A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts And

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts And AN ARTICULATORY, ACOUSTIC, AND AUDITORY STUDY OF BURMESE TONE A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics By James Frederick Gruber, M.S. Washington, D.C. June 15, 2011 © 2011 James Gruber ii AN ARTICULATORY, ACOUSTIC, AND AUDITORY STUDY OF BURMESE TONE James Frederick Gruber, M.S. Thesis Advisor: Elizabeth Zsiga, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the complex tonal contrast in the modern Burmese language. The four Burmese tones are reported to make multi-way distinctions in pitch, phonation, duration, intensity, vowel quality, and syllable structure, but the literature is frequently conflicted about the association of these qualities with each tone. Bradley (1982) has described Burmese as a register, rather than tonal, language due to the bundling of prosodic qualities headlined by contrastive phonation types. However, contrastive phonation in Burmese has eluded detection in numerous instrumental phonetic studies (Thein Tun 1982, Ladefoged et al 1988, Watkins 1997). Production and perception experiments were conducted in order to first clarify the phonetic description, and in turn build a phonological model of the contrast. Audio, electroglottographic, and aerodynamic recordings of ten native speakers were collected and analyzed for Duration, F0, and Phonation type (as measured by Open Quotient of the glottal waveform, rates of oral airflow, and spectral tilt – all measured dynamically over the syllable rhyme). The perception experiment studied the forced- choice listener identifications of stimuli re-synthesized to controlled levels of each dimension. iii Major findings include (a) the contrast in phonation type is two-way (two breathier lax tones vs. two creaky-voiced tones), (b) breathy and creaky phonation are temporally dynamic in Burmese – produced systematically only at the vowel offset, and (c) the phonation contrast is neutralized in juncture while pitch contrasts are maintained. The results indicate that a purely Tone or Register analysis of Burmese is inappropriate, in the sense that pitch contours or phonation type cannot alone serve as the basis of contrast. Instead, the present state of affairs is argued to represent an intermediate stage of tonogenesis, where multiple phonetic properties exist side-by-side to reinforce suprasegmental categories. The analysis is cast in Optimality theoretic terms, which act to highlight the phonological dilemma introduced by a seemingly redundant distribution of properties. The study has implications for the typology of Tone and Register systems, as it portrays a language in a transitional state between the two – some intrinsic pitch distinctions have been phonologized, but a concomitant voice quality distinction remains integral to the grammar. iv Acknowledgements My name alone is credited with authorship of this dissertation. Yet countless others have worked hard and contributed dearly to the efforts that have produced this work. It would not have been possible without their knowledge, guidance, and support. This dissertation would simply have not been possible without my Burmese friends in the Washington, D.C. and Seattle, WA areas. They participated out of kindness and an eagerness to share their language and culture. They accepted me into their homes, fed me, and happily worked with me through long hours of not very stimulating data collection. I owe a great thanks to each of them. In particular, I want to thank Merle and Eddie Nakhuda for their role and the many times they hosted me in their home. I am greatly indebted to the efforts of my committee members, Drs. Elizabeth Zsiga, Marc Brunelle, and Robert Podesva. Lisa Zsiga has had a profound impact on both this work and my development as a linguist. The dissertation exists because of Lisa’s encouragement to pursue and expand the topic from an initial seminar project, and later, to seek funding for the research tools. Beyond this work, Lisa has had a tremendous role in my development as a linguist and cultivating my interest in phonetics, phonology, and tone. From the day I walked into her office as a first year graduate student who thought he wanted to study syntax, she has been nothing but supportive and committed to my cause. I have benefited greatly from her knowledge and her teaching. This dissertation was greatly improved by the counsel of Marc Brunelle and Rob Podesva, and their individual expertise in voice quality research. Marc’s experience investigating similar phenomena in Southeast Asian languages was invaluable. Every discussion I had with Marc led to significant re-thinking or refinement of a claim. Rob v repeatedly drew my attention to details I had not considered, and valuably redirected me from details I was getting lost in. I never felt more confident about the next step I was taking than after meeting with Rob. I also owe thanks to Dan Loehr who, as the unofficial fourth member of my dissertation committee, worked with me on my early attempts at Burmese and continued to supervise and provide his thoughtful feedback at numerous steps along the way. I am also grateful for the advice of Maria Gouskova. I still struggle with writing, but I know that I am a better writer today because of Maria’s efforts. I am thankful for the financial support provided by the National Science Foundation, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. The research was funded by the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, BCS 0844031. This research would have been excessively more difficult without the excellent work and the willingness to discuss this work by Justin Watkins, Alexis