Update: 2017-06-23 06:11 PM -0400
MC-indx.htm
by A. A. Macdonell, 1893,
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MDScan/index.php?sfx=jpg;
1929.
Nataraj ed., 1st in 2006, 2012.
Edited
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T.,
USA), Daw Khin Wutyi, 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 Research Station,
Yangon, MYANMAR
-
http://www.tuninst.net ,
www.romabama.blogspot.com
For comparing Pali and Sanskrit, it necessary to go into
the Roots, and Verb-forms, for which I rely on:
¤ The Roots, Verb-Forms and
Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language, by William Dwight Whitney,
1885. For comparison to Pali, see UHS PMD in Appendix'Ka on
{þak~ka.ta. Daat} 'Sanskrit Roots' . You can also browse through Practical
Grammar of the Pali Language by Charles Duroiselle, 1906, in TIL HD-PDF and
SD-PDF libraries:
- CDuroiselle-PaliGramm<Ô>
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 170608)
Since the layout of Macdonell and Whitney is somewhat different, and the process of
comparison is not smooth. To smooth out the process, Whitney is given on the
first page of entries on basic consonant in various register endings. For example on: {ka.} -
p060-3.htm , {ka} -
p065.htm ,
¤ Pali Roots: from
http://obo.genaud.net/backmatter/glossology/pali_roots.htm
Downloaded txt in TIL non-PDF library
- PaliRoots<Ô> (link chk
170607)
• Preface, Scanned pages, Glossary --
MC-pre1.htm /
MC-pre2.htm /
Glossary.htm
• Skt-Dev grammar lectures from various sources, such as Sch. of
Traditional Indian Arts & Literat, and others:
- SktDevGramLect-indx.htm
- (link chk 170531 )
-
SktDevGram01-indx.htm (not online)
- SktDevGram02-indx.htm
(not online)
• In page-by-page reference
of the original book
Vowels as onsets
¤ p001-p044-1 -
MCv1pp-indx.htm - update 161130
¤ p044-2-p060c2 -
MCv2pp-indx.htm - update 170131
Plosive-stops & nasals as onsets
¤ p060c3-p104 -
MCc1pp-indx.htm -
update 170630
¤ p105-p148-1
-
MCc2pp-indx.htm - update 160430
¤ p148-2-p237-1 -
MCc3pp-indx.htm - future upload
Approximants regrouped as
semi-consonants, fricatives, and H- as
onsets:
- The following -
MCa-indx.htm - update 141217
are to be rechecked,
and moved to
p030.htm represented in the following
format.
¤ p237-2-p305.htm -
MC-c61-indx.htm - MCa1pp-indx.htm
- future upload
¤ p306-p374 -
MC-c65-indx.htm -
MCa2pp-indx.htm - future upload
¤ p375-p382 -
MC-c72-indx.htm - MCa3pp-indx.htm
- future upload
• No stranger to Indian languages
• Pronunciation of Skt-Dev Basic
Alphabet Aksharas
• Pronunciation of Skt-Dev Numerals
• Hand-written Skt-Dev Akshara
• Sanskrit speaking Buddhists :
Buddhist missionaries into China
• Speech (language) of the Buddha : Old
Magadhi - the language of Magadha Mahajanapada
UKT 170114 : I am thinking of presenting the downloaded Macdonell's entries in width = 400 pix, instead of the present 300 pix in conformity with Edgerton-BHS. See an example on p057-2.htm entry of p057-2c3-b01
Link to Edgerton Dictionary - FE-BHSD<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 161231)
UKT 170114: Bookmarks for entries from FE-BHS must be standardized as per entries on p001.htm .
Capitals for proper names are allowed, and diacritics removed.UKT 170418: Quite a few of Macdonell's entries are very large and need to break into smaller ones for ease of comparison to entries from other sources. There are two kinds of marks: ¶ and ©
Mark ¶ : Cutting very large grouping into smaller groups. e.g. among the consonants, in the entries on :
- p072.htm : p072c1-b24 - multiple cuts from 00 to 12re-cut the following
- p076.htm : p076c1-b21
- p082.htm : multiple cuts p082c-b15Mark ©: Entries that are of interest to me. I have to come up with a spelling in Dev myself. I check it with the following sources:
¤ Spoken Sanskrit dictionary (SpkSkt) online, and
¤ Sanskrit Document website - http://sanskritdocuments.org/dict/dictall_unic.html (link chk 170415)
See the downloaded paper: MC-indx.htm > glossary.htm (link chk 170415)
¤ Green Message - http://greenmesg.org/index.php (Don't open from HTML editor: link chk 170526I still need to listen to how it is pronounce. e.g. निरुक्ति «nirukti».
UKT 150503: How would a Hindi-speaker pronounce it ?
https://www.howtopronounce.com/hindi/निरुक्ति/ 150712
The website gives the sound of this word निरुक्ति<)) (link chk 150924),
It sounds{ni.roak-té} to me, ending in /e/ instead of /i/. Maybe, my hearing is at fault.
UKT 170227: Paucity of nasals in IE - Eng-Lat & Skt-Dev - has necessitate the introduction of a sort of universal stand-in
{käin}. It is allowed by Shin Kicsi
{rhín kic~saeÑ:} - the Buddhist grammarian praised by Gautama Buddha. See examples in
{kaín} &
{kaiñ} on p068.htm (among coda consonants). However, it is not enough, and I have to change the vowel itself to solve the problem of Paucity of nasals.
