Update:
2008-01-28 08:22 AM -0500
TIL
Myanmar Medicinal Plant Database
indx-DB
A compilation by
U Kyaw Tun (UKT),
U Pe Than,
and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning,
http://www.tuninst.net ). Not for sale.
Main Index of DB | Top
Contents of this page
Contents of this page
Disclaimer: Because of the nature of the compilation, there are bound
to be errors, and the reader is advised to check the accuracy of the data given.
TIL and the authors do not accept responsibility (legal or otherwise) for any
inconvenience that might have caused the reader.
• MMPDB uses only Arial Unicode MS font.
• Over 200 species of plants are listed in this DB.
• Since the aim of this collection is to present the medicinal plants according
to the Burmese-Myanmar names, the Akshara index should have precedence over all
other indexes. However, because of unreliability of the Burmese-Myanmar names,
we have to start with the Family name index, and a short description of the
plant is entered into the Akshara index. Thus, the Akshara index is subordinate
to the Family name index. If you cannot find a plant in the Akshara index, you
should check with the Family name index. The same is true for Scientific name
index which is the least complete.
• Please remember that systematic Botany is rapidly advancing, and TIL has a
hard time updating its classification of individual plants in families. TIL is
relying heavily for Wikispecies (Wikipedia), and GRIN for updating.
1. AKSHARA INDEX
Caution -- The names
(botanical names, and local Burmese and English names) given by all Myanmar authors,
should be taken with caution. There are cases, where various Myanmar authors gave
different names primarily due to the lack of standardization of the Burmese-Myanmar
spellings and lack of coordination among the authors. Moreover, all Myanmar authors are not
very careful about their Myanmar spellings. To overcome this drawback in part, I have
given the Burmese-Myanmar spellings and their transliterations based on official Myanmar
dictionaries (issued by MLC (Myanmar Language Commission)
using Romabama which is almost a one-to-one transliteration (NOT transcription) of
the Burmese-Myanmar script to English-Latin script. Names in Romabama are given as {...}.
MLC transcriptions are given as /|...|/.
NOTE: IN CASE YOU CANNOT LOCATE A PLANT IN THIS INDEX, TRY IN
FAMILY NAME INDEX.
Or go to
Botanical Names of Myanmar Plants
of Importance, where will find the names of plants in Burmese-Myanmar akshara.
Indexing is in the order of the consonant-akshara of Myanmar
abugida or alphasyllabary which is almost equal to the
Sanskrit and Hindi order in Devanagari script.
Note: Because of the necessity to include {ña. ka.lé:}, I have to change
the letter for r2c5 {Ña. kri:} |
Basic aksharas:
• {ka.}
• {hka.}
• {ga.}
• {Ga.}
• {nga.}
• {sa.}
• {hsa.}
• {za.}
• {Za.}
• {Ña.}
• {Ta.} • {Hta.} • {ða.} • {Ða.} • {Na.}
• {ta.}
• {hta.}
• {da}
• {Da.}
• {na.}
• {pa.}
• {hpa.}
• {ba.}
• {Ba.}
• {ma.}
• {ya.}
• {ra.}
• {la.}
• {wa.}
• {þa.}
• ------
• {ha.}
• {La.}
• {a.}
• ------
Medials:
{ya.ping.}, {ra.ric}, {wa.hswè:}, {ha.hto:}
• {ka.}
• {hka.}
• {ga.}
• {Ga.}
• {nga.}
• {sa.}
• {hsa.}
• {za.}
• {Za.}
• {Ña.}
• {Ta.} • {Hta.} • {ða.} • {Ða.} • {Na.}
• {ta.} • {hta.} • {da.} • {Da.} •
{na.}
• {pa.}
• {hpa.} • {ba.} • {Ba.} •
{ma.}
• {ya.}
• {ra.}
• {la.} • {wa.}
• {þa.}
• ------
• {ha.} • {La.} • {a.} • ------
Note: The medial
/ʃ/ with pronunciation /s/ as in <ship> is transliterated as {rha.},
because the basic akshara is {ra.} (r6c2).
|
|
|
Note: Since the English digraph <th> has been found to be unsuitable for
use in transliteration of r6c5
 ,
I have been using its predecessor <þ>
(known as letter 'thorn') which was used in Old English.
One of the main reasons for rejecting <th>
is because, it is only in English and Burmese that it is
pronounced as [θ] (as in English <thin>). In Indic languages,
<th> is pronounced as [tʰ] one of the two allophones of /t/.
The following explanation is in Burmese-Myanmar for the benefit of Myanmar readers:
In these pages you will also find that Romabama transcripts
as {sa.} and its "killed" form
as {c}. It is because, no Burmese-Myanmar syllable has been found to have
a fricative hissing ending, even though its onset consonant may be
considered to be a hisser. Thus a word like
is transliterated as {sic}.
Since, Romabama is a means to unify all scripts based on Asoka script (now known
as Brahmi), official Indian transcriptions of the Indic aksharas have to be
taken into consideration. This has lead to pushing the transliteration in Romabama
to the extreme. The result is the price we have to pay: the common man in
Myanmar would find it very difficult to recognize a word like
{U-þhyic}.
|
2.
Scientific (Genus-species) name index
This index gives the Botanical names (genus-species and family),
together with the Burmese-Myanmar names in Romabama.
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
NOTE: IN CASE YOU CANNOT LOCATE A PLANT IN THIS INDEX, TRY IN
FAMILY NAME INDEX.
3. Family name index
This is the index of families (families and genus-species), together with the
Burmese-Myanmar names in Romabama. Names in Romabama are given as {...}. MLC
transcriptions are given as /|...|/.
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
Note: Family names given by different authors or groups do differ from one
another. See the downloaded (070426)
Concordance
of Angiosperm Family Names by James L. Reveal, in TIL library.
The best pix according to families are available online on:
• Günther's Homepage,
http://www.guenther-blaich.de/index.htm#START ;
www.guenther-blaich.de/pflseite.php?par=Peuce...
