TIL
Update: 20120808
Introduction to Romabama
- a transcription-transliteration system
for BEPS (Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit) languages:
Rule 03c
intro-RBM03c.htm by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.), Daw Khin Wutyi, B.Sc., and staff of TIL Computing and Language Centre, Yangon, Myanmar. Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone.
Contents of this page
Letters of Latin alphabet usedRomabama Rule 01 - ASCII characters
Romabama Rule 02 - Differentiation of capital and small letters
Romabama Rule 03v - Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs
Romabama Rule 03c - Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs: consonants
Romabama Rule 04 - Silent e and <e> as part of digraph <ei>
Romabama Rule 05 - Killed consonants
Romabama Rule 06 -
{king:si:}/{kïn~si:} vowel-sign and repha Romabama Rule 07 - Fossilized killed consonants
Romabama Rule 08 - Non-alphabetic characters
Essentially ~ (tilde) is used to show the
{a.þût} : examples from Skt-DevRomabama Rule 09 - Extension of Myanmar akshara row 2 to accommodate medials
Romabama Rule 10 - Extension of Myanmar akshara vowels to accommodate Sanskrit vowels
Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs: for consonants
Letter-b B
Letter-c C
Letter-d D
Letter-f F :
{fa.} - for imported words (Romabama proposal)Letter-g G
Letter-h H
Letter-k K
Letter-l K
Letter-m M
Letter-n N
Letter-p P
Letter-r R
Letter-s S
Letter-t T
Letter-v V :
{va.} - for imported words (Romabama proposal) Letter-w W
Letter-y Y
Letter-z Z
UKT notes
• Laryngeal theory
Romabama Rule 03c
Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs: for consonants
Diacritics and other suitable signs are introduced. Diacritics in Romabama are chosen in a way so that even if a diacritic is lost, the effect would be minimal. As for digraphs, I try not to use them, unless it is absolutely necessary.letter: b B
• b (Latin small letter B) - for
{ba.} ब • B (Latin cap letter B) - for
{Ba.} भ I have given above in the order: Bur-Myan, Romabama, & Skt-Dev. I avoid IAST and other transliterations whenever possible. I have come to a firm conviction that the source of all our misunderstandings are the English transliterations and transcriptions. They are indeed useful, but like all useful things, there is a limit in their usefulness!
letter: c C
• c (Latin small letter C) - for
{sa.}-killed च् . Notice the {a.þût} or the viram.Bur-Myan has only the palatal{sa.} च . It is so close to the velar that English speakers mistook it for velar {ka.} क, and maintain that there is no palatal-c in English. I was sold on that idea until I come to the disyllabic double-consonant words:
<success> /sək'ses/In <k's>, <k> stands for the coda <c> of the first syllable, and <s> stands for the onset <c> of the second syllable. This is comparable to the Bur-Myan:
Here in the vertical conjunct, {c~s}, the {c} stands for the {sa.}-killed. It is the coda of the first syllable and{OAc~sa} 'property'
letter: d D
• d (Latin small letter D) for
{da.} द • D (Latin cap letter D) for
{Da.} ध• ð (Alt0240) (Latin small letter Eth) in row-3 akshara
{ða.} ड (Caution: the vd-pronunciation of English-Latin <þ>/<th> is also given as /ð/)
• Ð (Alt0208) (Latin cap letter Eth) for row-3 akshara
{Ða.} ढ letter: f F
• f (Latin small letter F) for {fa.} - for imported words Labio-dental sounds, /f/ and /v/ are missing in Bur-Myan. I was given to understand that they were also missing in Vedic, and was only introduced by Panini in his Classical Sanskrit. I have to check.
