CareyGram02.htm
From Grammar of the Burman Language,
by F. Carey, 1814.
-
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=mmEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
201102
Downloaded copy in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF Libraries, and in TIL Bk-Cndl Online
Library
-
FCarey-GrammBurmanLang<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> /
BkCnd<OL> (link chk 201103)
There are are 351 printed pages in the downloaded copies, but no TOC.
However, in -
https://books.google.fr/books?id=mmEOAAAAQAAJ 210112,
there is a Table des matières, which gives the book divided into 26 sections.
Downloaded and set in html and edited
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA), 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
UKT 210202: To find what Carey had found and what he had missed, I have constructed the following TOC:
Rimes of Simple Codas :
{a.} -->
{ak};
{i.} -->
{aik} ;
{u.} -->
{oak};
{é} -->
{ék} ;
{au:} -->
{auk};
{o} -->
{eik}
Ch01 : Section 03 :
(i) Syllables without Onset consonant and a Coda
: CVÇ with C = 0 and Ç = 1
--------------------- (ii) Syllables with a basic
Consonant as Onset and a Coda: CVÇ with C = 1 and Ç = 1
-------------------- (iii) Syllables with a medial
Consonant as Onset and a Coda: CVÇ with C = 2, 3 and Ç = 1
Of Monosyllables with a final Consonant [ e.g.
{k}]
§070 §071 §072
§073 §074
§075 §076 §077
Rimes with vowel /æ/
: CVÇ, where C=0:
{a.} -->
{ak}
Of final Consonants following the Vowel
{a.}/
{a.}
§078 §079
§080 §081 §082
§083
Rimes with vowel /i/
: CVÇ, where C=0:
{i.}
-->
{aik}
Of final Consonants following the Vowel
{I.}/
{i.}
§084
Rimes with vowel /u/
: CVÇ, where C=0:
{u.} -->
{oak}
Of a final Consonant after the Vowel
{U.}/
{u.}
§085
Rimes with vowel /é/ : CVÇ, where C=0:
{é} -->
{ék}
[Of a final Consonant after the Vowel
{É}/
{é} : - missing in Carey]
Rimes with vowel /ɔ/
: CVÇ, where C=0:
{au:} -->
{auk}
Of final Consonants following Vowel
{AU}/
{au}
§086
Rimes with vowel /o/
VÇ, where C=0:
{o} -->
{eik}
Of final Consonants following the Vowel
{o}
§087
Codas of row#1
§088
Controversial approximant w
§089
UKT notes
• Uvular Consonants
in Burmese, English, and Roman
Rimes of Simple Codas
UKT210203: The following section is on Bur-Myan Syllable of canonical structure CVÇ , where
C = Onset which can have values 0, 1, 2, 3,
V = Nuclear vowel which may be the inherent vowel of Onset (never be 0, can be 1, 2), and,
Ç = Coda having values 0, 1 (for native Bur-Myan syllables), 2 (for imported syllables.
{k}]
UKT 210111: Carey did not realized that there is a fundamental difference in syllables of English and Burmese. English syllables are of CVC type, where the Onset C and Coda C are both mute letters.
The English syllable is pronounceable because of the nuclear V
{Ñu-ka·li-þa·ra.}. Eng-Latin belongs to script-to-speech writing system known as Alphabet-Letter system. The basic unit of this system is the mute Letter. e.g. K·T·P·N·M are: the letters k /k/, t /t/, p /p/, n /n/, m /m/ - none of which are associated with any vowels and hence mute.
To make the English syllable pronounceable you have to couple it with vowels such as short vowel «a» and long vowel «ā».
With short vowel «a» we have: e.g. short syllables
«ka», «ta», «pa», «na», «ma» - which are known as tenuis-voiceless or simply tenuis consonants. Unfortunately - unknown to most English speakers, English speech lacks these tenuis sounds. What it has is the ordinary-voiceless or simply voiceless consonants, which has an element of /h/ sound and is written in IPA as /kʰ/ , /tʰ/, /pʰ/ . Bur-Myan has both tenuis and voiceless consonants. Carey had to suffer for this defect in English in his work.The Bur-Myan belongs to the script-to-speech writing system known as Abugida system which I prefer to call Akshara-syllable system. Of course, Carey could not have known this because the term Abugida was introduced into Linguistics only after two centuries later.