3.1. Family names in Chklist
Online:
http://persoon.si.edu/myanmar/index.cfm
• It is possible to construct a "table" similar to Agri.Dept.2000, by going on
line, and choosing an individual family without specifying the genus, and you
can get all the genera of your chosen family. This can be a future project
for TIL: the table will have the names classified according to the
Burmese-Myanmar akshara. A part of this project is the rewriting the common names
given by Chklist in Romabama according to orthography given in dictionaries
published by MLC. You will find this ongoing project in the TIL library: link -
Chklist-indx.htm
• De-listed families and family re-listings
• Some Controversial Points
-- You can cross check plant names with International Plant Names Index (IPNI):
http://www.ipni.org/ipni/plantnamesearchpage.do
4. Library index - not included
in the internet version.
Collected papers in the library of MMPDB
CD versions of MMPDB contains a permanent library of resources which is excluded
from the internet version to protect the copyrights of the authors. The contents
of the permanent library:
• Medicinal Plants of Myanmar,
by Kyaw Soe and Tin Myo Ngwé (KS-TMN), Forest Resource Environment Development and
Conservation Association (FREDA), Series 1, 2004, ISBN 974-91986-0-3
5. Cited References being updated and reviewed: temporarily taken out of the library.
Updating by UKT in Canada, and staff in Myanmar (with most of the printed
matter) : started on 070214:
• A List of Burmese Medicinal Plants 1 (indx-uhm.htm)
(in English-Latin)
by U Hla Maw, B.Sc., Research Officer, Pharmaceuticals Section, Applied
Chemistry, Research Department,
Union of Burma Applied Research Institute, 1959.
Copied from the original (typewriter copy) by U Kyaw Tun in 1985 August.
HTML version U Kyaw Tun, and staff of TIL for staff and students of TIL.
Not for sale.
• Burmese Indigenous Medicinal Plants
(indx-DMB)
by Daw Mya Bwin and U Sein Gwan, Pharmacology Research Division, Department of
Medical Research, Ministry of Health, Rangoon, 1973.
•
Burmese Medicinal Plants (indx-LSR.htm) (in Burmese-Myanmar)
- by {lè-ya seik-pyo:ré: kau-po-ré:rhing:} (LSR)(Agricultural Corporation)
Set in HTML by U Kyaw Tun (UKT), and staff of TIL for staff and students of TIL. Not for sale.
UKT: Two versions of the same reference were available to me:
- Published in 1978, pp. 503 (with UKT in Canada)
- Published in 1980, with coloured illustrations, pp. 503 (with staff in
Myanmar)
• What is Ayrveda? by UKT: Based on downloaded article from Wikipedia.
6. Notes - by U Kyaw Tun
• Burmese-Myanmar adjectives
• Burmese-Myanmar and Pali-Latin vowels
• Burmese pronunciation of the coda in
Romabama
• Compound vowels in
{keing} and
{kain}
• Fossilized killed consonants - Romabama Rule
07
• Killed akshara: nasals, {wag} and {a.wag}
,
etc.
• Myanmar Script - this will take
you to myan-script.htm
• Myanmar akshara
• Myanmar cuisine {nga:pi.} and {to.sa.ra}
• Nasal consonants in Burmese-Myanmar akshara
{nga.},
{ña.},
{Ña.},
{Na.},
{na.} and
{ma.}
• White space
{kwak-lap} -- importance in digitised Myanmar text
7. Botanical terms
Refer to TAXONOMY OF VASCULAR PLANTS by George H. M. Lawrence, Professor of Botany at the Bailey Hortorium,
Cornell University. The material presented here is not merely a copy of the
original book. UKT (U Kyaw Tun) has prepared the material to study Botany as a
hobby and the reader may treat it as the original work plus notes and highlighted lines of a student.
Go to indx-Lawrence.htm
For morphology go to
princip-taxo2
For reproductive elements: flower, go to
princip-taxo3
For reproductive elements: flowers, fruit, seed, go to
princip-taxo4
Terms from primarily from Wikipedia (dated)
A and
B
C
D
E
F
G
H and
I
J
K
L
M
N and
O
P
Q
R
S
T and U
V W
X Y
Z
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG)
Inflorescece
8. Medical terms from AHTD and other sources
A and
B
C
D
E
F
G
H and
I
J
K
L
M
N and
O
P
Q
R
S
T and
U
V
W
X Y Z
9. Myanmar Indigenous-medical terms
from
(MMDict -- Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Myanmar) by
(MLC - Myanmar Language Commission), 1999, pp 401,
Myanmar English Dictionary (MEDict), and other sources.
{ka.}
{hka.}
{ga.}
{nga.}
{sa.}*
{hsa.}
{za.}
{ña.}
{ta.}
{hta.}
{da.}
{na.}
{pa.}
{hpa.}
{ba.}
{ma.}
{ya.}
{ra.}
{la.}
{wa.}
{tha.} **
{ha.}
{a.}
* The palatal consonant {sa.} is represented by [c] in IPA tables.
However, most since most Burmese cannot really produce this sound, they tend to
pronounce it as alveolar fricative [s]. However, since, no Burmese syllable has
been found to have a sibilant ending, I have have to use [s] as the onset sound
for
{sa.} and [c] as the coda sound. Thus, the Romabama transliteration of
is {sic}. It had been written as {sis} which has led non-Burmese to pronounce
this sound with a hissing ending.
{sic} has no hissing ending, and the MLC represent it with a glottal stop.
** Since the Modern English digraph <th> is not suitable to stand
for this {a.wag}-akshara, I have to use its predecessor found in Old English,
the letter 'thorn' <þ>
10. References
References used in this compilation
of data from various sources including those in Burmese-Myanmar akshara.
