24.1323, Qs: Karen Etymology

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-1323. Mon Mar 18 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.1323, Qs: Karen Etymology

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Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:33:25
From: Peter Ludlow [peterjludlow at gmail.com]
Subject: Karen Etymology

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=24-1323.html&submissionid=9567179&topicid=8&msgnumber=1
 
My nephew has been doing some work in support of the Karen people --
principally, as I understand it, in refuge camps.  There seems to be an issue
about the entry for the 'Karen people/language' in the New American Oxford
Dictionary, which includes this etymological note: ''from Burmese ka-reng
'wild unclean man.'''

Given that the Karen are currently the target of genocide by the Burmese
government there is some unhappiness with this entry.  My question is, apart
from the issue of offense, is this even accurate?  That is, is there solid
evidence for this etymology?

Here is a link to my nephew's blog post on this:
http://jaymilbrandt.com/request-from-the-karen-refugees-change-the-dictionary/

Thanks in advance.
 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics

Language Family(ies): Karen






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