Reports of the Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies 53 (2022), 23~57

Pwo Karen writing systems 2:
Western Pwo Karen
Atsuhiko Kato

Abstract
Western Pwo Karen is a dialectal group of Pwo Karen spoken in the Ayeyarwady Delta,
Myanmar. This article discusses the correspondence between orthography and phonology in thislanguage. The Christian Pwo Karen Script is used as the writing system for Western Pwo Karen.
This script was originally created by Baptist missionaries for Eastern Pwo Karen. Western Pwo
Karen and Eastern Pwo Karen differ considerably in terms of phonology. However, when the
missionaries started using this script for Western Pwo Karen, they did not make any changes tothe script. They only changed the readings according to the regular phonological correspondences.
In addition to showing the correspondence between orthography and phonology, this article also
clarifies how the missionaries changed the readings.

1. Introduction
This study is a sequel to Kato (2021); thus, the title is, “Pwo Karen writing
systems 2”. In Kato (2021), I mentioned discussing the correspondence between theChristian Pwo Karen Script and the phonological system of Western Pwo Karen on
another occasion. That is the primary purpose of this study. In addition, I will show
the phonological correspondence between Western Pwo Karen and 19th-century
Eastern Pwo Karen, which was the basis for the creation of the Christian Pwo Karen
Script. This will clarify the linguistic context in which this writing system came to be
used not only as a writing system for Eastern Pwo Karen but also for Western Pwo
Karen.
Western Pwo Karen is a dialectal group of Pwo Karen, spoken in the Ayeyarwady― 23 ―

Delta of Myanmar, with many speakers in the Pathein District, Myaungmya District,and Ma-ubin District of the Ayeyarwady Region. The variation of Western Pwo Karenthat is treated in this article is a dialect spoken in the town of Kyonpyaw (Kyonbyaw)
in the Pathein District of the Ayeyarwady Region. Hereafter, “Western Pwo Karen”
refers to this dialect. The phonological system of this dialect is not substantiallydifferent from that of the dialect spoken in Pathein (Bassein), about 70 km southwest.
For more information on the dialects of Pwo Karen, see Kato (1995, 2009, 2017,2019a), Dawkins and Phillips (2009a, b), and Phillips (2017, 2018). Among the Karen
people in Myanmar, it is generally believed that there are two varieties of Pwo Karen:
Western Pwo Karen and Eastern Pwo Karen. Intelligibility between the two is very
low. This tells us that a considerable amount of time has passed since the two dialects
diverged, and correspondingly, that a considerable amount of time has passed since
the Karen people began to live in the Delta. Kato (2019b) estimated that the split ofEastern and Western Pwo Karen occurred in the 17th century; however, this could
have occurred earlier.
As mentioned by Kato (2021), the most widely used writing systems for Pwo
Karen dialects are the Buddhist Pwo Karen Script and the Christian Pwo Karen Script,
both of which have an abugida system (for more information on Pwo Karen writing
systems, see also Kato 2001a, 2001b, and 2006). The Christian Pwo Karen Script was
created in the 1840s by American Baptist missionaries, including Wade, Mason, andBrayton (cf. Mason 1846). I call this script the Christian Pwo Karen Script because it
was created by Christian missionaries. Note that Stern (1968) calls this the Mission
script. Henceforth, the Christian Pwo Karen Script is referred to as CS (Christian
Script). The CS was created based on the Christian Sgaw Karen Script, which was
created by Wade in the 1830s using symbols in the Burmese script. In the early stageof the CS, there were some novel innovations not seen in the Christian Sgaw Karen
Script, such as the use of Roman letters and the juxtaposition of basic letters andvowel signs. However, these innovations seem to have caused problems in reading
and writing. Therefore, it was modified by the early 1850s to be closer to the methodof Christian Sgaw Karen Script. As shown in detail in Kato (2021), the CS system fits
very well with the phonological system of the Hpa-an dialect, an Eastern Pwo Karen― 24 ―

dialect—and even better with the presumed phonological system of the Hpa-an dialectof the 19th century. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the CS was createdbased on the phonological system of the 19th-century Hpa-an dialect.
Although the CS was created for Eastern Pwo Karen, it later came to be used as
the script for Western Pwo Karen spoken in the Ayeyarwady Delta, as I alreadypointed out in Kato (1995, 2001b, 2006, and 2021). It is not known precisely when
Western Pwo Karen was first written in the CS. I have been working since 2017 with
Hitomi Fujimura, a historian who specializes in Karen Baptist history, reading her
selections of the Christian documents written in Pwo Karen and Sgaw Karen in the
19th century. To the best of our knowledge, the earliest printed material written inWestern Pwo Karen is an article by an anonymous author entitled, “An account of the
Churches in Sandoway”, which appeared in The Instructor, No. 7 (1851)—a Pwo
Karen journal published by the Maulmain Mission Press. Thus, it is certain that an
attempt to write Western Pwo Karen in the CS had already been made at a very earlystage in the CS history, that is, at the beginning of the 1850s.
In Western Pwo Karen texts written in the CS, many words and expressions with
Eastern Pwo Karen origins can be observed. For example: ဒဲဲ /ɗɛ́́/, a particle with themeaning ‘and’, which is considered originally an Eastern Pwo Karen word, isfrequently found in Western Pwo Karen texts (it will be referred to again in Section4.4); and လါါဆံၭၭ� /lâ sheiʔ/, which is originally an Eastern Pwo Karen optative

expression placed at the end of a sentence, is also common in Western Pwo Karen

texts. Western Pwo Karen speakers use such Eastern Pwo Karen elements in theirwritten language because they consider them to be orthodox. This can be attributed to
the fact that Eastern Pwo Karen was used in authoritative Christian literature,including the Pwo Karen Bible. The orthodoxy that Western Pwo Karen speakers feelin Eastern Pwo Karen elements still exists, and such elements are frequently found inpresent-day literature written in Western Pwo Karen. It should be noted, however, thatthese linguistic elements of Eastern Pwo Karen are not considered by Western Pwo
Karen speakers to be of Eastern Pwo Karen, but rather of “literary style”. Most
Western Pwo Karen writers and readers are probably unaware that these expressions
are of Eastern Pwo Karen origin.
― 25 ―

Since Western Pwo Karen texts use many Eastern Pwo Karen expressions, they
may appear at first glance to be of Eastern Pwo Karen; however, in texts written inWestern Pwo Karen, words and expressions specific to Western Pwo Karen appear
with a greater or lesser frequency. Therefore, a careful reading of the texts enables us
to identify them as of Western Pwo Karen. For example, if က (read as /kə/ in Western

Pwo Karen) is used instead of Eastern လ (read /lə/ in Eastern Pwo Karen) as thenumeral for ‘one’, then the text can be identified as of Western Pwo Karen. Similarly,
if the Western irrealis marker က (/kə/ in Western Pwo Karen) is used instead of theEastern irrealis marker မိိ (read as /mʊ̄̄/ in Eastern Pwo Karen; Western Pwo Karen

reads it /mô/ and the meaning is ‘want to’), then the text can be identified as of Western
Pwo Karen. The 1851 article in The Instructor is also identified as a Western Pwo
Karen text through such a process.
However, identification is challenging in rare cases. The Pwo Karen Bible,
published in the 1880s, is written in Eastern Pwo Karen, but the Psalms of the Bible
contain some elements of Western Pwo Karen. For example, the verb meaning ‘tolisten’ is ဆီၫ့့�နၪၪ
� /chôɴná/ in Eastern Pwo Karen (Western Pwo Karen reads it as/shàuɴnà/), but in the Psalms the Western Pwo Karen word ခိၭၭ�နၪၪ is used for the verb
meaning ‘to listen’. Western Pwo Karen reads it as /khoʔnà/, and the Eastern Pwo

Karen reading of this spelling is /khòná/. It is likely that some Western Pwo Karen
speakers participated in some way in the compilation of the Psalms. It is difficult todetermine whether the language of the Psalms is Eastern or Western Pwo Karen; thatis, it is unclear whether the writer intended to write Eastern Pwo Karen to match therest of the Bible but unintentionally mixed Western Pwo Karen words, or whether
they intended to write Western Pwo Karen in a “gorgeous” literary style filled with
Eastern Pwo Karen elements. It may be possible to regard such texts as being both
Eastern and Western Pwo Karen.
Today, the CS is mostly regarded as a Western Pwo Karen writing system by the
Karens, because Eastern Pwo Karen speakers mainly use the Buddhist Pwo Karen
Script and the CS is mainly used by Western Pwo Karen speakers. Moreover, inWestern Pwo Karen-speaking areas, the CS has also become increasingly popularamong Buddhists over the last 20 to 30 years. Books written by Buddhist monks, such
― 26 ―

as /θəmèiɴ mɯ̂ pláɴ/ (2005)—a collection of commentaries on the Dharma of
Buddhism—have also been published in this script. Therefore, we can safely say that
this script is now establishing itself as an orthography of Western Pwo Karen.
The following Section 2 presents the phonological system of Western Pwo Karen.
Section 3 presents the phonological correspondences between Western Pwo Karenand 19th-century Eastern Pwo Karen. Section 4 shows how the CS corresponds to thephonological system of Western Pwo Karen, and how the Baptist missionaries
replaced the 19th-century Eastern Pwo Karen readings with those of Western Pwo
Karen in order to use the CS as a writing system for Western Pwo Karen. In the lastpart of this section, some of the problems in using the CS to write Western Pwo Karen
are pointed out. Section 5 presents a Western Pwo Karen text written in CS. Section 6
concludes the study.
Hereafter, Western Pwo Karen and Eastern Pwo Karen will be referred to as WPK
and EPK, respectively. When it is necessary to distinguish between 19th-century
Eastern Pwo Karen and contemporary Eastern Pwo Karen, the former will beabbreviated as 19c EPK and the latter as CEPK.

