Update:
2020-04-30 06:59 AM -0400
Vowels and Consonants
A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary
MC-syllab.htm
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T.,
USA) 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 ,
www.romabama.blogspot.com
Addenda to edited version of A Practical Sanskrit Distionary,
by A. A. Macdonell, 1893,
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MDScan/index.php?sfx=jpg;
1929.
Nataraj ed. (reprint of 1914ed.), 1st in 2006, 2012.
index.htm |
Top
MC-indx.htm
•
Abugida-akshara vs.
Alphabet-letter
- two kinds of vowels in Abugida-Akshara
system:
Intrinsic-vowel of akshara vs.
Nuclear-vowel of syllable
• Vowels : mismatch of
English vowel-sounds and vowel-letters
•
Short-short vowel :
{a:.} अः (1/2 blk)
- not present in Bur-Myan,
but present in Mon-Myan & Skt-Dev
•
Rhotic Sanskrit vowel: not present in
Bur-Myan
¤ SED-MCc/MC-c41/p127/
p127.htm (link chk 150916):
differentiate
{dra.} /dɹa/ from
{d~ra.} /dri/ &
{dRi.}
•
Vowel-aksharas
and Vowel-signs in Bur-Myan &
Skt-Dev
•
Thawun-Athawun pairs :
{þa.wûN} 'similar - beautifully matched',
-
Mon-v1<)) (link chk 150924)
{þa.wûN} 'dissimilar - ill-matched'
-
Mon-v2<)) (link chk 150924)
The
{þa.wûN}-pairs are:
-
{É è},
-
{AW é},
-
{än a:.}
•
Effect of coda consonant on the nuclear
vowel
•
Checking a vowel with plosive stops and nasals
- with approximants also considered
• The
problem of Nya'gyi and Nya'lé
- Nya'gyi is the Palatal approximant
UKT notes :
•
Great Vowel Shift in English language in
England
and also Canadian Vowel Shift, by
Meagan Campbell, Maclean's Magazine, August
1, 2015,
-
vow-shift.htm (link chk 150918)
Contents of this page
- UKT 150811, 150913
There are
two kinds of vowels in Abugida-Akshara system:
Intrinsic-vowel of akshara and
Nuclear-vowel of syllable
The primary speech sounds in an Abugida-Akshara
system are the vowels
{þa.ra.}. The consonants
{byæÑ:} come later.
vowel:
{þa.ra.} - MLC MED2006-490 ;
सर «sara» 'short vowel',
स्वर «svara» 'vowel'
- SpkSkt
consonant:
{byæÑ:} - MLC MED2006-317
व्यञ्जन
«vyañjana» 'consonant' - SpkSkt
Note: Consonant is
{byiñ} in Mon-Myan. Listen carefully to
Mon-Myan sounds in the attached table, and
go by what you hear. Listen to
Lesson 11, go vertical.
Lesson11<)) (link chk 150915)
I advice you to go by your what you hear
and don't bother about what is written by
Mon-Myan language teachers. Though Bur-Myan
and Mon-Myan use the same akshara system,
they are different languages. They are
from different linguistic groups: Bur-Myan
is Tibeto-Burman, and Mon-Myan is
Austro-Asiatic similar to Sinhala-Lanka
(the language of Sri Lanka). Mon-Myan
does pronounce emphatic vowels, yet
it does not represent them as derived from
{a:} as in Bur-Myan. Mon-Myan vowels are
given as:
Mon-Myan:
{a:.} (1/2 blk),
{a.} (1 blk),
{a} (2 blk)
Skt-Dev:
--
अः
-----------------
अ
--------------
आ
In the Alphabet-Letter system, there
is only one kind of vowel - that of the
syllable. In English, the canonical structure
sylllable is CVC, where the onset,
generally, can be made up of C = 0, 1, 2, 3
mute letters, the nuclear vowel V = 1, 2, 3
sonant letters, and the coda C = 0, 1, 2, 3
mute letters.
However, in the Abugida-Akshara system,
there are two kinds of vowels - that of the
syllable, and the intrinsic syllable of the
Akshara. The general canonical form is
CVÇ .There is a difference between
onset akshara and the coda akshara. The onset
akshara C has an intrinsic vowel and
is sonant, whereas the coda akshara Ç
has lost its inherent vowel due to the
Viram or
{a.þût}. The hallmark of the Abugida-Akshara
is the Viram
{a.þût}.
Based on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida
150811
An abugida aka an
alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing
system in which consonant–vowel sequences are
written as a unit: each unit is based on a
consonant glyph letter,
and vowel glyph. There is a secondary
vowel notation to be used for modifying
consonants. To differentiate the two glyphs, we
call the first a Vowel-letter, and the
secondary notation as the Vowel-sign.
An illustrative example is the rhyming pair
"short" (duration: 1 eye-blink), and
"long" (2 blk) vowel
with the sound /i/.
Vowel-akshara (or vowel-letter)
Bur-Myan:
{I.} ,
{I}
- note the Latin Capital Letter
I (san-serif in Arial Unicode MS
font) or
I
(with serif in Times New Roman font)
Mon-Myan:
{I.} ,
{I}
- note the "circle within circle"
in Mon-Myan
{I}
Skt-Dev: इ « i » ई « ī »
- note the "dot" &
"bar" over Latin Small Letter
i .
Vowel-sign used with consonant
{ta.} /ta./
Bur-Myan:
{ti.},
{ti}
Mon-Myan:
{ti.},
{ti}
Skt-Dev: ति « i » ती
« tī »
I have chosen
{ta.} /ta./, because the same glyph is
found in the Georgian language. Georgian
"Tan" თ (U10D7) /t/ is a
consonantal-letter, when coupled with
"An" ა (U10D0) /a/ the
vowel-letter, becomes equal to Bur-Myan
{ta.} /ta/.
თ (U10D7) /t/ + ა (U10D0) /a/ =
{ta.} /ta/
თ (U10D7) /t/ + ი (U10D8) /i/ =
{ti.} /ti/
Though Georgian "In" ი
(U10D8) looks like Bur-Myan
{ga.}, it is not a consonantal-letter: it
is the vowel-sign
{i.}-sign. Using the transformation
,
it has become the Georgian ი (U10D8) /i/.
Now that we have mentioned both abugida and
the alphabet , we must define the basic units
in each:
Define: the smallest unit of Abugida is
the Akshara (sonant), and
Define: the smallest unit of Alphabet is
the Letter (mute).
Make sure you know which is which: otherwise
you will become a cock-a-caw. I am citing an
example from Theravada Tipitaka story of
{sait~ta. þu-krwèý} in which there is an
embedded story of an upstart who does not
know if he is a cock or a crow. The youngster
of mixed parentage instead of singing
"cock-a-doodle like a rooster, or cawing
like a crow, ended up saying "cock-a-caw
caw-a-cock".
Though the word Akshara is used for
"sound", because of its unchanging
one-to-one mapping between speech
{sa.ka:} and writing
{sa}, it is also applicable to writing.
Stick by the above definitions, and don't use
the word Letter indiscriminately.
