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
31 core words in Old Burmese
Water
ရိ
/riy/
Fire
မိး
/miːʔ/
Sun
နိ
/niy/
Moon
လ
/la/
Star
ကြယ်
/kraj/
Mother
အမိ
/ʔamiy/
Father
အဖ
/ʔap/
I
ငာ
/ŋaː/
You
နင်
/naŋ/
Name
အမည်
/ʔamɲaɲ/
Eye
မ္ယက်
/mlak/
Hand
လက်
/lak/
Heart
နှလုံး
/hnaluːŋ/
Love
ချစ်
/klyit/
Tree
သစ်
/sit/
House
အိမ်
/ʔim/
Dog
ခုယ်း
/kʰuj/
Cat
ကြောင်
/klaŋ/
Eat
စား
/tsaːʔ/
Drink
ၐုက်
/suk/
One
တ
/tac/
Two
နှစ်
/n̥ik/
Hello
—
/—/
Thank you
—
/—/
Good
ကောင်း
/kawŋ/
Sushi
ငါးပိ
/ŋaːpiʔ/
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 | Pyu | Proto-Sino-Tibetan | Kurtöp | Lhomi | Ladakhi | Drung |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ရိ /riy/ | ʔuy /uj/ | — /—/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ་ /tɕʰu˥/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ʃə /ʃə/ |
| Fire | မိး /miːʔ/ | vyaŋ /wjaŋ/ | *mey /mey/ | mi /mi/ | མེ་ /me˥/ | མེ /me/ | məə /məː/ |
| Sun | နိ /niy/ | ño /ɲo/ | *nəy /nəy/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ་ /ɲi˥ma˩/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | nɯ /nɯ/ |
| Moon | လ /la/ | hla /hla/ | *s-la /s-la/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ་ /dawa˩/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | məŋ /məŋ/ |
| Star | ကြယ် /kraj/ | kar /karʔ/ | *s-kar /s-kar/ | karma /karma/ | སྐར་མ /karma˥/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | əkɯr /əkɯr/ |
| Mother | အမိ /ʔamiy/ | na /na/ | *ma /ma/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ་ /ʔama˩/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ma /ma/ |
| Father | အဖ /ʔap/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | *pa /pa/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་པ་ /ʔapa˩/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | pa /pa/ |
| I | ငာ /ŋaː/ | ŋa /ŋa/ | *ŋa /ŋa/ | ngat /ŋat/ | ང /ŋà/ | ང /ŋa/ | nga /ŋa/ |
| You | နင် /naŋ/ | naŋ /naŋ/ | *naŋ /naŋ/ | wit /wit/ | ཁྱོད /kʰjø˥/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeːraŋ/ | nə /nə/ |
| Name | အမည် /ʔamɲaɲ/ | miŋ /miŋ/ | *r-miŋ /r-miŋ/ | ming /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ˩/ | མིང /miŋ/ | bɯng /bɯŋ/ |
| Eye | မ္ယက် /mlak/ | mik /mik/ | *s-mik /s-mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག་ /mik˥/ | མིག /mik/ | mik /mik/ |
| Hand | လက် /lak/ | lak /lak/ | *lak /lak/ | lak /lak/ | ལག་པ་ /lakpa˩/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | kə /kə/ |
| Heart | နှလုံး /hnaluːŋ/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང་ /ɲíŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | ʃəŋ /ʃəŋ/ |
| Love | ချစ် /klyit/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | ga /ɡa/ | — /—/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | ʃit /ʃit/ |
| Tree | သစ် /sit/ | siŋ /siŋ/ | *siŋ /siŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ˥/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | sim /sim/ |
| House | အိမ် /ʔim/ | vaiŋ /waiŋ/ | — /—/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁྱིམ་ /kʰim˥/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | im /im/ |
| Dog | ခုယ်း /kʰuj/ | kwiy /kwij/ | *d-kʷəy /d-kʷəy/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི་ /kʰi˥/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | kʰja /kʰja/ |
| Cat | ကြောင် /klaŋ/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | byila /bila/ | — /—/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | tsa /tsʰa/ |
| Eat | စား /tsaːʔ/ | cyaʔ /tɕaʔ/ | *dzya /dzya/ | za /za/ | ཟ་ /sa˩/ | ཟ /za/ | ʃə /ʃə/ |
| Drink | ၐုက် /suk/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ˩/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | pə /pə/ |
| One | တ /tac/ | te /te/ | *tik /tik/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག་ /tɕik˥/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | tik /tik/ |
| Two | နှစ် /n̥ik/ | nit /nit/ | *g-nis /g-nis/ | zon /zon/ | གཉིས /ɲi˩/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | əni /əni/ |
| Hello | — /—/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས /taɕi˥ tele˩/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | ŋeŋ /ŋeŋ/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | — /—/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | tʃʰɔ /tʃʰɔ/ |
| Good | ကောင်း /kawŋ/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ་ /jakpo˩/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | la /la/ |
| Sushi | ငါးပိ /ŋaːpiʔ/ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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