37 - Karen final vowels and semi-vowels

Summary

Final vowels and semi-vowels undergo relatively little change in Karen, apart from levelling off of the latter. As in almost all TB languages, no distinction is made between *-i and *-iy, or between *-u and *-uw. Sgaw regularly has -ü for *-u, but -u appears in loan-words, e.g. Pwo and Sgaw tu ‘hammer’ <B tu. In Pwo, on the other hand, -ü is relatively rare (cf. phü ‘carry’, also ‘younger brother’, bü ‘rice’) and tends to alternate with -u, as in khü∼khu ‘trap’. The following pair of roots are exceptional:

Pwo and Sgaw lu ‘pour’; cf. the following:

G ru, Dimasa lu ‘pour’, Mikir iŋlu ‘bathe’; cf. TB *(m-)lu(w).

Pwo yü lą ‘swallow down’ but ą yu ‘swallow’ (ą ‘eat’), Sgaw yu ‘swallow’;

cf. TB *mlyuw (the Karen forms point to an intermediate *myu<*m-yu, with the initial interpreted as a prefix; cf. K mǝyu).

The regular Karen correspondences for TB *-a, *-u(w) and *-i(y) are illustrated below:

Pwo and Sgaw kha ‘bitter’; cf. TB *ka.

Pwo and Sgaw na ‘ear’; cf. TB *g-na.

Pwo and Sgaw ma ‘wife’; cf. the following:

(487) T?ama, Kanauri ama, Bahing ǝmo (but wǝma ‘my mother’), Vayu umu<*ama, Chepang ma, Newari ma, Lepcha amo<*ama, Digaro (na-)ma, Dhimal ama, Burmese-Lolo *ma (B má is used only as fem.