Pa'O language

Pa'O
Pa'O
ပအိုဝ်ႏ, Taungthu
Native to	Myanmar
Ethnicity	Pa'O people
Native speakers	1.5 million (2014)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman)? Karenic languages Pa'O; ; ;
Writing system	Burmese script (Pa'O alphabet); Karen Braille
Official status
Recognised minority; language in	Myanmar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	blk
Glottolog	paok1235

Pa'O (also spelled Pa-O and Pa'O language,ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏlisten (help·info), Pa-oh, ပအိုဝ်ႏ; Burmese: ပအိုဝ်း), sometimes called Taungthu, is a Karen language spoken by one and a half million Pa'O people in Myanmar. Pa’O are also called Black Karen, because of their traditional black clothes.

The language is primarily written using a system of phonetics 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.).

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.

Dialects include Taunggyi and .^[4]

Phonology[]

The following displays the phonological features of the Pa'O (Taungthu) language:^[5]

Consonants[]

		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
Approximant	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[]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ʉ	u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a
Glided	aⁱ		aᵘ

References[]

^ Pa'O at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ "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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[e18-1] Pa'O at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] "Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Word List". Language Documentation Training Center. 3 October 2015. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2019.

[3] "Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Writing System". Language Documentation Training Center. 9 October 2015. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2019.

[4] 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).

[5] 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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