BG4M-indx.htm
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning,
http://www.tuninst.net ). Start: 2007 July
Based on:
• 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 version of MLC Myanmar Thuddar by Daw Thet-thet Theint Han and staff of TIL, 2003 July.
See an apology for writing Burmese-Myanmar Grammar in Romabama under UKT name. Though, I am writing under my name, I am keeping as close to the original text (which is definitely not my style) as possible out of my respect for my peers at MLC.
indx-RBM4M |
Top
BG4M-indx
Preface
Introduction
thad~da |
ak~hkra.ra |
wa-sïn~ga.
Part of Speech {wa-sïn~ga.}
01. Noun - tx01noun.htm
02. Pronoun - tx02pronoun.htm
02.01. Gender
02.02. Number
03. Verb - txt03verb.htm
03.01. Tense
04. Adjective -
tx04adjective.htm
05. Adverb - txt05adverb.htm
05.01.
Postpositional-marker { wi.Bat }
06. Conjunction -
tx06conjunction.htm
07. Particle -
tx07particle.htm
08. Interjection
- tx08interjection.htm
08.01. Sentence
08.02.
Punctuation
Hard-copy index
Reference
UKT notes
mran-ma thad~da ko a.twè: 3-twè: hkwè:ka pru.su. pa thæÑ// mran-ma thad~da a.twè: 1 ko a.hkré-hkän piñ~ña a.lèý-tan: a.twak / mran-ma thad~da a.twè: 2 ko a.hkré-hkän piñ~ña a.htak-tan: a.twak / mran-ma thad~da a.twè: 3 ko tak~ka.thol a.twak ræÑ-rwèý pa thæÑ//
mran-ma thad~da 3 twè: ko pru.su. ra. hkring: iÉ. ræÑ-rwèý khyak mha kyaung:thu kyaung:tha: mya: nhing. mran-ma sa lé.la-thu mya: mran-ma thud~da iÉ. a.hkré-hkän tha.Bau: tha.Ba-wa. ko na:læÑ rwÉ. mran-ma sa ré:tha: ra nhÉik mran-ma thad~da næÑ: nhing. a.Ñi sæÑ:kam: ta.kya. ré:tha: tat sé ran ping hpris pa thæÑ //
hto ræÑ-rwèý hkak ko a.hkré hkän lyak kyaung:thu kyaung:tha: to. thad~da wau-ha-ra. mya: nhing. ring:nhi: kywam:wing sé ran læÑ:kaung: / wa-sïn~ga. 9 pa: ko a.hkré-hkän thi.sé ran læÑ:kaung: / poad-hprat poad~rup thïn~ké-ta. to. ko mhan-kan swa a.thoän: pru. tat sé ran læÑ:kaung: I mran-ma thad~da a.twè:1 a.hkan:1 ko pru.su. pa thæÑ //
mran-ma thad~da kyam:mya: ko pru.su.ra-twing kyaung:thu kyaung:tha: mya: iÉ. a.thak nhing. a.tan: ko hkying. rwÉ. ñaaN-ræÑ nhing. laik aung a.hsing.hsing. peing:hkra: pru.su. pa thæÑ // a.hkan:leik a.hkan:leik kyé-Ñak aung lé.la hkring: hpring. mran-ma thad~da ko a.hkré-hkän hkeing-hkeing tak-mrauk kra. mæÑ hu. yoän-kræÑ pa thæÑ //
UKT Note: Please note that there is some confusion due to unexplained vagaries of electronic transmission from Myanmar to Canada, where I spent my time in some years. The contents need to be re-checked against hard-copies.
01. thad~da p.01
02. ak~hka.ra p.02
03. wa-sïn~ga. <part of speech> p.05
04. naam p.07
05. naam-sa: p.11
06. laing kaing: p.16
07. kri.ya p.22
08. ka-la. p.26
09. na-ma. wi.thé-tha.na. p.28
10. kri.ya wi.thé-tha.na. p.31
11. wi.Bat <post-positional marker> p.35
12. tham~ban~Da. <conjunction> p.41
13. pis~sæÑ: <particle> p.47
14. a-mé-ðait p.51
15. wa-kya. <sentence> p.53
16. poad-hprat poad-rup thïn~ké-ta. mya: p.58
17. sa.ka: loän: a.Ñwan: p.63
• Official Myanmar Dictionaries -- the following three:
• Myanmar Orthography (MOrtho)
by (MLC) Myanmar Language Commission (MLC),
Ministry of Education, 1986, pp 292
Editor U Tun Tint.
