Update: 2008-10-03 05:54 PM +0800
indx-GPE.htm
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT), M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.), and staff of TIL (Tun Institute
of Learning, http://www.tuninst.net ).
Based on Barron’s Educational Series, Grammar In Plain English, by Diamond, H. and Dutwin,
P., Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., Woodbury, New York. Copyright 1977.
Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, Myanmar. Not for sale.
The programme is presented in two versions: the email version and the CD version.
RBM4M |Top
indx-GPE
Contents of this page
Though the English text is almost entirely from Barron, the explanations in Romabama, are mine. What I am trying to do here is to prescribe Barron, and to go through it giving explanations in Burmese-Myanmar. However, because of the difficulty of presenting the Burmese-Myanmar font on the internet, I have to resort to Romabama
{rau:ma.ba.ma} which is an almost character-to-character transliteration of Burmese-Myanmar into English-extended Latin. One advantage of using Romabama is due to the phonetic nature of the Myanmar script itself, because of which I can give the pronunciations of English words in Romabama instead of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Barron's Grammar in Plain English is more complete than my work, and the reader is recommended to use it after going through my work.
TIL Motivation
What makes us human is our Innate linguistic knowledge ,
and there is every reason to present the grammars of Burmese and English together.
(Based on theories of Noam Chomsky)
Introduction - intro.htm
Chapter 1. The Simplest Complete Thought -
ch01.htm
The Sentence Pattern of Performer and Action - Syntax
01. What You’ve Always Known
Exercise 0101
02. Recognizing Complete and Incomplete Thoughts
Exercise 0201
03. Subject and Predicate: Introducing Grammatical terms:
04. Action Words: Special Problems: Tense
Chapter 2. Understanding
Time and Number - ch02.htm
Performer and Action
01. Understanding Time : Tense
02. Understanding Number: Agreement
Exercise 0201
03. Agreement
03.01. Agreement in present time
Exercise 0301
03.02. Agreement in past time
Exercise 0302
03.03. Agreement in present and past time
Exercise 0303
Chapter 3. Adding Descriptive Words -
ch03.htm
01. Descriptive Words: Adding Meaning
Exercise 0101
Exercise 0102
02. Descriptive Words: Special
Problems
Exercise 0201
Chapter 4. Using Descriptive Words - ch04.htm
01. Using Descriptive Words: Using Comparison
Exercise 0101
Chapter 5. Adding Descriptive Phrases - ch05.htm
01. Descriptive Phrases: Adding Meaning
Exercise 0101
02. Descriptive Phrases: Correct Placement
Exercise 0201
Chapter 6. Cumulative Review -
ch06.htm
01. Review 1
02. Review 2
Chapter 7. Linking Words - ch07.htm
01. Linking Word or copula
01.01. Descriptive word or Adverb/Adverbial
Exercise 0101
01.02. Subject-Copula-Adverbial
02. Agreement in number between Subject and Copula
03. Verb "to be" or copula "be, is (am), are, was,
wear"
04. Contraction -- copula combined with another word
05. Copula deletion -- in other languages
Chapter 8. Number: Special Problems - ch08.htm
01. Special Problems of Agreement
02. Surprisingly Singular Subjects
03. Plural Subjects
Chapter 9. Time: Special Problems - ch09.htm
01. Past action continues into present
02. Past action before another past action
03. Future action before another future action
04. Two actions occur simultaneously
Chapter 10. Pronouns - ch10.htm
01. Performer pronoun, Subject pronoun, and Pronoun which receives action.
02. Pronoun Clue 1
03. Pronoun Clue 2
04. Pronoun Clue 3
05. Pronoun Clue 4
06. Pronoun Clue 5
07. Pronoun Clue 6
08. Pronoun Clue 7
09. Pronoun Clue 8
Chapter 11. Cumulative Review - ch11.htm
Chapter 12. Balanced Sentences - ch12.htm
01. Understanding Correct Sentence Structure
Chapter 13. Punctuation - ch13.htm
01. End Mark
02. Comma
03. Common Comma Errors.
04. Semicolon
Chapter 14. Cumulative Review - ch14.htm
01. Style and Clarity
02. Quotation Marks
03. Other Marks of Punctuation.
04. Capitalization
References
UKT Notes
• Romabama Rule 01 • Romabama Rule 02
• Romabama Rule 03
• American Heritage Talking Dictionary (AHTD) - CD. You can have it loaded on your computer hard disc, but if you would like to listen as well you will have to have the CD in your computer.
• Burmese Grammar and Grammatical Analysis (Lonsdale 1899)
by A. W. Lonsdale, Education Department, Burma. British Burma Press, Rangoon,
1899, pp. 459.
Photocopy available in TIL library. Original from which the photocopy was taken
is in the library of
my brother-in-law U Ba Khin an avid book collector
• English Pronouncing Dictionary, 16th ed. (DJPD16) - by Daniel Jones, ed. P. Roach, J. Hartman, and J. Setter, Cambridge University Press, 2003
• Glossary of English Grammar Terms (UseE) www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html
• The Little Brown Handbook (LBH), 8ed, Addison-Wesley-Longman
(AWL-Glossary)
http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/aaronlbh_awl/medialib/terms/gloss_01.html
• Official Myanmar Dictionaries -- the following three:
• {mran-ma sa-loän:paung: that-poän kyam:} Myanmar Orthography
(MOrtho)
by {mran-ma sa a.hpwè.} (MLC) Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of
Education, 1986, pp 292
• Myanmar English Dictionary (MEDict)
{mran-ma ïn~ga.laip a.Bi.Daan} by Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of
Education, 1993, pp 635
• {hka.ri:hsaung mran-ma a.Bi.Daan} (MMDict) (Travelling Pocket
Myanmar Dictionary)
Burmese-Myanmar to Burmese-Myanmar) by MLC (Myanmar-sar Commission
Directorate, Ministry of Education), 1999, pp 401.
