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THE VOWEL SYSTEMS OF ARAKANESE

AND TAVQYAN

The numerical disparity tween the vowel phonemes of Burmese and those of certain closely related dialects. and the different relations which sometimes obtain between the vowel phonemes and their graphic rep- resentation combine to reveal the points at which the equilibrium of each of these vowel systems is threatened. in this paper 1 shall attemp: to compare the vowel systems of Arakanese, Tavoyan and Burmese from this point of view, in so far as the material at my disposal permits. This material is ygantier and more uneven than could be desired, and is some- times, of necessity, second-hand.‘)

After comparing the opposition between the vowels of Arakanese and Burmese, first in open syllables and subsequently in closed syllables,2) the points at which these two systems are unstable will be indicated. The attested divergencies between the Tavoyan and Burmese vowel systems will then be noted, and we shall examine t e written forms used by Tavoyan students accustomed to speak and write Rangoon Burmese, in

I) The Arakanese material was gathered in 1958 at Akyab. my informants being various members of the family of U Tha Aung Phru. The Burmese material was

gathered during the same year from students in Rangoon, and supplemented by information supplied by Tin Tin Myaing, a Burmese from Rangoon living in Paris.

For Tavoyan I am deeply endcbted to an article by U Pe Maung Tin, ‘The dialect of Tavoy’, JBBS’, 23, I, 1933. J:n the summer of 1964, since I did not receive permission

from the Burmese government to visit Tavoy or the surrounding district until too late, I contrrved to collect a certain amount of Tavoyan vrlcabulary and colloquial texts from Tavoyan students at Rangoon University, students whom I was able to meet thanks to U Kyaw Thet, Director of the Historical Commission.

%) I gave my reasons for ,mstldating final consonants in modern Burmese in BSL,

58, 2, 1963, 203ff. The phoneti: and phonological transcription employed here are substantially the same as in the BTL paper. The transliteration of the Burmese ortho- graphic forms (here shown in italics), is that of the Epigrophia Birmanica, I, 4, Rangoon, 1919, except that tones are shown as in the Burmese script, and for the digraph ai, used in the Epigruphiu, I have substituted P.

46U DENISE BERNOT

representing their own phonemes, in order to discover what light they shtid upon the Tavoyan vowel system in closed syllables.

In Arakanese, there are in Upen syllables only two front vowels corre- sponding to three, viz. /i/, /e/, ,I&/, in Burmese.

Thus we have in Arakanese:

\ l I w written tC ‘to strike music’ /‘te/ written M: ‘song’

It! ‘e written t+ ‘hut’

In Burmese, on the other hand, we have a three-fold phonemic contrast:

. l ItI I ti: ‘to strike music’ . \ I te/ te: ‘song’

It I ‘E t2 ‘hut’

Similar sets of examples are the following:

Orthog. Ar. Bur. ni I I ni ’ I I ni ‘to bc red’ ne I I ni I I ne ‘to stay’ naJ I ne/ I I nc: ‘region’

chi: I’shi/ I’shi/ ‘urine’ chafi: /‘she/ /‘shi/ “to collect, ar naa,s’ the: I’shi/ /‘she/ ‘drug, tobaccc’ chk /‘she/ /‘shs/ ‘to scold, revile’

se: Iv ’ i 10 I ’ e ‘urine’ s6 /et ’ e /e/ ’ F, ‘sand’ se: not used /We/ ‘to be small’

Arakanese /I/ covers both the domain of Burmese li/, written i, and, in the majority of cases, of Burmese /e/, written e. Araka nese /e/ corresponds to Burmese /E/ when spelt 3 or ay,“j al&ii occasionally to IWmese /i/ when the latter is r:presente(d by the spelling ati, [t may be noted in passing that a number of Burmese words formerly spelt with afi are now spelt +5 or ay and are, moreover, pronounced /s/. This orthogra@ic

a) la the Burmese script the notation of tones is inseparable :ior~ that af the VW&, and follows three diRixent systems, according to whether ttks vowels concerned ale /a, i, u/ or /e, o/ or /c, a/. Thus it comes about that the notatiw of /IS/ may lx either 2 01: ay, depending upon the tone.