Michaud, David Bradley, Christian DiCanio, and Pat McCormick. Mietta Lennes, Christian DiCanio, and Cedric Gendrot all generously shared Praat scripts which were critical to tackling my data. I am similarly indebted to my friends Zhaleh Feizollahi, Michael Diercks, Justin Kelly, Rebecca Sachs, Kjell Konis, and Melissa Martz for the many hours they have spent helping me improve this work. For making my time at Georgetown fruitful in fields of study beyond phonetics and phonology, I want to thank Héctor Campos, Polyvia Parara, and Guiseppe Tosi. For their friendship, and for proving to me that I could survive life on the East Coast, I would like to particularly thank my brother Joe and his family. Kind thoughts are similarly extended to Jen Sclafani and Steve Hamilton, Carlos Balhana, Chad McHenry, Rachael Albritten, Jon Philips, Kris Concepcion, Dom Parr and many others. vi My parents and family deserve special recognition for enabling me to get to this position: Fred and Anne, Young-Wha, Joe, and my comforting canine friend Rocco. I want to express my deepest appreciation for my wife Shannon and the time and effort she has expended on my behalf during the writing of this dissertation. Every setback or trial that I endured, she also endured. With great love, Shannon, I thank you for both your patience and impatience, as both were necessary to either persevere through the long process or to occasionally light a fire. I also want to thank my son, Royal, for changing my life. I haven’t met Royal yet, but he will be born in early 2012 and I am certain he will be an amazing person. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Anne, who passed away in November 2008. Her life, her enthusiasm, and her curiosity continue to inspire me. vii Table of Contents List of Figures xv List of Tables xxi Chapter One • Outline of the Problem and the Data 1 0. Introduction................................................................................................1 1.1 Goal of the Dissertation ............................................................................1 1.2 Description of Burmese Phonology...........................................................3 1.2.1 Overview of the Language ...............................................................3 1.2.2 Description of Burmese Phonology: Inventory of Burmese Phonemes.......................................................................4 1.2.3 Description of Burmese Phonology: Inventory of Burmese Tonemes.........................................................................5 1.2.3.1 Overview ................................................................................5 1.2.3.2 The Low Tone [a]....................................................................6 1.2.3.3 High Tone [á]..........................................................................7 1.2.3.4 Creaky Tone [à̰] ......................................................................9 1.2.3.5 Checked Tone [àɁ] ................................................................10 1.2.3.6 Minor Syllables [ә]................................................................12 1.2.4 Description of Burmese Phonology: Syllable Codas.......................13 1.2.5 Description of Burmese Phonology: Vowel Quality .......................18 1.3 Typological Interest of the Dissertation ..................................................23 1.3.1 Burmese Dialects and the Language Background 1.3.1.1 of Study Participants...........................23 1.3.2 Tone or Register?...........................................................................26 1.3.3 Typology of Tone in Southeast Asia ..............................................28 1.3.4 The Tonogenetic Roots of Typological Tone Patterns ....................31 1.4 Outline of the Dissertation......................................................................37
Recommended publications
  • [Myanmar] Research Society Brief History of the Burma
    Analytical Study on the Publications edited and published by the Burma [Myanmar] Research Society Ni Win Zaw Abstract The Burma Research Society (BRS) was founded on 29th. March 1910 and had a programmee to Publish, in printed book-form, important texts from Myanmar palm-leaf and parabike paper manuscripts. The BRS did most valuable work in carefully editing and publishing many old manuscripts texts. The famous Myanmar scholar Dr. Pe Maung Tin served as the BRS General Editor for its Text Program from the early 1920s to about 1940 when the Society had to cease its activities due to the Second World War. After Second World War U Wun (Min Thu Wun) and U Tin E made energetic efforts for the BRS. U Wun served asa the General Editor for the New Series. This Paper describes authors, editors, editions, printing presses, publishing dates, cover style, arrangements, physical descriptions, series numbers, appendixes, indexes, footnotes, and subjects of these books.And also it identifies the performance of editors who were prominent Myanmar and Pali scholars like Saya Lin, Saya Pwa, U Po Sein, BaganWundauk U Tin, U Lu Pe Win, U Chan Mya, U Wun, U Thein Han, and others. Moreover,abilities of ancient Myanmar authors and role of old Myanmar literature are investigated and expressed in this paper. Brief History of the Burma (Myanmar ) Research Society The Burma Research Society was founded on 29th. March 1910 at Bernard Free Library in Rangoon (Yangon) by J.S.Furnivall who was a member of the India Civil Service stationed in Myanmar together with some learned Myanmar officials like U May Oung.1After Opening the Rangoon (Yangon) University, the headquarter of the Society was located at the Rangoon University (Universities' Central Library), from about 1930-1980.
