SN-SpkAll-les01-61<Ô> / bkp01<Ô> (link chk 160809) , & lesson01-61<))
Note:
{a:.} is missing in above.SN-SpkAll-les02-61<Ô> / bkp02<Ô> (link chk 160809) , & lesson02-61<))
Note:
{a:.} is present in above.spk-all-1.htm
-- by U Kyaw Tun (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA), Daw Khin Wutyi, and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning, Yangon, MYANMAR. 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
Based on Learn Mon Yourself : pronouncing all 61 lessons (Spk-all) in 10 chapters or groups. Downloaded and set in HTML by UKT and staff of TIL.
index.htm |
Top
spk-all-indx.htm
UKT151018: Original Video & SND for each lesson in Lesson groups are in the TIL SD-Library, and you will not hear them unless you are on a TIL computer.
SpkAll group #01
Speak All Lesson group#01, lessons01-09
Lesson 01-61 & 02-61
Lesson 03-61 :
lessons 03, 04 should be read together
Lesson 04-61 :
Lesson 05-61
Lesson 06-61
Lesson 07-61 :
medial-conjunct formers
Lesson 08-61 :
Akshara song -
bk-cndl-Mon-aks-song<))
(link chk 160811)
Lesson 09-61 :
Pronouncing the akshara with a background song
UKT notes
•
Asokan derived languages
• In Search of
Missing Minor Ka :
Major-Minor Akshara pairs
• Mon-Myan numerals : NMT p240
•
Special status of Retroflex sounds
UKT 160810: Video and SND for this lesson
in TIL SD-Library.
SN-SpkAll-les01-61<Ô> /
bkp01<Ô> (link chk 160809)
, & lesson01-61<))
Note:
{a:.} is missing in above.
SN-SpkAll-les02-61<Ô> /
bkp02<Ô> (link chk 160809)
, & lesson02-61<))
Note:
{a:.} is present in above.
{na.mau: boad~Da-ya. þaid~Dän}
-
bk-cndl-Mon-prayer<))
CAUTION: Since Pali words in Bur-Myan and in Mon-Myan are almost the same, I have given the pronunciation in Bur-Myan. However, an ordinary word spelled the same is very different in pronunciation.
- UKT 130415, ..., 151003, 160809:
Common statements on vowel and consonant sounds such as "[AH] as in the word <father>" is very misleading. The only reliable way to study the vowels and consonants is by instrumental measuring F1 & F2. You must not forget how a foreigner hears our sounds is quite different from what we hear. His articulations depends on how his brain interprets what his ears has perceived. His reproduction of our sounds is always tainted by his culture and his L1.
To handle all four languages of BEPS as a group,
Romabama
{ro:ma.ba.ma} (not romanization of Bur-Myan) has to come up with what Chemical
Engineers term a "happy medium" which
in reality nobody likes but which has to be
accepted for being useful.
Palatal plosive-stop: Bur-Myan
/
{sa.}/{c}
Mon-Myan interprets this sound as Palatal affricate:/ च /ʧ/
Dental approximant sibilant (husher):/
{Sa.}/{S} /s/ = ष
- represented by MLC as{rha.}, and
{þhya.}:
Both MLC renditions,{a.þût} without breaking up because they are medials.
They are not suitable for use with Skt-Dev.
I had expected the pronunciations of Pali words to be quite similar in Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan. However, it is not so, and I have to remove the Romabama renditions which I had given in previous versions. Yet we can get the Pali meanings from the way the words are spelled in Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan.
In these files with the file names "spk-all01.htm", "spk-all02.htm", "spk-all03.htm", etc. individual lessons of similar themes have been grouped together. For each lesson, I have given the "caption" or 'head', and the corresponding pronunciation lesson. However, in some lessons there can be more than one part.
- lesson01-61cap<))
Note the pronunciation of numeral 12. It is written as
(NMT)
and alternately as
(Haswell)
The heading simply means: Twelve Mon
vowels. The word order in Mon is the
opposite of Burmese, e.g.
{þwau} 'vowel' &
'Mon'. In Bur-Myan it would be
{mwun þa.ra.}.
- lesson02-61txt<))
Note:
{a:.} is missing in lesson01-61txt<)) .
In all Asokan ( Brahmi)
derived languages we find both vow-let
(vowel letters) and vow-sign (vowel signs).
