Update:
2019-10-21 09:19 PM -0400
TIL
English
Grammar in Plain Language
ch001.htm
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT), M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.),
and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning).
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. 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
index.htm |Top
EGPE-indx.htm
Introduction
What is an Akshara
What is Grammar
Monastic Education: the influence of Pali-Myan
on Bur-Myan
Syllable, Word, Sentence, and Syntax
The Syllable - the basic unit of Abugida-Akshara
writing system
Introduction of new aksharas for BEPS
work
Phonetics for exploration of nasal sounds
Articulatory Phonetics and Acoustic
Phonetics
UKT notes
• abugida aka alphasyllabary or
Kagyi-Khakwé
{ka.kri:hka.hkwé:}
• IPA -
International Phonetic Alphabet and Association
• palatal nasal
- Nya-minor
/
{ña.}/{ñ} :
pronounced as IPA /ɲ/
Nya-major
/
{Ña.}/{Ñ} though belonging to Palatal POA-group
is not plosive-stop. From the pronunciation
of
syllables with
{Ñ} as coda, it is determined to be an approximant similar to
syllables with
{y},
differing only in number of tones:
{Ñ.},
{Ñ},
{Ñ:},
and &
{y.},
{y}
• particle
{pic~sæÑ:} /
nominalization - sentence endings,
{þæÑ},
{mæÑ}
Beware of similar sounding words:
{IÉ} ;
{ÉÑ.} ,
{ÉÑ}
• syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} 'group of speech-units'
Always differentiate
{sa.ka:} 'speech' from
{sa} 'script'. MLC PMD2006-480 gives <syllable> as
{wûN~Na.} which we usually understand as
"good appearance". To avoid confusion,
I will use
{sa.ka:þän-su.} 'group of speech-units' for
<sylllable>, from which we get:
<monosyllable>
{É-ka. sa.ka:þän-su.},
<disyllable>
{dwi. sa.ka:þän-su.}, and
<polysyllable>
{ba.hu. sa.ka:þän-su.}
• syntax :
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} .
{wa-kya.} - n. gram sentence
-- MLC MED2006-473
•
For comparison to Bur-Myan grammar, see:
¤ Burmese Grammar and Grammatical
Analysis 1899 by A. W. Lonsdale, Rangoon:
British Burma Press, 1899 xii, 461, in
two parts.
Part 1. Orthoepy and orthography;
Part 2. Accidence and syntax
-
BG1899-indx.htm >
BG1899-1-indx.htm
>
BG1899-2-indx.htm (link chk 191011)
¤ MLC Burmese Grammar (in Bur-Myan) :
See downloaded pdf files in TIL PDF
libraries: HD-PDF-B and SD-PDF-B (link chk 191010)
1. bg-mlc-1-1. 2.
bg-mlc-1-2. 3.
bg-mlc-1-3. 4.
bg-mlc-1-4.
5. bg-mlc-2-5.
6. bg-mlc-2-6.
1.
bkp1. --- ---
2. bkp2.
--- ---- 3.
bkp3.---
---- 4. bkp4.
-- - --- 5.
bkp5.
--- ---- 6.
bkp6.
Ink-on-paper book available in TIL Research Library in 3 volumes, 17
sections.
Contents of this page
The following comments are taken from my edited
version of Burmese Grammar and Grammatical
Analysis by A. W. Lonsdale, Education
Department, Burma, British Burma Press, Rangoon,
1899.
-
BG1899-indx.htm >
BG1899-1-indx.htm
>
ch01-1.htm (link chk 160918)
Lonsdale sec.002p001. The Bur-Myan
grammarians, having no suitable
grammatical terms of their own, were
obliged to borrow them from the Pali
Language. The term they employ for
Grammar is
{þûd~da-þût~htän} (fn001-02), commonly
called
{þûd~da kyûm:}, or simply
{þûd~da}.
Lonsdale sec.003p001. In general
the written representation of a sound is
called Akshara
{ak~hka.ra}. Because of its inherent vowel,
an Akshara is pronounceable: it is
called a Syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} or
{wûN~Na.}.
UKT 160915: In this respect, Akshara
is entirely different from the Letter
of the Alphabet-Letter system of
writing. The Letter is mute. This
distinction was not made when Lonsdale was
writing his Burmese Grammar and
Grammatical Analysis. A combination of
syllables is called a Word
{waad} or
{poad}.
{poad} - n. ¹. word. ². ortho
punctuation mark. - MLC MED2006-274
{wûN~Na.} - n. ¹. appearance.
². letter; syllable [Pali
]
-- MLC MED2006-480
Because of the polysemous [many meanings] nature
of such words, I feel that we have to come up
with clear one-to-one definitions. What I have
done is given on the right. I discussed this
problem with U Tun Tint (retd MLC editor)
on 150715.
For example for an unambiguous meaning for
syllable, we, Ko Tun Tint and I, consider
alternatives, such as:
{sa.ka:su.}/
{sa.ka:loän:} (referring to spoken language),
{sa-su.}/
{sa-loän:} (referring to written language).
We realized that a key word referring to speech sound,
{a.þän}, must be included. Further, we must show that
the disyllable must be pronounced rapidly. Thus a
mid-dot -- for mid-central vowel schwa --
must be used instead of a full-stop:
{a·þän}. However, a mid-dot is sometimes inconvenient
to write, and a full-stop -- grudgingly --
would have to do. And, the definition
{sa.ka:þän-su.} is accepted because of the almost one-to-one mapping
of speech and script of the Bur-Myan language.
This I am doing contrary to what a
Western die-hard phonetician
would do.
I am indebted to my friend U (Dr.) Tun Tint of MLC
for such discussions, many times over the phone.
Also, I decided to adopt a transcription from
English <word>
{waad}. And reserve,
{poad} for ortho
"punctuation mark".
See Polysemy in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysemy
160915
"Polysemy is a pivotal concept within
disciplines such as media studies
and linguistics. The analysis of
polysemy, synonymy, and hyponymy and
hypernymy is vital to taxonomy
and ontology in the
information-science senses of those
terms. It has applications in
pedagogy and machine learning,
because they rely on word-sense
disambiguation and schemas."
See also Tagging:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part-of-speech_tagging
191012
"In corpus linguistics,
part-of-speech tagging (POS tagging
or PoS tagging or POST), aka called
grammatical tagging or word-category
disambiguation, is the process of marking up a
word in a text (corpus) as corresponding to a
particular part of speech,
[1]
based on both its definition and its context -- i.e., its relationship with adjacent and related words in a
phrase,
sentence, or
paragraph. A simplified form of this is commonly taught to school-age
children, in the identification of words as
nouns,
verbs,
adjectives,
adverbs,
etc."
See Normalization of Myanmar Grammatical Categories for Part-of-Speech
Tagging by Phyu Hninn Myint, Tin Myat Htwe, and Ni Lar Thein, in TIL
HD-PDF & SD-PDF (P section) libraries:
-
PHMyintEtAl-POS-Tag<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 191015)
Also Function Tagging for Myanmar Language, by Win Win Thant, Tin
Myat Htwe, Ni Lar Thein, in HD-PDF & SD-PDF (W section) libraries:
-
WWThant-FunctionTag<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô>
(link chk 191015)
A word
{waad} may contain just one syllable:
it is called monosyllabic. When it
contains more than one syllable it is called
polysyllabic.
The most basic idea behind the Ka'gyi-Kha'gwé
{ka.kri:hka.hkwé:} or Abugida-Akshara system
of writing is the syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} - an acoustic sound unit.
UKT 191012: Foreigners take note:
to avoid confusion, never call
{ka.kri:} as Ka'gyi . Call it Ka-major.
And,
{ga.gnèý} as Ga'nge . It is Ga-minor.
It is reported in an online newspaper article
dated 2012 Mar 26, that computer scientists
in designing computer languages noticed the
importance of the idea of syllable in Sanskrit.
See my note on
Sanskrit as computer language .
"Very soon the traditional Indian language
Sanskrit will be a part of the space, with the
United States of America (USA) mulling to use
it as computer language at NASA."
However, I advice my readers to read newspaper
articles with suspicion. They are useful for
general information only. Until I see a piece
of information in a well-reputed academic or
scientific journal, all facts posted must be taken with caution.
Lonsdale sec.004p002. The Bur-Myan
Grammar may be divided into three principal
parts, viz.
{ak~hka.rûp~pa.Bé-da.} -- Distinction
of Letters
-- includes Orthography (spelling)
and Orthoepy (pronunciation)
(fn002-03)
{pa.da.wi.wé-sa.na.} -- Word Investigation
-- embraces the classification of
words, their accidence (inflection) and
derivation (etymology)
{ka-ra.ka.kûp~pa.} -- Rules concerning the
necessary relations of words in a sentence.
-- what we understand by syntax .
In need of a term, I suggest
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} for syntax. -- UKT121122
For unusual English words, I have given
the gloss in (...) or within '...' based on AHTD.
Now that we know what Akshara
{ak~hka.ra} and Syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} are, we have to know what
is meant by the inherent vowel of
the Akshara.
Akshara is pronounceable because it has an
inherent vowel, whereas the
Letter without an inherent vowel
is mute. The two are related as can be seen
in the case of Bur-Myan Akshara
{ta.}, and the Georgian Consonantal
Letter "Tan" თ (U10D7)
and Vowel Letter "An"
ა (10D0), where the latter can be used
as an inherent vowel:
{ta.} --> თ "Tan" + ა "An" --> თა /ta/
Contents of this page
UKT 191012: The English word "Grammar" may be transcribed as
{gRûm~ma}. The nuclear vowel of the first syllable is back-vowel /ʌ/ and not
the front-vowel /æ/.