2. Phonology of Western Pwo Karen
The phonological system of WPK presented here is basically the same as that
presented in Kato (1995) as the phonological system of the Kyonbyaw dialect, butthere are a few parts that have been modified after subsequent research. As alreadymentioned, the phonological system of this dialect is not substantially different fromthat of the dialect spoken in Pathein (Bassein). The phonological system of the Bassein
dialect was presented by Jones (1961). Given that his interpretation is unique, thephonological system of the Bassein dialect may appear different, on the surface, fromthe system shown here, but in fact it is not as different as one might imagine based on
the differences in the transcription.
The syllable structure of WPK can be represented as C1(C2)V1(V2)(C3)/(T). “C”
stands for a consonant, “V” for a vowel, and “T” for a tone. C1 is an initial consonant,C2 is a medial consonant, and C3 is a final consonant. One or two vowels may occur
and are represented by V1 and V2. Bracketed elements may or may not occur. The― 27 ―

part of C1(C2)- is called an onset, and that of -V1(V2)(C3) is called a rhyme.
As shown in Table 1, there are four tones: low-level, high-level, falling, andchecked tones. In the table, they are shown with /a/ with tone marks. The exact
phonetic realization of /a/ is [ä]. Additionally, there are atonic syllables, and they are
represented by not adding any tone marks. The only rhyme that can appear in atonic
syllables is /-ə/. These are pronounced short and weak.
Table 1: Tones in WPK
à
á
â
aʔ
ə

[a11]
[a55]
[a51]
[aʔ51]

low-level tone
high-level tone
falling tone
checked tone
atonicThe pitch of the checked tone is almost the same as that of the falling tone.
Therefore, some speakers confuse the checked tone with a falling tone. Giving aphonological interpretation of the checked tone is not a simple task. The following
two possibilities must be considered: (1) it is a distinct tone from the other tones, witha final glottal stop as its inherent feature; and (2) it is a falling tone that appears in thesyllable ending with a glottal stop. If we adopt interpretation (1), there is no need tophonologically recognize syllables ending with a glottal stop, because the final glottal
stop is a feature of the tone. If we adopt interpretation (2), we need to phonologicallyrecognize syllables ending with a glottal stop. In Kato (1995), I adopted interpretation(2) because the pitch of the checked tone is almost the same as that of the falling tone.
However, the possibility of interpretation (1) remains. Therefore, in this article, I
adopt an interpretation that combines (1) and (2); that is, the final glottal stop is an
inherent feature of the checked tone, and at the same time, it is also regarded as aphonological syllable-final consonant.
Simple onsets consisting only of C1 are listed in Table 2. A total of 30 phonemes
can occur at a simple onset.

― 28 ―

Table 2: Simple onsets in WPK
p
ph
ɓ
b

θ

t
th
ɗ
d
s
sh
z
n

ð

m
w

c

k
kh
ɡ
x

ɕ

h

ɣ
ŋ

ɲ
j

l
r

ʔ

The phonetic values of simple onsets are as follows: /p-/ [p], /θ-/ [t̪ ~t̪ θ], /t-/ [t], /c-/[tɕ], /k-/ [k], /ʔ-/ [ʔ], /ph-/ [pʰ], /th-/ [tʰ], /kh-/ [kʰ], /ɓ-/ [ɓ], /ɗ-/ [ɗ], /b-/ [b], /ð-/ [d̪~d̪ð],/d-/ [d], /ɡ-/ [ɡ], /s-/ [s], /ɕ-/ [ɕ], /x-/ [x], /h-/ [h], /sh-/ [sʰ], /z-/ [z], /ɣ-/ [ɣ], /m-/ [m],/n-/ [n], /ɲ-/ [ɲ], /ŋ-/ [ŋ], /w-/ [w], /j-/ [j~ʝ], /l-/ [l], and /r-/ [ɽ~ɹ].
The phonemes that can appear as C2 are /-w-/ [w], /-l-/ [l], /-r-/ [r~ɹ], and /-j-/[j~ʝ]. The combinations of C1 and C2 that have been found to date are listed in Table
3.
Table 3: Possible combinations of C1 and C2 in WPK

w
C2 l
r
j

p
+
+
+
+

θ
+

t
+
+

k
+
+
+

C1
ʔ ph th kh ɓ++ + ++ + + +
+
+
+

ɗ
+

s
+

sh
+

x
+

m
+
+

n
+

j
+

l
+

+

As previously mentioned, the structure of a rhyme can be represented as -V1(V2)(C3). Among the components of a rhyme, the position of C3 can only be occupied by/-ɴ/ or /-ʔ/. The nasal /ɴ/ is a phoneme that can only occur as a final consonant. It isrealized as [ɴ] or nasalization of the preceding vowel. Rhymes can be divided into
three types: open rhymes without C3, nasalized rhymes with /-ɴ/, and stopped rhymes
with /-ʔ/.
There are 12 open rhymes, as shown in Table 4.

― 29 ―

Table 4: Open rhymes in WPKMonophthongs
Diphthongs
i
ɨ ɯ u
ai
au
e
ə
o
ɛ
a
ɔ
These rhymes are realized as follows: /-i/ [i], /-ɨ/ [ɨ], /-ɯ/ [ɯ], /-u/ [u], /-e/ [e̝ ], /-ə/ [ə],/-o/ [o̝], /-ɛ/ [ɛ], /-a/ [ä], /-ɔ/ [ɔ], /-ai/ [äi], and /-au/ [äʊ~äo].
There are eight nasalized rhymes, as shown in Table 5. I place /-iɴ/ in parentheses
because it appears only in loanwords from Burmese and those from other languages
that have entered via Burmese.
Table 5: Nasalized rhymes in WPKMonophthongs
(iɴ)
əɴ
aɴ

Diphthongseiɴaiɴəɯɴ ouɴauɴ

These rhymes are realized as follows: /iɴ/ [ɪɴ~ɪ]̃ , /-əɴ/ [ə͂~ə], /-aɴ/ [ɐɴ~ɐ͂], /-eiɴ/[eiɴ~ei͂ ], /-əɯɴ/ [əɯɴ~əɯ͂], /-ouɴ/ [ouɴ~ou͂], /-aiɴ/ [äiɴ~äi]̃ , and /-auɴ/ [äʊɴ~äʊ͂]. The
nasalization of /-əɴ/ is very weak and may be completely eliminated. In that case, /-əɴ/loses its phonetic distinction from /-ə/. Therefore, in some speakers, /-əɴ/ has merged
into /-ə/. The nasalization of /-eiɴ/, /-əɯɴ/, /-ouɴ/, /-aiɴ/, and /-auɴ/ is also often weak.
As a result, the distinction between /-ai/ and /-aiɴ/ and that between /-au/ and /-auɴ/
may be ambiguous for some speakers. The occurrence of /-əɯɴ/ is very rare, as will
be discussed in Section 3.
There are eight stopped rhymes, as shown in Table 6. These rhymes appear when
there is a glottal stop at the end of the syllable. As mentioned earlier, the final glottal
stop may be an inherent feature of the checked tone rather than a syllable-final
consonant.
Table 6: Stopped rhymes in WPKMonophthongs
ɨʔ
eʔ
oʔ
aʔ
ɔʔ

Diphthongseiʔ əɯʔ ouʔ

― 30 ―

These rhymes are realized as follows: /-ɨʔ/ [ɨʔ], /-eʔ/ [eʔ], /-oʔ/ [oʔ], /-aʔ/ [äʔ], /-ɔʔ/[ɔʔ], /-eiʔ/ [eiʔ], /-əɯʔ/ [əɯʔ], and /-ouʔ/ [ouʔ].

3. Phonological correspondences between WPK and 19c EPK
The CS, created in the 1840s, seems to reflect the phonological system of EPK
from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. What I call “19c
EPK” is the EPK of this period. As mentioned in Section 1, WPK adopted CS slightly
later than EPK. This adoption was achieved by replacing the 19c EPK pronunciation,
represented by the CS, with the WPK pronunciation of the same period. WPK during
this period can be assumed to be the dialect of Pathein (Bassein), which was the centerof the Baptist mission in the Ayeyarwady Delta.
The details of the pronunciation of the WPK in the 19th century are no longer wellknown. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, the discussion in this article assumes
that the phonological system of WPK in the 19th century is the same as that of WPKtoday. In other words, we assume that the phonological system of WPK, to which themissionaries applied the CS, is the system described in Section 2.
The phonological system of 19c EPK has already been presented in Kato (2021),
but in order to make the discussion easier to understand, the outline will be presented
below.
The syllable structure of the 19c EPK can be represented as C1(C2)V1(V2)(C3)/(T). There are six tones: low-level, mid-level, high-level, falling, low-checked, andhigh-checked, as shown in Table 7.
Table 7: Tones in 19c EPK
à
ā
á
â
àʔ
áʔ
ə

low-level tone
mid-level tone
high-level tone
falling tone
low-checked tone
high-checked tone
atonicSimple onsets consisting only of C1 are listed in Table 8. Four of these, /w/, /l/,― 31 ―

/r/, and /j/, also appear as C2.
Table 8: Onsets in 19c EPK
p
ph
b

θ

t
th
d

m
w

n

c
ch

k
kh

ɕ

x
ɣ
ŋ

ɲ
j

l
r

ʔ
h

ʁ

The structure of a rhyme in 19c EPK can be represented as -V1(V2)(C3). As C3,/-ɴ/, which does not appear as C1, and /-ʔ/, which also appears as C1, can appear.
There are 10 open rhymes, as shown in Table 9; seven nasalized rhymes, as shown in
Table 10; and eight stopped rhymes, as shown in Table 11.
Table 9: Open rhymes in 19c EPK
i
e
ɛ

ɨ

ə
a

ɯ

u
o
ɔ

Table 10: Nasalized rhymes in 19c EPK
Monophthongs
əɴ
oɴ
aɴ

Diphthongseiɴ əɯɴ ouɴaiɴ

Table 11: Stopped rhymes in 19c EPK
Monophthongs
ɨʔ
eʔ
oʔ
aʔ
ɔʔ

Diphthongsaiʔaɯʔ auʔWe will now look at the phonological correspondence between the WPK and 19c
EPK. The following tables (Tables 12 to 18) are made in terms of how the phonology
of 19c EPK corresponds to the phonology of WPK. Therefore, when looking at thetables, it is convenient to look first at the 19c EPK forms. In addition, the corresponding― 32 ―

sounds of CEPK are also shown for reference.
The regular correspondence of the tones is listed in Table 12. The 19c EPK tones
are placed in the middle column, WPK tones in the left column, and CEPK tones in
the right column.
Table 12: Tones
WPKá [a55]â [a51]
à [a11]
à [a11]aʔ [aʔ51]aʔ [aʔ51]
ə (atonic)

19c EPK
*à
*ā
*á
*â
*àʔ
*áʔ
*ə (atonic)

CEPKà [a11]ā [a̤33 ~ 334]
á [a55]â [a51]
à [a11]
á [a55]
ə (atonic)

The following points should be noted in relation to Table 12:● The corresponding pitches of the WPK and CEPK tones are very different. For
example, the high-level tone /á/ in WPK corresponds to the low-level tone /à/ in
CEPK, that is, the pitches have an opposite relationship. The difference in tonal
pitches is the main reason why the intercommunication of WPK and CEPK is difficult.
● The high-level tone */á/ and falling tone */â/ in 19c EPK correspond to the lowlevel tone /à/ in the WPK. Similarly, the low-checked tone */àʔ/ and high-checked
tone */áʔ/ in 19c EPK both correspond to the checked tone /aʔ/ in WPK. These
correspondences reflect the fact that some of the Proto-Pwo Karen tones merged in
WPK (for Proto-Pwo Karen, see Kato 2009).
Tables 13 to 15 show the regular correspondence of the initial consonants. Table
13 shows how the stops and affricates in the 19c EPK regularly correspond to WPKsounds. Recall that these tables are designed to look first at the 19c EPK sounds as astarting point. The CEPK sounds are shown for reference only.

