Dictionary of Noble Words of Lord Buddha
Dictionary of Noble Words of Lord Buddha MK-PME-indx.htm
by U Myat Kyaw & U San Lwin, MLC
(Myanmar Language Commission), 2002
to be read with which may be checked with The Student's
Pali English dictionary , by U Pe Maung Tin,
Rangoon College, BRITISH BURMA PRESS,
RANGOON. 1920. -
PMT-indx.htm (link chk 140503)
An ink-on-paper copy is in the TIL library, however you can see my downloaded
pdf file
from
http://www.thisismyanmar.com/nibbana/books/pali-pmtin.pdf 140503.
Set in HTML, and edited, with additions from other sources, by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA), Daw Thuzar Myint, and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL) . Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone. Prepared for students and staff of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR : http://www.tuninst.net , http://www.softguide.net.mm , www.romabama.blogspot.com
For serious Pal-Myan scholars - not me, I am just an interested person - you
will need to study the PTS publications of the 19th century such as:
Dhammasaṅgaṇi , by Edward Müller, PTS publication, 1885, a pdf copy of which
is included in {sa.}-folder.
Dhammasaṅgaṇi-pdf (link chk 140524).
From it, you will come to know that the tech. term «asaṅkhatā dhātu» 'the
immaterial element' may be replaced by «nibbāna» -- see Introduction,
p.roman06. We need to know things like these to explain what «nibbāna» is to the
non-Buddhists and to many Buddhists who thought that it means "Heaven" of the
Christians and the Hindus.
If you are interested in how the Buddha
spoke - his pronunciation
- read my note
Gautama Buddha speaks
index.htm |
Top
PED-MK-indx.htm
TOC of contents seem complicated unless you are familiar with killed {a.þût} consonants.
Remember Romabama is a transcription, but what UMK-USL has given is the International Pali in IAST transliteration. Transcription gives tells you about pronunciation, whereas transliteration usually gives the wrong pronunciation.TOC is order of Bur-Myan consonant-matrix of 33 aksharas, followed by Bur-Myan vowel-order of 12 aksharas. It is not the way Skt-Dev dictionaries are presented. In Skt-Dev dictionaries vowels comes first and consonant second. In Bur-Myan dictionaries it is the other way round: consonants and then vowels. Again Bur-Myan consonant-matrix is subdivided into {wag}-consonants of 25 aksharas, and {a.wag}-consonants of 8 aksharas.
Introduction by UKT -- intro.htm
Intro-Childers, 1874 --
intro-childers.htm
Foreword-PTS-Dict, 1999 -- pts.htm
Vowel associated with
{ka.} is free
{ka.} --
ka1.htm
{ka} --
ka2.htm
ka2ya1.htm
ka2ya2.htm
{ki.} --
ki1.htm :
{kri.},
{k~ri.},
and 
{kRi.}
is differentiated in Romabama.
{ku.}
--
ku1.htm
{kaw:} --
kaw3.htm : derived from Open-O /ɔ/
differentiated in Romabama
Vowel associated with
& nasals /n/ /m/, and thibilant /θ/.
Note: Thibilant /θ/ (non-hissing) becomes hissing-sibilant /s/ in Sanskrit.
{koak~} --
koak.htm
{kauT~} --
kaut.htm
{kûn~}
-- included in above
{kûp~} --
kup.htm
{kûm~}
-- kum.htm
{kaþ~} --
horizontal conjunct included in above
------------------- Is this the precursor of {kSa},
the pseudo {hka.}, in Sanskrit?
{hka.} --
hka1.htm
{ga.} -- ga1.htm
{Ga.}
-- GGa1.htm
{nga.}
and its counter-part
in
Mon-Myan, a very important onset consonant,
is absent in Pal-Myan and Skt-Dev
{sa.} --
sa1.htm - palatal plosive-stop
{sait}
(Bur-Myan) -- sait.htm :
{sait~ta.}
(Pal-Myan)
In Skt-Dev
{kya.} or voiceless
{hkya.}. These two are taken as allophones in Eng-Lat and commonly written as <ch> /ʧ/.
Note: Both IPA and IAST gives wrong representations for this row of consonants. The inconsistencies between Tib-Bur speakers and those of IE is due to the difference in mode of articulation of consonants. Tib-Bur speakers always begin deep in the interior of the mouth, but IE speakers begin from the front.