Grammar is
{þûd~da} in Bur-Myan. In Pali-Myan
{þûd~da.} is slightly modified. Both implies primarily Sound. Pali-Myan
Grammarians place all sounds under two
heads, viz.
{sait~ta.za. þûd~da.} 'mind produced sounds,'
and
{U.tu.za. þûd~da.} 'accidentally or naturally
produced sounds'.
Very few people love Grammar: at least the
traditional way of learning it. The
terminology which we have to memorize has
very little practical meaning in day-to-day
speech. The scope of this manuscript can be
judged from the aim of the original book:
To prepare for the General Educational
Development (GED) test. The following are
several passages in Romabama which you can
easily read if you know how to speak Burmese
and read the Myanmar script.
s001
{gRûm~ma} ko kreik pa-tèý hso-tè. lu ha
a.lwun sha: pa-tèý// a.htu:þa.hprín.
þa.ma.ro:kya.
{gRûm~ma} ko moan: kra. tèý//
mhan-pa-tèý//
Ba-hpric lo. lè: hso tau. þa.ma.ro:kya.
{gRûm~ma} ha sa.ka: prau: tè. né
ra mha loän:wa.ni: pa: a.þoän: ma.wín-Bu://
We should note that when a Bur-Myan child
goes to school to learn English, we say in
Burmese that he goes to learn
{ïn~ga.laip sa} or the written English,
i.e. the "script". Of course, he will
come to know how to "speak"
English, but his primary goal is to learn
how to read and to write. However, in these
lessons, the emphasis will be on spoken
English "speech" first and then
we will proceed to written English
"script".
s002
pa-hta.ma. U:hsoan: ïn~ga.laip-sa þín ta la:/
ïn~ga.laip-sa.ka: þín ta la:
hso-ta hkwè:hkra: þi.Bo. lo tèý//
a.hku. þín-hkûn:sa twé ka. sa.ka: a.prau: mha
lo ûp tè. a.hkré-hkän ka. sa. mèý/
ta.hpræÑ:hpræÑ: nè. a.rè: Bak ko wín þwa: mèý//
s003
þa.ma.ro:kya. þûd~da (þo.ma.hoat)
traditional
{gRûm~ma} ha ïn~ga.laip-sa a.ré: mha ma.pa rín
ma.hpric-Bu: lo. htín-kra.tè. lu twé
ka. mya: pa-tèý//
da-kraung. <A noun is the name of a
person or thing.> hso-ta mro: ko sa.
þín kra. tau. tèý//
di-lo poän-þé <definition> twé ko
kyak hkeín: lo. þín-kra: ra.tè.
kyaung:þa: ha <definition> twé
a.lwut rwut rín: nè.
{gRûm~ma} ko
krauk þwa: tau. tèý//
ïn~ga.laip sa.ka: prau: prûn tau. lè:
{gRûm~ma} mhûn pa. ma.la: hso tè.
sait wín la-pri: sa.ka: prau: ma.htwak
tau.Bu://
s004
a.hku. þín-hkûn:sa mha <traditional
{gRûm~ma} definition> twé ha ïn~ga.laip
sa.ka: prau: tè. né ra mha-þa ma.hoat/
a.ré: mha lè: loän:wa. ni:pa: ma.lo Bu: lo.
twé. ra. laim.mèý//
prûn-prau: pa. mèý/ ma.lo-Bu: hso ta
{gRûm~ma} ko prau: ta ma. hoat Bu://
<definition> twé ma.lo Bu: lo. prau:
ta hpric tèý//
In Bur-Myan traditional grammar, the student
learns the grammatical terms which are mostly
derived from Pali. In essence, the students of
my father's generation (turn of 19th century
to early 20th) ended up learning a set of
grammatical terms in Pali (a foreign language
in Myanmarpré), and another set of grammatical
terms in English (another foreign language),
to be bilingual in Burmese and English.
Caveat: There
are many indigenous languages, such
as Mon and Shan, which write in Myanmar
Akshara. Therefore, when you say Myanmar
Grammar
{mrûn-ma þûd~da}, unless you are a
narrow minded person, you should not
mean just the grammar for Bama spoken
language or speech. Just remember to
emphasise that it is for Bama speech only and say
{ba.ma þûd~da}.
Use the hyphenated term Burmese-Myanmar
Grammar. Remember that there are
Mon-Myanmar Grammar
{mwun þûd~da}, Shan-Myan Grammar
{shûm: þûd~da}, etc.
mrûn-ma ak~hka.ra nè. re: ta ba.ma twé þa
ma. hoat Bu:/ teín:rín: þa: a.mya: su. lè:
mrûn-ma ak~hka.ra nè. ré: kra.
pa tèý//
In our days, the emphasis on Bur-Myan grammar
became and less and less important. It was
eventually totally dropped in high school.
In the university, those taking Burmese as a
specialized subject had to learn the Burmese
grammar, but for us Science students, we did
not have to take any.
However during the days of Burmese Way
to Socialism, under the leadership of
Chairman U Né Win, [as General NéWin
(1962-1974) and Chairman U Né Win (1974-1988)], he forced
the MLC (Myanmar Language Commission) to
rewrite a new version of Burmese Grammar .
The result was the students have to learn
what was then touted as Bur-Myan terms but
which reality were Pali just as in old days
of my father's generation.
The following are some of the terms taken
from ¤ MLC Burmese Grammar
(in Bur-Myan) :
¤
{þûd~da} - grammar - MLC MED2006-517
¤
{ak~hka.ra} 'akshara' alphabet
- MLC MED2006-619
¤
{wa-sïn~ga.} 'parts of speech' [POS] - MLC MED2006-473
¤
{naam} 'noun'
¤
{naam-sa:} - 'pronoun'
(Checking a long vowel by a killed consonant
is allowed only in Pal-Myan, and loan words.)
¤
{laín} - 'grammatical gender' : not sex.
¤
{kain:} - number
In an English sentence, the <number>
{kain:} in subject (noun) must be
compatible with the <number>
{kain:} of the verb, e.g.
A man buys mangoes.
Two men buy mangoes. -
<man> becomes <men>,
& <buys> becomes <buy>.
In Bur-Myan only an affix may be added.
Even then it is not compulsory. Bur-Myan has
very simple grammar. Unless the information is
relevant, it need not be included.
{kain:} 'number' is not important in the
sentence: <man mango buy>.
{lu}
{tic-yauk}
--
{þa.rak-þi:}
{wèý-tèý}//
man -----
one person
---------
mango
-----------
buy //
{lu}
{nhic-yauk}
{þa.rak-þi:}
{wèý-tèý}//
man
-----
two person
---------
mango
-----------
buy //
It is the same with gender. In French gender
is important, and even <table>
& <chairs> are 'feminine'
(une table & une chaise),
whilst <wall> is masculine
(un mur). English is simpler than
French. How lucky we are to have English as
our International language! Best of all is
our Bur-Myan: it has no gender,
no number, and no tense.
¤
{kRi.ya} (pronounce as in Pal-Myan) - 'verb' - MLC MED2006-038
¤
{ka-la.} - 'tense'
(The word Tense is only one of the ideas in a term of convenience,
TAM (Tense-Aspect-Mood). Bur-Myan does not have tense forms.
--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language
121121. )
{di}
{lu}
{ma.né.ka.}
{þa.rak-þi:}
{wèý-tèý}//
This man
--
yesterday-when
-------
mango
-------------
buy
{di}
{lu}
{di-né.}
{þa.rak-þi:}
{wèý-tèý}//
This man
----
today
---------
mango
------------
buy
¤
{na-ma. wi.þe-þa.na.} 'adjective'
- MLC MED2006-222
¤
{kRi.ya wi.þeþa.na.} 'adverb'
- MLC MED2006-038
¤
{wi.Bût} - 'determiner', post-positional
marker, word suffixed to a noun or pronoun
to designate it as the subject or object,
and to a verb to indicate time or mood
- MLC MED2006-475
¤
{þûm~bûn~Da.} 'conjunction' - MLC MED2006-520
¤
{pic~sæÑ:} 'modifier'
See in my note on
particle
¤
{a-me-ðait} 'interjection' - MLC-MED2006-605
¤
{wa-kya.} 'sentence' -- MLC MED2006-473
See in my notes on
-
nominalization - literally : making of Nouns from other POS)
(see
particle
{pic~sæÑ:} 'modifier')
-
syntax -
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} 'rules for sentence construction'.
{wa-kya.} - n. gram sentence
-- MLC MED2006-473
I suggest
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} for <syntax>.
¤ 
{poad-hprût}
same as
{poad-ka.lé:}
-- MLC MED2006-274/275
I suggest
{poad} be solely used for 'ortho
punctuation'. And use my coined word
{waad} for English <word>.
Most of us, those with modern education such as
those among the staff of Rangoon University,
ended up thinking that these two modern languages,
Burmese and English, which we have to use in
our everyday life are so far apart that it is
better to drop one almost completely. I am
speaking this from the experiences of my wife
and myself as university teachers for over 30 years.
I notice the same with our fellow staff members --
an observation which makes me keep up with my
language skills in both Burmese and English.
Contents of this page
Monastic Education:
the influence of Pali-Myan on Bur-Myan
I, UKT, must admit that what Lonsdale has
observed still stands by looking at how
Bur-Myan students have to learn. The following
are some definitions which a student of my
father's generation had to learn, mostly at the monastic schools. The primary
aim of the monastic education is to train Bur-Myan males to be able to become
Theravada Buddhist monks. Or, at least to train both males and females to become
aware of Buddhist philosophy - not religion nor for conversion to Buddhism - and
become useful citizens of the country based on Thirty Eight Rules of Morality
.
See:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soni/wheel254.html 191016
The first lesson taught to the young children, mostly boys, aged about 6 to 8
was how to write a perfect circle on a wooden-slate blackened by rubbing in
lamp-soot with the juice from the leaves of various plants. The pencil was a
small piece of talc fixed on to a holder. By the time I was going to school just
before the Second World War, wooden-slates and talc were used only in very
remote areas. In small towns and large villages, we were using soap-stone slates
and slate pencils made from the same mineral. The teachers were Theravada monks
in the monasteries teaching boys (and by Theravada nuns living in a separate
compound close to the monastery, teaching girls). Strict discipline was
enforced.
See • Burma under British Rule and before vol.2 , by John Nisbet, 1901 in
TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
-
JNisbet-BurmaUnderBritVol2<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô>
(link chk 191016)
Beginning from p192 we read: "Until about seven years of age or more the little
boys and girls pass the time in one continuous round of play, sometimes dressed
very much like grown-up people and sometimes in a state of either partial or
complete nudity, ... At about eight or nine years of age this happy time of
unrestricted nudity and amusement comes to an end, when the boy goes to the
monastery in order to struggle with the difficulties of the Burmese equivalents
to pothooks and hangers. [UKT
¶]
UKT 191016: pothooks
and hangers, the curved strokes used in writing, which supposedly
resemble the hooks and hangers found in a kitchen -- Oxford
Reference . The author, J. Nisbet, has missed to note that Bur-Myan
script is based on the perfect circle very much unlike the English
hand-writing.
But even here, while acquiring the elements of reading, writing, and elementary
arithmetic, it is by no means all work and no play, and "the little son of a
monastery" {Kyaung Thagale) or "disciple" {Tabyi) has an uncommonly joyous and
merry time of it. ... After the alphabet has been thoroughly mastered, an
advance is made to the most simple combinations of a vowel and a consonant, and
then by well considered gradations to words of
complex structure. This whole system, an excellent method of attaining its
purpose, is briefly comprised in the "great basket of learning" (Thmbongyi).
When the Thinboiigyi has been assimilated, a gradual course of instruction is
given in the religious precepts and in the simpler instructions relating to the
tenets of Buddhism. These are first of all recited by the Pongyi and repeated
many times in chorus by the small boys, who then write them down, phrase by
phrase, on the Parabaik, and continue repeating them in as loud a tone as they
feel inclined to. When each lesson is ended, the Parabaik are all simply sponged
over and scrubbed in order to remove the soapstone characters, and then hung out
to dry until required for the next lesson."
Because of this monastic education, which I as a child under 10, had tasted to
some extent during the Second World War, in Kungyangon Town where I was born, I
can understand what A. W. Lonsdale has written in his
Burmese Grammar and Grammatical
Analysis 1899 , Rangoon: British Burma
Press, 1899 xii, 461, in two parts:
Part 1. Orthoepy (pronunciation) and
Orthography (spelling);
Part 2. Accidence (inflexion of words) and Syntax (sentence
structure)
-
BG1899-indx.htm >
Part 1.
BG1899-1-indx.htm and go into Preface ... -
ch00.htm
Part 2.
BG1899-2-indx.htm
Lonsdale has written:
" • The Burmese languag
e is
constructed on scientific principles,
and there is no reason why its grammar
should not be dealt with also from a
scientific standpoint. But it may be safely
said that Burmese grammar as a science
has not received that attention it deserves.
" • With regard to the grammatical
treatises by native writers, it is no
exaggeration to say that there is not one
which can be properly called a Burmese
grammar. These writers, not content with
merely borrowing the grammatical nomenclature
of the Pali language [UKT 160912: it may very
well be Sanskrit. See the Skt-Dev Sanskrit
cases ], also attempted to assimilate the
grammatical principles of the uninflected
Burmese to those of the inflected
Pali; so that they produced, not
Burmese grammars, but modified Pali grammars
in Burmese dress. The servile veneration
in which they held Pali, the language they
had adopted as the classic, is, no doubt,
directly responsible for the composition of
such works. In their endeavour to conform
strictly to Pali methods, they often
introduced unnecessary terms and misapplied
them, ignoring those grammatical points in
Burmese for which they could find no parallel
in Pali. How futile their attempts were may
be judged by the numerous difficulties and
anomalies they created, from some of which
even now teachers of the language have not
quite extricated themselves - take, for
instance, the case-inflexions."
Case is
{ka-ra.ka.} in Bur-Myan.
A very simple Bur-Myan sentence construction is SOV the opposite of Engl-Latin
which is SVO,
where Syntax : Subject, S -
{kût-ta:}, Verb, V -
{kRi.ya}, Object, O -
{kän}
Contents of this page
The Bur-Myan grammarians, even now, has not paid much attention to grammar. In
the days of Burmese Way to Socialism, Chairman U Né Win had to forced the MLC (Myanmar
Language Commission) to come up with a Burmese Grammar. Their work was in two
parts each with three divisions: a
series of six books for schools and universities. In the preface in book 2 (bg-mlc-1-2
: see insert) MLC had written:
MLC later combined the six books into a single volume of 438 pages in the year
2005, after a regime change leaving out the preface mentioning the Burmese Way
to Socialism and Chaiman U Né Win.
¤ MLC Burmese Grammar (in Bur-Myan) -
Available online from Wordpress.com. from
-
https://whiteboylearningburmese.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bg-mlc-1-1.pdf
190929 ,
See downloaded pdf files in TIL PDF
libraries: HD-PDF-B and SD-PDF-B (link chk 191010)
1. bg-mlc-1-1. 2.
bg-mlc-1-2. 3.
bg-mlc-1-3. 4.
bg-mlc-1-4.
5. bg-mlc-2-5.
6. bg-mlc-2-6.
1.
bkp1. --- ---
2. bkp2.
--- ---- 3.
bkp3.---
---- 4. bkp4.
-- - --- 5.
bkp5.
--- ---- 6.
bkp6.
Below
is the excerpt from TOC of ink-on-paper book available in TIL Research Library in 3 volumes, 17
sections.
01.
{þûd~da} - p001;
02.
{ak~hka.ra} - p001 ;
03.
{wïn~ga.} - p038 ;
04.
{þa.ra. nhic-myo:} - p105;
05.
{þän praún:pra. þïn~ké-ta.} - p106;
06.
{byæÑ: ak~hka.ra lé:myo:} - p153 ;
07.
{byæÑ:mya: twè:sûp-poän} - p203
08.
{a.þût
mya:} - p205;
09.
{ba.ma sa.ka: hseín-ra þi.mhût-hpwè mya:} - p273
-----
{HTaan} (POA or Point Of Articulation);
-----
{ka.reíN:} &
{pa.yût} (MOA or Mode Of Articulation) - p284
----- Take note of another abbreviation, POS or
Parts of Speech, which you'll meet in
----- Tagging of Bur-Myan language. See TIL HD-PDF & SD-PDF libraries,
by
------ ¤ Phyu Hninn Myint, et. al. on POS
tagging : Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Postpositional Marker,
Particles and Interjection.
------ ¤ WinWin Thant, et. al. on
Function tagging
10.
{a.þän} (sound),
{sa.ka: þän} (human voice) - p349
11.
{sa.ka:loän:};
{poad};
{poad-su.} - p088, p368
12.
{poad}
- p369
13.
{wa-sïn~ga.} - p003, etc.
14.
{wa-sïn~ga. hseín-ra þi.mhût-hpwè mya:} - p298
15.
- p032, p090, p146, p195, p392
16.
{wa.kya. hseín-ra þi.mhût-hpwè mya:} - p328
17.
{poad-hprût}
{poad-rûp}
etc.
UKT 191007: MLC Burmese Grammar definitions
are mostly from vol.1 mod.1 bg-mlc-1-1.
Page numbers are from consolidated ink-on-paper printed book. TIL scheme of one
line corresponding to height 22 pix are adhered to.
I hate grammar, both Burmese and English, until I come across Grammar
In Plain English (EGPE), by H. Diamond and P. Dutwin, 1977, when I
realize that you can learn a language without going into formal grammar. Yet,
I must learn formal
Bur-Myan grammar before I can proceed with this topic.
Though Bur-Myan has its basis on phonetics
and phonemics, our grammarians seemed to
have failed to recognized the importance
of the Syllable and they have not
come up with a Burmese term for it. They
are content with its Pali term,
{wûN~Na.}. And I have no choice but to come up with definitions used in my
work.
MLC MED2006-480 gives:
{wuN~Na.} - n. 1. appearance.
2. letter, syllable [Pal
]
{wuN~Na.da.þa.ka.} - n. the decade of
prime beauty in a person's life (between 21
and 30)
{wuN~Na.lau:pa.næÑ:} - n. elision
The
following are 8 or 9 POS (Parts of Speech)
{wa-sïn~ga.} (from: 1. bg-mlc-1-1)
which is necessary in Bur-Myan, to be compared to Case-inflexions.
{ka-ra.ka.} .
See also Tagging of Bur-Myan language in TIL HD-PDF & SD-PDF libraries,
by
¤ Phyu Hninn Myint, et. al. on POS
tagging : Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, etc.