― 33 ―

Table 13: Stops and affricates
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

p
*p
p

θ
*θ
θ

t
*t
t

s
*c
c

c
*cj
c

k
*k
k

ʔ ph th sh kh ɓ*ʔ *ph *th *ch *kh *b
ʔ ph th ch kh bɗ*dd

The following points should be noted in relation to Table 13:● */b-/ and */d-/ in 19c EPK and /b-/ and /d-/ in CEPK are all implosives. In otherwords, they are phonetically [ɓ] and [ɗ]. The reason these are not represented as /ɓ-/,/ɗ-/ is that they do not show opposition to non-implosives. Since there are /ɓ-/ vs. /b-/and /ɗ-/ vs. /d-/ oppositions in WPK, it is necessary to transcribe the WPK implosives
as /ɓ-/ and /ɗ-/.
● The reason for the absence of WPK /b-/, /ð-/, /d-/, and /ɡ-/ in this table is that theseare phonemes that emerged independently in WPK through irregular sound changes
and borrowings. Examples of WPK /b-/ include the following: /bá/ ‘we’ (cf. 19c EPK*/pə̀/, CEPK /pə̀/) and /bə́ɴ/ ‘inside’ (cf. 19c EPK */phə̀ɴ/, CEPK /phə̀ɴ/). These two
examples have a minimal pair counterpart with /ɓ-/, i.e., /ɓá/ ‘to worship’ and /ɓə́ɴ/‘be thick’. Examples of /ð-/ include the following: /ðeiʔ/ ‘still’ (cf. 19c EPK */dàiʔ/,
CEPK /dài/). Examples of /d-/ include the following: /tɔ́dɔ̀/ ‘considerably’ (borrowing
from Burmese /tɔ̀dɔ̀/). Examples of /ɡ-/ include the following: /ɡàu/ ‘side’ (cf. 19c
EPK */khɔ̂/, CEPK /khɔ̂/), /káɴɡá/ ‘to discuss’ (cf. 19c EPK */kàɴkà/, CEPK /kàɴkà/),/màɴɡánèiɴ/ ‘last year’ (no corresponding form in EPK), and /màɴɡúnèiɴ/ ‘the year
before last’ (no corresponding form in EPK). The number of forms with /b-/, /ð-/, /d-/,and /ɡ-/ is very small.
● WPK /c-/ is thought to correspond to the 19c EPK consonant cluster */cj-/. Thisissue will be discussed in detail in Section 4.2.
Table 14 shows how the fricatives in 19c EPK regularly correspond to WPKsounds.

― 34 ―

Table 14: Fricatives
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

ɕ
*ɕ
ɕ

x
*x
x

*h
h

ɣ
*ɣ
ɣ

ɣ
*ʁ
ʁ

The following points should be noted in relation to Table 14:● WPK /h-/ emerged independently in WPK through borrowing from Burmese, e.g.,/hɔ́/ ‘to preach’ (Burmese /hɔ́/). 19c EPK */h-/ also emerged independently in EPK
through irregular sound changes and borrowing. Therefore, WPK /h-/ does not
regularly correspond to 19c EPK */h-/ or CEPK /h-/. This is why WPK /h-/ is notlisted in the table.
● The WPK fricatives /s-/ and /sh-/ correspond to the 19c EPK affricates */c-/ and*/ch-/, respectively, as shown in Table 13. Therefore, they do not appear in the table.
● WPK /ɣ-/ corresponds to 19c EPK */ɣ-/ or */ʁ-/, e.g., /ɣà/ ‘evening’ (cf. 19c EPK*/ɣá/, CEPK /ɣá/) and /ɣà/ ‘question marker’ (cf. 19c EPK */ʁâ/, CEPK /ʁâ/).
● WPK /z-/ emerged independently in WPK. The origin of this sound is one of thefollowing cases: One is the case in which /z-/ emerged through an irregular soundchange, e.g., /zə̂/ ‘thing’ (cf. 19c EPK */chə̄/, CEPK /chə̄/). The other case is borrowing
from Burmese, for example, /zé/ ‘market’ (cf. Burmese /zé/).
Table 15 shows how the nasals, semivowels, and liquids in 19c EPK regularly
correspond to WPK sounds.
Table 15: Nasals, semivowels, and liquids
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

m
*m
m

n
*n
n

*ɲ
ɲ

*ŋ
ŋ

w
*w
w

j
*j
j

l
*l
l

r
*r
r

The following point should be noted in relation to Table 15:● WPK also has /ɲ-/ and /ŋ-/. However, none of the forms with these sounds have acorresponding form in 19c EPK or CEPK. Therefore, these WPK phonemes were notincluded in this table. Examples of WPK /ɲ-/ and /ŋ-/ are /ɲoʔθà/ ‘noni (Morinda― 35 ―

citrifolia)’ and /məŋâ/ ‘be good’, whose origins are unknown.
Tables 16–18 show the regular correspondence of rhymes. Table 16 shows how
the plain rhymes in the 19c EPK regularly correspond to WPK sounds.
Table 16: Plain rhymes
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

i
*i
i

ɨ
*ɨ
ɨ

ɯ
*ɯ
ɯ

u
*u
ɯ

e
*e
i̱

ə
*ə
ə

o
*o
ʊ

ai, ɛ
*ɛ
ɛ

a
*a
a

au, ɔ
*ɔ
ɔ

The following points should be noted in relation to Table 16:● 19c EPK */-ɛ/ corresponds to the two rhymes /-ai/ and /-ɛ/ in the WPK. This isbecause */-ai/ and */-ɛ/ in Proto-Pwo Karen (Kato 2009) merged into /-ɛ/ in EPK. As
will be discussed in Section 4.5, the CS, which reflects the 19c EPK phonology, does
not distinguish between /-ai/ and /-ɛ/ in WPK.
● 19c EPK */-ɔ/ corresponds to the two rhymes /-au/ and /-ɔ/ in WPK. This is because*/-au/ and */-ɔ/ in Proto-Pwo Karen have merged into /-ɔ/ in EPK. As will be discussed
in Section 4.5, the CS does not distinguish between /-au/ and /-ɔ/ in WPK.
Table 17 shows how the nasalized rhymes in 19c EPK regularly correspond to
WPK sounds.
Table 17: Nasalized rhymes
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

əɴ
*əɴ
əɴ

auɴ
*oɴ
oɴ

aɴ
*aɴ
aɴ

eiɴ
əɴ ouɴ aiɴ
*eiɴ *əɯɴ *ouɴ *aiɴeiɴ əɯɴ oʊɴ aiɴ

The following points should be noted in relation to Table 17:● 19c EPK */-əɴ/ corresponds to WPK /-əɴ/. 19c EPK */-əɯɴ/ also corresponds to thesame rhyme /-əɴ/ in WPK. This is because */-əɴ/ and */-əɯɴ/ in Proto-Pwo Karen(Kato 2009) have merged into /əɴ-/ in WPK. Moreover, as noted in relation to Table
5, in the pronunciation of some WPK speakers, /-əɴ/ has lost its nasality and merged
into the plain rhyme /-ə/.
― 36 ―

● WPK has rhyme /-əɯɴ/. The only form with this rhyme so far found is /mátə́ɯɴ/ ‘tothreaten’. This word corresponds to 19c EPK */màtə̀ɯɴ/ (cf. CEPK /màtə̀ɯɴ/).
Therefore, there is a possibility that we can list /-əɯɴ/ in addition to /-əɴ/ as a WPKrhyme corresponding to the 19c EPK rhyme */-əɯɴ/. However, since only one
instance of this correspondence has been found, it is impossible to determine whether
it is regular or not. For this reason, the correspondence 19c EPK */-əɯɴ/ : WPK/-əɯɴ/ is not listed in Table 17.
Table 18 shows how the stopped rhymes in 19c EPK regularly correspond to
WPK sounds.
Table 18: Stopped rhymes
WPK
19c EPK
CEPK

ɨʔ
*ɨʔ
ɨ

eʔ
*eʔ
e

oʔ
*oʔ
o

aʔ
*aʔ
a

ɔʔ
*ɔʔ
ɔ

eiʔ
*aiʔ
ai

əɯʔ
*aɯʔ
aʊ

ouʔ
*auʔ
aʊ

The following point should be noted in relation to Table 18:● The syllable-final glottal stop that was present in Proto-Pwo Karen was preservedin 19c EPK but has been lost in CEPK. This sound is preserved in the WPK. However,as mentioned earlier, the WPK final glottal stop may be an inherent feature of thechecked tone in terms of phonology.

4. Christian Pwo Karen Script and Western Pwo Karen
The CS was created for 19c EPK in the 1840s; thus, it reflects the phonologicalsystem of the 19c EPK. However, in less than a decade after its creation, this writing
system also began to be used to write the WPK. The Baptist missionaries found thatthey could use the CS as a writing system for WPK if they replaced the pronunciationof 19c EPK with that of WPK based on the regular phonological correspondences
between 19c EPK and WPK discussed in Section 3. No changes were made to thewriting system at that time. This was possible because the CS was a highly systematic
script that reflected the pronunciation of the 19c EPK with great accuracy.
The pronunciation of WPK in those days must have been slightly different from― 37 ―

what it is today. Unfortunately, the details of the WPK pronunciation at that time areunknown. However, the process that the missionaries followed can be simulated using
the modern pronunciation of WPK. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, this study
assumes that the phonological system of WPK in the 19th century was the same as thecontemporary WPK phonological system discussed in Section 2.
In the following, the sounds when reading the CS in the WPK are shown.
Furthermore, the 19c EPK sounds that regularly correspond to these WPK sounds arealso provided. Based on the sounds of the 19c EPK, one can understand how themissionaries replaced the EPK readings with those of the WPK.
4.1. Initial consonantsInitial consonants, that is, consonants appearing in the C1 position, are generally
written with basic letters. There are 27 basic letters listed in Table 19. The WPKpronunciations and those of the 19c EPK are shown in two lines below each basic
letter. The upper sounds without an asterisk are the pronunciations of the WPK. The
lower asterisked sounds are the 19c EPK pronunciations that correspond regularly tothe upper WPK sounds, and at the same time, these are the 19c EPK pronunciations
that the letters used to represent. However, the WPK sounds with “#” do not directly
correspond to the 19c EPK sounds.
Let us consider the basic letter စ as an example. The consonant /s-/ immediately

below စ is the WPK reading. The asterisked consonant */c-/ below it is the sound of
19c EPK that regularly corresponds to WPK /s-/, and at the same time, this */c-/ soundof 19c EPK was represented by the basic letter စ of the CS. To use the CS as a writing
system for WPK, the missionaries replaced the lower sounds with the upper ones.