    [Show full text]
  • T3 Sandhi Rules of Different Prosodic Hierarchies
    T3 Sandhi rules of different prosodic hierarchies Abstract This study conducts acoustic analysis on T3 sandhi of two characters across different boundaries of prosodic hierarchies. The experimental data partly support Chen (2000)’s view about sandhi domain that “T3 sandhi takes place obligatorily within MRU”, and “sandhi rule can not apply cross intonation phrase boundary”. Nonetheless, the results do not support his claim that “there are no intermediate sandhi hierarchies between MRU and intonation phrase”. On the contrary, it is found that, although T3 sandhi could occur across all kinds of hierarchical boundaries between MRU and intonation phrase, T3 sandhi rules within a foot (prosodic word), or between foots without pause, or between pauses without intonation (phonology phrase) are very different in terms of acoustic properties. Furthermore, based on the facts that (1) T3 sandhi could occur cross boundary of pauses and (2) phrase-final sandhi could be significantly lengthening, it is argued that T3 sandhi is due to dissimilation of low tones, rather than duration reduction within MRU domain. It is also demonstrated that tone sandhi and prosodic hierarchies may not be equivalently evaluated in Chinese phonology. Prosodic hierarchies are determined by pause and lengthening, not by tone sandhi. Key words: tone sandhi; prosodic hierarchies; boundary; Mandarin Chinese 1 Introduction So-called T3 sandhi in mandarin Chinese has been widely discussed in Chinese Phonology. Mandarin Chinese has four tones: T1 (level 55), T2 (rising 35), T3 (low-rise 214), T4 (falling 51).Generally, when a T3 is followed by another T3, it turns into T2. The rule could be simply stated as: 214->35/ ___214.
    [Show full text]
  • THE TONES of NUMERALS and NUMERAL-PLUS-CLASSIFIER PHRASES: on STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAXI, NA and LAZE* Alexis Michaud LACITO-CNRS
    Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Volume 34.1 — April 2011 THE TONES OF NUMERALS AND NUMERAL-PLUS-CLASSIFIER PHRASES: ON STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAXI, NA AND LAZE* Alexis Michaud LACITO-CNRS Abstract: Numeral-plus-classifier phrases have relatively complex tone patterns in Naxi, Na (a.k.a. Mosuo) and Laze (a.k.a. Shuitian). These tone patterns have structural similarities across the three languages. Among the numerals from ‘1’ to ‘10’, three pairs emerge: ‘1’ and ‘2’ always have the same tonal behaviour; likewise, ‘4’ and ‘5’ share the same tone patterns, as do ‘6’ and ‘8’. Even those tone patterns that are irregular in view of the synchronic phonology of the languages at issue are no exception to the structural identity within these three pairs of numerals. These pairs also behave identically in numerals from ‘11’ to ‘99’ and above, e.g. ‘16’ and ‘18’ share the same tone pattern. In view of the paucity of irregular morphology—and indeed of morphological alternations in general—in these languages, these structural properties appear interesting for phylogenetic research. The identical behaviour of these pairs of numerals originates in morpho- phonological properties that they shared at least as early as the stage preceding the separation of Naxi, Na and Laze, referred to as the Proto-Naish stage. Although no reconstruction can be proposed as yet for these shared properties, it is argued that they provide a hint concerning the phylogenetic closeness of the three languages. Keywords: tone; numerals; classifiers; morpho-tonology; Naxi; Na; Mosuo; Laze; Muli Shuitian; Naish languages; phylogeny. 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Hmong Mental Health
    Hmong mental health An assessment of mental health needs and services for the Hmong community in Ramsey County JUNE 2010 Hmong mental health An assessment of mental health needs and services for the Hmong community in Ramsey County June 2010 Prepared by: Mao Thao, Amy Leite, & Julie Atella Wilder Research 451 Lexington Parkway North Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104 651-280-2700 www.wilderresearch.org Contents Summary ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 9 Purpose of the assessment ............................................................................................... 9 About the research ............................................................................................................ 10 Data collection methods ................................................................................................ 11 A brief history of the Hmong ............................................................................................ 15 A demographic profile of the Hmong for Ramsey County and the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota ...................................................................................................................... 15 Part I: An assessment of mental health issues and needs in the Hmong community ....... 17 What is the scope of mental health issues within the Hmong community?.................
