Pali Aksharas
Pronunciation of letters

Pali is a phonetic language. As such each letter has its own characteristic sound.

UKT: A direct quote from: http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch10.pdf

"The Myanmar script is used to write Burmese, the majority language of Myanmar (formerly called Burma). Variations and extensions of the script are used to write other languages of the region, such as Shan and Mon, as well as Pali and Sanskrit. The Myanmar script was formerly known as the Burmese script, but the term "Myanmar" is now preferred. ...

"Because of its Brahmi [or Asoka script] origins, the Myanmar script shares the structural features of its Indic relatives: consonant symbols include an inherent "a" vowel; various signs are attached to a consonant to indicate a different vowel; ligatures and conjuncts are used to indicate consonant clusters; and the overall writing direction is left to right. Thus, despite great differences in appearance and detail, the Myanmar script follows the same basic principles as, for example, Devanagari."

UKT: Since the Indic and Myanmar scripts were descended from Asoka script (now commonly known as the Brahmi) which was  based on phonemic principles, they could all be related to each other and to the IPA. I have used this principle in providing Devanagari script in the following table.

• *Not a mistake. Burmese-Myanmar speakers should note that <but> is pronounced as {bût}. Pronunciation as given by Ven. Narada may help English-speakers, but for Burmese-Myanmar speakers they are of little help if not downright misleading. To help the Burmese-Myanmar speakers, I have given examples from PTS (Pali to English) and UHS (Pali to Burmese) dictionaries showing the page numbers.

• Vowels in Indic scripts and also in Myanmar are written in two forms: the vowel letters, and vowel-signs in which a consonant character has to be inserted. I have given both forms In the above table.

The vowels "e" and "o" are always long, except when followed by a double consonant; e.g. ettha, oṭṭha.

UKT: The word "double consonant" simply means that the first consonant is the coda of the leading syllable and the second is the onset. In Pali-Myanmar it is shown either as a vertical or horizontal conjunct. Examples given by Ven. Narada:
• vertical conjunct "ettha" -- {Ét~hta.} (UHS-PaliDict-0258; PTS-Dict-161)
• horizontal conjunct "oṭṭha" -- (UHS-PaliDict-0263; PTS-Dict-165).
   In spite of what U Tun Tint has said about the {a.thût}, the presence of "double consonants" or conjuncts shows that the idea of an {a.thût} is present in Pali. Expanded, using an {a.thût}, becomes . Notice the way r3c2 {Hta.} is written in Burmese-Myanmar. The double-consonant {Ta~Hta.} is written differently from {Hta.}. However, if you can see a visible {a.thût} or a {tän-hkwan} in a Pali-Myanmar word you can be sure that the spelling has been derived from Sanskrit. (I am awaiting comments from my Burmese-Myanmar peers.)

UKT: Because of my limited knowledge of Pali, pronunciation of words that begin with o has always given me trouble. For example, <ojā̄> (meaning: nutrient> is spelled in Pali-Myanmar as . In Romabama it would be {AU:za} pronounced as /{au:za}/. Notice that the vowel o has now become {au}. Please refer to PTS Dictionary p165 and you will see that this word has the same root as Latin <Augustus>.

There is no difference between the pronunciation of "ṅ" and "ṃ". The former never stands at the end, but is always followed by a consonant of its group.

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Consonants

UKT: The first two consonant sounds in the Burmese-Myanmar, Pali-Devanagari and Pali-Myanmar are represented by the IPA [k] and [kʰ]. They are represented by:
• {ka.} in Myanmar and क U0915 [ka] in Devanagari
• {hka.} in Myanmar and ख U0916 [kha] in Devanagari
Burmese-Myanmars would notice how complicated the hand strokes in Devanagari are compared to Myanmar. Note that the overhead horizontal line is written last of all. This akshara-character corresponds to Myanmar {ka.} and has the same sound.
   In fact, all the Myanmar akshara-characters have the corresponding Devanagari akshara-characters except in a very cases. And one-to-one akshara-to-akshara transliteration is a reality. The usual way of going through the intermediary pronunciation of English or any other language such as Hindi usually gives us the wrong spelling and mis-identifying a plant which is both indigenous to India and Myanmar. I have brought out this point in identifying the medicinal plant Aristolochia indica  which is spelled {Ith~tha.ra.mu-li}. This plant with the Hindi name इसरमूल has been named by Nagathein (an authority on Burmese Indigenous Medicine) to {i.hsar-mul} who went through "pronunciation" rather than use the one-to-one correspondence between Myanmar and Devanagari. See Myanmar Medicinal Plant Database (Family: Aristolochiaceae) compiled by U Kyaw Tun, U Pe Than, and staff of TIL. http://www.tuninst.net/MyanMedPlants/TIL/r7c4a-vow/r7c4a-vow.htm#lth-tha-ra-mu-li (accessed on 080731)

