Page:Judson Burmese Grammar.djvu/8

6. According to the foregoing arrangement, the first twenty-five consonants are distributed into five classes. The letters of the first or က class are gutturals (ကဏ္ဍဇာ ); those of the second or စ class are palatals (‌တာလုဇာ); those of the third or ဋ class are cerebrals (မုဒ္ဓဇာ); those of the fourth or တ class are dentals (ဒန္တ‌ဇာ); and those of the fifth or ပ class are labials (ဩဋ္ဌဇာ).

. The first letter of each class is a simple articulation, smooth and soft; the third is the same, rough and hard; the second is the aspirate of the first; the fourth, according to the Nagari system, is the aspirate of the third, but according to the Burmese pronunciation, is the same; and the fifth is the corresponding nasal.

. The pronunciation of the cerebrals and the dentals, though different in the Nagari, is the same in the Burmese.

. Of the seven remaining consonants, five, viz; ယ, ရ, လ, ဝ, and ဠ are liquids; သ is properly a sibilant, but pronounced th, and ဟ is an aspirate.

. The cerebrals and the letter ဠ are found in words only of Pali origin.

.

. The names and powers of the vowels are as follows:—