UKT notes :
• Doggie's Tale : copy and paste
• Indology : forget the fairy-tales
•
My own thoughts and my inspiration : never bow down - look up to the stars
• Nirukta
{ni.roat~ta}
•
Perceptual sound variation of
lateral to rhotic sounds
as reflected in Vedic to Sanskrit
languages, with Pali in between
Includes moves from old p045-1.htm which has been deleted:
¤ Vowel letters in Bur-Myan and Skt-Dev
¤
Checking the Bur-Myan vowels
• Pronunciation of Skt-Dev Basic Aksharas
•
Sonority hierarchy
- 170423:
Inset Pix: Two books of some 60 from the Sixth Buddhist Council held in Yangon in 1955 in Pali on Discipline in the Order of Monks, Parazika Pali
{pa-ra-zi.ka. pa-Li.}, and Culawagga Pali
{su-la.wag~ga. pa-Li.}.
As a Bur-Myan native speaker, I know how to pronounce Pali (in Pal-Myan) words. I was born in Kungyangon in the reign of King George V - the Emperor of British Indian Empire. Kungyangon is now a part of Greater Rangoon, and coming to live in Rangoon itself after the Second World War, I know some words of Hindustani (Hindi mixed with Urdu). My father U Tun Pe, an officer of the British-Burma goverent was a fluent speaker in Hindustani, and my mother could speak Hindustani. My family had some Indian servants. Yet, I was totally ignorant of proper Hindi and less of Sanskrit. Unable to hire a Hindi speaker to help me with Sanskrit pronunciations, I have to resort to online sources.
For understanding between speakers of
different languages, it is not the precise
pronunciation. It was noted by the Buddha
himself and his message to his monks:
"What is important is the message
- not the correct pronunciation."
Gautama Buddha the Wise let his
monks pass on his message
according to how the local audience
could understand:
This is the opposite view of Poannars, who insisted that pronunciation is important to preserve the message of the their unseen Gods who are nothing but axiomatic entities not accepted by modern Science. Yet, in order to understand modern languages, I need to study Sanskrit written in Devanagari script.
UKT 170423 :
Most of the Language teachers are still not aware that Aksharas and Alphabets are totally different. They belong to two different systems of representing Speech (made of sound-waves and heard by the human ear as pronunciation) with Script (markings made on substrates such as paper, leather, stone, metal sheets, etc. seen by the human eye). You have some control by various vocal organs how you produce the Speech, but you have absolutely no control over how your ear receive the sound waves and how your brain records them as signals.
The two systems of representing Speech
as Script are: Abugida-Akshara and
Alphabet-Letter where Akshara and Letter
are the basic units of the two systems.
Akshara is a syllable, i.e.
pronounceable, whereas the Letter is mute.
Akshara has an included vowel, whereas
the Letter needs a vowel to make it
pronounceable. Now I will give an example
involving 3 languages, Georgian, Burmese,
and Sanskrit speeches. If you write
{ta.} त , a Bur-Myan and Skt-Dev
(or Hindi-Dev) speaker-writer will
pronounce it as /ta/ . But if you write
თ < t > त् ,
a Georgian and Skt-Dev will ask you for
a vowel to pronounce it. You will have
to write (თა) and
(त् + अ = त) for
them to pronounce. The Georgian vowel
ა "An" and Skt-Dev
vowel अ «a» are equivalent. Their
opposites are known as virama, halant, or
{a.þut},
in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Burmese, resptly,
meaning "the vowel-killer" to
kill the inherent vowel of the basic Akshara.
Georgian თ having the same shape as
Myanmar
,
is a Letter and is mute. The hall-mark
of Abugida-Akshara system is the
{a.þut} aka viram (short for Virama).
{t} त्
Note: Georgian ა "An" is
the inverse of the sign of Bur-Myan
{a.þut}:
- the "Killer" . This
has prompted me to call it the
"Life-giver". I
hold that it is possible that Georgian
script (of Alphabet-Letter system) is a
derivative of Myanmar script (Abugida-Alphabet
system).
From: Lakshya Yoga , http://www.lakshyayoga.com/ 170423
- SanskritAlphabet-LY<Ô> / bkp<Ô> (link chk 170423)
See also Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari 170424
Consonants
Velar (guttural) «kaṇṭhya»
Palatal «tālavya»
Retroflex (cerebral) «mūrdhanya»
Dental «dantya»
Labial «oṣṭhya»
Approximants
semi-consonants aka semivowels
(I, UKT, prefer the term semi-consonants because they can appear as coda or
killed-consonants in the syllable of CVÇ.)
Fricatives
comprising of 2 sibilants and 1 thibilant, which are taken together as three
sibilants in Sanskrit.
Vowels
8 in Pali, 9 in Sanskrit, and 12 in Burmese.
Now listen to what Lakshya Yoga has to say:
-
SanskritAlphabet-LY<Ô>
-
SanskritAlphabet-LY<))
- UKT 170424
In any cross-language study, it is not only the pronunciation of speech units in terms of vowels and consonants that are important, the pronunciation of numbers are also equally important.
Now, let's count from 1 to 12, from the same website
- Lakshya Yoga ,
http://www.lakshyayoga.com/ 170423.