UKT: The aksharas are presented in two groups: the {wag} (vargs) or {wag~ga.} (UHS-Dict0839) , and the {a.wag} (non-vargs). {wag} means the "classifiables". These could be classified into voiceless (vl), voiced (vd) and nasals. The voiceless aksharas are in columns c1 and c2; the voiced in c3 and c4, and the nasals in c5. The table on the right has been drawn according to the Burmese-Myanmar system which may not be the same in other systems. The Pali-Myanmar table is essentially the same except in r2c5 occupied by {ña.} (usually known as "small-nya"). Incidentally, this character is usually mistaken to be the vowel-letter {U.} even by those who use it to spell their names. Notice the difference in the length of the "foot". This mistake is usually made because of Burmese-Myanmar typewriters which use the same character for both {U.} and {ña.}.
   When two {ña.} are horizontally conjoined, the so-called "big-nya" is obtained. This conjunct is present in the word for <education> {piñ~ña}. (Checked with UHS-PaliDict0572.). You will notice that in {piñ~ña}, the conjunct {ñ~ña} cannot be pronounced because the first akshara has lost its inherent vowel, and therefore it must always be preceded by another akshara which still has its inherent vowel. This difference between the Burmese-Myanmar "big-nya" (pronounceable) and Pali-Myanmar "big-nya" (not pronounceable) is not well understood by the Burmese-Myanmar scholars themselves, and has occurred to me only after the introduction of Romabama. (I would like to get input from Burmese-Myanmar scholars.). You will see this problem with all the "horizontal" conjuncts in words such as {AUT~Hta.} and {paiþ~þa} (alternate spelling: {paith~tha}).
   You will notice that r7c4 is {a.} which can act not only as a consonant but as a vowel as well. This position is sometimes taken up by the {naig~ga.hi.ta} or {naig~ga.hait} (UHS-PaliDict0522) in other systems.

UKT: The aksharas of r6 (row 6) of {a.wag} are not easy to group under the headings of vl, vd and nasal. Ven. Narada has termed them "semi-vowels", but in modern phonetic terms they are approximants.
   The r7 is a heterogeneous row. r7c2 {ha.} has no identifiable place of articulation (POA), and is pronounced way down in the throat. However, to non-Myanmars it appears to be an aspirate. In English, <h> is sometimes silent. In Romabama {h} before a consonant shows it is the "so-called" aspirate of c2: {hka.}, {hsa.}, {Hta.}, {hta.} and {hpa.}. {h} after a consonant shows that it is a {ha.hto:} usually formed with nasals: {ngha.}, {Nha.}, {nha.}, {mha.}.

The aspirates "kh", "gh", "ṭh", "ḍh", "th", "dh", "ph", "bh", are pronounced with "h" sound immediately following; e.g. in <blockhead>, <pighead>,  <cathead>, <log-head>, etc., where the "h" in each is combined with the preceding consonant in pronunciation.

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A Comparison of Systems (IPA, English, and Myanmar)

by UKT:

Which is more important in the study of languages: spoken form or written form? It seems that in the West the spoken form is more important than the written form. In Myanmar, we have a saying that "what we write is correct and how we say (read) is just sound". With this motto in mind I will make a comparison between Burmese-Myanmar system of writing and the English-Latin system.

