Page:Judson Burmese Grammar.djvu/14

12. As an appendix to both the preceding tables, note:—

1st. Cerebrals, when final, are the same as dentals; thus အဋ္ဌမ is pronounced at-ta-ma, as if written အတ္ထမ.

2d. The third letter of each class is the same as the first; thus ပြဿဒ်, pronounced pyat-that, as if written ပြဿတ်.

3d. The second and fourth letters of each class never occur as finals, except in some words derived from the Pali,—when they are mute; as မိုဃ်း, from မေဃ, the sky, pronounced mo.

4th. ယ်, ရ်, ဝ်, ဟ်, and ဠ်, after အို, are mute, e.g. ကိုယ်, ko, မြင်းမိုရ်, Myeen-mo, ဗိုလ်, bo, ထိုဝ်, ʻto, ဂြိုဟ်, gyo, သီဟိုဠ်, Thee-ho.

5th. အာ before a final gives the syllable the same power as အ, thus အာရ် is pronounced, an, as if written အရ်, e.g. မာရ်နတ် man-nat.

. The sound of a final consonant is frequently modified by the initial consonant of the following syllable or word, as အက္ခရာ, ek-ka-ra, [ek-kha-ra, St.] not et-ka-ra, သင်္ဘော, them-bau, not then-bau. But these permutations, being dictates of nature, will be naturally acquired without rule.

. There is another permutation of perpetual occurrence, which may be thus stated:—when two syllables are in juxtaposition, so as to form one word, the first syllable ending in a vowel (except အ), [expressed, St.] or a nasal, and the initial letter of the second syllable being the first or second letter of either of the five classes of consonants, it frequently takes the sound of the third letter of the same class; that is, က and ခ are pronounced as ဂ; စ and ဆ, as ဇ; ဋ and ဌ, as ဎ; တ and ထ, as ဒ; ပ and ဖ, as ဗ; thus စကား, a word, is pronounced, not tsa-kah, but tsa-gah, as if written စဂါး, and အင်တန်, considerably, is pronounced, not en-tan, but en-dan, as if written အင်ဒန်.

. But there are so many exceptions to this general rule, that regard to the coalescence of sounds as exhibited in common practice is recommended as the only true guide.