- Count1to12-LY<Ô> / bkp<Ô>
- Count1to12-LY<))
One एक्म «ekam», Two द्वे «dwe», Three त्रीणि
«triiṇi»
Four चत्वारि «catvāri», Five पञ्च «pañca», Six षट् «ṣaṭ»
Seven
० Zero 0 «शून्य»
१ One एक «éka» or एक्म «ekam»
२ Two द्वि «dwi» or द्वे «dwe»
३ Three त्रि «tri» or त्रीणि «triiṇi»
४ Four चतुर् «catúr» or चत्वारि «catvāri»
५ Five पञ्च «pañca»
or पञ्च «pañca»
६ Six षष् «ṣáṣ» or षट् «ṣaṭ»
७ Seven सप्त
«saptá» or सप्त
«saptá»
८ Eight अष्ट «aṣṭá» or
९ Nine नव «náva» or
Skt-Deva is rather complicated because each language teacher would give slightly different words, and transliteration for the same word (identifiable from its meaning). The following is from a different website.
- UKT 170424
Now that the use of computers and computer-fonts has become an every-day activity, we have become lazy to write a hand-written letter. We have come to think that the letters of the alphabet have come from printer's printing-blocks. We have forgotten that the art of printing was unknown in the West in Medieval Ages (a period stretching for 1000 years, from 500 AD to 1500 AD.)
The art of printing had been borrowed from the East, China to be specific, which
had used it for thousands of years.
See Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press 170424
We have to write the letters, the glyphs, by hand. The basic shape of the glyph to represent the human sound dictates the ease of hand-writing. Burmese and Indic writers use the basic shape of the circle. Myanmar script demands more: a perfectly rounded circle. Each child of my child-hood days and before had to practice writing the perfect circle for many days, before we were allowed to write other glyphs. Bur-Myan used single and double circles without adding straight lines, whereas the most ancient Indic script, the Asokan Brahmi, has added lines.
Myanmar script, used by many indigenous ethnics of Myanmarpré, such as Bamar,
Karan, Mon, Shan, etc., use the circle
as the basic shape. A circle can be modified with a single dent on 4 sides:
left, top, right, and bottom. Instead of the dent we can have an opening.
Thus
the numeral one
(
{tic}) is a circle with an opening on the left, the akshara {pa.} has
an opening at top, {nga.} on the right, and {ga.} on the bottom. You can write
most of glyphs without lifting the stylus or pen from the substrate which can be
a palm leaf, or paper. Since the ancients had used written runes - the mystic
religious signs even in the most ancient civilization: the Indus-Saraswati
civilization aka the Harapan civilization - the perfectly rounded circle
representing the Perfect Man - has been used. The Swastika of the Harapans is
the frame to house the akshara. See Ch05. Cult of Magus in my rendition
of Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism by Maung (Dr.) Htin Aung:
-
flk-ele-indx.htm >
ch05-magus.htm (Cult of Runes) (link chk 170424)
From: American Sanskrit Institute: http://www.americansanskrit.com/ 170424
See how Devanagari aksharas are written by hand:
- SktAlphabet-Amer<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk 170424)
The instructor has finished writing अ «a» and आ «ā», and is beginning to write इ
« i »
- UKT 170425
There were Sanskrit-speakers among the followers of Buddha. F. Edgerton in his Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Grammar and Dictionary has dubbed their language (speech) as Buddhist
Hybrid Sanskrit aka BHS:
-
BHS-vol01-indx.htm - update 160229
I am using Vol. 1 as a bridge from Macdonell's work to Pal-Myn. Go thru the TOC
to see its coverage:
Introduction
i01. Languages used in early Buddhism --
i01early.htm
i02. An 'original language' of Buddhism --
i02original.htm
UKT 160807: In BHS we find, Rāhula
{ra-hu.la.} has an equivalent, Lāghula
{la-Gu.la.}. It is an evidence for pronunciations of Lateral (L-like) plane changing into those of Rhotic (R-like) plane.
i03. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit --
i03BHS.htm
i04. Changes in the course of tradition --
i04changes.htm
i05. Plan and methods of this work --
i05plan-methods.htm
i06. Sanskrit vs Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit --
i06Skt-vs-BHS.htm
i07. The Prakrit underlying BHS --
i07Prakrit-BHS.htm
i08. BHS lexicon -- i08BHS-lex.htm
UKT 140315: I am finding Edgerton's Vol. 1, to be a very useful introduction. The small print was too much for my eyes until my able assistant Daw KhinWutyi started to digitize them from my research station in Yangon. The pages were scanned from the ink-on-paper book by my son Dr. Zin Tun. They are sent via email to Yangon to Wutyi who digitized them into html. Back they came to me in Canada to be checked, edited and included in this work.
-- UKT 120924, 130912, 140710, 151123, 170425
Imagine yourself listening to a sermon in
Magadhi preached by Gaudama 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.
The Tib-Bur speakers would hear the speech
and reproduce it in a non-rhotic non-hissing
form, whereas IE (Indo-European) speakers,
and Dravidian speakers (Aus-Asi) would have
heard and recorded it in a rhotic hissing
form. Since Magadha Mahajanapada
{ma-ga.Da. ma.ha-za.na.pa.da.} 'foothold of
of Magadha people' (c. 600 BCE - c. 300 BCE),
is within "walking distance"
from Tagaung Kingdom
{ta.kaún:præN} in modern 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,
Pal-Lat, which was derived from Lankan Pali.
Pali in Lanka was invented from Old Magadhi
and Lankan speech for use by the Theravada
Buddhists after the missionaries from Magadha
Kingdom of King Asoka centuries after the
death of the Buddha.