Burmese syllable is of the type CVÇ, where the Onset C is pronounceable and Coda Ç is a mute letter. The Coda consonant, Ç, has lost its inherent vowel
{a·þût} "the vowel killer" shown by a
{tän-hkûn} "flag" above it. Its equivalent in Skt-Dev is the Virama identified by the sign ् . Thus Bur-Myan
{t} = Skt-Dev त् «t»
The nuclear V
A second point Carey has missed is the two kinds of vowels of Bur-Myan: except for the first pair
{a}, all other pairs are different. They are Vowel-Letters, and Vowel-Signs with
{U.}
{i},
{u} .
Whatever the case maybe, it is this nuclear V
Carey usually gives his example of "Of Monosyllables with a final Consonant" as
{gna.}/
{ng.} with which English speakers as well as Sanskrit speakers are not familiar. He should have chosen
{n} is a true-nasal with which both English and Sanskrit speakers are familiar. Nasals are important because they stand between plosives and vowels.
§070. A very great part of the Burman language
consists of monosyllables with a coda final consonant , which with its
preceding vowel is pronounced differently from its natural sound. [This is due
to "checking".]. Ex.
-
{ak} as in
{kak} |
- [
{ût} as in {kût} ]
- [
{ûp} as in
{kûp} ]
UKT 210203: The Burmese syllable of the type CVÇ can have C = 0, 2, 3, Ç = 0, 1 (for native syllables), or 0, 1, 2, (for imported syllables, especially from English. The coda has a strong effect on the nuclear vowel which becomes evident when P·T·K stop-consonants and M·N nasals, are compared:
-
-{kût};
-
-{ûm.} as in
{kûm};
{ûn. } as in {kûn.}
-{ûm} as in
{kûm};
{ûn} as in {kûn}
-{ûm:} as in
{kûm};
{ûn:} as in {kûn:}
§071. These monosyllables consist either of a vowel
followed by a coda final consonant, or
of an onset
initial consonant (base simple or medial
compound [- not a conjunct] combined with a vowel and followed by a
final consonant. Ex.
-
{ût} or
{ûp};
-
{kait} [or
{kaip}]
-
{kyoat},
{krwoat} .
UKT 210111: I've to ignore Carey's transcriptions, because he seems to be following the pronunciation which he heard [with his L1 English interfering what he heard]. For
UKT 210203: When the following §072 is analyzed using the Rimes of Simple Codas
we found that Carey has missed
§072. When the initial of
the monosyllable is a vowel, it is always combined
with the vowel
{a.} in the same manner as with a consonant. In this case the initial
{a.} is mute [Carey's mistake is based on "silent
letters" of English: as far as I know, Burmese
has no silent letters.], as may be seen in the following
sounds as:
[
{a.} -->]
{ak} [ Carey gives aet - saying a is mute],
{ín},
-
{íc},
{æÑ},
-
{ût},
{ûn},
{ûp},
{ûm},
{èý},
{auO},
[ {i.}
-->]
{ait},
{ain}, (p017end-p018begin)
{aip},
{aim}.
[
{u.} -->]
{oat},
{oan},
{oap},
{oam}.
[
{é} -->]
[
{au:} -->]
{auk},
{aún}.
[
{o} -->]
{eik},
{eín}
- {o},
{oäm}. This last is the same as
{oam} noticed before.
§073. These combinations are termed by the phrase
{ka.ré
ka.þût} -
{kak},
viz. a final
{k} following
{ka.}, because the first of them is
thus formed.
UKT 210206: I opine that the phrase "
UKT 210113: You'll see a continuation in §076 below
Below in §074, Carey has made a grave mistake. He seems to think that when we check the vowels, it is the vowel-letter that is being checked. It is not. For example, it is not
§074. The simple combinations may be divided into 5
sorts, viz.
