Page:Cornyn Outline of Burmese Grammar.pdf/18

Rh Zero is substituted for the final particle ‑pí (40) in case of concomitant action:

lân šauɁ pîbí ‘(he) has walked’: lân šauɁ pî, châuŋgóu phyaɁ θwâhnáinðalâ ‘can (one) cross the stream walking?’; naukkóu pyán cì pî, θwâ néidé ‘(he) was going along looking back’.

61. differ from noun particles (82) in that when both are present the general particle comes last, and in that general particles do not indicate fundamental syntactic relations of noun expression to verb expression. They differ in the same way from final particles (36), but here a more important difference inheres in the fact that the general particles do not mark obligatory categoric distinctions. 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.

‑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)’; hóu chéiyáhá, bá chéiyá thínðalê ‘what (sort of) footprint do you think that footprint (is)?’; hóuhá shìn chéiyábê ‘that is an elephant track’; hóuhálê, cà chéiyábê ‘that also (is a) tiger track’.

‑kô ‘what of, how about’. 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?’

‑lê ‘also’:

θúlê θwâdé ‘he also went’; khímbyâlê Ɂéiŋgóu tèdè θwâbá ‘you too go straight home’.

‑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’.

‑lóu ‘fashion, manner’:

dílóu louppá ‘do (it) this way’; couɁ pyôðalóu loutté ‘(he) did as I said’.

‑mà ‘(not) even’: Appears only in negative sentences, emphasizing the negation of the noun expression:

bámà mawéjímbû ‘(I) do not want to buy anything’; bégóumà maθwânè ‘do not go anywhere’; couɁ Ɂapyín tayaummà mašìbû ‘there is nobody besides me’.

‑pá indicates politeness (cf. 92):

khímbyà námé badúlê ‘what (is) your name?’: máun sán thûmbá ‘Mr. San Htun’.

‑phê emphasizes; unlike ‑há (62), it is not limited to noun expressions that are in any one position: