Pa'O language

{{Short description|Karenic language}}{{Distinguish|text=other similarly named languages}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Pa'O

| altname = Taungthu

| nativename = ပအိုဝ်ႏ

| image = Pa'O literature.jpg

| imagescale =

| imagealt = Pa'O manuscript

| imagecaption = Pa'O manuscript

| states = Myanmar

| ethnicity = Pa'O

| speakers = {{sigfig|858,740|2}}

| date = 2000–2017

| ref = e26

| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan

| fam2 = Tibeto-Burman

| fam3 = Karenic

| script = Burmese script (Pa'O alphabet)
Karen Braille

| iso3 = blk

| glotto = paok1235

| glottorefname = Pa'o Karen

| minority = {{flag|Myanmar}}

}}

{{Wiktionary|ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ}}

The Pa'O language (also spelled Pa-O or Pa-oh; {{langx|blk|ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ}}, {{audio|Blk-ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ.wav|listen}}); {{langx|my|ပအိုဝ်းဘာသာ}}), sometimes called Taungthu, is a Karen language spoken by close to 900,000 Pa'O people in Myanmar.

The language is primarily written using a Burmese script alphabet devised by Christian missionaries,{{Cite web|url=http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ldtc/languages/paoh/wordlist.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003124835/http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ldtc/languages/paoh/wordlist.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 October 2015|title=Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Word List|date=3 October 2015|website=Language Documentation Training Center|access-date=21 March 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ldtc/languages/paoh/orthography.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009193317/http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ldtc/languages/paoh/orthography.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 October 2015|title=Pa-oh ပအိုဝ်း - Writing System|date=9 October 2015|website=Language Documentation Training Center|access-date=21 March 2019}} and many of the materials now available for it on the Internet derive from Christian missionary involvement, although most of the Pa'O are generally reported to be Buddhists (without real statistics, etc.).{{Citation Needed|date=May 2024}}

The language is also referred to by the exonyms "Black Karen" and "White Karen", both of which are terms used in contrast to "Red Karen" (Karenni), also of Myanmar.

Dialects include Taunggyi and Thaton.Shintani, Tadahiko. 2020. The Pao language: its Taunggyi and Kokareit dialects. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 131. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).