NESE AND TAVOYAN 465

development is proportionate to the frequency of occurrence of the word concerned and simply folbws an earlier pronunciation /E/. The classic

hat sf the final SC& pronounced /tq’ Cd&] or [r-&l, demon- of an initial /O/to/t/, realized as [d] or [r). Nowadays,

aed in Arakaaese larly to a single

Bur.

Ma’! ‘ta get yip’

,‘thC ‘to insert’

it hi’/ ‘to touch’

i i na ‘to suffer’

/ ns/ ‘region’

hei ‘to stay’

There is a one-to-one correspondence in open syllables between the back vowels of Arakanese and Burmese. e.g.

Orthog. At. Bur. I’

PO “pa/ f lPI ’ 3 ‘10 be plentiful

gui: ,‘Poi /‘PO/ o carry on the back’

pB: I‘Pul I‘PUl ‘to join, unite’ .-

In closed syilables, howc , there are marked differences between the two dialects. Syllables may closed either by a stop (glottal in absolute final position, otherwise at the same place of articulation as the initial consonmt of the fallowing syllable), or by a nasal (velar in absolute final position, otherwi nit with the initial consonant of the following

syllable). In syllables closed by a stop or a nasal, the correspondence between the vowels of Arakanese and Burmese that is found in open syllables no longer obtains. In ?uch syllables Arakanese has three front vowels - two diphthongized and the third an open front vowel, [ai], [ei], fe). They are regarded here as realizations before a final consonant of

the phonemes /a/, /i/ and /e/ respectively. Thus we have the following oppositions:

466

l Orthog. ac

aP it

uik

aP iP

uiti am im

tat tuik

tat tit

tuirj: tan:

tim:

Ar. /?a?/ [Pai?] /?e?/ [?s?] /?i?/ [?ei?]

,?a?/ [Zai?] /?e?/ [?83] /?i?/ [?ei?]

/?ati/ [?aiIi] ,?eri/ t?Eti j /?iii/ ieiti]

/ta?/ [tai?] /ta?/ [ tai?] /te?/ [ ts?] /ti?/ [ tei?]

,“tari/ [‘tam] /‘ten/ [ ‘tsti] /‘tin/ [ ‘teiti]

DENISE BERNOT

Bur.

/?e?/ [?ei]

/?ai?/

/?a?/ /?e?/ [?ei?]

,?airi/ /?ati/ /?eti/ [Peiri]

It ?I i /tai?/

It 3, ,tZ?/ [ tei?]

/‘tain/ /‘tari/ /‘ten/ [ teiti]

‘cylindrical box” ‘needle’ ‘bag’

‘to feel hot’ ‘to entrust to’ ‘to sleep

‘pond, lake’ ‘molar’ ‘house’

‘to grunt, choke’ ‘to push, strike’ ‘to know’ ‘to be silent’

‘to measure against’ ‘to extend’ ‘to bend, incline’

From the various examples above it can be seen that: (I) Before a final stop thz triple opposition /a/, /e/, /i/ of Arakanese

corresponds to a quadruple opposition in Burmese, /i/, /ai/, /a/, /e,, two different spellings being used to represent the single Arakanese phoneme /a/ and the two Burmese phonemes /i/ and /ai/.

(2) Before a final nasal there is in general a triple opposition in both Arakanese and Burmese. It is rare in Arakanese that the final palatal symbol ii entails the pronunciation [ai] in the preceding vowel. Thus Arakanese /a/, /e/, /i/ correspond to Burmese /ai/, /a/, /e/.

(3) Although it has been stated that there is regularly a similarity between the front vowels of Arakanese and Burmese in open syllables, in closed syllablPq we have Arakanese /e/ [E] besLde Burmese /a/ and Arakanese /a/ [ai] beside Burmese /ii.