Though there were no sound recording
machines during the time of Magadha
Mahajanapada
{ma-ga.Da. ma.ha-za.na.pa.da.}, we can
still get a fair idea how speech of the
people would have sounded from the
Abugida-Akshara script of King Asoka - a
perfect phonetic script of the period
which preceded by thousands of years the
IPA alphabet of our modern times. Please
note I am not saying that Pal-Myan and
Bur-Myan are the same, but since our
peoples share many genetic and cultural
aspects, our phonologies would be the same.
See downloaded pdf in TIL SD-Library
-
ACunningham-Asoka-inscrip«Ô» /
bkp<Ô> (link chk 160222)
What Macdonell has given in his dictionary
is mostly surface meanings which he
undoubtedly got from the Hindu religionist
sources. Sanskrit must have changed
over the centuries as the speakers came
into contact with new cultures and new
religions, and Sanskrit of northern India
of Buddha's time would be different from
the "modern" Sanskrit of southern
India thanks to the religionists writing
and rewriting the religious texts over the
centuries. However it is my expectation
that I can get a fair idea of underlying
meanings if I were to compare two
contemporary (or almost contemporary) works
such as that of Macdonell and of U Hoke Sein.
A word such as
{a.da-na.} & its antonym
{da-na.}, is an example on how I would like to proceed. Example:
• अदान «a-dāna» -->
¤ Skt: n. not giving, withholding; a. not giving; not exuding juice from the temples [of elephant]. -- Mac09c1
¤ Pal:
¤ Pal antonym:
In the above example,
• अदान
«a-dāna» -->
{a.da-na.}, we can use aks-to-aks
to get from Skt-Dev to Pal-Myan.
Because I am a Buddhist not only by birth but by conviction, I have been curious about the language used by the historical Buddha - the Gautama Buddha. Forget the Mahayana Buddhas, such as the Adhi Buddha. They are nothing but axiomatic entities such, like the Hindu gods and goddesses, such as Mahabrahma, Vishnu and Siva, and the Médaws of the pre-Brahminical incursion into the Indian subcontinent extending into Myanmarpré.
It is obvious that the historical Gautama Buddha spoke
mostly in his own language, the Magadhi, the
language of
{ma.ga.Da.teín:} 'Magadha-country' where he
was born. The language is now recognized as
the older form of Pali-Prakrit. What was its
script?
It is
accepted that the oldest script found in the
Indian subcontinent was the script on Asoka
pillars which is now dubbed Brahmi script.
However, when one Magul king asked the
Brahmin-Poannars
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:} to decipher the script
on the Asoka pillars, they could not. This shows
that it was not their script, and I must
object to the name the "Brahmi". I
prefer to call it "Asokan". Or, if you are stuck with Brahmi , call it
is Asokan-Brahmi. This would differentiate it from another similar script, the
Tamil-Brahmi. My interest in Telugu and Tamil languages are because of their
similarity to Mon-Myan language.
See Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil-Brahmi 170228
" Tamil-Brahmi, or Tamili, is a variant of the Brahmi script used
to write the Tamil language. These are the earliest documents of a Dravidian
language, and the script was well established in the Chera and Pandyan
states, in what is now Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka.
Inscriptions have been found on cave beds, pot sherds, Jar burials, coins,
seals, and rings. The language is Archaic Tamil, and led to classical Sangam
literature..
[1]
"Tamil Brahmi differs in several ways from Ashokan Brahmi. It adds several letters for sounds not found in Prakrit [Magadhi?]: ṉ ṟ ṛ ḷ. Secondly, in many of the inscriptions the inherent vowel has been discarded: A consonant written without diacritics represents the consonant alone, whereas the Ashokan diacritic for long ā is used for both ā and short a in Tamil Brahmi. This is unique to Tamil Brahmi and Bhattiprolu among the early Indian scripts. [2] This appears to be an adaptation to Dravidian phonotactics, where words commonly end in consonants, as opposed to Prakrit, where this never occurs. According to Mahadevan, in the earliest stages of the script the inherent vowel was either abandoned, as above, or the bare consonant was ambiguous as to whether it implied a short a or not. Later stages of Tamil Brahmi returned to the inherent vowel that was the norm in India. [1]"
{sa.} च as «ka» [«k»
is slanted or in italics].
Note Bur-Myan uses the same glyph
{Sa.} ष for dental fricative-sibilant.
This transcription system was used by
Indologists of his period, and if you are
interested in
Indology you should know about this
transcription system.
The article that finally settled my query
on the language of Buddha is from Buddhist
Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary ,
by Franklin Edgerton, 1885-1963,
- BHS-indx.htm
(link chk 17042)
(p002c2)
1.15. The Buddha himself was an 'easterner'; his family lived at Kapilavastu, in northeaster Kosala (Oudh); his wanderings seem to have been chiefly bounded on the west by Srāvastī (also in Kosala, though considerably to the west of Kapilavastu) and on the east by Rājagrha, the capital of Magadha (Bihar south of the Ganges). All this region belongs linguistically to what is now called modern Bihari (except that Srāvastī may perhaps be just over the line in Eastern Hindi). Doubtless most of his disciples belonged to the same general region, and we may assume that, during the Buddha's lifetime, the Buddhist texts were mainly, at least, recited in eastern dialects. Yet no one knows just what dialect the Buddha spoke; and it seems clear that the dialects of his disciples differed perceptibly.
Realizing that his teachings would have to be spread among peoples speaking with differing phonologies, Buddha summarized:
-- UKT 130613
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?
