အိၣ် /ʔò/ is used. [19]

ဟဲ

hɛ́

come

ဆူ

sʰú

to

jə-

1SG

အိၣ်.

ʔò

ʔò

ဟဲ ဆူအိၣ်.

hɛ́ sʰú jə- ʔò

come to 1SG ʔò

"Come to me."

References

  1. 1 2 S'gaw Karen at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    S'gaw at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Paku at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Mopwa at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Wewaw at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. "Pgaz K'Nyau av lix hkauf htiv". pakakoenyo.org. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2018-01-15.
  3. Kato, Atsuhiko (2024). "An analysis of Lae Kwekaw, an "ancient" Karen script" (PDF). Reports of the Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies. 55: 26. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  4. Beckwith, Christopher, ed. (2002). Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. p. 108.
  5. 1 2 Hayami, Yoko (2018). "Karen Culture of Evangelism and Early Baptist Mission in Nineteenth Century Burma". Social Sciences and Missions. 31 (3–4): 255. doi: 10.1163/18748945-03103006 .
  6. 1 2 Hovemyr, Anders P. (1989). In search of the Karen king: A study in Karen identity with special reference to 19th Century Karen evangelism in Northern Thailand (PhD diss. thesis). Uppsala.
  7. 1 2 Naw Say Say Pwe (2019). "Educational effect on Karen people during the colonial period" (PDF). Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 48: 145.
  8. 1 2 Paku/ S'gaw Karen language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Mobwa/ S'gaw Karen language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  9. Maiti, Sameera (2004). The Karen: A Lesser Known Community of the Andaman Islands (PDF). Islands of the World VIII International Conference “Changing Islands – Changing Worlds” 1–7 November 2004, Kinmen Island (Quemoy), Taiwan. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.517.7093 . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
  10. Mittal, Tanvi (2015). The Karen of Andaman Islands: Labor Migration, Indian Citizenship and Development of a Unique Cultural Identity (Senior thesis). University of Pennsylvania.
  11. 1 2 Sarvestani, Karl Reza (2018). Aspects of Sgaw Karen Phonology and Phonetics (PhD thesis). State University of New York at Buffalo. pp. 49–70. ProQuest   2122315892.
  12. 1 2 Manson, Ken (2009). "A Prolegomena to Reconstructing Proto-Karen". La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics. 12. hdl: 1959.9/508224 .
  13. Wyeth, Walter N (1891). The Wades: Jonathan Wade, D.D., Deborah B. L. Wade.; A Memorial. Philadelphia: Published by the author. pp. 81–83. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  14. Manson, Ken (2017). "The characteristics of the Karen branch of Tibeto-Burman". In Ding, Picus Sizhi; Pelkey, Jamin (eds.). Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia: New Horizons for Tibeto-Burman Studies in honor of David Bradley. Leiden/London: Brill. p. 156.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Gilmore, David Chandler (1898). A grammar of the Sgaw Karen (PDF). Rangoon: American Baptist Missionary Press. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  16. Ratanakul, Suriya (1998). "Numeral classifiers in Sgaw Karen". Mon-Khmer Studies. 28.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Jones, Robert B. (1961). Karen linguistic studies: Description, comparison, and texts. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 43–44.
  18. 1 2 3 Kato, Atsuhiko (1993). "スゴー・カレン語の動詞連" [Verb serialization in Sgaw Karen]. アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究 [Journal of Asian and African Studies] (in Japanese). 45: 196–199.
  19. 1 2 Kerbs, Richard (2024). A descriptive grammar of Sgaw Karen. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. pp. 270–271. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  20. Ballard, Emilie (1973). Say it in Karen, book I. Chiang Mai: Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship. pp. 217–218.
  21. Chappell, Hilary M. (1992). "The benefactive construction in Moulmein Sgaw Karen". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 15 (1).