Contents of this page
Notes - by U Kyaw Tun
One of the reasons, if not the main reason, why I have taken an interest in
this work is to help me in transcription of Burmese-Myanmar into the Latin script a
process generally known as Romanization. I became fascinated with romanization
since I was in my early teens (I am now an old man of 74), when I first
attempted to write Burmese-Myanmar on my father's English typewriter. Only in
the late 1990s I became aware of the fact that, to be able to come up with a
reliable method of transcription, I would have to start with a transliteration
of the Burmese-Myanmar words. Since the names of the plants are quite varied
orthographically, I figured that they would give me a good opportunity to test
my method of transliteration which I have called "Romabama". And in
the process, I have come to know more and more about the nature of the Myanmar akshara,
the English vowel system, and the ASCII characters on which the computer
platforms are based. The following notes are meant not only for the reader of
this work, but for myself to guide me through my work.
For identification of the plants, plant names in Hindi-Devanagari script, and
other scripts have to be included. Similarly, for the pronunciation of
Burmese-Myanmar plant names, IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) have to be
included. And because of this necessity, MMPDB solely relies on Arial Unicode MS
font which could be downloaded readily from the Internet. Since this is no
longer so, the MMPDB CDs are now supplied with Arial Unicode MS font, and the
reader is strongly advised to load it on the computer in use.
Contents of this page
Burmese-Myanmar adjectives that are derived from nouns do not undergo a
change in spelling. The adjectives appear as affixes in compound words.
These affixes are placed either in front of the noun (prefix) or after
the noun (suffix). However, since we do not generally use white spaces
to separate the words, the reader is left to figure out which part of the
compound word is the noun and which the adjective. Sometimes the task is
simple. For example, the affixes {hpru}, {nak}, and {ni} give the colour
<white>, <black>, and <red>, respectively. Since they
describe the intrinsic property of a plant, they are used as suffixes.
However, if an adjective describes an extrinsic property such as the
place of origin <India> and <China>, or, the places where it is
grown <dry land> or <marsh>, they are used as prefixes. If you
want to use them as suffixes, you have to place them within parentheses.
U Tun Tint, (retd.)
MLC, concurred with my view.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
The Myanmar akshara,
{ak~hka.ra} (pronounced the same in Bengali - "akshara" is derived from Sanskrit
pronunciation), is believed to have been invented only in the Pagan Period, in
the early part of the last millennium. Many scholars believed that it
was derived from Mon script, which itself was believed to have been derived
from a southern Indian script probably Telugu. However, on comparing the
Telugu script to the Myanmar script, I found very little resemblance. That
has led me to do more research, which brought to my attention the following points:
1. The Myanmar akshara has quite a few characters similar to the Asoka akshara
{a-þau-ka. ak~hka.ra} which is now known as the Brahmi script --
{brah-mi ak~hka.ra}. It (the Asoka akshara) was found on the most ancient
inscriptions in India, dating back to a few centuries after the birth of
Gautama Buddha. The writings were by the Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India, who was
born in an area known as Magadha. The language of this region was known as
{ma-ga.Di} which was probably different from Pali
{pa-Li.}, or the two may have been dialects of the same language. Pali is known
as a "prototype" language, and is to be taken as the forerunner of the Sanskrit language.
(Many of my Indian friends believe that Sanskrit is the oldest language, from
which the imperfect language Pali was derived.) Since the inscriptions were erected by Asoka, the script in which they were
written should rightly be called the Asoka script. However, it is now known as
the Brahmi script. The Asoka akshara and its descendants are phonetic scripts.
The consonants or vyañjana
{byæÑ:} (pronounced as /
{byi:}/) are traditionally presented, according to the phonemic principles,
in a matrix of 7 rows and 5 columns. (Note: vyañjana
{byæÑ:} is misleading to a Myanmar, because the Pali-Latin (English-Pali) v represents
{ba.}
and not the usual
{wa.}).
2. Two of the problems that I ran into in my work on Romabama is the
representation of the fricatives, and the palatal plosives or stops particularly
because of the common mix up the thibilants and sibilants, and the conciliation
of Pali-Latin (International Pali) and Pali/Burmese-Myanmar with the
representation of {sa.} r2c1. In Pali-Latin it is represented by [c] whereas in
Burmese-Myanmar by {sa.}. I have now come up with a tentative solution:
to represent
with {sa.} (as a fricative) and its killed form
with {c} (stop), resulting in representation of a word like
with {sic}.
3. During the Chinese Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Kublai Khan (1215-1294)
asked Phagspa (a Tibetan Lama called Matidhvaja Sribhadra (1239-1280)) to
design a new character to be used in the whole empire [stretching from the
borders of Europe to the Pacific Ocean - UKT]. Phagspa in turn
modified the traditional Tibetan alphabet and gave birth to a new character
called Phagspa characters. These characters were not well accepted, but
served only as a way for Mongolians to learn Chinese characters and came to
an end with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. Adapted from:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mongolian-alphabet
UKT: I had always thought that Kublai Khan was a non-Buddhist until I came
across a website on Phagspa: from Mongolia | Tibetan Buddhism | Phagspa ,
Don Croner's World Wide Wanders,
Thursday, February 24, 2005,
www.doncroner.com/2005/02/mongolia-tibetan-buddhism-phagspa.html.
Unable to satisfy my curiosity, I surfed the Net and came across other websites
from which I gather:
• Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan (1162?-1227) CE, and Asoka,
the grandson of Chandra Gupta (322?-298) BC, are comparable.
• The grandfathers and the grandsons were notorious conquerors and empire builders.
• Both grandsons became Buddhists and began to bring peace and unity while
allowing their subjects to practice their indigenous religions and cultures --
this reminds us of the modern "unity through diversity".
• To make the peoples understand each other, both grandsons promoted (or
invented) common scripts. The scripts invented were aksharas (based on phonemic
principles). From all this I have come to conclude that "Languages divide,
while aksharas unite". -- (refer to the Bible stories of the Tower of Babel and
the atrocities committed in connection with the pronunciation of the word
"Shibboleth".
It is possible that, the akshara scripts being phonetic scripts have been
invented from time to time using phonemic principles which have been known in
the East long before the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) was invented.
