ဖါ
hpa
The Karen word for dad is ဖါ (hpa).
ဖါ is used as an informal noun to refer to a father.
Meaning: informal: a father (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
hpa
Did you know?
- The word ဖါ is written using a script adapted from Burmese, yet the two languages belong to entirely different linguistic families and sound nothing alike.
- Because Karen is a tonal language, the meaning of ဖါ depends entirely on the pitch used. A mistake in tone could accidentally transform the word into a completely different concept than 'father'.
- The way you refer to your father when talking *to* him can differ from how you refer to him when talking *about* him to a stranger. This distinction in honorifics is a common way to signal social distance.
Example conversation
Two siblings are talking at home.
- စောနု Saw Nuဖါ လဲာ်တနီၣ် ယၤpha liao ta nee yaDad is sleeping, isn't he?
- စောလူး Saw Luအဲၣ်, ဖါ လဲာ်တနီၣ်ae, pha liao ta neeYes, Dad is sleeping.
- စောနု Saw Nuယၤ မုာ်တဖီၣ် ဖါ လဲာ်တနီၣ်ya mu t hpi pha liao ta neeI'll work while Dad sleeps.
- စောလူး Saw Luဘျုးတဖီၣ် ယၤbyu t hpi yaThat's good.