The vow-let are regular vowels which can
stand on their own, whereas the vow-signs
are not vowels. They are
diacritics to be affixed to a consonant
to change its inherent vowel. Yet they have
been described as "dependent
vowels". In the above I have used the
dummy
{a.} as the filled-in consonant. See my note on
Asokan derived languages
In both Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan, we see a
horizontally split vowel in
{au:} in which the consonant goes between
two-vowel parts,
{kau:}. However, what is missing is
vertically split vowel
{o}. In Mon-Myan, we see a similar vowel in
{kou} 'to give'. (Has038). I wonder whether the
absence of
{o} is due the influence of Indic speakers
(including Eng-Lat) not having it.
In the above 12 vowels, we find two
"classes" of 6 vowels each.
The first 3 pairs (of 6 vowels on
lighter background) are the
{þa.wuN} 'beautiful' pairs. The second 3 pairs
(of 6 on darker background) are the
{a.þa.wuN} 'ugly' pairs. In the
{þa.wuN} pairs, the first member is the
short vowel (of duration one eye-blink) and
the second member is the long vowel
lasting two eye-blinks. They can be
said to be allophones. Such
"beautiful" relationship is
not present in the
{a.þa.wuN} pairs.
UKT151018: Video and SND for this lesson in
TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les03-61<Ô> /
bkp03<Ô> (link chk 160810), &
lesson03-61<))
Refer to NMT p018/pdf022
and Haswell p001/pdf026 :
Remember Mon-Myan pronounces the Palatals as Affricates, because of which
we can say that it is related to Skt-Dev. However, Bur-Myan pronounces the
Palatals as Plosive-stops, which shows it is related to Tib-Bur
languages. Pal-Myan is an artificial language developed in Lanka by the Asokan
missionaries from old Magadhi and Lanka speech which is Aus-Asi (Austro-Asiatic
language group). Even then Pal-Myan still has elements of old Magadhi speech,
such as thibilant /θ/ pronunciations.
-
lesson04-61cap<))
Note the pronunciation of numeral 35.
Take the pronunciations
ipa
as {mwûn} and
ipa
as {mé}.
Listen to each row of consonants in Mon-Myan akshara index: (all links chk 150921)
while keeping in mind what Haswell has given in his Grammatical notes and Vocabulary of the Peguan Language, p003/pdf028:
Velar - bk-cndl-Mon-row1<))
Palatal (pronounced as Affricates) - bk-cndl-Mon-row2<))
Note: Romabama transcription is based on Bur-Myan phonology, and is not applicable to Mon-Myan. If I were to use it for Mon-Myan, it becomes unnecessarily complex because of mixing up of sounds in English. Thus, rendition of:
hsa > hkya > hca > cha
za > gya > chè or ché :
English, as a transcription language, does not recognize è and I have to settle for é .Rev. Dr. J. M. Haswell writes on p004/pdf029:
"There is no g in the language save{ngra.} which as an initial [onset] has the sound gn (the g being fully sounded.) As a final [coda] it has the sound of ng . There is no z or th ".
Now listen to Retroflex sounds. I wonder whether it is derived from an earlier form of language which the later speakers treat with reverence. See my note on Special status of Retroflex sounds.
Retroflex - bk-cndl-Mon-row3<))
Dental - bk-cndl-Mon-row4<))Labial - bk-cndl-Mon-row5<))
Approximants of row#6 - bk-cndl-Mon-row6<))
Approximants of row#7 - bk-cndl-Mon-row7<))
Mon-akshara song giving all 7 rows - bk-cndl-Mon-aks-song<))
Mon word order
is the reverse of Bama
{mwun byæÑ:} . Myanmar akshara, whether it is
used for Bama or Mon is classified into two
main groups: the
{wag} 'classifiable', and the
{a.wag} 'non-classifiable'.
The
{wag}-consonants are made up 5 rows, of 5
columns each: the velars, the palatals, the
retroflex, the dental-alveolar (or simply
the "dentals"), and the bilabials
(labials).
For use in Bama, the
{wag} consonants are also classified
column-wise into #c1 tenuis, #c2 voiceless,
#c3 voiced, #c4 deep-H, and
#c5 nasal. All with intrinsic vowel /a/.
However, this column differentiation does
not hold for Mon in which both #c3 &
#c4 are also voiceless, but with a different
intrinsic vowel, /e/. Because of which I am
describing #c4 of Mon-Myan as
#c2 = «pha», #c3 = «ba», and #c4 = «bha»
The last member of each row, under column #6 are the nasals. This Bama phonology does not hold in Mon mainly because Mon has two kinds of basic aksharas with differing intrinsic vowels.