Though the shapes of the individual characters are different, if you know the
"sound" of the aksharas involved, you can arrive at a fair pronunciation
of the word. And it is possible to write a language such as Hindi using Myanmar
akshara. Romabama is a method of transliteration of the Burmese-Myanmar words, and
whenever there is a need to transliterate a Hindi (or Sanskrit) word, I can give
the closest transliteration of the Hindi-Myanmar (given by Myanmar medicinal
practitioners such as Ashin Nagathein) in Romabama.
If you would like to know more about Myanmar akshara, please go to
Myanmar Script.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
(Based on personal communication with U Tun Tint, formerly of MLC)
There are 4 fossilized characters dating back to the 13 century:
•
{nhÉIk} derived from
{nheik}
•
{rwÉ} derived from
{ruèý} pronounced as /
/
/{rwé.}/
•
{iÉ} derived from
{é.} --> {i.}
•
{lÉ-kaung:} derived from
{læÑ-kaung:}
The derivation of
{rwÉ} is illustrating. In the Pagan period (11th century to the 13th) and a few
centuries after, the vowel
{tis-hkyaung:nging ya.þut} had existed, but it has
given way to {tha.wé-hto: wa.hswè:}. The changes have been
{kuèý} --> {kwé}
{hsuèý} --> {hswé}
{ruèý} --> {rwé}
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
The simplest dish in every Myanmar meal is known as
{nga:pi.ræÑ-kyo} or "fish-paste sauce". It is prepared from semi-liquid fish-paste
{nga:pi.ræÑ} and grounded roasted hot chili. The smell of preparing
{nga:pi.ræÑ-kyo} never fails to
water the mouth of every true ethnic Burmese. Burmese usually eat with five
fingers, and every child is taught the proper way to use the tips of his or her
right-hand fingers -- the food must never soil the areas beyond the first digits.
The person would eat steaming boiled rice out of a dinner plate. A small portion,
a morsel, would be set aside; a half-spoonful of {nga:pi.réÑ-kyo} spread over it,
and some fresh, simple-boiled, pickled, green leaf, stem, sprout of almost every
plant (sometimes a bit toxic making the person sleepy) with be "buried"
in the lump of rice and eaten. The plant material is known as
{to.sa.ra} literally meaning "a bit to touch" which could be rightly
called "vege-mate".
It is probably due to the habit of eating the tender shoots of plants, normally
considered to be poisonous in the West, that give the average Myanmar villager
the ability to withstand many vegetable poisons, and also to acquire immunity
against many diseases. During the First Anglo-Burmese War of the early 19th
century the British were amazed to find that the soldiers under the Burmese
general Bandoola, could crossed over from the west of the country, through the
thick tropical rain-forests in a matter of days, to come and give battle to them
in Yangon. These very same tropical rain-forests were quite deadly to the
British and American troops, and also to Indians and the Japanese troops during
the Second World War. (I still have to get the supporting evidence on the facts
mentioned.)
The vege-mate may taste sour
{hkyiñ}, astringent (raw-unripe-taste)
{hpan}, or bitter
{hka:} -- but not sweet
{hkyo} or creamy
{hseim.}. Bitter vege-mate is preferred by older persons while the young preferred the sour.
Note: Burmese-Myanmar recognised 7 (or 6) kinds of taste:
1.
{hkyo} or {cho} - sweet;
2.
{hkyiñ} or {chiñ} - sour;
3.
{ngän} - salty;
4.
{hpan} - acrid or astringent
(raw-unripe-taste of most the rind of immature fruits);
5.
{sup} - pepper-hot;
6.
{hka:} - bitter
7.
{hsaim.} - creamy ({hseim.}.
It is sometimes included in {hkyo} reducing the count to 6)
I always had difficulty in translating the taste
{hpan}, until I came across the taste of {hkän thi:},
the fruit of Carissa carandas in Wikkpedia:
"The fruit are edible but tart, with
strawberry or
apple-like
flavour."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carissa
last modified 20:01, 9 March 2007. This is to be read together with MEDict303
• {hpan} /|hpan|/ - adj. acrid or astringent (taste) -- MEDict303
• {hpan-hka:} /|hpan ga:|/ - n. myrobalan tree; chebulic myrobalan.
Terminalia chebula -- MEDict303
Go back hpan-b
It is probably because of this custom of eating plant materials with every
meal, country folks rarely suffer from deficiency of vitamins and minerals.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
Nasal consonants in Burmese-Myanmar akshara
r1c5
{nga.}, r2c5
{Ña.}/
{ña.},
r3c5 {Na.}, r4c5 {na.}, r5c5 {ma.}
The Burmese-Myanmar r1c5
{nga.} can be approximated by the IPA velar nasal /ŋ/, r2c5
{Ña.} by IPA palatal nasal /ɲ/, and r3c5
{Na.} by IPA retroflex nasal /ɳ/. Actually there are two characters in r2c5 slot.
{Ña.} is one and it is described as the "big
{Ña.}" and the other is
{ña.} -- the "small {ña.}". It is unfortunate that before the computers came
into use, when we have to rely on Burmese typewriters, the consonant
{ña.} and an entirely different character -- the vowel-letter
{U.} -- were represented by the same glyph,
.
Now, the two are differentiated by the "lengths" of their feet. Consonant
{ña.} has a long foot, and vowel-letter
{U.} has a short foot. This point is
important to remember when you read books written in Burmese-Myanmar script. Please remember
that there is no such character as
. The killed
{ña.} is always
.
{Ña.} is the main character of r2c5 in Burmese-Myanmar and
{ña.} is the main character in Pali-Myanmar. In Burmese-Myanmar,
{Ña.} is a base consonant in its own right, but in Pali-Myanmar (and in words
derived from Pali) it is the horizontal conjunct of two
{ña.}s, and is written in Romabama as {-ñ~ña.} when there is an absolute need to
do so. Thus, the Burmese-Myanmar word for 'education'
{pa.Ña} is pronounced as /
/ /{piñ~ña.}/.
Both r1c5
{nga.} and r2c5
{Ña.} are nasals (nasal consonants) and are best represented by IPA /ŋ/ and /ɲ/.
They are not present in English-Latin script, and are not ASCII characters.