― 38 ―

Table 19: Basic letters
က
k*kစ
s*cတ
t*tဖ
ph*phလ
l*l-

ဂ
ɣ*ɣဇ
#z*cဒ
ɗ*dမ
m*mၥ
θ*θ-

ခ
kh*khဆ
sh*chထ
th*thဘ
ɓ*bဝ
w*wဧ
ɣ*ʁ-

ဎ
x*xည
#ɲ*ɲန
n*nယ
j*jဟ
#h*h-

င
#ŋ*ŋၡ
ɕ*ɕပ
p*pရ
r*rအ
ʔ*ʔ-

ၦ
p*p-

The following are notes on the basic letters.
● The WPK sounds marked with “#” do not show a regular correspondence with the
19c EPK sounds below them. This is because, as mentioned in Section 3, /ɲ-/, /ŋ-/,/z-/, and /h-/ are sounds that emerged independently in the WPK. The “same” sounds
for /ɲ-/, /ŋ-/, and /h-/ exist in 19c EPK, but */ɲ-/, */ŋ-/, and */h-/ of 19c EPK also
emerged independently in EPK through sound changes and borrowings. Therefore,
for the sounds marked with “#”, it cannot be said that the readings were determinedbased on the regular sound correspondences when the CS was applied to WPK.
Presumably, the pronunciations represented by ည, င, ဇ, and ဟ were determined byfollowing the pronunciations of the corresponding Burmese letters.

● The sound */ʁ-/ written with ဧ in 19c EPK corresponds to WPK /ɣ-/, as shown in
Table 14. In accordance with this rule, ဧ is pronounced /ɣ-/.

● ၦ is used to write the WPK prefix ၦ /pə-/ denoting a human being. In terms of thereading of the corresponding prefix in 19c EPK, i.e., */pə-/ or */hə-/, it should be
sufficient to write this prefix as ပ or ဟ. For the possible reasons for making a separatecharacter, see Kato (2021). In WPK, the noun /pà/, meaning “person”, is also written― 39 ―

with this letter without any additional symbols, e.g., ၦလၧၧဂဲၫၫ�ထၪ့့မၩၩလိၪၪ�ဆၧၧ
/pà lə́́ ɣài�thàɴ málò zə̂/ (person – REL – come – up – study – thing) ‘people who came to study’.

● There are no particular letters for writing /b-/, /ð-/, /d-/, and /ɡ-/. The spellings forthese sounds are generally determined according to the following principle: if there isa corresponding form in 19c EPK, follow its spelling. The forms of 19c EPK arereferenced using literature, including the Bible. Examples of words written with thisprinciple are: ပၧၩ�ၩ /bá/ ‘we’ (cf. 19c EPK ပၧၩ�ၩ */pə̀̀/, CEPK /pə̀̀/), ဖၧၩ့�့ � /bə́́ɴ/ ‘inside’ (cf.

19c EPK ဖၧၩ့�့ � */phə̀̀ɴ/, CEPK /phə̀̀ɴ/), ဒံၭၭ� /ðeiʔ/ ‘still’ (cf. 19c EPK ဒံၭၭ� */dàiʔ/, CEPK/dài/), ခီၫၫ� /ɡàu/ ‘side’ (cf. 19c EPK ခီၫၫ� */khɔ̂̂/, CEPK /khɔ̂̂/), and ကၩ့့ကၩၩ
/káɴɡá/ ‘to�

discuss’ (cf. 19c EPK ကၩ့့ကၩၩ
*/kàɴkà/, CEPK /kàɴkà/). Note that the reading of the�rhyme in ပၧၩ�ၩ /bá/ ‘we’ is irregular. The reading of this word will be discussed in

Section 4.4. Examples of cases where there is no corresponding form in 19c EPK are:တီၩၩ�တီၢၢ� /tɔ́́dɔ̀̀/ ‘considerably’, မၪ့့ဂၩၩနံၪ့့�
�� /màɴɡánèiɴ/ ‘last year’, and မၪ့့ဂူၩၩ� �နံၪ့့� � /màɴɡúnèiɴ/‘the year before last’. Generalizations of these spellings are yet to be made.

● /z-/ is written with ဇ, but for the noun ဆၧၧ /zə̂̂/ ‘thing’, it is written with the letter ဆ
for /sh-/. This is because /zə̂̂/ is a variant of /shə̂̂/ (ဆၧၧ) ‘thing’ (cf. 19c EPK ဆၧၧ */chə̄̄/,

CEPK /chə̄/ ‘thing’). The form /zə̂/ is mainly used when /shə̂/ appears as the object ofa verb. See /zə̂/ in the example above meaning ‘people who came to study’.
Examples of WPK words written with each basic letter follow: ကၪၪ /kà/ ‘bedifficult’, ခၪၪ /khà/ ‘be bitter’, ဂၪၪ /ɣà/ ‘evening’, ဎံၫၫ� /xì/ ‘be beautiful’, မငါါ /məŋâ/ ‘begood’, စူၪၪ� /sù/ ‘hand’, ဆၫၫ /shà/ ‘to ache’, ဇ့ၩၩ� /zé/ ‘market’, ညိၬၬ�ၥၪၪ /ɲoʔθà/ ‘noni(Morinda citrifolia)’, ၡၩၩ /ɕá/ ‘be few’, တီၩၩ� /tɔ́́/ ‘be straight’, ထၭၭ /thaʔ/ ‘iron’, ဒၪၪ /ɗà/‘to see’, နါါ /nâ/ ‘ear’, ပၪၪ /pà/ ‘plank, board’, ဖါါ /phâ/ ‘father’, ဘၪၪ /ɓà/ ‘be right’, မၩၩ/má/ ‘to do’, ယၪၪ /jà/ ‘fish’, ရၬၬ /raʔ/ ‘hell’, လၩၩ /lá/ ‘moon’, ဝၩၩ /wá/ ‘husband’, ၥၪၪ /θà/‘to bear fruits’, ဟီၩၩ� /hɔ́́/ ‘to preach’, အၪၪ /ʔà/ ‘be many’, ဧၪၪ /ʁà/ ‘question marker’, andၦမုၪၪ� /pəmɯ̀̀/ ‘woman’.

4.2. Medial consonants
In the CS, the medial consonants /-w-/, /-l-/, /-r-/, and /-j-/ are written as shown in
Table 20, using subscripts. As shown in Table 19, the upper sounds without an asterisk― 40 ―

are the WPK pronunciations. The lower asterisked sounds are the 19c EPK
pronunciations that correspond regularly to the upper WPK sounds, and at the sametime, these are the 19c EPK pronunciations that the subscripts used to represent. In
order to use the CS as a writing system for WPK, the missionaries replaced the lower
sounds with the upper ones; however, for medial consonants, the readings of WPK
happen to be the same as those of 19c EPK.
Table 20: Medial consonants
◌ွွ

◌ျျ

◌ြ�

◌ၠၠ

-w*-w--l*-l--r*-r--j*-j-

Example words with medial consonants follow: ကွၩၩ� /kwá/ ‘ax’, ထွံၪၪ�� /thwì/ ‘dog’,ကျၭၭ� /klaʔ/ ‘crow’, ဖျါါ� /phlâ/ ‘arrow’, ကြၨၭ�ၭ� /krɨʔ/ ‘be suitable’, ပြၧၩ့�့� � /prə̀̀ɴ/ ‘to compete’,ပၠိၭၭ�� /pjoʔ/ ‘to vomit’, and ဘၠၩၩ� /bjá/ ‘be gentle’.

The following are notes on the subscripts.

● As already pointed out in Kato (2021), CS ◌ျျ /-l-/ and ◌ၠၠ /-j-/ are identical in shapeto ◌ျျ /-j-/ and ◌ၠၠ /-l-/ in the Buddhist Pwo Karen Script (= BS), but the relationshipbetween the letters and sounds is inverse. The usage of the CS is based on that of theChristian Sgaw Karen Script, whereas the usage of the BS is based on that of the Mon
Script.
● When ◌ၠၠ is combined with က as in ကၠၠ, it is pronounced as /c-/, not /ky-/.
There is an important remark on the second note. In Kato (2021), I stated thefollowing: “The CEPK initial consonant /c-/ is sometimes written as ကၠၠ instead ofusing the basic letter စ. Words that are written with ကၠၠ are often borrowings of Mon

or Burmese words that are written with ကျျ in the original languages”. Although thispoint is correct, some genuine CEPK words are also written with this spelling. CEPK

examples include the following: ကၠူၭၭ�� /càʊ/ ‘to pull’, ကၠၪၪ� /cá/ ‘to turn back’, ကၠုၪ့့�� �/cə́́ɯɴ/ ‘be lazy’, and ကၠၩ့့� � /càɴ/ ‘hut’. Moreover, the WPK words corresponding tothese generally have /c-/, as follows: ကၠူၭၭ�� /couʔ/ ‘to pull’, ကၠၪၪ� /cà/ ‘to turn back’, ကၠုၪ့့�� �― 41 ―

/cə̀̀ɴ/ ‘be lazy’, and ကၠၩ့့� � /cáɴ/ ‘hut’. Normally, /c-/ in CEPK corresponds to /s-/ in

WPK, e.g., CEPK စီၪၪ� /cɔ́́/ and WPK စီၪၪ� /sàu/ ‘be wet’, but the words above constitutean exception to this correspondence.

I propose here that the Proto-Pwo Karen forms of the above mentioned words had*/cj-/ as the initial consonant cluster and that this cluster was preserved in 19c EPK as*/cj-/, whose pronunciation was probably [tɕj]. The 19c EPK forms of these words
can be assumed to be */cjàuʔ/ ‘to pull’, */cjá/ ‘to turn back’, */cjə́́ɯɴ/ ‘be lazy’, and*/cjàɴ/ ‘hut’, and this */cj-/ was spelt as ကၠၠ. This initial consonant cluster later mergedwith /c-/ in CEPK. In WPK, Proto-Pwo Karen */c-/ and */cj-/ became /s-/ and /c-/,respectively.
When writing CEPK in BS, these words are also written using ကျျ instead of using

the more usual spelling စ for /c-/, as follows: ကျုု�ဂ်် /càʊ/ ‘to pull’, ကျးး� /cá/ ‘to turnback’, ကျုု�င်းး� /cə́́ɯɴ/ ‘be lazy’, and ကျျင်် /càɴ/ ‘hut’. The fact that the Mon cluster /cy-/

is written with the same spelling ကျျ in the Mon script, on which the BS was based,

would also support the reconstruction of */cj-/ in 19c EPK. The existence of /cy-/ inMon has been pointed out by Mitani (1983).
4.3. Rhymes and tones
Table 21 shows the correspondences between the rhymes, tones and theirspellings. As shown in Tables 19 and 20, the upper sounds without an asterisk are the
WPK pronunciations. The lower asterisked sounds are the 19c EPK pronunciations
that correspond regularly to the upper WPK sounds, and at the same time, these are
the 19c EPK pronunciations that the CS spellings used to represent. The horizontal
columns are arranged according to the tone symbols, and the vertical columns arearranged according to the vowel symbols (plus the nasalization symbol). No instances
have been found for some combinations of rhyme and tone. In Kato’s (2021) tableshowing the correspondence between the CEPK rhymes/tones and CS spellings, I
have left such cases blank or marked them with a note, but in this table, to avoid
complications, theoretical pronunciations are given even when no instances have beenfound. Blank cells indicate that the combination does not exist phonologically. To use
the CS as a writing system for WPK, the missionaries replaced the lower sounds with― 42 ―

the upper ones. Presumably, dealing with rhymes and tones was the most complicatedand difficult part of pronunciation replacement.
Table 21: Rhymes and tones
◌ံံ
◌့့
◌ဲဲ
◌ၨၨ
◌ၧၧ
◌ါါ
◌ုု
◌ူူ
◌ိိ
◌ီီ
◌ၧး�း
◌းး

