ဖျိၣ်

Pwo Karen

Sino-Tibetan (Karen, Pwo)

FamilySino-Tibetan (Karen, Pwo) Speakers~1M ScriptPwo Karen script (Burmese-derived); also Latin CountriesMyanmar (Irrawaddy delta, Karen State); Thailand (border refugee communities) Official inNo Vitalitysafe ISO 639-3kjp

Pwo Karen — often subdivided into Eastern and Western Pwo as distinct languages — is one of the two major branches of Karenic, alongside S'gaw Karen (ksw); the two are not mutually intelligible. Pwo speakers live in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta and Karen State, and in border refugee communities in Thailand. Karenic languages are unusual within Sino-Tibetan for SVO word order, attributed to long contact with Mon and Burmese in the lowlands of Lower Burma.

Where it is spoken

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87 core words in Pwo Karen

Water

ထီ့

tʰî

Fire

မ့ၣ်

mɪ́

Sun

မုန်

mu˧

Moon

လာ

là

Star

ယှး

ʃá

Night

နၤ

na˧

Earth

ၯင်းခေါဟ်

ɣáɴkʰʊ́

Stone

လုံႋ

lōʊɴ

Mother

မိ

mʊ̄

Father

ဖါႋ

pʰā

I

ယ်ု

jə̀

You

န်ု

nə̀

We

ပ်ု

hə̀

Name

မိင်

mẽĩ̯˩˩

Head

ခေါဟ်

kʰʊ́

Eye

မဲာ်

mɛ˧

Tooth

မဲ

mɛ́

Tongue

ဖျေ

pʰlɪ̀

Hand

စူး

tɕɯ˥˥

Foot

ခင်း

kʰáɴ

Heart

သး

θà

Bone

ဂွီ

ɣwiʔ

Blood

သုဲး

θwí

Poop

အှ်ေ

ʔɪ́

Love

အဲင်

ʔɛ́

Tree

သိင်း

θéiɴ

Dog

ထုဲး

tʰwí

Cat

—

—

Fish

ယး

já

Bird

ထောဟ်

tʰʊ́

Egg

ဍီး

dí

Bear

ထင့်

tʰâɴ

Horse

က်ုသှ်ေ

kəθɪ́

House

—

—

Iron

ထာ

tʰà

Silk

ထောဝ်ႋ

tʰʊ̄

Book

လိက်

lái

Eat

အင်း

ʔáɴ

Drink

အူ

ʔɔ̀

Sleep

မီ့

mî

One

လိုင့်

lə̂ɴ

Two

ဏီ့

nî

Three

သိုင့်

θə̂ɴ

Four

လီႋ

lī

Five

ယာဲ

jɛ̄

Hundred

က်ုယာ

kəjà

Hello

—

—

Thank you

—

—

Good

ၯေဝ်

ɣɪ̀

New

သင့်

θâɴ

Red

ဂီ

ɣɔ̀

White

အွာ

ʔwa˩˩

Sources

Words compared

Compared with languages in the same classification: Sino-Tibetan (Karen, Pwo)

Meaning Pwo KarenWestern Pwo KarenSgaw KarenRakhineTaaBurmeseYangkaal
Water ထီ့ /tʰî/ ထံၫ /tʰi/ ထံ /tʰi/ ရေ /ɹì/ ǃqhàa /ǃqʰaː/ ရေ /jè/ nguku /ŋuku/
Fire မ့ၣ် /mɪ́/ မ့ၪ /mɪ/ မ့ၣ် /mèʔ/ မီး /mí/ ǀʼàã /ǀʼãː/ မီး /mí/ ngida /ŋida/
Sun မုန် /mu˧/ မုၢ် /mə/ မုၢ် /mɨ˧˩/ နေ /nì/ ǁʼân /ǁʼã/ နေ /nè/ warrku /waɾku/
Moon လာ /là/ လၩ /la/ လါ /la/ လ /la/ ǃqhàn /ǃqʰã/ လ /la̰/ waldarra /waldaɾa/
Star ယှး /ʃá/ ၡၪ /ɕa/ ဆၣ် /sʰâˀ/ ကြယ် /krɛ̀/ ǃqʰái /ǃqʰái/ ကြယ် /tɕɛ̀/ miburlda thungalda /mibuɭda t̪uŋalda/
Night နၤ /na˧/ နၤ /na/ မုၢ်နၤ /mu˧na˧/ ည /ɲa̰/ ǃnoe /ǃnoe/ ည /ɲa̰/ ngimi /ŋimi/
Earth ၯင်းခေါဟ် /ɣáɴkʰʊ́/ ဂၪ့ခိၪ /ɣaɴ kʰo/ ဟီၣ်ခိၣ် /hɔkʰo/ မြေ /mrì/ ǂkxʼûm /ǂkxʼum/ မြေ /mjè/ —
Stone လုံႋ /lōʊɴ/ လိး /loɴ/ လၢၢ် /lɛ/ ကျောက် /tɕaʊʔ/ — ကျောက် /tɕaʊʔ/ —
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