The Pa'O language (also spelled Pa-O or Pa-oh; blk, ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ, ); my, ပအိုဝ်းဘာသာ), sometimes called Taungthu, 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 ...

spoken by one and a half million

Pa'O people , 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 ...

in Myanmar. The language is primarily written using a system of phonetics devised by Christian missionaries, and many of the materials now available for it on the Internet derive from Christian missionary involvement, although most of the Pa'O are generally reported to be Buddhists (without real statistics, etc.). The language is also referred to by the

exonyms An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

"Black Karen" and "White Karen", both of which are terms used in contrast to " Red Karen" (Karenni), also of Myanmar. Dialects include

Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth la ...

and Kokareit.

Phonology

The following displays the phonological features of the Pa'O (Taungthu) language:

Consonants

* /p, t, k, ʔ/ and /m, n, ŋ/ can occur as final consonants. Stops may also be heard as unreleased ̚, t̚, k̚

Vowels

References

Karenic languages {{Myanmar-stub