What Knyaw can and can't teach
Knyaw teaches you to read Sgaw Karen — the script, the words, and what they mean. It does not teach pronunciation, and it never pretends to. Here is exactly where the line is.
What it teaches you
- To read the Sgaw Karen script, letter by letter
- To recognise hundreds of real words on sight
- What those words mean, in English
- The alphabet — consonants, vowels, and how they join
- A daily reading habit that sticks, through gentle review
What it can't teach
- How a word is pronounced
- Tone — Sgaw Karen has five to six tones, and they change a word's meaning
- Spoken fluency or conversation
Why we draw this line
Sgaw Karen is a tonal language. The same letters can mean completely different things depending on the tone, and the research is clear: you cannot learn to hear or produce tones without audio and a real speaker. We do not have verified audio yet, so teaching pronunciation would mean teaching it wrong. The romanization you see in the app is only a rough reading aid to get you started — it is non-standard and is not a pronunciation guide.
How to learn pronunciation
Read alongside a native speaker whenever you can — family, friends, your community, or a Karen church or class. Audio resources like KTWG's phrasebook, kliteracy.net, and KarenTalk can help train your ear. When Knyaw can record native speakers, audio will come (see the roadmap).