In Mon-Myan, columns #1 and #2 made up
one kind of basic akshara. They have the
inherent vowel
{a.}.
The second kind of Mon-Myan basic
consonants has intrinsic vowel
{e}. However, there are others who say
differently:
- NMT -
{è.}
- Haswell - /ā-er/
- Halliday in his Mon-English
Dictionary, p.roman06 Table of
36 consonants - /e/
We now see that the intrinsic vowel of the
second kind of consonants is controversial.
The solution to this problem obviously lies
in the nasals and approximants, and how they
under the virama check the sound of the
preceding vowel in VÇ type of syllables:
- nasals:
{na.}-killed,
{ma.}-killed :
[{ngra.}-killed, {ña.}-killed,
and {Na.}-killed, are left out because of their
sounds to most people controversial]
- approximants:
{ya.}-killed,
{ra.}-killed,
{la.}-killed,
{wa.}-killed
UKT151020, 160811: I have found
{Ña.}-killed be an approximant because it can be killed without breaking up. I have assigned Nya'lé to Palatal nasal r2c5 cell, and have moved Nya'gyi to Palatal approximant position. Only then I can explain why Bur-Myan Nya'gyi can be under virama without breaking up. To move Nya'gyi to Palatal approximant position, I have to move Ya
{ya.} (IPA /j/) to the Velar approximant position. Then Nya'gyi under virama can stand side by side with
To look into this problem further we should take a different tack as sailors would do: how the Esoteric Science treats the aksharas because of their hidden "powers". Look into my note on In Search of Missing Minor Ka .
The
{a.wag}-consonants are the approximants made
up of 2 rows. They are not classified
column-wise.
UKT 151018: Pronunciation of columns 3 & 4 are different in Bur-Myan and Mon-Myan.
• Column #3 is voiced in Bur-Myan. From what I heard in SpkAll (Martaban Mon dialect) it is also voiced in Mon-Myan. However, Haswell in his Grammatical notes and Vocabulary of the Peguan Language, on p003/pdf028 in his table of consonants has given it as the same as that of column #1 with a change of intrinsic vowel. He emphasized that there is no g sound. On p004/pdf029, he writes:"There is no g in the language save
{ngra.} which as an initial [onset] has the sound gn (the g being fully sounded.) As a final [coda] it has the sound of ng . There is no z or th ".
• The column #4 is voiced in Bur-Myan, but definitely voiceless in Mon-Myan.
UKT160810: Video and SND for this lesson
in TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les04-61<Ô> /
bkp04<Ô> (link chk
160810) , & lesson04-61<))
Refer to NMT p021/pdf025 : 35 consonants
{a.þän pau. byæÑ:} &
{a.þän lé: byæÑ:}
and Haswell p004/pdf029 : 34 consonants
two classes of consonants with
different intrinsic vowels
UKT 130417: Mon-Myan consonants are
classified into two kinds with differing
inherent vowels. The first kind, of
16 consonants, has a fixed inherent vowel
/a/, but the second kind of 18 consonants,
has either /e/ or /a/ as the inherent vowel.
The total sum 16 + 18 just gives 34. You add
{a.} (and derivative
{ø}) to make the total equal to 35.
In the {wag} consonants, notice how, pronunciation-wise, a member of the first kind is related to a member of the second kind. I have given the IPA transcriptions as a guide. Thus:
velar:
{ka.} /ka/ -->
{ga.} /ge/ ;
---------{hka.} ---- -->
{Ga.}
----------------------------- (in Bur-Myan, it is "deep-H", but in Mon-Myan, it is "vl-é" )
palatal:
---------{hsa.} --- -->
{Za.}
---------------------------- (in Bur-Myan, it is "deep-H", but in Mon-Myan, it is "vl-é" )
We do not find this type of correspondence in the
{a.wag} consonants.
At this point, I find it helpful to listen to
the Akshara song
bk-cndl-Mon-aks-song<)) (link chk
160810) .
Note the two additional akshara in
Mon-Myan which make the total number
to come up to 35. Bur-Myan has only 33
akshara. Since the additional two
occurs in row#7, and have the
pronunciations similar to {ba.},
I have designated them as
{ßa.}/{b7a.} and
{ßé}/{b7é} -
numeral 7 is written as a superscript.
