Adoniram Judson

“ Nouns have two numbers, the singular and plural. The simple noun may be regarded as being in the singular number, as လူ, a man; though the noun in its simple state, without any definite adjunct, has frequently a generic meaning, as လူ​သေ​တတ်​သည်, man is mortal.
§54. The plural is formed by affixing တို့ (pronounced ဒို့) , do, to the singular, as လူ, a man, လူတို့ men. The adjective များ is sometimes used instead of တို့, and sometimes both are combined, as လူများ, or လူ​များ​တို့, men. ”

“ This verbal, followed by the verb မူ​သည်, to do, perform, is always used instead of the simple verb, in speaking becomingly of deities, kings, or any exalted personages, as မိန့်​တော်​မူ​သည်, (the deity or king) speaks, literally, does divine or royal speaking, မိန့်​တော်​မ​မူ, he speaks not.
Most verbal nouns retain the same power of government as their verbs, that is, cause the preceding noun to take the same affix, as their verbs do, as ဇာတ်​ကို​ဟော​စ​ပြု​သည်, he makes a beginning of rehearsing the zat, ဇာတ်​ကို​ဟော​တော်​မူ​သည်, he rehearses the zat, or he does rehearsing the zat ”

“ The Burmese language recognizes no grammatical or artificial gender, but that only which consists in the distinction of the sexes, viz, the masculine and the feminine.
§56. The two genders are distinguished, sometimes by different words, as ယောက်ျား, a man, မိမ္မ, a woman; sometimes by regarding the simple noun as masculine, and affixing မ for feminine, as ရဟန်း, a priest (of Boodh) , ရဟန်းမ, a priestess; and sometimes by affixing ထီး, or ဖ, or ဖို, for the masculine, and မ for the feminine; as ခွေးထီး, a dog, ခွေးမ, a bitch; ကြက်ဖ, a cock, ကြက်မ, a hen; ငန်းဖို, a gander, ငန်းမ, a goose. ”

“ The letters of the first or က class are gutturals, ကဏ္ဌ​ဇာ; those of the second or စ class are palatals, တာ​လု​ဇာ; those of the third or ဋ class are cerebrals, မုဒ္ဓ​ဇာ; those of the fourth or တ class are dentals, ဒန္တ​ဇာ; and those of the fifth or ပ class are labials, ဩ​ဌ​ဇာ.
The first letter of each class is a simple articuation, smooth and soft; the third is the same, rough and hard; the second is the aspirate of the first; the fourth, according to the Sungskrit system, whence the alphabet is derived, is the aspirate of the third, but according to the Burmese pronunciation, is the same ”

“ The negative is made by prefixing မ to the verb, which, beside its negative power, has the privilege of occasionally dispensing with the assertive affixes, or of conveying an assertive power to the root, or to the qualifying and euphonic affixes, the affixes of number, and the auxiliary affixes of tense, all of which, in affirmative sentences, require an assertive affix, thus သွား​သည်, he goes, မ​သွား or မ​သွား​ဘူး, he goes not, သွား​သေး​သည်, he is still going, သွား​သေး, he is not yet gone, သွား​နှိုင်​သည်, he can go, မ​သွား​နှိုင်, he cannot go. ”

“ The noun affixes may be distributed into nine classes, viz, the Nominative, the Objective, the Possessive, the Dative, the Causative, the Instrumentive, the Connective, the Locative, and the Ablative.
nominative.
§59. သည် is the most common nominative affix, denoting the agent or subject of the verb; as ထို​လူ​သည်​ကောင်း​၏, that man is good; but in simple sentences, it is most commonly omitted; as သူ​ကောင်း​သည်, he is good; also in participial clauses, ဆ​ရာ​ပြော​သော​စ​ကား the words which the teacher speaks. ”

“ The comparative degree is made, by means of the secondary noun အ​ထက်, or အောက်, and a verb, as အိမ်​ထက်​ကြီး​သည်, to be greater than the house, or by a circumlocution of verbs, as သာ​၍​ကြီး​သည်, to exceed in greatness, or be greater. ”

“ Names of races of men, of countries, towns, &c. when used to qualify a following noun, as အင်္ဂ​လိတ်, an Englishman, အင်္ဂ​လိတ်​လူ, ditto, အင်္ဂ​လိတ်​ပြည်, England, the country of the English; မြမ္မာ, a Burmese, မြမ္မာ​စ​ကား, the Burmese language; ရန်​ကုန်, Rangoon, the town of Rangoon, ရန်​ကုန်​မြို့, ditto ရန်​ကုန်​သား, or ရန်​ကုန်​မြို့​သား, a son, or native of Rangoon. ”