{hsa.} -- hsa1.htm
The instrument for comparison of BEPS
(Burmese, English, Pali, Sanskrit speeches
written in Myanmar, IPA-English, Devanagari)
languages is Romabama (Burmese-Myanmar
transcribed into extended-Latin script) .
Please note that the base consonants
and the medials (pronounceable conjuncts)
are different. The medials are probably
unique to Bur-Myan.
UKT Notes
•
Base consonants and vowels
of BEPS
•
Gautama Buddha speaks
•
Doggie's Tale - copy-paste
The following from the first trial
version will be scrutinized and if
found to be suitable for this new
version, will be brought up to the
present TOC above. Those that TIL deemed unacceptable because of many reasons
including political, will not included, but for fairness sake, we will give
the present links:
• Buddhist Nuns in Burma by Dr. F. Lottermoser
http://www.enabling.org/ia/vipassana/Archive/L/Lottermoser/burmeseNunsLottermoser.html
140509
TIL reason for rejection: "There is a world of
unconcileable difference between the two words
"nun" and "bhikkuni". First and foremost the word "nun" is pure English with
Christian connotation with its root in the Atta doctrine. The word "bhikkuni" is
Pali with Theravada Buddhist connotation with its root in the Anatta doctrine.
Secondly, the word "bhikkuni" means a "female monk", whereas the "nun"
is the "bride of Christ". What we have in present-day Myanmarpré are not
bhikkunis. Neither are they "brides" of anybody. They are lay-women who have
taken upon themselves of their own free will to keep the Nine precepts or even
the Ten precepts and are not bounded the the rules of the Bhikku & Bhikkuni.
They are termed "Sila-keepers" or "Silashin".
The links below
have been broken for further study.
The {htéra. wada.} Buddhist meditation practice
Myanmar script in Pagan
Myanmar and Pali |
A New Myanmar alphabet for Pali
Myanmar and Sanskrit |
• Edicts of King Asoka |
A sample of Brahmi in Asoka edicts.
• 13th-century
Myanmar-script at an Asoka-pagoda in India
• Basic Pali Glossary,
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/glosary2.htm
• Online Sanskrit Dictionary
http://www.alkhemy.com/sanskrit/dict/
-- for comparison to Sanskrit
• Pali-derivatives in Bur-Myan (UTM-PDMD) exclusively in Myanmar script
U Tun Myint, Asst. Editor, Translation and Publication Series number 31,
Universities Directorate, Myanmar, 1968
• The Universal Burmese-English-Pali Dictionary (UHS)
U Hoke Sein, Myitzythaka Sarpay, First Edition, Rangoon, 1981
• Pali-English Dictionary (PTS),
ed. by T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede,
The Pali Text Society, Oxford, 1999
-- with English-Pali characters
• A Dictionary of Pali Language (Childers), R.C. Childers, Paul, Trench,
Trubner & Co, London, 1909, 5th impr: 1974. Devanagari characters included
-- UKT 120526, 130518, 130818, 131117, 140327, 140415
Rewritten for this index on: 140423
Watch and listen a video in Bur-Myan with
Pal-Myan words:{þûm~boad~Dé}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyTBTjW26E 140211
The first three lines from the video are given:
Now refer to the table of BEPS consonants given above. Columns #2 and #4 have been described as "aspirated", and an <h> is added to the names of the consonants. For example, the columns are traditionally described as:
c1 - voiceless, c2 - voiceless-aspirated, c3 - voiced, c-4 - voiced-aspirated , e.g. row#5
----- प «pa», ------ फ «pha», -------------- ब «ba», ------------ भ «bha»
In my table above, I have named the columns differently removing the English notion of "aspiration". The notion of aspiration is best illustrated in the Cockney dialect of British English, where the <h> is dropped: "Henry Higgins" becomes 'enry 'iggins . This phenomenon has been caricatured by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1960) in his play Pygmalion with the principal character "Professor Henry Higgins" based on real-life phonetician Henry Sweet (1845-1912).
Listen and watch: Just you wait 'enry 'iggins':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbdVvIbB1KU 140327
To the speakers of Bur-Myan, the sounds of Kagyi Kha-khwé, the name of our akshara-system comes naturally. We call it the Thinpoangyi - the basic grammar or sounds of our language. Thinpoangyi literally means 'the Big-Board' set up against the wall of the class-room. The akshara-letters are written on it one by one, and recited over and over by the instructor with a rattan cane in his hand pointing the akshara-letters and making the students repeat again and again, until the students can write the akshara-letters out on their slate-boards and say the name clearly and precisely.