- first, coda final consonants following [the vowel]
{a.} [
/a/ ]
- secondly, those [coda] following the vowel
{I.} [
{i.}
/i/ ]
- thirdly, those [coda] following the vowel
{U.} [
{u.} /ʌ/ ]
[Carey has missed the vowel
{É}/
{é} /e/ which would have made 5 sorts into 6]
- fourthly, those [coda] following the vowel
{AU} [
{au} /ɑ/ ], and
- fifthly, those [coda] following [the vowel - not diphthong]
{o} [ /o/ ]
These constitutes the first table.
UKT 210113: Because F. Carey has used the word "table", I was expecting a tabular form. It is not so: his "table" meant something else.
§075. The other six tables are formed by insertion
of the symbols
-
{ya.pín.}
,
{ra.ric}
/
,
{wa.hswè:}
-
{ya.pín.wa.hswè:}
,
{ra.ric-wa.hswè:}
/
and
-
{ha.hto:}
immediately after the initial consonant.
§076. [The killed consonants which are the same as Letters of the Alphabet-Letter system ]
------------------- c1 ------------ c5
codas of r1 -
codas of r2 -{c} /c/, -----
{Ñ} /ɲ/,
codas of r4 -
codas of r5 -{p} /p/, -----
{m} /m/
codas of r6 -{ý} /j/, and
{w} /o/,
viz. 'the first [c1] and last [c2] letters of the first [r1], second [r2],
fourth [r4], and fifth [r5] rows classes, and {ya.} and {wa.}
of the approximants miscellaneous (p018end-p019begin)
letters are properly termed
-
{þût ak~hka.ra.} which means akshara letters "killed" or
"destroyed ", viz. deprived of their inherent vowel
{mwé-hkän þa.ra.} . [see
§073]
UKT 210114: It seems that Carey has noticed that in regular Bur-Myan it is only the tenuis and nasal can be killed. However it is not the case in Pali-Myan.
§077. The above final consonants [coda]
are affixed in regular order to all the base simple consonants,
and to all those medials compounded with the following symbols
-
-
-
and also when they are combined with the vowels [UKT: It is unfortunate that Carey had not realized that in Bur-Myan, unlike Skt-Dev, Vowel-Letters do not appear as nuclear vowel V, of the syllable CVÇ.
-
-
-
[ -
-
-
which union occasions the following changes in the coda final
consonant and the preceding [nuclear} vowel
{Ñu-ka.li þa·ra.}.
I could not find where Carey began his TABLE I.
This place is only my assumption.
{a.}
{a.}UKT 210118: Carey in 1814 did not know the idea of rime and the syllable. I can imagine how difficult it must have been to study Burmese Grammar.
"A distinction between the spellings is also sometimes made in the study of linguistics and phonology for which rime/rhyme is used to refer to the nucleus and coda of a syllable. "- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme 210117
and "A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. [1] "- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllable#Rime 210117If only he had, the above caption would be Rimes with Vowel
{tak} - Onset from row#4 and Coda from row#1.
Codas of r1 -
{k} /k/ and
{ng} /ŋ/
§078. [The killed consonant
{ka.} which has become]
{k} /k/ after another consonant, thus,
{kak} <ket> , occasions the inherent vowel of the onset initial consonant to
take the sound of the short e in < let >, and the final
{k} to assume the of t in <et>, which is sounded but very slightly.
UKT 210114: Carey's observation above is wrong. The word
§079. [The killed r1c5
{gna.} which has become]
{ng}
placed after another consonant, thus,
{kín}, occasions the vowel of the initial
akshara letter to take (p019end-p020begin)
the sound of e in <pen>. No material alteration takes place in the
sound of the final
{ng},
except what is occasioned by the absence of the inherent vowel.
Codas of r2 -
{c} /c/ and
{Ñ} /ɲ/
§080. [The killed r2c1
{sa.} which has become]
{c} placed after a consonant [
{ka.}], thus
{kic} <keet> [wrong pronunciation] occasions the preceding vowel
[nuclear /a/] to take the sound of ee [/i/] and the coda final
to take the sound of t as in <sheet>.
§081. [The killed r2c5
{Ña.} which has become]
{Ñ}, thus
<kee>, causes the preceding vowel to take the sound of ee in <see>. In
this instance the sound of coda final consonant is sometimes
retained, and sometimes suppressed. Examp.
