Karen

About Karen

Karen is not one language but a group of related languages spoken by the Karen peoples of southeastern Myanmar and western Thailand. The two largest are S'gaw Karen and Pwo Karen, and their speakers do not easily understand each other. Since the 2000s many Karen refugees have settled in the United States, Australia and other countries. Most guides in this category do not say which Karen language they use.

The Karen languages are tonal and are usually written in scripts based on the Burmese alphabet.

FamilySino-Tibetan, Karenic
Where spokenMyanmar (Kayin State), Thailand
Scriptbased on the Burmese alphabet
Codeksw (ISO 639-3, S'gaw Karen)

Classification: Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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