Burmese

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Anatoli
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Re: Burmese

Postby Anatoli » 2012-09-12, 4:50

That's OK. Thank you, anyway. There are not many active learners of Burmese and not many resources.

I'm subscribe to this thread, so if anyone posts in the future I will read it.
Анатолий أناتولي 阿纳托利 アナトーリー 아나톨리 अनातोली อานาโตลี آناتولی

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Re: Burmese

Postby モモンガ » 2012-09-16, 1:15

Well, it's sometimes hard to get people from Burma due to the isolation of the country, although it's changing.


anyway I have a phrase meaning 'what is your name' from my textbook.


ဆရာမ။ သားနာမည်ကဘယ်လို ခေါ်လဲ။
it's from a teacher to student however, so it's not honorific.

some other examples:

မင်းစားပါ။ ငါမစားဘူး
min: sa: ba! nga ma sa: bu:


you eat, I won't eat.


you eat polite-particle I no eat no

ကျွန်တောလာမယ် သူလည်းလာမယ်
cano la me. thu le: la me

I will come, he also will come

to form relative clause use တဲ့ for present tense and ... I forgot the spelling of the future marker :para:
but it was similar to မယ်

it works like 的 in Chinese, and it's even pronounced the same.

Burmese language is related to Chinese, nevertheless its grammar system is quite unlike Chinese or other SEA languages like Thai, Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese.
Its grammar resembles Japanese, Mongolian, Korean or Indian languages.

having SOV word order and unlike Thai or Vietnamese modifiers go before nouns (like in English and Chinese)
but there are honorifics and stuff like in Thai or other SEA dialects.
Also interesting is the fact Burmese does not allow a consonant to end a syllable.
[flag]tr[/flag]Türkçe [flag]vi[/flag]㗂越[flag]lo[/flag]ພາສາລາວ[flag]tet[/flag]Prasa Tetun

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Re: Burmese

Postby Anatoli » 2013-08-07, 4:24

Looking for a Burmese translation of a phrase "what is this?" or "what is that?", please. Does the phrase use the word "ဘာ" (bha) "what"?
Анатолий أناتولي 阿纳托利 アナトーリー 아나톨리 अनातोली อานาโตลี آناتولی

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Re: Burmese

Postby OCD. OCD. OC.. D. » 2013-08-13, 5:34

I don't know if anyone has posted this already:

Burmese by ear
http://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/

The downloads are on the right side!

This comes with a pdf and mp3s.

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-02-04, 19:58

Ok, so I've been slowly going through Burmese By Ear and also I've been picking up some phrases from my co-worker. I figured I'd liven this thread up a bit by posting my progress and notes here.For the moment I'm only going to post in romanization, as I'm only interested in learning spoken Burmese at the moment. I'm largely borrowing Okell's romanization scheme with the change of using a circumflex instead of a caron/háček to represent the low weak tone (as it's just easier to type). And I'm not really writing all the hyphens he does in his books.
Thus:

Low: a, â
High: à, á, aq

Phrases learned so far:
mingâlaba - hello
cèzù tindeh - thank you
keiqsá mâshíbù - you're welcome
nekaùnlà - how are you?
nekaùndeh - I am fine/good/well.

BBE-
Vocabulary:
pudeh - it is hot (to be hot)
édeh - it is cold (to be cold)
kaùndeh - it is good (to be good)
yádeh - it is all right (to be all right)

Grammar: (suffixes)
-deh
Basically indicates that you are making a statement. Also used with isolated Burmese words, such as on a word list.

-naw
Turns a sentence into a question expecting confirmation or a yes answer.
For example: pudehnaw = it is hot, isn't it? / it is hot, right? / etc.
Yes, you have to use both -deh- and -naw.

Up next: Numbers 1-4 and Lesson 1.2!
Last edited by księżycowy on 2014-02-05, 13:59, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Burmese

Postby Anatoli » 2014-02-05, 2:15

Since nobody answered my question, here we go, I'll do it:)

အဲဒါဘာလဲ (è:da ba le:?) - What is that?
အဲဒါ (è:da) - that (အဲ) is emphatic
ဘာ (ba) - what
လဲ (le:) (interrogative particle used with interrogative words)
။ ?
Анатолий أناتولي 阿纳托利 アナトーリー 아나톨리 अनातोली อานาโตลี آناتولی

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-02-05, 13:57

Any particular reason you're calling အဲဒါ (è:da) emphatic?
I follow and agree with the rest of your explanation, but I can't seem to find where èhda is "emphatic".

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Re: Burmese

Postby Anatoli » 2014-02-06, 4:57

The entry for https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%80%A1%E1%80%B2%E1%80%92%E1%80%AB#Burmese (အဲဒါ) was created by [url][https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Angr][/url]. The word “emphatic” appears in the etymology section. Wiktionary doesn't have other editors working with Burmese. I try to add entries, when I learn them. I have added this entry https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%80%A1%E1%80%B2%E1%80%92%E1%80%AB%E1%80%98%E1%80%AC%E1%80%9C%E1%80%B2#Burmese (အဲဒါဘာလဲ။), which links to individual words.
Анатолий أناتولي 阿纳托利 アナトーリー 아나톨리 अनातोली อานาโตลี آناتولی

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-02-06, 10:33

That's interesting. I'm not saying it is wrong, as I'm not sure either way, but as far as my research has yielded it doesn't seem to be "emphatic". The difference between da and èhda is distance, da being used when something is close to the speaker, èhda is when something is close to the listener. That's how Okell explains it anyway.

