BG1899-1-indx.htm
- Burmese Grammar and Grammatical Analysis by A. W. Lonsdale, Education Department, Burma, British Burma Press, Rangoon, 1899. A photocopy of the ink-on-paper book , and downloaded PDF copies are available in the TIL Research Station, in Yangon.
Copied and edited by UKT and staff of 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: 121117, 160404, 170611: In my present work, which began in 2008 Aug, I'd thought of using my own name as the author, using Lonsdale's work as my main reference. However, with my chance encounter on the Internet with a PDF copy, I've decided to use the name of A. W. Lonsdale as the author, entering my name only as the editor. I'm doing this edition citing many references in Phonetics and Linguistics, and from what I've studied in Pali- and Sanskrit- languages. However Lonsdale must be given the credit of presenting the Burmese speech in the Myanmar script as a scientific phonetic language to the world.
UKT201103: Downloaded copy in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF Libraries, and in TIL Bk-Cndl Online Library
- AWLonsdale-BurGram-GramAnal<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> / BkCnd<OL> (link chk 201103)
index.htm |
Top
BG1899-indx.htm
Preface and original TOC --
ch00.htm -
update 2020Nov
UKT 201109: Preface is not included in the downloaded
BkCnd<OL>
What I've given is from the ink-on-paper book in the TIL research station.
Introduction
-- ch00-intro.htm -
update 2020Nov
Sentence
{wa-kya.}, Clause
{wa-kya.sa.lèý-hsoän:},
Phrase
{wa-kya.pyak}
Chapter 01.
The Myanmar akshara
{mrûn-ma ak~hka.ra}/
{mrûm~mak~hha.ra} -- ch01.htm -
update 2020Nov
Chapter 02. Classification of Consonants according to vocal organs -- ch02.htm - update 2020Nov
Chapter 03.
The sounds of letters:
Vowels
and Consonants,
{þa.ra.} &
{byæÑ:} -- ch03.htm -
update 2020Dec
-- ch03-old.htm (to del after recovery of
suitable material)
Formation of words (syllables)
Changing the nuclear vowel
{nyu-ka.li þa.ra.} aka peak vowel
--
ch04-1.htm
Medials
--
ch04-2.htm
Coda consonants
--
ch04-3.htm
Syllables with conjunct consonants
--
ch04-4.htm
(Romabama vowels in rimes)
Pali derived syllables with coda consonants
--
ch04-5.htm
Conjuncts including Kinsi
{kïn:si:}
--
ch04-6.htm
Tables of Pali conjuncts
from MLC Myanmar Orthography 1986 (some tables
still need to be filled)
Phonetic changes in Consonantal sounds -- ch05.htm
Tones and Abbreviations -- ch06.htm
The reader should note that Lonsdale wrote less than two decades after Burma lost her independence, and therefore the language and culture could still be expected to be unaltered by Western influence.
During the Second World War and Burma's brief independence in 1943-45, we as young school children were instilled with a strong love for our culture and language, while still retaining a respect towards other cultures and languages, such as English and Japanese.
Now a word about TIL's digitization of the book. I am using a photocopy of an old book which was already showing the effects of time, temperature and humidity and some of original words are not very readable. Though my able secretary Daw Khin Wutyi had done her best to remedy the situation, I have to guess what the original word or words were in many places. It would have been better if I could indicate the exact words which I had to deal with. But since it would effect the reading of the whole passage, I have not indicated the 'doctored' words.
To make my presentation more readable, in places in which I would like to insert my note, I have to break up the original paragraph. These places are indicated by the usual mark: [UKT ¶]
I am also trying to give the equivalent of Pali-Myan words to Skt-Dev in my
work on A. A. Macdonell's A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary.
-
MC-indx.htm (link chk 201106)
The usual devil I have to face is, of course, the paucity of some phonemes
in Eng-Latin.
See my Doggie's Tale.
UKT notes
• Doggie's Tale
• Fossilized killed consonants
• State of Burma
Mnemonic The Doggie Tale:
Little doggie cringe in fear -- ŋ (velar),
Seeing Ella's flapping ears -- ɲ (palatal)
And, the Shepard's hanging rear -- ɳ (retroflex).
Doggie so sad he can't get it out
"What's that Kasha क्ष when there's a Kha ख ?
And when there's Jana ज्ञ what I am to do with Jha झ?"