Speakers Beware:
Pronounce the three Bur-Myan & Mon-Myan
words in terms of registers aka tones,
as carefully as you can:
Vowels:
{a:.} (1/2 blk),
{a.} (1 blk),
{a} (2 blk),
{a:} (2 blk + emphasis)
Note:
{a:.} is confined to Mon-Myan, and
{a:} to Bur-Myan.
Consonants:
------
1 blk
-----
2 blk
---
2 blk +emphasis
Tenuis-voiceless :
{ta.}
---
{ta}
----
{ta:}
Voiceless :
---------
{hta.}
--
{hta}
--
{hta:}
Voiced :
-------------
{da.}
----
{da}
----
{da:}
Note: Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-onset_time
150811
has clearly missed our "Voiceless".
Western phoneticians usually described our
"Voiceless" as "Aspirate".
They are not allophones. We can clearly
differentiate them and each in the above
table has its own meaning. If the Westerners
cannot "hear" the different sounds,
it is because of their L1-interference. I
usually cite these as an example of the
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis aka
linguistic relativity .
See Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
150811
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
{þïn-poan:kri: } - the basic grammar
or Phonology of our language. Thinpoangyi
literally means 'the Big-Board' set
up against the wall of the class-room. The
akshara-glyphs 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 and making the students repeat again
and again, until they can write the
akshara 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/ from
that of Kha-khwé /kʰ/. 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
say /k/ & /kʰ/ are the
allophones of /k/. No, we say, they
are separate phonemes . Finally, they
had to agree, but still insist that /k/ is
un-aspirated, and /kʰ/ the aspirated.
Their sounds are still the same to them.
The oldest Abugida-Akshara system found in the
Indian subcontinent is that of the King Asoka,
which has been called the Asokan script in
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) by
F. Edgerton -
BHS-indx.htm (link chk 150910).
Myanmar script, used throughout the country
of Myanmarpré is based on perfect circles.
It has a 33% commonality to Asokan
(mis-labelled as Brahmi) the oldest script
found in the Indian subcontinent. Please
note that Asokan and Devanagari are quite
different. For example Asokan has a glyph
for r1c5 ŋ (velar) , whereas the
glyph in Devanagari is clearly a borrowed
one derived from its r3c3 with a dot added
to it: ड + dot --> ङ
Though the Asokan script is now generally
known as the Brahmi script, I don't think
the Brahmin-Poannars
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:} should have a claim
to it because of the following reasons:
1. They could not decipher the script
when called upon by the Muslim emperor,
Feroz Shah Tughlaq (1309-1388) of India.
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firuz_Shah_Tughlaq
160408
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashokan_Edicts_in_Delhi
160408
-
http://www.bharatvani.org/books/mssmi/ch6.htm
160408
"Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (fourteenth
century) shifted two Ashokan pillars from
Khizarabad and Meerut to Delhi and installed
them there, he called some learned Brahmans
to read the inscriptions engraved in Ashokan
Brahmi/Pali on the pillars; they failed to
read the script. "
2. Note the date around which the
learned Brahmin-Poannars
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:}
failed to decipher the Asokan inscription.
It is to be compared to the date on which
Myazédi stone inscription was inscribed,
which implies that Bur-Myan script might
have preceded Asokan script.
"Myazedi inscription (aka
Yazakumar Inscription aka the
Gubyaukgyi Inscription), inscribed
in 1113, is the oldest surviving stone
inscription of the Burmese."
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myazedi_inscription
160408
3. It was an Englishman, James Prinsep
(1799 - 1840), who deciphered the script .
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Prinsep
150910
4. King Asoka was a Buddhist, and the
Brahmin-Poannars are Hindus. By calling it the
Brahmi, many Buddhists in Myanmarpré tend to
look on it as a language of a heretical religion
which is exactly the opposite of Buddhism.
I came across the term "Voice lag and
aspiration" (on 120720) a long time
ago in the following in M. Dobrovolsky
& F. Katamba, Phonetics: The Sounds
of Language, p029,
http://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/uploads/Katamba9781405899307_Ch2.pdf
120720, 150812. See downloaded PDF paper in
TIL library -
Katamba<Ô> (link chk 150812)
The link will work only on TIL computers.
Some of the following text are taken from
the pdf article and edited for inclusion
into my essay.
After the release of certain
voiceless stops in an Eng-Lat syllable,
you can hear a lag or brief delay before the
voicing of the following nuclear vowel.
Since the lag is accompanied by a release
of air, the traditional term for this
phenomenon is aspiration. It is
transcribed with a superscripted [ʰ]
after the aspirated consonant. Table 2.9
provides some examples of aspirated and
unaspirated consonants in English. In
Romabama transcription, treat
{Spa.},
{Sta.},
{Ska.} as conjuncts and pronounce them as
if they were "basic" consonantal
aksharas. Notice that the sounds that have
both aspirated and unaspirated varieties
are all voiceless plosive-stops. In other
BEPS languages, voiceless fricatives and
affricates can be aspirated or unaspirated.
UKT 120720, 150812: The table above shows
that English /p/, /t/, /k/ are actually
Bur-Myan
{hpa.},
{hta.} &
{hka.}, Only when they are preceded by
{Sa.} /s/ do they become
{pa.}/
{Spa.},
{ta.}/
{Sta.} &
{ka.}/
{Ska.}. Since fricative
{Sa.} ष «ṣa», and palatal
{sa.} च «ca»,
have the same pronunciation in the onsets,
you can write
{spa.},
{sta.},
{ska.}.
UKT 150812: With reference to
{ska.}, you should note that in Skt-Dev, there
is a special conjunct,
{kSa.} क्ष «kṣa»,
which is almost as stable as a basic
akshara. Skt-Dev uses this special conjunct
for many words which Pal-Myan would use with
{hka.} ख «kha». Because of which the
British colonizers, who came from India,
spelled Bur-Myan words with
{hka.} as "Kha".
The consonant
{hka.} is a column#2-row#1 akshara in our
akshara matrix, others being
{hsa.} (in row#2),
{HTa.} (in row#3),
{hta.} (in row#4),
{hpa.} (in row#5}. Column#2 aksharas are the
very ones referred by Westerners as
"aspirates". Column#2 aksharas are
also present in Skt-Dev, but has been missed
by IPA.
The Asokan scripts are phonetic because there
is an almost one-to-one correspondence between
sound (speech), and glyph (script). However
because of careless pronunciations of the
native speakers, the one-to-one mapping is lost
in colloquial language, but in legal and
literature the aim is a one-to-one
correspondence between speech and script.
Because of this we use the term Akshara
which means "unchanging" for the
basic glyph of our system Abugida
writing.
Alphabet, especially the English speech using
Latin alphabet is non-phonetic. Pronounce an
English word as it is spelled and you are deep
trouble. Western phoneticians usually fail to
see this aim of one-to-one correspondence in
our way of writing, resulting in very misleading
transcriptions: English transcriptions of
Bur-Myan words are very misleading , yet
because of their simplicity they are useful. The
aim of Romabama is to try to get the best of the
two worlds by changing the vowels in extreme
cases. Try to pronounce a Bur-Myan word as given
in Romabama and you will be understood, but you
might be laugh at for being too bookish
- literary.