Turning to the Arakanese back vowels found before a final consonant we find an even greater disagreement with Burmese, In this context, the three back vowels of Arakanese are slightly diphthongized: /a/ [ao], /o, [m], /u, [ou]. E.g.:

?HE VOWEL SYSTEMS OF ARAKANESE AND TAVOYAN 467

khak khsk khur

chak chok

ChUt

chup

chari: ChOk

chutil:

/khe? !kho?/’ [ khau?] kho?/ [ khou? ]

:shc?/

/sha?/ [shau?] /sho?/’ [shou?]

/‘shin/ /‘shaxi,’ [ ‘shaun 1

i’shori,’ [ ‘shouti]

‘to love’

‘brindled’ ‘to be thin’

‘to be hard’ ‘to knock’ ‘to chop’

‘to join, unite’ ‘to build ‘to tear’ ‘to clenkN

‘to descend’ ‘to cover over’ ‘to end’

Examples might be multiplied indefinitely without bringing to light any exceptions to this regular correspondence between the Burmes: and Arakanese vowel systems on the one: hand, and to their respective correspondence with orthographic forms on the other. Thus Arak,Anese /a/ corresponds to orthographic a followed by a Ge.lar symbol, either k or ri; lo/ corresponds to orthographic o followed by a velar symbol k or ri; /u/ corresponds to orthographic u followed by a dental symbol, t or n, or a labial symbol, p or m. Burmese /ii corresponds to orthographic u followed by the velar nasal symbol ri; Is/ to a followed by the velar stop symbol k ; /a/ to Q followed by a velar symbol k or ri ; /o/ to u followed by a dental svmbol t or n, oc a labial symbol, p or m. r

To complete the picture it must be added that the vowel jcl/ also exists in Burmese in closed syllables but that the corresponding Arakanese form is a sequence of two vowel phonemes of which the first is realized as a semivowel. Such sequences do not exist in Burmese except in open syllables. Burmese /u/ before a final consonant corresponds to Arakanese /ue/ [WE]. Cf.

Orth ,g. Ar. Bur. lwm /lu?/ [lW&?] /lu?/ ‘to be free’ r!luv6l. /JW&ri’/ /juti’/ ‘mud’

468 DENISE BERNOT

The rlesults of the oppositions described above may be summarized in the following table :

Arakanese Orthographic rendering Burmese

la/ [ai1 a before c !I i

/al r.4 ui before k .

I I /a/ [ail Q before n” (rare) /E/ in oden syllables

la/ [ail ui before ri I I ai

Id i&l a before t, p

/e/ [Cl a before n, m II a

Ii a

/iI ieil /iI Ceil

i before t, p i before n, m

lel WI /e/ kil

a before k a before ri

II E

IV

lo/ bol lo/ I301

o before k 3 before ri

14 bl /w Coul

u before t, p

u before n, m lo/ bul lo/ I34

/ue:/ [WE] wa before t, p /I U

/ue/ [WE] WQ before n, IPZ I I U

The points at which the equilibrium, either between the Arakanese and Burmese vowel systems, or between one of these systems and the orthography, is unstable, are the following:

Ar. /a/ before a final consonant is spelt in two different ways, whereas in Burmese there is only one spelling. There is unevenness in the use made of the two Arakanese spellings. Frequellt use is made of both spellings before final stops, but only one is in regular use before final nasals.

The pairs of symbols t, p and n, m are nowadays mere orthographic variants, long established as such in both Burmese and Arakanese, dnd since they are found used always in the sa.me way, it is clear that one cannot point kzre to any latent signs of disetauilibrium.

