| S'gaw Karen | |
| Also Known As: | ကညီလံာ်ခီၣ်ထံး |
| Time: | 1830 - present |
| Fam1: | Proto-Sinaitic alphabet |
| Fam2: | Phoenician alphabet |
| Fam3: | Aramaic alphabet |
| Fam4: | Brahmi script |
| Fam5: | Pallava script |
| Fam6: | Mon-Burmese |
| Type: | Abugida |
| Iso15924: | Mymr |
The S'gaw Karen alphabet (ကညီလံာ်ခီၣ်ထံး) is an abugida used for writing Karen. It was derived from the Burmese script in the early 19th century, and ultimately from either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The S'gaw Karen alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit.
The Karen alphabet was created by American missionary Jonathan Wade in the 1830s, based on the S'gaw Karen language; Wade was assisted by a Karen named Paulah. The consonants and most of the vowels are adopted from the Burmese alphabet; however, the Karen pronunciation of the letters is slightly different from that of the Burmese alphabet. Since Karen has more tones than Burmese, additional tonal markers were added.
The script is taught in the refugee camps in Thailand and in Kayin State.
| +Grouped consonants | k (pronounced as /kaˀ/) | kh (pronounced as /kʰaˀ/) | gh (pronounced as /ɣ/) | x (pronounced as /x/) | ng (pronounced as /ŋ/) |
s (pronounced as /s/) | hs (pronounced as /sʰ/) | sh (pronounced as /ʃ/) | ny (pronounced as /ɲ/) | ||
t (pronounced as /t/) | hṭ (pronounced as /tʰ/) | d (pronounced as /d/) | n (pronounced as /n/) | ||
p (pronounced as /p/) | hp (pronounced as /pʰ/) | b (pronounced as /b/) | m (pronounced as /m/) |
| +Miscellaneous consonants | y (pronounced as /ʝ/) | r (pronounced as /r/) | l (pronounced as /l/) | w (pronounced as /w/) | th (pronounced as /θ/) |
h (pronounced as /h/) | vowel holder (pronounced as /ʔ/) | ahh (pronounced as /ɦ/) |
| +Vowels | ah (pronounced as /a/) | ee (pronounced as /i/) | uh (pronounced as /ɤ/) | u (pronounced as /ɯ/) | oo (pronounced as /u/) | ae or ay (pronounced as /e/) | eh (pronounced as /æ/) | oh (pronounced as /o/) | aw (pronounced as /ɔ/) |
| Tones | S'gaw Karen | |
|---|---|---|
| rising | ||
| falling | ||
| mid | ||
| high | ||
| low |
| Medials | S'gaw Karen | |
|---|---|---|
| ှ (hg) | ||
| ၠ (y) | ||
| ြ (r) | ||
| ျ (l) | ||
| ွ (w) |
| Number | S'gaw Karen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numeral | Written | IPA | Pronounce | ||
| 0 | pronounced as /wa/ | wah | |||
| 1 | pronounced as /tɤ/ | tuh | |||
| 2 | pronounced as /kʰi/ | khee | |||
| 3 | pronounced as /θɤ/ | thuh | |||
| 4 | pronounced as /lwi/ | lwee | |||
| 5 | pronounced as /wæ/ | yeh | |||
| 6 | pronounced as /xɯ/ | hku | |||
| 7 | pronounced as /nwi/ | nwee | |||
| 8 | pronounced as /xo/ | hkaw | |||
| 9 | pronounced as /kʰ i/ | kwee | |||
| 10 | pronounced as /tsʰi/ | tsee | |||
The number 1962 would be written as .