MLC Transcription System
Template:Burmese characters The Myanmar Language Commission Transcription System (1980), also known as the MLC Transcription System (MLCTS), is a transliteration system for rendering Burmese in the Latin alphabet. It is loosely based on the common system for romanization of Pali,[1] has some similarities to the ALA-LC romanization and was devised by the Myanmar Language Commission. Thie system is used in many linguistic publications regarding Burmese, and is used in MLC publications as the primary form of romanization of Burmese.
The transcription system is based on the orthography of formal Burmese and is not suited for colloquial Burmese, which has substantial differences in phonology from formal Burmese. Differences are mentioned throughout the article.
Features
- Coalesced letters transcribe stacked consonants.
- Consonantal transcriptions (for initials) are similar to those of Pali.
- Finals are transcribed as consonants (-k, -c, -t, -p) rather than glottal stops
- Nasalized finals are transcribed as consonants (-m, -ny, -n, -ng) rather than as a single -n final.
- The anunasika (‹See Tfd›ံ) and -m final (‹See Tfd›မ်) are not differentiated.
- The colon (:) and the period (.) transcribe two tones: heavy and creaky respectively.
- Special transcriptions are used for abbreviated syllables used in literary Burmese.
Transcription system
Initials and finals
The following initials are listed in the traditional ordering of the Burmese script, with the transcriptions of the initials listed before their IPA equivalents:
| ‹See Tfd›က k ([k]) |
‹See Tfd›ခ hk ([kʰ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဂ g ([ɡ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဃ gh ([ɡ]) |
‹See Tfd›င ng ([ŋ]) |
| ‹See Tfd›စ c ([s]) |
‹See Tfd›ဆ hc ([sʰ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဇ j ([z]) |
‹See Tfd›ဈ jh ([z]) |
‹See Tfd›ည ny ([ɲ]) |
| ‹See Tfd›ဋ t ([t]) |
‹See Tfd›ဌ ht ([tʰ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဍ d ([d]) |
‹See Tfd›ဎ dh ([d]) |
‹See Tfd›ဏ n ([n]) |
| ‹See Tfd›တ t ([t]) |
‹See Tfd›ထ ht ([tʰ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဒ d ([d]) |
‹See Tfd›ဓ dh ([d]) |
‹See Tfd›န n ([n]) |
| ‹See Tfd›ပ p ([p]) |
‹See Tfd›ဖ hp ([pʰ]) |
‹See Tfd›ဗ b ([b]) |
‹See Tfd›ဘ bh ([b]) |
‹See Tfd›မ m ([m]) |
| ‹See Tfd›ယ y ([j]) |
‹See Tfd›ရ r ([j] or [r]) |
‹See Tfd›လ l1 ([l]) |
‹See Tfd›ဝ w ([w]) |
‹See Tfd›သ s ([θ] or [ð]) |
| ‹See Tfd›ဟ h ([h]) |
‹See Tfd›ဠ l ([l]) |
‹See Tfd›အ a ([ə] or [a]) |
1Sometimes used as a final, but preceding diacritics determine its pronunciation.
The Burmese alphabet is arranged in groups of five, and within each group, consonants can stack one another. The consonant above the stacked consonant is the final of the previous vowel. Most words of Sino-Tibetan origin are spelt without stacking, but polysyllabic words of Indo-European origin (such as Pali, Sanskrit, and English) are often spelt with stacking. Possible combinations are as follows:
| Group | Burmese | Transcriptions | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ka. | ‹See Tfd›က္က, ‹See Tfd›က္ခ, ‹See Tfd›ဂ္ဂ, ‹See Tfd›ဂ္ဃ, ‹See Tfd›င်္ဂ | kk, khk, gg, ggh, and ng g respectively | ang ga. lip (‹See Tfd›အင်္ဂလိပ်)1, meaning "English" |
| ca. | ‹See Tfd›စ္စ, ‹See Tfd›စ္ဆ, ‹See Tfd›ဇ္ဇ, ‹See Tfd›ဇ္ဈ, ‹See Tfd›ဉ္စ, ‹See Tfd›ဉ္ဇ, | cc, chc, jj, jjh, nyc, nyj | wijja (‹See Tfd›ဝိဇ္ဇာ), meaning "knowledge" |
| ta. | ‹See Tfd›ဋ္ဋ, ‹See Tfd›ဋ္ဌ, ‹See Tfd›ဍ္ဍ, ‹See Tfd›ဍ္ဎ, ‹See Tfd›ဏ္ဍ | tt, tht, dd, ddh, nd | kanta. (‹See Tfd›ကဏ္ဍ), meaning "section" |
| ta. | ‹See Tfd›တ္တ, ‹See Tfd›ထ္ထ, ‹See Tfd›ဒ္ဒ, ‹See Tfd›န္တ, ‹See Tfd›န္ထ, ‹See Tfd›န္ဒ, ‹See Tfd›န္ဓ, ‹See Tfd›န္န | tt, htht, dd, nt, nht, nd, ndh, nn | manta. le: (‹See Tfd›မန္တလေး), Mandalay, a city in Myanmar |
| pa. | ‹See Tfd›ပ္ပ, ‹See Tfd›ဗ္ဗ, ‹See Tfd›ဗ္ဘ, ‹See Tfd›မ္ပ, ‹See Tfd›မ္ဗ, ‹See Tfd›မ္ဘ, ‹See Tfd›မ္မ, | pp, bb, bbh, mp, mb, mbh, mm | kambha (‹See Tfd›ကမ္ဘာ), meaning "world" |
| ya. | ‹See Tfd›ဿ, ‹See Tfd›လ္လ | ss, ll | pissa (‹See Tfd›ပိဿာ), meaning viss, a traditional Burmese unit of weight measurement |
1ang ga. lip is uncommonly spelt ang ga. lit (‹See Tfd›အင်္ဂလိတ်).
