Native to Burma, Thailand Native speakers (560,000 cited 1983) | Ethnicity Pa'O people ISO 639-3 blk | |
Language family Sino-Tibetan
(Tibeto-Burman)
Karen languages
Pa'o Writing system Mon script (Pa'o alphabet)
Karen Braille | ||
Pa'o is a Karen language spoken by half a million Pa'o in Burma. Dialects are Southern Pa’o and Northern Pa’o.
Contents
Names
Ethnologue lists the alternate names Black Karen, Northern Taungthu, Pa Oh, Pa-O, Pa’o Karen, Pa-U.
The language is also referred to by the exonym "Black Karen", a term dating from colonial times and used in contrast to the Karenni (or "Red Karen") and the S'gaw (or "White Karen"), even though the Taungthu often rejected the term "Karen" to refer to themselves. The Christian missionary website Ethnologue categorizes the language as "BLK", abbreviating "Black Karen".
Distribution
Orthography
The language is primarily written using a system of phonetics devised by Christian missionaries, and many of the materials now available for it on the internet derive from Christian missionary involvement, although the majority of the Pa'o are generally reported to be Buddhists (without real statistics, etc.).