ဖျိၣ်
Pwo Karen
Sino-Tibetan (Karen, Pwo)
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
31 core words in Pwo Karen
Water
ထံ
/tʰî/
Fire
မ့ၣ်
/me˨˩/
Sun
မုန်
/mu˧/
Moon
လး
/la˧/
Star
ဆါ
/ʃa˧/
Mother
မိ
/mu˧˥/
Father
ဖါ
/pʰa/
I
ယ
/jə˧/
You
နါ
/nə˧/
Name
မံ
/mi˨˩/
Eye
မဲာ်
/mɛ˧/
Hand
စူ
/sɔ˨/
Heart
သး
/θà/
Love
အဲင်
/ʔài/
Tree
သုၣ်
/tʰoŋ˧/
House
ဟံၣ်
/hi˧/
Dog
ထွဲ
/tʰwi˧/
Cat
ဖၣ်
/pə˧/
Eat
အၢင်
/ai˧˩/
Drink
အူ
/ɔ˧/
One
တ
/ta˧˩/
Two
နီ
/ni˨˩/
Hello
နာမှၤ
/na˧ʃi˧/
Thank you
တၢ်ဘျုး
/ta˧blu˧/
Good
ဂ့ၤ
/ɣai˧/
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Karen, Pwo) languages
| Meaning | Pwo Karen | Sgaw Karen | Western Pwo Karen | Tangut | Akha | Tujia | Iu Mien |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ထံ /tʰî/ | ထံ /tʰi/ | ထံ /tʰi/ | 𗀚 /tjɨ˧/ | i tsi /i˧tsɨ˧/ | zi /tsɨ˥˧/ | wuom /wuom˧/ |
| Fire | မ့ၣ် /me˨˩/ | မ့ၣ် /mèʔ/ | မ့ၣ်ဖါ /mei pʰa/ | 𘎩 /me˧/ | mji /mji˧/ | mi /mi˥˧/ | douz /dou˨˧/ |
| Sun | မုန် /mu˧/ | မုၢ် /mu/ | မုၢ် /mə/ | 𘂴 /pjij˧˥/ | nyi ma /ɲi˧ma˧/ | ni /ni˧˥/ | hnoi /hnoi˧/ |
| Moon | လး /la˧/ | လါ /la/ | လါ /la/ | 𗏯 /lja˧˥/ | ba la /ba˧la˧/ | nie /nie˧˥/ | hlaax /hlaː˨˧/ |
| Star | ဆါ /ʃa˧/ | ဆၣ် /sʰã˧/ | ဆၣ် /sʰã˧/ | 𗄓 /gjɨ˧˥/ | aqgeu /a˨˩ɡɯ˥/ | sei /sei˥˧/ | hleix /l̥ei˧/ |
| Mother | မိ /mu˧˥/ | မိၢ် /mi/ | မိၢ် /mo/ | 𘎒 /ma˧˥/ | a ma /a˧ma˧/ | a-mie /a˧mie˧/ | maa /maː˧/ |
| Father | ဖါ /pʰa/ | ပၢ် /pa/ | ဖါ /pʰa/ | 𗥃 /pa˧/ | a da /a˧da˧/ | a-pa /a˧pa˧/ | diex /die˨˧/ |
| I | ယ /jə˧/ | ယၤ /jā/ | ယၩ /jə/ | 𗧓 /ŋa˧˥/ | nga /ŋa˧/ | nga /ŋa˧˥/ | yie /ji˧/ |
| You | နါ /nə˧/ | နၤ /nə˧/ | နါ /na˦/ | 𘀍 /nja˧˥/ | naw /nɔ˧/ | ni /ȵi˧˥/ | meih /mei˨˩/ |
| Name | မံ /mi˨˩/ | မံၤ /mĩ˧/ | မဲ /mɛ˦/ | 𗥠 /mjij˧˥/ | myeh /mjɤ˥/ | mingzi /miŋ˨˩tsi˧˥/ | mbuox /ᵐbuɔ˧˩/ |
