ပုဂံ ဘာသာ
Old Burmese
Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Burmish) · historical / hidden variety
Old Burmese was the language of the Pagan Empire (1044-1297) of upper Burma and the literary medium of its Buddhist civilization. The Pagan stone inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts show consonant clusters lost in modern Burmese (e.g. /kly-/, /mly-/, /pl-/), a richer initial system, and absent or proto-tonal contrasts. The Old Burmese script — derived from Mon and ultimately Pyu/Pallava Brahmi — is the direct ancestor of modern Burmese script. Tones developed gradually during the Middle Burmese period (16th-18th c.) as initial consonants merged.
Where it is spoken
20 core words in Old Burmese
Water
ရိ
/riy/
Fire
မိး
/miːʔ/
Sun
နိ
/niy/
Moon
လ
/lat/
Mother
အဝ
/ʔaw/
Father
အဖ
/ʔap/
Eat
စား
/tsaːʔ/
Drink
ၐုက်
/suk/
Love
ချစ်
/klyit/
Heart
နှလုံး
/hnaluːŋ/
Tree
သစ်
/sit/
House
အိမ်
/ʔim/
Dog
ခွၞး
/kʰwiː/
Cat
ကြောင်
/klaŋ/
Hand
လက်
/lak/
Eye
မ္ယက်
/mlak/
Hello
—
/—/
Thank you
—
/—/
One
တ
/tac/
Good
ကောင်း
/kawŋ/
Sources
- Luce (1969-70) Old Burma — Early Pagán
- Nishi (1999) Four Papers on Burmese
- Glottolog: oldb1235
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Burmish) languages
| Meaning | Old Burmese | Middle Mongolian | Pyu | Kurtöp | Lhomi | Old Malay | Proto-Ryukyuan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ရိ /riy/ | ဍာ် /ɗaːk/ | ʔuy /uj/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ་ /tɕʰu˥/ | ayar /ajar/ | *midu /midu/ |
| Fire | မိး /miːʔ/ | ပ်ၟ /pmaʔ/ | vyaŋ /wjaŋ/ | mi /mi/ | མེ་ /me˥/ | api /api/ | *pii /piː/ |
| Sun | နိ /niy/ | တ္ၚဲ /tŋai/ | ño /ɲo/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ་ /ɲi˥ma˩/ | matari /matari/ | *teda /teda/ |
| Moon | လ /lat/ | ဂျိုၚ် /klɔŋ/ | hla /hla/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ་ /dawa˩/ | bulan /bulan/ | *tuki /tuki/ |
| Mother | အဝ /ʔaw/ | ၚာ /ŋaː/ | na /na/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ་ /ʔama˩/ | ibu /ibu/ | *amma /amma/ |
| Father | အဖ /ʔap/ | ဖ /pʰɛʔ/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་པ་ /ʔapa˩/ | bapa /bapa/ | *aja /aja/ |
| Eat | စား /tsaːʔ/ | စိ /tɕiʔ/ | cyaʔ /tɕaʔ/ | za /za/ | ཟ་ /sa˩/ | makan /makan/ | *kam- /kam/ |
| Drink | ၐုက် /suk/ | သုက် /sok/ | — /—/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ˩/ | minum /minum/ | *num- /num/ |
| Love | ချစ် /klyit/ | ဖျုန် /pʰyon/ | — /—/ | ga /ɡa/ | — /—/ | sayang /sajaŋ/ | — /—/ |
| Heart | နှလုံး /hnaluːŋ/ | လုပ် /lup/ | — /—/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང་ /ɲiŋ˥/ | hati /hati/ | *kimu /kimu/ |
| Tree | သစ် /sit/ | ဆု /tɕu/ | siŋ /siŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ˥/ | kayu /kaju/ | *kii /kiː/ |
| House | အိမ် /ʔim/ | သ္ၚိ /sŋiʔ/ | vaiŋ /waiŋ/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁྱིམ་ /kʰim˥/ | rumah /rumah/ | *yaa /jaː/ |
| Dog | ခွၞး /kʰwiː/ | ခၠဵု /kʰlou/ | kwiy /kwij/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི་ /kʰi˥/ | anjing /andʒiŋ/ | *in /in/ |
| Cat | ကြောင် /klaŋ/ | ဂျိ /kluj/ | — /—/ | byila /bila/ | — /—/ | kucing /kutʃiŋ/ | *maja /maja/ |
| Hand | လက် /lak/ | တၟုိ /toi/ | lak /lak/ | lak /lak/ | ལག་པ་ /lakpa˩/ | tangan /taŋan/ | *tii /tiː/ |
| Eye | မ္ယက် /mlak/ | မတ် /mat/ | mik /mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག་ /mik˥/ | mata /mata/ | *mii /miː/ |
| Hello | — /—/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས /taɕi˥ tele˩/ | — /—/ | — /—/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | — /—/ |
| One | တ /tac/ | မွဲ /mwɛ/ | te /te/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག་ /tɕik˥/ | sa /sa/ | *pitu /pitu/ |
| Good | ကောင်း /kawŋ/ | ခိုဟ် /kʰɔh/ | — /—/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ་ /jakpo˩/ | baik /baik/ | *masi /maɕi/ |
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