All consonantal finals are pronounced as glottal stops ([ʔ]), except for nasal finals. All possible combinations are as follows, and correspond to the colors of the initials above:
| Consonant | Transcription (with IPA) |
|---|---|
| k | -ak (‹See Tfd›-က် [eʔ]), -wak (‹See Tfd›ွက် [weʔ]), -auk ‹See Tfd›(ောက် [auʔ]), -uik ‹See Tfd›(ိုက် [aiʔ]) |
| c | -ac (‹See Tfd›-စ် [iʔ]) |
| t | -at (‹See Tfd›-တ် [aʔ]), -wat (‹See Tfd›ွတ် [waʔ] or [uɴ]), -ut (‹See Tfd›ုတ် [ouʔ]), it (‹See Tfd›ိတ် [eiʔ]) |
| p | -p (‹See Tfd›-ပ် [aʔ] or [ɛʔ]), -wap (‹See Tfd›ွပ် [waʔ] or [uɴ]), -up (‹See Tfd›ုပ်), ip (‹See Tfd›ိပ် [eiʔ]) |
Nasalised finals are transcribed differently. Transcriptions of the following diacritical combinations in Burmese for nasalised finals are as follows:
| Consonant | Transcription (with IPA) |
|---|---|
| ng | -ang(‹See Tfd›-င် [iɴ]), -wang (‹See Tfd›ွင် [wiɴ]), -aung (‹See Tfd›ောင် [auɴ]), -uing (‹See Tfd›ိုင် [aiɴ]) |
| ny | -any (‹See Tfd›-ည် [e] or [ei]), -any (‹See Tfd›-ဉ် iɴ]) |
| n | -an (‹See Tfd›-န် [aɴ]), -wan (‹See Tfd›ွန် [waɴ] or [uɴ]), -un (‹See Tfd›ုန် [ouɴ]), -in (‹See Tfd›ိန် eiɴ]) |
| m | -am (‹See Tfd›-မ် [aɴ]), -wam (‹See Tfd›ွမ် [waɴ] or [uɴ]), -um (‹See Tfd›ုမ် [ouɴ]), -im (‹See Tfd›ိမ် [eiɴ]) |
| -am (‹See Tfd›ံ [aɴ]), -um (‹See Tfd›ုံ [ouɴ]) (equivalent to -am, but spelt with an anunaasika) |
Monophthongs are transcribed as follows:
| Burmese | Transcription | IPA | Remarks | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | High | Creaky | Low | High | Creaky | Low | High | Creaky | |
| ‹See Tfd›ာ | ‹See Tfd›ား | ‹See Tfd›- | -a | -a: | -a. | [à] | [á] | [a̰] | Can be combined with medial -w-. |
| ‹See Tfd›ယ် | ‹See Tfd›ဲ | ‹See Tfd›ဲ့ | -ai | -ai: | -ai. | [ɛ̀] | [ɛ́] | [ɛ̰] | |
| ‹See Tfd›ော် | ‹See Tfd›ော | ‹See Tfd›ော့ | -au | -au: | -au. | [ɔ̀] | [ɔ́] | [ɔ̰] | As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဩ and transcribed au:. As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဪ and is transcribed au. |
| ‹See Tfd›ူ | ‹See Tfd›ူး | ‹See Tfd›ု | -u | -u: | -u. | [ù] | [ú] | [ṵ] | As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဥ and is transcribed u.. As a vowel in low tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဦ and transcribed u. |
| ‹See Tfd›ို | ‹See Tfd›ိုး | ‹See Tfd›ို့ | -ui | -ui: | -ui. | [ò] | [ó] | [o̰] | |
| ‹See Tfd›ီ | ‹See Tfd›ီး | ‹See Tfd›ိ | -i | -i: | i. | [ì] | [í] | [ḭ] | As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဣ and is transcribed i.. As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဤ and transcribed i:. |
| ‹See Tfd›ေ | ‹See Tfd›ေး | ‹See Tfd›ေ့ | -e | -e: | -e. | [è] | [é] | [ḛ] | As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written ‹See Tfd›ဧ and is transcribed ei:. It can be combined with medial -w-. |
Tones
| Tone name | Burmese | Transcribed tone mark |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral vowels1 | IPA | Nasal vowels2 | IPA | |||
| Low | ‹See Tfd›ာ | à | ‹See Tfd›-န် | àɴ | none | |
| High | ‹See Tfd›ား | á | ‹See Tfd›-န်း | áɴ | Colon (:) | In both cases, the colon-like symbol (shay ga pauk) is used to denote the high tone. |
| Creaky | ‹See Tfd›- | a̰ | ‹See Tfd›-န့် | a̰ɴ | Full stop (.) | Nasalised finals use the anusvara to denote the creaky tone in Burmese. |