• Myanmar English Dictionary (MEDict)
by Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of Education, 1993, pp 635
MEDict gives a pronunciation guide in non-PA
script which I have marked /[...]/ to differentiate from Romabama /{...}/
• (MMDict) (Travelling Pocket Myanmar Dictionary)
Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Myanmar) by MLC (Myanmar-sar Commission
Directorate, Ministry of Education), 1999, pp 401.
• American Heritage Talking Dictionary (AHTD)
-- CD or online.
• Daniel Jones, English Pronouncing Dictionary, 16 ed (DJPD16),
Cambridge University Press 2003.
Notes on individual words, usage, and the culture and history of the Burmese speaking people from Burmese-Myanmar perspective.
Though this work has been with TIL for some time, it has been
used very sparingly, because, the WinInnwa font in which it was digitized did
not display well, particularly on email and internet. Since there is no remedy
for this, I have to reformat the works in Romabama . Before I could do it, I had
to finish my work on transliteration of Burmese-Myanmar to Romabama
(Burmese-Latin) which I had set out to do oft and on since I was in my early
teens: I am now an old man of 73.
For reformatting in Romabama, I have split up the original text in
WinInnwa into small files. When I started out, I was planning not to add my
notes and explanations, because, I do not consider myself competent enough to do
so. However, as I go along, I found that I will have to put in my explanations
at least for myself. It is frustrating to find when I came back at a much later
time (sometimes after the lapse of a number of years), that I had forgotten what
I had done, and why, previously.
I have to pick up Burmese grammar because of my work on English
grammar. The knowledge of the grammar of one language helps in the study of the
grammar of another. To me all grammars are the same - just a set of rules -
which we all love to hate.
The second point, I would have to emphasize with due respect to my
peers at MLC, is that their style of writing is archaic, sometimes amounting to
that of religious texts particularly the translations from Pali. The sentences
are repeated with just a small change in meaning. This style has obviously
worked well in oral transmission where memory is important, however, when it is
in written text, it bored the reader (I mean myself) to death.
However, now that I am reformatting the work of MLC, I have come to
find out that my knowledge of Burmese-Myanmar, particularly the grammar, had
been deplorable. I must admit that I have been "picking on" on my good friend U
Tun Tint (at present retired from MLC) for all these years, because of my
ignorance of the language of my ancestors. My humble apology to my old teachers
particularly Saya U Hla Shwe (former Rector of Mandalay University), Saya U Hla
Maung, Saya U Kyaw Yin, and my high-school teacher from Bassein U Chit Tun. -- UKT
2007 August
Go back an-apology-b
International Phonetic Alphabet
n. Abbr. IPA I.P.A. 1. A phonetic alphabet and diacritic modifiers
sponsored by the International Phonetic Association to provide a uniform and
universally understood system for transcribing the speech sounds of all
languages. -- AHTD
International Phonetic Association
Formed in 1886 by a group of British and French language teachers, led by the
French linguist Paul Passy. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
Go back IPA-b
Romabama Rule 01 - ASCII characters
Romabama is designed for writing e-mails without using any special fonts. Thus
only ASCII characters are used.
Consonant characters
{ka.} {hka.} {ga.}
{Ga.} {nga.}
{sa.} {hsa.} {za.}
{Za.} {Ña.}/{ña.}
{Ta.} {Hta.} {ða.}
{Ða.} {Na.}
{ta.} {hta.} {da}
{Da.} {na.}
{pa.} {hpa.} {ba.}
{Ba.} {ma.}
{ya.} {ra.}
{la.}
{wa.} {tha.}
----- {ha.} {La.} {a.} -----
Burmese-Myanmar consonant-akshara characters are always arranged according to phonemic principles in a matrix of 7 rows x 5 columns. Broadly speaking, they are grouped into 3 groups: the classifiables {wag}, the nasals, and the non-classifiables {a.wag}. I have coloured the classiables blue, the nasals red, and the non-classifiables green. The classification follows the classification of the Brahmi script of the Emperor Asoka (273BC-232BC). Compare the classification to that of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) which came into existence centuries later.