In general, an Akshara-glyph
letter of an abugida
transcribes a consonant. e.g.
{pa.},
{ta.} &
{ka.}.
Akshara-glyphs Letters are
written as a linear sequence, in most cases
left to right.
Vowels are written either as Vowel-akshara
(or Vowel-letter) and Vowel-signs.
In comparing languages such as those of BEPS,
we have to take note of the behaviour three
consonants: PTK which stands for /p/, /t/,
and /k/. For vowels, we have to look at the
corner vowels of the vowel quadrilateral:
/a/, /i/, /u/, /ɑ/. Unfortunately,
English-Latin, is deficient in /ŋ/
(the nasal consonant of /k/-row), and /a/
(the corner vowel of the vowel quadrilateral).
British-English uses mainly /æ/ and /ɑ/.
Note also that the order PTK is the order
presented by Western phoneticians. In the East,
the order used is KTP, and our consonantal
matrix follows this order:
K for row #1 - the velars,
T for row #4 - the dentals, and
P for row #5 - for labials.
Contents of this page
Vowels : mismatch of
English vowel-sounds and vowel-letters
- UKT 150916
Speakers usually do not say their vowels
distinctly and clearly. Consonants are
easily differentiated but the vowels are not.
In our study of BEPS, we have to concentrate
on the vowels, because it is the vowel-sounds
that present the greatest difficulty in mutual
understanding of spoken languages. Even between
dialects of the same language, using the same
script, we find this difficulty. However first
be warned:
UKT 150805, 150904:
CAVEAT: I am on very shaky ground with
the vowels, especially checked vowels,
and my analysis is bound to change with
more study. I feel like a tightrope walker
about to fall at any moment. However,
when I look back on history, I find that
King Asoka had tried to unify his subjects
by using a common script instead of forcing
them to speak a common speech or language.
His edicts, spread out throughout his
Empire, could be read by all peoples
speaking different languages. Tthrough
the common script, everyone could understand
them. Speech divides
us, but Script unites us! What I
am trying to do is to unify the various
ethnics speaking different speeches of
Myanmarpré through the use of Myanmar script
and its one-to-one ASCII compatible
intermediary script, Romabama.
The greatest obstacles in the study of BEPS
are the vowels of English-Latin. There is no
correspondence between the vowel-sounds and
the vowel-letters. Written Eng-Latin has
only 5 vowel-letters to represent more than
10 vowel-sounds that we find in all languages.
Eng-Latin itself has more than 10 vowel-sounds,
but it has only 5 letters to represent them.
Eng-Lat uses digraphs mostly to make up for
the paucity of letters, and we hear these
mostly as diphthongs. Make a note here that
two words "digraphs" and
"diphthongs" are different.
"Digraph" tells us graphical
representation, whereas "diphthongs"
convey how the sound is heard.
Probably the worst offender I have come across
is the terms "long vowel"
and "short vowel" in English
ESL-pronunciation. Note: ESL is the acronym
for "English as Second Language".
The terms are misleading because they DO NOT
convey any sense of time-duration either in
blk (eye-blink) units or in milliseconds.
But first let us listen to the sounds
represented by the Eng-Latin letters
a e i o u as long vowels and
short vowels, and watch the video
clips in mp4-format from which we have cut
out the sounds in mp3-format.
See a Phonetics teaching video in
Seattle Learning Academy
-
ESL-long-short<Ô> (link chk 150920)
and listen to Long & Short Vowels
extracted from above video
-
ESL-long-short<)) (link chk 150920)
The terms "short vowels" and
"long vowels" for English vowels
are very misleading: when the actual time
is measured in milliseconds, a
"short vowel" can be as long as
a "long vowel". Time taken to
utter a syllable does not depend on the
number of letters to write it, e.g.
<dad> 520 milliseconds cf.
<daddy> 420 milliseconds"
- Phonetics: The Sounds of Language,
by M. Dobrovolsky & F. Katamba, pdf page
04/43 in TIL SD-Library
-
Katamba-phonetics<Ô>
(link chk 150919).
UKT 150918. Though there is, generally, no
difference in time-duration between English
long vowel and its corresponding short vowel,
it is not so in BPS (Burmese, Pali and
Sanskrit speeches). In these speeches we
measure the length of the vowel sound in mata
{mût~ta.} - the time you take to blink (blk)
your eye. Moreover, because of overlaps in
pronunciation of the vowels, we can easily
mistaken the sounds when we go from one
speech (one language) to another.
What we are attempting to do by studying
the four languages of BEPS together, is
to bring some sort of harmony between English
and the other three languages. An impossible
task! Yes, it is. But we can relate all four
if we keep to spelling (script) - not to how
we speak (speech).
In BPS (Burmese, Pali & Sanskrit) there
are 5 short vowels (the duration of
which are represented as 1 blk). They have
5 counterparts, the long vowels of
duration 2 blk. These are represented in
IAST as
ā ē ī ō ū .
Taking the 5 short vowels and 5 long vowels
together give 10 vowel-letters to represent
more than 10 vowel-sounds. However, in BEPS
we have to articulate at least 16
vowel-sounds !
Contents of this page
- UKT 150917
The length of a vowel is measured
semi-quantitatively by the measure of the
speaker's eye-blink (blk) or mata
{mût~ta.}. Since, the common words used
for vowel duration "short"
& "long", as well as for
pitch-register (or tone) "creak",
"modal", & "emphatic"
can lead to confusion which I had named the
Two-Three Tone Problem.
This, I have noticed since 090618 if not
earlier for Burmese and English, and have named
Two-three tone problem. I found the same
problem for Burmese and Sanskrit. To have more
insight into Sanskrit, and also to check the
effectiveness of Romabama, I looked into
Mon-Myan and found
{na:.}, the counter-part of Skt-Dev नः
which I had already heard in
Gayatri Mantra .
The last line of the Gayatri Mantra shows
{na:.}
नः॑
- listen to downloaded Gayatri Mantra -
online-gayatri<))
धियो॒ यो
नः॑
प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥
« dhíyo yó
naḥ
pracodáyāt»
--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra 150910
Gayatri Mantra is a Védic hymn composed by
Rishi Vishvamitra
विश्वामित्र
«viśvā-mitra»
= (व ि श ्) (व ा) (म) (ि त ्)
(र)
--> (व ि श्) (वा) (म) (ि त्) (र).
On rendering into Skt-Myan, the name is
{waish~wa ma. tait~ra.} which on conversion
into Pal~Myan becomes
{wíþ~þa mait~ta.}.
In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of the
Mahavagga (I.245) 1 I section the
Buddha pays respect to Vishwamitra by
declaring that the Veda in its true form was
declared to the Vedic rishis
"Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo,
Vessâmitto,
{wíþ~þa mait~ta.}, Yamataggi, Angiras,
Bhâradvâjo, Vâsettho, Kassapo, and
Bhagu" and because that true
Veda was altered by some priests he
refused to pay homage to the altered
version.