Mon-Myan,
{a.} should be considered to be
a consonant because it has a killed form:
{a.}-killed transcribed in Romabama as {ø}.
Haswell listed some 29 words starting with
{ßa.}/{b7a.},
and 8 words starting with
{ßé}/{b7é} .
UKT160810: Video and SND for this lesson
in TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les05-61<Ô> /
bkp05<Ô> (link chk 160810)
Refer to NMT p022/pdf026
{a.þän pau. byæÑ:} - 17 nos. including
{a.}
and Haswell p004/pdf029
Note the pronunciation of numeral 16 :
(from
which I have derived: )
use the word {pa.hta.ma.} as a cue.
- n. a sound, the voice - Halliday-MonED-379
Sixteen consonants of the first kind:
their intrinsic vowel remains the same as
{a.} even when the environment changes.
Thus,
{ka.} remains the same as /
{ka.}/ even when a neighbouring consonant
changes. It is not so with consonants of
the second kind such as
{gé}. Its pronunciation changes from:
<)) and
<))
which sounds like /{ka.ta.}/ & /ka.ta.mé/ .
Note: I denote the pronunciation within /.../. Thus, the akshara
Notice that the spellings given by Haswell may not agree with those given on the internet website.
UKT 151018: Pronunciation-wise - from what my ears can make out - the 7x5 = 35 consonants can be classified into 3 classes:
Consonants with:
#1. Fixed intrinsic vowel -{a.} /æ/ ----------------- - 4x4 = 16 nos.
#2. Variable intrinsic vowel: -{è} /ɛ/ & -{a.} /æ/ -- 6x3 = 18 nos.
#3. consonant-cum-vowel
UKT160811: Video and SND for this lesson
in TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les06-61<Ô> /
bkp06<Ô> (link chk 160810),
& lesson06-61<))
UKT 160817: lessons in <)) are not well organized. I am giving all the <)).
- lesson06-61cap<)) ; -
lesson06-61cap1<)) ; -
lesson06-61cap2<))
- lesson06-61txt<)) ; -
lesson06-61txt1<))
Eighteen consonants of the second kind
such as
{ga.} ipa {gè}.
which sounds like /{ka.ta.}/ & /ka.ta.mé/ .
Note: I denote the pronunciation within /.../
There are 18 consonants with the
intrinsic vowel of the second kind.
Since all consonants must have the
open-front vowel as the intrinsic vowel,
this can be only be the lip-round vowel
/ɶ/. I presume because of this
roundness, the consonant r5c5 has some
element of
{wa.hswè:}-sound, the word Mon is
spelled without the
{wa.hswè:} in Mon-Myan spelling:
{mun} instead of
{mwun}.
UKT160811: Video and SND for this lesson in
TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les07-61<Ô> /
bkp07<Ô> (link chk 160810)
, & lesson07-61<))
- lesson07-61cap<)) ; -
lesson07-61txt<))
Ref: Haswell, Double & Compound
consonants, p006/pdf031, lists 10.
Ref: NMT,
[Bur pronunciation: {k~mak}] Hanging consonants, p047/pdf051,
lists 11.
Note the pronunciation of numeral 8 :
.
Take the pronunciations
ipa
as {mé} as a cue. - lesson07-61cap<))
Remember medials are monosyllabic and conjuncts are disyllabic. There is a hiatus (a slight pause between) the two consonants in a disyllable. Going strictly by this distinction, Mon-Myan has only 3 or 5 medial formers.
However Spk-all
counts 8 medial-conjunct formers:
{nga.}, {Ña.}, {na.}, {ma.}, {ya.}, {ra.},
{la.}, {wa.}.
NMT lists 11, including above 8 plus 3 more: {ða.}, {ha.}, {ßa.}
As in all Abugida-akshara languages, the number of consonants may be increased by forming conjuncts with certain other consonants. In Skt-Dev, almost any consonant may act as conjunct-formers.
In Bur-Myan, we have the strict condition that the resulting ligature must also be monosyllabic and only {ya.}, {ra.}, {wa.}, and {ha.} can meet this condition. Thus we have medials known as {ya.ping.}, {ra.ric}, {wa.hswè:} and {ha.hto:}. In the Dawei dialect of Bur-Myan, we have {la.hswè:} as an addition.
The situation in Mon-Myan is slightly different. It has the above 8 as medial-conjunct formers forming a few medials and many more conjuncts. For pronouncing the conjuncts, schwa /ə/ is added after the first consonant.
