S'gaw Karen language
Sgaw Karen or Sgaw Kayin, commonly known as Karen is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Sgaw Karen people of Myanmar and Thailand. A Karenic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, Sgaw Karen is spoken by over a 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. 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 Sgaw Karen in northwestern Thailand.
Various divergent dialects are sometimes seen as separate languages: Paku in the northeast, Mopwa in the northwest, Wewew, and Monnepwa.
History
The Sgaw, commonly known as the Karen language belongs to the Karenic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Sgaw language has been used as the official language in the Karen National Union organization who have waged a war against the Burmese government since early 1949. A Bible translation was published in 1853.Distribution and varieties
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
- Southern dialect of Western Kayah
- Delta dialect of S’gaw Karen
- northern Kayin State: hills southeast of Taungoo in eastern Bago Region, bordering Kayin State
- southern Kayah State.
- 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 dialects are Palaychi and Dermuha.
Dialects
The Sgaw 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 Sgaw 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 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.
Phonology
Consonants
- An aspirated fricative may be present among different accents and dialects.
Vowels
- A high back vowel sound in free alteration with //, was also present among different accents and dialects.
Alphabet (Burmese script)
k | kh | gh | x | ng |
s | hs | sh | ny | t |
hṭ | d | n | p | hp |
b | m | y | r | l |
w | th | h | vowel holder | ahh |
- 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 has no analogue in the European languages.
Vowels
ah | ee | uh | u | oo | ae or ay | eh | oh | aw |
- အ - a in quota
- အါ - a in father
- အံ - i in mean
- အၢ - German ö in Göthe
- အု - German ü in Glück and Korean Hangul character "ㅡ"
- အူ - u in rule, oo in moon
- အ့ - a in rate
- အဲ - e in met
- အိ - o in note
- အီ - aw in raw
Tones
different tones of voice, the meaning varying according to the
tone in which it is pronounced.
| Tones | Description |
| ၢ် | is pronounced with a heavy falling inflection |
| ာ် | is pronounced abruptly, at a low pitch |
| း | is pronounced abruptly at an ordinary pitch |
| ၣ် | is pronounced with a falling circumflex inflection |
| ၤ | is pronounced with a prolonged even tone |
- Where no tone is marked, the syllable is pronounced with a rising inflection.
Double consonants
which is joined to the character representing the first consonant.
| Medials | S'gaw Karen |
| ှ | |
| ၠ | |
| ြ | |
| ျ | |
| ွ |
The examples of writing the Karen alphabet are:
- + →, pronounced
- + + →, pronounced
- + + →, pronounced
- + + + →, pronounced
Tones
| *A | *B | *B′ | *C | |
| Proto-aspirated | 1 Water Branch Flower Chicken Sleep Die | 4 Star Leaf Fingernail Fire Give Bitter | 7 Bone Child Right Spicy Take Pus | 10 Sky Iron Pig Skin/bark Shoot Dark |
| Proto-voiceless | 2 Silver Ginger Rabbit Navel Spear White | 5 Egg Cheek Liver Eat Left Be at, exist | 8 Paddy Blow/howl Head Hand Breathe Many | 11 Alcohol Wing Heart Call/shout Near |
| Proto-voiced | 3 Nest Tongue Person Name Drunk Red | 6 Sun Stone Snake Arrow Old Hot | 6 Sun Stone Snake Arrow Old Hot | 12 Monkey Eye/face Brain Intestines Rib Deep |
Alphabet (Latin script)
The Karen Latin alphabet has 24 consonants, 9 vowels and 5 tones. The tones are written with alphabetic letters.Consonants
| Letter | P p | HP hp | B b | M m | Y y | R r | L l | W w | S s | H h | EH eh | AH ah |
- K match with the English word guard
- HK match with the English word car
- G does not have a sound similar to the European language but match with the other Karen alphabet of ဂ
- Q math with the German word bach
- NG match with the English word young
- C match with the English ch
- HS have the same sound as S
- NY match with the Spanish letter ñ
- T have similar sound with English d but say it without air coming out
- HT match with the English word tool
- D have the same sound as English d
- N match with English N
- P have similar sound to English p but say it without air coming out
- HP match with English p
- B match with English b
- M match with English m
- Y match with English y
- R match with English r
- L match with English l
- W match with English w
- S match with English s; same sound as HS
- H match with English h
- EH has no analogue in the European languages
- AH has no analogue in the European languages
Vowels
- A match with the Italian a
- E match with the English word rust; uh
- I match with the Italian i
- O match with the Italian o
- U match with the Korean romanization eu
- AI match with the English word sell
- EI match with the name Jay
- AU match with the English word fault
- OO match with the English word cool
Tones
- av or ă - high mid tone
- aj or à - middle of the sound
- ax or â - low tone; low voice in a short time
- af or ä - high-pitched tone
- az or ā - even tone
Grammar