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TheS'gaw Karen alphabet (S'gaw Karen:ကညီလံာ်ခီၣ်ထံး) is anabugida used for writingS'gaw Karen. It was created in the early 1830s based on theBurmese script, which derives from either theKadamba orPallava alphabet ofSouth India. The S'gaw Karen alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages ofPali andSanskrit.

The Karen alphabet was created by American missionary Jonathan Wade in the 1830s, based on theS'gaw Karen language; Wade was assisted by a Karen named Paulah.^[1] The consonants and most of the vowels are adopted from theBurmese alphabet; however, the Karen pronunciation of the letters is slightly different from that of the Burmese alphabet. Since Karen has more tones than Burmese, additional tonal markers were added.^[2]

The script is taught in the refugee camps in Thailand and inKayin State.^[3]

The number 1962 would be written as၁၉၆၂.

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• Abugida writing systems
• Mon–Burmese script
• Karen language
• Writing systems without word boundaries
• 1830 introductions

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing S'gaw Karen-language text
• Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes
• Pages with plain IPA
• Articles containing Burmese-language text