Pa'O language
| Pa'o Karen | |
|---|---|
| ပအိုဝ်ႏ | |
| Native to | Burma, Thailand |
| Ethnicity | Pa'O people |
Native speakers | 1.8 million (2014)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Mon script (Pa'o alphabet) Karen Braille | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | blk |
| Glottolog | paok1235 |
Pa'o is a Karen language spoken by a million Pa'o in Burma. Dialects are Southern Pa’o and Northern Pa’o. Northern Pa’o is the only Karen language that has final stop consonants.[2]
Names
Ethnologue lists the alternate names Black Karen, Northern Taungthu, Taungsu, Pa Oh, Pa-O, Pa’o Karen, Pa-U, Kula.
The language is also referred to by the exonym "Black Karen", a term dating from colonial times and used in contrast to the Karenni (or "Red Karen") and the S'gaw (or "White Karen"), even though the Taungthu often rejected the term "Karen" to refer to themselves.[3] The Christian missionary website Ethnologue categorizes the language as "BLK", abbreviating "Black Karen".[4]
Distribution
- Southwestern Shan State in and surrounding townships of Taunggyi and Pa'O Self-Administered Zone
- Kayah State: in Loikaw
- Kayin State: areas near Shan State border
- Mon State: near Thaton
- Bago Division: near Taungoo
Orthography
The language is primarily written using a system of phonetics devised by Christian missionaries,[5][6] and many of the materials now available for it on the internet derive from Christian missionary involvement, although the majority of the Pa'o are generally reported to be Buddhists (without real statistics, etc.).
References
- ^ Pa'o Karen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ 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).
- ^ Sir George Scott. Among the Hill Tribes of Burma – An Ethnological Thicket. National Geographic Magazine, 1922, p. 293
- ^ Accurate as of Feb. 2013, cf. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=blk
- ^ A Pa'o wordlist: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
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