UKT160811: There is no SND for this lesson.
It is unfortunate that most, including the MLC (Myanmar Language Commission), do not realized that English uses an Alphabetic-letter system, whereas Bur-Myan, Mon-Myan, and Indic languages derived from the Asoka script use the Abugida-akshara. The smallest unit in an alphabetic system is a 'letter' which is mute (not pronounceable), whereas in the abugida the smallest unit is a syllable, or akshara, which can be pronounced because of the presence of an inherent vowel likened to a "short English a".
The possibility of an Abugida-akshara such as
{ta.}
being changed into an Alphabetic-letter თ (Georgian letter Tan) is still
unexplained - after almost two years on this day 160811 - by my friends in
Myanmar Historical Commission, and Myanmar Language Commission.
Notice the Mon-Myan akshara of the first kind seems to have the vowel /a/, whereas those of the second kind have /e/.
UKT160811: Video and SND for this lesson in
TIL SD-Library
SN-SpkAll-les09-61<Ô> /
bkp09<Ô> (link chk 160810)
- lesson09-61cap<)) ; -
lesson09-61txt<))
Akshara song: note 'akshara' and 'alphabet'
are radically different.
Listen to Mon-akshara song: -
bk-cndl-line-Mon-aks-song<))
(link chk 160811)
UKT 140623: This lesson is just a background
song over which, the akshara are pronounced
one by one.
Now watch a solo dance,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqOym0H5lgM&feature=kp 151022
or downloaded version in TIL SD-Library -
Mon-Myan-solo<Ô>
(link chk 160811)
UKT 140620, 150930, 160810:
Asokan is popularly known as Brahmi. After coming across F. Edgerton's, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, - BHS-indx.htm (link chk 160810)
I stop using the word Brahmi.
The "Brahmi" is a misnomer because the Brahmin-Poannas
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:}, or simply
{poaN~Na:}, could not decipher the Asokan when called upon by their Muslim emperor to decipher the inscriptions.
We in Myanmarpré have thought the "Brahmi" to be the script of a heretical religion - the Brahmana Atta religion, the exact opposite of the Gautama Buddha's Anatta religion. Little do we realized that Brahmi is the script used by the Buddhist Emperor Asoka of the Magadha kingdom, and could very well be described as the script of the Magadha language. Many Buddhist-Myanmars hold that Magadha was the Universal language which everyone, including the animals could understand in the very ancient times. An important fact unknown to most of us in Myanmarpré is that our Myanmar akshara is the modern day version of Asokan. See
A Pali grammar on the basis of Kaccayano({rhin kic~sæÑ:} in Bur-Myan), - by Rev. F. Mason, 1868
- PEG-indx.htm - update 150630
Downloaded version of 251 pdf pages are available in TIL SD-Library Mason-Kicsi<Ô> (link chk 160812)
Asokan (
Brahmi) was deciphered only in 1837 by James Prinsep (1799-1840). See:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Prinsep 140620 .
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script 140620
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmic_scripts 140620
Myanmar script is mentioned in the 3rd of the Wiki article.
The vowels are represented as vowel letters
as well as in as vowel signs. See:
1. Grammatical notes and Vocabulary
of the Peguan Language, to which are added
a few pages of phrases, etc., by Haswell, J.M.,
ABM Press (American Baptist Mission Press),
Rangoon, 1874
- MonMyan-Haswell-gramm-notes-vocab<Ô>
/ bkp<Ô> (link chk
160809)
4. Fundamentals of Mon Speech & Script
(in Bur-Myan), by Naing Maung Toe,
www.monlibrary.com, Yangon, 2007 (Romabama may be
applicable in NMT)
-
MonMyan-NMgToe-Mon-Bur<Ô>
/ bkp<Ô>
(link chk 160809)
(frequently need to refer to {nga.hswè:} on p047/pdf051)
The following is from NMT:
UKT 151001: There are the three vow-signs in Mon-Myan
&
which produce different vowel effects.
In all human languages, the number of vowel-sounds are about the same: 12 or 13. However, languages differ from each other in using the number of glyphs, for example. The expression "Pal-Myan has eight vowels" is false. It should have been Pali represents the vowels with 8 graphemes or glyphs. Similarly, "English has five vowels" is wrong. When a language needs more representations it uses combinations of glyphs. The combinations are pronounced starting from the first glyph to the second. English drags on the sounds giving "glides" or "diphthongs" whereas Burmese gives an intermediate without any glide and is a "monophthong". What you see written down are neither diphthongs nor monophthongs, they are just "digraphs". Note: A digraph is not a diphthong.