¤ WinWin Thant, et. al. on Function tagging
The following are examples from the printed book, with page numbers on upper
right corner:
Contents of this page
In any spoken language, we start with a
syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.}, and then group the
syllables into words
{waad}. Then we arrange the
words in a definite pattern to
form a meaningful sentence
{wa-kya.}.
The arrangement of words
{waad} is known as syntax
{wa-kya.sæÑ:}. The syntax of Bur-Myan is SOV,
whereas that of English is SVO. You'll come
to know what S-Subject
{kût~ta:}, V-Verb
{kRi.ya}, & O-Object
{kän} stands for in
-
ch01.htm (link chk 191017).
In English-Latin the canonical structure
of syllable is CVC, where the
first C is known as onset-consonant,
V is the peak or nuclear vowel, and
the second C is the coda-consonant.
However, Bur-Myan, Pali-Myan & Skt-Dev
has the structure, CVÇ, where the
coda-consonant is a "killed"
akshara whose inherent vowel has been
killed by Virama
{a.þût} which I usually shorten to «viram». e.g.
{ka.} क +
{ka.} क -->
{ka.ka.} कक - the sound
of the cawing of a crow.
The akshara has a sound: it may or
may not have a meaning.
{ka.} क +
{ka.} क + viram -->
{kak} कक् - 'domino'
Notice the shapes of the
{a.þût}
in Bur-Myan, and that of virama in Skt-Dev: ् The Bur-Myan
{a.þût}
is likened to a little flag and is known as
{tän-hkwun}. The virama of Skt-Dev looks like a little goose-stepping
foot. Their functions are the same -
to kill the inherent vowel of the akshara. It is known as vowel-killer.
If so, what is its opposite - the vowel-giver?
We find it in Georgian alphabet, which I contend is Mrammar
{mrûm~ma} where the Abugida-Akshara has been changed to Alphabet-Letter.
The Georgian vowel-giver is ა (Georgian letter An). Notice the strange
similarity - yet upside down - of vowel-killer of Bur-Myan and Georgian.
Stranger is the similarity in "pronunciation" of consonant-letter,
{t} & თ (Georgian letter Tan), with the IPA /t/.
{ka.} क + viram +
{ka.} क -->
{k~ka} क्क - no longer a syllable:
cannot be pronounced
The first
{ka.} has lost its inherent vowel and should
be shown under the viram sign. By using a vertical conjunct
the viram-sign is hidden. The conjunct can also
be written as a horizontal conjunct. The
conjunct if preceded by another akshara can
come to
have a sound. e.g.
{ta.} त +
{k~ka.} क्क -->
{tak~ka.} तक्क
- part of the word
{tak~ka.þol} 'university'
{tak~ka.} is now a disyllable and can
be pronounced.
{tak~ka.þol} is a trisyllabic word. It's
equivalent is Taxila. The ancient Taxila university
is now in Pakistan where the official script is
Urdu - a script that writes from right to
left. Urdu is not easily comparable
to Sanskrit or Myanmar.
The difference between CVC and CVÇ is due
to the difference in the underlying principle
of encoding between the Alphabet-Letter
and the Abugida-Akshara systems of
writing. The difference can be illustrated as
follows between the Georgian script
(Alphabet-Letter system) is changed from
Myanmar script (Abugida-Akshara system), e.g.
Bur-Myan:
{ta.} + viram --->
{t}
-------------
{t}
--+
<a*> -->
{ta.}
-------------
{t}
--+
{i.}-sign -->
{ti.}
Georgian: თ {t} + ი {i.} -->
თი {ti.} in the name of the capital
of Georgia - Tbilisi .
-------------
თ {t} + ა {a.} --> თა
{ta.} in the name of another place - Mtskheta
You can even say that Georgian ა {a.}
is just the 'reverse' of Bur-Myan
{a.þût} /
{a.þût}-sign. It is used in place of the
<a*> 'intrinsic vowel' of our
consonantal-akshara.
In these lessons, we must always remember
that syntax is more important than
the traditional grammar definitions.
s005
UKT 191018: You'll notice that I have been writing very complex
sentences. They are not suitable to write in Romabama as can be seen
below. I need to rewrite them as simply as possible. Please note that
these sentences were written many years ago, and need revision.
Bèý lu-myo: rè. sa.ka: mha hpric-hpric
{sa.ka:þän-su.} lo. hkau-tè. <syllable> / hto-mha. ta.hsín.
{waad} <word> lo. hkau-tè. a.þän-twè:
twé hpric pau ra. tèý//
{waad} twé ha a.si-a.siñ tic-myo: ko
leik-na ra. tèý// è:þæÑ. a.si-a.siñ ko
<syntax> lo. hkau-tèý// ïn~ga.laip
sa.ka: rè.
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} <syntax> ha ba.ma sa.ka: rè.
<syntax> nè. ma.tu Bu:// <syntax>
ha sa.ka:prau: þín tè. né-ra mha <grammar
definition> twé htak a.ré: kri: pa tèý//
s006
a.htak mha (ba.ma sa.ka:) hso-tè.
a.þoän: a.nhoän: ko þoän: leik ta mha:ywín:
þoän tèý lo. ma.htín pa-nè.//
Ba-þa-bé da. lo. hkau-tè. <Linguistics>
mha a.prau: nè. a.ré: ko hkwè:hkra: hta: tèý//
a.hku. þín-hkûn:sa twé ko <Linguistics>
rhu.daung. ka ré:hta: ta hpric lo.
(ba.ma-sa.ka:) <Burmese spoken
language> nè. (mrûn-ma ak~hka.ra)
(Myanmar akshara) to. ko hkwè: hkra: prau:
ra. laim. mèý//
Long before the electronic recording was
invented, the spoken word (speech) was recorded on paper,
or any suitable material, in the form of
markings (glyphs). The ancient Egyptians used little
"pictures" to represent the words. The Chinese also use what can be described as
pictures.
Myanmars, and peoples of the Indian
sub-continent and places as far away as
Philippines use the Abugida-Akshara system
of writing.
English and the peoples of Europe
use the Alphabet-Letter system. The Alphabet with its Alef "Ox" and Bet "Stable"
was invented by simple farmers and cattle breeders
UKT
191018: I am suggesting that someone or a small school of geniuses or
genii were using a single geometrical shape, such as square, triangle,
or rounded circle to form glyphs to represent hidden messages.
Such a method is the Mramma
{mrûm~ma} akshara which uses the perfectly rounded circle. I am suggesting
that Mramma
{mrûm~ma} is an Esoteric language. The Swastika (which has become a hated
symbol thanks to the Nazis) that has been found in the ancient
Indus-Sarasvati civilization is an esoteric symbol in Myanmar and
South-Indian cultures.
The Cuneiform script of Tigris-Euphrates civilization, that is based on
the triangle, and its sacred symbols might also be a esoteric language
similar to Mramma
{mrûm~ma}.
I will have to dispute the notion that whatever we have in Myanmarpré had
come from India. The connection between Myanmar culture and the other
ancient cultures
can also be seen in Astronomy and Calendar: -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_calendar 170428
"One key difference from Indian systems was that the Burmese system followed a
19-year intercalation schedule (Metonic
cycle). It is unclear from where, when or how the Metonic system was
introduced".
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonic_cycle 170428
Named after Greek astronomer Meton of Athens (5th century BC). However it was
used in the
Babylonian calendar, ancient Chinese calendar systems (the 'Rule Cycle'
章) and the medieval
computus
(i.e., the calculation of the date of
Easter). :
The word <akshara> is derived from
Sanskrit. In Burmese we use the term
{ak~hka.ra} which is derived from Pali.
I was told by my Bengali friends of
Deep River, Ontario, Canada, that
the Bengali pronunciation is also
{ak~hka.ra} and not <akshara>.
The information on
{ak~hka.ra} pronunciation of Bengali has
led me to compare the two languages:
Bengali-Bangla (the speech of country
called "Bangladesh") and
Bur-Myan. Though the languages are
different, many pronunciations are found
to be similar. (This is just a rough
observation which would have to be checked
further.) This has led me to wonder if
Bengali had been a Tib-Bur (Tibeto-Burman)
language just as Burmese is. Since the
two areas speaking the languages are
geographically next to each other, we
should expect the two populations to be
using the same set of muscles in pronouncing
the syllables especially the vowels.
In the country of Népal, the word for Akshara is:
अक्षर्_akṣar
= अ क ् ष र ्
-
#1. A Comparative and Etymological
Dictionary of Nepali Language by
R L Turner, p003-004
- #2. English to Nepal Bhasa
Dictionary by Sabin Bhuju
सबिन भुजु , 2005,
"Alphabet" is spelled with
{hka.}
«ākhaḥ».
Note: #1. gives Nepali (IE) spelling, and
#2. gives Néwari (Tib-Bur) spelling.
For a description of vowel production see
works on Voice Quality such as The Phonetic
Description of Voice quality by John Laver,
Reader in the Department of Linguistics,
University of Edinburgh. Cambridge Univ. Press,
Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle,
Melbourne, Sydney. 1980. First published
1980. ISBN 0 521 231 760. A photocopy of this
rare book is available in the TIL library.
See • Voice quality in Human voice,
Phonetics and Phonology
-
HV-indx.htm >
voice-qual.htm
This conjecture that the peoples of modern
Bengal (India) , modern Myanmar and Néwar
(blood relatives of Gautama Buddha) of
modern Nepal, use almost the same set of
muscles to produce the similar sounds
could be extended to the idea that the
ancient peoples of the area had spoken
the languages of Tib-Bur group. Thus we
would be able to conclude that the pronunciation
of the Buddha would be similar to that of
the people of Myanmar. And that the Pali-Myan
pronunciation is more authentic than that of
the so-called International Pali.
