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DECEMBER, 1897.) CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
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The following Table50 will show precisely how the ideas of the two systems are mixed up in every day parlance and dealings of the people in British-Indian money :
Table of ordinary Bazar Expressions for Parts of the Kyat or Rupee.
Burmese Terminology.
English
Senge of the Burmese Terms
Scale of me to which the Burmese denominations
belong.
Terminology.
Transcribed.
Transliterated.
annas
4
...
Tabe Tape:
1 pe ..
... quaternary Tama Tama:
1 ma (1) Dôngbè... Sunpe:
3 po (2) Tamàtpèdin .. Tamatpetan: 1 måt less a pe ... (1) 'Na'ma ... .. Nachmi: ...
2 mg (2) Tamat ... ... Tamat ... 1 måt ... ... properly quat., but
in pratice mixed
quat, and dec. Tamåtlêywe... Tamatlerwei ... 1 màt 4 ywe ... quaternary Ngabe. ... ... Nasper. ... 5 pè:.. (1) Dôngmu... Sun.md:
3 ma .. (2) Chat'pe Kyokpe ... 6 pe (1) Dôngmatabe Sungmdstape: 3 má 1 pe ... (2) K'oni'pà ... Kwannachpe:
7 po... ... (3) Ngimüpèdin Nasmu:pestand: 5 má less a pè decimal Ngâmà ta . Nagma;... 5 mai (1) Kobe ... Koepe: ... 9 pe ....
quaternary . (2) Ngamatabe Namatape.... ... 5 må 1 pe ... ... mixed quat. and
dec. see next. ... Chaukma .. ..Kyokmds ... .. 6 ma
mixed quat. and
dec. : lit, 1 ma quat. more than
5 mú dec. ... (1) Chaukmdtabe ... K'yòkmåstape: ... 6 mg 1 pe ... ... See above.
(2) S'etabe ... ... Chañtape: ... ... 11 pe ... quaternary (3) DÔngmatpedin ... Sungmatpestan... 3 mat less a pd ... See next. (1) Dongmàt ... Sun mat ... ... 3 måt ... ... See tamàt. (2) Taja'mattin ... Takyapmattan: ... 1 kyat leas a màt...quat. (1) Dongmàttabè ... Sungmattape: 3 måt 1 pè... ... > (2) Sebôngbe: ... Ch'añsun pè: ... 13 pe . .. »
Tajâ'madin ... Takyapmůstan: ... 1 kyàt less a mu..., ... (1) S'engabe ... Ch'aññāape.... ...15 pe ... ..
(2) Taja'pèdin ... Takyappètan, ... 1 kyat less a pd
,
Some of the readers of these pages will be aware that it is impracticable to render Burmese words by transliteration, as that nation has adapted an Indian form of Alphabet to express its alien language, and has forced that Alphabet to its purpose by the ingenious, but by no means unique, device of writing in syllables and making the final consonant govern the sound of the vowel in the syllable: e.g., in India they write k + ng = kang (9), but in Burma k+ng=kin, finalay being pronounced in always. Sok+k( ) is in India kak, in Burma ket.
ing like this table is Gordon's Companion to Handbook of Colloquial Purmese, 1886, p. 104, which confuses six and ten annas and calls both chaukmu, and wrongly gives bondBm for seven annas.
61 In common use in Maulmain, to express the British Indian half anna piece, or two pice. Leywn, or 4 yrs.=, pe, quaternary scale, is the ordinary expression for half an anna; thus, tamatlyro =2) annas.