Now that Romabama is to be used for BEPS (Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit speeches), there is a need to include graphemes to represent these sounds in the Myanmar script. Yet, I am very reluctant to 'invent' new written characters. Yet, because I have no choice and because of necessity -- a popular excuse of all pedagogues, I will have to craft them -- out of{hpa.} and
{pa.}, however, because of the absence of the tenuis in English (unless preceded by /s/), I have to use the voiceless-aspirate
¤{hp~ha.} (not allowed in Bur-Myan) <--
¤{b~ha.} (not allowed in Bur-Myan) <--
- UKT110909, 120806
letter: g G
• g (Latin small letter G) for
{ga.} ग • G (Latin cap letter G) for
{Ga.} घ letter: h H
Pharyngeal and glottal consonants are very little understood by English speakers. The Bur-Myan• h (Latin small letter H) - for{ha.} is a consonant of either pharyngeal or glottal type. It may even be laryngeal, because of which I have termed it the "deep-h". It is not the aspiration found in English <Henry Higgins> which may be dropped to <'enry 'iggins>. If the choice is only between the first two, pharyngeal consonant is closer to Bur-Myan
A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx. The IPA representation of this consonant as /ʕ/ & / ħ/, and its use of /h/ for glottal are not satisfactory for me.
Another candidate for Bur-Myan
Note how IAST transliterates them with an «h». However, since this «h» is by no means an aspirate, I have dropped it in Romabama. Since all grown-up Bur-Myan Buddhists are trained to pronounce
{Za.} झ «jha» : very rare in Skt-Dev, but prominent in Bur-Myan
I have stayed away from the{na.:}. The Skt-Dev Visarga अः «[h] ḥ» and the Bur-Myan
{wic~sa.pauk} although in appearance are the same are clearly different. I now have for Romabama:
- required for writing Sanskrit
{na.}/{naa.} (creak),
{na}/{naa} (modal),
{na:}/{naa:} (emphatic)
- required for Burmese
{ha.} ह Also used for• hp , ht , HT , hs , hk (digraphs) - c2 consonants{ha.hto:} sounds, e.g.,
{nha.},
{mha.}. The application of
According to Wikipedia:
"A few languages have phonemic voiceless nasal occlusives. Among them are Icelandic, Burmese, Jalapa Mazatec, Kildin Sami, Welsh, and Central Alaskan Yup'ik. Iaai of New Caledonia has an unusually large number of them, with /m̥ m̥ʷ n̪̥ ɳ̊ ɲ̊ ŋ̊/." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_consonant 120806
The <h> before the consonants stand for "aspiration", whereas the <h> after the consonants stands for theFor teaching foreign accents, I find it easier to start from labial to dental, and finally to velar.{hka.} is not used in Romabama.
•
•{hta.} थ - pronunciation of stand-alone English <t> - dental
•{HTa.} ठ - pronunciation of stand-alone English <t>
•{hsa.} छ - pronunciation of stand-alone English <s> - palatal
•
letter: k K
• k (Latin small letter K) - for
{ka.} क • K (Latin cap letter K) - for
{hka.}-killed 
{K} letter: l L
• l (Latin small letter L) - forOf the four languages of BEPS, the language with the most laterals is Bur-Myan:
{la.},
{lwa.},
{lha.},
{lhwa.}, etc.
Some people are more versatile with their tongues than others, but for the most the tongue is versatile enough to produce a myriad of sounds resulting in many laterals. Unless you are a native-Burmese, there is no chance that you will be able to pronounce them.
The Lingual consonants are so misunderstood that I cannot find them in Wikipedia (as of 120806). The following is from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lingual 120806
"Linguistics Pronounced with the tongue in conjunction with other organs of speech".
No wonder the English speakers are unable to articulate the Welsh sounds.
{la.} ल • L (Latin cap letter L) - for
{La.} ळ letter: m M
• m (Latin small letter M) - for
{ma.} म
letter: n N
• n (Latin small letter N) - for {na.} न • N (Latin cap letter N} - for
{Na.} ण • ñ (Alt0241) (Latin small letter N with Tilde) for
{ña.} ञ . It corresponds to <ny> in pronunciation.• Ñ (Alt0209) for{hkyiñ} - adj. sour; acid. v. turn sour; acid - MED2010-072
{Ña.} corresponding to <ny> in Bur-Myan, and for horizontal conjunct 
{ñ~ña.} in Skt-Dev: • ng (digraph with silent 'g') - for
{nga.} ङ Skt-Dev speakers, as well as Eng-Lat speakers, have difficulty in pronouncing this sound as evidenced from the absence of this sound as onset of Skt-Dev & Eng-Lat syllables. However they are present in the coda.
