36 - Karen final consonants and medial vowels

Summary

Final consonants are greatly reduced in Karen. Pwo parallels Modern Burmese in replacing final nasals by nasalization, and final stops by glottal stop. Sgaw lacks even nasalized vowels, but has glottal stop as in Pwo. Taungthu appears to retain distinctions in final nasals at least in part, but final glottal stops have not been recorded for this language. Several of the Taungthu words with final nasal are isolated in Karen; cf. prŏŋ ‘mouth’, hau poŋ ‘good’, lɔn ‘come’, lam ‘house’, kam ‘gold’ (a Thai loan-word). The regular correspondences for TB final nasals are illustrated below:

Pwo khą, Sgaw khɔ, Taungthu kaŋ-ya ‘foot, leg’; cf. T rkaŋ-pa.

Pwo kǝshą, Sgaw kǝshɔ ‘elephant’; cf. B tshaŋ.

Pwo mi mą, Sgaw mi mɔ ‘dream’ (in comp. with ‘sleep’); cf. TB *maŋ.

Pwo wą, Sgaw wɔ ‘surround; circular’; TB *hwaŋ.

Pwo ą, Sgaw ɔ, Taungthu am ‘eat’; cf. the following root:

(481) Nung am ‘eat’, Dhimal am ‘drink’ (TB *am).

Pwo phü-thą∼phu-thą, Sgaw thɔ ‘bear’; TB *d-wam.

Pwo γε, Sgaw γe ‘row’; TB *ren.

Pwo khlε ‘speak’; cf. T gleŋ-ba ‘say, talk, converse’.

Pwo khε, Sgaw ki ‘tie around, gird, bind’; cf. B khyań ‘bind, fasten’.

Pwo nǫ, Sgaw nǝ, Taungthu nuŋ ‘horn’; cf. TB *ruŋ (K nruŋ).

Pwo lǫ, Sgaw lǝ, Taungthu luŋ ‘stone’; TB *r-luŋ.