Update: 2005-04-06 01:09 AM -0400

TIL

Pronouncing the letters

ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY

Daniel Jones. Edited by Peter Roach, James Hartman and Jane Setter. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Scanned by Maung Kan Tun and edited by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Not for sale. Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR .
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pronounce_a
A | AE | AEO | AI and AY | AU and AW
Myanmar AYE | athut

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letter A

p1. The vowel letter [a] has two main strong pronunciations linked to spelling: a 'short' pronunciation /æ/ (U00E6) and a 'long' pronunciation /eɪ/ (U0065 U026A). In the 'short' pronunciation, the [a] is usually followed by a consonant which closes the syllable, or a double consonant before another vowel, e.g.:

UKT: 'Short' [a] seems to be the vowel closest to the inherent vowel in Myanmar aksharas. It is this inherent vowel that has to be killed by virama or {a.thut}. In Romabama transliteration, whenever a consonant appeared in the coda (i.e., the final consonant in the syllable), it is always a killed-consonant. See my notes on Burmese consonants in the Introduction.

The 'long' pronunciation usually means the [a] is followed by a single consonant and then a vowel, e.g.:

When there is an [r] in the spelling, the strong pronunciation is one of three possibilities: /ɑː (us) ɑːr/ , /eə (us) er/ or /æ (us) e, æ/ , e.g.:

In addition

There are other vowel sounds associated with the letter [a], e.g.:

And, in rare case:

In weak syllables

The vowel letter [a] is realised with the vowels /ə/ and /ɪ/ in weak syllables, and may also not be pronounced at all in British English, due to compression, e.g.:

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letters AE

p9. The vowel digraph [ae] is a fairly low-frequency spelling. In some cases, the American spelling of words containing [ae] omits the [a], e.g. in <aesthetic>, which is spelt in American English as <esthetic> .

The pronunciation of the digraph in strong syllables depends on whether or not it is followed by an [r] in the spelling. If so, the pronunciation is /eə (us) er/, e.g.:

When not followed by [r], the pronunciation is most usually one of /iː/ , /ɪ/ or /e/, the latter being most common in American English pronunciation, e.g.:

UKT: Note that <seizure> /'siːʒəʳ/ and <Caesar> /ˈsiːzəʳ/ are pronounced with /iː/.

In addition

Other vowel sounds associated with the digraph [ae] include /æ/, for Old English names, e.g.:

In weak syllables

The vowel digraph is realised with the vowels /ə/ and /ɪ/ in weak syllables, e.g.:

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letters AEO

p10. The vowel letter combination [aeo] is low frequency, and is often spelt [eo] in American English. It has two pronunciations associated with it.

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letters AI, AY

p14. The vowel letter digraphs [ai] and [ay] are similar in that their most common pronunciation is /eɪ/, e.g.:

However, in days of the week, [ay] is also frequently pronounced /i/, e.g.:

When followed by an [r] in the spelling, [ai] and [ay] are pronounced as /eə, (us) er/ , e.g.:

UKT: Note that <air> and <Ayr> are pronounced exactly alike in British English, and also exactly alike in US English.

In addition

There are other vowel sounds associated with the digraphs [ai] and [ay], e.g.:

And, in rare cases:

In weak syllables

The vowel digraphs [ai] and [ay] are realised with the vowels /ɪ/ and /i/ in weak syllables respectively, and [ai] may also result in a schwa vowel or a syllabic consonant, e.g.:

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letters AU, AW

p41. The vowel letter combinations [au] and [aw] are similar in that their most common pronunciation is /ɔː (us) ɑː/ , e.g.:

However, there is more variation in the case of [au].  When followed by [gh] in the spelling realised as /f/ , it is pronounced as /ɑː (us) æ/ , e.g.:

The combination [au] may also be produced as /ɒ (us) ɑː/ , e.g.:

In addition

Other sounds associated with the combinations au are:

And, in rare cases:

In weak syllables

The vowel combinations [au] and [aw] are realised with the vowel /ə/ in weak syllables, and [au] may also result in a syllabic consonant or an elided vowel, e.g..:

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Myanmar AYE

A common Myanmar personal name is {ma.é:} and it is commonly transliterated as Ma Aye or Ma E. Since the English word <aye> (meaning: yes) is pronounced as /aɪ/ -- exactly like <eye> (meaning: seeing organ), Myanmars with as a part of their name should be careful when introducing themselves to native-English speakers from English-speaking countries.

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Myanmar {athut}

Myanmar script like all other abugida scripts is based on {athut} or virama model. In Myanmar script only killed consonants are found in the coda or word-final position. The optional symbol for {athut} is small tilde (U02DC or alt0152). However, we must note that [ ˜ ] (U02DC) as a diacritic indicates nasality. See Diacritical marks

• [   ̃ ] (U0303) -- Nasalisation (Combining tilde)
"Nasalisation is phonemically contrastive in French, where we find 'minimal pairs' such as <très> /trɛ/ (very) and <train> /trɛ̃/ (train), where the [ ˜ ] (U02DC) diacritic indicates nasality." -- DJPD16 See VOWEL.
-- Combining Diacritical Marks, Range 03033-036F, The Unicode Standard, version 4.0, www.unicode.org

We shall consider the following kinds of athuts.

Please note that the following is a tentative list. The jury is out to find out the most suitable a, e, i, o, u

	{pa.}		{ta.}		{ka.}		{sa.}
{p˜} {m˜}	{pup˜}	{pum˜}	{tup˜}	{tum˜}	{kup˜}	{kam˜ }	{sup˜}	{sum˜}
{t˜} {n˜}	{pat˜}	{pan˜}	{tat˜}	{tan˜}	{kat˜}	{kan˜}	{sat˜}	{san˜}
{k˜} {n˜}	{pek˜}	{pin˜}	{tek˜}	{tin˜}	{kek˜}	{ kin˜ }	{sek˜}	{sin˜}
{s˜}	{pis˜}		{tis˜}		{kis˜}		{sis˜}

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