The instability of the Burmese system is demonstrated, however, by

THE VOWEL SYSTEMS OF ARAKANESE AND TAVOYAN 469

(I) the correspondence of Ar. /+ to both Bur. /q’ (before stops) and /i/ (before nasals); (2) the use of lymbols as different from one another as c and ri to indicate the same preceding vowel (Bur. /i/), and (3) the existence in Burmese of /E/ before stops but not before nasals4)

In addition the correspondence of Ar. /ue/ to Bur. lu/ underlines the disparity in the number of degrees of vocalic opening ih the two systems.

In Arakanese a nasal consonant is found after /i/ in certain phonetic contexts. We are concerned here with a particular realization of /i,’ in open syllables, heard, usually, when the syllabte concerned is in close juncture with the following syllable. This phenomenon is encountered when an n or an m precedes the vowel, but not invariably so. Thus, /‘nil ‘to be few’ in the sentence ‘There are few flowers’ /‘pen ‘mya a’ni [‘niri] he J1’ ‘rej is reaiized with a final nasal.

Although I am unable to account for the fact that this realization [iril i c t Lanes place 111 tiG1cQlll V-s :- narta;fi #WICP =A -fit in ntherc 1 An nQt, b&eve tt-3; it is WI&U IIV, 1.. vr.rrrv, a WY

dependent upon the nature of the initial consonant of the following syllable. ‘In order to stay’ is /ni [nim] phoj’ or /ni [nin] lai? pho’/, whereas ‘Stay!’ is /ni ini]/. It should be noted that in the common everyday sentence /ni pu re/ ‘it is hot’ 1 have never heard /nil ‘sun’ realized in a way comparable with that described above for /nil ‘stay’.

‘Mother’ is /?ami’/, but ‘parents’ is /?ami’ [mim’] pha’/ or /?ami’

[ miri’] ?apha’/. These special pronunciations should be viewed alongside the. fact that

‘to fori:et’, spelt ml; in Arakanese, me. in classical Burmese, s realized as a closed syllable, [mein’], in all contexts *HI me: ‘to ask’ is similarly pronounced [ ‘mein]?)

We must also note that after /r/ Ar. /i/ is sometin-ies realized as [wi].“) The word re ‘to c!xmt’, ( !ve/), is pronounced ci;her [rwi] or [ri], and the word r’&: ‘to wnt Bur. 1’ ye/) is similarly pronounced either [‘rwi] or [‘ri], bobn words being distinguislr~~ from rwye: ‘to choose’, (Bur. /‘yue/), which is pronouncei /‘rue/ [F-we], by the quality of the vowel rather than by the pr sence of [WI. Gther Arakanese words

written with the symbol e after w have the vow~zl /e/, not the vowel /i/, e.g.

*) III fact, the modern colloquial Burmese pronunciation of Bur. /in/, spelt ali, is [&XI]. This transfers the! threat of disequilibrium onto the pair /i?/ (still realized [i?]) and /ifi/ [~fi].

5, Note that the place of articulation of the nasal is liable to vary according to the nature of the initial consonant of the following syllable.

O) The phonetic transcription is impxfkct and does not indicate, for example, that this [w] is unrounded.

470 DENISE BHXNOT

/rue’/ rwe. (verbal affix) /‘rue/ rwe: ‘to redeem, ransom’ or ‘to choose’ /‘rue/ rw2 [sic]‘) ‘seed used as a weight’.

When one takes account of the fact that other Burmese words in which /e/ follows /yu/ (spelt rw) have no counterparts in Arakanese, it becomes clear that in the latter there is neutralization of the opposition /r/ - /ru/ before /il.

Insufficient evidence prevents me from asserting that Tavolran has the same number of vowel phonemes as Burmese. There is particular doubt about the front vowels, especially /i/, /e/, /&/.

U Pe Maung Tine) notes the ‘change’ of [e] to [i] after [w], i.e. the absence of the oppositio? /i/ - /e/ in this context. Cf.