On learning English, it came as a surprise
to find out that the English speakers
cannot differentiate the sound of Kagyi
[k] (column c1) from that of Kha-khwé
[kʰ] (column c2). Kagyi [k] is
pronounced back in the mouth in the area
of the velum, and Kha-khwé [kʰ] just
to the front but still in the velar area.
The English speakers "hear" and
articulate only Kha-khwé [kʰ], and
think it is the same as Kagyi [k]. They
can "hear and articulate" Kagyi
[k] only when they have to produce a
hissing sound first. They say [k]
& [kʰ] are the allophones
of /k/. No, we say, they are separate
phonemes . They say it is just a
matter of voice lag and aspiration.
I say it is more.
Similarly, I am not satisfied with column c4. I had called it "voiced pharyngeal" at one time because the POA seems to be way back in the throat - the pharynx. Since the pharyngeals are connected with IPA /h/, I am now calling it deep-h.
My intermediary script, Romabama, has its
beginnings in
I was already advanced in age to go back
to school, and I had to learn those
subjects online using my analytical skill
as a scientist and engineer. I was
assisted by my young wife Daw ThanThan Tun
who was also a chemist. She had been
my classmate and life-long companion since
our teenage years, until she died in 2004.
I welcome anyone more capable than me to
improve my basic requirements.
To come up with a comprehensive alphabet, I have to improvised more than once, such as the one shown for Romabama alphabet r2c4 cell.
My aim in integrating IPA into BEPS is to come up with a reliable transcription -- which would not be perfect for theorists -- of Bur-Myan to Eng-Latin and back. I am finding that I cannot apply the IPA strictly, and transcriptions such as /ç/ & /ʝ/ for palatal fricatives, and /ʂ/ & /ʐ/ for retroflex fricatives are taken to be unpronounceable.
For the fricatives, I have taken only
/θ/ , /s/, /z/ , /ʃ/ as
pronounceable. The English affricates /ʧ/
& /ʤ/ are taken to be mis-pronunciation
due to the Western phoneticians not being
capable of distinguishing the tenuis
{ka.},
{sa.},
{ta.},
{pa.} from the voiceless
{hka.},
{hsa.},
{hta.},
{hpa.}.
One of the obstacles is to find a place for
Bur-Myan Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:}, & Nya'le
{ña.lé:}, both of which have to be pushed
into one cell r2c5. Until, I realized that
monosyllabic medials are found only in
Bur-Myan, and not in Skt-Dev, I could not
make any progress. When I looked into
Skt-Dev conjuncts closely I realized that
they are disyllabic conjuncts. I need to
come to this understanding to explain the
medial-conjunct problem in Pal-Myan, where
Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:} is deemed to be the horizontal
conjunct of two Nya'le
{ña.lé:}:
{ñ} +
Pal-Myan
{Ña.} cannot be killed without destroying the conjunct. However, Bur-Myan can be killed:
Bur-Myan{Ñ} . Because of this, it is a palatal-approximant, and is similar to
{ya.} + viram -->
{ý} , which is a velar approximant.
Then looking into the killed Bur-Myan Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:}, & Nya'le
{ña.lé:}, I found that killed Bur-Myan Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:} is almost the same as killed Ya'palak
{ya.}. This shows that Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:} is not a basic nasal, but a basic
nasalized approximant. I moved Ya'palak
{ya.} to velar position, which provides
a position for Nya'gyi
{Ña.kri:} in the palatal position.
Most of the Westerners are sibilant speakers. Of the BEPS, languages, Burmese and English speakers are used to non-hissing thibilant /θ/ sounds. An example of an English thibilant word is <thin> /θɪn/. Sanskrit speakers mix up this sound with /s/. Romabama has to make allowances for all these conflicting patterns of sounds, and has to come up with a compromise. It is summarized in the table below.
In order to present a comprehensive picture, the IPA table itself has to be extended to include, what the Westerners hear as "aspirated sounds" - those of c2 & c4 consonants such as {hpa.} & {Ba.} sounds shown below.
Now that I am including Mon-Myan into my
study, I am putting in another perspective.
My references for vocabulary in script and
sound are given in my collection
¤ Speaking Mon-Myan Language
--
MV1874-indx.htm
which is based on the following sources.