On top of all there're husher and hisser, Sha श /ʃ/ and 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!
Note to digitizer: you can copy and
paste the following:
Ā ā ă ấ Ē ē ĕ ế Ī ī ĭ Ō ō
ŏ Ū ū ŭ ː
Ḍ ḍ Ḥ ḥ Ḷ ḷ Ḹ
ḹ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ
Ṅ ṅ
Ñ ñ Ṇ ṇ ɴ Ṛ ṛ Ṝ ṝ
Ś ś Ṣ ṣ Ṭ ṭ ɕ ʂ
Book marks: * star, † dagger (alt0134), ‡ double daggerf (a0135).
Bur-Myan: for {nga.} use c ċ (U010B) - unfortunately ċ is non-ASCII
• Instead of Skt-Dev ः {wic~sa.} use "colon" :
• Avagraha ऽ use apostrophe
• Root sign √ ; approx ≅
• IAST Dev: भ आ इ ई उ ऊ
ऋ ऌ ऍ ऎ ए ऐ
ऑ ऒ ओ औ
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 Row #3: ट ठ ड ढ ण ;
conjunct ट ् ठ
= ट्ठ
• Skt-Dev special phonemes: Ksa क ् ष
= क्ष
• Undertie in Dev transcription: ‿ U203F
• Using ZWNJ (ZeroWidthNonJoiner), e.g. ,
क्ष
(code: क्‌ष)
See Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-width_non-joiner 150630
• IPA-, Pali- & Sanskrit nasals: ŋ ṅ ṅ ,
ɲ ñ ñ , ɳ ṇ ṇ, n n n , m m m
Pali- & Skt {þé:þé:tín}: aṁ , aṃ
• IPA symbols:
ɑ ɒ ə ɛ ɪ ɯ ʌ ʊ ʃ ʧ ʤ θ ŋ ɲ ɳ
ɴ ɔ ɹ ʔ /ʰ/ /ʳ/ /ː/
<king> /kɪŋ/ (DJPD16-300)
<kick> /kɪc/ (DJPD16-299 gives /kik/) and <kiss> /kɪs/ (DJPD16-301)
<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 ŭ
Go back Dog-tale-note-b
-- UKT 140831, 150703, 170326:
When you study Indology, you will come
across many unexpected things, such as
in a Hindu-religionist story on the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Lord Chaitanya
(18 February 1486 – 14 June 1534):
http://krishna.org/lord-chaitanya-defeats-the-buddhists/
- 140216, 140831, 150703 . He was considered to be Kishna himself.
See also Wikipedia:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu
150703
Curiously, he was born 449 years before I was
born on 18 Feb 1935, Monday just before the
Moon became full.
Bur-Myan Buddhists - one group in my target audience - should be prepared for such stories, noting that Skt-Dev is just a language and that you must be able to treat it like any other language free from biases of the religionists.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indology 130509
Indology is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent (most specifically the modern-day states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal), and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
Indology may also be known as Indic studies or Indian studies, or South Asian studies [UKT: differentiate from South-East Asian (SE-Asian) studies], although scholars and university administrators sometimes have only partially overlapping interpretations of these terms.
The term Indology or (in German)
Indologie is often associated
with German scholarship, and is used
more commonly in departmental titles
in German and continental European
universities than in the anglophone
academy. In the Netherlands the term
Indologie was used to designate
the study of Indonesian history and
culture in preparation for colonial
service in the Dutch East Indies.
Specifically, Indology includes the study of Sanskrit literature and Hinduism along with the other Indian religions, Jainism, Buddhism and Pāli literature, and Sikhism. [UKT ¶]
UKT 151122, 170326: Pali language is an artificial language created from Old Magadhi of Buddha and king Asoka, and the native language of Sri Lanka aka Ceylon. Old Magadhi speech is written in Asokan (or Asokan-Brahmi) - the forerunner of Myanmar script, and Lanka speech in its own script.
Pal-Myan is related the Old Magadhi in Asakan-Brahmi, whereas International Pali to the Pali used in Sri Lanka.
Dravidology is the separate branch dedicated to the Dravidian languages of South India. What we meant by Indology is specifically called the Classical Indology dealing with Pali and Sanskrit and various forms of religion. It is to be differentiated from Modern Indology, is focussed on contemporary India, its politics and sociology.
Systematic study and editorial activity
of Sanskrit literature is possible
with appearances of works such as:
1. the St. Petersburg Sanskrit-Wörterbuch
- 1850s to 1870s.
2. the Sacred Books
of the East - beginning 1879.
3. Pāṇini's grammar by Otto von Bohtlingkappeared -
1887.
4. Rigveda by Max Müller - 1849–75.
5. Bibliotheca Buddhica by Sergey Oldenburg - 1897.
Take note of timeline in Myanmarpré: Anglo-Burmese Wars: 1st. 1824, 2nd. 1852,
3rd. 1885
UKT 130511: Macdonell has stated in his Preface MC-pre2.htm (link chk 160222)
in connection with Transliteration :"The system is that which has been adopted in the 'Sacred Books of the East,' and already followed by me in my edition of Professor Max Müller's Sanskrit Grammar. Had I been guided exclusively by my own judgment I should have preferred c
{za.} to represent the hard and the soft palatal".
UKT: more in the Wikipedia article.
Go back Indology-note-b
-- UKT120904, 140831, 160222
I have been asked by many why at this old age I have become a linguist after retirement from a life time of a university chemistry teacher which I had shared with my now departed wife Daw Than Than aka Mrs. Than Than Tun.
Retirement years as an old man physically handicapped to some extent are not the golden years as have been popularly imagined. Ordinarily I would have been treated even by my own children as a senile old man who has outlived his usual years as a human being. Luckily my love for my birth country Myanmarpré and its language Bur-Myan (Burmese speech in Myanmar) script have come to my rescue.
My love for Bur-Myan and my attempts to write it out on my father's English typewriter has been dormant all along in my life since my pre-teen days in the 1940s (before Burmese typewriters came on scene). The resulting script, Romabama, is thus not a Johnny-come-lately in my old age because I have nothing else to do. However, Romabama in its present form, was launched only in the late 1990s on the Internet from Canada, after both my wife and I had become Canadian citizens because of which our meagre service pension for serving in the Myanmar universities for over 33 years have been discontinued.
To
be able to bring my beloved Myanmar script to
the world's attention, and to try to
"unify" BEPS (Burmese, English, Pali,
& Sanskrit spoken languages written in
Myanmar, IPA-English, & Devanagari scripts)
have been my reward. To be able to continue
with this study for these many years is because
of the encouragements I have received from
achievers in life . The following
is one:
From a news report by Nick Collins, Science Correspondent, The Telegraph, 120110. Nick Collins wrote about Professor Stephen Hawking on his 70th birthday. Professor Hawking is the one who had been diagnosed 50 years ago, to live only five years.
"Prof Hawking reflected on his life as a "glorious time to be alive" and said he was happy to have made a "small contribution" to our understanding of the universe.
"He concluded: "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.
" 'Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.' "
See also Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking 140831
Go back thoughts-inspiration-note-b
- UKT 150923, 170425:
I have been on the Language problem of primitive Buddhism, since I received a photocopy sometime in 2004, from Daw Papa Aung, lecturer in Pali, Yangon University.
From: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirukta 150923
Nirukta
निरुक्त
{ni.roat~ta}, "explanation, etymological
interpretation", is one of the six
Vedānga disciplines of Hinduism,
treating etymology, particularly of obscure
words, especially those occurring in the Vedas.
[1]
[2]
[3]
The discipline is traditionally attributed
to Yāska, an ancient
Sanskrit Vedic grammarian.
Yāska's association with the discipline
is so great that he is also referred to as
Niruktakāra or Niruktakrit ("Maker
of Nirukta"), as well as Niruktavat
("Author of Nirukta"). In practical
use, nirukta consists of brief rules
(sūtras) for deriving word meanings,
supplemented with glossaries of difficult or
rare Vedic words.
Nirukta is also the name given to a celebrated commentary by Yāska on the Nighantu, an even older glossary (dated before 14th Century CE) [4] which was already traditional in his time. Yāska's Nirukta contains a treatise on etymology, and deals with various attempts to interpret the many difficult Vedic words in the Nighantu. It is in the form of explanations of words, and is the basis for later lexicons and dictionaries. [5] The Nighantu is now traditionally combined with the Nirukta as a unified text.
A critical edition of the Nighantu and the
Nirukta was published by Lakshman Sarup in
the 1920s. The downloaded pdf paper is in
TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-
LSarup-NighantuNirukta<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk 170425)
See Buddha's conversation with two
Brahmin-Poannars, on p075. He used the
Socratic manner of argument to make the
Poannars to reject their beliefs in
axiomatic entities.
See what the Socratic method is in Wikipedia:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method 170425
The
question of meaning of Niruta is also connected to how it is pronounced. I
cannot get its pronunciation. What I could get is निरुक्ति
«nirukti».
How would a lay Hindi-speaker , or a Poannar whose L1 is Hindi pronounce the
word निरुक्ति
«nirukti» = न ि र ु क ् त ि -->
{ni.roak~ti.}? Now, listen:
निरुक्ति<))
(link chk 170425)
from:
https://www.howtopronounce.com/hindi/निरुक्ति/
150712
I don't know how another Hindi-speaker would heard it. But it sounds
{ni.roak-té} to me.
No wonder we are all confused!
Remember there are at least two kinds of
Brahmins who speak Skt-Dev:
Vaishnavite-Poannar
{braah~ma.Na PoaN~Na:} (mostly with Hindi as L1) and
Shaivite-Poannar
(mostly with Tamil as L1). Their
Sanskrit pronunciations are different.
Since, Hindi speech written in Devanagari
script is the directly related to Skt-Dev,
I would like to rely more on the Sanskrit
speech of the Hindi speakers taking note
that Hindi syllables that should end with
coda are shown without the Virama sign,
which has a bearing on their Sanskrit
pronunciation. It results in a change in the
nuclear vowel of the syllable. Thus Asoka
has become Ashok, which in Bur-Myan means
'confusion'. And we are doubly confused!
Go back nirukta-note-b
UKT 131019, 140725, 160807, 161007:
Strictly speaking approximants are neither vowels nor consonants though they have been described as semi-vowels which is the same as semi-consonants.
My interest is their effect on the
preceding vowel - either free or bound
as an inherent vowel in an akshara.
Remember, as such they are the
codas. e.g.:
{y},
{r},
{l},
{w},
{h}
UKT 160807: In BHS we find, Rāhula
{ra-hu.la.} has an equivalent, Lāghula
{la-Gu.la.}. It is an evidence for pronunciations of Lateral (L-like) plane changing into those of Rhotic (R-like) plane.
