________________
146
.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE. 1898.
compelled to trust to my unhappy Karen teacher. From him I gather that the consonants adopted from the Burmese characters are as follows:63 -
Gutturals ... 'k k gh ķ83 ng Palatals ... gosh ny Dentals ... 65 t d B Labiale ... P p b m Linguals ... y 1 W Sibilants ... "
Aspirates .... h 407 The ligatures are special and are taken partly from the Talaing Alphabet ; e.g., and 2 y: and partly from the Burmese Alphabet; e.g., OT, V10 w. Jgh (E). Thos :
2 ky, kr, my kl, kw, 3 bgh, by.70 As in all Alphabets of Indian origin, short a is inherent in all consonants, and both Burmese and improvised symbols are adopted to express modifications of this inherent vowel, but, so far as the Burmese symbols are concerned, with uses so differing from the original that they must be given here.
Thas m ka is modified to suit the Sgat Karen gamut of sounds in the following manner :
mos mi me m Karen : kê ki kökü kû kê kè kô kò
Burmese: kAkan ... ka ků ka, kè ki ki The special vowel sounds above are kö, something like German d, nearest French eu, bet far from our" in English. Kü near French , bat not it. Kè as in Burmese, near English "fair" or French "mer." Kò as in English "fall."
In addition to these direct vowels the missionary alphabet-makers have attempted to reproduce the tones of Karen by four symbols SS 2, and the staccato accent by the symbol, borrowing the Burmese heavy accent (which by the way is the Talaing staccato accent) for the purpose, because the Barmese staccato accent a had already been borrowed to represent the direct vowel &. Karens, of course, hear the tones and foreigners usually cannot, and hence Mr. Martyr's remark about several characters being introduced to represent the same sounds. In transcriptions for foreigners into Roman characters I should not propose to notice the characters for tones, though I transcribe the staccato me by kd; but I distinctly think that the missionaries were right in introducing them, when concocting a character in which Karens were to read their own language. Any one who has floundered as often and as long as the present writer over the Shán Dictionary, in which, of course, Dr. Cashing had to follow the methods of a character long ago concocted by the literary, Shans to express their own language, would understand the importance to a native Karen of being able to denote his tones by characters.
I have adopted to distinguish pirated consonants; and, letters, where not explained, are pronounced as usual, or as nearly as may be for practical purposes.
6 Gh = Arabio . often sounded. A surd after an aspirated consonant: ķ# The symbol for sh is adopted from the Burmese ligatare L.hrsh in propunciation: 65 With English appreciation of dentals « English surd th Arabio : symbol taken from the Burmeao b in pronunciation.
61 The spiritus lon is of all Oriental tongues ; 1, 9, 3a, eto. : its position in this Alphabet is adopted from Shán, as also is that of b. .
e Written 6 , borrowed from Talaing : special letter for a very softly breathed h, sounded like w before 6 and o.
69 As in Burmese, A'y=ch in pronunciation. To The use of these ligatures is usually quite different from that in Burmese or Talaing. 11. The symbol o is the stopped or staccato accent in Burmese.