English uses the Alphabet-Letter system
of writing. It has all together 26 characters
- 21 consonantal-characters together with the
5 vowel-characters.
For a change listen to the pronunciation
of Letters of English in a children's
songs:
- For all 26 characters - in which the
consonants have been made pronounceable
by coupling with /a/.
<))
- For 5 letters of the vowels
<))
Change vowels a e i o u in Apples
& Bananas and listen to the effects.
There are 33 consonantal characters in the
Bur-Myan which uses Abugida-Akshara
system. It has 12 vowel characters set
separately from the 33 consonants.
• Bur-Myan-akshara system, or the akshara
{ak~hka.ra} has 33 consonantal-characters
• Eng-Lat-alphabetic system, or the alphabet
{al~fa-bakt} has 21 consonantal-characters
Contents of this page
It is not the policy of TIL to introduce new
glyphs at every turn of events. Yet we are
seeing that we will have to "invent"
three glyphs to transcribe English. These
three derived with medial former
{ha.} are illegal in regular Bur-Myan:
for < f >
-
-
{fa.} &
{fa} /f/ derived from
{hpa.}
for < v > -
-
{va.} &
{va} /v/ derived from
{ba.}
for < sh >
-
{sha.} &
/ʃ/ derived from
/
{Sa.}/{S}
Notice how I have represented the syllables
{back} &
{bakt} which has two coda consonants: a flag
has been added. Otherwise they would become
disyllabic {bac~ka.} & {bak~ta.}. Regular Bur-Myan syllable
has either coda-Ç = 0 or 1 and not more. Eng-Lat
coda can have up to coda-C = 3 or more. e.g.,
<backs> with coda-C = 3. Romabama has to
follow the Eng-Lat syllable-construction.
The biggest advantage of an akshara over the
alphabet is, the akshara is based on phonemic
principles which are well-known in the East for
thousands of years, whereas the alphabet has
no such basis.
s007
ïn~ga.laip sa.ka: ka. <Latin alphabet>
ko þoän: tèý// da-kraung. <
English-Latin> <Bur-Myan> hso-tè.
a.þoän:a.nhoän: twé ko twé. ra. laim. mèý//
<alphabet> nè. <akshara>
ha loän:wa. ma.tu Bu:// di a.hpric ko
<linguistic> rhu.daung. nè. ,
a.þän-bé-da. lo. hkau-lo. ra.tè.
<phonetics> rhu.daung. to. ka. kræÑ.
mha. þa kwak-kwak kwín:kwín: mrín neín
tèý//
s008
sa.ka: prau tè. a.hka a.þän mhûn Bo./
a.þän la ta pa:sûp nhoat-hkûm: , a-hkän-twín: ,
nha.hkaung: sa.lo. , Bèý né ra ka.
htwak la tèý hso ta þi.Bo. lo tèý//
è:da ko <phonemics> lo. hkau tèý//
è:þæÑ ka. mha. ta. hsín. , a.þän a.hswè:a.ngín ,
a.hprût-a.tauk sa. lo. , a.þé: saip-la ta
ko <phonetics> lo. hkau tèý//
s009
mrûn-ma ak~hka.ra ko þín-poän:kri: a.si-a.siñ
nè. ré: rín/ a.tûn: 7 tûn: <7 rows>/
a.teín 5 teín <5 columns> nè. ré: tèý//
è:þæÑ lo ré: ta ko þïn~hkya a.þoän: a.nhoan:
a.ra. <matrix> lo. hkau tèý/ mrûn-ma
ak~hka.ra ko <7r x 5c matrix> lo.
hkau tèý//
s010
kau-län a. leik <r1c5>
{gna.} mha. <r4c5>
{na.} a.hti. nha-hkaung: þän twé ko twé. ra.
laim. mèý// htu: hsûn: ta ka. <Mon-Myan>
a.þän twé mha
{Na.} ka. lwè: lo.
{gné},
{ñé},
{né},
{mé} hpric né ta ko twé. ra. ta hpric tèý//
Listen to all the 7x5 sounds
<)) of
Mon-Myan akshara, and try to pick out the
rows:
1. velar
{kûN~HTa.} r1<))
2. palatal
{ta-lu.}
r2<))
4. dental
{dûn~ta.}
r4<))
5. labial
{AÚT~HTa.} r5<))
s011
a.þän hpric tè. né ra twé ha a-hkän-twín: mha.
ta.hpré: hpré: a.prín Bak þo. htwak la ta ko
twé ra. laim. mèý//
s012
a.hku. þín-hkûn: sa twé ha <phonemics>
a.hkyé hkän shi. tè. mrûn-ma sa ko tût kywûm: þu twé
a.twak a.lwun lwèý ku pa tèý//
s013
mrûn-ma sa ma.tût kywum: þé: tè. hka.lé: twé
a.twak ma. hoat Bu://
s014
a.þän hpa.lhèý <transcription> loap tè.
né-ra mha <English-Latin alphabet> rè.
hkyo.tè. mhu. kraung. a.hkak a.hkè: a.mya.kri:
twé. ra. pa tèý//
da.kraung. mrûn-ma lu-a.mæÑ , mro.a.mæÑ , nè.
dé-þa.a.mæÑ to. ko ïn~ga.laip lo a.myo:myo:
sa-loän: paung: kra. ta ko twé. ra.pa-tèý //
To overcome the deficiencies of the
European-languages, linguists have to invent a
phonetic alphabet known as the IPA (International
Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA ).
s015
Bèý né ra mha <English-Latin alphabet>
hkyo. tè. né þa. lè: hso rín,
-
{gna.þän} /ŋ/ (velar),
-
{ñé}-þän /ɲ/
(palatal plosive-stop) , nè.
-
{Ña.}-þän /?/ (palatal approximant)
to. ko pra. Bo. <letter of alphabet>
ma.shi. ta hpric tèý//
s016
na.mu-na a.né nè. ïn~ga.laip sa-loän: <sing>
htè ka. <ng> mha {ga.}-þän ma. Bu://
s017
pra. sa. ra <alphabet-letter>
ma. shi. lo. nhic.loän: twè: <digraph ng>
nè. ré: ra. tèý// mrûn-ma a.mya: prau: né-þa.lo
{ga.}-þän htæÑ. prau: rín mha: tèý//
a.htauk a.hta: <DJPD16 p.490>
ko kræÑ. pa//
s018
U.rau:pa. teik <European continent> mha.
sa.ka: sa mya: pric kra. tè. <English-Latin>,
<French-Latin>, <Spanish-Latin> to. ko
tic.hku. mha. tic.hku. þo. a.þän hpa.lhèý Bo.
pru. loap tè. a. hka mha twé. ra. tè. a.hkak a.hkè:
twé ko kyau lwuan Bo. <alphabet> tic.myo:
ko ti-htwín hkè. kra. ra. tèý// è:da ko
<International Phonetic Alphabet =
IPA> lo. hkau pa tèý//
s019
<Bur-Myan> mha nha-hkaún: þän 5 hku.
rhi. tèý//
<English-Latin> mha tau. 3 hku. þa shi.
lo. <English native speakers> twé
<transcription> loap tè. hka doak~hka.
rauk kra. ra. tèý//
þu-to. a.hkak-a.hkè: shi. kra. ta. ka.
{gna.},
{ña.},
{Ña.}, nè.
{Na.} to. hpric kra. tèý//
s020
•
{gna.} ha <IPA ŋ (U014B)
velar nasal consonant> hpric pa tèý//
s021
•
{ña.} ha < IPA ɲ (U0272)
palatal nasal consonant> hpric pa tèý//
<Spanish-Latin> mha < IPA
ɲ > nè. ré: ta. ko a. swè:
pru. pri: <Romabama> mha ré: pa tèý//
<English-Latin alphabet> mha tau.
è:di. a.þän ko pra. sa. ra ma.rhi. lo
<diagraph ny > nè. ré: kra.
ra. tèý//
s022
{Ña.} ka. tau. <palatal> oap su. mha
pa pé mè. <approximant consonant>
hpric né ta ko twé. ra. pa tèý//
{þa.}-akshara rè. nän Bé: þo. rauk þwa:
pa tèý//
s023
• nauk-tic hku. ka. tau.
{Na.} <IPA ɳ (U0273) retroflex
nasal consonant> hpric pa tèý//
These three IPA symbols are so alike that
the little TIL mascot is reduced to saying:
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's 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 am I to do
with Jha झ?
On top of all there're the
husher Sha श /ʃ/, and
hisser Ssa ष /s/,
when I am stuck with Theta स
/θ/ !"
Little Doggie don't be sad,
You are no worse than a Celtic Gnome
Losing G in his name, he is just a Nome!
s024
(U014B) lo a.mhût a.þa: ha <Unicode font>
nän-paat hpric tèý// <Unicode font>
a.kraún: ka. <computer, information
technology> þa.ma: twé nè. þa hseín lo.
a.hku. þín-hkûn:sa twé mha ma. shín: pra.
tau. Bu://
Contents of this page
UKT 191020: A nasal sound
is a sound during whose production air travels up the nasal
passage. In consonants, nasal is a manner of articulation. Nasal
is a feature which characterizes sounds that are produced by lowering
the soft palate (=velum), allowing the air to escape through the nose. -
from Google
You need phonetics to go into the study of human
sound. But phoneticians do not agree on what they hear when they hear
foreign sounds that is not in their mother-tongue. To get around that
problem take what you find in the observations of ancient foreign
phoneticians or grammarians. By studying what Skt-Dev phoneticians had
observed and recorded in the dictionaries of words and their meanings, and
comparing these to the results of Pali-Myan phoneticians, I hope to be able
to bridge the two languages, Pali and Sanskrit, together. By including
Burmese dictionaries and Népali dictionaries together, I hop to rediscover
those phonemes that we have lost. Read:
Speaker Perception and Social Behavior: Bridging Social Psychology and
Speech Science, by Robert M. Krauss and Jennifer S. Pardo in TIL
HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-
RMKraussJSPardo-BridgeSocPsySpSc<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 191020)
"Robert M. Krauss is a social psychologist whose research has focused on
human communication with a particular emphasis on language and speech."