To show them we have to use Unicode fonts. (Please note that, since not all
Unicode fonts display the characters in the same shape,
I have to specify the font I am using: Arial Unicode MS.). We are fortunate in
that we can represent /ɲ/ by the Spanish consonant Ñ (the Spanish insist it a
consonant-character in its own right, and NOT N with a diacritic over it).
However, we have no way of representing /ŋ/,
and have to use the "digraph" ng .
The IPA /ŋ/ is a velar nasal. This consonant is present in the coda of English
syllables as ing in <sing> with the pronunciation /sɪŋ/
-- without g . Burmese-Myanmar speakers, speaking English should note
that <sing> is
-- not
. We do not find /ŋ/ as word initials in regular English words. And probably that is why ŋ
is not an ASCII character.
r2c5
{Ña}/
{ña.} in Burmese-Myanmar is best approximated by Spanish Ñ/ñ . Some
Burmese speakers may pronounce this as a retroflex nasal /ɳ/, but others might
pronounce it as a palatal nasal /ɲ/. Adding an aspirate makes this consonant
very difficult for a non-native Burmese to pronounce.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
Killed aksharas: nasal, wag, and awag
It is now well known that the akshara system (abugida) is based firmly on
phonemic principles. The aksharas could be studied in three main groups: the
nasals, the wags (classifiables -- those that are classified as voiceless and
voiced), and awags (those that are not well defined). First the killed nasals:
Notice that the inherent vowel is no longer present, and the killed
akshara (which behaves exactly like a letter of the Latin alphabet) can only be
in the coda.
The akshara and the alphabet are loosely translated to be the same. At least,
that was how I had been taught in school particularly by those who knew very
little about the nature of akshara. In fact, I came to know the difference only
after I was introduced to the Unicode fonts in the late 1990s.
My first brush with the Unicode was when I came to read the Unicode
Standard, Version 4.0. In Chapter 9, Unicode Consortium,
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch09.pdf , it was written
(references to Myanmar akshara are my additions):
South Asian scripts:
"The scripts of South Asia share so many common features
that a side-by-side comparison of a few will often reveal structural
similarities even in the modern letterforms. With minor historical
exceptions, they are written from left to right. They are all abugidas
(also called alphasyllabaries) in which most symbols stand for a consonant
plus an inherent vowel (usually the sound /a/). Word-initial vowels
in many of these scripts have distinct symbols, and word-internal vowels
are usually written by juxtaposing a vowel sign in the vicinity of the
affected consonant. Absence of the inherent vowel, when that occurs,
is frequently marked with a special sign. In the Unicode Standard,
this sign is denoted by the Sanskrit word virāma. (Burmese-Myanmar:
{a.þut} ). In some languages another designation is preferred. In Hindi,
for example, the word hal refers to the character itself, and halant
refers to the consonant that has its inherent vowel suppressed;
in Tamil, the word puḷḷi is used. The virama sign
(
{tän-hkwun} -- meaning <flag>.) nominally serves to suppress the inherent vowel of the consonant
to which it is applied; it is a combining character, with its shape varying from script to script.
"Most of the scripts of South Asia, from north of the Himalayas to Sri Lanka in the south,
from Pakistan in the west to the easternmost islands of Indonesia, are derived from the ancient Brahmi
script. The oldest lengthy inscriptions of India, the edicts of Ashoka from the third century B.C., were
written in two scripts, Kharoshthi and Brahmi. These are both ultimately of Semitic origin, probably
deriving from Aramaic, which was an important administrative language of the Middle East at that time.
Kharoshthi, written from right to left, was supplanted by Brahmi and its derivatives. The descendants
of Brahmi spread with myriad changes throughout the subcontinent and outlying islands. There are said
to be some 200 different scripts deriving from it. By the eleventh century, the modern script known
as Devanagari was in ascendancy in India proper as the major script of Sanskrit literature.
This northern branch includes such modern scripts as Bengali, Gurmukhi, and Tibetan; the southern
branch includes scripts such as Malayalam and Tamil."
(UKT: It should be noted that the Emperor Asoka
{a-þau-ka.} , who played a very important role in the history of Buddhism,
was not of Aryan (or Indo-European) stock. He was born about 250 years after the
historical Buddha. They were both of the same area and both belonged to the
ruling class speaking, in all probability, a Tibeto-Burmese language called
Magadhi (the forerunner of Pali). That Magadhi and Pali were non-rhotic
languages are shown by the fact that Pali (now often dubbed the holy language of
Theravada Buddhism) in script form is relatively free of the akshara
{ra.}, and also by the dominance of the akshara
{tha.}/{þa.}. Both Asoka and Buddha were at odds at times with the Brahmins who served
the rulers mostly as intelligentsia.)
My question, which is important in transliterating the Burmese-Myanmar names
of the plants using Romabama, is how to represent in ASCII (not Unicode)
the killed nasal consonants
consonants. Since they no longer have the inherent vowel (the supposedly English
"short" a), how should I represent the peak vowel? After,
a tiring search in the Myanmar English Dictionary (MEDict),
which gives the MLC transcriptions (reflecting the local pronunciation) (see my
works on Romabama in the section on Linguistics), I realised that the only
solution is to give the rhyme or rime instead of treating the peak vowel and
coda separately. This method, my friend U Tun Tint cannot accept: because it is
more like the way the man on the street would transcript. To him, in a word such as
{ko}, the transcription is /|kou|/.
To him, the vowel
{au:} is o and not au. In the following groups
of rimes, I have chosen the peak vowel to reflect the pronunciations as well,
for which I have to rely on the vowel trapezoid given on the right. The
following are the rimes involving the 3 groups: nasal, wag, and awag.
Rimes with killed nasals
Rimes with killed {wag}-aksharas
Rimes with killed {a.wag}-aksharas
We are already using è (Alt0232) and é (Alt0233) in Romabama. Before I came up
with the above scheme, I was thinking of using other letters with diacritics, such as
the circumflexes, ê (Alt0234) and î (Alt0238). See the following:
In English the circumflex, like other diacriticals, is sometimes retained on
loanwords that used it in the original language; for example, rôle.
