Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1897.
So ko + L ( 6) is in India kôk, in Barma kaik, and so on through the Alphabet. Then again, ligatures are given arbitrary sounds, e. g., hr is sh; thus hrvé is shwe (gold), so also hly is often sh. Again r is usually y; thus we is yré; prang by the rules just explained is pronounced pyin. So again ch (a) is 8 and ; () is .
Another point worth bearing in mind is that a kind of external sandhi exists in spoken, though not in written, Burmese, 52 by which an initial surd in the syllables of a compound expression or word is softened by a preceding final sonant or open vowel, and rice versa: e. ., lut + tò is lutto; run + tò is yóngdò; ta + pò is tale; L'yòk + pe is cha 'pò. The Burmese heavy accent: and light accont (staccato), though of great consequence to the reader of the vernacular, can safely be dieregarded in renderings into foreign characters. In the system of writing Burmese words adopted in this work his rendered by, and the surd and sonant sounds of the Burmese 8 (8), as in the English thing and this by D and X. 'I also write the unusual Oriental, but common Burmese, sounds of aw in awful as è, and of ai as in pair as e.
Under the conditions above explained, the Burmese script is pratically phonetio : i. e. final ng is always in; final ch () is always it; 8 + le is ail: i ch is ék.59 But to be intelligible the script requires to be transcribed when expressed in Roman characters, and cannot be usefully transliterated.5 Still for the history of the words it is often desirable to know what they are as written, and for this reason a column has been added to the above Table shewing the spelling 89 well as the spoken forms of the Burmese terms, and similarly the correct spelling of the terms, used in the text is often given in footnotes or text,55
The adaptation of Burmese terms to the British Indian copper coinage is quite as instractive as that to the silver. When speaking at length, the term used for the copper coin known to the English as a pice (paisú in the Indian vernacular) is pai'san-taby 1,56 1. e., "paisa, one piece." Shortly, in the bazars the pice is known pyd, piece, and is treated as the eighth part of a mů (two annas), not as the fourth part of a pă57 (one anna). Thus:
1 pice is tabya or 1 piece 2 , are 'na'pya 2 pieces 3 » » Đồngoya , 3 ,, 4
lêbya ngabya ,
chau'pya 7 » k'oni'pya, 7 ,
► tamů 1 mu Now the recognised British Indian copper denominations go down to the pie, or 1/3 pice, or 12 to the anna. Bat the Barman has been no moro at a loss to adapt his own phraseology here, when in a real difficulty, than he has proved himself to have been in numberless other instances. Witness his mi-yet* (fire-chariot) for a railway train, and his use of bimbo (ship) as
SACOS
12 It is the nigori of the Japanese. See Chamberlain, Japanese Grammar, p. 3 f.: Parker, in Transactions, 4. 8. Japan, Vol. XXI. p. 145.
68 There are in Burmese, as in all tongues, sporadic eccentricities of pronunciation : 6.9., RwAtong is Yetaung rata (Skr. and Pali, cart) is yet'a : Okrf is bajt: wrin is mens : and so on. An in initial syllables is often a, as tankuan is tagrein, etc. Mrammi or Mranma (a Burman) is Dama.
For an "swful example of the results of transliteration, see Capt. Towers on the Alphabetical System of the Language of Ava aad Rachsin (Arakan), Asiatic Remarches, Vol. V. pp. 143 ff. : c. also Leyden':' " Languages of Indo-Chinese Nations, A8. Res. Vol. X, 1808. Few could recognise Pyinting in Latter's pegnytseng, Gram. p. 90; a strong instance of setting up a form of transliteration and adhering to it pedactically.
* There is a very good note for the period, 1827, on the Burmese Alphabet in Orawfurd's Ava, Appx., p. 77: though he sometimes makes muddles of his words, a Bortwang, p. 414, for Bodwin, where he half transcribes and half transliterates the word.
86 Spelt pókch'di (lapra.
57 It must be noted, however, that Lazar bucksters in India often calculate up to 8 pice, precisely as do the Borinans,