Burmese uses 12 or 13 (a ā, i ī, u ū, é è, au. au, än aa:).
English uses only 5 (a, e, i, o, u )
Mon uses 12: (a ā, i ī, u ū, é è, au. au, än aa:) : same as Burmese . However, there are glaring pronunciation differences. For discussion, we numbered the vowels from #1 to #12
Haswell notes in his ¤ Grammatical notes and Vocabulary , p003/pdf028, that only the following 6 vowels are checked by codas:{a},
{I.},
{U.},
{É},
{AW},
{än}.
The first six are pairs of short-long vowels,
known as
{þa.wuN} 'matching pairs'. The rest are
{a.þa.wuN} 'ill-matching pairs'. There is
almost no difference between Bur & Mon
in
{þa.wuN} pairs, but there is difference for
{a.þa.wuN}-pairs.
Pali uses eight (a ā, i ī, u ū, o au)
Sanskrit uses the eight of Pali plus a pair highly rhotic vowels.
Vedic uses the 10 of Sanskrit plus a pair of very lateral vowels which are almost absent in Sanskrit.
UKT 160811: Vedic is not Sanskrit. It is probable that Vedic was Tib-Bur and the Sanskrit IE. However the later Sanskritists have tainted the old Vedic to introduce their male gods, and marrying the Mother-goddess of the Tib-Bur to their male gods. They change the meter of Gayatri Mantra by the inclusion of Om.
Further, I base my assumption on the presence of lateral sounds in Vedic which are absent in Sanskrit. The separation into two languages became formalized in the time of Panini. Based on the lateral sounds, I further maintain that Pali spoken in Myanmarpré is of Vedic origin - very much akin to Old Magadhi, whereas the Pali spoken in Sri Lanka is highly influenced by Sanskrit (IE), and Lanka (Aus-Asi).
Note: the transliteral glyph "o" in Pal-Lat (International Pali) and Bur-Myan < are different. This is because Pali-Lat is following the IAST transliteration.
In Indic languages as well as in Bur-Myan, the length and emphasis of the vowel is important. Pay attention to the pitch-registers (aka, but erroneously, "tones".). The vowels are present in pairs - the short and the long, in Indic and Bur-Myan languages.
The vowels are all within the vowel quadrilateral of Daniel Jones (1881-1967). For representing uncommon sounds, in European languages, digraphs, and even trigraphs, are used. They are dipthongs and triphthongs in the European languages, but not in Bur-Myan. Whether Mon-Myan uses diphthongs or not is still an open question for me.
The very first lesson is on the vowel sounds or phonemes. These sounds are represented with Myanmar graphemes. Though represented with the same glyph, a Burmese vowel and the corresponding Mon vowel sound very different.
Notice the length of the vowels (measured
in eye-blinks, or blk units), and its
emphasis. The terms "short" and
"long" vowels are in general use,
but it is confusing in Bur-Myan. You may
use in their stead: "short-creak",
"creak", "modal", and the
"emphatic". These allophones are
not "tones", but are
"pitch-registers". Because of
anatomical sameness of the speakers,
the Mon-Myan vowels are also not tones but
pitch-registers. They differ from each
other in the vowel-duration and emphasis:
short creak
{aa.} 1/2 blk, creak
{a.} 1 blk, modal
{a} 2 blk, emphatic
{a:} 2 blks with emphasis. Even
in the same language the vowel duration
and emphasis are different in isolated
words and continuous speech.
Just let your
own ears to be your judge and totally
ignore what the phoneticians say.
Bur-Myan: short creak
{aa.} 1/2 blk, short
Mon-Myan: short-creakNote the different use of
{wic~sa.} in Bur-Myan
{na:.} नः last line: धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।
See Gayatri Mantra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra 140619
Listen downloaded SND - bk-cndl-gayatri<))
Lesson 02 has a second part giving the same pronunciation exercise. Just listen to the sound and note how it is spelled. When I say "spelled", I do not mean the actual aksharas, just the "general shape" of the word. Let your brain associate the sound and the look - forget about the meaning which you can look up in a dictionary which differs from author to author especially with "politically sensitive words". These words are distorted to suit the motives of the current politics.