Watch a video by a singing instructor, a non-academic, explain what formants
and harmonics are, and their interaction:
-
KarynOConnor-FormantsHarmonics<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 191020)
"Formants are the resonance frequencies of the vocal track."
• IPA /ŋ/ - velar nasal. The most
prominent part in the interior of the mouth is
the uvula 
{lhya-hkín} . It is attached to the velum.
Though IPA /ŋ/ is now identified with
Bur-Myan
{gna.} & Mon-Myan
{gné.}, it is not entirely correct.
UKT 191020: The r1c5 nasal, Bur
{gna.} and Mon
{gné.}, has some prominent /g/ element which
reminds us of the two English words <sign>
and <sing>, and the rendering of the name of
a village near my birthplace. The village is
known as Gnak'aw'san
{gnak.au-sûm} 'the natural spring where the
birds sing'. There is controversy in rendering of the name of the village. The
controversy is in rendering
{gnak} or {ngak} 'bird'. I remember my father, who had to visit the village
on his tours many times, used to spelled it as
{gnak}. Now that he has passed away, I can no longer check. Because of these
facts, I am calling r1c5 nasal, Bur-Myan
/
{gna.}/{ng}, as Semi-nasal.
• IPA /ɲ/ - palatal nasal. Nya-minor
{ña.} is the occupier of r2c5 cell in Pali-Myan. This cell is occupied by Nya-major
{Ña.} in both Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan. Since a cell can be occupied by one
grapheme only, I have to search for an explanation. Both contenders Nya-major and Nya-minor
are nasal to be sure. But in Pali-Myan
{Ña.} cannot be under a viram
{a.þût}: breaking down into two Nya-minors:
. Pali Nya-major is a conjunct. Therefore, at least in BEPS (I'm not going to quarrel with
MLC on this point), Nya-major is a palatal approximant.
UKT 191020: Because of the above arguments, Nya-major-minor pair is also
a Semi-nasal .
• IPA /ɳ/ - retroflex nasal is Na-major, r3c5, Bur-Myan
{Na.}. Retroflex sounds are probably the remnants of an older language. They are
easy to produce individually with the back of tong-tip touching the roof of the
mouth. However when used in a sentence or when speaking casually, their
pronunciation is exactly like those of r4 sounds. Na-major r3c5
{Na.} sounds like Na-minor r4c5
{na.} which a True-nasal. Though not
sure, I'll for the moment also take Na-major as a True-nasal.
Please note that until about a few decades ago,
the furthest most you can see of the interior
of the mouth of a living person is the area
around uvula and velum. And so the places
of production or articulation (POA) that
could be observed and described by
ancient phoneticians were those of the consonants
only. Vowels are produced in the interior, the
voice box or larynx producing them in a
living person was not seen until modern
times. Therefore how the vowels are produced
by a living person is not well described.
Yet the ancients knew that the vowels were
produced deep in the throat.
From: R. M. Krauss Source-Filter Theory
-
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/psychology/rmk/T2/sf_theory.html
071224 (not available on 191020)
• Listen to the buzzing of the vocal folds
sounds like before it enters the
vocal tract, -
Krauss-exit<))
• Listen to the filtering action of the
vocal tract, -
Krauss-filter<))
• Listen to the resultant speech,
-
Krauss-speech<)) (all links chk 191020)
The sounds that you hear above can be approximated
by what is known as an electrolarynx. Persons who
have their larynx removed surgically because of
cancer, can still talk with the help of an
electrolarynx. See Wikipedia:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolarynx 191021
"The most common device is a handheld,
battery-operated device pressed against the skin under
the mandible which produces vibrations to allow speech;
[1] other variations include a device similar
to the "talk box" electronic music
device, which delivers the basis of the speech sound
via a tube placed in the mouth.
[2] "
Much of our knowledge of the larynx and the
muscles controlling them is from the surgery
of the cancerous parts of the larynx. This
is a point not generally appreciated by most
linguists (grammarians) especially those
from Myanmarpré especially like my friend
U Tun Tint of the MLC who always insists
that the "sounds" of Pali have
been well described. To them my answer is:
no one really knows the sounds of the ancient
Pali or Magadhi (the speech of Gautama Buddha) -- no voice recording
machines have been made until recently. And
the usual way of saying that such and such is
the "sound of Pali" is not only wrong
but very misleading.
s025
a:loän:hkyoän prau:ra. rín a.hku. þín-hkûn:sa
twé ha mrûn-ma twé twé. né kra. <grammar>
ma.hoat-Bu: hso ta hpric pa-tèý//
I admit what little Peanut telling Daisy
is just boring:
"Now, Daisy, my little pet",
said little Peanut seeing Daisy going to sleep.
"Wake up and learn your Alphabet!
"ka.gyi: , kka.hkwé: , ga.ngè ...
"bèý ma. lè: kwèý. Daisy rèý ?"
Daisy has run away - not to be seen for
some 60 years.
UKT 150705: Daisy Than, Barbara Soe - another
childhood friend, and I parted when we changed
school in 1948. We were all just over 10. I met
Daisy only in 2006 and we have been continuing
our friendship. As for Barbara, I heard that
she committed suicide in 1955. I was already
an Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry Dept., Univ.
of Rangoon. I had jumped ahead of them when I matriculated in 1950. They had had their trust
in the Burmese educational system in force then.
At the Rangoon University, if only they had taken Chemistry as one of their
courses, they would have had a taste of their
old classmate's radical methods of teaching. As for Daisy, when we met after all
these years, I told her about teaching English grammar. She soon ran away again,
ever glad that she had not taken Chemistry!
Undaunted Little Peanut concluded his knowledge of Grammar is not enough.
He decided to learn more: his choice is Bur-Myan grammar. The result is what
you can expect - the Failing Grade!
The following are Basic consonants and vowels used for the group of four
languages, Bur-Myan, Engl-Latin, Pali-Myan, and Skt-Myan. Note: Skt-Myan is
derived from Skt-Dev by akshara-to-akshara exchange. The intermediary language
used in BEPS work is Romabama which is not meant to replace my beloved
circularly rounded Myanmar akshara.
Contents of this page
- UKT 150720, 191021
Comparing the Bur-Myan grammar of
Lonsdale of 1899, and that of today 2013,
on Orthoepy and orthography, see pages 281
of BG-MLC
{HTaan},
{ka.reiN:}, and
{pa.yût},
{HTaan} - n. place of articulation
- MLC MED2006-160
{ka.reiN:} - n. 1 gram.
means of articulation (usually with ref.
to tongue) - MLC MED2006-006
{pa.yat} - n. gram. manner of
articulation - MLC MED2006-251
We can very well see that Grammar as is taught
relies only on Articulatory Phonetics, and not
at all on Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics.
However, for BEPS work, we need to look into
Theoretical Linguistics. We need to
know how speech-sound is 1. produced,
2. transmitted, and 3. perceived.
I have looked into this aspect in Section 1 :
Human voice and languages.
See: Tun Institute of Learning -
http://www.tuninst.net/ , which is
continually updated.
Or in Human voice, Phonetics and Phonology
-
indx-HV.htm (link chk 191021)
and look into its sub-heads:
- Human sound production [former hv1.htm] -
human-snd.htm (I need to update the link - 191021)
In the above is a note on Panini, who was listed
as a Sanskrit grammarian, but is now recognized as
the father of modern Linguistics. I have taken the
following from Human sound production :
•
Panini should be thought of as the forerunner of
the modern formal language theory used to specify
computer languages. The Backus Normal Form was
discovered independently by John Backus (1924-2007)
in 1959, but Panini's notation is equivalent in
its power to that of Backus and has many similar
properties. It is remarkable to think that concepts
which are fundamental to today's theoretical
computer science should have their origin with an
Indian genius around 2500 years ago.
The following is a review with my additions
on Articulatory, Acoustics and Auditory
Phonetics
Based on a review from: Bielefeld University,
Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969
-
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/vgramley/teaching/HTHS/review.pdf
150720
See in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
-
BielefeldUniv-AticulatoryAuditoryPhonetics<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 191021)
When we look at speech-sounds, we look at
how it is
1. produced, 2. transmitted, and 3. perceived
• 1. Articulatory phonetics looks at the
production side (how speech sounds are,
for example, articulated)
• 2. Acoustic phonetics looks at the
transmission of these sounds (what are the
acoustic properties of speech duration,
frequency, energy (all physical properties
• 3. Auditory phonetics looks at how humans
perceive theses speech sounds (what happens
in the ear)
We have to know the physical properties
of the human vocal-sound. Some of these can
be measured by instruments. Relying on human
linguists and language teachers (the so-called
native-speakers), who cannot
overcome the influence of their mother tongue,
L1, has made the inter-language transcription,
such as between Bur-Myan and Eng-Latin,
a mess.
