Red Karen (ꤊꤢꤛꤢꤟ)

Red Karen is a Karen language spoken by about 570,000 people in eastern Myanmar and Thailand. There are two varieties of Red Karen, which are classified as separate languages in some sources:

Eastern Kayah is spoken by about 260,000 people in northeastern Myanmar, particularly in Shadaw township in Kayah State, and in Langkho district of Shan State. There are also about 100,000 speakers of Eastern Kayah in Thailand
Western Kayah is spoken by about 210,000 people in Kayah, Kayin and Shan States in northeastern Myanmar.

Red Karen is also known as Karenni, Kayah or Kayah Li. There are ways to write it with the Latin and Burmese alphabets, and also with Kayah Li, an alphabet invented in 1962.

Kayah Li alphabet for West Kayah

Notes

The letters g and s at the end of the consonant chart are used for loan words from other languages.
The letter h makes vowels breathy when it is placed before them. In the Latin alphabet breathiness is indicated by placing two dots below a vowel.

Download an alphabet chart for Red Karen (Excel)

Sample text in Western Kayah

Kayah Li alphabet

ꤊꤢ꤬ꤛꤢ꤭ ꤘꤣ ꤢ꤬ ꤞꤢꤧꤐꤟꤢꤦ ꤗꤟꤢꤜꤢ꤬ꤊꤥ꤭ ꤒꤟꤢꤧ꤬ꤡꤢꤪꤒꤟꤢꤧ꤬ꤒꤟꤢꤩ꤬ ꤒꤢ꤬ꤟꤢꤩ꤬ꤔꤌꤣ꤬, ꤢ꤬ ꤔꤟꤤꤙꤢꤧ꤬ ꤒꤟꤢꤧ꤬ꤏꤢꤪ꤭ꤚꤤ꤬, ꤗꤟꤢꤩ꤬ꤒꤢꤩ꤭ꤟꤢꤩꤚꤢꤪ ꤢ꤬ ꤊꤟꤢꤦ ꤔꤟꤤꤙꤢꤧ꤬ꤘꤢꤦ꤬ ꤜꤟꤢꤪ꤭꤮ ꤒꤟꤢꤧ꤬ꤡꤢꤪꤒꤟꤢꤧ꤬ꤒꤟꤢꤩ꤬ ꤘꤣ ꤢ꤬ ꤞꤢꤧꤐꤟꤢꤦ ꤔꤌꤣ꤬ꤒꤢ꤬ꤟꤢꤩ꤬ ꤕꤢ꤭꤯

Burmese alphabet

ကၤယး ဒၲ အၤ သဲဇှံ မှလၤကိး တှဲၤစဴတှဲၤတှၴၤ တၤဟၴၤနၲုၤ, အၤ နှီဘဲၤ တှဲၤဆဴးရီၤ, မှၴၤတၴးဟၴရဴ အၤ ကှံ နှီဘဲၤဒံၤ လှဴး꤮ တှဲၤစဴတှဲၤတှၴၤ ဒၲ အၤ သဲဇှံ နၲုၤတၤဟၴၤ ပှး။

Latin alphabet

Kayǎ dố a thè́zṳ̂́ má̤lakǒ tè̤cò́tè̤te̤ tahenuô, a ní̤bè tè̤sò̌ri, me̤těhérò a ki ní̤bèdû lò̌꤮ tè̤cò́tè̤te̤ dố a thè́zṳ̂́ nuôtahe pǎ.

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayah_(langue)

Translation (Matthew 5:6)

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Source: https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-Chapter-5/#6

Sample videos in Red Karen

Information about Red Karen | Numbers in Red Karen (West Kayah)

Links

Information about Red Karen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Karen_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayah_(langue)
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kyu
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/eky
http://www.karennirefugees.com/uploads/3/0/1/9/3019325/learning_kayah.pdf (PDF)

Karenic languages

Eastern Pwo Karen, Manumanaw Karen, Northern Pwo, Pa'O, Red Karen (Kayah Li), S'gaw Karen, Western Pwo

Alphabets

A-chik Tokbirim, Adinkra, ADLaM, Armenian, Avestan, Avoiuli, Bactrian, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Beria (Zaghawa), Borama / Gadabuursi, Carian, Carpathian Basin Rovas, Chinuk pipa, Chisoi, Coorgi-Cox, Coptic, Cyrillic, Dalecarlian runes, Elbasan, Etruscan, Faliscan, Fox, Galik, Georgian (Asomtavruli), Georgian (Nuskhuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Global Alphabet, Gothic, Greek, Irish (Uncial), Kaddare, Kayah Li, Khatt-i-Badí’, Khazarian Rovas, Koch, Korean, Latin, Lepontic, Luo Lakeside Script, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Mandaic, Mandombe, Marsiliana, Medefaidrin, Messapic, Mongolian, Mro, Mundari Bani, Nag Chiki, Naasioi Otomaung, N'Ko, North Picene, Novo Tupi, Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong, Odùduwà, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Ol Chiki (Ol Cemet' / Santali), Old Italic, Old Nubian, Old Permic, Ol Onal, Orkhon, Osage, Oscan, Osmanya (Somali), Pau Cin Hau, Phrygian, Pollard script, Runic, Székely-Hungarian Rovás (Hungarian Runes), South Picene, Sutton SignWriting, Sunuwar, Tai Viet, Tangsa, Todhri, Toto, Umbrian, (Old) Uyghur, Wancho, Yezidi, Zoulai

Other writing systems

Page created 05.10.21. Last modified: 15.03.23

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