Karenni language

Karenni or Red Karen (Kayah Li: ꤊꤢꤛꤢ꤭ ꤜꤟꤤ꤬; Burmese: ကရင်နီ), known in Burmese as Kayah (Burmese: ကယား), is a Karen dialect continuum spoken by over half a million Kayah people (Red Karen) in Burma.

Karenni
Kayah
ꤊꤢꤛꤢ꤭ ꤜꤟꤤ꤬ ကယး လီူး; ကရင်နီ
Native to	Burma, Thailand
Ethnicity	Karenni
Native speakers	187,000 (2000–2007)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Karen languages Sgaw–Bghai Karenni
Writing system	Kayah Li (eky,kyu) Latin (kyu,kxf) Myanmar (kyu,kxf) unwritten (kvy)
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Thailand  Myanmar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: eky – Eastern Kayah kyu – Western Kayah kvy – Yintale kxf – Manumanaw (Manu)
Glottolog	kaya1317  Kayah yint1235  Yintale Karen manu1255  Manumanaw Karen

The name Kayah has been described as "a new name invented by the Burmese to split them off from other Karen".^[2]

Eastern Kayah is reported to have been spoken by 260,000 in Burma and 100,000 in Thailand in 2000, and Western Kayah by 210,000 in Burma in 1987. They are rather divergent. Among the Western dialects are Yintale and kayahManu (Manumanaw in Burmese).

Distribution and varieties

Eastern Kayah is spoken in:^[1]

• Shadaw township, Kayah State (east of the Thanlwin River)
• Langkho district, Shan State

Eastern Kayah dialects are Upper Eastern Kayah and Lower Eastern Kayah, which are mutually intelligible. The speech variety of Huai Sua Thaw village (Lower Eastern) is prestigious for both dialect groups. The Eastern Kayah have difficulty understanding the Western Kayah.

Western Kayah is spoken in Kayah State and Kayin State, east of the Thanlwin River. It is also spoken in Pekon township in southern Shan State.^[1]

• northern dialect: Shan State (north of Loikaw)
• southern dialect: Hpruso and Dimawso townships (south of Loikaw)

Western Kayah dialects are part of a dialect continuum of Central Karen varieties stretching from Thailand. They include:^[1]

• Northern dialect of Western Kayah
• Southern dialect of Western Kayah
• Dawtama
• Dawnnyjekhu
• Sounglog
• Chi Kwe
• Wan Cheh

Yintale, reportedly a variety of Western Kayah, is spoken in 3 villages of Hpasawng township, Bawlakhe district, Kayah State.^[1]

Yintale dialects are Bawlake and Wa Awng.

Kawyaw, reportedly similar to Western Kayah, is spoken in 23 villages along the border of Bawlake and Hpruso townships, in the West Kyebogyi area of Kayah State.

Kawyaw dialects are Tawkhu and Doloso, which have been reported to be difficult to mutually understand.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in Western Kayah^[3][4]

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p		t		k
	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b		d		ɡ
Affricate					tʃ
Fricative	voiceless		θ		ʂ		h
	aspirated			sʰ
	voiced	v		z	ʝ
Nasal		m		n	(ɲ)	ŋ
Rhotic				ɾ
Approximant	lateral			l
	central	w			j

• /sʰ/ is heard as a palato-alveolar [ʃ] before high-front vowels.
• /ŋ/ is heard as a palatal [ɲ] before front or mid vowels.^[3]
• /ɾ/ may also be heard as a trill [r].^[4]

Consonants in Eastern Kayah^[5]

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tɕ		k	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tɕʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	dʑ
Fricative		(v)	s	(ɕ)	(ʝ)		h
Nasal		m	n		(ɲ)	ŋ
Approximant	lateral		l
	central	w		ɻ	j

• /tɕ/ may also be occasionally be realized as [ɕ].
• /j/ may also be heard as a palatal fricative [ʝ].
• /ŋ/ may also be heard as palatal [ɲ] when before front vowels and /j/.
• /ɻ/ may also be heard as a trill [r] among emphatic speech.
• /w/ may also be heard as [v] in free variation.
• A glottal stop [ʔ] is heard in zero-initial position before an initial vowel.^[5]

Vowels

Western

Vowels in Western Kayah

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ	u
High-mid	e	ə	ɤ	o
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a
Diphthong			ɯᵊ

Breathy vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i̤		ɯ̤	ṳ
High-mid	e̤	ə̤	ɤ̤	o̤
Low-mid	ɛ̤		ɔ̤
Low		a̤
Diphthong			ɯ̤ᵊ

Eastern

Vowels in Eastern Kayah^[5]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ	u
High-mid	e		ɤ	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Low		a

• /ə/ may also be heard as a centralized [ʌ̈].

Writing system

According to Aung 2013, Manumanaw Karen does not yet have a standardized script. Catholic missionaries developed a spelling using the Latin script which is used in religious documents, including the translation of the Bible. A Manumanaw Karen literature committee has been set up and is developing literacy programs with SIL, using spelling based on Burmese script , so that it is accepted by Catholics and Baptists.^[6]

Manumanaw Karen Latin Alphabet

a

b

c

d

e

è

g

h

j

i

î

k

kh

l

m

n

o

ô

ò

p

ph

r

s

sh

t

ht

u

û

w

y

The tones are indicated using the caron, the acute accent or without the addition of these on the vowels: ⟨á, é, è́, í, î́, ó, ố, ò́, ú, û́⟩, ⟨ǎ, ě, è̌, ǐ, î̌, ǒ, ô̌, ò̌, ǔ, û̌⟩. The diaeresis below is used to indicate the breathy voice on the vowels: ⟨a̤, e̤, i̤, o̤, ṳ⟩.

Western Kayah Latin Alphabet

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

Seven digraphs are used.

Digraph

ng

ht

kh

ph

th

ny

gn

The five vowels of the alphabet are supplemented by four accented letters representing their own vowels.

Vowels

a

e

i

o

u

è

ò

ô

û

Tones are represented using the acute accent and the caron over the vowel. The breathy voice is indicated with an umlaut below the vowel letter. Breathy voiced vowel letters can also have a diacritic indicating the tone.

Tones

High	á	é	í	ó	ú	è́	ò́	ố	û́
Medium	ǎ	ě	ǐ	ǒ	ǔ	è̌	ò̌	ô̌	û̌
Breathy	a̤	e̤	i̤	o̤	ṳ	è̤	ò̤	ô̤	ṳ̂

References

1. Eastern Kayah at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Western Kayah at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Yintale at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Manumanaw (Manu) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Christopher Beckwith, International Association for Tibetan Studies, 2002. Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages, p. 108.
3. Bryant, John R. (1996). Notes on Western Kayah Li (Western Red Karen) phonology. PYU Working Papers in Linguistics 1: Payap University. pp. 66–104.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Wai, Lin Aung (2013). A descriptive grammar of Kayah Monu. Chiang Mai: Payap University.
5. Solnit, David B. (1986). A grammatical sketch of Eastern Kayah (Red Karen). University of California at Berkeley.
6. Aung, Wai Lin (2013). "A Descriptive Grammar of Kayah Monu (Master's thesis)" (PDF). Payap University. p. 14.

Further reading

• Kirkland, Cortney, and Erin Dawkins. 2007. A Sociolinguistic survey of Eastern Kayah Li in Thailand. Chiang Mai: Payap University.
• Shintani Tadahiko. 2018. The Yintalay language. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 115. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).

External links

• "E-books for children with narration in Karenni". Unite for Literacy library. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
• Eastern Kayah Li basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database