27. Kayah Li

 

Kayah or Kayah Li is a member of Karen branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken by about 590,000 people in the Kayah and Karen states of Burma (Myanmar). The language and people who speak it are also known as Western Kayah, Karenni, Karennyi, Red Karen, Yang Daeng or Karieng Daeng.
The Kayah Li alphabet was devised by Htae Bu Phae in March 1962. It is taught in schools in refugee camps in Thailand. It appears to be modelled, to some extent, on scripts such as Thai and Burmese.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
• Consonants Other vowels are written with separate letters or with diacritics attached to the letter a.
• Tones are indicated by diacritics below the consonants.
• Used to write: Kayah or Kayah Li, a Karen language spoken in Burma by about 590,000 people.

Download Kayah Li fonts (TrueType format, 37K)

Links

Information about the Kayah Li language and alphabet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayah_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayah_Li_alphabet
http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3038.pdf (PDF)
Kayah Li lesson
http://www.karennirefugees.com/learn-kayah.html
Information about the Karenni people
http://www.karenni.org/about_the_karenni.php

Online Karenni news
http://ktimes.org/
Information about the Kayah State
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayah_State
Karenni Students Union (includes free Karenni/Kayah-li fonts)
http://www.karennisu.org