ၩ�
◌ံၩၩ�
-í
*-ì
◌့ၩၩ�
-é
*-è
◌ဲၩၩ�
-ái, -ɛ́
*-ɛ̀
◌ၨၩ�ၩ
-ɨ́
*-ɨ̀
◌ၧၩ�ၩ
-ə́
*-ə̀
◌ၩၩ
-á
*-à
◌ုၩၩ�
-ɯ́
*-ɯ̀
◌ူၩၩ�
-ú
*-ù
◌ိၩၩ�
-ó
*-ò
◌ီၩၩ�
-áu, -ɔ́*-ɔ̀◌ၧၩ့�့ �-ə́ɴ*-ə̀ɴ◌ၩ့့ �-áɴ*-àɴ

no mark
◌ံံ
-î
*-ī
◌့့
-ê
*-ē
◌ဲဲ
-âi, -ɛ̂
*-ɛ̄
◌ၨၨ
-ɨ̂
*-ɨ̄
◌ၧၧ
-ə̂
*-ə̄
◌ါါ
-â
*-ā
◌ုု
-ɯ̂
*-ɯ̄
◌ူူ
-û
*-ū
◌ိိ
-ô
*-ō
◌ီီ
-âu, -ɔ̂
*-ɔ̄
◌ၧး�း
-ə̂ɴ
*-ə̄ɴ
◌းး
-âɴ
*-āɴ

ၪ�
◌ံၪၪ�
-ì
*-í
◌့ၪၪ�
-è
*-é
◌ဲၪၪ�
-ài, -ɛ̀
*-ɛ́
◌ၨၪ�ၪ
-ɨ̀
*-ɨ́
◌ၧၪ�ၪ
-ə̀
*-ə́
◌ၪၪ
-à
*-á
◌ုၪၪ�
-ɯ̀
*-ɯ́
◌ူၪၪ�
-ù
*-ú
◌ိၪၪ�
-ò
*-ó
◌ီၪၪ�
-àu, -ɔ̀*-ɔ́◌ၧၪ့�့ �-ə̀ɴ*-ə́ɴ◌ၪ့့ �
-àɴ
*-áɴ

ၫ�
◌ံၫၫ�
-ì
*-î
◌့ၫၫ�
-è
*-ê
◌ဲၫၫ�
-ài, -ɛ̀
*-ɛ̂
◌ၨၫ�ၫ
-ɨ̀
*-ɨ̂
◌ၧၫ�ၫ
-ə̀
*-ə̂
◌ၫၫ
-à
*-â
◌ုၫၫ�
-ɯ̀
*-ɯ̂
◌ူၫၫ�
-ù
*-û
◌ိၫၫ�
-ò
*-ô
◌ီၫၫ�
-àu, -ɔ̀*-ɔ̂◌ၧၫ့�့ �-ə̀ɴ*-ə̂ɴ◌ၫ့့ �
-àɴ*-âɴ

― 43 ―

ၭ�
◌ံၭၭ�
-eiʔ
*-àiʔ
◌့ၭၭ�
-eʔ
*-èʔ

ၬ�
◌ံၬၬ�
-eiʔ
*-áiʔ
◌့ၬၬ�
-eʔ
*-éʔ

◌ၨၭ�ၭ
-ɨʔ
*-ɨʔ̀

◌ၨၬ�ၬ
-ɨʔ
*-ɨʔ́

◌ၭၭ
-aʔ
*-àʔ
◌ုၭၭ�
-əɯʔ
*-àɯʔ
◌ူၭၭ�
-ouʔ
*-àuʔ
◌ိၭၭ�
-oʔ
*-òʔ
◌ီၭၭ�
-ɔʔ
*-ɔ̀ʔ

◌ၬၬ
-aʔ
*-áʔ
◌ုၬၬ�
-əɯʔ
*-áɯʔ
◌ူၬၬ�
-ouʔ
*-áuʔ
◌ိၬၬ�
-oʔ
*-óʔ
◌ီၬၬ�
-ɔʔ
*-ɔ́ʔ

◌ီးး�
◌ံးး�
◌ုးး�
◌ဲးး�
◌ိးး�
◌့းး�
ø

◌ီၩ့့� �-áuɴ*-òɴ◌ံၩ့့� �-éiɴ*-èiɴ◌ုၩ့့� �-ə́ɴ*-ə̀ɯɴ
◌ဲၩ့့� �-áiɴ*-àiɴ◌ိၩ့့� �-óuɴ*-òuɴ(◌့ၩ့့�)�
-íɴ

◌ီးး�
-âuɴ
*-ōɴ
◌ံးး�
-êiɴ
*-ēiɴ
◌ုးး�
-ə̂ɴ
*-ə̄ɯɴ
◌ဲးး�
-âiɴ
*-āiɴ
◌ိးး�
-ôuɴ
*-ōuɴ
(◌့းး�)
-îɴ
◌
-ə
*-ə

◌ီၪ့့� �-àuɴ*-óɴ◌ံၪ့့� �-èiɴ*-éiɴ◌ုၪ့့� �-ə̀ɴ*-ə́ɯɴ
◌ဲၪ့့� �-àiɴ*-áiɴ◌ိၪ့့� �-òuɴ*-óuɴ(◌့ၪ့့�)�
-ìɴ◌ီၫ့့� �-àuɴ*-ôɴ◌ံၫ့့� �-èiɴ*-êiɴ◌ုၫ့့� �-ə̀ɴ*-ə̂ɯɴ
◌ဲၫ့့� �-àiɴ*-âiɴ◌ိၫ့့� �-òuɴ*-ôuɴ(◌့ၫ့့�)�
-ìɴ

The following are notes on writing rhymes and tones.
● ◌ဲဲ represents both /-ai/ and /-ɛ/. The CS does not distinguish between the two vowels.

● ◌ီီ represents both /-au/ and /-ɔ/. The CS does not distinguish between the twovowels.

● The symbol for the vowel /-a/ is ါ�. This symbol is written only when the tones areunmarked.

● The symbol representing nasalization of rhymes is ◌းး. When a tone mark is attached
to a basic letter, ့�့ is written underneath the tone mark.

● Both ၪ� and ၫ� represent the low-level tone. The symbol to use is determinedaccording to the 19c EPK distinction.

● Both ◌ၭၭ and ◌ၬၬ represent the checked tone. The symbol to use is determinedaccording to the 19c EPK distinction.

● The word /mátə́́ɯɴ/ ‘to threaten’, which is the only form found with the rhyme/-əɯɴ/, as mentioned in relation to Table 17, is written as မၩၩတုၩ့့�.� This spelling follows

the 19c EPK form */màtə̀ɯɴ/.

― 44 ―

● The parenthesized spellings representing the rhyme /-i̱ ɴ/ in Table 21 are only used
to represent Burmese loanwords or those from other languages that have entered via
Burmese. Since these are considered new, the pronunciations of the 19c EPK are notlisted.
● A basic letter with no marking, i.e., ◌, represents an atonic syllable.
Below are examples of how to write WPK rhymes and tones.
◌ံံ 	လံၩၩ� /lí/ ‘air’, နံံ /nî/ ‘to smile’, ဖံၪၪ� /phì/ ‘pus’, ထံၫၫ� /thì/ ‘water’, ဆံၭၭ� /sheiʔ/ ‘besmall’, လံၬၬ� /leiʔ/ ‘letter, alphabet’◌့့ 	လ့ၩၩ� /lé/ ‘to go’, န့့/nê/ ‘to get’, ဖ့ၪၪ� /phè/ ‘to give’, ဖ့ၫၫ� /phè/ ‘paddy husk’, ဒ့ၭၭ� /ɗeʔ/‘every’, ဆ့ၭၭ� /sheʔ/ ‘to stab’, ထ့ၬၬ� /theʔ/ ‘be cut’◌ဲဲ 	နဲၩၩ� /nái/ ‘to believe’, ဖဲၩၩ� /phɛ́́/ ‘playing card’, ယဲဲ /jâi/ ‘five’, မွဲဲ� /mwɛ̂̂/ ‘to be’, အဲၪၪ�
/ʔài/ ‘to love’, ကွဲၪၪ�� /kwɛ̀̀/ ‘to release’, မဲၫၫ� /mài/ ‘widow’, ထဲၫၫ� /thɛ̀̀/ ‘plough’◌ၨၨ 	ဆၨၩၩ� /shɨ́/́ ‘race, ethnic group’, ကၨၨ /kɨ̂̂/ ‘surely’, ဖၨၪ�ၪ /phɨ̀/̀ ‘short, low’, ကျ့ၭၭ��စၨၭ�ၭ
/kleʔsɨʔ ~ klɨʔsɨʔ/ ‘to endeavor’, ခၨၬ�ၬ /khɨʔ/ ‘habit, nature’◌ၧၧ 	ဆၧၧ /shə̂̂/ ‘thing’, လၧၧ /lə́́/ ‘LOC’ (The locative particle /lə́́/ is spelled with no tonal
mark although it has the high-level tone.)◌ါါ 	မၩၩ /má/ ‘to do’, ခါါ /khâ/ ‘be broken (as a stick)’, ခၪၪ /khà/ ‘be bitter’, မၫၫ /mà/‘wife’, ဆၭၭ /shaʔ/ ‘to sew’, မၬၬ /maʔ/ ‘son-in-law’◌ုု 	ဒုၩၩ� /ɗɯ́́/ ‘pear’, ယုု /jɯ̂̂/ ‘to swallow’, ဘုၪၪ� /ɓɯ̀̀/ ‘paddy’, ဖုၫၫ� /phɯ̀̀/ ‘to jump’, ဒုၭၭ�
/dəɯʔ/ ‘to fight’, နုၬ�ၬ /nəɯʔ/ ‘to enter’◌ူူ 	ယူၩၩ� /jú/ ‘to fly’, ယူူ /jû/ ‘rat’, ခူၪၪ� /khù/ ‘to smoke’, ဖူၫၫ� /phù/ ‘grandfather’, ဒူၭၭ�
/ɗouʔ/ ‘room’, လူၬၬ� /louʔ/ ‘be used up’◌ိိ 	ဘိၩၩ� /ɓó/ ‘blister’, မိိ /mô/ ‘mother’, ခိၪၪ� /khò/ ‘head’, ဖိၫၫ� /phò/ ‘to swell’, ကိၭၭ� /koʔ/‘to call’, ယိၬၬ� /joʔ/ ‘be deep’◌ီီ 	လီၩၩ� /láu/ ‘to tell’, တီၩၩ� /tɔ́́/ ‘be straight’, ထီီ /thâu/ ‘can contain’, ဖီီ /phɔ̂̂/ ‘to read’,အီၪၪ� /ʔàu/ ‘to be, exist’, နီၪၪ� /nɔ̀̀/ ‘that’, ထီၫၫ� /thàu/ ‘be long, high’, နီၫၫ� /nɔ̀̀/ ‘towrestle’, ဒီၭၭ� /ɗɔʔ/ ‘again’◌ၧး�း 	ဖၧၩ့�့ � /phə́́ɴ/ ‘inside’, အလယၧးး� /ʔələjə̂̂ɴ/ ‘weight’, ရၧး�းစၧး�း /rə̂̂ɴsə̂̂ɴ/ ‘weight’, ၥၧၫ့�့ �/θə̀ɴ/ ‘three’― 45 ―

