The committee has been organizing the compilation of the dictionary and it invited the assistance of Pwo Karen literature experts during its quarterly meeting held at the dictionary compilation office in Yangon on March 5.

“When we started [working] on the dictionary, we invited the Karen State Literature Extension Association and religious leaders. Respective representatives attended [the meeting]. After they went back, they haven’t sent anyone to us. We need at least two technicians because it would only be effective if they work together with other technicians from here. It will only be convenient if the required information can be sent to the state via the technicians. I want to invite [the experts] to lend a hand in order to compile a complete dictionary,” said Mann Than Win Oo.

Over 50 people including literary experts from religious organizations, the Yangon Region Minister of Karen Affairs Naw Pan Thinzar Myo, township literature and culture committee members, experts, and the Phalaon-Sawaw Democratic Party’s vice-chair Mann Aung Pyi Soe from the Karen State attended the quarterly meeting of the dictionary compilation project.

The Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party’s vice-chair Mann Aung Pyi Soe advised the committee to focus on the Pwo Kayin language since both the Pwo (Phalon) and the Pwo (Phlou) languages have similarities in their literature.

He continued that he will make rearrangements to send Phalon literary technicians due to lexical differences in some areas within the Karen State and urged everyone to work together on compiling the dictionary.

The implementation on the Karen-Burmese-English dictionary stared in November 2017 and the compilation of S’gaw Karen words have been completed from English letters A-Z within four months. The committee needs to finish searching the Pwo (Phalon) words for English letters R, S, and T and it will complete combining Karen and Burmese vocabularies within this month, according to Naw Htee Wah Phaw, a lexicographer.

“We consult each other within our group concerning the difficulties with the vocabulary in compiling the dictionary. After we finished the first phase of compiling Karen-Burmese vocabularies, we will need experts to edit them. I want to invite [the experts] to help us,” Naw Htee Wah Phaw said.

According to the members of the dictionary compilation group, the first phase of vocabulary compilation will be completed in April and the editing will be carried out between May and December. A trial version of the dictionary will be published from January to March in 2019 and it will be edited from April to August. The group plans to publish the dictionary in either September or October next year.

According to the officials from the Yangon Region Karen Literature and Culture Committee, the dictionary compilation project is being carried out with donations from the Yangon Region government, the Karen Affairs Minister’s family, Karen entrepreneurs, and Karen nationals and a budget of over 100 million kyats have been slated for the project.