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvamitra
150909
Rishi Vishvamitra had given up his kingdom to
acquire the mystic powers of a Rishi. As a king
he was known as Kaushika. The king on one of
his exploits had quarrelled with Rishi Vashista
who then showed him that a rishi was more
powerful than king.
It was then that the king decided to become a
rishi. Though the Brahmin-Poannas
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:} have made
Rishi Vishvamitra out to be a latter-day Hindu
Rishi, I am of the opinion that he was
a Tib-Myan speaker who had led the Tib-Myan
tribes to defend their land from the incursion
of IE speakers who had infiltrated into
north-western India from Iran with their male
god Vishnu. Rishi Vishvamitra aka
King Kaushika, was the forefather of Rama
(Sita), and of Gautama Buddha. The religious
story was probably a historical event which
was rewritten by
{braah~ma.Na. poaN~Na:} - the "priests"
referred to Viniya Pitaka. Rishi Vishvamitra is
said to have found the Gayatri Mantra, in
which I first found
{na:.} नः - an akshara with
extra short duration which has led me to
solve the Two-three tone problem.
I am now using
{mût~ta.} in eye-blinks (blk) for comparison
of vowels.
¤
{mût~ta.} - n. time-duration to snap
your finger or to blink your eye
- UKT from UHS-PMD0752
¤ -- 1/2 blk
------
1 blk
---------
2 blk
-----
2 blk+emphasis
---
{a:.} अः
----
{a.} अ
----
{a} आ
------
{a:}
¤ Bur-Myan has
{aa.} with 1/2 blk duration equal to Mon-Myan
{a:.} .
A Skt-Dev short vowel is one mata (1 blk) long,
and a long vowel is two mata (2 blk). The
corresponding vowels in Bur-Myan are the three
pitch-registers: creak, modal, and emphatic.
Romabama has to compromise the two as shown
above. Note: the three-dots {:.} which has
been borrowed from Tamil, ஃ visarga.
Contents of this page
-- UKT 100525, 130517, 130719, 131123, 140330, 160324
See Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ling-hist-Indian-subcon
150925
to see the reason for absence of Rhotic
vowel in Myan languages.
Even among the IE (Indo-European) languages,
some like the Slavic languages are highly
rhotic: more so than the Romance languages.
In BEPS languages, Skt-Dev is more rhotic
compared to Eng-Lat : British-English is
less rhotic than American-English.
In trying to find a inter-language vowel
system for Romabama I have to take this
fact into consideration. Romabama vowels
are the result of compromise, and it
therefore is not satisfactory for the purists.
>
{iR.} ऋ ṛ -
>
{iR} ॠ ṝ
Note: these rhotic sounds are confined
to the most closed vowel /i/, and are
perhaps absent for open vowels. The result is
>
{éR} is not realized.
The most important point to remember is
that ऋ is a vowel - an vowel-letter
(aka vowel-akshara
to be exact). Skt ऋ is sometimes
referred to as vocalic R or R-coloured-vowel,
which had led me to believe that it is some
sort of a consonant. The that ऋ
is a vowel-akshara that has its own
vowel-sign ृ .
See also repha formed from
{ra.} (and
{r}) in my notes. As a personal note I must
add that I've come to the conjecture that:
the Buddha himself
had used a Tib-Bur pronunciation because
his audience had been mostly Tib-Bur speakers
who spoke with a non-rhotic thibilant accent
similar to the present day mainland
Myanmarpré. - UKT 100525.
To accommodate the sounds of BEPS,
I had formulated a non-rhotic to rhotic series:
(non-rhotic)
{a.kya.}
{a.kra.}
{a.kRa.}
{a.k~ra.} (rhotic)
Though
{a.kRa.} (rhotic) is not realized
in Skt-Dev, we need this glyph to
include Mon-Myan to avoid confusion
with hanging- {nga}
found in Mon-Myan. See Naing Maung Toe
Mon-Myan Language: Speech and Script
-
MonMyan-indx.htm >
MonMyan-NMgToe-Mon-Bur<Ô>
(link chk 151013) -
• Remember, a medial is monosyllabic,
whereas a conjunct is generally disyllabic.
• In Bur-Myan:
{a.kya.} &
{a.kra.} are pronounced the same as
a non-rhotic-medial.
• In Pal-Myan and the Rakhine dialect
of Bur-Myan, non-rhotic
{a.kya.} & rhotic
{a.kra.} are pronounced differently,
the first as non-rhotic-medial and the
second as rhotic medial.
• In Skt-Myan, there are no
monosyllabic medials. Thus, the
counterparts of
{a.kya.} and
{a.kra.} become disyllabic conjuncts
{a.k~ya.} and
{a.k~ra.}.
In Bur-Myan, we also have the following.
They are non-rhotic or slightly so.
(non-rhotic)
{a.kyi.}
{a.kri.}
(non-rhotic)
{a.kyæÑ.}
{a.kræÑ.}
The pair of Nya'gyi
and its killed form
{Ña.}/
{Ñ} was a problem, until I take it to be
the Palatal approximant, the neighbour
of Velar approximant
{ya.}/
{ý}. In Pali-Lanka & International Pali,
{Ña.} is a horizontal conjunct of two Nya'lé
{ña.} , i.e.,
{ñ} +
{ña.} -->
(conjunct shown with viram) =
(conjunct with hidden viram)
{Ña.} (known as "Nya-gyi") in
Bur-Myan is NOT an aberration. It
is the Palatal approximant, and many
Bur-Myan words has
{Ña.} ("Nya-gyi") as the first
syllable, such as:
{Ña.} 'night' (MLC MED2006-156)
{Ñwun.} 'tendril or sprig' (MLC MED2006-158)
{Ñhiñ:} 'to torture' (MLC MED2006-159).
The ability to articulated these sounds
in isolation or in a phrase is a hall-mark
of Bur-Myan "ethnicity" or
having spent years of listening training
starting from an early age.
Thus a Pali speaker of SriLanka has no way
of showing the word 
{kic~sæÑ:}, except as
{kic~siñ~ña.} which in English
transliteration becomes Kachchayana.
See my work on A Pali grammar on the
basis of Kaccayano, by Rev. F. Mason,
1868 -
PEG-indx.htm (link chk 140330). Because
of the name, I claim that the learned Buddhist
arahat, praised by the Gautama Buddha himself,
is a native of Myanmarpré .
Contents of this page
-- UKT120817, 150812, 150917
Now that we have differentiated the
vowel-sounds from the vowel-letters in
all BEPS languages, we must say more of
vowel-letters. First note that unlike the
consonant-letters in English which are
mute, vowel-letters are sonant. However,
we cannot apply the term "Akshara"
to English vowel-letters, because there is
no one-to-one correspondence between sound
and script in Eng-Lat. Moreover, English
vowels do change over time. A major vowel
shift or change, known as the
Great Vowel Shift , took place in England
between between 1350 and 1700 which has given
rise to peculiarities in English spellings.
Even now, there is vowel shift going on in
Canadian English.