| Eye | မဲာ် /mɛ˧/ | မဲာ်ချံ /mɛ tʃʰa/ | မဲာ် /mɛ/ | 𗞴 /mjij˧/ | myaq /mja̰ʔ/ | mie /mie˨˩/ | m'zing /m̩ziŋ˧/ |
| Hand | စူ /sɔ˨/ | စု /su/ | စု /sʉ/ | 𘀔 /lje˧/ | la pa /la˧pa˧/ | lo /lo˨˩/ | buoz /buo˨˧/ |
| Heart | သး /θà/ | သး /θa/ | သး /θa/ | 𘃠 /njij˧˥/ | ne ma /nēmā/ | xin /ɕin/ | mba'y-fim /mbai˧fim˧/ |
| Love | အဲင် /ʔài/ | အဲၣ် /ʔeŋ/ | အဲၣ် /ʔain/ | 𗙊 /lhjij˧˥/ | gaq /ɡaʔ˧/ | aci /a˧˥tsi˥/ | hnamv /hnam˦/ |
| Tree | သုၣ် /tʰoŋ˧/ | သ့ၣ် /θiŋ/ | သ့ၣ် /θəŋ/ | 𘀇 /sji˧/ | aq xeu /aʔ˧ɕeu˧/ | si /sɨ˧˥/ | ndiangx /ndiaŋ˨˧/ |
| House | ဟံၣ် /hi˧/ | ဟံၣ် /haŋ/ | ဟံၣ် /həŋ/ | 𗩴 /kʰjwa˧˥/ | nyma /ɲma˧/ | li /li˧˥/ | biauv /biau˦/ |
| Dog | ထွဲ /tʰwi˧/ | ထွံၣ် /tʰwiŋ/ | ထွံၣ် /tʰwəŋ/ | 𗋒 /kʰwjɨ˧/ | jia /tɕa˧/ | kvʼ /kʰə˨˩/ | juv /dʒu˦/ |
| Cat | ဖၣ် /pə˧/ | သိမံၣ် /θimaŋ/ | ဆဲၣ် /sʰain/ | 𗦷 /mji˧˥/ | a yi /a˧ji˧/ | mau /mau˧/ | mbao /mbao˧/ |
| Eat | အၢင် /ai˧˩/ | အီၣ် /ʔiŋ/ | အီၣ် /ʔoŋ/ | 𗅋 /dzjij˧˥/ | za /dza˧/ | za /tsa˨˩/ | nyanc /ɲan˨˩/ |
| Drink | အူ /ɔ˧/ | အီ /ʔi/ | အီ /ʔi/ | 𘉞 /tʰjij˧˥/ | tu /tu˧/ | da /ta˧/ | hopv /hop˦/ |
| One | တ /ta˧˩/ | တ /ta/ | တ /tə/ | 𘈩 /lew˧˥/ | ti /ti˧/ | lao /lao˧˥/ | yietc /jiet˨˩/ |
| Two | နီ /ni˨˩/ | ခံၣ် /kʰĩ˧/ | နီ /ni˦/ | 𗍫 /njɨ˧/ | nyi /ɲi̤˨˩/ | nie /ȵie˥/ | i /i˧/ |
| Hello | နာမှၤ /na˧ʃi˧/ | ဘၣ်တၢ်ဆၢ /baŋ ta sa/ | ဂ့ၤထီၣ် /ɣɛ tʰi/ | — /—/ | u du la /u˧du˧la˧/ | shu shu /ʃu˧ʃu˧/ | yiem-longx /jiem˧loŋ˨˧/ |
| Thank you | တၢ်ဘျုး /ta˧blu˧/ | တၢ်ဘျုး /ta bju/ | တၢ်ဘျုး /ta pju/ | — /—/ | gv ya /ɡɯ˧ja˧/ | angzai /aŋ˧˥tsai˥/ | laengz /laŋ˨˧/ |
| Good | ဂ့ၤ /ɣai˧/ | ဂ့ၤ /ɣɛ/ | ဂ့ၤ /ɣɛ/ | 𗏁 /tsji˧/ | jau /tɕau˧/ | ngaq /ŋaʔ˧˥/ | longx /loŋ˨˧/ |
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