The Karen () or Karenic languages are

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey empha ...

s spoken by some seven million

Karen people The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language� ...

. They are of unclear affiliation within the

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

. The Karen languages are written using the Karen script. The three main branches are Sgaw,

Pwo {{for, Pwo languages, Pwo languages Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of Micronesia navigation, traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become navigators (''palu'') and are initiated in the associated secrets. ...

and Pa'O.

Karenni Karenni may refer to: * Karenni people * Karenni language * Karenni State, former name of Kayah State, Myanmar * Karenni States The Karenni States, also known as Red Karen States, was the name formerly given to the states inhabited mainly by ...

(also known as Kayah or Red Karen) and Kayan (also known as Padaung) are a branch of Karen languages. They are unusual among the Sino-Tibetan languages in having a subject–verb–object word order; other than Karen, Bai and the

Chinese languages The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...

, Sino-Tibetan languages have a

subject–object–verb Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...

order. This is likely due to influence from neighboring Mon and

Tai languages The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or Sia ...

Classification

Because they differ from other Tibeto-Burman languages in morphology and syntax, Benedict (1972: 2–4, 129) removed the Karen languages from Tibeto-Burman in a Tibeto-Karen branch, but this is no longer accepted. A common geographical classification distinguishes three groups: ;Northern : Pa’o ;Central :The area of greatest diversity, including Kayah (Red Karen or Karenni), Kayaw (Brek), Bwe (Bghai), Geba and many more. ;Southern :

and Sgaw Kayan (Padaung) is transitional between the northern and central groups. The languages with the most speakers are Sgaw, Pwo and Pa’o.

Manson (2011)

Manson (2011) classifies the Karen languages as follows, with each primary branch characterized by phonological innovations: ;Karen *Peripheral: proto-voiceless stop initials appearing as aspirated stops (e.g. *p > pʰ) ** Pa’o **

*Northern: merger of nasal finals (e.g. *am, *an > aɴ), merger of stop-final rhymes with the open counterpart (e.g. *aʔ, *a > a) ** Kayan ** Lahta **Yinbaw ** Yintale *Central: vowel raising (e.g. *a > ɛ) ** Western Kayah, Eastern Kayah ** Geba, Bwe **Paku (?) **Geker, Gekho (?; may be Central or Southern) **Kayaw, Manu (?; may be Central or Southern) *Southern: merger of nasal-final rhymes, with the rhyme subsequently raised (e.g. *am, *aŋ > ɔ) ** Sgaw, Paku **Dermuha, Palaychi The classifications of Geker, Gekho, Kayaw, and Manu are ambiguous, as they may be either Central or Southern.

Shintani (2012)

Shintani Tadahiko Tadahiko Shintani ( ja, 新谷忠彦, Shintani Tadahiko, born October 1946) is a Japanese linguist and Professor Emeritus of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, specializing in the phonology of New Caledonian languages and Southeast Asian l ...

(2012:x)

(2012). ''A handbook of comparative Brakaloungic languages''. Tokyo: ILCAA. gives the following tentative classification, proposed in 2002, for what he calls the "Brakaloungic" languages, of which Karen is a branch. Individual languages are marked in italics. ;Brakaloungic *Pao **'' Pao'' *Karen **Kayah-Padaung ***'' Kayah'' ***Pado-Thaido-Gekho ****'' Thaidai'' ****Pado-Gekho *****'' Gekho'' *****Padaung ******'' Padaung'' (''Kayan'') ******''Gekho'' (''Yathu Gekho'') **Bwe ***Bweba-Kayaw ****'' Kayaw'' ****Bweba *****'' Geba'' *****'' Bwe'' **Sgaw-Pwo ***''

'' ***Mobwa ****'' Mopwa'' ****'' Blimaw'' ***Pako-Sgaw ****'' Sgaw'' ****Pakubwa *****'' Paku'' *****''Monebwa'' *****''Thalebwa'' However, at the time of publication, Shintani (2012) reports that there are more than 40 Brakaloungic languages and/or dialects, many of which have only been recently reported and documented. Shintani also reports that Mon influence is present in all Brakaloungic languages, while some also have significant Burmese and Shan influence. The Kayan languages are spoken in

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 wes ...

, southern

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

, and northern

Karen 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 ca ...

. There are four branches according to Shintani (2016), namely Kangan ("lowland dwellers"), Kakhaung ("highland dwellers"), Lawi ("South"), and Latha ("North"). Nangki (sometimes called Langki), documented in Shintani (2016), is one of the Kayan languages belonging to the Kakhaung subgroup. It is spoken only in one village. Kadaw is spoken in

, and has nasalized vowels but no final

nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...

s.Shintani Tadahiko. 2015. ''The Kadaw language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 106. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). It has more Burmese than Shan influence. Thamidai is yet another Karenic language.Shintani, Tadahiko. 2020. ''The Thamidai language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 126. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).

Luangthongkum (2019)

Luangthongkum (2019) recognizes three branches of Proto-Karen, namely Northern, Central, and Southern, but is agnostic about how the three branches fit together. ;Karenic *''Northern'' **Northern

Pa-O , native_name_lang = my , image = Pa O Tribe Kalaw Shan Myanmar.jpg , caption = A Pa'O woman near Kalaw, southern Shan State , population = 1,400,000 (2014 est.) , popplace = Myanmar, Thailand , rels ...

**Southern

*''Central'' ** Kayan ** Kayah **Western Bwe ( Blimaw, Geba) ** Kayaw *''Southern'' **Northern Sgaw **Southern Sgaw **Northern

**Southern

''Note'': Western Bwe Karen (Blimaw, Geba) preserves the implosives or preglottalised obstruents ɓ/ʔb and ɗ/ʔd, as well as voiceless sonorants such as hn, hl, and so forth.

Reconstruction

References

* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill.

External links

Free Anglo-Karen Dictionary

A grammar of the Sgaw Karen

Drum Publication Group
��Online Sgaw Karen language materials. Includes an online English - Sgaw Karen Dictionary.
Karen Teacher Working Group
��Several Karen fonts available for download. {{Authority control