View source for Social:Old Burmese

{{Short description|Early form of the Burmese language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Old Burmese
| region = [[History:Pagan Kingdom|Pagan Kingdom]]
| era = 12th–16th centuries
| image = Myazedi-Inscription-Burmese-cropped.png
| imagecaption = Detail of the Myazedi inscription
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = (Tibeto-Burman)
| fam3 = Lolo–Burmese
| fam4 = Burmish
| script = Burmese script
| iso3 = obr
| linglist = obr
| glotto = oldb1235
| glottorefname = Old Burmese
}}

'''Old Burmese''' was an early form of the [[Social:Burmese language|Burmese language]], as attested in the stone inscriptions of Pagan, and is the oldest phase of Burmese linguistic history. The transition to [[Social:Middle Burmese|Middle Burmese]] occurred in the 16th century.<ref name="herbert">{{cite book|last=Herbert|first=Patricia|author2=Anthony Crothers Milner|title=South-East Asia: Languages and Literatures: a Select Guide|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1989|pages=5|isbn=9780824812676}}</ref> The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in the underlying [[Social:Orthography|orthography]].<ref name="herbert"/> Word order, grammatical structure and vocabulary have remained markedly comparable, well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g. function words).<ref name="herbert"/><ref name="lapolla">{{cite book|last=Wheatley|first=Julian|editor1=Randy J. LaPolla |editor2=Graham Thurgood|title=Sino-Tibetan Languages|chapter=12. Burmese|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=9781135797171}}</ref>

==Phonology==
Unlike most Tibeto-Burman languages, Burmese has a phonological system with two-way aspiration: preaspiration (e.g. {{my|မှ}} ''hma.'' vs. {{my|မ}} ''ma.'') and postaspiration (e.g. {{my|ခ}} ''kha.'' vs. {{my|က}} ''ka.'').<ref name="hill">{{cite book|last=Yanson|first=Rudolf A.|title=Aspiration in the Burmese Phonological System: A Diachronic Account|editor=Nathan W. Hill|publisher=Brill|year=2012|series=Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV|pages=17–29|isbn=9789004232020}}</ref> In Burmese, this distinction serves to differentiate [[Social:Causative|causative and non-causative]] verbs of Sino-Tibetan etymology.<ref name="hill"/>

In Old Burmese, postaspiration can be reconstructed to the proto-Burmese language, whereas preaspiration is comparatively newer, having derived from proto-prefixes.<ref name="hill"/> The merging of proto-prefixes (i.e., {{my|ဟ}} as an independent consonant used as a prefix) to preaspirated consonants was nearly complete by the 12th century.<ref name="hill"/>

==Orthography==

Old Burmese maintains a number of distinctions which are no longer present in the orthography of standard Burmese.

===Diacritics===
Whereas Modern Standard Burmese uses 3 written medials ({{IPA|/-y-/}}, {{IPA|/-w-/}}, and {{IPA|/-r-/}}), Old Burmese had a fourth written medial {{IPA|/-l-/}}, which was typically written as a stacked consonant {{my|္လ}} underneath the letter being modified.<ref name="lapolla"/>

Old Burmese orthography treated the preaspirated consonant as a separate segment, since a special diacritic (''ha hto'', {{my|ှ}}) had not yet been innovated.<ref name="hill"/> As such, the letter ''ha'' ({{my|ဟ}}) was stacked above the consonant being modified (e.g. {{my|ဟ္မ}} where Modern Burmese uses {{my|မှ}}).<ref name="hill"/><!---Another example is the Burmese phrase "long ago," now spelt {{my|ရှေးသရော}} but in Old Burmese, written {{my|ဟြောသြော ဟ္ရောသ္ရော}}<ref name="hill"/>-->

===Gloss===

Examples of such differences include the consonant ''yh-'' and the lateral clusters ''kl-'' and ''khl-''. The earliest Old Burmese documents, in particular the Myazedi and Lokatheikpan inscriptions frequently have ''-o-'' where later Burmese has ''-wa''.<ref>

