English-speakers, foreigners as well as Myanmars, usually complain of the unreliable transcriptions of Burmese-Myanmar names of people and places. The problem usually stems of ignorance of Myanmar pronunciation differences between the literary and colloquial Burmese. This problem has crept into many familiar names being changed into unfamiliar names recently. A well-known case is the name of the country. The Burmese-Myanmar spelling of the name has always been {mran-ma} and has not been changed. The {r} is not rhotic at all and the first syllable is usually pronounced with an IPA /j/ or English <y> resulting in {myan} or "Myan". This problem of transcription can be found even in transliteration cum transcription of two sister-languages using the same "alphabetic" system of writing: e.g. Sanskrit-Devanagari to Burmese-Myanmar.
In Burmese-Myanmar Wednesday is {boad~Da.hu:} or {boad~Da.hu:né.}: {né.} meaning 'day'. Cross-transliteration between Devanagari and Myanmar shows an extra akshara as the coda of the first syllable {boad~} in Myanmar. This accounts for the pronunciation difference between Burmese and Sanskrit: blind transliteration from Devanagari बुध (budha) to Myanmar would result in {bu.Da.hu:}. Blind transliteration and eventual transcription should not be done. There are bound to be mispronunciations in the receiving language.
Posted by U Kyaw Tun aka Joe Tun, 100428, www.tuninst.net ; jtun@bell.net
In Burmese-Myanmar Wednesday is {boad~Da.hu:} or {boad~Da.hu:né.}: {né.} meaning 'day'. Cross-transliteration between Devanagari and Myanmar shows an extra akshara as the coda of the first syllable {boad~} in Myanmar. This accounts for the pronunciation difference between Burmese and Sanskrit: blind transliteration from Devanagari बुध (budha) to Myanmar would result in {bu.Da.hu:}. Blind transliteration and eventual transcription should not be done. There are bound to be mispronunciations in the receiving language.
Posted by U Kyaw Tun aka Joe Tun, 100428, www.tuninst.net ; jtun@bell.net