“ The verbal formative မှန်း, from မှန်, to be right, true, is used chiefly in negative sentences, as ရောက်​မှန်း​ကို​မ​သိ, or ရောက်​မှန်း​မ​သိ, (he) knows not the fact of the arrival. It is sometimes used without a verbal root, as ဘု​ရား​မှန်း​မ​သိ။ တ​ရား​မှန်း​မ​သိ, (he) knows nothing about God or religion.
6. Beside verbal nouns formed from verbs used substantively, there is another kind which may be termed the honorific verbal, formed by combining the verbal root with the adjective တော်. ”

“ Sometimes the noun itself becomes the numeral auxiliary, or is substituted for a descriptive word, as ရွာ​ကိုး​ရွာ, nine villages, မင်း​ဆယ်​မင်း, ten governors.
Words denoting some part or quantity of a thing are combined with numerals, in the same manner as words descriptive of a quality, there being no other difference in the cases, excepting that in the latter, the number of individual things merely is expressed; in the former, the number of the parts or quantities of the thing, as ရေ​နှစ်​ခွက်, or နှစ်​ခွက်​သော​ရေ, two cups of water ”

“ In colloquial discourse, a strong negative is sometimes made by affixing ရိုး​လား, to the root, or မို့​တုံး, a contraction of မတုတ်​တုံး, to an assertive affix, as သွား​ရိုး​လား, or သွား​သည်​မို့​တုံး, he goes not. ”

“ Participial Affixes.
သော, connecting the verb with a subsequent noun, being equivalent to the relative pronoun, in most languages, as မြတ်​သော​လူ, the excelling man, or the man who excels; ပြေး​သော​မြင်း, the running horse, or the horse which runs; ရောက်​သော​သင်္ဘော, the arriving ship, or the ship which arrives; sometimes contracted to သ, as ရှိ​သ​မျှ, as much as there is;—commonly omitted after the assertive future affix မည်. သည်, ditto. ”

“ The verbal in ရာ, from အလျာ or အလျှာ, what is for, commonly written စရာ, the verbal in ဖို့, or ဘို့, from အဖို့, a portion, and the verbal in ရန် (from ရန်​သည်, to appropriate) , denote what is for some purpose, as စား​စ​ရာ, what is for eating, or to be eaten; ကြည့်​ဘို့ what is to be looked at; ပြုရန်, what is to be done.
4th. The verbal in ဖွယ် or ဘွယ်, sometimes စချင်​ဘွယ်, from ဘဖွယ်, what is suitable, denotes what is fit for, adapted to, or worthy of some use or purpose, as စား​ဘွယ်, what is good to eat, an eatable; အံ့ဘွယ် what is wonderful; ချစ်​စ​ချင်​ဘွယ်, what is lovely. ”

“ The noun affix ကား is sometimes used emphatically after another noun affix, as အ​ရိုက်​ကို​ကား​ခံ​​နှိုင်​ပါ​သ​လော, can you indeed bear the beating? also repeated after successive clauses, intended to be set adversatively, as မြေ​အ​ပြင်​၌​ကား​မြင်​သာ​သည်။ ရေ​ထဲ​၌​ကား​မ​မြင်​​နှိုင်, on the land, it is easy to see; in the water, we cannot see. ”

“ It is used with the vowels ဧ, အဲ, ဩော, အို, and the nasal consonants.
§39. The short heavy accent (း) , called ဝတ်​စ​နှစ်​လုံး, the two round woot-tsahs, or ရှေ့​ပေါက်, the dots before (after) , is placed after the latter, thus ကန်း. It is used with the vowels အာ, ဤ, ဦ, ဧ, အို, and the nasal consonants. This accent is considered as inherent in the vowel အဲ (unless superseded by the light accent) , and in the final consonant မ်, when combined with the vowel အ. In the latter case it is frequently omitted as superfluous; and in the former case, almost uniformly, in modern usage. ”

“ Adverbs formed from a certain class of compound verbs, by affixing ခတ်, or ဆန်, or ဆန်​ခတ်, denoting collision, as ရောက်​ရက်​ခတ်​ပြု​သဉ်, to behave disorderly, ရုန်း​ရင်း​ဆန်​ခတ်​ပြု​သည်, to make a disturbance.
6. Adverbs formed from nouns by reduplication, dropping the syllabic အ, in the latter member, if it is the initial of the noun, and prefixing it to the former member, if the noun begins with a consonant, as အ​ခါ​ခါ, repeatedly, from အ​ခါ, a time; အ​လို​လို, of one’s own accord, from အ​လို, will, pleasure; အ​သောင်း​သောင်း, tens of thousands, from အ​သောင်း, ten thousand ”

“ To these may be added a number of verbs, which are occasionally used to qualify a principal verb, as:—
အပ်, to be right, proper, as သွား​အပ်​သည် it is right to go; sometimes passive, in translations from the Pali, particularly when used, as an adversative to တတ်; frequently euphonic.
အား, to be at leisure, as သွား​အား​သည်, to be at leisure to go.
ကောင်း, to be good, as သွား​ကောင်း​သည်, it is good to go.
ခဲ, to be hard, difficult, as ရ​ခဲ​သည်, it is difficult to obtain.
စမ်, to try, make trial, as ပြု​စမ်​သည်, to do by way of trial; sometimes but little more than euphonic. ”