Notes on individual words, usage, and the culture and history of the English speaking people from Burmese-Myanmar perspective, will accompany individual files. Previously, it was intended that they will be grouped together at the end of the lessons, but it was found that since I have to write one file at a time, and there is sometimes considerable interval between each writing, the previous plan was not practical.
Chomsky, Noam . Born 1928 1. American linguist who revolutionized the study of language with his theory of generative grammar, set forth in Syntactic Structures (1957).
Use of ASCII characters.
Romabama is designed for writing e-mails without using any special fonts. Only
ASCII are used.
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" r1c2 is preferable. eg. for
{moaK} seems to be better than {moahk}. The rational for this is, English <k> is
pronounced nearer to {hka.} (IPA [k]) than {ka.} (IPA [kʰ]). See Rule 03 for the
use of capital letters of the extended Latin alphabet.
Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs
Diacritics and other suitable signs are introduced. Diacritics in Romabama are
chosen in a way so that even if a diacritic is lost, the effect would be
minimal. As for digraphs, I try not to use them, unless it is absolutely
necessary.
a
• ä (Alt0228) (Latin small letter A with diaeresis) , in än for
{þé:þé:ting} for
:
e.g.
{a.þän} -- voice, sound, noise -- MEDict599
• à (Alt0224)(Latin small letter A with Grave)
for denoting {re:hkya. a·þût}
/
ending in a killed non-nasal, as in {àt}
/
,
e.g.
{Dàt-hsi} (petrol, gasoline -- MEDict218): alternate spelling {Daat-hsi}
[I have been writing <aa> for this. However, I found that it is not suitable
for writing vowels ending in killed non-nasals, I am using à (Alt0224)
tentatively.
• æ (Alt0230) (Latin small letter Ae) in combination with Ñ (Alt0209) to denote
{Ña.kri:þût} as in
{kyæÑ},
e.g.
{kyæÑ-hsûn} (cartridge, shell -- MEDict034). (I have always thought that
the spelling is
{kyæÑ-hsän})
See
Representing the "killed" {Ña.} in my notes.
Note: I have found that an unforeseen benefit of using Romabama is to make a
person like me to be careful about the way he spells.
• Æ (Alt0198) (Latin cap letter Ae) in combination with Ñ (Alt0209) to denote
{vowel-letter Æ-Ña.kri:þût}
{ÆÑ}
e.g.
{ÆÑ.thæÑ} (guest --MEDict625)
d
• ð (Alt0240) (Latin small letter Eth)
in row-3 akshara
{ða.}
(Caution: the vd-pronunciation of English-Latin <þ>/<th> is also given
as /ð/)
• Ð (Alt0208) (Latin cap letter Eth)
for row-3 akshara
{Ða.}
e
• É (Alt0201) (Latin cap letter E with Acute) , for
{É},
e.g.
{É-ka.} (acre -- MEDict613)
• é (Alt0233) (Latin small letter E with Acute) for
{é},
e.g.
{é:hkyam:} (peaceful -- MEDict614)
• È (Alt0200) (Latin cap letter E with Grave), as
e.g.
{a.Daip~pÈý} (meaning -- MEDict565)
• è: (Alt0232) (Latin small letter E with Grave) for
{è:},
e.g.
{è:maung:} (lance -- MEDict615)
i
• ï (Alt0239) (Latin small letter A with Diaeresis) and ~ (Tilde)
to represent
{king:si:}
e.g.
{ïn~ga.laip} (English -- MEDict622)
• ì (Alt0236) (Latin small letter I with Grave)
for denoting {re:hkya. a.þût}
ending in a killed nasal, as in
{ ìñ}
e.g.
{yìñ} (vehicle -- MEDict386)
• í (Alt0237) for denoting {þa.wé-hto: a-þût} as
e.g.
{hkít} (age, era, period, time -- MEDict064)
n
• ñ (Alt0241) (Latin small letter N with Tilde) for
{ña.} corresponding to <ny>
e.g.
{hkyiñ} (sour -- MEDict072)
• Ñ (Alt0209) (Latin cap letter N with Tilde) for
{Ña.} corresponding to <ny>
e.g.
{Ña.} (night -- MEDict156)
o
• * OA (digraph) for use in place of {U.} for peak vowels in syllables without
consonants in the onset,
as in
{OAc~sa} (property -- MEDict625
• Ø (Alt0216) (Latin capital letter with stroke). Used to show
non-past tense (present tense).
Not part of regular Romabama - used only for comparative grammar.
u
• The English <u> has 2 sounds, [ʌ] and [ʊ], exemplified in <but>
[bʌt] (DJPD16-075) and <put> [pʊt] (DJPD16-436. To differentiate them in
Romabama, I am using the forms of u as, <û> (Alt0251) for [ʌ] and <u> for [ʊ]. Thus,
e.g.
{bût}
e.g.
{pwat} / {put}
y
• ý (Alt0253) (Latin small letter Y with Acute)
for "killed {ya.}"
{ya.þût}
e.g.
{kèý-hsèý} (save, rescue -- MEDict024)
* 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 {OAc~sa}, where {OA} is a digraph and not a diphthong. -- UKT, Canada, July 2007.
(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-note-b
End of TIL file