See: F. Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary,
- BHS-indx.htm (link chk 161007)
Do not confuse these with
{ya.pín.},
{ra.ric},
{la.hswè:},
{wa.hswè:},
and
{ha.hto:}. As an illustration:
{ka.} + viram +
{ya.} -->
{kya.}
{kèý}
The codas
{y},
{r},
{l},
{w},
{h}, do not seem to change the pronunciation
of the vowel, from
{a.} to
{i.},
but to effect its nature as to its
rhoticity, laterality, and roundness.
{ma} -->
{maar}
{bo} -->
{bol}
{pa.o.} -->
{pa.ow.}
However if your tongue is thick and is not versatile, you pronounce each
pair the same. It has been suggested that
{maar} 
{maan}
- which is not acceptable because it involves an unnecessary vowel change from
rhotic to nasal.
The case of
{r} is more complicated than the
rest because it rise to repha sounds,
{ar} (in
{a.þût}-form), and
{ar~}
{kín:si:}-form).
The highly rhotic vowels ऋ & ॠ are treated elsewhere . There is a perceptual difference between rhotic and lateral vowels ऌ & ॡ, and in classical Sanskrit of Panini, the lateral vowels have disappeared. However, we can expect to find them in Pal-Myan.
-- UKT 120121, 120602, 120622
The following phonemes are controversial,
because they are the most back and the most
open. They can be pronounced with various
degrees of lip rounding:
¤
{o} to
{AU}
¤/
{AU:} to
• Skt-Dev as ओ «o» & औ «au»
• Skt-Dev diacritics: े (E) ै (Ai), ो (O) ौ (Au) - (names according to Windows)To get to the Bur-Myan way of writing before the British colonial-educators had to chance to meddle in it, I refer to A. W. Lonsdale:
You will note that Lonsdale did not include
The controversy is based on several factors:
1. Production of vowels depends upon linguistic groups, and within
a linguistic group, it varies from person to person. Since the production of
vowels depends on the muscles of the hyoid complex, we can expect quite a lot of
divergence.
2. When the external facial features differs from speakers of different ethnicity, it is to be expected that the contours of the vowel space would also be different.
3. Though we usually think in terms of a two-dimensional quadrilateral vowel
diagram based on the classical diagram of Daniel-Jones, we must think in terms
of at least a three-dimensional one where lip-rounding is taken into
consideration. And then extend our thinking into a four-dimensional one taking
into consideration the jaw positions, and of course on the length of jaw which
would be dependent on the ethnicity of the speaker.
4. Last but not the least is the Two-three tone problem between English-Lat, the IE (Indo-European) language and Burmese-Myan, a Tib-Bur (Tibeto-Burman) which is also a Thibilant-nasal language where the sounds of /θ/ {þa.} and /ŋ/ {nga.} & /ɲ/ {Ña.} are quite prominent.
The controversy is due primarily to absence of the series
{o.},
{o},
{o:} in both Skt-Dev and Eng-Lat.
The Romabama spellings given below are tentative: they may have to be changed with deeper understanding of the problems involved. -- UKT120121
&
, to
differentiate them from very rhotic Sanskrit graphemes. The hood over the
Myanmar graphemes has been has been drastically shortened whilst those for
Sanskrit has been lengthened as much as possible, e.g.
in ऋ «
» (note the dummy part in red and the vowel part in green).
Similarly, you will find a shortening of hoods in {ra.ric}-medials.
-- UKT120817, 161120
If you look at the akshara table, you'll see that row #3 consonants, the retroflex, seem to stand apart from the other consonants. The first three consonants seem to be standing on pedestals.
The retroflex row#3 is quite outstanding in Mon-Myan pronunciation:
Mon-Myan retroflex: Mon-retroflex<)) (link chk 161120)
Now listen to Mon-Myan Velar: Mon-velar<))
and Mon-Myan Palatal: Mon-palatal<))
Notice there is only one akshara sound with {é} for retroflex, whereas there are 3 each for others.
Most of the other
consonant-glyphs has shapes clearly based on
One-circle-Two-circles shapes based on the
full-rounded circle
{wa.}
r2c4
{Za.}, r2c5
{ña.}
r4c5{na.}
r7c3{La.}
Unlike the vowels, none of these consonants have an alternate "Letter" form.
In the case of vowels, there are two forms: the vowel-letters and the
vowel-signs. As the first part part of our study, we will deal with
{þa.wuN}-vowels:
/a/ /i/, /u/ . They are the three of eight cardinal vowels of Daniel Jones.
http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter9/cardinal/cardinal.html 120817
In all Indic languages and Bur-Myan, each of the above three has a short form «a», «i», and «u», and a long form «ā», « ī», and «ū». Right now our interest is only on /i/ & /u/, and their forms in Devanagari and in Myanmar. In both cases there are distinct vowel-letters, and {a.}+vowel-signs.
Our interest is now narrowed down to vowel-letters:
• इ «i»
{I.} ; ई « ī»
{I}
• उ «u»{U} ; ऊ «ū»
{U}
In each case notice the diacritics when a short form is changed into the long form.
What most of the modern Bur-Myan have difficulty with is
{I.}.
They think it is a vertical conjunct of
{ka.}
over
{ku.}.
They do not know that it has the sound of
{i.} and
like
{i.},
{I.} on
being checked by a killed consonant changes into {ai}.
