William Cornyn

“ Auxiliary verbs function both as full verbs and as modifiers immediately following full verbs in close juncture. In negative sentences the negative particle ma- (46) is never attached to an auxiliary verb. ”

“ A negative imperative sentence consists of an imperative sentence in which the negative particle ma- is prefixed to the head verb (80) , less often to a subordinate verb (81) [5] in a verb phrase (79) , and the negative final particle ‐nè is added at the end:
θwâ ‘go’: maθwânè ‘do not go’; myîn sî θwâ ‘go riding a horse’; myîn sî maθwânè: myîn masî θwânè [6] ‘do not go riding a horse’. ”

“ Each syllable consists of a consonant or a cluster plus a vowel, spoken on one of the four tones or atonically. Of the vowels, /a, i, u, ei, ou, ai, au/ occur also with nasal final.
4. There are four tones. For details see sections 25–30. Tone I is indicated by an acute accent / ́/, tone II by a circumflex /ˆ/, tone III by a grave /`/, and tone IV is written with a final Ɂ.
cá ‘water lily’; cán ‘sugar cane’; câ ‘tiger’; cân ‘floor’; càn ‘rhinoceros’; caɁ ‘rupee’; càdé ‘falls’ (verbs will be quoted throughout with ‐té final particle. See 36) . Syllables in tone IV never have nasal finals. ”

“ As the author says in his preface (p. i) , ‘The notes do not pretend to be a complete syntax of colloquial Burmese, or to replace the standard textbooks on the grammar and construction of the language’; and again (p. ii) , ‘no great precision in terminology is claimed, and inconsistencies will be found in the use of terms like adverb, preposition, conjunction, and particle.’ As a matter of fact the book merely tries to fit Burmese forms into English categories.
Taw Sein Ko, Elementary Handbook of the Burmese Language4, Rangoon 1939, is a useful grouping of Burmese phrases. ”

“ Classifiers are nouns which occur immediately after numerals or bèhna- ‘how many’. Phrases which consist of a classifier preceded in close juncture by a numeral or bèhna- are classifier phrases. Classifier phrases often appear with a preceding noun expression attribute in open juncture; the noun expression attribute means that which is counted:
lú tayauɁ ‘1 person’.
There are three types of classifiers (142–144) .
142. A classifier phrase containing a classifier of type 1 can be preceded by various noun expression attributes:
lú tayauɁ ‘1 person’; mêimmà hnayauɁ ‘2 women’ ”

“ The juncture is close:
khêdé ‘is hard’: yéigê ‘ice’; chóudé ‘is sweet, not salt’: yéijóu ‘fresh water’; ŋándé ‘is salty’: yéiŋán ‘salt water’; sêindé ‘is raw, uncooked’: yéizêin ‘fresh water, i.e. unboiled water'.
lú kâunde ‘the person is good’: lúgâun ‘good person’, cf. kâundè lú (126) ; shôudé ‘is bad’: lúzôu ‘evil person’, cf. shôudè lú (126) ; pyîndé ‘is lazy, bored’: lúbyîn ‘Iazy person’; mádé ‘is well’: mamábû ‘is not well’: lúmamá ‘sick person, patient’.
130. Some verb expression attributes precede the head noun in close juncture. Attributes of this type are limited in occurrence. ”

“ A noun expression attribute consists of a noun expression followed by one of the four noun particles ‐hmá, ‐kà, ‐kóu, ‐nè, or of a noun expression alone (zero particle) , preceding a verb head in open juncture.
83. ‐hmá denotes place or time at which:
díhmá tháimbá ‘sit here’; díhmá mîyathá lábì: hóuhmá dayyathâ lá néidé ‘the train has already come here; over there the street car is coming’; béhmá θwâ sâmalê ‘where will you to to eat’; bamá lúmyôu phyáhmá tháindé ‘Burmans sit on mats’; tôywáhmá mayàhnáimbû ‘ (it) can not be got in country villages’; Ɂapódaphmá líndé ‘up stairs (it) is light’ ”

“ Particles which are attached only to noun expressions are ‐há, ‐kô, ‐lóu, ‐mà, ‐pá, ‐phê, ‐theɁ, -tò, ‐yé; those which are attached only to verb expressions are ‐léi, ‐nó; those which are attached to both noun expressions and and verb expressions are ‐lòu, ‐tè, ‐θá. As in the case of all particles the juncture between general particles and the form to which they are attached is close.
62. ‐há emphasizes. In equational sentences it often appears after the first member, never after the second:
dí lúhá (,) lúgâumbê ‘this person (is a) good person (emphatic) ’ ”

“ Since, as we have seen, the language consists of syllables of very uniform structure, the syllable stands out rather sharply in syntax and derivation.
32. The nouns and verbs, which are the minimal free forms of the language (its words) , are preponderantly monosyllabic: lú ‘person’; lá ‘come’. ”