Tav. Bur. [‘wi] [‘we] ‘to be far’ [‘khwi] [‘khwej ‘dog’ [nwi] [nwe] ‘hot season’ [ twi’] [twe’] ‘to find’

In the above examples the Tavoyan pronunciation agrees with that of Arakanese but this is not sufficient to justify the conclusion that the likeness goes furthe-, znd that Tavcyan has, like Arakanese, only three front vowel phonemes, /i/, /e/ [e] or [E], and /a/?)

U Pe Maung Tin a& draws attention”*) to a fact which makes it appear improbable that there are in Tavoyan fewer degrees of vocalic opening in open syllables than in Burmese. To a certain number of closed syllables in Burmese there correspond open syllables in Tavoyan, e.g.

Orthog. Tav. Bur.

iP /?i’/ [?i.‘] /?e?/ [ ?ei?] ‘to sleep’ it /?i’/[?i’] /?e?/[?ei?] ‘bag’ lip /l

*I , 1, /le?/ [ lei?] ‘tortoise’

tin / I Si /seri/ [ seih] ‘diamond’

I have also heard Tav. /phyi’/ for phrac, *to be, occur’ (Bur. /phyi?/).

;) In Burmese written rwe: and pronounced /‘yue/. “) Op. cit., 35. *9 fn the little Tavoyan I heard, I picked out pronunci,ltioms both of [e] and [E),

but I was unable to check, by further investigation, whether these were realizations of separate phonemes or variants of the same phoneme.

la) Op. cit., 34.

THE VOWEL SYSTIIMS OF ARAKANESE AND TAVOYAN 47!

As regards the back vowels, I have observed that, on the high tone /a/ very frequently corresponds to Bur. /a?/ or /Ml (high tone).

Orthog. Tav. Bur. rak fua'l IIYd lYw[Yau~J ‘to reach’ Ok /?iI*/ /?a?/ [?au?] ‘under’ mrclk ImYU /mya?/ [ myau?f ‘north’

Tin, moreover, notes”) that Tav. /u/ plays the same riile as /i/* for a certain number of open syllables with vowel /i/ in Tavoyan correspond to closed syllabks in Burmese, e.g.

tI2lm.

kkun

Tav. !shu’/ /mu’

ikhul , s

Bur. fsha?/ /mori’/ /khoti/

‘to tear apart’ 'fhlr'

‘to jump’

The above correspondences are summarized below:

Orthog. Tav. Bur, it, ip I I i’ /e?/ [ei?]

( 1 ac W) in, in1 II i ok I I 3’ /a?/ [au?] ori I I 3’ /xi’/ [ auri ]

ut, up i I U' /o?/[ou?]

un, un2 Ii U /3Ii/[outi)

The conclusion to be drawn from this is clearly chat open syllables are more numerous in Tavoyan than in Rangoon Burmese, a fact which increases the risk of confusiotl between vowels in open syllables, and leads one to suppose that in this position there must be at least as many degrees of vocalic opening as in Burmese.

In closed syllables the distribution of /ai/ in Tavoyan is as in Arakanese and Burmese, e.g.

Orthog. Tav. Bur. AL luik: /laiij /la i?/ /lai?/ ‘to foliow’ ZUtii /taili/ /taiti/ /taifi/ ‘post’ thuifi /thairi/ /thaihI /thaifi/ ‘to sit’

II) Op. cit., 34.

472 DENISE BERNOT

Tavoyan /a/ is pronounced very front and lightly diphthongized [a&] in the following:

Orthog. Tav. Bur. Ar.

*ap luau [Yael /uav /rev WI ‘to hait; stand’ mkat /hma?/ [hmae?] /hma?/ ‘to note’

Pan /‘pan/ [‘pa&n] /‘pan/ /‘pen/ [ ypcri] ‘flower’

The orthographic forms ak and aii of classical Burmese on the other hand, represent Tavoyan /a?/ [a&], /a,n/ [a&n] in a fair number of cases. Tavoyan students in Rangoon regularly use the spelling at, up, an, ant, in accordance with Burmese conventions to represent the Tavoyan pronunciation of words Pike Ihe foilowing:

Classic%1 Tav. Ortho .t. Spelling pa4 Zay pan lay tari tan bhak phat thak thap

It av.