- UKT 110815 , 120119 , 161206
Though
the Westerners who are used to
Alphabet-Letter system, CVC, do not pay
any attention to the coda, I am finding
that the only way to study Bur-Myan
language belonging to Abugida-Akshara,
CVÇ, is to study the effect of coda
consonant, Ç, on the nuclear vowel, V.
An added problem is the difference in number of tones
or registers (time-duration of which are measured by the time you take to blink
your eye) between different languages such as Bur-Myan, Eng-Lat, Mon-Myan,
and Skt-Dev. At the beginning of my study, I notice what I have termed the
Two-three tone problem. My work was hampered until I discovered the अः of Skt-Dev
has a counter part in Mon-Myan
{a:.}.
My thanks to the Gayatri Mantra where I noticed the नः from which I find the
Mon-Myan 
{na:.}.
-
bk-cndl-gayatri<))
{a} आ (2 blnk),
{a:} (2 blnk+emphasis),
Note #1: Bur:{aa.} (1/2 blnk) = Mon:
Note #2: There is no emphatic in both Mon and Sanskrit.
Listen to Skt-Dev vowels:
Spoken Skt-Dev grammar - SpkSktDevGram-indx.htm (link chk 170426)
Note #3:
Short ह्रस्व «hrasva» (1 blnk), i.e., one मात्राकाल «mātrākāla»
Long दीर्घ «dīrgha» (2 blnk), i.e., two मात्राकाल «mātrākāla»
Protracted प्लुत «pluta», i.e., three मात्राकाल «mātrākāla» Lesson04<))
To be compared to the call of rooster in the morning.
The vowels in any human language are produced deep down in the throat by a set
of muscles on the hyoid complex in the voice-box with accompanying tongue and
lip movements. Because of this no two human beings will pronounce the same
vowel, say
{i.} /i/ in the same way. In fact the same human being will sing his or
her vowels differently from time to time depending on his or her health (such as
suffering from common cold), and in different consonantal environments.
When we are dealing with human beings of different linguistic groups such as Bur-Myan (Tib-Bur linguistic group), English-Latin (IE aka Indo-European), Pal-Myan (Tib-Bur), Sri Lankans (Austro-Asiatic), Northern Indians (Indo-Aryan) and Nepalis (Tib-Bur changing into Indo-Aryan), we must expect to hear them producing the same vowel /i/ noticeably differently.
Yet in
many ways, we can still recognize what they are singing: it is the vowel /i/. So
what we will be aiming at is the phonemic (phonology) distinctions rather than phonetics. We
are concerned with accuracy rather than precision. The only reliable key to
transcription is the two highly contrastive vowels:
First set: /i/ (front-close), and /ɑ/ (back-open)
Second set: /a/ (front-open), and /u/ (back-close)
Though the first-set is more reliable, we are faced with a set back because of the uncertainty of /ɑ/, because in Pal-Myan and Bur-Myan, this phoneme is a mix-up between /ɔ/ (open-o), /o/, and /ɑ/.
Our only choice is the second-set. We find the contrastive-ness in {u} and {a}
in Mora Sutta.
¤ Listen to Mora Sutta by Mingun Sayadaw
-
bk-cndl-Mingun<))
The phoneme {u} is used for the rising Sun in the morning, and {a}
is used for the setting Sun in the evening. This finding and other
similar findings has led me to conclude that we can know something of the
pronunciation by looking at the shape of the Myanmar aksharas.
We need to take the four BEPS languages together because what we are aiming at is to come up with a reliable transcription from Bur-Myan to Eng-Latin and back. Romabama, my invention, is the interlanguage-ASCII-based alphabet. It is used to bridge the four languages.
To be continued.
Go back lateral-rhotic-note-b
{sa.ka:þän-su.}-- UKT 120520, 120903, 150924
In the Abugida-Akshara system of writing,
the syllable
{sa.ka:þän-su.} is the principal unit. The
syllable has the canonical form CVÇ where Ç
is a 'killed' consonant -- a consonantal
akshara whose inherent vowel has been
'killed' by a virama (which I usually
shorten to 'viram') in Sanskrit and
{a.þût} in Burmese.
A syllable may or may not have the onset C,
or the coda Ç, but it must always have
the peak or the nuclear vowel V. In cases
where the syllable is either VÇ or just a V,
the rime is important. For argument sake
we may say VÇ is a syllable with coda=1
and V to be a syllable with coda=0. Thus
it is important to see how effective the Ç is
in checking the sound of V.
We see in the Sonority hierarchy, the most
effective are the plosive-stop consonants,
exemplified by
{pa.}.
The nasals -- an example being
{ma.} -- are not very effective and they
fall in between the consonants (obstruents)
and vowels (sonorants). Of the nasals,
the velar
{nga.} /ŋ/, is the probably very important
in Bur-Myan. Unfortunately, neither the English
speakers nor the Sanskrit speakers could
pronounce it properly. They usually substitute
its sound with that of
{na.} /n/. I am beginning to believe that
नः '1st personal pronoun possessive'
in the last line of Gayatri Mantra of the Hindus
is the "substitute" for
{ngaa.}.
धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।
dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt
UKT 150924: aks-to-aks: नः -->
Listen to Gayatri Mantra, paying attention to नः॑
English has only two nasals <m> /m/ &
<n> /n/ in both onset and coda positions,
and in my work on BEPS I am concentrating on
these two rather than on
{nga.} /ŋ/ which is present
in the codas of the English syllable as in
<king> /kɪŋ/ but not in the
onset.
Go back sono-hierarchy-note-b
End of TIL file