Go back Asokan-lang-note-b
- UKT 151021, 160811
The Ancients in our parts of the world in
their study of Esoteric Sciences
place great importance to the sound
and the akshara that represents the
sound. The ancients are now dead and gone,
but we still have strong "underground"
religions hiding under the umbrella of Theravada
Buddhism. See ¤ Folk Elements in Buddhism --
flk-ele-indx.htm (link chk 160811). Just
as the Hindu religionists place great importance
on the Sacred OM ,
ॐ (U0950)
and its precise pronunciation, the Myanmar
Esoterists believe that Sound has hidden powers,
and the Aksharas that represents different
Sounds have differing hidden powers. Thus to
look deeper the question of pronunciation r1c3
{ga.} represented by English g , we must
look into the study of Yans or Inn
{ ïn:}. See Vowels and Consonants :
navigate to -
MC-indx.htm >
MCvowcon-indx.htm >
MC-anci-lang.htm (link chk 160811)
On the sides of the ring shown in the pix,
you can see the group of four
Major Aksharas, Ka'gyi
{ka.kri:}, Ga'gyi
{Ga.}, Na'gyi
{Na.}, and La'gyi
{La.}.
Since these four should have their
Minor counterparts, and we have only three,
with Mon pronunciation
{hkè} for
,
{nè} for
,
and
{ lè} for
,
I suggest that it is the same glyph
to represent Ka'ngèý with a different ending
sound as {kè} for
.
This led us to Major-Minor Akshara pairs
in Myanmar akshara:
when applied to Burmese, the intrinsic
vowel is English "short a" .
Most of us who are Buddhists would remember
that when we entered the Buddhist Monk-hood -
a must for all of us - how our instructor-monk
would emphasize how to say the word
{þän-Gau.} with emphasis on the
{Ga.} sound. We have to say it differently
from how we say
{ga.}.
UKT 151021: I will present the Major-Minor Akshara pairs for Mon-Myan only after more study of the Mon-Myan language
Go back Minor-Ka-note-b
UKT 160815: From NMT p240 of ink-on-paper book
Also, refer to: ¤ Vocabulary (from Haswell
& Stevens: no separate update required)
-
Has-vocab-indx.htm (link chk 160816)
This link is to both vocabs of Haswell
and Stevens which are in separate folders.
Names of months & numerals -
name-dd-mm-no.htm (link chk 160816)
Numeral : pronunciations , 00 to 09, are
available in
spk-all10.htm
Haswell gives an alternate spellings for
numeral 10 to 19 :
00 : 
----------
10 :
/
-------
20 :
-----------
30 :
----------
40 :
01 :
------------
11 :
-----------
21 :
----------
31 :
02 : 
------------
12 :
/ 
----
22 :
03 : 
------------
13 : 
-----------
23 :
04 :
-----------
14 :
----------
24 :
05 :
---------
15 :
---------
25 :
06 :
-----------
16 :
(not given by NMT )/
07 :
----------
17 :
08 :
-----------
18 :
09 :
---------- 19 :
Note: numeral 12 is written as
/
UKT130419, 151021:
Haswell's observation that there is
"no g " has
raised my curiosity on the shape of
{ngra.} compared to Bur-Myan
{nga.}. Did the original or proto-language
of Mon has this phoneme? Or was it borrowed
from another grapheme as I have observed in
Skt-Dev. The Skt-Dev glyph was probably
borrowed from the retroflex row #3,
and a dot added:
ड + dot --> ङ
The equivalent of Devanagari ड in
Myanmar is r3c3
{ða.}. It's relation r3c4 is
{Ða.}. Similarly with Mon-Myan, the retroflex
row #3 , seemed to be involved:
{Ta.} --> {Ta.}-split -- >
Mon-Myan
{krau-ngra} where the second syllable
{ngra} has the pronunciation /ña/ and not /ŋa/. -- See MED2006-039
The solution to this problem lies in our
understanding of the retroflex sounds. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroflex_consonant
140620
"A retroflex consonant
is a
coronal consonant where the tongue has a
flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is
articulated between the alveolar ridge and
the hard palate. They are sometimes referred
to as cerebral consonants,
especially in Indology. "
Since both Devanagari and Myanmar are related to Asokan (erroneously called "Brahmi"), we might as well look into the shapes of these two akshara in Asokan, the oldest script found in India.