◌းး 	ဖၩ့့ � /pháɴ/ ‘spear’, လးး /lâɴ/ ‘place’, အၪ့့ � /ʔàɴ/ ‘to eat’, ဆၫ့့ � /shàɴ/ ‘hen’◌ီးး� 	ထီၩ့့� � /tháuɴ/ ‘bridge’, ဆီးး� /shâuɴ/ ‘to pick up (a person)’, ဖီၪ့့� � /phàuɴ/ ‘to catch’, ထီၫ့့� �/thàuɴ/ ‘gold’◌ံးး� 	ဒံၩ့့� � /ɗéiɴ/ ‘to play (an instrument)’, ထံးး� /thêiɴ/ ‘be intimate’, နံၪ့့� � /nèiɴ/ ‘year’, မံၫ့့� �/mèiɴ/ ‘be ripe’◌ုးး� 	ယုၩ့့� � /jə́́ɴ/ ‘to roar (as a dog)’, ခုးး� /khə̂̂ɴ/ ‘to threaten’, အုၪ့့� � /ʔə̀̀ɴ/ ‘be cloudy’, အၪ့့ထုၫ့့�� �/ʔàɴthə̀ɴ/ ‘to pick up’◌ဲးး� 	ယဲၩ့့� � /jáiɴ/ ‘be far’, ခဲးး� /khâiɴ/ ‘to tie around’, အဲၪ့့� � /ʔàiɴ/ ‘to bite’, လဲၫ့့� � /làiɴ/ ‘rocky
mountain’◌ိးး� 	နိၩ့့� � /nóuɴ/ ‘horn’, ဖိးး� /phôuɴ/ ‘to get a hole’, ထိၪ့့� � /thòuɴ/ ‘bag’, ဂူၭၭ�ဖိၫ့့� � /ɣouʔphòuɴ/‘belly’◌့းး� 	အဲၩၩ�ဒံၩၩ�ဆ့ၩ့့� � /ʔɛ́́ɗíshíɴ/ ‘Thomas Edison’øယ /jə/ (preposed form) ‘I, me’, ကဘၩ့့ � /kəɓáɴ/ ‘ship’, တလၢၢ /təlà/ ‘box’

4.4. Exceptional readings
In WPK written in CS, exceptional spellings can be found in many words. Mostof these cases are caused by reading a spelling that reflects the 19c EPK form with the
WPK pronunciation, when the sounds of the 19c EPK and WPK forms do notcorrespond regularly. In the following, some basic words with exceptional readings
are discussed.
The pronouns /já/ ‘1SG’ and /ná/ ‘2SG’ are spelled ယၧၩၩ� and နၧၩ�ၩ, respectively. The

regular readings of these spellings in WPK are /jə́/ and /nə́/, but these readings areincorrect. They are spelled this way because the corresponding 19c EPK forms are*/jə̀̀/ and */nə̀̀/ (cf. CEPK /jə̀̀/ and /nə̀̀/). Similarly, the pronoun /bá/ ‘1PL’ is spelledပၧၩ�ၩ. The regular reading of this spelling in WPK is /pə́́/, but this reading is incorrect.
This is because the corresponding 19c EPK form is */pə̀/ (cf. CEPK /pə̀/). The readingof this pronoun is irregular both in the initial and the rhyme.
The preposition /ɓó/ ‘as, like’ is spelled ဘဲၫၫ�. The regular reading of this spellingin WPK is /ɓài/ or /ɓɛ̀/, but neither of these readings is correct. This is because thecorresponding 19c EPK form is */bɛ̂̂/ (cf. CEPK /bê/). In addition, the first syllablesof the forms ဘဲၫၫ�ယီၩၩ� /bəjɔ́́/ ‘like this’ and ဘဲၫၫ�နီၪၪ� /bənɔ̂̂/ ‘like that’ are read as /bə/ (these― 46 ―

forms may also be read as /ɓójɔ́/ and /ɓónɔ̂/). They are spelled this way because thecorresponding 19c EPK forms are */bɛ̂jɔ̀/ (cf. CEPK /bêjò/) and */bɛ̂nɔ́/ (cf. CEPK/bênɔ́/). Note that the first consonant in /bəjɔ́/ and /bənɔ̂/ is /b-/, not /ɓ-/. Note also thatthe second syllable of /bənɔ̂/ has the falling tone, not the low-level tone. This isconsistent with the fact that the second syllable of the WPK demonstrative အနီၪၪ� /ʔənɔ̂̂/‘that one’ has the falling tone instead of the low-level tone, which is expected from the19c EPK form */ʔənɔ́/ (cf. CEPK /ʔənɔ́/).
The verb /pwí/ ‘be tired’ is spelled ပွံၭၭ��. The regular reading of this spelling in WPK

is /pweiʔ/, but this reading is incorrect. This spelling follows the corresponding 19c
EPK form */pwàiʔ/ (cf. CEPK /pwài/).

The noun /jèiɴ/ ‘house’ is spelled ဂံၪ့့�.� The regular reading of this spelling in WPK

is /ɣèiɴ/, but this reading is incorrect. This spelling follows the corresponding 19c
EPK form */ɣéiɴ/ (cf. CEPK /ɣéiɴ/).
The verb /ʔàiɴ/ ‘be narrow’ is spelled အံၪ့့�.� The regular reading of this spelling in

WPK is /ʔèiɴ/, but this reading is incorrect. This is because the corresponding 19c
EPK form is */ʔéiɴ/ (cf. CEPK /ʔéiɴ/).

The particle /ɗɛ́́/ ‘and’ is spelled ဒဲဲ, whose regular reading in WPK is /ɗâi/ or /ɗɛ̂̂/.

The corresponding 19c EPK form is */dɛ̄/ (CEPK /dē/), as it is spelled. This particle/ɗɛ́/ is considered to be a loanword borrowed from EPK into WPK through written
language because it is seldom heard in WPK daily conversation. It is unknown why it
is not pronounced as it is spelled, given that it was borrowed through written language.
Note that the particle /lə́/ ‘and’ is used in daily conversation.
The noun /caiʔ/ ‘Buddha; God’ is unique in terms of phonology, because a glottal
stop does not appear after a diphthong /-ai/. I regard this as an exception to thephonological rule. In practice, it is often pronounced with the pronunciation /câi/,which fits the phonological rule. The reason for this exception is that this word is aborrowing of Mon /cyac/ ‘Buddha’. To represent this exceptional pronunciation,
WPK spells it as ကၠဲၭၭ�� or ကၠဲၬၬ��. Usually, the vowel symbol ◌ဲဲ is not combined with thetonal symbol ◌ၭၭ or ◌ၬၬ. In this regard, the word is also an exception to spelling. The

19c EPK form with the same meaning is */cjàiʔ/ (cf. CEPK /cài/), and the spelling in
EPK based on this pronunciation is ကၠံၭၭ��.
― 47 ―

4.5. Difficulties in writing Western Pwo Karen in CS
CS reflects the phonological system of the 19c EPK. Therefore, there are several
aspects of CS that do not fit the WPK phonological system. In this section, we discuss
two major difficulties.
The first difficulty is the notation of tones. There are two notations for the lowlevel tone: ၪ� and ၫ�. There are also two notations for the checked tone: ◌ၭၭ and ◌ၬၬ.

These notations are used to distinguish between the tones of 19c EPK, and it issufficient to have one notation for each to correctly represent the low-level tone andthe checked tone of the WPK. These notations can be used correctly if one knows thepronunciation of CEPK, but many WPK speakers do not know the pronunciation of
CEPK. As a result, WPK speakers often make mistakes when writing tones.
The second difficulty refers to the notation of the vowels. WPK has a distinction
between /-au/ and /-ɔ/. For example, /jáu/ ‘be of strong sunlight’ and /jɔ́/ ‘this’ arepronounced differently. However, in CS, these two words are written as ယီၩၩ� using thesame spelling. Furthermore, WPK has a distinction between /-ai/ and /-ɛ/. For example,
the second syllable of ဒုၭၭ�နဲၪၪ� /ɗəɯʔnài/ ‘to show’ and the the sentence-final particle နဲၪၪ�

/nɛ̀/, used to ask for the listener’s agreement, have different vowels, but they are
spelled the same in CS. This difficulty with vowel notation does not seem to be aslarge as the difficulty with tone notation for WPK speakers. This is probably because
it is easier to have fewer distinctions when writing, and when reading, native speakers
can judge the correct way to read from the context.