In Britain in the eighteenth century, which was before the cheap penny post
and in an era in which paper was taxed, the circumflex was used in postal
letters to save room in an analogy with the French use. Specifically, the
letters "ugh" were replaced when they were silent in the most
common words, e.g., "thô" for "though", "thorô"
for "thorough", and "brôt" for "brought" — similar
to the way in which people today abbreviate words in text messages. This could
have led to spelling simplification, but did not. --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_circumflex
We are coming to have to choose characters for
{ña.lé:thut} and {Ña.kri:thut}. Notice that --
• both can only be used with onset nasal consonants
(or with non-nasals which had been nasalized by using {ya.ping.}).
•
{ka.ya.ping. ña.lé:thut} has the pronunciation /
/
{kying}
• 
{ka.ya.ping. Ña.kri:thut} has the pronunciation
/
/ {kyi}.
If we only know how to represent the inherent vowel of the Myanmar akshara, it
would have been an easy matter. However, since none of the English vowels (a, e,
i, o, u) is acceptable, we are at a loss to represent it in a word containing a
"killed" akshara in the coda. I have asked myself: is it acceptable to use {kyiñ} for
,and, {kyîÑ} , {kyêÑ} or {kyæÑ} for ?
For the present version of DB at least, I will be using:
• {kyiñ} for
{ka.ya.ping. ña.lé:thut} and
• {kyæÑ} for
{ka.ya.ping. Ña.kri:thut}.
For ,
{kyîÑ} and {kyêÑ} are rejected, because if for one reason or another, the
diacritical mark is lost, we would end up with {kyin} and {kyen} leading to a
wrong orthographic representation. That leaves only {kyæÑ}. A supporting reason
for not rejecting {kyæÑ} is because of the following: (from DJPD16, p009)
DJPD16 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.:
<aeroplane> /ˈeə.rə.pleɪn/
(Brit) /ˈer.ə-/ (US)
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.:
<Caesar> /ˈsiːzəʳ/ (Brit) /-zɚ/ (US)
<aesthetic> /iːsˈθet.ɪk, ɪs-/
(Brit) /esˈθet̬-/ (US)
UKT: Note that <seizure> /'siːʒəʳ/
and <Caesar> /ˈsiːzəʳ/ are
pronounced with /iː/
The the names of many plants that were introduced into the country during the
days of sailing ships and steam ships bear the affix
{þïng~bau:} meaning <ship>. Though the word can be written in linear form as
,
it is written with a symbol known as {king:si:} literally meaning <ridden by a
centipede>. There are two cues to show that a {king:si:} is involved: use of
umlaut over the peak vowel e.g. ï (Alt0239) and ~. The {king:si:} is actually
not a conjoined sign and may be written horizontally. It is also found in words
derived from Pali and Sanskrit.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
Burmese pronunciation of the coda in
Romabama
The killed consonant in the coda is silent, yet it does have an influence on the
preceding peak vowel. Since Romabama, reflects the pronunciation to some extent,
the pronunciation that I have to consider is that of the rime, not that of the
peak vowel, nor of the coda consonant. In giving the characters for the rime, I have to consider the
following points.
1. Burmese is written in Myanmar akshara which is closely related to
Devanagari and other Asoka scripts. The form is the orthographic syllable,
consisting of a consonant and vowel (CV) core. However English syllables are of
the form CVC, and Romabama, in Latin alphabet, has to use the CVC form noting
that the last consonant is not pronounced. The last consonant is a "killed" consonant
whose inherent vowel has been killed by use of an
{a.þat}.
To emphasise the point that the last consonant has been killed, Ç
is used. The orthographic syllable is then represented as CVÇ.
"Encoding Principles: The writing systems that employ Devanagari and
other Indic scripts constitute abugidas -- a cross between syllabic writing
systems and alphabetic writing systems. The effective unit of these writing
systems is the orthographic syllable, consisting of a consonant and vowel (CV)
core and, optionally, one or more preceding consonants, with a canonical
structure of (((C)C)C)V. The orthographic syllable need not correspond exactly
with a phonological syllable, especially when a consonant cluster is involved,
but the writing system is built on phonological principles and tends to
correspond quite closely to pronunciation."
-- From The Unicode Standard 4.0 8 Aug 03, p219. South Asian Scripts 9.1.
Devanagari --
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch09.pdf
2. The coda (i.e., the last consonant in the syllable) in CVÇ is not pronounced.
To represent it in pronunciation, the coda-consonant is preferably given as a
superscript: CVÇ .
3. English-Latin alphabet lacks several aksharas, such as
{hka.},
{Ga.}, and
two very important aksharas: the
{nga.} and
{Ña.}.
These last two are represented in IPA as /ŋ/ and /ɳ/ (the Latin small letter Eng,
and Latin small letter N with a retroflex hook.)
4. Burmese-Myanmar
{þa.}/{tha.} is not a sibilant. The row 2 aksharas
{sa.},
{hsa.},
{za.} and
{Za.} are evidently stops or plosives. In fact
{sa.}
is given the letter c in Pali-Latin (International Pali). Though Burmese-Myanmar
{þa.}/{tha.}
can be fully represented by English-Latin digraph [th] (as in <thin> (onset /θ/) and
<though> (onset /ð/), how to represent the sibilant /ʃ/ in the name
of plants was a problem. There was a controversy among Burmese scholars how to represented it:
{þhya.}, or
{rha.}. However it is now officially represented by
{rha.}, which brings on a major
problem in Romabama transliteration, making it necessary to give an
approximate pronunciation. Since Romabama is a transliteration, it should be
possible to transliterate Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Latin and vice versa.
Suppose we would like to transliterate <shed>. The result in Romabama is
{shad} which in akshara form is
,
where
{sha.} "sa-loan ha-hto" is to represent the sibilant /ʃ/ . This would be contradictory to the rules of
writing Burmese-Myanmar akshara. The same problem is met in transliterating the
name /ʃæː/ of Acacia catechu
: what should be it in Romabama --
{rha:},
{sha:}, or
{þhya.} ?. Since I have to stick to the official spelling, I have no choice but to write "
{rha:} pronounced as 'shaa' ".
