TIL
Update: 20120808
Introduction to Romabama
- a transcription-transliteration system
for BEPS (Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit) languages:
Part 04
intro-RBM04.htmby 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 03 - Extended Latin alphabet and Digraphs
Romabama Rule 04 - Pronunciation of English [e] & [ i ] : 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
Pronouncing the English vowel-letters <E> & < I >
Pronouncing the English vowel-letter <E>
Silent-E or Magic-E
Pronouncing the English vowel-letter <I>
UKT notes
Romabama Rule 04
Pronunciations of English vowel letters <E> & < I >
compared to Bur-Myan {é} & {i}
The Bur-Myan speakers, which includes me at one time, are mostly confused with pronunciations of English letters [e] & [ i ], and their digraph-combinations (sic not diphthongs). This page is based on • Pronunciation Guide, Learn to Speak English Part 1, the Learning Company, Foreign Language Division.
English is non-phonetic and you will find that the spelling and pronunciation usually do not agree. This is not the case in Bur-Myan and Indic languages where you can arrive at a reasonably correct pronunciation from the spelling. Grapheme-to-grapheme transformation usually do not change the broad pronunciation.
In inter-language transcription of Eng-Lat to Bur-Myan and back, I have to go through IPA transcriptions of English. Even then, I have to take care of the Two-three tone problem between Burmese and English. It is because Bur-Myan is not a tonal language, it is a pitch-register language with 3 registers whereas Eng-Lat has 2 tones - the short & long.
Pronouncing the English vowel-letter <E>
<E> as in <me>
The sound of the vowel /iː/ is perhaps the easiest to identify in any language. It is the most close and the most front. It is one of the three vowels used in vowel-triangles for comparison of languages.In Bur-Myan it is equivalent to
{i:}. When this vowel is "checked" by a killed {wag}-consonant [as in CVÇ (where C is the onset-consonant, V is the nuclear or peak vowel, and Ç is the coda consonant)], it moves slightly towards the centre of vowel space. It is then changed into /ɪ/. Transliterations do not show this change, but Romabama being a transcription has to show it. MLC dictionaries shows this vowel change but uses only regular English words instead of IPA broad transcriptions. Using IPA narrow transcriptions, which are very precise, would be a disaster in BEPS. The {a.wag}-consonants (sometimes called "semi-vowels" by Pali scholars: I would prefer the equivalent term "semi-consonants") do not completely check the vowel /iː/, and we do not pronounce it in regular Bur-Myan syllables.
MLC dictionaries do not show the Ç whether it be {wag} or {a.wag}, but indicates it with an { ' } sign. However, in English-derived transcriptions in Romabama, Ç is shown and it is required to pronounce it. Click on the words below with active links to sound files to hear the English pronunciation. I have given the Burmese transcriptions to be best of my ability. If the reader does not agree with me, I will be thankful to hear it.
me - /miː/{mi:}
tea - /tiː/{ti:}
heel - /hiːl/{hi:l}
sheep - /ʃiːp/{rhi:p}
beet - /biːt/{bi:t}
beat - /biːt/
people - /ˈpiː.pḷ/
leave - /liːv/
pea - /piː/
vowel /i:/
<E> as in <end>
end - /end/
bell - /bel/
pen - /pen/
check - /tʃek/
UKT: pen - /pen/ should be compared to the stressed syllable of chemistry - /'kem.ɪ.stri/ , and employ - / .
rest - /rest/
fell - /fel/
any - /ˡen.i/
guess - /ges/
vowel /ɪŋ/{ing} - I am waiting for comments from my Burmese-Myanmar peers -- UKT 090204
<E> as in <they>
they - /ðeɪ/
pain - /peɪn/
wait - /weɪt/
tail - /teɪl/
taste - /teɪst/
paper - /ˡpeɪ.pəʳ/ (US) /-ɚ/
vowel /eɪ/
Silent-E or Magic-E
The letter <e> [without a diacritic] at the end of word has no pronunciation at all. It is then called Silent E. Children are taught that it is also the Magic E, because adding it to a word at the end can change the word like <tap> instantly into <tape>. Another way to look at it, is adding a consonant, <p>, to the split-vowel <a_e>.The split vowel is common in Bur-Myan, and some Indic languages in eastern part of India near the border with Myanmar.
¤ Bangla-Bengali: ো (U09CB) «o» and ৌ (U09CC) «au»However, as the use of split vowels is not done in IPA nor in Skt-Dev (Sanskrit-Devanagari), the use of split vowels is to be avoided in Romabama.
¤ Bur-Myan:{au:} and
{au} .
¤ Oriya-Orissa : ୋ (U0B4B) «o» and ୌ (U0B4C) «au»
Alternative for{o}/(ô).
States of Bengal and Orissa in India are close to Myanmar. The use of split vowels in their scripts suggests the close cultural links to Myanmar. Orissa is the modern name of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga which was invaded by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 261 BCE with huge loss of human lives. After witnessing what he had done, Asoka repented and became a practicing Buddhist. He was a Jain before.
He issued an edict cut into stone on many of his rock inscriptions the message:
"Beloved-of-the-Gods [UKT: the word "Gods" means "devas" which Bur-Myan is{nût}], King Priyadarsi, conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation. One hundred and fifty thousand were deported, one hundred thousand were killed and many more died (from other causes). After the Kalingas had been conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dharma, a love for the Dharma and for instruction in Dhamma. Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas. " Rock Edict No.13 . See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinga_War 120804
Silent-e usually obscures the end sounds. For instance that the ending in <kate> is a non-nasal <t> sound and that <kane> ends in <n> a nasal sound, is not obvious. Whether the ending is a non-nasal or a nasal is important in Bur-Myan because of the Two-three tone problem.
{kate} /keɪt/ (preferred {kait} /keɪt/ )
{kane} /keɪn/ (preferred {kain} /keɪn/ )
{lane} /leɪn/ (preferred {lain} /leɪn/ )
Note: Nasal endings can be realized in three registers:{kain.},
{kain:}
and{lain.},
{lain:}.
Pronouncing the English vowel-letter < I >
The pronunciation is /ɪ/ and is usually followed by a {wag}-consonant. Click on the words below with active links to sound files to hear the English pronunciation. I have given the Burmese transcriptions to be best of my ability. If the reader does not agree with me, I will be thankful to hear it.it - /ɪt/If you are tempted to spell the above word as{ít}
The word rhymes with the common Bur-Myan word{hkít} 'time, age, period'.
{ic}, forget it - you are changing the coda {t} to {c}.Try removing the {þa.wé-hto:}, and you get
{ût}. This English word <it> had stumped me for a long time until I realized that I have to check the Bur-Myan vowel 
{é}. I still have to give the Romabama for the following, but because of time restriction I leave it to another edition.hill - /hɪl/Please note that /ɪ/ is a checked vowel and must always be followed by a {wag}-consonant, whereas /i/ is a free vowel, shown in IPA with a triangular colon /iː/ .
sit - /sɪt/
chick - /ʧɪk/
fill - /fɪl/
build - /bɪld/
been - /biːn, bɪn/ (US) /bɪn/
vowel /ɪ/
/iː/ - {i:}
/iːl/ -{i-l} -- {la.} belongs to {a.wag} and the killed {a.wag} does not change the vowel,
e.g.{bo-l} pronounced in Burmese as /{bo}/.
UKT notes
End of TIL file
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