1. Learn Mon Yourself :
61 lessons: --
http://www.youtube.com/ (link chk 130311)
2. Grammatical notes and Vocabulary
of the Peguan Language
- Haswell, J.M., American
Mission Press, Rangoon, 1874 (hardcopy in TIL
lib.), and its sequel
3. A vocab of English
& Peguan with some geographical
names
- Stevens, E.O., 1896 - downloaded:
avocab-stev.pdf (link chk 140417)
4. Basic Method of Teaching Mon
Speech and Script
- Naing Maung Toe
(in Bur-Myan), Yangon, 2007 (quote as NMT)
- downloaded:
Mon-Bur-NMT.pdf
In the above IPA table the plosive-stops occupy the first row, followed by nasals in the second row. The IPA gives only the column #1 (tenuis), column #3 (voiced), and column #5 (nasals). The IPA table has to be extended to accommodate column #2 (voiceless), and column #4 (deep-H).
In update 130818, compromises made to bring Indo-European languages, Eng-Lat & Skt-Dev, and Tibeto-Burman languages, Bur-Myan & Pal-Myan together. In doing so, the first problem I have met is with the nasals. The nasals are basic phonemes and are placed in a separate column, #5, among the {wag}-consonants. Bur-Myan recognizes five in r1c5 /ŋ /, r2c5 /ɲ/, r3c5 /ɳ /, r4c5 /n/, r5c5 /m/, compared to two in Eng-Lat : r4c5 /n/, r5c5 /m/. In the IPA consonantal table, the nasals are placed in a special row.
You will find another problem similar to the nasals which I am calling the Sibilants in r1c1, r4c1, & r5c1 such as /sk/, /st/ & /sp/, and in column #5 and in approximants.
Strictly speaking approximants are neither vowels nor consonants though they been described as semi-vowels which is the same as semi-consonants. The only language among the BEPS in which they seem to play a unique role is Bur-Myan. The approximants may be divided into three subgroups:
• Semi-consonants aka semivowels:
{ra.},
{la.},
{wa.}
- capable of forming monosyllabic medials
{ya.ping.},
{ra.ric},
{la.hswè:},
{wa.hswè:}
- the process is known as secondary articulation in Phonetics. See
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_articulation 140327• Fricative: (non-hissing)
{þa.}. & (hissing)
{þhya.}.
- Skt-Dev has husher{sha.}, and hisser
{Sa.}.
- Incapable of articulating non-hissing thibilant /θ/,• Deep-H:
{ha.} - capable of forming monosyllabic medial
{ha.hto:}
Our interest is the effect of the approximants on the vowel - either free or bound as an inherent vowel in an akshara. They do not seem to change the vowel, say from {a.} to {i.}, but to effect their nature: make it palatal {ya.ping.}, rhotic {ra.ric}, lateral {la.hswè:}, rounded {wa.hswè:}, or glottal {ha.hto:}. Because of these, it is best that they be treated separately from both vowels and consonants.
-- UKT 140423
Rewritten for Bur-Myan and Pal-Myan
From Lonsdale:
-- UKT 130520, 140129,
140327:
When you refer to Daniels Jones' vowel
quadrilateral, the four corners correspond
to Bur-Myan vowels,
{a.},
{i.},
{u.},
{au:}.
Of these, the first 3 correspond to Skt-Dev
short-long vowels. These are what are known
as
{þa.wuN} vowels. The problem lies in the
open-back vowel
{au:}. The vowels that are
most troublesome are the mid-vowels,
especially because, the IE languages do
not have the corresponding vowel to
{o}
which is the same as IPA /o/. I also have
trouble in pinning down what vowel corresponds
to IPA /ɔ/ 'open o'.
To describe my effort to bring BEPS vowels to conform to
Daniel Jones' quadrilateral and IPA is an impossibility. The only way is to show
with a diagram as given above. My comparison of the BEPS languages is based on 4
corners vowels only:
{a.},
{i.},
{u.},
{au:}.
These vowels will be studied both as free vowels, and as bound vowels (present
in the consonantal aksharas).
Go back base-con-vow-note-b
- UKT 140423
Not a single one of us who are living today has ever heard the Gautama Buddha speaking. There were no electronic recordings of his voice. You will be told that since the Place of Articulation (POA) of Consonants are well-define, and since the Manner of Articulation of of the Vowels are known, we know Buddha's pronunciation. It is the greatest lie believed by many in Myanmarpré. Why?
Imagine yourself listening to a sermon preached by Gautama Buddha himself. How would your brain have recorded the sounds? Unless, you belong to the same linguistic group as the Buddha, your brain would not be able to record it perfectly.