One of the most interesting "nasal sound" is represented by the character is r2c5 {Ña.} of Burmese and {ña.} of Pali. In Romabama it is represented by Spanish Ñ.
Vowel characters (usually described as "vowel letters" as opposed to "vowel
signs"):
{a.} {a} {I.}
{I} {U.} {U} {É} {è:}
{AU:} {AU} {än} {a:}
Burmese-Myanmar vowel-akshara characters (the "vowel letters") are arranged in a single line, starting from {a.} /a/ the lower-left corner of the vowel quadrilateral (represented by the English "short a") and moves in a clock-wise manner through {I.} /i/ and {U.} /u/ to {AU:} /ɑ/ at the lower-right corner. Please note that the vowel quadrilateral represents the position of the tongue in pronouncing the vowels. The so-called English "short a" is the most important vowel in the Asoka akshara system and is common in all its descendants including the Burmese-Myanmar.
Incidentally, the "English short a" is not a common vowel in the English pronunciation of the English syllables. I have come to this conclusion in going through DJPD16. English uses the vowel /ɑ/ mostly in syllables which to Burmese-Myanmar ears sound like /a/. Thus, <father> is pronounced as /fɑː.ðəʳ/ (DJPD16 p.199). This same word is pronounced by most English-speaking Myanmar with /a/ instead of /ɑ/.
Romabama Rule 02 - English-Latin alphabet
The 26 letters of the English-Latin alphabet are expanded to 52 letters by
differentiating between the 26 small letter and 26 capital letters. Use of
capital letters is rare in Romabama. However, the use of capital letters for
"killed" c2 is preferable. e.g. for {moaK} (gateway to a pagoda -- MEDict349)
seems to be better than {moahk}. The rational for this is, English <k> is
pronounced nearer to {hka.} than {ka.}. See Rule 03 for the use of capital
letters of the extended Latin alphabet.
Romabama Rule 03 - Extended Latin alphabet
Diacritics and other suitable signs are introduced:
• ä (Alt0228) in än for {thé:thé:ting} (MEDict500)
• à (Alt0224) for denoting {re:hkya. a·thut} ending in a killed non-nasal, as in
{Dàt-hsi} (petrol, gasoline -- MEDict218)
alternate spelling {Daat-hsi}
• æ (Alt0230) in combination with Ñ (Alt0209) to denote {Ña.kri:thut} as in {kyæÑ-hsan}
(cartridge, shell -- MEDict034)
• Æ (Alt0198) in combination with Ñ (Alt0209) to denote {vowel-letter
Ña.kri:thut} as in {ÆÑ.thæÑ} (guest -- MEDict625)
• É (Alt0201) as in {É-ra-wa-ti mris} (Irrawaddy River),
• é (Alt0233) as in {é:hkyam:} (peaceful -- MEDict614)
• È (Alt0200) as in {a.Daip~pÈý} (meaning -- MEDict565)
• è (Alt0232) as in {è:maung:} (lance -- MEDict615).
è (Alt0232) as in {a.pèý-hkän} (outcast -- MEDict572)
• ð (Alt0240) as in {ða.} row3-colunm3 akshara
(Caution: the voiced-pronunciation
of English-Latin <th> is also given as /ð/)
• Ð (Alt0208) as in {Ða.} row3-column akshara
• ï (Alt0239) and ~ to represent {king:si:} as
in {ïn~ga.laip} ("English" -- MEDict622)
• ì (Alt0236) for denoting {ré:hkya. a·thut} ending in a killed nasal, as in {mìñ}
- alternate spelling: {maañ}
• í (Alt0237) for denoting {tha.wé-hto: a-thut} as in {hkít} (age, era, period,
time -- MEDict064)
• ñ (Alt0241) as in {ñaaN.} (intellect, wisdom -- MEDict155)
and Ñ (Alt0209) for {Ña.} (night -- MEDict156) both corresponding to <ny>;
• * OA (digraph) for use in place of {U.} for peak vowels in syllables without
consonants in the onset,
as in {OAs~sa} (property -- MEDict625
• ù (Alt0249) for {lù.} in {lù.Baung} (human society -- MEDict431)
• ý (Alt0253) for "killed {ya.}" {ya.thut} as in {wèý} (buy -- MEDict484)
Note: Diacritics in Romabama are chosen in a way so that even if a diacritic is
lost, the effect would be minimal.