5. The row 2 in Hindi-Devanagari is represented by च (U091A), छ (U091B), ज
(U091C, and झ (U091D), which correspond to
{kya.},
{hkya.},
{gya.} and {?} in Burmese-Myanmar. Since the Burmese-Myanmar characters are
medials (not base aksharas) they cannot occupy row 2. Also note that the common
transcription for
{hkya.} is ch similar to ch in <church>. However, since Romabama
is first and foremost a transliteration, we cannot have {cha.}.
With the above points in mind, I have come up with sets of rime given in
Killed akshara: nasals, {wag} and {a.wag}.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
Burmese-Myanmar and Pali-Latin vowels
One of the major problems that I have to solve in transliteration of Burmese to
English (particularly to make myself aware of that speech and script are
not the same), was how to solve the question of IPA vowel /ɑ/ (U0251),
and to differentiate it from /a/ (U0061) and [ā] (U0101). Those
who are not familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet would say that all
the three a's are the same. In fact, that was what I had said before I
got myself mired in phonetics.
In this age of computers, the very fonts that we use to represent the first
letter of the English-Latin alphabet, do it differently. For comparison I have
used "sans serif":
Times New Roman, Arial, and other common fonts without serifs
Tipitika without serifs, and other uncommon fonts
In dealing with Pali, Burmese and other Brahmi derived language-scripts, we have
to differentiate between "short vowel a" and "long vowel a".
Pali-Latin fonts usually have a diacritical sign, macron, over the a to
show the "long vowel a" :
short vowel a
or
long vowel a
Now
comes the difference in Burmese-Myanmar and Pali-Latin (the International Pali).
Pali is said to have the following 8 vowels. You will notice that the aksharas
in red occupy the 4 corners of the vowel quadrilateral.
Devanagari (the script for writing Pali in India), and Myanmar (the script for
writing Pali in Myanmar) write the vowels in two ways: vowel-letters, and vowel
signs. In the following table, you will see that I have written the vowel {AU:}
as a vowel letter, and {au:} as a inserted in the vowel-sign.
How to differentiate, the vowel letters and vowel signs becomes very important
in dealing with names of plants such as Carallia brachiata Merr. (Family:
Rhizophoraceae). The name in Burmese-Myanmar is
{ma.Ni.AU-Ga.}. If I were to follow the Pali-Latin, the Burmese pronunciation
would not be {au:} but with {o:} resulting in something like /{ma.ni.o:ga.}/.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
Compound vowels
Do we have diphthongs in Burmese? I am inclined to say no.
However, what would happen if the vowels {i.} and {u.}
are used together: The vowel {i.} is written with
{loän:ting} and the vowel {u.} with
{hkyaung:nging}. When the two are used together, we say
{loan:ting hkyaung:nging}. (Notice the order in which we say it in
Burmese-Myanmar: {loän:ting hkyaung:nging}, and not {hkyaung:nging loän:ting}). Some would say it is
a diphthong. However, since I cannot think of one sliding into another, I
hesitate to call it a diphthong, and instead would call it a compound vowel.
Our problem here is to represent this compound vowel in Romabama.
We will take two concrete examples:
{ka. loan:ting hkyaung:nging nga.thut}
{keing}, and {ka. loän:ting na.thut}
{kain}. Ask any native-born Burmese-Myanmar to pronounce them, and see if there
are "glides" in the pronunciations. Glides (diphthongs) are so unfamiliar to the
Myanmar that unless they are well trained in pronunciation, they cannot
pronounce words like <boy> and <cow>. I am speaking from my own experience.
Therefore, I must insist that ei in
{keing}, and ai in
{kain} are digraphs, NOT diphthongs.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
White space
Though not important in hand-written text, inserting a white space
{kwak-lap} in proper places is important in the digitized Myanmar text. For example in
{hkwé:tauk-nwèý},
{nwèý} means a "creeper" or "vine". Though a word in its own right,
{nwèý} is used as an affix. Note that there is no white space between
and
.
However, deliberate insertion of a white space, as
is useful (note the little red arrow). Since text in paragraph format is generally used, "wrapping" (done
automatically by the computer at the end of a line) can occur in a whiteplace.
Go back to notes-b
Contents of this page
-- by UKT
•
(Agri.2000)
Botanical Names of Myanmar Plants of Importance , an Index in order of
Burmese-Myanmar akshara, by Agricultural Department (Planning),
Government of Union of Myanmar, 2000, pp 65 (citing page number and entry number,
eg. 01-0003 means page 1, entry 3)
• Burmese Indigenous Medicinal Plants
-- by Daw Mya Bwin and U Sein Gwan,
(MB-SG), Pharmacology Research Division, Department
of Medical Research, Ministry of Health, Rangoon, 1973.
• A Checklist of the Trees,
Shrubs, Herbs, and Climbers of Myanmar (Chklist) --
by W. J. Kress, R. A. DeFillipps, Ellen Farr, and Daw Yin Yin Kyi, (Revised from
the original works by J.H. Lace, R. Rodgers, H.G. Hundley, and U Chit Ko Ko, on
the "List of Trees, Shrubs, Herbs and Principal Climbers, etc. Recorded from
Burma"), Department of Systematic Biology - Botany, National Museum of
Natural History, Washington, DC, 2003, pp 590.
Online:
http://persoon.si.edu/myanmar/index.cfm
• Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (APweb). Version 7, May 2006 [and more or
less continuously updated since].
- Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards)
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/,
UKT note: it is best to access this reference online, and to get the required
effect I have left the original links intact.
