KAREN LANGUAGES

languages spoken in lower Myanmar (Burma) and on the borders of Thailand. The Karen languages are usually divided into three groups: northern (including Taungthu), central (including Bwe and Geba), and southern (including Pwo and Sgaw); only Pwo and Sgaw of the southern group have written forms. Leading scholars believe the Karen languages to be related to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, but the relationship does not appear to be a close one. Languages of the Karen group have been greatly influenced by languages of the Tai and Austro-Asiatic families. Distinctive features of the Karen languages include the use of tones to distinguish between words with identical sequences of consonants and vowels and the placing of the verb between the subject and object (in other Tibeto-Burman languages the verb occurs after the subject and object).