* I am writing this note while I am in Canada, where I have to work alone without the assistance of my secretaries who are unable to accompany me to Canada because they are Myanmar citizens and getting Canadian visas for them is next to impossible. At my age (73), my memory is not reliable. Now, I am finding that I have to come up with spellings involving {U.} in words such as <property> /[ou' sa]/ (MEDict625; not listed in MOrtho). I am forced to use "digraphs" which might be mistaken for "diphthongs" (I maintain that Burmese has no diphthongs as commonly found in English). The tentative spelling I would have to use for <property> is {OAs~sa}, where {OA} is a digraph and not a diphthong. -- UKT, Canada, July 2007.
Romabama Rule 06 - {king:si:} vowel-sign
{king:si:} /|kin: si:|/ - n. ortho. miniature symbol of devowelized nga superscripted on the following letter. -- MEDict016
Compare the way in which the two words {hsing-kan:} and {thïn~kan:} are written. The first is written horizontally, but the second is written with the {king:si:} (literally: "centipede-ridden") sign . 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 usually found in words derived from Pali and Sanskrit, e.g. Sanskrit-Myanmar {koän~ku.ma.} (n. saffron -- MEDict024) equivalent to Burmese-Myanmar {koän-ku.män}.
Caution: There is an {a.that} that is not exactly a {king:si:}, yet the consonant under it, is not a conjoined (horizontal conjunct) akshara as in {tha.kri:}. Such an {a.that} is found in {kywan-noap.} and {yauk-kya:}. In {kywan-noap} there is only one {na.ngèý} and in {yauk-kya:} there is only one {ka.kri:}. For the time being, I am treating them as similar to {tha.kri:}, but without a ~ in between. I have simply hyphenated the two {na.} in {kywan-noap.}, and two {ka.} in {yauk-kya:}. I have asked my good friend U Tun Tint for an explanation. He has not responded yet! (UKT 070804)
Romabama Rule 07 - Fossilized killed consonants.
(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:}
Go back Romabama-b
Where did the Ñ come from?
by Gerald Erichsen,
http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/f/tilde_origins.htm (download
070803)
As you could probably guess, the ñ came originally from the letter n. The ñ does not exist in Latin and is the only Spanish letter of Spanish origins.
Beginning in about the 12th century, Spanish scribes (whose job it was to copy documents by hand) used the tilde placed over letters to indicate that a letter was doubled (so that, for example, nn became ñ and aa became ã). I'm not sure why they used the tilde, except perhaps that it was quick to write, although it may be no coincidence that it is shaped vaguely like an N. The tilde was used not only with the n but with other letters as well.
The popularity of the tilde for other letters eventually waned, and by the 14th century, the ñ was the only place it was used. Its origins can be seen in a word such as año (which means "year"), as it comes from the Latin word annus with a double n. As the phonetic nature of Spanish became solidified, the ñ came to be used for its sound, not just for words with an nn. A number of Spanish words, such as señal and campaña, that are English cognates use the ñ where English uses "gn," such as in "signal" and "campaign," respectively.
The Spanish ñ has been copied by two other languages that are spoken by minorities in Spain. It is used in Euskara, the Basque language that is unrelated to Spanish, to represent approximately the same sound as it has in Spanish. It is also used in Galician, a language similar to Portuguese. (Portuguese uses nh to represent the same sound.)
Additionally, three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Phillipines led to the adoption of many Spanish words in the national language, Tagalog (also known as Pilipino or Filipino). The ñ is among the letters that have been added to the traditional 20 letters of the language.
And while the ñ isn't part of the English alphabet, it frequently is used by careful writers when using adopted words such as jalapeño, piña colada or piñata and in the spelling of various personal and place names.
In Portuguese, the tilde is placed over vowels to indicate that the sound is nasalized. That use of the tilde has no apparent direct connection with the use of the tilde in Spanish.
• The palatal /ɲ/ is Spanish [ñ] and French [gn} -- The International Phonetic Alphabet in black print and in braille, http://clauchau.free.fr/L/phonalph.html
Go back Spanish-Nya-b
End of TIL file