/pari l&/ /tan/

/PW /tha?/

Bur.

/pin !Ef ‘ocean 9

‘to put on’ ‘side’ ‘more than’

U Pe Maung Tin noies /i/12) before final stops, e.g.

cakkiS

PYak

Tav. Bur. ’ Ar. /si? ku/ [sikku]

IPYW -

/SE? ku/ [sekku]

- IPYW

‘paper’

!PYW ‘to be destroyed’

I have mvself heard: #

chari: /‘shiri/ arari /?ayin/

/‘shiri/ /?ayiri/

‘to descend’ ‘tirst

Tavoyan back vowe!s in closed syllables are very much at variance with those of Burmese and Arakanese. There is a very open &phthong pronounced like But-. [au], which is represented or m in the classical spellingls) and is ‘corrected Rangoon to o followed by k or ri, e.g.

Classical Tav. Tav, Bur. Orthog. Spelling

/UP lok /Iau?, /lo?/

by u: followed bj* 1, p, n .by Tavoyan students in

‘to do’ acun acori /?asaun/ /?asori/ ‘downstream’ alum: a/oh: /?a’lauti/ /?$lori/ ‘all’

12) Op. cit., 35. I%) Cf. W Pe Maung Tin, op. tit ., 34.

q’HE VOWEL SYSTEMS 01: ARAKANESE AND TAVOYAN jl 473

d syllables with the vowel ,/aj correspond to aI in Tavayan (see above). Non-diphthongized /o,f

itied number of cases in Tavoyan, corre- [au]. for which the classical spelling ic; o Mowed

by k ar ik Cf.

classical Tav. T,rv. Bur.

/’ klC?rj,’ /kMi~ ‘monzte ry’ t~~~~~ taken /takatif ‘one (animal)’

Tin also notes the uccurrencr of this /Q/ before a final stop.9 To conclude this account af Tavayan back vowels, there is aI.1 /ui in

J $yllabl~s. It is s It in the :;ame way as Brrr. /u/ in closed syllables, d by f, p, n, m, e.

Classical and -LW. Rur. Tav. Spelling

kywn /blri; /cuIi~ ‘slave’

Ihwiar /hlu?/ /hlu?/ ‘to free’

Below is a table summarizing the account given above of the Tavovan I

vowels in closed syllables. Only ‘classical’ spellings are entered under the

eading ‘Qrthsg.’

Tav. /ai/ . /all id CaCl 4 beI al EN Ial fad II i

II i

I ul a /au/

.‘ol I I 0

I 1 u

I i U

14) Op. cit., 34.

Ckthog. ui before k ui before ri a ‘ibefore 1, p a before n, nl Q before k

a before ri u before 1, p u before n, m 0 “before k 0 before ri

u’u before t, p

rtw before n, m

474 DENISE BERNOT

The table demonstrates the intensive .use made in Tavoyan of certain orthographic forms (ak, &), which compensates for the absence of the final c and 5 which are to be,found only in open syllables. The distribution of the TavoyanS phonemes with reference to the orthographic forms is his logical as that of the Arakanese phonemes displayed in the table on p. 468 : a given phoneme is regularly represented by the same orthographic forrri which is not always the case in Burmese (cp. Tav. /i/). It also emerges that I’avoyan has six vowel phonemes in closed syllables like Arakanese, not eight as in Burmese.

It remains to emphasize that this is only a provisional sketch based upon inadequate material from a variety of sources. Nevertheless, the general impression gained, namely that the phonological systems of the dialects are more stable than that of Rangoon Burmese - an impression which is readily derived from the juxtaposition of the two tables on pp. 468 and 473, - appears to correspond to the facts.

$

Ecok Nationale des Langues Orientar’4s Vivantes, Paris