In all BEPS languages, except English, there
are two forms of vowels: the independent
vowel-aksharas
letters and the dependent
vowel-signs (Skt: matras ). As
the first part of our study, we will deal with
{þa.wuN}-vowels or matching-pairs: /a/ /i/,
/u/, /ɑ/ . They are the corner vowels of
vowel-quadrilateral of Daniel Jones.
http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter9/cardinal/cardinal.html
120817
In all languages of Indian-subcontinent and
Myanmarpré such as Skt-Dev, Hindi-Dev,
Bur-Myan, Mon-Myan, & Pal-Myan, the vowels
are of two forms: a short form with a length
of 1 blk (eye-blink), { a. }, { i. }, { u.}, { au. }
and a long form of 2 blk, { a }, { i }, { u },
{ au }. Please note that I cannot give either
IPA or IAST transliterations, because they
are not ASCII compatible.
Let's take Mon-Myan as an illustration
of Bur-Myan, Pal-Myan, and Skt-Dev. The
vowels are classified into 2 groups,
the
{þa.wuN} 'beautifully matched' pairs, and
{a.þa.wuN} 'ugly pairs'. Let's listen to
these now:
{þa.wuN} 'Matching pair' -
Mon-v1<)) (link chk 150924)
{a.þa.wuN} 'Non-matching pair' -
Mon-v2<)) (link chk 150924)
Firstly, we will concentrate only /i/ &
/u/, the two close-vowels in Devanagari and
in Myanmar scripts. In both cases there are
distinct vowel-aksharas (which have been
called vowel-letters), and {a.}+vowel-signs.
Our interest is now narrowed down to
vowel-aksharas:
• Front-vowels: इ «i»
{I.} ; ई « ī»
{I}
-----------
Mon-Myan:
{I.}
----------
{I}
• Back-vowels: उ «u»
{U.} ; ऊ «ū»
{U}
------------
Mon-Myan:
{U.}
----------
{U}
You might have noticed that in writing the
vowels in terms of vowel-glyphs some are in
the split form, i.e., the
{a.} can be imbedded within the sign.
Instead of {a.}, you can also have a
consonant such as
{ka.} ক (U0995 - Bengali ka ).
These are what we can described as the split
form. There are quite a few scripts among
the Indic scripts that has these forms and
Bangla-Bengali, our closest neighbour across
our western mountain borders from Bangladesh
and India. However, in the Devanagari script,
Skt-Dev vowels are not split . Because
of the split vowels, you must take care which
font to use when both Bengali and Devanagari
are presented together. My favourite font -
the Arial Unicode MS - is suitable for Skt-Dev,
but not for Bangla-Bengali, because of which
I have to change fonts when I am presenting
Bangla-Bengali.
English speakers might be surprised to know
that Eng-Lat also has split-vowels in the
so-called Magic-E, in which the
coda-consonant is placed between the basic
vowel and the ending-E, changing the
pronunciation of common English words, e.g.
<kit>
{kít} --> <kite>
{keít}
Remember
{kít} &
{hkít} (Bur-Myan meaning: age,
or time-era) are of the same genre:
just note the diacritic on alphabet-letter
< i >. In
{kít} &
{hkít}, the nuclear-vowel V of the
syllables
{ké} &
{hké} is checked by coda
{t}. It is also noteworthy that the front
vowels /i/ & /e/ are close enough (e.g.
when you take two languages together as in
Danish & English) to get changed. It is
policy of Romabama to preserve both the
onset-consonant C & coda-consonant
Ç, and change only the nuclear-vowel
V - a guide-line followed in
Phonetics.
However, some investigators do not follow
this guide line and change the Ç instead
of the nuclear-vowel. See ¤ Notes on
the transliteration of Burmese alphabet
into Roman characters, and vocal and
consonantal sounds of the Peguan or Talaing
language, by R.C. Temple, Rangoon 1876,
in TIL SD-Library
-
RCTemple-translit-Bur<Ô> /
bkp<Ô> (link chk 160124)
To be charitable to the Westerners, we
should take note of an observation made
by R.C. Temple on p-roman04: "...
the Burmese have an irritating knack of
pronouncing the same word differently on
different occasions, ... " On
p-roman07 & 08, He proposes coda
changes in
{bo:toap} to {bol:toak},
{p} -->
{k}
{þän-htaip}, {p} --> {k}
{wak-poat}, {t} --> {ka}
{hsait-þa}, {t} --> {k}
And on p012, he proposes the changes to
the coda. However, in Romabama, I have
the kept the coda intact except to remove
its inherent vowel and have made changes
(whenever necessary) to the nuclear-vowel
of the syllable.
In both front-vowels and back-vowels, note the
change in diacritics when a short form (1 blk)
is changed into the long form (2 blk).
What most of the modern Bur-Myan have
dealing 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.}.
For the man on the street, only a few of the
vowel-aksharas letters
are useful. The most useful are the
vowel-signs. The vowel-aksharas can be
substituted - for pronunciation purpose
- with
{a.}+vowel-signs.
• Front-vowels: इ «i»
{i.} ; ई « ī»
{i}
-----------
Mon-Myan:
{i.}
----------
{i}
• Back-vowels: उ «u»
{u.} ; ऊ «ū»
{u}
------------
Mon-Myan:
{u.} ----------
{u}
In the syllable of the canonical form, CVÇ,
nuclear vowel not preceded by an onset
consonant, we can equate C = 0, which leaves
only V or VÇ to form the syllable.
Never forget the main difference between an
Abugida-Akshara and Alphabet-Letter is
intrinsic vowel (aka Unicode:
inherent vowel) of the
consonantal-akshara. The difference in the
canonical forms of the Abugida syllable, CVÇ,
and that of the Alphabetic syllable, CVC, is
due to whether the coda consonantal-element
has an intrinsic vowel or not. When the coda
has an intrinsic vowel, it can be killed
by a Virama or
{a.þût} to make it equal to CVC.
The onset-consonant of the CVÇ need not be
of only one consonant. The onset can be a
modified consonant resulting from a ligature
of two or more consonants. These modified
consonants can be a vertical ligature where
the two consonants are stacked, or a
horizontal ligature where the two consonants
are side by side. We will see more of these
in later sections. The vertical ligatures
are known as
{paaHT-hsing.} because they are mostly found
in Pal-Myan. There is no term for horizontal
ligatures, for which I have proposed
{paaHT-twè:}. Common examples of
{paaHT-twè:} in Bur-Myan are:
{piñ~ña} 'education', and
{paiþ~þa} 'viss'.
Contents of this page
- UKT 120801, 150813, 150925
Many Bur-Myan speakers, and even those
who possess university degrees in Burmese
language have never heard of these words,
Thawun
{þa.wun} 'similar - beautifully matched'
pair, and Athawun
{a.þa.wun} 'dissimilar - ill-matched' pair.
I was one of those until I came across
Burmese Grammar and Grammatical Analysis
by A. W. Lonsdale, Education Department,
Burma, British Burma Press, Rangoon, 1899.
BG1899-indx.htm (link chk 150925).
Wow! Look at the date of publication - just
some years after the British had taken over
the whole Burmese Empire and made it into
a mere appendix in their British Empire.