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Re: Burmese

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-02-07, 7:18

księżycowy wrote:cèzù tindeh - thank you

I actually remember hearing cèzù badeh for 'thank you' on Encarta (back in 1996, I think, when it had an application or whatever that let you learn a few basic phrases in various languages, including Burmese). And Lonely Planet has cèzù tinbadeh for 'thank you'! :lol:

I do not know what the difference is between these three phrases.

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-02-07, 12:02

I think I had the same application on my computer back in the day. I would always play around with it and listen to the phrases in just about everything. :lol:

Ok, well, obviously all three are composed of basically the same parts. The version for Lonely Planet is the same as the one from Burmese by Ear. I just removed the 'ba' from it because that's how it was spoken to me. In this case it is how polite you want to be. Ba is the polite particle which (as I'm sure you can figure out) is used when talking to a stranger or someone of a higher social position. You wouldn't use it with friends or people you know well.

Why the other phrase leaves out the 'tin' I have no idea at the moment. :hmm:

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-02-14, 1:06

Ok, I've just started lessons 1.3 and 1.4 of BBE. I realize that the PDF and audio are freely available online, so it feels a little redundant to post my notes here as well. Unless someone really wants me too. Maybe I'll just post things that I find interesting as I go, rather then everything I've been learning.

One thing I find very fascinating is the phonology of Burmese. In particular I'm thinking of the following sounds: hl, th, dh, hn, hm, hny, hng, hw.
For the most part I have no trouble with these sounds, but it is interesting to note the small change in sound in, say, 'hniq' as opposed to 'niq'. Though hládeh with that creaky tone is a bit hard for me. Hny is a bit troublesome as well.
I've also noticed my friend at work also pronounces the vowels in èdeh the same, where as there is a distinction on the audio. Perhaps a dialectal divergence? I asked him about it briefly today and he said it's the same meaning no matter the pronunciation. :hmm:

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-03-04, 17:46

I've made it up to lesson 1.5. All those numbers were starting to slow me down, but I know 1-10 pretty well. Next up, the tens and lesson 1.6 and beyond.

I also have to correct a phrase I wrote earlier: cezubeh - thank you (I'm not sure of the tones, nor do I feel like looking them up at the moment).


Word of the week: nà mâlehbabù - I don't understand

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Re: Burmese

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-03-12, 4:14

I just wanted to say:
księżycowy wrote:I think I had the same application on my computer back in the day. I would always play around with it and listen to the phrases in just about everything. :lol:

I think I was even worse! I would not only listen to all of the phrases but also use this tool they had where you could make a playlist of their phrases and repeat them as many times as you wished. I specifically remember repeating (ad nauseam) this Hebrew proverb that said something like "he who works on the Sabbath does not eat." :lol:

hládeh with that creaky tone is a bit hard for me.

That creaky tone in Burmese is hard for me, just in general. Whenever I listen to any recordings of it, I can't seem to hear any creak.

I also have to correct a phrase I wrote earlier: cezubeh - thank you (I'm not sure of the tones, nor do I feel like looking them up at the moment).

So do you know now why that phrase leaves out the tin (or, for that matter, the ad part)? (I'm guessing that with tones, it's cèzùbeh).

Word of the week: nà mâlehbabù - I don't understand

At first, I confused this with the word for 'no'. :lol:

księżycowy

Re: Burmese

Postby księżycowy » 2014-03-12, 12:26

That creaky tone in Burmese is hard for me, just in general. Whenever I listen to any recordings of it, I can't seem to hear any creak.

Truth time! I'm the same way. I rarely (if at all) hear any difference between the plain high tone and the creaky tone. I'm not even sure how to pronounce the creaky tone. I mean, I get that you have to tighten your throat, but what exactly am I tightening?

So do you know now why that phrase leaves out the tin (or, for that matter, the ad part)? (I'm guessing that with tones, it's cèzùbeh).

Unfortunately, still no idea yet. I haven't come across any explanations in my textbook I'm using as the moment, and I'm not so sure my friend would know.

Word of the week: nà mâlehbabù - I don't understand

At first, I confused this with the word for 'no'. :lol:

:lol:

This reminds me that I need to get back at some Burmese. I've been working on my paper for my class this past week a lot, so I haven't had too much time for Burmese (or any other languages).

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Re: Burmese

Postby Jayz » 2014-12-06, 14:38

I think that the term 'creaky' tone is a terribly awful description. Seriously, who came up with that?There's nothing really creaky about it because nothing is supposed to creak. :x

To me, the creaky tone in Burmese is really just a syllable with a very short vowel length that ends somewhat like a glottal stop but not quite. It's almost identical to the way short vowels in Japanese are pronounced.

So for those Burmese language learners who are scratching their heads wondering how on earth am I supposed to pronounce this damn creaky tone?? Just chill and relax. You don't have to creak any part of your speech organs. Just try to make the vowel as short as you can as though you're pronouncing a glottal stop, and there you have it....the infamous creaky tone pronounced successfully like a native! 8-)

Also, regarding 'Thank you' in Burmese, there's no real difference between

kyáy zú tin-ba-deh

and

kyáy zu ba bé

They're are just two alternative ways of saying the same thing. I hope that helps.

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Re: Burmese

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-04-03, 0:28

Really late on my part, but thanks, Jayz! :)


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