{kræÑ} <kree>, or popularly <kėe> "bright", "clear",
<kreen>, or popularly <keen>
"see", "behold"'
UKT 210116: Carey's pronunciations in the above Examp. are totally wrong.
Codas of r4 -
{t} /t/ and
{n} /n/
[UKT: dentals]
Codas of
r5 -
{p} /p/ and
{m} /m/
[UKT: bilabials - Eng-Lat has no bilabials but only labio-dentals
which must have lead to wrong pronunciations.]
Codas of
r6 -
{ý} /j/, and
{w} /o/,
[UKT: approximants - traditionally IE speakers used to rhotic
accent are familiar with /r/ but not with /j/. So Carey's judgment of /j/ would
tend to be wrong. Moreover, English speakers are not well-versed in /w/: they
cannot pronounce the Welsh names right!]
§082. [The following are
codas Ç of syllables CVÇ] -
codas of r4 -
{t} /t/ and
{n} /n/;
codas of r5 -
{p} /p/ and
{m} /m/;
codas of r6 -
{ý} /j/, and
{w} /o/,
placed after a consonant [onset and its
inherent vowel: Carey has taken the Onset as
{ka.}], thus,
-
{kût} <kat>,
{kûn} <kan> ;
-
{kûp} <kat>,
{kûm} <kam>, and
-
{kèý} <kay>,
occasion the inherent vowel of the onset initial consonant, to
assume the sound of a in <pan>. [UKT: I've given the Romabama
transcription: Carey's statement is in doubt. He has no idea of rime, VÇ, of a
syllable CVÇ. See below.]
The codas final consonants retain their proper
sound, except
{p}, which is sounded like t in <cat-gut>, and
{m}, which is sounded like n in <can>.
(p020end-p021begin)
§083. When
{w} is put after a preceding consonant, the symbol of the vowel
{AU.} is affixed
to the initial, as
{kauO} <kau>.
In this case the vowel
{AU.}
has a long sound resembling au as in <fraud>, <caught>. The
{w} is mute, and in writing is generally dropped.
UKT 210117: In my young days what caught my attention was the phrase "May Devas and Men call out Tha'du"
{kau}.
N.B. The inherent vowel
{mwé-hkän þa.ra.}
{a.} [of
{wa.}]
when followed by
{n} or
{m}, is also sometimes pronounced like
{U.}, as in
{wûn}
<a burden>, and
{wûm-pè:}
<a duck>.
UKT 210118: Carey has given <duck> as
{wûm:Bè:}. If at present, if somebody were to say
{i.}
{I.}§084. [The filled consonants]
{t},
{n};
{p},
{m}, placed after a consonant combined with the vowel
{I.}, thus
{ki.}, occasion the vowel
{a.} to take the sound of i in <thine>. Ex.
-
{kait} <kit>,
{kain} <king>
-
{kaip} <kit>, and
{kaim} <king}
The sound of the final consonants is very short and abrupt, as to be scarcely
discerned.
Frequently however
{p} is sounded like
{t}, and
{n} like
{m}.
(p021end-p022begin)
{u.}
{U.}UKT 210118, 210128: Carey is a very careful observer: yet he is giving
As a side note, notice Mon-Myan /i/ pair is
which is not logical; it should be
-
-
which is also strange. Why is there no
§085. [The killed consonants of row#4 and row#5]
{t},
{n};
{p},
{m}, placed after a consonant combined with the vowel
{U.}, thus
{ku.} <koo>, occasion the vowel <oo> to assume the sound of o
in <yoke>. Ex.
-
{koat} <kok> ,
{koan} <kong>
-
{koap} <kok> ,
{koam} <kong>
Here the final
{t} and
{p} acquire the sound of k in <yoke>, and
{n} and
{m} have the sound of ng . [What does he mean by "sound of ng"
?]
{au.}
{AU}
§086. [The Codas of row#1]
{k} /k/ and
{ng} /ŋ/ placed after an Onset
a consonant, combined with
{AU} /ɔ/ thus,
{kau} <kau>, occasion the sound of the
short digraph diphthong
<au> to be changed to that of ou
in <lounge>. Ex.
-
{kauk} <kouk>,
{kaún} <koung>.