5. Sample text
This section presents the WPK text written in CS. Here, I will quote a story
presented by RVA Pwo Karen, a Western Pwo Karen channel on YouTube, in one of
their videos. The URLs of the channel and video are as follows (checked on October27, 2021).
The name of the channel: RVA Pwo Karen
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoB8vBfCmPEAnpdm0UaMzNw― 48 ―

The title of the video (in Burmese): ကရင့့်ရိုး� း��ရာာပုံံ�ပြ�င်် ကဏ္ဍ (၁၂)
		 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pHIzupwpCw

The story is given in CS in Section 5.1. Some of the wording of the story has changed.
Section 5.2 provides the transcription and translation of the story.
5.1. The original text in CS“ၥီၪ့့�လိၪၪ�နဖိၪၪ�
အ့ၪၪ�ဂ့ၩၩ�ဘၪၪ, အ့ၪၪ�လမွဲဲ� ကကဲၪၪ�ဆၧၧကၪၪ”�(1) လၧၧဖျိၩ့့��ဖျိၩ့့��
ၦမုၪၪ�လဂၩၩအဖိၪၪ�ခွၫၫ�အီၪၪ�ဝ့ၫၫ�ကဂၩၩဂီၩ့့� � အဝၩၩၥံၫၫ�ဒၪၪခွံၬၬ��တၭၭ� အိၩၩ�
�လၧၧဆၧၧကၪၪဆၧၧဂဲၩၩ�အဖၧၩ့�့ဘၪၪအီၪၪ�ထးးမုၪၪ
�မဲၫၫ�လၧၧ အ၀ၩၩအလးးခဲၫ့့�လီၫၫ�.
��(2) လါါနၫ့့ � ၦမုၪၪ�ယီၩၩ� လၧၧအဖိၪၪ�ခွၫၫ� ကမိိမၩၩနီၪၪ� ကျ့ၭၭ��စၨၭ�ၭမၩၩအ့ၪၪ�ဝ့ၫၫ�

လီၩ့့�ဘၪၪအ့ၪၪ�ဝ့ၫၫ�အၥၭၭ
ကိၭၭ�ကၠၪၪ�ဒ့ၭၭ�လီၫၫ�.
�(3) မွဲဲ�ဆၧၧဘဲၫၫ�နီၪၪ� ဖိၪၪ�ခွၫၫ�လဂၩၩယီၩ͏͏͏͏͏͏������စၭၭထၪ့့လၧၧ
အဖိၪၪ�ၥၪၪဆံၭၭ� ထီးး�ဎိၩၩ�ထၪ့့အခၫၫ
��အမိိလီၩ့�့ ဘၪၪအဝ့ၫၫ�အၥၭၭ ကိၭၭ�ကၠၪၪ�ဘိၭၭ�.
�(4) ဖိၪၪ�ခွၫၫ�နီၪၪ� ယုၫၫ�ယါါထးး အဲၪၪ�လၩ့့ဒၪၪန့့
အၥၭၭလီၫၫ�.
�(5) မွဲဲ�ယိိထဲၩ့့�အမိိ
မိိအဂးး လၥ့ၪၪ�လၧၩ့့�ဘၪၪလီၫၫ�.
��(6) ကနံၩၩ�နီၪၪ�တၭၭ ဖိၪၪ�ၥၪၪခွၫၫ�ယီၩၩ� ဒၪၪၦမုၪၪ�နၩ့့ဎံၫၫ�လၩၩ
လဂၩၩနီၪၪ� ဘၪၪအၥၭၭၦမုၪၪ�နီၪၪ�ဘိၭၭ�
�ၦမုၪၪ�ဎံၫၫ�လၩၩယီၩၩ� အဆၧၧအဲၪၪ�ကန့့အဂးးနီၪၪ� တခၩၩဒၪၪ ကဘၪၪမၩၩနးးမံၩ့့� � ကမၩၩဝ့ၫၫ� ထီးး�အလူၬၬ� အၪ့့ကံၩ့့�� �အၪ့့ယၫၫဝ့ၫၫ�
ဘဲၫၫ�ဆၧၧကအဲၪၪ�ဆၧၫ့့�ထဲၩ့့��� � အၥိၭၭ�လီၫၫ�.

(7) အနီၪၪ�ဘိၭၭ� ၦမုၪၪ�နီၪၪ� စံၭၭ�ဆၧၫ့့�ထဲၩ့့�
အ့ၪၪ�မွဲဲ� နမိိမၩၩယဆၧၧအဲၪၪ�နီၪၪ�� အဝ့ၫၫ�
�ဂဲၫၫ�န့့အ့ၪၪ�ယၧၩၩ� နမိိအၥုၪ့့�အၥၭၭ
ယကဒုၭၭ�အၪ့့ � ယထွံၪၪ��အဂးးနီၪၪ�လီၫၫ�.
�(8) အနီၪၪ�ကကၠၪၪ� ဖိၪၪ�ၥၪၪခွၢၢ�ယီၩၩ� ဆီၫ့့�မီၪ့့� �အၪ့့��� ဎၬၬ� လၧၧဆၧၧနးးမံၩ့့�လအ့ၬၬ�ဂီၩ့့
�ထဲၩ့့�မၩၩၥံၫၫ�
အမိိမိိ ဎွ့ၭၭ��ထၪ့့ဝ့ၫၫ�� � ဂဲၫၫ�စဲၪ့့�န့့ဝ့ၫၫ�လၧၧ
အဖိၪၪ�ၥၪၪမုၪၪ�အအီၪၪ�
�� အၥုၪ့့�အၥၭၭဂီၩ့့
��လၧၧဆၧၧၥၭၭဎွံၫၫ��ဖျဲၪၪ��ဖျဲၪၪ��လ့ၬၬ� အဘိၩ့့�ဘၭၭနီၪၪ�
အဝ့ၫၫ�အခၪ့့ဘၪၪထၧၩ့့���� လၩ့့ထံၩၩ�ဖါါဝ့ၫၫ�ဒၪၪလီၫၫ�.
�(9) ထၧၫ့့�ဖုုဝဲဲၪ �ၥံၪၪ�ဧ့့.
� မုၪ�ခွၫၫ

(10) အထီီအခၫၫနီၪၪ� အမိိအလူူ ဂၧၫ့�့ၥီၫၫ�ထၪ့့
လၧၧအစူၪၪ�ယၫ့့
ၥၭၭအဖၫ့့
ခိၪၪ�
�
�
�
�

လၧၧမိိအၥုၪ့့�အၥၭၭ
အလီၩ့့�နီၪၪ��� “ဖိၪၪ�ခွၫၫ�ၥၭၭဘီၩ့့�ဧ့့,� မနဘၪၪထံၭၭ�ဘၪၪနဲၫ့့� � ဆၫၫခိၬၬ�ထံၭၭ�ဧၪၪ“ နီၪၪ�လီၫၫ�.
(11) ၦၡၩၩဖိၪၪ�ယီၩၩ�နီၪၪ� မွဲဲ�ဒၪၪထီးး�ယီၩၩ�လီၫၫ�နဲၪၪ�.

(12) လၧၧၡါါဖၧၩ့�့ � မိိလဂၩၩယီၩၩ� အ့ၪၪ�ၥံၫၫ�လါါနၫ့့ �အဆၧၧအဲၪၪ�နီၪၪ� ချဲၩ့့��ဒံၭၭ� �ဆၧၧလၧၧ အဖိၪၪ�အဂးးဒံၭၭ�လီၫၫ�.
(13) လၧၧၡါါဖၧၩ့�့ယီၩၩ�
မိိလီၫၫ�မွဲဲ�အ့ၬၬ�.
�― 49 ―

(14) ခးးၥဲၫ့့�ထၧၫ့့�
ဘံၪ့့�
လဖၪၪ အဆၧၧအဲၪၪ�ဎိၩၩ�ဒိၪၪ�ဝ့ၫၫ�ဒၪၪ လၧၧဖိၪၪ�ၥံၪၪ�အဖၫ့့ခိၪၪ�
�� ယၫၫမိိ
�� ဎွ့ၩၩ��ပၥ့ၪၪ�လဲၪၪ�နီၪၪ�

ပၥ့ၪၪ�ယၫၫကိၭၭ�ဂၩၩနဲၪၪ�.

(15) လါါနၫ့့ � ယမိိဖ့ၪၪ�ကိၪ့့�ဖ့ၪၪ�ထဲၩ့့�
ဘၪၪမိိလဖၪၪ အ့ၪၪ�နၥံၪၪ�အဲၪၪ� နၥံၪၪ�အဖိၪၪ�တၡါါနီၪၪ�
��ထၧၫ့့�လီၩ့့
အဝ့ၫၫ�ၥံၪၪ�အၥၭၭ ကိၭၭ�မံၩ့့� � ဘဲၫၫ�ၡါါဖၧၩ့�့ယီၩၩ�မိိ
လဂ့ၩၩ�နီၪၪ�လီၫၫ�.
� �ဘၪၪ
��
5.2. Transcription and translation“θàuɴlò nəphò ʔèɣéɓà, ʔè ləmwɛ̂, kəkài
shəkà”
teach 2SG child wellif
NEG COP IRR become difficulty‘Educate your children well. Otherwise, difficulties will arise.’
(1)

lə́
LOC

phlóuɴphlóuɴ
long.ago

ʔó
that

pəmɯ̀
woman

ʔàu
be

wè
EMP

ɣá
NCh

ɣáuɴ,
and

ʔə
3SG

wá
husband

kə
one

θìɗà
die.aheadləonekhweiʔ
taʔ,thoroughly and

ɣá
NCh

ʔə
3SG

phòkhwàsonlə́
shəkàshəɣái ʔəphə́ɴ
LOC difficulty
insideɓàʔàuthâɴmɯ̀màilə́ʔəwá
ʔəlâɴkhàiɴ lɔ̀.
must remain
widow
LOC 3SGhusband behind
AST‘A long time ago, a woman had a son. Her husband died, leaving her behind,and she was living as a widow in a difficult situation.’
(2)

lânàɴ
but

pəmɯ̀
jɔ́
woman thisklɨʔsɨʔ1endeavor

má
do

ʔè
APb

lə́
ʔə
LOC 3SGwè,
EMPphòkhwà
son

láuɴ
ɓà
follow BA

kə
IRR
ʔè
APb

mô
má nɔ̀
want.to take TOPwèʔə
EMP 3SG

θaʔ
mind

koʔ
cà
ɗeʔ
lɔ̀.
every
time
every
AST
‘However, this woman did her best to do what her son wanted and always
indulged him.’
(3)

mwɛ̂
COP

shə
thing

ɓónɔ̂,
like.that

saʔ
begin

thàɴ
up

lə́
LOC

thâuɴ
until

xó
big

thàɴ
up

phòkhwàson
ʔə
3SGʔəkhà,
time

lə
one

ɣá
NCh

phòθà
youngster

sheiʔ
small

ʔə
3SG

― 50 ―

mômother

jɔ́
this

láuɴ
followɓàBAʔəwèʔə
θaʔ
koʔ
cà
ɓoʔ.
3SG
mind every time BO‘In this way, from the time this son was a small child until he grew up, hismother always indulged him.’(4)phòkhwà nɔ̀jɯ̀jâthâɴ
ʔài
láɴ
ɗànê
son
TOP accustomed love down only
‘The son became accustomed to loving only himself.’

