Update: 2008-08-08 02:20 AM -0400

Linguistics

indx-linguistics.htm

by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning, http://www.tuninst.net ).
Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, Myanmar. Not for sale.

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UKT:
   Spoken Burmese in Myanmar script (Burmese-Myanmar) and English in Latin script (English-Latin) are quite different. Burmese has been described as a tonal language with three or four tones and is definitely non-rhotic similar to the British-accent. One very striking similarity between Burmese and English is the presence of <th> sound (as in English word <thin>) in both languages. In this way, Burmese is entirely different from the Indic languages especially the southern Dravidian languages where the <th> sound is replaced by the sibilant fricative <s> or hissing sound. This point is entirely missed by most linguists who are under the impression that at least in old Burmese, the <th> sound was the <s> sound. The <th> sound is also present in Pali-Myanmar, a sister-language to Burmese-Myanmar and which is the religious language of most Myanmar who are Theravada Buddhists.
   Burmese has a very simple vowel system. On the other hand, English relies on accent with a very complicated vowel system -- British-English being less rhotic than American-English. The fundamental unit of the Latin script (alphabet) is the "letter" which does not represent the English syllable. On the other hand, the fundamental unit of Myanmar-script is the character known as "akshara" (or {ak~hka.ra}) representing a syllable of the Burmese-speech.
   Because, Myanmar script represents a syllable, it is imperative that the reader of these pages know how an English syllable is structured. The English syllable is represented by letters as CVC (consonant-letter, vowel-letter, consonant-letter -- please avoid using "consonant-vowel-consonant".) The effective unit of Myanmar is the orthographic syllable, consisting of a consonant-letter and vowel-letter (CV) core and, optionally, one or more preceding consonantal-letters, with a canonical structure of (((C)C)C)V.

This section is in need of a thorough review which will take a considerable time. Before I can do it, the following is my recent work.

• Language Acquisition and Teaching
• Romabama -- RBM4M.htm

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The following are old files which will be updated, and if any is found to have been included in other sections is to be deleted.

• Brahmi script -- U Kyaw Tun
This is a continuation of Scripts.
Asoka or Brahmi Script
Comparison of Brahmi, Karosthi, Myanmar and Telugu scripts

• Burmese-Myanmar Grammar in Romabama
-- from Myanmar Thuddar {mran-ma thad~da}, Volume 1, Module 1, by Myanmar Language Commission (MLC), Ministry of Education, Government of the Union of Myanmar (in Burmese-Myanmar) . Date of publication: around 1986 . Digitized by Daw Thet-thet Theint Han and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning) in 2003 July. Edited and set in Romabama by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) and staff of TIL, starting from 2007 July

• The Creaky tone in Burmese -- by U Kyaw Tun
What is the "creaky tone" in Burmese? "Creaky tone" is a technical term used by linguists and phoneticians. It does not reflect in a negative sense on the language of the majority of the population in the country of Myanmar. (An unfinished paper being prepared as a part of Romabama -- a one-to-one transliteration of Burmese to English.)

• Devanagari script -- U Kyaw Tun
This is my on-going study of Devanagari, a script used for writing Hindi, Sanskrit and Pali in India. My interest in Devanagari is because of Pali which is also written in Myanmar script. My opinions expressed in this work are the opinions of a new student and should not be taken as something from an expert.
Devanagari script | Akshara | Inherent vowel a | Vowel killer
Consonantal aksharas (not letters) | Elusive inherent vowel a
Derivatives of inherent vowel a | Consonantal aksharas
Elusive inherent vowel a | Identification of vowels
Derivatives of inherent vowel a | Modifying characters | Conjunct Formation

• English Pronouncing Dictionary -- U Kyaw Tun
A collection from Daniel Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary 16th ed., and other sources. Contains comparisons of Burmese-Myanmar (Burmese language written in Myanmar-abugida) and English (English language written in Roman-alphabet). Comparisons made to facilitate transliteration of English into Myanmar-script.

• Myanmar script -- U Kyaw Tun
This is actually a continuation of Scripts. Myanmar-script used for writing Burmese-language had been thought of as derived from Mon, which itself was borrowed from a South Indian script. I am just looking at a very slim possibility that the rounded shape was that of the Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples and the Dravidians who had lived in the area into which the Sanskrit-speakers with their liturgies and chants had come in. And that Myanmar script, was indeed, a very old script and had not been developed from any southern India scripts.
Characters | Akshara and Samyuktakshar | Shapes of Myanmar Aksharas
Vowels and Consonants | Vowel Trapezoid | neutral vowel |
IPA Consonants | English Consonants | A probable explanation of /θ/ becoming s |
English Consonants | Myanmar Akshara | Vowel Akshara | Vowel-letters and vowel-signs

• Pali -- U Kyaw Tun
A collection based primarily on An Elementary Pali Course, by Ven. Narada Thera, http://www.vipassana.info/pali%20contents.htm -- in Tipitaka font, and
www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/ele_pali.pdf.

• Representing Myanmar in Unicode -- Martin Hosken and Maung Tuntunlwin,
See www.unicode.org/notes/tn11/myanmar_uni.pdf
-- Original pdf file rendered into html and edited by U Kyaw Tun.
• Excerpt from Unicode 4 -- U Kyaw Tun -- Temporarily disconnected to update.
-- This excerpt is only for exchange of information between TIL web-page designers. It is being updated as needed.

• Romabama: Burmese Written Language in Latin Script
- UKT. A one-to-one transliteration of Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Latin, a system being developed by UKT for more than 60 years. The transliteration is meant to promote the Myanmar script, to bring it to the world's attention, and to bring about unity amongst the peoples of Myanmar. Please read the story of "shibboleth" in the Christian Bible, Judges 12:4-6, where it is told that thousands lost their lives in a single day just because they could not pronounce a single word correctly.

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