"Two-three tone problem between IndoEuropean (IE) languages,
exemplified by English and Sanskrit, and Tibeto-Burman (Tib-Bur)
exemplified by Burmese."
Our task of comparing English to Burmese is not easy because English
have only two "tones" for vowels the short and the long, whereas
Burmese has three - the creak, the modal, and the emphatic. The one
way to reconcile them is to think in terms of 5 registers: creak,
short, modal, long, emphatic
The English short vowel is sometimes close to creak and sometimes to
modal. Similarly the English long vowel is between modal and emphatic.
For the vowel /a/, we have: {aa.}, {a}, {/ə/}, {aa}, {aa:}
-- the short-a and the long-a are transcribed as a and ā in
Pali-Latin. I am citing Pali because it can serve as the bridge
between Burmese and English. Since both Burmese and English do not
have dedicated graphemes to represent the central vowel, schwa /ə/, I
have to use {/ə/} for the modal. The Burmese schwa is found in words
like {a.ni} meaning the "color red" in which schwa is represented by
{a.}. In most Burmese-Myanmar words {a.} stands for the sound of
{aa.} .
This problem (as far as I know) lacks a concise name, because of which
I will refer to it as the two-three tone problem.
Joe Tun (aka) U Kyaw Tun, 29 Jan 2010
Tun Institute of Learning
www.tuninst.net
exemplified by English and Sanskrit, and Tibeto-Burman (Tib-Bur)
exemplified by Burmese."
Our task of comparing English to Burmese is not easy because English
have only two "tones" for vowels the short and the long, whereas
Burmese has three - the creak, the modal, and the emphatic. The one
way to reconcile them is to think in terms of 5 registers: creak,
short, modal, long, emphatic
The English short vowel is sometimes close to creak and sometimes to
modal. Similarly the English long vowel is between modal and emphatic.
For the vowel /a/, we have: {aa.}, {a}, {/ə/}, {aa}, {aa:}
-- the short-a and the long-a are transcribed as a and ā in
Pali-Latin. I am citing Pali because it can serve as the bridge
between Burmese and English. Since both Burmese and English do not
have dedicated graphemes to represent the central vowel, schwa /ə/, I
have to use {/ə/} for the modal. The Burmese schwa is found in words
like {a.ni} meaning the "color red" in which schwa is represented by
{a.}. In most Burmese-Myanmar words {a.} stands for the sound of
{aa.} .
This problem (as far as I know) lacks a concise name, because of which
I will refer to it as the two-three tone problem.
Joe Tun (aka) U Kyaw Tun, 29 Jan 2010
Tun Institute of Learning
www.tuninst.net