Western Pwo Karen

Western Pwo Karen (autonymously ဖျိၣ်ၤ) is a Karenic language of the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken by around 1.4 million people in the Irrawaddy Delta and Bago Region of southern Myanmar, plus 200,000 in Thailand (Tak, Mae Hong Son, Kanchanaburi). It is one of the two main Karen languages alongside Sgaw Karen (ksw), with Pwo being phonologically more conservative — preserving Proto-Karen vowel and consonant distinctions that Sgaw has neutralized. The Karen people have a complex modern political history including Karen National Liberation Army resistance to the Burmese central government since 1949, with significant Pwo populations in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border (notably Mae La Refugee Camp). Major Pwo dialect divisions include Western (delta-region Pwo, the standard literary form), Eastern (eastern Karen State), Phlong (northern Thailand). Pwo Karen is one of the few Karen languages with a long literary tradition, dating to the 1830s American Baptist missionary work that developed the Burmese-derived Karen script.

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