    [Show full text]
  • Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: an Annotated Bibliography
    Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 11 Prosody and Intonation in Non- Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Article 1 Bibliography 2009 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Green, Christopher R. (2009) "Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 11 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1010 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 11 (2009) Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green, Indiana University Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Atlantic – Ijoid 4 Volta – Congo North 6 Kwa 15 Kru 19 Dogon 20 Benue – Congo Cross River 21 Defoid 23 Edoid 25 Igboid 27 Jukunoid 28 Mande 28 Reference Materials 33 Author Index 40 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages Introduction Most linguists are well aware of the fact that data pertaining to languages spoken in Africa are often less readily available than information on languages spoken in Europe and some parts of Asia. This simple fact is one of the first and largest challenges facing Africanist linguists in their pursuit of preliminary data and references on which to base their research.
    [Show full text]
  • A Corpus Study of the 3 Tone Sandhi in Standard Chinese
    A Corpus Study of the 3 rd Tone Sandhi in Standard Chinese Yiya Chen 1, Jiahong Yuan 2 1 Department of Linguistics, Radboud University Nijmegen 2 Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania [email protected], [email protected] (Zhang 1988, Shih 1997, M. Chen 2000, Chen 2003, Chen Abstract 2004). Speer et al. (1989) show that listeners are indeed In Standard Chinese, a Low tone (Tone3) is often realized sensitive to a constituent’s phrasal structure in judging the application of the 3 rd tone Sandhi to constituents which could with a rising F0 contour before another Low tone, known as the 3rd tone Sandhi. This study investigates the acoustic be ambiguous between an underlying Rising tone and a characteristics of the 3rd tone Sandhi in Standard Chinese Sandhi Rising tone. Their results suggest the possibility that the higher linguistic boundary it is between two Low tones, using a large telephone conversation speech corpus. Sandhi rd Rising was found to be different from the underlying Rising the less likely the 3 tone sandhi rule is applied. With regard tone (Tone2) in bi-syllabic words in two measures: the to the difference between the underlying Rising tone and the Sandhi Rising tone, Peng (2000) show that the F0 maximum magnitude of the F 0 rising and the time span of the F 0 rising. We also found different effects of word frequency on Sandhi of SR is lower than R. Furthermore, in fast speech, a Sandhi Rising and the underlying Rising tones. Finally, for tri- Rising tone may flatten and show no apparent F0 rise (Kuo, syllabic constituents with Low tone only, constituent Xu, and Yip, to appear).