1 Oral vowels are shown with ‹See Tfd›-.
2 Nasal vowels are shown with ‹See Tfd›-န် (-an).
Medial consonants
A medial is a semivowel that comes before the vowel. Combinations of medials (such as h- and -r-) are possible. They follow the following order in transcription: h-, -y- or -r-, and -w-. In Standard Burmese, there are three pronounced medials. The following are medials in the MLC Transcription System:
| Burmese | IPA | Transcription | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‹See Tfd›ျ | [j] | -y-† | Its possible combinations are with consonants ka., (‹See Tfd›က), hka., (‹See Tfd›ခ), ga. (‹See Tfd›ဂ), pa. (‹See Tfd›ပ), hpa. (‹See Tfd›ဖ), ba. (‹See Tfd›ဗ), and ma. (‹See Tfd›မ). The medial is possible with other finals and vowels. |
| ‹See Tfd›ြ | [j] | -r-† | The aforementioned remarks apply to this medial as well. |
| ‹See Tfd›ွ | [w] | -w- | Its possible combinations are with consonants ka. (‹See Tfd›က), hka. (‹See Tfd›ခ), ga. (‹See Tfd›ဂ), nga, (‹See Tfd›င), ca, (‹See Tfd›စ), hca, (‹See Tfd›ဆ), ja, (‹See Tfd›ဇ), nya, (‹See Tfd›ည), ta. (‹See Tfd›တ), hta, (‹See Tfd›ထ), da (‹See Tfd›ဒ), na, (‹See Tfd›န), pa, (‹See Tfd›ပ), hpa, (‹See Tfd›ဖ), ba, (‹See Tfd›ဗ), bha. (‹See Tfd›ဘ), ma, (‹See Tfd›မ), ya. (‹See Tfd›ယ), ra. (‹See Tfd›ရ), la. (‹See Tfd›လ), and sa. (‹See Tfd›သ). The medial is possible with other finals and vowels, using the already mentioned consonants. |
| ‹See Tfd›ှ1 | h- | Its possible combinations are with consonants nga. (‹See Tfd›င), nya. (‹See Tfd›ည), na. ‹See Tfd›န), ma. (‹See Tfd›မ), ya. (‹See Tfd›ယ)‡, ra. (‹See Tfd›ရ)‡, and la. (‹See Tfd›လ). |
†The two medials are pronounced the same in Standard Burmese. In dialects such as Rakhine (Arakanese), the latter is pronounced [r].
‡When the medial ‹See Tfd›ှ is spelt with ra. (‹See Tfd›ရ), its sound becomes hra. [ʃa̰] (‹See Tfd›ရှ), which was once represented by hsya. (‹See Tfd›သျှ).
Abbreviated syllables
Formal Burmese has four abbreviated symbols, which are typically used in literary works:
| Burmese | IPA | Transcription | Usage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern abbreviation |
Historic spelling | |||
| ‹See Tfd›၍ | ‹See Tfd›ရုယ် | [jwé] | rwe | It is a connecting particle that connects two elements in a sentence and sometimes means "because" or "and". |
| ‹See Tfd›၌ | ‹See Tfd›နှိုက် | [n̥aiʔ] | hnai. | It is a locative particle that acts as a postposition after nouns (at, in, on). It is equivalent to hma (‹See Tfd›မှာ) in colloquial Burmese. |
| ‹See Tfd›၎င်း | ‹See Tfd›လေကောင် | [la̰ ɡàuɴ] | la. kaung | It acts as a demonstrative noun (this or that) when it precedes a noun. It is also used as a connecting phrase (as well as) between two nouns within a clause. |
| ‹See Tfd›၏ | ‹See Tfd›ဧအ် | [ḭ] | e | It is a genitive that is written at the end of a sentence that ends with a verb. It also marks possession of a preceding noun. |
See also
References
- ^ J. Okell A Guide to the Romanization of Burmese 2002- Page 7 "3. SURVEY OF THE THREE METHODS OF ROMANIZATION 3.l Transliteration The Burmese use for writing their language a script which is also used for Pali, and as there is a widely accepted romanization system for Pali this can be applied ..."