The Pa'O language (also spelled Pa-O or Pa-oh; Pa'o Karen: ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ, ); Burmese: ပအိုဝ်းဘာသာ), sometimes called Taungthu, is a Karen language spoken by close to 900,000 Pa'O people in Myanmar.[1]
| Pa'O | |
|---|---|
| Taungthu | |
| ပအိုဝ်ႏ | |
 Pa'O manuscript | |
| Native to | Myanmar |
| Ethnicity | Pa'O |
Native speakers | 860,000 (2000–2017)[1] |
| Burmese script (Pa'O alphabet) Karen Braille | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | blk |
| Glottolog | paok1235 |
The language is primarily written using a Burmese script alphabet devised by Christian missionaries,[2][3] 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.).[citation needed]
The language is also referred to by the exonyms "Black Karen" and "White Karen", both of which are terms used in contrast to "Red Karen" (Karenni), also of Myanmar.
Phonology
editThe following displays the phonological features of the Pa'O (Taungthu) language:[5]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | kʰ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | lateral | l | ||||
| central | w | j | ||||
- /p, t, k, ʔ/ and /m, n, ŋ/ can occur as final consonants. Stops may also be heard as unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚].
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ʉ | u |
| High-mid | e | o | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Low-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a | ||
| Glided | aⁱ | aᵘ |
References
edit
- ^ a b Pa'O at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ "Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Word List". Language Documentation Training Center. 3 October 2015. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ^ "Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Writing System". Language Documentation Training Center. 9 October 2015. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ^ Shintani, Tadahiko. 2020. The Pao language: its Taunggyi and Kokareit dialects. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 131. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
- ^ Thanamteun, Orranat (2000). A phonological study of Pa-O (Taungthu) at Ban Huay Salop, Tambon Huay Pha, Muang district, Mae Hong Son province. Mahidol University.
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