{o}
{o}UKT 210119: The vowel
{a. loän: tín} "place a circle over
{hkaún: gnín} "draw a line to it". You don't "glide" from
It is said that there are 4 diphthongs <ei> <ai> <au> and <ou> in Bur-Myan language, which I dispute. They are all "digraphs". See also my paper, dated 2011-12-31, "English Phonetics and Phonology for Burmese-Myanmar speakers", which is based on English Phonetics and Phonology, by Peter Roach, 2nd ed., 4th printing 1993. - https://www.tuninst.net/ENG-PHON/Eng-diphth/diphth.htm#Diphthongs (link chk 210119)
§087. [The vowel]
{o} is a compound vowel formed by the union of the symbols of
{I.} and
{U.}, and may be joined with any one of the basic simple
consonants, or medials those compounded with
[Ya'pin]
, and [Ra'ric]
/
, [Carey's examples are shown below]
[Wa'hsè]
, [Ya'pin-wa'hswè]
, and [Ra'ric-wa'hswè]
/
[Carey does not give examples]
thus [with basic consonants]
{ko},
{hko}
[with medials
{kyo} ,
{hkyo} ,
{kro} ]
This vowel diphthong has the power of o in <yoke>.
(p022end-p023begin)
§088. When
{k} and
{ng} are placed after the above vowel diphthong combined with a
consonant, thus,
{keik} <kaik>,
{keín} <kaing>, the sound of o is changed to that of <ai>.
UKT 210206: The letter w is controversial in English as a Germanic language. The English w is German v . This is reflected in Bur-Myan and Skt-Dev. Bur-Myan
{wa.þût} .
§089. When
{w} is placed after the above diphthong, it occasions no difference in the
sound, and in writing may be retained or dropped at pleasure.
UKT 210119: In the sequence
{bo} -->
{bol}, the 2 words
UKT 210119: Note that though Engl-Lat has the bilabial
{va.}/
{v}, and Romabama has to include it for studying BEPS languages.
N.B. For the sake of conveying a better idea of these combinations, the first table with its powers, is here inserted at large, a clear idea of which being obtained, the rest may be easily understood.
UKT 210128: Each of the following tables has two parts.
The first part describes the Medials modified by various medials, /æ/, /i/, /u/, /é/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/, /o/
The second part gives Onsets of syllables with Medial and its modified forms
- the "inherent vowel" of the medial behaving as the Nuclear vowel of the Syllable.
UKT 210130:
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvular_consonant 210201
"English has no uvular consonants (at least in most major dialects), and they are unknown in the indigenous languages of Australia and the Pacific, though uvular consonants separate from velar consonants are believed to have existed in the Proto-Oceanic language and are attested in the modern Formosan languages of Taiwan. Uvular consonants are however found in many African and Middle-Eastern languages, most notably Arabic, and in Native American languages. In parts of the Caucasus mountains and north-western North America, nearly every language has uvular stops and fricatives. Two uvular R phonemes are found in various languages in north-western Europe including French, some Occitan dialects, a majority of German dialects, some Dutch dialects, and Danish.The voiceless uvular stops
{kwa.} (1 eye-blink) and
{kwa} (2 blnk) are transcribed as [q] in both the IPA and SAMPA. It is pronounced somewhat like the voiceless velar stop [k], but with the middle of the tongue further back on the velum, against or near the uvula. The most familiar use will doubtless be in the transliteration of Arabic place names such as Qatar and Iraq into English, though, since English lacks this sound, this is generally pronounced as [k], the most similar sound that occurs in English.
See also
LINGVA LATINA, by Hans H. Ørberg, 1998 in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries: - HHOrberg-LingvaLatinaVocab<Ô> / Bko<Ô>
On the right are shown some Roman-Latin
words from p030 of LINGVA LATINA, by Hans H. Ørberg. Notice how Latin <quā> sounds like
Bur-Myan
{kwa}, and <quam> like {kwûm}. The POA (place
of articulation) of letter < q > is
uvular which is produced with the back
of the tongue touching the uvula, i.e.
further back in the mouth than the velar
consonants.
Go back Uvular-consonants-note-b
End of TIL file