{{cite journal
 | last = Hill
 | first = Nathan W. 
 | title = Three notes on Laufer's law
 | journal = Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
 | volume = 36
 | issue = 1
 | pages = 57–72
 | date = 2013
 | url = http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15932
 }}
</ref> Old Burmese also had a final ''-at'' and ''-an'' distinct from ''-ac'' and ''-any'' as shown by Nishi (1974).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Old Burmese
! Written Burmese
! Example for Old Burmese
! Example for Written Burmese
|-
| yh-
| rh-
|
|
|-
| pl-
| pr-
|
|
|-
| kl-
| ky-
|
|
|-
| -uy
| -we
|
|
|-
| -iy
| -e
|
|
|-
| -o (early OB)
| -wa
|
|
|-
| ိယ်
| ‌ေ
| ပိယ်
| ပေး (to give)
|-
| ုယ်
| ‌ေွ (‌ေွး)
| ထုယ်
| ထွေး (to spit)
|-
| ိုဝ်
| ို့
| သိုဝ်
| သို့ (to)
|-
| ္လ
| ျ/ ြ
| က္လောင်း
| ကျောင်း/ကြောင်း (school/line)
|-
| -ဟ်
| ား
| သာဟ်
| သား (son)
|-
| -တ်
| -စ်
| ဟေတ်
| ရှစ် (eight)
|-
| ာ
| ွ
| ကျောန်
| ကျွန် (slave)
|-
| ‌ော
| ူ
| ဆော
| ဆူ (boil)
|-
| -ည်
| ‌ေး
| စည်ဝည်
| စည်းဝေး (gather)
|-
| ဲ
| -ယ်
| ငဲ
| ငယ် (young)
|-
| -န်
| -ဉ်
| အစန်
| အစဉ် 
|-
| -ဝ်
| ‌ော
| စဝ်
| စော (early)
|-
|}

==Vocabulary==
Aside from [[Social:Pali|Pali]], the [[Social:Mon language|Mon language]] had significant influence on Old Burmese orthography and vocabulary, as Old Burmese borrowed many lexical items (especially relating to handicrafts, administration, flora and fauna, navigation and architecture), although grammatical influence was minimal.<ref name="gartner">{{cite book|editor=Uta Gärtner, Jens Lorenz|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year=1994|series=Tradition and Modernity in Myanmar|pages=366–426|chapter=3|isbn=9783825821869|title=Tradition and Modernity in Myanmar: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Berlin from May 7th to May 9th, 1993}}</ref> Many Mon loan words are present in Old Burmese inscriptions, including words that were absent in the Burmese vocabulary and those that substituted original Burmese words. Examples include:<ref name="gartner"/>
*"widow" - Mon {{lang|mnw|{{lang-mnw-fonts|ကၟဲာ}}}} > Burmese {{my|kamay}}
*"excrement" - Mon {{lang|mnw|{{lang-mnw-fonts|...}}}} > Burmese {{my|haruk}}
*"sun" - Mon {{lang|mnw|{{lang-mnw-fonts|တ္ၚဲ}}}} > Burmese {{my|taŋuy}}

Moreover, Mon influenced Old Burmese orthography, particularly with regard to preference for certain spelling conventions:
*use of -E- ({{my|-ဧ-}}) instead of -Y- ({{my|ျ}}) (e.g. "destroy" {{my|ဖဧက်}}, not {{my|ဖျက်}} as in modern Burmese)<ref name="gartner"/>
*use of RH- ({{my|ဟြ > ရှ}}) instead of HR- as done with other preaspirated consonants (e.g. "monk" {{my|ရှင်}}, not {{my|ဟြင်}})<ref name="gartner"/> - attributed to the fact that Old Mon did not have preaspirated consonants

==Grammar==
Two grammatical markers presently found in Modern Burmese are extant to Old Burmese: 
*{{my|၏}} - finite predicate (placed at the end of a sentence)<ref name="gartner"/>
*{{my|၍}} - nonfinite predicate (conjunction that connects two clauses)<ref name="gartner"/>

In Old Burmese, {{my|၍}} was spelt ''ruy-e''({{my|ရုယ်}}), following the pattern in [[Social:Pali|Pali]], whose inflected verbs can express the main predicate.<ref name="gartner"/>

Pali also had an influence in the construction of written Old Burmese [[Social:Grammatical modifier|verbal modifiers]]. Whereas in Modern Burmese, the verb + {{my|သော}} (''sau:'') construction can only modify the succeeding noun (e.g. {{my|ချစ်သောလူ}}, "man who loves") and {{my|သူ}} (''su'') can only modify the preceding verb (e.g. {{my|ချစ်သူ}}, "lover"), in Old Burmese, both constructions, verb + {{my|သော}} and verb + {{my|သူ}} were interchangeable.<ref name="gartner"/> This was a consequence of Pali grammar, which dictates that participles can be used in noun functions.<ref name="gartner"/>

Pali grammar also influenced negation in written Old Burmese, as many Old Burmese inscriptions adopt the Pali method of negation.<ref name="gartner"/> In Burmese, negation is accomplished by prefixing a negative particle {{my|မ}} (''ma.'') to the verb being negated. In Pali, {{my|အ}} (''a.'') is used instead.