“ Adverbs proper, as ဧကန်, certainly, အလ​ကား, in vain, လား​လား, an intensive before a negative, as လား​လား​မ​ပြော, he says nothing at all, ခပ်, rather, prefixed to adjectives, formed from verbal roots by reduplication.
2. Pronominal adjectives used to modify a following verb, as အဘယ်​သို့​နေ​သ​နည်း, how does (he) remain? ထို​သို့​နေ​သည်, (he) remains thus; or combined with a secondary noun and similarly applied, as ဘယ်​လောက်​ကြီး​သ​နည်း, how large is (it) ? သည်​က​လောက်, properly သည်​ခန့်​လောက်​ကြီး​သည်, (it) is so large. How? ”

“ Adverbs formed from nouns, beginning with a syllabic အ, by dropping the အ, prefixing တ, one, and affixing တည်း, only, as တညီ​တ​ညီ, even, all together, from အညီ, evenness, uniformity.
7. Incomplete clauses, as အကယ်၍, certainly, for အကယ်​ဖြစ်၍; အထူး​သ​ဖြင့်, exceedingly, for အထူး​ဖြစ်​သ​ဖြင့်.
8. Adverbial affixes, as follows:—
ကဲ့သို့, as, like as.
ချည်း, only, merely, nothing but, as လူတို့​ချည်း, men only, nothing but men, သွား​သည်​ချည်း; he only goes, does nothing but go.
စင်, even, slightly emphatic.
စီ, each, as တယောက်စီ, each one, ကိုယ်စီ, ditto; apiece, as တခုစီ one a piece. ”

“ Adverbs formed from verbal roots, by reduplication, prefixing the negative မ to the first member, and တ to the second, thus intending to convey both the ideas of affirming and denying, as မ​လောက်​တ​လောက်, just enough and hardly that, မ​မှီ​တ​မှီ, just reaching and yet not quite reaching. ”

“ The verbal in ရုံ, perhaps from အ​ရုံ, just so much and no more, confines the action or being to what is expressed by the root, as ပြော​ရုံ​ပြု​သည်, or ပြော​ရုံ​မျှ​ပြု​သည်, he just speaks, i. e. does no more than speaking. ”

“ Many transitive verbs are formed from intransitive ones, by aspirating the initial letter. If the initial is the first letter of either of the five classes of consonants, it is changed for its corresponding aspirate, the second letter of the class, as ကျ​သည်, to fall, ချ​သည်, to throw down, or cause to fall; ပျက်​သည်, to be ruined, ဖျက်​သည်, to ruin; if the initial is a nasal, or an unclassed letter, it is combined with the letter ဟ, as ညွတ်​သည်, to be bent down, ညွှတ်​သည်, to bend down; လွတ်​သည်, to be free, လွှတ်​သည်, to make free. ”

“ N. B. The assertive affixes of tense, ဆဲ, ပြီ, အံ့, မည်, and လတံ့, occasionally lose their assertive power, and become auxiliary to a continuative, participial, or simply assertive affix, in which case ပြီ becomes ပြီး. ”

“ The true epoch of Burman time is the annihilation of Gaudama, the last Boodh or deity, which is placed five hundred and forty-four years before Christ; but the vulgar epoch is placed eleven hundred and eighty-two years later, or six hundred and thirty-eight years after Christ. ”

“ St. ↑ The latter sound especially obtains, when the initial letter is ည, ယ, ရ, or a consonant compounded with the symbol ယ or ရ [ee, as in been. St.] ↑ Or it. St. ↑ Ei, as in vein, skein, St. ↑ Ai, as in air. St. ↑ Ŏ, as oo in foot. St. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Ooa, as oo in foot, or soon. St. ↑ Ei as in vein, skein, St. ↑ Pron. myit-ta. St. ↑ Pron. မျည် St. ↑ မင်း is also feminine. St. ↑ သ like th in the. St. Notes ”

“ N. B. The term အခွက် is substituted for ပိဿာ, in connection with any capital number above ten, as အ​ခွက်​နှစ်​ဆယ် for ပိဿာ​နှစ်​ဆယ်, twenty pikthahs. Ten pikthahs is written အ​ခွက်​တ​ဆယ်, or ဆယ်​ပိဿာ.
Also,
2 ပဲ great make one မူး great, marked ( ူ) , as ၁ူ, တမူး 8 မူး great make one ကျပ်,
2 ပဲ small make one မူး small, marked as above.
10 မူး small make one ကျပ်.
measures of length.
အသစ် or လက်​သစ်, a finger’s breadth, marked ( ံ) , as ၁ံ, တ​သစ်.
Also,
N. B. According to the royal cubit, which measures 19 1-2 English inches, a yoozana is 13 1-2 English miles. ”