“ Toneless syllables consist of consonant followed by a neutral vowel which we write as a without a tone mark. A toneless syllable never stands alone and is never final in a group.
Consonants, 8–15
8. Stop, affricate, and sibilant consonants occur in five positions: velar stop, prepalatal affricate, normal sibilant, alveolar stop, and labial stop; and in three orders: plain voiceless, aspirated voiceless, and plain voiced.
Examples:
9. ”

“ Noun expressions are derived from verb expressions by means of proclitic atonic particles (150, 151) , and enclitic particles (152–162) .
150. Proclitic Ɂa‐: loutté ‘ (he) works’: ɁalouɁ ‘work’: ɁalouɁ loutté ‘ (he) does as work’: Ɂaloukkóu θwâmé ‘ (he) will go to work’; myâdé ‘is many’: Ɂamyâ ‘many’: cêizû Ɂamyâjî tímbádé ‘very many thanks’: tìdé ‘beats or plucks, as a musical instrument’: hmoutté ‘blows, plays a wind instrument’: Ɂatì ɁahmouɁ ‘music’; θôundé ‘uses’: Ɂaθôun ‘use’: Ɂaθôun macàbû ‘is not of use’.
151. Proclitic ta‐. ”

“ Ɂawukkóu lê pîdò, cousshígóu lábá ‘when you have changed clothes, come to me’; lámmadógóu pathamà θwâ pîdò, zêigòu lánchâ sî θwâhnáindé ‘when (you) have first gone to Lanmadaw (Station) , (you) can take a rickshaw to the market’. ”

“ His patience and co-operation are unlimited.
The first activity in Burmese at Yale began in the Fall of 1942 with Dr. Raven Ioor McDavid Jr. working under the general direction of Professor Leonard Bloomfield. The work was done under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies through fellowships from the National School of Modern Oriental Languages and Civilizations. Dr. McDavid was forced by ill health to retire from the project in the Spring of 1943. Up to that time we had had the opportunity of observing the speech of three Burmans, Mg. ”

“ This is very infrequent:
θwâdé ‘goes’: θwâmé ‘will go’: bé ɁachéinlauɁ Ɂakhù θwâmè ywágóu yaummalê ‘about what time will (we) get to the village to which (we) are now coming?’
156. Enclitic ‐sayá denotes necessity or purpose:
θwâzayá šìdé ‘it is necessary to go’; myauɁ θeiɁ θanâzayá kâundé ‘monkeys are much to be pitied’; sâzayámyá lóuðalá ‘is there need of food?’; sâzayá néizayá ɁatweɁ masôuyéimbánè ‘do not be concerned about food and lodging’; dí twêhmá tháinzayá néiyá mašibû ‘there is no place to sit in this car’ ”

“ Ɂacîgà bá louɁ sâðalê ‘what does the big one do for a living?’ (the context refers to the son of one of the speakers) ; Ɂayíŋgà bamá pyéihmá néidé ‘formerly (I) lived in Burma’; ɁayíŋgàdeɁ póu wàdé ‘ (he) is fatter than formerly’ ”

“ Delete: , less often to a subordinate verb (81) ↑ [From Errata:] Delete: myîn masî θwânè
bégóumà maθwâbû ‘ (he) didn’t go anywhere’: bégóumà maθwáðalê ‘didn’t (he) go anywhere?’
Subordinating Particles, 50–60
50. Verb expressions (79) are marked as subordinate clauses by the substitution of subordinating particles for final particles (36) . Subordinate clauses precede the head verb expression (80) and are separated from it by comma pause (26) after the subordinating particle. ”

“ Appears only in questions:
dí lúgô, bènélê ‘what of this person, how about (him) ?’; θâ Ɂalakkô bá louɁ néiðalê ‘what about the second oldest son—what does he do?’
64. ‐lê ‘also’:
θúlê θwâdé ‘he also went’; khímbyâlê Ɂéiŋgóu tèdè θwâbá ‘you too go straight home’.
64.1. ‐lê ... ‐lê ‘both ... and’:
tachòulê táunyá ɁalouɁ louɁ sâdé, tachòulê lé louɁ sâdé, tachòu lúmyâlê Ɂûyín šìdé ‘some work as farmers; some work the rice fields; some people have orchards’. ”

“ Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; low central, with a glide to lower high front, slightly retracted: sháin ‘shop’; shâindé ‘waits’; jàin ‘hole in the road’; saitté ‘plants, sets up’.
24. /au/: Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; low central, with a glide to lower high back, slightly fronted: cáun ‘cat’: câun ‘school’; dájàun ‘that reason’; cautté ‘is afraid’.
Juncture and Sandhi, 25–30
25. Period, comma, space, and colon indicate open junctures. ”