An appendix, because they had pushed it under
their British-India Empire with Queen
Victoria as the Empress - a mere queen
of Britain, and Burma a mere nothing under the
Viceroy in India - a mere lord in
Britain!
The Burmese national pride had been doubly
hurt -- never had the Burmese been under
the Indians! I vow to my Burmese and Mon
ancestors that I will bring their beloved
Myanmar akshara to the attention of the
whole world! And my sincere thanks to
A. W. Lonsdale, an Englishman, who wrote
in the Preface of his book:
• The Burmese language is constructed
on scientific principles, and there
is no reason why its grammar should not
be dealt with also from a scientific
standpoint. But it may be safely said that
Burmese grammar as a science has
not received that attention it deserves.
Lonsdale also wrote:
• With regard to the grammatical treatises
by native writers, it is no exaggeration
to say that there is not one which can be
properly called a Burmese grammar. These
writers, not content with merely borrowing
the grammatical nomenclature of the Pali
language, also attempted to assimilate the
grammatical principles of the uninflected
Burmese to those of the inflected
Pali; so that they produced, not
Burmese grammars, but modified Pali grammars
in Burmese dress. The servile veneration
in which they held Pali, the language they
had adopted as the classic, is, no doubt,
directly responsible for the composition
of such works. In their endeavour to conform
strictly to Pali methods, they often
introduced unnecessary terms and misapplied
them, ignoring those grammatical points in
Burmese for which they could find no parallel
in Pali. How futile their attempts were may
be judged by the numerous difficulties and
anomalies they created, from some of which
even now teachers of the language have
not quite extricated themselves - take,
for instance, the case-inflexions.
On vowels, Lonsdale wrote in Part 1,
Orthoepy and Orthography, Chapter 1,
Sec 09, he wrote as follows.
Although Lonsdale gives his transcriptions
in italics, I have taken them out and
have given Romabama in their places:
I must now make an observation: vowel-letters
such as,
{I.} &
{U.}, are probably derived from Pali and Sanskrit,
which have only 2 "tones" -- the short
(1 blk) & the long (2 blk).
{a.}+vowel-signs,
{i.} &
{u.}, are probably Burmese which have
3 tones differentiated by time-duration
you take to blink your eye.
Though Lonsdale has mentioned only Bur-Myan
& Pal-Myan, I have to include Mon-Myan
in my study. And I can say that Abugida-Akshara
of Myanmarpré has, three
{þa.wuN}-pairs, and three
{a.þa.wuN}-pairs.
{þa.wuN} 'Matching pair' -
Mon-v1<)) (link chk 150924)
{a.þa.wuN} 'Non-matching pair' -
Mon-v2<)) (link chk 150924)
I have been comparing the Burmese and
English for a long time - since 130828
- to come up with a reliable method of
transcription of Burmese to English,
and back. Not understanding the vowels
of both Burmese and English well, has
been the stumbling block in
transcription.
Transliteration is simple, but a
"transliterated" Burmese word
in English way of writing is usually
impossible to pronounce, or worse when
it gives a wrong translation. For example,
try a transliteration, transcription, and
translation of a simple Bur-Myan word
{wing:}. The common way of writing
"win" in English, though simple,
is fundamentally wrong. The most glaring error
is due to the absence of phoneme ŋ
(velar) in English. This phone or phoneme
is very important in Burmese. The sound of
{nga.} is absent in English. The common
diagraph <ng> present in <wing>
/wɪŋ/ (DJPD16-595), makes the
Burmese speaker pronounce the "g"
in <wing> leading to a wrong English
pronunciation. The common way writing
{nga.} with an "n" in front makes
the English speaker think there is an
"n" sound in
{wing:}. The "n" sound /n/ is
given by
{na.} not
{nga.}. The paucity of nasals in English (only 2)
compared to Burmese (5) is a problem. Don't call
in Hindi speakers - they cannot pronounce our
{nga.}. They pronounce it as
{na.}. In other words its a mess out there. The
last straw is the sound of
{nga.} has a "g" coloring, and
it could very be {gna.}. Don't blame the
Burmese, think of two confusing words in
English: <sing> and <sign>.
We are in the same boat!
And now back to <wing> /wɪŋ/.
What is /ɪ/ - the small cap i ?
Is it different from the common "i"?
The symbol /ɪ/ represents the
"short" vowel, and symbol /i/
represents the "long" vowel.
The problem of transcription of Bur-Myan word
{wing:} /wɪŋ/, can be solved by
taking the /ɪŋ/ - the nuclear-vowel
& coda - together as
{ ïn:}. Notice the "double-dot" over
< i >. Romabama has to use such
devices to arrive at a transcription which is
close to pronunciation, whereas MLC
transliteration for Bur-Myan and IAST for
Skt-Dev do not use such devises resulting in
difficult or impossible articulation, or wrong
translation. We can see many examples of such
cases when we put Skt-Dev words and Pal-Myan
words together in my work on Macdonell's
dictionary augmented with entries from
U Hoke Sein.
And now back to Thawun-Athawun,
{þa.wuN} 'matching' &
{a.þa.wuN} 'non-matching' pairs.
To the Westerners, differentiation into
short- and long-vowels is NOT important,
whereas in the Indic languages and
Bur-Myan, they are of prime importance.
Based on the idea of vowel duration, and
similar pronunciation, we find which can form
{þa.wuN} or matching beautiful pairs, and
which when paired are
{a.þa.wuN} are dissimilar or mismatched
pairs.
First, we present vowels in terms of
pitch-registers, which had been described as
creak, modal, & emphatic for Bur-Myan.
Now that I have included Mon-Myan, I have to
include "short creak". These are now
described in vowel-lengths measured in time to
blink your eye: very-short (1/2 blk), short
(1 blk), long (2 blk), emphatic
(2 blk + emphasis)
{a:.} (1/2 blk),
(1 blk),
(2 blk),
(2 blk + emphasis)
---------------------
{AU:} (emphatic mistaken with short),
{AU} (long) - using vowel letters
The mis-match between the pitch-registers,
and short-long vowels is nothing but the
Two-three tone problem. Adding to the problem
are the MLC (Myanmar Language Commission)
transcriptions:
MLC transcription /o./ -
MED2006-616 - creak
MLC transcription /o/ -
MED2006-616 - modal
MLC transcription /o:/ -
MED2006-615 - emphatic
MLC transcription /o/ -
MED2006-616 - vs. ओ « o »
MLC transcription /o:/ -
MED2006-615 - vs. औ « au »
should it be?
MLC transcription /o/ -
MED2006-616 - vs. ओ « o »
MLC transcription /o:/ -
MED2006-615 - vs. औ « au »
I have given Skt-Dev and IAST
transliteration for comparison. If you
take note of the "flags"
above the aksharas, you will notice that
there is something wrong. I wish MLC
would clarify it, and correct my mistake.
Contents of this page
- UKT 150125, 160322
The role of coda-consonant Ç (killed
akshara under virama) on the V (nuclear
vowel) of the syllable CVÇ is generally
not recognized. In Bur-Myan the virama
has to be visibly shown, but in Hindi-Dev
it is generally dropped. In older languages
of BEPS, the virama is hidden by use of
vertical and horizontal conjuncts in
Pal-Myan, whereas in Skt-Dev the virama is
visible.
