CHAPTER 1
PHONEMES, 1–30
1. Burmese speech sounds will here be classed in the following pattern: twenty-nine consonants, nine vowels, and four tones.
2. The consonants are /k, kh, g, ŋ, hŋ, s, sh, z, š, c, ch, j, t, th, d, n, hn, p, ph, b, m, hm, l, hl, θ, y, w, h, Ɂ/. The vowels are /a, i, u, ei, ou, e, o, ai, au/.
/r/, a tongue tip trill, occurs in two words: tareisshán ‘animal’, and parìbôgà, ‘household furnishings.’ Both are Pali words.
3. Each syllable consists of a consonant or a cluster plus a vowel, spoken on one of the four tones or atonically. Of the vowels, /a, i, u, ei, ou, ai, au/ occur also with nasal final.
4. There are four tones. For details see sections 25–30. Tone I is indicated by an acute accent /´/, tone II by a circumflex /ˆ/, tone III by a grave /`/, and tone IV is written with a final Ɂ.
| I | II | III | IV | |
| plain | cá | câ | cà | caɁ |
| nasal | cán | cân | càn |
cá ‘water lily’; cán ‘sugar cane’; câ tiger’; cân ‘floor’; càn ‘rhinoceros’; caɁ ‘rupee’; càdé ‘falls’ (verbs will be quoted throughout with ‑té final particle. See 36). Syllables in tone IV never have nasal finals.
5. Initial clusters consist of two consonants; the second is /w/ or /y/. /w/ as second member occurs after all consonants except /w/ and /Ɂ/. /y/ as second member occurs after /p, ph, b, m, hm, n, hn/[1].
6. The initial consonant or cluster is followed by a vowel. The vowels /a, i, u, ei, ou/ occur in all four tones as plain finals and in tones I, II, and III with final nasal. /e/ occurs in all four tones as plain final. /o/ occurs in tones I, II, and III as plain final. /ai, au/ occur in tones I, II, and III with final nasal and in tone IV as plain final.
7. Toneless syllables consist of consonant followed by a neutral vowel which we write as a without a tone mark. A toneless syllable never stands alone and is never final in a group.
Consonants, 8–15
8. Stop, affricate, and sibilant consonants occur in five positions: velar stop, prepalatal affricate, normal sibilant, alveolar stop, and labial stop; and in three orders: plain voiceless, aspirated voiceless, and plain voiced.
| labial stop |
alveolar stop |
normal sibilant |
palatal affricate |
velar stop | |
| plain | p | t | s | c | k |
| aspirated | ph | th | sh | ch | kh |
| voiced | b | d | z | j | g |
- ↑ This is an unusual interpretation. Most studies of Burmese phonology recognize palatal nasals /ɲ hɲ/ rather than clusters /ny hny/.
