The system of transcription for Sgaw Karen, Northern Thai and Central Thai terms employed here is essentially based on that of Robert Jones in his Karen Linguistic Studies and Mary Haas in her Thai-English Students’ Dictionary. The exceptions are:
VOWELS
|
Mid central unrounded vowel /∂/: |
oe |
|
Low front unrounded vowel /ε/: |
ae |
|
Mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/: |
au |
For Northern and Central Thai terms, long vowels are represented by a duplication of their respective symbols with the exception of the vowels indicated above for reasons of economy and neatness. In Karen, no distinction is made between long and short vowels.
CONSONANTS
|
Voiced palatalised nasal consonant /ñ/: |
nj |
|
Voiced velar nasal consonant /η/: |
ng |
|
Unvoiced velar unaspirated consonant /χ/: |
x |
|
Voiced velar consonant /γ/: |
gh |
|
Unvoiced glottal unaspirated consonant / |
' |
The voiced palatalised nasal consonant is common to Karen and Northern Thai but does not occur in Central Thai. The the consonants /χ/ and /γ/ occur only in Karen.
Except for Karen place names, all other place names are romanised according to published Thai government practice.