However in English transliterations, they
leave the V as is found on the
intrinsic-vowel of the akshara, and when
the uninitiated tries to pronounce the
transliterations as if they were
transcriptions, inconsistencies in
pronunciations came in.
My study of the BEPS languages has led me
to believe that this is the sole obstacle
in the transcription between Burmese and
English. When we include Skt-Dev into our
study, another problem came in because of
pseudo-consonants such as Pseudo-Kha
क्ष {kSa.}.
We find the first vowel
{a.} being checked by
{k}, the killed-akshara of
{ka.}, on
-
MCv1pp-indx.htm >
p002.htm
The result is the formation of words relating
to "eye and physical vision" in
Skt-Dev word spelled with Pseudo-Kha,
{ak~Sa.}, the equivalent of Pal-Myan
{ak~hka.}.
The tenuis-voiceless pair
{a.ka.} ->
{ak} and its voiced counterpart
{a.ga.} ->
{ag} are also examples of checking. They
are also listed on
p002.htm. We find similar pairs in
{a.sa.} ->
{ic}
(
p004.htm) and
{a.za.} ->
{iz}
(
p005.htm). In all these examples, the
nuclear vowel V seems to be unaffected by
the coda Ç. However, in the following pairs
of the dental-row
{a.ta.} ->
{ût}
(
p005.htm) &
{a.da.} ->
{ûd}
(
p008.htm, p009), and in the bilabial-row
{a.pa.} ->
{ûp}
(
p021.htm), we find the coda changing
the nuclear vowel.
Contents of this page
-- UKT110629 , 120901, 120910, 130605
When the inherent vowel in
{ka.} is checked by a killed plosive or
killed nasal, i.e. with
{wag}-consonants, we get a series of rimes
(with one pitch-register by stops, and,
with three pitch-registers by nasals)
some of which can be pronounced by native
born Bur-Myan.
Note: a rime with one pitch-register
checked by a stop is shown in MLC
dictionaries with a glottal stop, ' /ʔ/, e.g.,
{kak} /ka'/ MLC MED2010-013. What MLC
has given reflects the pronunciation of
the Irrawaddy valley, particularly that
of Yangon, but the native Bur-Myan in
other regions do pronounce the coda-consonants. -
UKT110629
Romabama version of {wag.}-consonants
First we will have to give the Romabama version of
{wag}-consonants. By
{wag}-consonants, we mean the
first 5x5 consonants of Bur-Myan akshara
matrix in Romabama version:
{wag}-consonants
{ka.} {hka.} {ga.} {Ga.} {nga.}
{sa.} {hsa.} {za.} {Za.} {Ña.} :
note r2c5 in Bur-Myan is
traditionally given as Nya'gyi {Ña.},
and in Pal-Myan as Nya'lé {ña.}
{Ta.} {HTa.} {ða.} {Ða.} {Na.}
{ta.} {hta.} {da.} {Da.} {na.}
{pa.} {hpa.} {ba.} {Ba.} {ma.}
I picked up Mon-Myan in early 2013, and found
it to be quite different from Bur-Myan.
Mon-Myan basic akshara has to be divided into
two groups with differing intrinsic vowels,
{a.} & {é}. I will give further comments
on Mon-Myan later when I have become more
conversant with the language which is
Aus-Asi (Austro-Asiatic) and not Tib-Bur
(Tibeto-Burman). I have to add the caveat that
Romabama transcription is only for Bur-Myan
and not for other indigenous languages
including Mon-Myan).
Bur-Myan & Skt-Dev basic akshara are
almost the same akshara. However,
unless we ignore the IAST transliterations,
we get into serious problems, and therefore
I am giving below the aksharas (without IAST).
Moreover, because Skt-Dev is an IE (Indo-European)
language there are differences from Bur-Myan
in r1 (velar consonants) and in r2 (palatal
consonants with hissing sounds). It is sometimes
better to regroup r1, r2, & r3 a subgroup,
and r4 & r5 together as another subgroup.
क ख ग घ ङ
च छ ज झ ञ
ट ठ ड ढ ण
त थ द ध न
प फ ब भ म
Caution: Do not bring in
IPA transcriptions, unless you have considered
the pronunciations of these aksharas in all
four spoken languages (speeches) of BEPS
(Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit).
Romabama version of {a.wag.}-consonants
There are a total of 33 consonants in
Bur-Myan akshara matrix. Therefore
there are 10
{a.wag.}-consonants in Bur-Myan. The 33rd akshara is
{a.}. This 33rd akshara is also a vowel,
and I have been asked why should a vowel be
included in a table of consonants. Please
remember, Romabama is a compromise of
4 speeches in 3 scripts. My answer as a
Chemical Engineer is: I have taken what
is on the shelf, putting them together
and trying to make them work. Please don't
get into deep theoretical considerations
-- take the Bur-Myan as it is and
just include the 33rd akshara
{a.}.
UKT 130605: I was quite complacent in
finding Romabama transcriptions working
for inter-language transcription between
Bur-Myan and Eng-Lat until I try to
include Mon-Myan in early part of 2013.
Mon-Myan has 35 basic akshara which must
be subdivided into two groups: one with
intrinsic vowel {a.} and the other with
{é}. Now I will have to study more of
all four BEPS languages and Mon-Myan,
and I an getting old! But then I remind
myself that I had set out on this lonesome
journey with to no one to help us, me and
my wife only, after our retirements at
age 60. Now she is gone!
The same can be said of Pal-Myan akshara
matrix -- just take it as it is. But if
you would like to include the
{naig~ga.hait}
{än}
(MED2006-233), you may as a compromise.
Adding a dot above an akshara imparts a
nasal sound. The 'dot above' is called
{þé:þé:tïn} (MED2006-500)
Both Bur-Myan & Pal-Myan are non-rhotic,
non-hissing (non-sibilant), thibilant
languages with /θ/ sounds. Yet in order
to include, Eng-Lat & Skt-Dev, we need
to indicate the /s/ and /ʃ/ sounds.
In other words we need to include Skt-Dev
dental-fricatives स ष श ,
and differentiate ष from च.
We need to show how to indicate the ष
immediately follow by consonant conjuncts
as in English <spin>, <stingy>
& <skin>.
To include all the above considerations,
Romabama has come up with a compromise
table of consonantal akshara.
Vowels {a.} and {a} checked by
{wag}-consonants
of bilabial-POA
We have said something about the
inherent vowel of
{ka.} being checked by a {wag.} consonant.
Let's take the more general case of
{a.} being checked by a {wag}-consonant,
say by non-nasal
{pa.} of bilabial-POA (Point of Articulation),
and nasal
{ma.} of the same POA.
{a.} +
{pa.} + viram -->
{ûp}
Note: If you are only concerned about
transliteration, you just
remove the <a> from <pa> and
you get <ap> which is IPA /æp/.