Acoustic Phonetics
fundamental frequency (Hz)
intensity (dB)
duration (t)
Auditory phonetics
pitch (how high or low do we perceive a sound)
loudness (how loud or soft do we perceive a sound)
speech tempo (how fast or slow we perceive
a speech signal)
Amplitude
The amplitude is simply a displacement of
the vibrating medium from its rest position.
It refers to the maximum amount of
displacement of a particle on the medium
from its rest position. In a sense, the
amplitude is the distance from rest to crest
(positives Maximum). Similarly, the amplitude
can be measured from the rest position to the
trough (negatives Maximum) position.
A human child even when it was developing as
an embryo in its mother womb starts to hear
its mother voice most of the time. Then it
would start to recognized its father's voice.
Occasionally, it would start to hear other
voices. Usually they would be speaking in normal
voices. Of course, it would not understand the
language. What it would start to recognized is
to differentiate the nature of the sound.
• Mother's voice comparable to -
nasal<))
• Father's voice comparable to -
pharyngeal<))
• normal voice -
modal<))
After leaving the womb the newly born child would start to
associate the voices with faces. It would
experiment articulating all kinds of sounds.
Contents of this page
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
In 1886, in Paris, a small group of language teachers
formed an association to encourage the use of
phonetic notation in schools to help children acquire
realistic pronunciations of foreign languages
and also to aid in teaching reading to young children.
The group, led by Paul Passy, called itself initially
Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon (the FTA).
In January 1889, the name of the Association
was changed to L'Association Phonétique des
Professeurs de Langues Vivantes (AP), and, in
1897, to L'Association Phonétique Internationale
(API) ?in English, the International Phonetic
Association (IPA).
The IPA’s peak of membership
and influence in education circles was around 1914,
when there were 1751 members in 40 countries.
World War I and its aftermath severely disrupted
the Association's activities, and the Journal
did not resume regular publication until 1922.
The group’s initial aim was to create a set of
phonetic symbols to which different articulations
could apply, such that each language would have
an alphabet particularly suited to describe
the sounds of the language. Eventually it was
decided that a universal alphabet, with the
same symbol being used for the same sound in
different languages was the ideal, and development
of the International Phonetic Alphabet
progressed rapidly up to the turn of the 20th
century. Since then, there have been several sets
of changes to the Alphabet, with additions and
deletions that the progress of the science of phonetics
has indicated. -- Wikipedia 070710
Go back
IPA-note-b
Contents of this page
-- UKT 070710, 080815, 150715, 191021
There are two contenders for the cell r2c5 in
the Akshara matrix: Nya-minor
{ña.}, and Nya-major
{Ña.}. Working with this problem for years
has convinced me that it is only Nya-minor
{ña.} that is true occupier of r2c5. Nya-major
{Ña.} is an approximant and should be placed
by the side of Ya'palak
{ya.} as a palatal, and
Ya'palak
{ya.} itself be moved to velar
position. I arrived at this conclusion
from a study of killed aksharas,
{y} &
{Ñ}.
From Wikipedia 070710
IPA [Ñ] / [ñ] (upper / lower case )
( /
{Ña.kri:/ ña.lé:}) are represented by graphemes
of the modern Roman alphabet formed by an N or
n with a diacritical tilde. They are used
in the Spanish alphabet, where it precisely
represents a palatal nasal (IPA: [ ɲ ]).
Unlike many other alphabets that use diacritic
marks (such as ü in Astur-Leonese or
â in Tagalog), in Spanish, Ñ is
considered a letter in its own right, with its
own name (eñe) and its own place in the
alphabet (after N).
The palatal nasal sound is roughly
reminiscent of as /nj/ as in "onion"
IPA: [ˈʌnjən]. This description
is enough to give a rough idea of the sound,
but it is not precise (it is the equivalent of
giving the pronunciation of the English word
"shot" as "syot").
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal
080815
The palatal nasal is a type of consonant,
used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) that represents
this sound is ɲ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA
symbol is J. The IPA symbol is a
lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing
tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem
of the letter. Compare n and ɲ. The symbol
ɲ should not be confused with ɳ, the
symbol for the retroflex nasal, which has a
rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom
of the right stem, or with ŋ, the symbol for
the velar nasal, which has a leftward-pointing
hook extending from the bottom of the right stem.
In Spanish and languages whose writing systems
are influenced by Spanish orthography, this sound
is represented with the letter eñe (ñ).
Go back
palatal-nasal-b
Contents of this page
- UKT 121122, 150722
What is the equivalent of grammatical Particle
in Bur-Myan? The following are what is
given by MLC, and examples
UKT translation: 32.
{pic~sæÑ:} is the grammatical term denoting
a qualifier that adds more information to the
noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb.
Now from Wikipedia:
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language#Particles
121122, 150722 , 160921
The Bur-Myan language makes prominent usage of
particles ,
{pic~sæÑ:}, which are untranslatable
words that are suffixed or prefixed to words to
indicate level of respect, grammatical
tense, or mood. According to the
Myanmar–English Dictionary (1993), there
are 449 particles in the Bur-Myan language.
[UKT¶ ]
For example,
{sûm:}, is a grammatical particle used to
indicate the imperative mood.
{loap} 'to work'
{loap sûm} 'you do it' - the imperative mood does
not indicate politeness
{loap pa} 'you do it' - the imperative mood is
now more polite: 'please do it'
Particles may be combined in some cases,
especially those modifying verbs.
Some particles modify the word's Part
of Speech aka POS. Among the most prominent of
these is the particle
{a.}, which is prefixed to verbs and
adjectives to form nouns or adverbs. [UKT ¶]
Unlike
Pali,
{a.} does not mean negation. [Negation in Bur-Myan is
{ma.}]. For instance,
the word
{wín} 'to enter' but in combination as
{a.wín} 'entrance'.
[
{ma.wín-ra.} "entrance forbidden" or "no entrance". ] Combination 
{a.loap} 'work'. Here the particle
{a.} has turned verbs into nouns.
UKT 191012:
I have always been intrigued by sentence endings
such as
{IÉ.},
{þæÑ},
{mæÑ}. A Bur-Myan sentence ends with such endings.
What are they? Are they Particles
{pic~sæÑ:}? I am also intrigued by the word "nominalization" is related to "noun"
{naam}.
I've seen authors using the word "normalization" - probably a spelling
mistake. And that had confused me further.
Now what is Nominalization? From:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/english_as_a_second_language/esl_students/nominalizations_and_subject_position.html
191014
"Nominalizations are nouns that are created from adjectives (words
that describe nouns) or verbs (action words). For example, “interference” is
a nominalization of “interfere,” “decision” is a nominalization of “decide,”
and “argument” is a nominalization of “argue.”
From: Normalization of Myanmar Grammatical
Categories for Part-of-Speech Tagging,
by Ms. Phyu Hninn Myint, Ms. Tin Myat Htwe,
& Ms. Ni Lar Thein (Univ. of Computer
Studies, Yangon, Myanmar), International
Journal of Computer Applications (0975 –
8887), Volume 36– No.1, December 2011.
See
downloaded article in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
- Normalizers-BurMyan<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk 191012)
2.4 Particle :
The Bur-Myan language makes prominent usage of
particles
{pic~sæÑ:}, which are untranslatable words
that are suffixed or prefixed to words to indicate
level of respect, grammatical tense, or mood.
According to the Myanmar-English Dictionary, there
are 449 particles in the Myanmar language. For
example,
{pé:} is a grammatical particle used to indicate
the imperative mood. While
{loap-pa} ("work" + particle indicating
politeness) does not indicate the imperative,
{loap-pé:pa} ("work" + particle indicating
imperative mood + particle indicating politeness)
does. Particles may be combined in some cases,
especially those modifying verbs.
Some particles modify the word's part of speech.
Among the most prominent of these is the particle
{a.} , which is prefixed to verbs and adjectives
to form nouns or adverbs. For instance, the word
{wín} means "to enter," but combined
with
{a.}, it means "entrance"
{a.wín}. Also, the second
{a.} in words can follow the pattern
{a.} + noun/adverb +
{a.} + noun/adverb, like
{a.hsauk-a.oän}.
From: The Grammaticalization of
Nominalizers in Burmese by Andrew Simpson, Professor of Linguistics & East
Asian Languages and Cultures. Read downloaded txt TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF
libraries
- ASimpson-DPs-SEAsianLang2005<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link
chk 191014)
"The term ‘nominalizer’ is a purely functional label which is
appropriately used to refer to all those morphemes/words which have the
specific function of creating a nominal morpho-syntactic form as the result
of their combination with other kinds of non-nominal input, as indicated in
(1):
(1) A nominalizer: a morpheme whose
primary function is to convert a non-nominal
input form into a nominal category.
Nominal categories, and hence the presence of functional elements which may
be nominalizers, can in turn be identified in two basic ways:
(a) through the occurrence of noun-like/nominal morphological
patterns, and/or
(b) via syntactic privileges otherwise commonly associated with
nouns and their syntactic projections.
(2) Morphological indications
that a syntactic constituent is nominal:
i. the occurrence of case
inflections on a constituent
ii. possible pluralization/plural-marking
of the constituent
iii. possible enumeration of
the constituent (combination of the constituent
with numerals)
iv. the potential occurrence of demonstratives
and adjectives with the constituent, rather
than complementizers and adverbs
v. use of case-marking strategies associated
specifically with nouns in the marking of
arguments of the noun (e.g. use of
possessive/Genitive case to mark the noun’s
arguments rather than Nominative/Accusative case)
Go back
norminalization-note-b /
particle-note-b
Contents of this page
UKT 121128: I always look on newspaper articles
with suspicion. They are useful for general
information only. Until I see a piece of
information in a well-reputed academic or
scientific journal, all facts posted below must
be taken with caution.
