RBM-rule5.htm
by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.), Daw Khin Wutyi, B.Sc., and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL). Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone. Prepared for students and staff of TIL Research Station, Yangon, MYANMAR : http://www.tuninst.net , www.romabama.blogspot.com
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RBM-rules-indx.htm
Rule 05.
01. Cardinal vowels of BEPS: A, É, I, O,
U
Eight Pali-Myan Vowel-Letters
of Akshara-Syllable system
One set of Eng-Lat Vowels of Alphabet-Letter system
02. Killed consonants (plosive-stops, approximants,
nasals)
UKT 200822:
Up to now, I had not consider why it was necessary for Devanagari script and Myanmar script of the Akshara-Syllable system to have two sets of vowels in script, called : Vowel-Letters and Vowel-Signs.
The matter may be explained from the point of view
of Cardinal vowels of Daniel Jones. See Section 03
on English phonetics in English Phonetics and
Phonology for Burmese-Myanmar speakers (last
update 2017Nov) -
Eng-phon-indx.htm (link chk 200822)
For the most recent information, on Cardinal vowels,
read the following: Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_vowels
200822
Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds of languages. [UKT¶]
UKT 200822: Western phonetics is of recent origin - just a few hundred years old. Compare it to Eastern phonetics of ancient origin - stretching back thousands of years ago. My respects to Eastern phoneticians, Yaska
{yaaS~ka. hsa.ra} (Vedic), Shin Kicsi
(Buddhist), Panini
For instance, the vowel of the English word <feet> can be described with reference to cardinal vowel 1, [IPA] [i],
{I.}, which is the cardinal vowel closest to it. It is often stated that to be able to use the cardinal vowel system effectively one must undergo training with an expert phonetician, working both on the recognition and the production of the vowels. Daniel Jones wrote "The values of cardinal vowels cannot be learnt from written descriptions; they should be learnt by oral instruction from a teacher who knows them". [1]
A cardinal vowel is a vowel
{þa.ra.} sound produced when the tongue [tip]
{lhya-htaip} is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low. The current system was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early 20th century, [2] though the idea goes back to earlier phoneticians, notably Ellis [3] and Bell. [4]
Cardinal vowels are not vowels of any particular language, but a measuring system. However, some languages contain vowel or vowels that are close to the cardinal vowel(s). [5] An example of such language is Ngwe, which is spoken in Cameroon. It has been cited as a language with a vowel system that has 8 vowels [UKT: how strikingly similar to Pali-Myan] which are rather similar to the 8 primary cardinal vowels (Ladefoged 1971:67).
Three of the cardinal vowels — [i]
{AU} or
{EAU}, and [u]
{U.} — have articulatory definitions. [UKT¶]
The vowel [i]
The vowel [u]
And [ɑ]
[UKT: * Can it be
See: Burmese Grammar and Grammatical Analysis 1899 - BG1899-indx.htmThe other vowels are 'auditorily equidistant' between these three 'corner vowels', at four degrees of aperture or 'height': close (high tongue-tip position), close-mid, open-mid, and open (low tongue-tip position).
These degrees of aperture plus the front-back distinction define 8 reference points on a mixture of articulatory and auditory criteria. These eight vowels are known as the eight 'primary cardinal vowels', and vowels like these are common in the world's languages.
The lip positions can be reversed with the lip position for the corresponding vowel on the opposite side of the front-back dimension, so that e.g. Cardinal 1 [
UKT 200821: A short paper on Cardinal vowels by J Coleman is in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries: - JColeman-CardinalVowels<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 200821)
a) Vowels are produced in a relatively small area of the mouth — earlier writers talked of palatal vowels (the frontmost ones) and velar vowels (the furthest back). The tongue may be further to the front or to the back and higher or lower in the mouth, ... ... ... and the lips may be more or less rounded. [UKT ¶]
The shape of the area in which the tongue moves is usually idealised to form a quadrilateral (sometimes a triangle), on which the position of each different vowel sound can be marked ...
c) To help identify vowels in different languages, phoneticians use a series of reference vowels, called cardinal vowels with which to compare them. These consist of four vowels produced at each extremity of the vowel producing area:
[i]{A.} , [ɑ] ≅
plus four in intermediate positions which sound equidistant between [i] and [a] at the front, and [u] and [ɑ] at the back.
[e]{É}, and [ɛ]
{è:} are intermediate at the front, and [o] and [ɔ] are intermediate at the back. ... "
The 8 Pali-Myan Vowel-Letters are made up of three
{þa.wûn}-pairs:
{A.} अ,
{A} आ ;
{I.} इ,
{I} ई ;
{U.} उ ,
{U} ऊ ;
and one
{a.þa.wûn}-pair:
{É.} ए ,
{AU}/
{EAU} ओ
The corresponding Pali-Myan Vowel-Signs with dummy
{ka.} क for
{þa.wûn}-pairs:
------------
ा --------
ि -----
ी -----
ु -----
ू
{ka.} क ,
{ka} का ;
{ki.} कि,
{ki} कु ;
{ku.},
{ku} कू
and one
{a.þa.wûn}-pair:
े -----------
ो
{ké} के ,
{kau:} को
The Latin script (of English-Latin) of the
Alphabet-Letter has the need of only one set
of vowels, whereas those of Akshara-Syllable system
need two. Why? This question is also related to
the differentiation of
{þa.wûn} and
{a.þa.wûn} vowels in the Akshara-Syllable syllable.
It is also probably related to the Cardinal Vowel
of Daniel Jones. Below are the corresponding
Vowel-Letters
UKT to TIL editor: 200820: Romabama does not use any Burmese fonts, because of which you must know in which AK-BNKs, a word is located. I'll try a new method for Pali Vowel-Letters ending in Pali-conjuncts :
a :{ût~ta.}
é :{két~ta.}
i :{ait}
o :{out} .
u :{oat}
Note: I've been receiving complaints that my former{AU} looks like
-
{þa.ra.ric}. I'm now giving it a new look:
UKT: 150413, 150919, 151223, 180402, 200823:
Though
In the canonical structure, CVÇ, of Bur-Myan syllables we find the killed consonants in the coda position. With the nasals, the problem becomes more complex because we have to deal with 3 pitch-registers. In the following examples, I have chosen for the onset-consonant, a typical Bur-Myan medial which is difficult for the English and Hindi speakers to pronounce.
•
{kyïn} {kying} : nasal ending - note how g has been
eliminated by changing the peak vowel from i to ï
•
{kyiñ} : nasal ending
•
{kyûn} : nasal ending
•
{kyûm:} : nasal ending
•
{kyæÑ} : approximant ending
•
{kyèý} : approximant ending
You will notice the nuclear vowel of the word changing in the above examples. My choice of the nuclear vowel may look artificial, but I choose it to reflect the Bur-Myan pronunciation as much as possible. However, my choice is not tenable for Mon-Myan words. I am only beginning to learn Mon-Myan and until I become confident with it, please take my choice of nuclear vowel for Bur-Myan words only.
End of TIL file