(5)

mwɛ̂
COP

jô
look

tháiɴ
back

ʔə
3SG

mômô
mother

ʔə
3SG

θaʔ
MID

lɔ̀.
AST

ʔəɣâɴ
sake

lə
θè
lə́ɴ
ɓà
lɔ̀.
NEG
can
anymore NEG
AST‘He could no longer take care of his mother.’
(6)

kə
one

ní
day

ɗà
see
ɓà
hit

phòθàkhwà
son

jɔ́
this

pəmɯ̀náɴ
girl

xìlá
lə
beautiful one

ɣá
NCh

ʔə
3SG

pəmɯ̀
femalepəmɯ̀femalenɔ̀taʔ
TOP

θaʔ
MID

nɔ̀
because

nɔ̀,
after

ɓoʔ,
BO

xìlá
jɔ́
beautiful thisʔə
3SGshəʔài kəlove(n.) IRRtəkháɗà kə ɓàmáwhatever IRR must do

náɴ2
any

méiɴ,
kind

ʔàɴkéiɴrequestʔàɴjà
ask.for

nê
get

ʔəɣâɴ
sake

nɔ̀,
TOP

kə
má wè
thâuɴʔəlouʔ,
IRR do EMP all

wè
EMP

ɓó
shə
kə
ʔàishə̀ɴ tháiɴ
ʔəθoʔ
lɔ̀.
so.that
IMPS
IRR
love
back
sake
AST
‘One day, this son met a beautiful girl and liked her so much that he dideverything possible to win her love, and asked her to love him back.’
(7)

ʔənɔ̂
that

ɓoʔ,
BO

“ʔè
if

mwɛ̂
COP

ɣài
come

nê
get

pəmɯ̀
femalenɔ̀TOPseiʔshə̀ɴ tháiɴ
reply
back

nə
2SG

mô
má
want.to takejə
1SGshəʔài nɔ̀,love(n.) TOP

ʔè
APb

já
1SG

mô
motherʔəθə̀ɴʔəθaʔ,
guts

nə
2SG

― 51 ―

ʔəwè,
3SG

jə
kə
ɗəɯʔ ʔàɴ jəthwì ʔəɣâɴ” nɔ̀lɔ̀.
1SG
IRR leteat
1SG dog sakethat AST‘Then the girl replied, “If you want to earn my love, bring me your mother’s
entrails to feed my dog.” ’
(8)

ʔənɔ̂
that

kə
one

sháuɴmàuɴ3
think

cà
time

ʔàɴxaʔ lə́
search LOC

tháiɴ máθì
return make dieɣàisàiɴ
come runlə́
LOCphòθàkhwà jɔ́
boy
this

nê
get

shə
thing

ʔə
mômô,
3SG motherwè
EMPshəθaʔxwìpleasure

lə́
LOC

náɴ
any

méiɴ
kind

xweʔ thàɴ
cut
up
ʔə
3SG

lə
ʔeʔ
anymore NEG

ɣáuɴ,
and

wè
ʔəθə̀ɴʔəθaʔ ɣáuɴ,
EMP gutsandphòθàmɯ̀girl

phlàiphlàileʔ ʔəɓóuɴɓaʔvery.fastinterval

ʔə
3SG

ʔàu
place

nɔ̀,
TOP

ʔəwèʔə
khàɴ ɓàthə́ɴláɴthíphâ wèɗà lɔ̀.
3SG
leg
stumble fall
EMP AST‘Then the boy, no longer thinking about anything else, went home, killed his
mother, cut out her entrails, and ran at full speed toward the girl with them injoy. At that moment, he tripped and fell.’(9)thə̀ɴphɯ̂wâimɯ̀khwà θìɣə́4.
sister.and.brotherPL
hey‘Oh, my brethren and sisters!’(10) ʔəthɔ̂ʔəkhà
time

nɔ̀
that

ʔə
3SG

mô
mother

ʔə
3SG

lû
voice

ɣə̀ɴ
hear

θàu
loud

thàɴ
up

mô
ʔəθə̀ɴʔəθaʔ ʔəláuɴ nɔ̀lə́ʔəsùjàɴθaʔ ʔəpháɴkhò5 lə́
LOC 3SG palm
upside
LOC mother gutsonTOP“phòkhwàsonθaʔɓáuɴ
young

ɣə́,
hey

mə
nə
ɓàtheiʔɓànàiɴ shàkhoʔtheiʔɣà” nɔ̀lɔ̀.
COP 2SG collide
to.severely.ache Q
that AST‘It was then that his mother’s voice came loudly from her entrails on his palm.
“My young son, did it hurt when you fell?” ’(11) pəɕáphòjɔ́nɔ̀mwɛ̂ ɗà
thâuɴjɔ́humansthis TOP COP just like.this‘This is what being human is all about, isn’t it?’― 52 ―lɔ̀nɛ̀.
AST isn’t.it

(12) lə́ɕâbə́ɴ
LOC folktale insideʔə
3SGshəʔàilove(n.)mômother

lə
one

ɣá
jɔ́
NCh thiskhláiɴ
speak

ɗeiʔ
still

zə̂
thing

nɔ̀
TOP

ʔè
if

θì
die

lânàɴ,
thoughlə́ʔəphòʔəɣâɴ ɗeiʔlɔ̀.
LOC 3SGchild sake
still
AST
‘In the folktale, the mother died, but her love was so strong that she even spokeout for her child.’(13) lə́
ɕâ
bə́ɴ
jɔ́
mô
LOC folktale inside thismother‘It is not just the mother in the folktale.’

lɔ̀
only

mwɛ̂
COM

(14) khâɴθàiɴ
worldthə̀ɴɓèiɴjàall.overʔə
3PLshəʔài xóɗò
love(n.) big

lə́
LOC

θì
PL

phò
child

mô
ləphà
mother PL

ʔəpháɴkhò
upsidexwépəθè
how.much

lài
Q

ʔeʔ.
NEG
wèɗà
EMP

nɔ̀
TOP

pə
θèjà
koʔ
ɣá
nɛ̀.
1PL
know every NCh isn’t.it‘We all know how much mothers all over the world love their children, don’t
we?’(15) lânàɴ
howeverjə
1SG

môphèkòuɴphètháiɴwant.to advise

ʔè
if

nəθì
2PL

ʔài
love

thə̀ɴ
even

láuɴ
ɓà
follow BAnəθìʔə
2PL

phò
child

təɕâ
reallyʔəwèθìʔə θaʔ
3PL
mind

koʔ
every

ɓà
BA

mô
motherləphà,
PL

nɔ̀,
TOP
méiɴ
kind

ɓó
ɕâ
bə́ɴ
jɔ́
mô
ləɣé
nɔ̀
lɔ̀.
as
folktale inside this mother don’t that AST‘However, I would like to give some advice to mothers. If you really love yourchildren, you should not spoil them like the mother in this folktale.’
Note 1: /klɨʔsɨʔ/ ‘to endeavor’ is also pronounced /kleʔsɨʔ/ as spelled. The spelling follows
19c EPK */klèʔcɨʔ̀ / (cf. CEPK /klècɨ̀ ~ klɨc̀ ɨ/̀ ).
Note 2: The literal pronunciation of /náɴ/ ‘any’ is /nâɴ/, and although it is sometimes
pronounced this way, it is usually pronounced /náɴ/. The spelling follows 19c EPK */nāɴ/ (cf.
CEPK /nāɴ/).
Note 3: The first syllable of /sháuɴmàuɴ/ ‘to think’ is not pronounced with the low-level tone
― 53 ―

as spelled, but with the high-level tone. The spelling follows 19c EPK */chôɴmóɴ/ (cf. CEPK/chôɴmóɴ/).
Note 4: The sentence-final particle /ɣə́/ ‘hey’ is spelled according to the 19c EPK pronunciation*/ʁē/ (cf. CEPK /ʁē ~ ʁé/). The pronunciation as spelled is /ɣê/, but this pronunciation isincorrect.
Note 5: The second syllable of /ʔəpháɴkhò/ is not pronounced with the low-level tone asspelled, but with the high-level tone. The spelling follows 19c EPK */ʔəphâɴkhó/ (cf. CEPK/ʔəphâɴkhʊ́/).

6. Concluding remarks
We have seen how WPK is written in CS. Interestingly, CS was first created as awriting system for EPK and later became the writing system for WPK. We have also
seen how Baptist missionaries changed the readings of CS to use it as a writing system
for WPK.
When they started using CS as the writing system for WPK, the Baptist
missionaries did not modify the spelling. They read CS with WPK pronunciation byusing the regular phonological correspondences between WPK and EPK. The highly
systematic nature of CS has made this happen. CS reflects the sounds of the 19c EPK
in a nearly one-to-one manner. If it were not for this high degree of systematicity, it
would have been impossible to use it as a WPK writing system.
I call this writing system the Christian Pwo Karen Script, because the creator ofthis writing system was a Christian missionary. However, this term is not exactly
appropriate in the context of the current use of this script, because CS is now beginningto be popular among Buddhist Pwo Karens, and even Buddhist monks are beginning
to use it. As a case where a writing system created by Christian missionaries is being
used by other religious believers, we are reminded of Quốc Ngữ of Vietnamese. Even
if the initial purpose of creating a writing system is to propagate a particular religion,
if it is accepted by a large number of people, it can achieve the status of an orthography
for that language. I would like to conclude this article, emphasizing that CS has
already reached a stage where it can be called an orthography of Western Pwo Karen.
Abbreviations
APb = applicative marker denoting benefaction; AST = particle indicating assertion;― 54 ―

BA = verb particle /ɓà/ indicating opportunity or inadvertence; BO = particle /ɓoʔ/ or/ɓó/ having a function of softening the speaker’s tone; BS = Buddhist Pwo Karen
Script; CEPK = contemporary Eastern Pwo Karen; COP = copular verb; CS =Christian Pwo Karen Script; EMP = emphasis; EPK = Eastern Pwo Karen; IMPS =impersonal subject; IRR = irrealis; LOC = particle indicating location, goal, andsource; MID = middle marker; n. = noun; NCh = numeral classifier for a human; NEG= negativity; PL = plural; Q = question; REL = relative marker; SG = singular; TOP =topic; 1 = first person; 2 = second person; 3 = third person; 19c EPK = 19th-century
Eastern Pwo Karen.
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Ms Nant Dahlia Win, who taught me the Western Pwo Karen
language and writing system. She has been helping me in my research as a Western
Pwo Karen native speaker ever since I was a student in Yangon from 1992 to 1995. I
also wish to thank Ms Hitomi Fujimura for providing me with important information
about the Baptist mission.
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加藤昌彦（Kato, Atsuhiko). 2006.「同一言語内における文字普及状況の差異について―― 55 ―

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Errata for Kato (2021) “Pwo Karen writing systems”
1. p. 29, the first line below Table 8:
Incorrect: There are 7 open rhymes, as shown in Table 9.
Correct: There are 7 nasalized rhymes, as shown in Table 9.
2. p. 44, Table 22, the line of ◌ၨၨ (the fifth line from the top):
Incorrect: -ɨ̄→Correct: -ɨ̄ (*-ɨ̄ )Incorrect: -ɨ̂→Correct: -ɨ̂ (*-ɨ̂ )― 56 ―

3. p. 45. Insert the text below as the first note below Table 22:
	● When ◌့့ is combined with the basic letter ဝ or the subscript ◌ွွ, it is read /-e/instead of /-i̱̱/, e.g., အဝ့ၫၫ� /ʔəwê/. This is because the change from 19c EPK */-e/to CEPK /-i̱ / did not occur after the initial consonant /w-/ or the medial consonant/-w-/, and */-e/ was retained as /-e/ in these environments.

― 57 ―