Notes

WRITING

Burmese is basically a monosyllabic language and each sound could have meaning as in the following.

yè chá

df	this	da
ma	to be hard	ma
la	to come	la
na	to be painful	na
wf	cotton	wa

Learn how some loan-words from foreign languages are Burmanized:

pfwf	power (Eng)
pfla	parlor (Eng)
mala	flower (Pali)
maya	magic (Pali)
kala	color (Eng)

READING

At the very beginning of learning Burmese writing, the Burmese learners are taught to read as it is spoken while they need to write orthographically correct not to lose the semantic value of the word. This teaching indicates that reading a script itself is sometimes different from reading it in a word or a sentence.

In the Reading lessons here, you can notice two phonological differences in reading and writing- weakening of syllable and voicing the consonants.

WEAKENING

Look at these words for example: bmasa and Sra

We will read bmasa as [bá ma sa] if we try to read as it is written. However, you will hear it normally read as [bâ ma za]. Notice that [á], the low tone of [a] vowel, is weakened as [â]. It is also true for the [hsá] of the word Sra which is read [hsâ ya].

Below are more examples of the weakening of [á] found in some words in the reading lesson on sentence level.

WRITTEN		READ
K? [khá ná]		[khâ ná]
Aw [á wá]		[â wá]
m~ka [má ca]		[mâ ca]
qna; [thá nà]		[thâ nà]

VOICING

Look at the these words for example: bmasa and ska;mja;

We will read bmasa [bá ma sa] if we try to read as it is written. However, you will hear it normally read as b ma za Notice that the consonant script s [sá lòun] of the last syllable sa [sa] is read as za [za] replacing s [sá lòun] with z [zá gwèh], thus the voiceless consonant [s] changes to the voiced consonant [z]. It is true for the [s] s the first syllable of the word ska;mja; which is read as zka;mja;

The pf [pa], the sentence endings in the sentences you learned in the reading lessons, is read as [ba].

WRITTEN		READ
qQa;pf [thwà pa]		[thwà ba]
Awsa;pf" [á wá sà pa]		[â wá sà ba]

WEAKENING + VOICING

Do not miss the fact that the syllable s [sá] of the word ska;mja; is both weakened and voiced when it is read or spoken.

Also notice that [thá] is weakened and voiced when we read it as [dhâ] in the sentences Aa; q la; and qna; q la;" The voiceless [th] is similar to the [th] of the English word "thin" and the voiced [dh] similar to [th] of the English word [then].

WRITTEN		READ
Aa;qla; [à thá là]		[à dhâ là]
qna;qla; [thá nà thá là]		[thâ nà dhâ là]

SUGGESTION

Learners will learn the differences between reading and writing gradually and naturally when they are more familiar with the Burmese speech sounds.