Note to digitizer: you can copy and paste the following:
Ā ā Ē ē Ī ī Ō ō Ū ū
Ḍ ḍ Ḥ ḥ Ḷ ḷ Ḹ ḹ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ Ṅ ṅ Ñ ñ Ṇ ṇ Ṛ ṛ Ṝ ṝ Ś ś Ṣ ṣ Ṭ ṭ ɕ ʂ
• Instead of Skt-Dev ः {wic~sa.} use "colon" :
• Root sign √
• Skt-Deva : श ś [ɕ] /ʃ/; ष ṣ [ʂ] /s/; स s [s] /θ/;
• Undertie in Dev transcription: ‿ U203F
• IPA symbols: ɑ ɒ ə ɛ ɪ ɔ ʌ ʊ ʧ ʤ ʃ ɹ θ ŋ ɲ ɳ ʰ ʳ ʷ
Go back Dog-tale-note-b
-- UKT 111005, 121202
In the days when I was going to school as
a child in the 1930s, the use of fossilized
consonants shown below were quite common.
Over these 60 years or so, Bur-Myan
usage has slowly changed.
You'll see the vowel pronunciation change from {èý} to {wé}.
You will see many of these old usages in A. W. Lonsdale work, and I am keeping them as they were for old time sake in memory of my ancestors who are no more. I am looking forward to the day when I will join them! As a Bur-Myan Buddhist we always get ready to pass away -- a trait not understood by the Western world.
{nhÉIk} <--
{nheik}
{rwÉ.} <--
{rwé.}
{IÉ.} <--
{EEæÑ.} :
short vowel{I.} has the same pronunciation with {IÉ.}
{LÉ-kaún:} <--
{læÑ:kaún:}
Inset from p040 of Bennett's Burmese Spelling Book, 1862
Go back fossil-conson-note-b
UKT 191001: As an academic and linguist, it is my duty to stay out of politics. Yet it is also my duty to show what I had experienced as child under the age of ten.
Many accounts given in the Wikipedia article below are known personally to me, and also known through my sister-in-law, Daw Than Khin, who had worked as a lower division clerk in the Foreign Service department of Dr. Ba Maw's administration.
Some members of the first cabinet in Dr. Ba Maw's administration had been house-guests in my home during the war years, when U Aung Din, brother of Thakin Mya (Deputy Prime Minister), and one of my parents' close friends, got married to one of my mother's old students in Kungyangon. U Aung Din, whom I called U Lay Gyi "younger uncle" was instrumental in installing my intense love for the land where I was born, and its culture particularly the Myanmar akshara. Incidentally, together with Dr. Ba Maw, one of my close cousins Emma Ba Yoke was imprisoned in Japan. She was married to U Nyunt Han, son of Dr. Ba Han (brother of Dr. Ba Maw).
See Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Burma 191021
The State of Burma (Burmese:
) was a
puppet
state of the
Empire of Japan, created in 1943 during the
Japanese occupation of Burma in
World
War II.
During the early stages of World War II, the Empire of Japan invaded British Burma [Burma had been made a colony of the British Empire!] primarily to obtain raw materials (which included oil from fields around Yenangyaung, minerals and large surpluses of rice), and to close off the Burma Road, which was a primary link for aid and munitions to the Chinese Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek which had been fighting the Japanese for several years in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Japanese Fifteenth Army under Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida quickly overran Burma from January – May 1942. The Japanese had also assisted the formation of the Burma Independence Army (BIA), which aided the Japanese during their invasion. The BIA formed a provisional government in some areas of the country in the spring of 1942, but there were differences within the Japanese leadership over the future of Burma. While Colonel Suzuki encouraged the BIA to form a provisional government, the Japanese military leadership had never formally accepted such a plan and the Japanese government held out only vague promises of independence after the end of the war. However, a Burmese Executive Administration was established in Rangoon on 1 August 1942 with the aim of creating a civil administration to manage day-to-day administrative activities subordinate to the Japanese military administration. The head of the provisional administration was Dr. Ba Maw, a noted lawyer and political prisoner under the British.
UKT note: After the BIA was abolished Burma Defence Army (BDA) was formed with all the three branches: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. Two of my mother's cousins who were very close to me, U Ye Din (U Lay Thein to me) and U Hla Myint (U Lay Myint to me), were in BIA, BDF, and Resistance holding the ranks of lieutenants.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_Burma 191001
"During the war in 1942, the BIA had grown in an uncontrolled manner, and in many districts officials and even criminals appointed themselves to the BIA. It was reorganised as the Burma Defence Army (BDA) under the Japanese but still headed by Aung San. While the BIA had been an irregular force, the BDA was recruited by selection and trained as a conventional army by Japanese instructors. [3] "UKT note: The whole country welcomed BDA and thanked the Japanese for arming the country, when the Colonial British had totally forbidden arms including spears and daggers. Even after the War, Burma from being independent was returned to the British as a colony under the governorship of Sir Dorman-Smith.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Dorman-Smith 191001
As the war situation gradually turned against the Japanese, the Japanese
government decided that Burma and the Philippines would become fully independent as part of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, contrary to the original plan that
independence only be granted after the completion of the war.