Though the objective is the study of Pali consonants, it is advisable to look into:
• IPA (International Phonetic Association) consonants
• English consonants

UKT: It should be noted that the fricatives can be problematic in world's languages. It appears that only a small number of world's languages can pronounce the English <th> or the Burmese {tha.} as IPA [θ]. Most of the world's languages including German do not have this pronunciation. Those languages that can pronounce [θ] should therefore be called "thibilant languages" to differentiate them from "sibilant languages". Pali-Myanmar is a thibilant language whereas Pali-Latin is a sibilant language. I have come to this conclusion after email exchanges with Prof. Zev Handel of Washington State University (zhandel@u.washington.edu). In his email of Sept.15, 2007, Prof. Handel wrote:

"The "th" sound is relatively rare in languages of the world.  But I doubt very much that German in the 19th century couldn't recognize it.  They were familiar with English, and as philologists interested in foreign and ancient languages, they would have been alert to the presence of non-German sounds in other languages."

UKT: My position is this. Just because the majority of the present day Indians and European scholars who studied Pali in the 19th century could not pronounce the {tha.} character properly, one should not take that {tha.} is actually {sa.} in the language used by the Buddha. If he had been a Tibeto-Burmese speaker he would have used {tha.}, but if he had been a Indo-Aryan speaker he would have used {sa.}. We know that the Buddha belonged to the ruling class in the border area of present-day Nepal and India, and he could very well have been a Tibeto-Burmese speaker in which case he would have used {tha.}. We should also note that he was very much against the use of Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmins (see ban_sanskrit.htm ), and so my conclusion is that the Buddha was a Tibeto-Burmese speaker and therefore the Pali-Myanmar pronunciation is the closest we could get to the sound of the Buddha's voice. However, I must point out that my close friend and advisor U Tun Tint would not agree to my position.

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Consonants (Pulmonic)
-- IPA (International Phonetics Association)

IPA (revised to 1993, corrected 1996).
Note: the characters in the following table are phonetic characters, and are represented in text within / /, e.g. /p/.

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English consonants
-- DJPD16

(Daniel Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary, 16th ed.)

Note: the characters in the following table are phonetic characters, and are represented in text within / /, e.g. /b/.

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Pali-Latin consonants

-- based on Ven. Narada Thera
http://www.vipassana.info/pali%20contents.htm

Pali language written in Myanmar and all the countries where the respective scripts are based on the ancient Brahmi script (e.g. India and Sri Lanka) goes according to the written form. Brahmi script is almost a phonemic script and uses an alphasyllabary or abugida instead of an alphabet, and is presented in a matrix of rows and columns -- along phonemic lines. The Myanmar script is made up of 7 rows and 5 columns. The first row or ka-group is made up of consonants with sounds close to /k/, /g/ and /ŋ/. This row is known as the "Gutturals", a phonetic term, frowned on by Western linguists. Ka-group is followed by "Palatals", "Cerebrals", "Dentals", and "Labials". The rest are presented as a mixed group.

Note that the characters in the following table correspond to the letters of Pali alphasyllabary or abugida where all the consonant characters have inherent vowels sometimes described as English short-a. For example, the consonant k already contains an inherent short-a and should be written in Romabama as {ka.}. However to retain conformity with regular English, the inherent vowel has been left out. Pali-Latin characters will be represented in the text as bold letters, e.g. k, kh. Sometimes, the letters may be placed within [...] which can easily be mistaken for IPA alphabets giving the pronunciation.

There is no difference between the pronunciation of "ṅ" and "ṃ". The former never stands at the end, but is always followed by a consonant of its group.

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UKT notes

lallation

From AHTD
lallation n. Linguistics 1. The substitution of the phoneme /l/ for /r/ or the mispronunciation of (l). [Latin lallāre lallāt - to sing a lullaby -ation ]

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sibilant

From AHTD
sibilant Linguistics adj. 1. Of, characterized by, or producing a hissing sound like that of (s) or (sh): the sibilant consonants; a sibilant bird call. n. 1. A sibilant speech sound, such as English (s), (sh), (z), or (zh). [Latin sībilāns sībilant-, present participle of sībilāreto hiss] -- AHTD

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End of TIL file