From: News article in Jagran Post - an
online newspaper
Posted on: 26 Mar 2012, 04:13 PM
Agra: Very soon the traditional Indian
language Sanskrit will be a part of the space,
with the United States of America (USA) mulling
to use it as computer language at NASA. After
the refusal of the Indian Sanskrit scholars
to help them acquire command over the language,
US has urged its young generation to learn
Sanskrit.
On visit to Agra, Aurobindo Foundation
(Indian Culture) Puducherry Director
Sampadananda Mishra told Dainik Jagran about
the prospects of Sanskrit. Mishra said,
“In 1985, NASA scientist Rick Briggs had
invited 1,000 Sanskrit scholars from India
for working at NASA. But scholars refused
to allow the language to be put to foreign
use.”
According to Rick Briggs, Sanskrit is such
a language in which a message can be sent
by the computer in the least number of
words.
After the refusal of Indian experts to offer
any help in understanding the scientific
concept of the language, American kids were
imparted Sanskrit lessons since their
childhood.
The NASA website also confirms its Mission
Sanskrit and describes it as the best language
for computers. The website clearly mentions
that NASA has spent a large sum of time and
money on the project during the last two
decades.
The scientists believe that Sanskrit is also
helpful in speech therapy besides helping
in mathematics and science. It also improves
concentration. The alphabets used in the
language are scientific and their correct
pronunciation improves the tone of speech.
It encourages imagination and improves memory
retention also.
Mishra told the daily that even the call centre
employees are improving their voice by reading
Sanskrit, besides the language being used by
news readers, film and theatre artist for
alternative voice remedy.
(JPN/Bureau)
Go back
Sanskrit-computer-language-note-b
Contents of this page
Syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} 'group of speech-units'
Always differentiate
{sa.ka:} 'speech' from
{sa} 'script'
-- UKT: 121128, 150723
The syllable is the most basic idea in
Abugida or Akshara system of writing. Yet it
is not given a prominent place in Bur-Myan
grammar.
From AHTD
syllable n. Abbr.
syl. syll. 1. Linguistics a.
A unit of spoken language consisting of a single
uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong,
or syllabic consonant alone, or by any of these sounds
preceded, followed, or surrounded by one or
more consonants. b. One or more letters
or phonetic symbols written or printed to approximate
a spoken syllable. 2. The slightest bit
of spoken or written expression: Do not
alter a syllable of this message. v. tr.
syllabled syllabling syllables Linguistics
1. To pronounce in syllables.
[Middle English sillable from Anglo-Norman
alteration of Old French sillabe from
Latin syllaba from Greek sullab ē
from sullabein, second aorist of sullambanein
to combine in pronunciation sun- syn-
lambanein to take]
MLC in its MED2006-480 gives <syllable> as
{wûN~Na.} -- a term which almost all, including
myself at one time, knows as "beautiful
appearance". Clearly we need another term
for it. I had suggested
{sa.ka:su.} 'group of speech-units'. However, to emphasize the presence of
sound, I had to settle for
from which
we get <monosyllable>
{É-ka.sa.ka:þän-su.}; <disyllable>
{dwi.sa.ka:su.}, and <polysyllable>
{ba.hu.sa.ka:su.}. These may be shortened by dropping the part
{su.} to
,
,
and
.
Unless you know the pronunciation of a word
{sa.ka:þän},
you cannot count the number of syllables in it.
Since, the pronunciation can vary from place
to place, from country to country, and from
one time-period to another, the syllable count
can differ. This is especially true in loan
words. Always consult a pronouncing dictionary
like Daniel Jones Pronouncing Dictionary which
I have made the standard for my works:
English Pronouncing Dictionary by
Daniel Jones. 16th ed. Edited by Peter Roach,
James Hartman and Jane Setter. Cambridge
University Press, 2003.
As an example of a word (example given in UseE -
http://www.usingenglish.com/ ), let's take
<elevate>. Look in AHTD, which gives
el·e·vate -- three syllables. Thus
<elevate> is a tri-syllabic word.
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllable
121128
A syllable is a unit of organization
for a sequence of speech sounds. For example,
the word <water> is composed of two
syllables: <wa> and <ter>. A
syllable is typically made up of a syllable
nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional
initial and final margins (typically,
consonants).
UKT 191021.
An Eng-Lat syllable has the canonical form CVC,
whereas Bur-Myan, Pal-Myan, & Skt-Dev syllables
have CVÇ, where Ç has its inherent vowel
killed by virama aka
{a.þût}. Use of virama decreases the syllable-count and makes the language
more easy to speak. Pali-Myan does not use visible virama and uses vertical
conjuncts. Pali-Myan words ends in vowel sounds. However Bur-Myan sometimes
uses virama.
Syllables are often considered the phonological
"building blocks" of words. They can
influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody,
its poetic meter and its stress patterns.
Syllabic writing began several hundred years
before the
first letters [UKT: alphabet]. The earliest
recorded syllables are on tablets written around
2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur. This shift
from pictograms to syllables has been called
"the most important advance in the
history of writing".
[1]
A word that consists of a single syllable
(like English <dog>) is called a
monosyllable (and is said to be
monosyllabic). Similar terms include
disyllable (and disyllabic)
for a word of two syllables; trisyllable
(and trisyllabic) for a word of three
syllables; and polysyllable (and
polysyllabic), which may refer either to
a word of more than three syllables or to any
word of more than one syllable.
UKT: More in the Wikipedia article.
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syllable-note-b
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Syntax =
{wa-kya.sæÑ:} (TIL-coined word)
-- UKT 121120, 150723, 191021
Many of us have heard about this word: syntax.
Yet, I, for one did not know what it actually
is. As usual let's turn to a dictionary -
I always have a dictionary on my computer hard
disk, otherwise, I am too lazy to look up in an
ink-on-paper printed book.
syntax
n. 1. a. The study of the rules
whereby words or other elements of sentence
structure are combined to form grammatical
sentences. -- AHTD
A. W. Lonsdale 1899, p.002, states: "
{ka-ra.ka.kûp~pa.} -- Rules concerning the
necessary relations of words in a sentence.
Let's get more.
Written by UKT based on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax 121120
(You should also look into:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language
121121)
Modern research in syntax attempts to describe
languages in terms of such rules. Many
professionals in this discipline attempt to
find general rules that apply to all natural
languages. The term syntax is also used
to refer to the rules governing the behavior of
mathematical systems, such as formal languages
used in logic. (See Logical syntax).
Works on grammar were written long before
modern syntax came about; the
Aṣṭādhyāyī of
the Indian linguist Pāṇini
{pa-Ni.ni. hsa.ra} (fl. about the time
of Gautama Buddha) is often cited as an
example of a pre-modern work that approaches
the sophistication of a modern
syntactic theory. Pāṇini
{pa-Ni.ni. hsa.ra} was responsible for
formulating Vedic [probably a Tib-Bur language]
into classical Sanskrit [a confirmed
Indo-European language].
I had always wonder what Vedic was. It was
the oldest language, committed to memory,
used for composing Vedic hymns - to
the three principal deities: Indra (the king
of heavenly beings - or deva and asura),
Agni (the messenger between devas and humans),
and Soma (the health drink which has now degenerated
into an alcoholic drink. I think Soma may be
the deva who cools human passions and sorrows.).
Was Vedic Tib-Bur (Tibeto-Burman) or IE (Indo-European)?
How was it connected to Bur-Myan? The way
Vedic hymns are recited, and the way we recite
our Parrita are quite similar, e.g. Gayatri mantra
& the Peacock Paritta.
In the West, the school of thought that came
to be known as "traditional grammar"
began with the work of Greek grammarian
Dionysius Thrax. (170 BC – 90 BC) who appeared
on the scene many centuries later after
Pāṇini
{pa-Ni.ni. hsa.ra}. So the question
remains: Were the Indians getting knowledge
from the Greeks or the other way around?
One of the modern approach to language was
pioneered by Noam Chomsky. Most
generative theories (although not all of
them) assume that syntax is based upon the
constituent structure of sentences. Generative
grammars are among the theories that focus
primarily on the form of a sentence, rather
than its communicative function.
Grammar in Plain English
UKT: Now a word on Grammar in Plain
English on which I have based my
work.
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 Bur-Myan (Burmese-Myanmar).
However, because of the difficulty of presenting
the Bur-Myan font on the internet, I have to
resort to Romabama
{ro:ma.ba.ma} - not
{rau:ma.ba.ma} - which started out as a
transliteration, but which has evolved into
a transcription. I have been putting it
to a severe test by going into Skt-Dev
(Sanskrit-Devanagari) in A. A. Macdonell
A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary. 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 in IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet). After
making some progress, I have started out to
experiment with Mon-Myan. So far I've failed to bring Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan
together: the reason being they belong to different linguistic group. Bur-Myan
to Tib-Bur (Tibeto-Burman), and Mon-Myan to Aus-Asi (Austro-Asiatic).
Excerpt from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language 121121
The basic word order of the Bur-Myan sentence
{wa-kya.} (MLC MED2006-473) is SOV
(Subject-Object-Verb). Pronouns in Bur-Myan
vary according to the gender and status of
the audience. Bur-Myan is monosyllabic (i.e.,
every word is a root to which a particle but
not another word may be prefixed).
[16]
Sentence structure determines syntactical
relations and verbs are not conjugated.
Instead they have particles suffixed to
them. For example, the verb "to eat,"
{sa:} (ca: [sà] is itself unchanged
when modified.
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