Japanese Prime Minister
Hideki Tōjō promised that independence for Burma would be granted within a
year from 28 January 1943, with the condition that Burma
declare war on the
United Kingdom [to us:
{ín~ga.lait} "English"]* and the
United States [to us:
{a·mé-ri.kûn} "American" ] . The Japanese government felt that this would give the Burmese
a real stake in an
Axis victory in the
Second World War, creating resistance against possible re-colonization by
the western powers, and increased military and economic support from Burma for
the Japanese war effort.
*UKT 201106: We call the Americans and English collectively as
{laip-kûn} "turtle pond" - a pond where turtles live.
A Burma Independence Preparatory Committee chaired by Ba Maw was formed 8 May 1943 with a wide variety of respected members. On 1 August 1943, Burma was proclaimed the independent State of Burma and the Japanese military government for Burma was officially dissolved. The new state quickly declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States and concluded a Treaty of Alliance with Japan.
[Dr.] Ba Maw became [the Head of State] or
"Naingandaw Adipadi"
{neín-gnún tau a·Di.pa.ti.} "Supreme Leader of Royal Country of Burma] of Burma under the new constitution, with wide powers.
The first cabinet of the State of Burma consisted of:
• Ba Maw, Prime Minister (in addition to his post as head of state)
• Thakin Mya, Deputy Prime Minister
• Ba Win, Minister of Home Affairs
• Thakin Nu, Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Dr. Thein Maung, Minister of Finance (later replaced by U Set after he was appointed to be Burman ambassador to Japan)
• General Aung San, Minister of Defence
• Thein Maung, Minister of Justice
• Hla Min, Minister of Education and Health
• Thakin Than Tun, Minister of Agriculture (later became Minister of Transport)
• U Mya, Minister of Commerce and Industry
• Thakin Lay Maung, Minister of Communications and Irrigation
• Bandula U Sein, Minister of Welfare and Publicity
• Tun Aung, Minister of Co-Operation with Japan
• Thakin Lun Baw, Public Works Recovery Minister
On 25 September 1943, as promised, Japan ceded all of the Shan states to Burma except for the part east of the Salween River i.e. Kengtung and Mongpan, which had already been given to Thailand. Ba Maw attended the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo from 5–6 November 1943.
Though now nominally independent, the power of the State of Burma to exercise its sovereignty was largely circumscribed by wartime agreements with Japan. The Imperial Japanese Army maintained a large presence and continued to act arbitrarily, despite Japan no longer having official control over Burma.
During 1943 and 1944, the Burma National Army made contacts with other political groups inside Burma, including the Communist Party of Burma which had been operating underground. Eventually, a popular front organization called the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was formed with Thakin Soe as the leader. Through the communists and the Japanese-sponsored Arakan Defence Army, the Burmese were eventually able to make contact with the British Force 136 in India. The initial contacts were always indirect. Force 136 was also able to make contacts with members of the BNA's Karen unit in Rangoon.
In December 1944, the AFO contacted the
Allies*
{ma.ha-mait} "great friend", indicating their readiness to defect to the Allied cause by
launching a national uprising which would include the forces of BNA. [UKT ¶]
*UKT 201107: These Allies, mainly the English and Americans
However, this was opposed by the British, who considering the timing to be unfavorable, and who had considerable reservations about supporting the BNA. The first BNA-led uprising against the Japanese occurred early in 1945 in central Burma.
On 27 March 1945, the remainder of the BNA paraded in Rangoon and marched out ostensibly to assist the Japanese army in the battles then raging in Central Burma against invading Allied forces. Instead, the BNA openly declared war on the Japanese. Aung San and others subsequently began negotiations with Lord Mountbatten and officially joined the Allies as the Patriotic Burmese Forces. Without the support of the BNA, the government of the State of Burma quickly collapsed, and Ba Maw fled via Thailand to Japan, where he was captured** later that year and was held in Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, until 1946.
•
Japanese occupation of Burma
•
Saharat Thai Doem
•
Burma Independence Army
• Allen, Louis (1986). Burma: the Longest War
1941-45.
J.M. Dent and Sons.
• Lebra, Joyce C. (1975). Japan's Greater East
Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in World War II: Selected Readings and Documents.
Oxford University Press.
• Smith, Ralph (1975). Changing Visions of East
Asia, 1943-93: Transformations and Continuities.
Routledge.
• Kady, J (1958). "History of Modern Burma"
This page was last edited on 14 August 2019, at 21:10 (UTC).
Go back State_of_Burma
End of TIL file