Such grammatical influences from Pali on written Old Burmese had disappeared by the 15th century.<ref name="gartner"/>

==Pronouns==
{|class="wikitable"
|+Pronouns in Old Burmese<ref name="bradley-david">{{cite journal|last=Bradley|first=David|date=Spring 1993|title=Pronouns in Burmese-Lolo|journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area|publisher=La Trobe University|location=Melbourne|volume=16|issue=1|url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/bradley1993pronouns.pdf}}</ref>
|-
! Pronoun !! Old Burmese<br/>c. 12th century !! Modern Burmese<br/>(informal form) !! Remarks
|-
| I (first person) || {{my|ငာ}} || {{my|ငါ}} || 
|-
| we (first person) || {{my|အတိုဝ့်}} || {{my|ငါတို့}} or {{my|တို့}} ||  Old Burmese {{my|တိုဝ့်}} was a plural marker, now Modern Burmese {{my|တို့}}.
|-
| you (second person) || {{my|နင်}} || {{my|နင်}} || 
|-
| he/she (third person) || {{my|အယင်}} || {{my|သူ}} ||
|}

==Surviving inscriptions==
The earliest evidence of Burmese script (inscription at the Mahabodhi Temple in India) is dated to 1035, while an 18th-century recast stone inscription points to 984.<ref name=mat-2005-167-178-197-200>Aung-Thwin (2005): 167–178, 197–200</ref> Perhaps the most well known inscription is the Old Burmese face of the Myazedi inscription. The most complete set of Old Burmese inscriptions, called ''She-haung Myanma Kyauksa Mya'' ({{my|ရှေးဟောင်း မြန်မာ ကျောက်စာများ}}; lit. "Ancient Stone Inscriptions of Myanmar") was published by Yangon University's Department of Archaeology in five volumes from 1972 to 1987.<ref name=mat-1996-900>Aung-Thwin 1996: 900</ref> A digitized version of this collection<ref>U Nyein Maung. (2018). ရှေးဟောင်းမြန်မာကျောက်စာများ (Ancient Burmese Inscriptions ) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1202320
</ref>
and a corrected version of the same enhanced with metadata and transliteration
<ref>U Nyein Maung, Lewis-Wong, Jennifer, Khin Khin Zaw, McCormick, Patrick, & Hill, Nathan. (2020). A Structured Corpus of Old Burmese Stone Inscriptions (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4321314</ref>
are available at Zenodo.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite journal | last=Aung-Thwin | first=Michael A. | title=The Myth of the "Three Shan Brothers" and the Ava Period in Burmese History | journal=The Journal of Asian Studies | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=November 1996 | location=Cambridge | volume=55 | issue=4 | pages=881–901 | doi=10.2307/2646527| jstor=2646527 | doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book | last=Aung-Thwin | first=Michael A. | title=The Mists of Rāmañña: The Legend that was Lower Burma | edition=illustrated | publisher=University of Hawai'i Press | year=2005 | location=Honolulu | isbn=978-0-8248-2886-8}}
* Dempsey, Jakob (2001). “Remarks on the vowel system of old Burmese.” ''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'' 24.2: 205–34. Errata 26.1 183.
* Nishi Yoshio 西 義郎 (1974) "ビルマ文語の-acについて Birumabungo-no-ac-ni tsuite" [On -ac in Burmese]  東洋学報 ''Tōyō gakuhō. The Journal of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko'' 56.1:  01–43. (Translation published as "[https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/107171/5/Nishi2016WrittenBurmese-ac.pdf Proto-Lolo-Burmese and Old Burmese Sources of Written Burmese -ac]". ''Journal of the South East Asian Linguistics Society'' 9:  97–129. 
* Nishi Yoshio (1999). ''Four Papers on Burmese: Toward the history of Burmese (the Myanmar language).'' Tokyo: Institute for the study of languages and cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
* Nishida Tatsuo 西田龍雄 (1955) "Myazedi 碑文における中古ビルマ語の研究 Myazedi hibu ni okeru chūko biruma go no kenkyū. Studies in the later ancient Burmese Language through Myazedi Inscriptions." 古代學 ''Kodaigaku Palaeologia'' 4.1:17-31 and 5.1: 22–40.
* Pān Wùyún 潘悟雲 (2000). "緬甸文元音的轉寫 Miǎndiàn wényuán yīn de zhuǎn xiě. [The Transliteration of Vowels of Burman Script].” 民族語文 ''Mínzú Yǔwén'' 2000.2: 17–21.
* Wāng Dànián 汪大年 (1983). "缅甸语中辅音韵尾的历史演变 Miǎndiànyǔ fǔyīn yùnwěi de lìshǐ yǎnbiàn [Historical evolution of Burmese finals." 民族语文 ''Mínzú Yǔwén'' 2: 41–50.
*Wun, Maung (1975). "Development of the Burmese language in the medieval period." 大阪外国語大学学報 ''Ōsaka gaikokugo daigaku gakuhō'' 36: 63–119.
* Yanson, Rudolf (1990). ''Вопросы фонологии древнебирманского языка. Voprosy fonologii drevnebirmanskogo jazyka.'' Moscow: Nauk.
*Yanson, Rudolf (2006). 'Notes on the evolution of the Burmese Phonological System.' ''Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages II''. Christopher I. Beckwith, ed. Leiden: Brill. 103–20.


[[Category:Medieval languages|Burmese, Old]]

{{Sourceattribution|Old Burmese}}