Karenic

Karenic languages are currently spoken in the Salween River drainage basin area of eastern Myanmar and northwestern Thailand. Lexical similarities with Nungish and other Eastern Sino-Tibetan branches indicate an northerly origin in the Upper Yangtze area of Yunnan prior to its southward dispersal.

Karenic came into contact with Austroasiatic during its migration southward and borrowed many words from languages in the Northern Austroasiatic linkage. As Karenic encountered a new environment with different fauna, many animal names were borrowed from Austroasiatic including the words for tiger, bat, buffalo, horse, monitor lizard, pangolin, peacock, and bamboo rat.

Syntactic restructuring also occurred as Karenic switched from an original Sino-Tibetan-type SOV word order pattern to that of the Austroasiatic-type SVO word order pattern. Thus, the arrival of Karenic in the Lower Salween region of Myanmar likely dates to no older than 3,000 years B.P. I would consider 2,500 years B.P. to be a likely date for Proto-Karenic. Karenic internal diversity is comparable to that of Bahnaric, Kra, and Hmong-Mien.

SplitsTree analysis (January 2019)

Karenic clearly consists of two brnches - Pa'o and Karen.("Core Karenic").

32 languages for Shintani (2012) and 59 lexical items were used in this analysis. Words for selected for presence or absence of prefixing or suffixing syllables, vowels (diphthongs, etc.), consonant initials, etc.

The analysis supports the classification of Shintani (2012) rather than Manson (2011). Manson's (2011) classification is based on many sound changes that are actually parallel developments and areal features rather than true innovations.

Classification

• 1. Pa'o

     1. Northern

     2. Southern

  2. Karen

• • 1. Kayan (Padaungic)

       1. Kayin Phyu

       2. Yathu Gekho

       3. Thaidai

       4. Padaung cluster: Padaung, Yinbaw, Kangan ("lowland") Kayan, Kakhaung ("highland") Kayan

       5. Gekho cluster: Gekho, Kadaw, Taungmying

       6. Nagi (Nangki) Kayan

       7. Latha ("North") Kayan, Zayein

       8. Thamidai

    2. Kayah (Karenni)

• • • 1. West Kayah, Manaw

      2. Yingtalay

• • 3. Manu-Bwe

• • • 1. Manu

      2. Bwe

         1. East Kayaw

         2. West Kayaw

         3. Bwe

         4. Geba

• • 4. Mopwa-Pwo-Sgaw

• • • 1. Mopwa, Blimaw

      2. Pwo-Sgaw

         1. Pwo

         2. Sgaw cluster

            1. Sgaw

            2. Monebwa, Paku

            3. Thalebwa