<sing> /sɪŋ/Secondly, that the Skt-Dev speakers have difficulty with this sound is due to the shape of the glyph which seems to be derived from ड «ḍa»:
<singer> /sɪŋ.əʳ/ (US) /-ɚ/ - DJPD16-490
The <g> is silent. -- UKT120806
ङ «nga» <-- ड + dot
letter: p P
• p (Latin small letter P) - for {pa.} प letter: r R
• r (Latin small letter R) - for
{ra.} र Bur-Myan
In the Irrawaddy dialect of Bur-Myan{ya.} sounds are almost the same, whereas in the Rakhine dialect of the western coastal region of Myanmar,
letter: s S
• s (Latin small letter S) - palatal plosive-stop {sa.} च It is said that there is no palatal-C in English, which I disputed showing the example of English word <success> /sək'ses/.• S (Latin cap letter S) - for dental approximate-sibilant
I cannot use <c> for the palatal plosive-stop, because, it will be confusing in Bur-Myan and Pal-Myan. But in the coda, where the consonant has lost its intrinsic vowel,
Both English and Sanskrit has a dental approximant-sibilant (with a hissing sound), and I need another glyph. If I were to adopt another glyph, it will be confusion in Eng-Myan, and so the same{Sa.} is represented as
{S}.
{Sa.} ष letter: t T
• t (Latin small letter T) - for
{ta.} त • T (Latin cap letter T) - for
{Ta.} ट letter: v V
• v (Latin small letter V) - {va.} - for imported words.Labio-dental sounds, /f/ and /v/ are missing in Bur-Myan. Now that Romabama is to be used for BEPS (Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit speeches), there is a need to include graphemes to represent these sounds in the Myanmar script. Yet, I am very reluctant to 'invent' new written characters which will have to be crafted out of
letter: w W
• w (Latin small letter W) - for
{wa.} व letter: y Y
• y (Latin small letter Y) - for {ya.} य • ý (Alt0253) (Latin small letter Y with Acute) for "killed {ya.}"
{ya.þût} {kèý-hsèý} - v. save; rescue - MED2010-024
* I am writing this note while I am in Canada, where I have to work alone without the assistance of my secretaries who are unable to accompany me because they are Myanmar citizens and getting Canadian visas for them is next to impossible. At my age (73), my memory is not reliable. Now, I am finding that I have to come up with spellings involving {U.} in words such as <property> /[ou' sa]/ (MED2010-625; not listed in MOrtho). I am forced to use "digraphs" which might be mistaken for "diphthongs" (I maintain that Burmese has no diphthongs as commonly found in English). The tentative spelling I would have to use for <property> is
letter: z Z
• z (Latin small letter Z) - for
{za.} ज • Z (Latin cap letter Z) - for
{Za.} झ UKT notes
Laryngeal theory
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngeal_theory 120806The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one or more consonants, termed "laryngeals", in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). These sounds have disappeared in all present-day Indo-European languages (IE), but some laryngeals are believed to have existed in Hittite and other Anatolian languages. The laryngeals are so called because they were once hypothesized (by Müller and Cuny) to have had a pharyngeal, epiglottal, or glottal place of articulation involving a constriction near the larynx.
The evidence for their existence is mostly indirect, as will be shown below. But the theory serves as an elegant explanation for a number of properties of the Proto-Indo-European vowel system that, prior to the postulation of laryngeals, were unanalyzable, such as "independent" schwas (as in *pəter- 'father'); and the hypothesis that PIE schwa *ə was actually a consonant, not a vowel, provides an elegant explanation for some apparent exceptions to Brugmann's law in Indic.
The original phonetic values of the laryngeal sounds remain controversial.
UKT: More in the Wikipedia article.
Go back laryngeal-note-b
Pharyngeal consonant
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_consonant 120806A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.
• Pharyngeal stops are thought to be impossible. Note that when they are posited, they are sometimes transcribed with a small capital Q, ⟨ Q⟩.
• Although traditionally placed in the fricative row of the IPA chart, [ʕ] is usually an approximant. The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, but no language has a distinct fricative and approximant at this place of articulation. Sometimes the lowering diacritic is used to specify that the manner is approximant: [ʕ̞].
UKT: More in the Wikipedia article.
Go back pharyngeal-note-b
End of TIL file
No comments:
Post a Comment