န့ၢ်

S'gaw Karen

Pronunciation

• (Kayin State) IPA^(key): /ne̤⁵²/
• (Chiang Rai) IPA^(key): /ne̤¹¹/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Karen *neᴮ (“obtain, receive, take, get”). Cognate with Eastern Pwo ဏေဝ်ႋ (nī̱), Pa'o Karen နေး (nê).

Verb

န့ၢ် • (nay̱)

1. to get
2. (post-verbal marker) Used to introduce a beneficiary.

   နဖးန့ၢ်ယၤလံာ်သ့ဧါ.

   na hpänay̱yā leẹ thay ahh ah .

   Can you read a book for me?

   .

3. (perfect marker) Used after a clause to express that something has been going on continuously until the present time, usually followed by a phrase specifying the duration.

   ယမၤလိကညီကျိာ်န့ၢ်တနံၣ်လံ.

   ya mā loh ka nyaw kloḥnay̱ta neè lee .

   I have studied Karen for one year now.

   .

4. (post-clausal auxiliary) Used after a clause to express that the subject manages to or is permitted to perform an action.

   ယကွၢ်နၤတန့ၢ်ဧါ.

   ya kwa̱ nā tanay̱ahh ah .

   Can I not look at you?

   .

Etymology 2

From Proto-Karen [Term?]. Compare Eastern Pwo ဏါင်း (náiɴ).

Particle

န့ၢ် • (nay̱)

1. (postverbal marker) used to indicate comparative degree; often used together with ဒံး (deë)

   စီၤစ့ဒိၣ်တၢ်ဂ့ၤန့ၢ်ဒံးအပါလီၤ.

   saw̄ say doh̀ ta̱ ghaȳnay̱deë ʼa pah law̄ .

   Saw Say is more handsome than his father.

   .