HUMAN VOICE - indx-HV.htm (link chk 140415)
How sound is produced and heard [former hv6.htm] - snd-hear.htm (link chk 140415)
Thus, I speculate, that the Tib-Bur speakers would hear it and reproduce it in a non-rhotic non-hissing form, whereas IE (Indo-European) speakers, and Dravidian speakers, would have heard and recorded it in a rhotic hissing form. Since Magadha is within "walking distance" from Taguang in northern Myanmarpré, Pyus and others from our land, would surely be among his audience. And what they heard was brought back into Myanmarpré, and so our Pal-Myan is more close to the Buddha's speech than that of International Pali which was derived from SriLanka Pali.
Whatever language or dialect Buddha spoke, the texts that first were in the form of oral recitations were, as Dalai Lama explains, later put down in writing, and these works are the basis for all subsequent Buddhist literature (in Bodhi, 2005). Oral texts were recorded in hand-strokes, and how to pronounce them were rigorously trained by the teacher pointing out the POA and Manner of articulation to the individual student. It is what we mean by transcription - "put down in writing". As is now commonly known in this computer age, this type of recording can never approach that of electronic recording.
The oral texts were put down in writing in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE. The written text ought to be called the Lanka-Pali - an artificial language derived from Magadha (the area of where the Buddha was born and where he lived mostly, and Lanka the language of SriLanka.
Lanka-Pali language resembles Sanskrit which had already made its way into SriLanka and western India. Mahayana discourses that correspond to Pali Sutras, employ Sanskrit terms. Since I am now somewhat familiar with Sanskrit terms, I agree with scholars that Pali words are easier than Sanskrit.
As for Myanmar-Pali or Pal-Myan, since there had been continual going back and forth between northern Myanmarpré of Tagaung area and northern India over land-routes across the mountains, even before the days of the Gautama Buddha, it would be more akin to other Tibeto-Burman languages extending from Afghanistan along the foot-hills of Himalayas extending into the present-day Myanmarpré. However, because of religious reform of King Anawrahta in the 11the century AD, Myanmar-Pali has come to be mixed up with Lankan-Pali or International Pali.
Go back Buddha-speak-note-b
Mnemonic
The Doggie Tale:
Little doggie cringe in fear --
ŋ (velar),
Seeing Ella's flapping ears --
ɲ (palatal)
And, the Shepard's hanging rear --
ɳ (retroflex).
Doggie so sad he can't get it out
What's that Kasha
क्ष when there's a Kha
ख ?
And when there's Jana
ज्ञ what I am to do
with Jha झ?
Note to digitizer: you can copy and
paste the following:
Ā ā Ē ē Ī ī Ō ō Ū ū
Ḍ ḍ Ḥ ḥ Ḷ ḷ Ḹ
ḹ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ
Ṅ ṅ
Ñ ñ Ṇ ṇ Ṛ ṛ Ṝ ṝ
Ś ś Ṣ ṣ Ṭ ṭ ɕ ʂ
• Instead of Skt-Dev ः {wic~sa.} use "colon" :
• Avagraha ऽ use apostrophe
• Root sign √ ; approx ≅
• IAST Dev: च «ca» छ «cha» श
ś [ɕ] /ʃ/ ; ष ṣ [ʂ] /s/; स s [s] /θ/ ;
ऋ {iRi.} & ॠ {iRi},
viram ् , rhotic ऋ ृ
• Skt-Dev special phonemes: Ksa
• Undertie in Dev transcription: ‿ U203F
• IPA-, Pali- & Sanskrit nasals:
ŋ ṅ ṅ , ñ ñ ,
ɳ ṇ ṇ, n n n , m m m
Pali- & Skt {þé:þé:ting}: aṁ ,
aṃ
• IPA symbols: ɑ ɒ ə ɛ
ɪ ɯ ʌ ʊ ʃ ʧ
ʤ θ ŋ ɲ ɳ ɴ
ɔ ɹ ʔ /kʰ/ /ː/
<church> /ʧɜːʧ/
(DJPD16-097)
<success> /sək'ses/
(DJPD16-515)
<thin> /θɪn/
(DJPD16-535),
<thorn>
/θɔːn/ (DJPD16-535)
circumflex-acute :
ấ U+1EA5 , ế U+1EBF
upsilon-vrachy ῠ
small-u-breve ῠ u
Go back Dog-tale-note-b
End of TIL file
