Page:Cornyn Outline of Burmese Grammar.pdf/11

Rh /e/: Tones I, II, III, plain final and tone IV; lower mid front, slightly raised: phédé ‘puts aside’; phê ‘playing cards’; phèdé ‘breaks off’; phetté ‘hugs, embraces’.

/o/: Tones I, II, III, plain final; lower mid back rounded, slightly raised: pyódé ‘is happy’; pyôdé ‘says, speaks’; pyòdé ‘is soft’.

/ai/: 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’.

/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’.

25. Period, comma, space, and colon indicate open junctures. Syllables in close juncture are here written without space or punctuation between them, except where the initial of the second syllable is ny- (see 28).

Period and comma represent juncture in which the tone curve of the preceding syllable is that of the syllable in absolute position. Pause is always preceded by period or comma intonation, or by suspensive intonation (30).

Tone I: low, level, and long, accompanied often by a gentle rise at the end.

Tone II: high, long, and falling toward the end.

Tone III: high, short, and falling, with a slow glottal closure.

Tone IV: high, extremely short, with a sharp glottal closure.

Space represents juncture in which the tone curve of the preceding syllable is as follows:

Tone I: low, level, and shorter than before comma or period. It does not rise at the end.

Tone II: high and long, but does not fall.

Tone III: same as before comma or period, except that the glottal closure is not so slow.

Tone IV: same as before comma or period, except that in very rapid speech the final glottal stop sometimes assimilates as in close juncture (28).

Examples:

Tone I: yú ládé ‘(he) brought (it)’; pyán ládé ‘(he) came back’

Tone II: θwâ néidé ‘(he) is going’; lân šautté ‘(he) walked’

Tone III: tèdè θwâbá ‘go straight ahead’; kànlàn šidé ‘(it) is crosswise’

Tone IV: θeiɁ kâundé ‘(it) is very good’

28. Syllables written together without intervening space or punctuation are spoken in close juncture. When a syllable precedes another syllable in close juncture its tone curve is as follows:

Tone I: low, level, and shorter than before space.

Tone II: high, not so long as before space, and rising.

Tone III: high, short, and without glottal closure.

Tone IV: high, and extremely short; the glottal closure is replaced by a plain unvoiced stop of the same position (8) as the initial sound of the following syllable.

Nasal finals of tones I, II, and III are replaced by nasals of the same position (10) as the initial sound of the following syllable.