• Essential Oils in the 1980's -- by C. K. Atal, Director,
Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu, India, (unidentified publication),
page 182-196, on a seminar "Essential Oils from India"
• 
Medicinal Plants of Burma
(LSR) (in Burmese) --
{lèý-seik-rhing:}, 1978, pp 513
• Families of flowering plants (Watson & Dallwitz)
-
Watson and Dallwitz (1992 onwards)
Static information
• FAO Sources
-
Famine Foods --
Purdue University,
Center for the
Center for New Crops
& Plant Products,
www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/FamineFoods/ff_Indices/
-
Trees commonly cultivated in Southeast Asia, (FAO), Illustrated Field guide,
by Michael Jensen, 2nd Ed.,
FAO, RAP Publication 1999/13,
• Guenther, E., and Althausen, D., The Essential Oils, Vol. 2, The
Constituents of Essential Oils, (Guenther), D. Van Nostrand
Company, Inc., New York, Toronto, London, 1949.
• Himalayan Medicine
DP Agrawal,
www.indianscience.org/essays/20-%20E--Himalayan%20Medicine%20System%20fine12.pdf
• Medicinal Plants of India and Pakistan (Dastur)
by Dastur, J.F., Medicinal Plants of India and Pakistan, Third Indian
edition, 1970, D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co., Private Ltd., Treasure House of
Books, 210, Dr.D.Naoroji Rd., Bombay 1
• Merck Index, 13th ed., Merck & Co., Inc., 2001
• Official Myanmar Dictionaries --
the following three:
•
Myanmar Orthography
(MOrtho)
by
(MLC) Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of Education, 1986, pp 292
• Myanmar English Dictionary (MEDict)
by Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of Education, 1993, pp 635
•
(MMDict)
(Travelling Pocket Myanmar Dictionary)
Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Myanmar) by MLC
(Myanmar-sar Commission Directorate, Ministry of Education), 1999, pp 401.
• 
{na-na-na.ya. a-ha-ra. swèý-soan-kyam:} (in Burmese) by
U San Hla, Rangoon, 1960, pp over 1026 (the
rest of the pages of the original book was damaged)
• Sorting Cymbopogon names - Internet download 060413
Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND)
-
www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/List_bot.html
•
Natural Preservatives --
by Anthony C. Dweck,
www.dweckdata.com/Lectures/Preservatech.pdf
• 
Pictorial Herbal Dictionary (in Burmese/Myanmar) by Shin
Nagathein, vols. 1 to 4, Kyawwinswé Press
(and other presses), Rangoon, 1976 (and following years). (citing volume and page)
• Potent Myanmar Medicinal Plants for Malaria and Other Ailments
(in Burmese-Myanmar), Ministry of Science and Technology, 2003, pp.270
• The Universal Burmese-English-Pali Dictionary (UHS-Dict) - U Hoke Sein,
First edition, 1980, pp1064 .
• USDA-NRCS-data (United States Department of Agriculture, Natural
Resources Conservation Services) --
http://plants.usda.gov/ (UKT: Instead of going on line, see downloaded
(2006-Apr) USDA-NRCS-data in TIL library.)
The following are NOT in the library for this version of the DataBase:
these had been part of the library for previous versions:
• A List of Burmese Medicinal Plants 1 (UHM) -- by U Hla Maw, B.Sc., Research Officer,
Pharmaceuticals Section, Applied Chemistry, Research Department,
Union of Burma Applied Research Institute, 1959. (citing page number)
The following are in the library for this version of the DataBase.
• Medicinal Plants of Myanmar (KS-TMN),
by Kyaw Soe and Tin Myo Ngwé ,
Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association (FREDA),
Series 1, 2004, ISBN 974-91986-0-3
Note. In case of discrepancy in Myanmar names between Nagathein and
another source, I have taken the Myanmar name given by Nagathein.
However, there are cases where the spelling given by Nagathein has
been superceded by the spelling given in MMDict.
Note. To avoid using Myanmar fonts such as WinInnwa,
I am using Romabama - a one-to-one transliteration
of Myanmar script to Latin script, e.g.
{kra.su.} (spelling) = /{gya.zu.}/ (pronunciation).
Contents of this page
U Pe Than, B. Sc., M. Pharm.
U Pe Than, B.Sc. (Univ. of Rangoon, Burma), M.Pharm. (University of
Nottingham, U.K.) had served as demonstrator in Chemistry in University of
Rangoon, and as research officer and director of research in the Central
Research Organization, Yangon, Myanmar). His research activity was mainly
concerned with the medicinal plants of Myanmar. He had also received extensive
training at Central Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
Contents of this page
B.Sc. (Honours in Chemistry) (University of Rangoon), M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.)
U Kyaw Tun joined the Department of Chemistry, University of Rangoon,
as an assistant lecturer in 1955. He was assigned as lecturer to the
first year science students at the Yankin College. His duties were further
extended the following year as lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry to the third
year science students (those taking Chemistry) at the main campus. He was
assigned to revise laboratory instructions on qualitative inorganic analysis,
and his work was in use up to the the mid-1960s, when the medium of instruction
was gradually changed from English to Burmese. He had served for 33 years in
various universities and colleges throughout Myanmar: Rangoon University,
Rangoon Institute of Technology, Mandalay University, Bassein College (now
Bassein Univversity), Workers’ College and Taunggyi College (now Taunggyi
University). His last posting from which he retired was Associate
Professor and Head of Department of Chemistry, Taunggyi Degree College.
He had undergone training for an academic year in 1975 in Advanced Research
Techniques at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
To help in his study of languages, he had taken several
on-line courses in linguistics, phonetics and writing systems.
Though trained as a scientist and engineer, U Kyaw Tun has a keen interest
in the culture, history, religion and mythology of various peoples of the world.
His knowledge of several languages: Myanmar, English, French, Pali, Swedish and
German has helped him in his cultural studies. He has an extensive knowledge
of Hindu astrology, specializing the Ashtakavarga system.
U Kyaw Tun was a part-time columnist writing for the Working Peoples’ Daily (English)
in Myanmar and was a member on the editorial board of the North Renfrew Times in Canada.
He has given several public lectures in Canada on Buddhism particularly to scientists
and engineers, and to non-Buddhists.
Contents of this page
End of TIL file