Geko 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 ...
of
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. Yinbaw is reportedly a variety. Speakers of Geko and Yinbaw are ethnically
Kayan, as are speakers of
Lahta and
Padaung.
Distribution
*northern
Kayin State
Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...
:
Thandaunggyi township
*southern
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ( ...
:
Pekhon township
*
Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
:
Yamethin District
Yamethin District ( my, ရမည်းသင်း) is a district of the Mandalay Region in central Myanmar.
Townships
The district contains the following townships:
*Pyawbwe Township
Pyawbwe Township is a township of Yamethin District in the ...
*
Bago Region:
Taungoo District Taungoo District (Taungngu, Toungoo, my, တောင်ငူခရိုင်) is a district of the Bago Division in central Burma (Myanmar). The capital lies at Taungoo.
History
Taungoo District was created by the Pagan Dynasty in the 1280s, ...
Yinbaw (population 7,300 as of 1983) is spoken in eastern
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ( ...
and
Kayah State
Kayah State ( my, ကယားပြည်နယ်, formerly Karenni State) is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and we ...
.
Dialects
*Geker
*Gekho
*Thaidai (Htideh)
References
*Shintani Tadahiko. 2017. ''The Gokhu language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 111. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
*Shintani Tadahiko. 2018. ''The Thaidai language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 116. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
Karenic languages
{{SinoTibetan-lang-stub