I suggest that proto-Mon did not have
the phoneme velar /ŋ/. It
had borrowed the retroflex
{Ta.} and split it into two portions as
shown above. It is also interesting to note
that in both Skt-Dev and in Mon-Myan, very
few or none of the syllables, has the phoneme
/ŋ/ as the onset-consonant.
Both Bur-Myan & Mon-Myan consonants
are listed in matrix form. The matrix
is a 5x5 for the upper part. Because
the POA (Place of Articulation), and
phonation is well established the upper
part is known as the
{wag}-consonants 'classifiable'. The
lower part made up of approximants are
not easily classifiable and are known as
{a.wag}-consonants. This form of
presentation is common for all abugida
derived from Asokan and is the
basis of phonetics of the East which
had been studied for thousands of years
well before the era of Gautama Buddha.
There are 35 consonants in Mon-Myan compared
to 33 of Bur-Myan. Both languages do not
have the highly hissing dental
sibilant-approximants exemplified in
Skt-Dev: श «ś» [ɕ] /ʃ/
& ष «ṣ» [ʂ] /s/. The
Mon-Myan
{a.} seemed to be a consonant because
it has a killed form:
.
At present, I have not been able to give
a Romabama representation except {ø} - alt+0248.
It would be useful in borrowed words,
such as lye
{leiø} 'caustic solution' used in soap
making.
Lie - n.v. falsehood /laɪ/ - DJPD16-315
Lie - v. recline /laɪ/ - DJPD16-315
Lye - /laɪ/ - DJPD16-324
- because of the above, I have transcribed 'caustic solution' as{leiø} , cf.
Pa'o - an ethnic group in Myanmarpré - spelled as{pa.oó} - MLC MED2006-254
UKT151003: Bur-Myan words spelled with
Mon-Myan pronounces the non-hissing dental thibilant-approximant /θ/ with a hissing sound. This dental thibilant /θ/ is realized in regular English word <thin>. Unfortunately the grapheme for this is represented with a digraph <th> in Modern-English, even though it was represented with the "thorn" character <þ> in Old-English. Incidentally it is worth to note that Old-English is treated as a foreign language in present-day England itself.
To do without the digraphs (not diphthongs),
Romabama uses <þ> to represent the
phoneme /θ/. In Romabama it is
{þa.} /θ/. In European languages,
English alone, among the major modern
languages, pronounces this grapheme
as /θ/. Others, like German
pronounces it as /s/. In this respect
the German is like Skt-Dev. Romabama has
to come up with a grapheme for this sound,
which is actually a hissing sound: it
is represented in Romabama with
{Sa.}. However, in order to a seamless
transcription between BEPS languages,
{Sa.} is assigned the same glyph as the
palatal:
{sa.} &
{Sa.} -- the killed consonants being
{c} &
{S}. Whether this arrangement will work
for Mon-Myan is still an open question,
especially when the glyph
{sa.} is heard to be pronounced as श
«ś» [ɕ] /ʃ/ by presenter on
the website.
In continuous Mon-Myan speech
The main difference between Bur-Myan & Mon-Myan is in the palatals. Mon-Myan pronounces the palatals the same way as Skt-Dev, showing that it is nearer to Sanskrit than to Pali. Bur-Myan is related to Pali or the old Magadhi the language used by the Gautama Buddha himself. The relationship is because of people travelling by the overland routes that had been in use centuries before the birth of the Buddha himself.
The overland routes across high mountain
passes are difficult to use, but still
useable except by large armed forces which
had protected northern-Myanmarpré though
out the ages.
See
¤ Geography, Geology, Fossils --
geo-indx.htm (link chk 160816)
and proceed to ¤ Physical geography --
phy-geo-myan.htm (link chk 160816)
and ¤ Malaria & other diseases as
sentinels --
malaria.htm (link chk 160816)
Read also a downloaded file on Geography written in 1890 by Blandford in
the SD-Library:
-
Blandford-Geo-Indi-Burm-Ceyl-1890<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk
160816)
Read also notes on Ancient Geography of Burma written in 1906 by
Duroiselle in SD-Library
-
Duroiselle-AnciGeogBurma1906<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk
160816)
Once the Magadhi language (speech &
script) had reached northern-Myanmarpé, long
before the birth of the Gautama Buddha, it
have been protected not only by the high
mountains, but also by Malaria & other
diseases as sentinels
--
malaria.htm (link chk 151003).
Go back Special-status-Retroflex-note-b
End TIL file
-
