S'gaw Karen language
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. 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. Additionally, the Kwekor script is used in Hlaingbwe Township.
Various divergent dialects are sometimes seen as separate languages: Paku in the northeast, Mopwa in the northwest, Wewew, and Monnepwa.
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 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 , was published in 1842.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. 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. 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. 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. 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:
- Eastern dialect of S'gaw
- Southern dialect of Western Kayah
- Delta dialect of S'gaw
- 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.
Karen people in the Andaman Islands: S'gaw Karen is also spoken in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Union Territory of India. 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, Karmatang-9 and 10
- Diglipur tehsil – Borang, Chipon
Dialects
- 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 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 dialects use 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.
- /θ/ is pronounced in most Myanmar varieties and in northern Thailand.
Vowels
- varies between central and, depending on the dialect.
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 (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. 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.| က k | ခ kh | ဂ gh | ဃ x | င ng |
| စ s | ဆ hs | ၡ sh | ည ny | |
| တ t | ထ hṭ | ဒ d | န n | |
| ပ p | ဖ hp | ဘ b | မ m |
| ယ y | ရ r | လ l | ဝ w | သ th |
| ဟ h | အ vowel holder | ဧ 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 English or German. See: voiced velar fricative
- 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.
- ၡ is pronounced like sh as heard in shell
- ည is pronounced like ny as heard in canyon
- 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