Page:Judson Burmese Grammar.djvu/16

14 NUMERICAL FIGURES. .

PUNCTUATION.

. The mark ။ called ပိုက် or အပုဒ်, a stop, is used to separate sentences, and the clauses of a sentence. The double mark ။ ။, ပုဒ်&#8203;ကြီး, a great stop, is used to divide paragraphs.

. The mark ပုဒ်&#8203;က&#8203;လေး, a little stop, begins to be used in printed books, as an equivalent to the English comma, (a great desideratum in Burmese writing) leaving the ။ to supply the place of the semicolon and period.

PARTS OF SPEECH.

. The Etymology of Burmese Grammar may be exhibited under the six classes of Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, and Interjections.

. The usual division of nouns into common and proper obtains in the Burmese, as in all other languages.

. Under common nouns are included three kinds of derivatives; the simple, the reduplicative, and the compound.

. Simple derivatives are mostly formed from verbal roots, by prefixing အ, as အ&#8203;လင်း, light, from လင်း to be light; but in composition the အ, is commonly dropped; thus အ&#8203;စာ, food, from စား, to eat, when combined with ည, evening, becomes ညစာ evening food, or supper.

. The same is true of all nouns, whose initial is a syllable အ; thus အရည်, liquor, when combined with ပျား, a bee, becomes ပျား&#8203;ရည်, honey; and sometimes even when a syllable or word is added; thus အရောင်, brightness, when followed by ခြည်, a ray, becomes ရောင်&#8203;ခြည်, a ray of brightness.