The Karen alphabet (using Burmese script), and spelling of words was developed in the early 1860s by English missionaries. Since each Karen vowel and consonant sound has one, and only one symbol, it makes an excellent phonetic transliteration tool for teaching Karen and English students how to understand the confusing variations of sounds English letters make. Each box usually has only a partial transliteration. As an exercise, you can go back and complete the transliteration. IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet.
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Each vowel in English has two to four unique sounds. However, the vowel may borrow another vowel's sound. The following table gives examples of each English vowel’s unique sounds and the sounds each vowel borrows from its siblings, In addition, the corresponding Karen charecter is shown.
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