However, if you are doing
transcription, you must
include the vowel change. Then you get
/ʌp/ as in English <up>
(DJPD16-570). In any case you only
one allophone -- one pitch-register.
Now let's take the case of
{a.} being checked by a {wag}-nasal consonant
{ma.}. You get three allophones, the creak,
the modal, and the emphatic:
{a.} +
{ma.} + viram -->
{ûm.} (1 eye-blk),
{ûm} (2 blk),
{ûm:} (2 blk + emphasis)
According to Sandhi rules of Pal-Myan,
we can write
as
{äm} . -- I need to check on this point by
going into grammars of Pal-Myan and Skt-Dev,
which I will not be able to do in the near
future.
Vowels {a.} and {a} checked by {wag}-consonants
of dental-POA
We will now consider the case of
{a.} being checked by a {wag}-consonants
of dental/alveolar POA:
{ta.} and nasal
{na.}. We find every thing very similar to
the case of bilabial-POA, except when
we come to
{naig~ga.hait.}.
{a.} +
{ta.} + viram -->
{ût}
{a.} +
{na.} + viram -->
{ûn.} (1 eye-blk),
{ûn} (2 blk),
{ûn:} (2 blk + emphasis)
Again according to Sandhi rules of Pal-Myan,
we can write
{ûn} as
{än} (2 blk). The problem is then
is how do we differentiate
{äm} from
{än} ?
Vowels {a.} and {a} checked by {wag}-consonants
of velar-POA
We have started out with the bilabial
consonants, and have just finished
dental-alveolar. Moving further back into
the mouth cavity, we first come across
the retroflex consonants, and then to
the palatals. We will leave them for a
while and go to the velar-POA:
{ka.} and nasal
{nga.}.
The most opposite of
{pa.} is the phoneme /ŋ/ written as
a digraph <ng> realized in English
<king> /kɪŋ/. See DJPD16-300.
This consonant is lacking in the onset of
English syllable but is present in coda,
and is written as digraph. It was also
probably absent in Sanskrit onset but
present in the coda. In fact, from the way
the Dev grapheme ङ is written, it was
absent in Sanskrit, but derived from ड
to which a 'dot' was added. It is because
of this lack of sound in Indo-European (IE)
languages -- represented in BEPS by English
and Sanskrit -- speakers of English and Hindi
(presumably the same as those of Sanskrit)
cannot pronounce it when they came across
it in Bur-Myan. Burmese is unique in BEPS
by having a lot of words with /ŋ/
in both the onset and the coda.
To be continued. For the present see this
problem in
-
MC-indx.htm >
MCv-indx.htm >
MC-v01-indx.htm >
MC-v01-indx.htm
{ka.þût}
-
p002-3.htm(link chk 160321)
{ga.þût}
-
p003-2.htm (link chk 160321}
Contents of this page
- UKT 120112, 130621, 130907, 160430:
There are no words in Pal-Myan &
Skt-Dev with
{a.ña.} but only those with
{iñ} /ɪɲ/. This is comparable
to r1c5: no
{a.nga.}-words -- only
{ing} /ɪŋ/ resulting in {kïn:si:}.
However, there are many words with
{a.Ña.} &
{æÑ} in Bur-Myan. Here Nya'gyi
{Ña.} is a regular basic consonant of
cell r2c5. In Pal-Myan, cell r2c5 is occupied by Nya'le
{ña.}. Based on the pronunciation of syllables or words ending in killed-Nya'gyi
{Ñ}, I have moved Nya'gyi
{Ña.}/{Ñ}
into the Palatal approximant cell after moving the Ya
{ya.}/{ý}
into the Velar approximant cell. This leaves Nya'le
{ña.}/{ñ}
as the sole occupier cell r2c5.
From Bur-Myan,
{a.Ña.}, we get the series:
{a.Ña.},
{a.Ña},
{a.Ñi.},
{a.Ñi},
{a.Ñu.},
{a.Ñu},
{a.Ñé},
{a.Ñè:},
{a.Ño},
{a.Ñau:},
{a.Ñän} .
Since these are all Bur-Myan syllables, none of them is a negation. The
affix for negation is
{ma.}.
We can extend
{Ña.} by use of
{wa.hswè:} (for lip rounding), and
{ha.hto:} (for adding a deep H sound), medials are formed:
{Ñwa.} &
{Ñha.}. By applying both
{wa.hswè:} &
{ha.hto:} together, we can get another medial:
{Ñhwa.}. From these by modifying with
regular vowels, we get a slew of sounds
which only native born Bur-Myan can
pronounce. Minorities in Myanmarpré can
get into trouble with these sounds.
These clearly are not derived from Pali
nor Sanskrit. In addition to these we
can get three pitch registers for each
of these sounds. For example:
{æÑ.},
{æÑ},
{æÑ.}
{ÑæÑ.},
{ÑæÑ},
{ÑæÑ:}
There are no nasal ending-sounds for these words.
A word which intrigues me is the name Shin Kicsi,
{kic~sæÑ:} which is spelled as Kachchayano
{kic~siñ-ña.}
in SriLanka. He was supposed to be a
Buddhist arahat praised by Gautama Buddha
himself. Who was he? See A Pali grammar
on the basis of Kachchayano by
Rev. F. Mason, 1868, in pdf format. -
pdf (link chk 160430). Could he be
from northern Myanmarpré -- from the
ancient city of Tagaung or environs
(founded by King Abiraza well before
the time of Buddha) ?
Contents of this page
- UKT 150917
See also Canadian Vowel Shift, by
Meagan Campbell, Maclean's Magazine, August
1, 2015,
-
vow-shift.htm (link chk 150918)
The term "Akshara" means unchanging
- of speech to script units, and back. However,
in English syllable of CVC structure,
the sonant letter, V , can change as
evidenced in the Great Vowel Shift. Because
of this change there is no one-to-one
correspondence between speech (pronunciation),
and script (spelling) in English written in
ordinary Latin alphabet. It is not so in Burmese
written in Myanmar akshara where the aim is to
maintain a one-to-one correspondence. You can
easily guessed the pronunciation of a word from
its spelling. The consonants and vowels in the
Bur-Myan syllable CVÇ, and those in
Eng-Lat CVC are not exactly alike. Therefore
do not translate the Akshara as
Letter .
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift
150917
The Great Vowel Shift was a major change
in the pronunciation of the English language
that took place in England between 1350 and 1700.
[1]
[2] Through the Great Vowel Shift, all
Middle English long vowels changed
their pronunciation. Because English spelling
was becoming standardized in the 15th and
16th centuries, the Great Vowel Shift is
responsible for many of the peculiarities of
English spelling.
[3]
The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by
Otto Jespersen (1860–1943), a Danish linguist
and Anglicist [English studies], who coined
the term.
[4]
The main difference between the pronunciation
of Middle English in the year 1400 and
Modern English is in the value of the
long vowels. Long vowels in Middle English
had "continental" values much like
those in Italian and Standard German, but in
standard Modern English they have entirely
different pronunciations. This change in
pronunciation is known as the Great Vowel Shift.
[5]
Go back
Great-vow-shift-note-b
Contents of this page
End of TIL file