    [Show full text]
  • Downstep and Recursive Phonological Phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin
    Chapter 9 Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43) Fatima Hamlaoui ZAS, Berlin; University of Toronto Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso ZAS, Berlin This paper identifies contexts in which a downstep is realized between consecu- tive H tones in absence of an intervening L tone in Bàsàá (Bantu A43, Cameroon). Based on evidence from simple sentences, we propose that this type of downstep is indicative of recursive prosodic phrasing. In particular, we propose that a down- step occurs between the phonological phrases that are immediately dominated by a maximal phonological phrase (휙max). 1 Introduction In their book on the relation between tone and intonation in African languages, Downing & Rialland (2016) describe the study of downtrends as almost being a field in itself in the field of prosody. In line with the considerable literature on the topic, they offer the following decomposition of downtrends: 1. Declination 2. Downdrift (or ‘automatic downstep’) 3. Downstep (or ‘non-automatic downstep’) 4. Final lowering 5. Register compression/expansion or register lowering/raising Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso. 2019. Downstep and recursive phonological phrases in Bàsàá (Bantu A43). In Emily Clem, Peter Jenks & Hannah Sande (eds.), Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 155–175. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3367136 Fatima Hamlaoui & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso In the present paper, which concentrates on Bàsàá, a Narrow Bantu language (A43 in Guthrie’s classification) spoken in the Centre and Littoral regions of Cameroon by approx. 300,000 speakers (Lewis et al. 2015), we will first briefly define and discuss declination and downdrift, as the language displays bothphe- nomena.
    [Show full text]
  • Acoustic-Phonetics of Coronal Stops
    Acoustic-phonetics of coronal stops: A cross-language study of Canadian English and Canadian French ͒ Megha Sundaraa School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, McGill University 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC H3G 1A8 Canada ͑Received 1 November 2004; revised 24 May 2005; accepted 25 May 2005͒ The study was conducted to provide an acoustic description of coronal stops in Canadian English ͑CE͒ and Canadian French ͑CF͒. CE and CF stops differ in VOT and place of articulation. CE has a two-way voicing distinction ͑in syllable initial position͒ between simultaneous and aspirated release; coronal stops are articulated at alveolar place. CF, on the other hand, has a two-way voicing distinction between prevoiced and simultaneous release; coronal stops are articulated at dental place. Acoustic analyses of stop consonants produced by monolingual speakers of CE and of CF, for both VOT and alveolar/dental place of articulation, are reported. Results from the analysis of VOT replicate and confirm differences in phonetic implementation of VOT across the two languages. Analysis of coronal stops with respect to place differences indicates systematic differences across the two languages in relative burst intensity and measures of burst spectral shape, specifically mean frequency, standard deviation, and kurtosis. The majority of CE and CF talkers reliably and consistently produced tokens differing in the SD of burst frequency, a measure of the diffuseness of the burst. Results from the study are interpreted in the context of acoustic and articulatory data on coronal stops from several other languages. © 2005 Acoustical Society of America. ͓DOI: 10.1121/1.1953270͔ PACS number͑s͒: 43.70.Fq, 43.70.Kv, 43.70.Ϫh ͓AL͔ Pages: 1026–1037 I.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Acoustic and Perceptual Characterization of Reference Vowels in a Cross-Language Perspective Jacqueline Vaissière
    On the acoustic and perceptual characterization of reference vowels in a cross-language perspective Jacqueline Vaissière To cite this version: Jacqueline Vaissière. On the acoustic and perceptual characterization of reference vowels in a cross- language perspective. The 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVII), Aug 2011, China. pp.52-59. halshs-00676266 HAL Id: halshs-00676266 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00676266 Submitted on 8 Mar 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. ICPhS XVII Plenary Lecture Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 ON THE ACOUSTIC AND PERCEPTUAL CHARACTERIZATION OF REFERENCE VOWELS IN A CROSS-LANGUAGE PERSPECTIVE Jacqueline Vaissière Laboratoire de Phonétique et de Phonologie, UMR/CNRS 7018 Paris, France [email protected] ABSTRACT 2. IPA CHART AND THE CARDINAL Due to the difficulty of a clear specification in the VOWELS articulatory or the acoustic space, the same IPA symbol is often used to transcribe phonetically 2.1. The IPA vowel chart, and other proposals different vowels across different languages. On the The first International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) basis of the acoustic theory of speech production, was proposed in 1886 by a group of European this paper aims to propose a set of focal vowels language teachers led by Paul Passy.
    [Show full text]
  • An Outline of the Structure of the Akha Language1 (Part 1)
    Tonan Ajia Kenkyu (The Southeast Asian Studies) Vol. 8, No.1 June, 1970 1 An Outline of the Structure of the Akha Language ) (Part 1) --Introduction and Phonemics-- by Makio KATSURA* Introduction: Akhas and their Language The Akhas call themselves"Akha" (/'laka/), while other ethnic groups call them by different names. Generally the Shans both in Burma and in Thailand use the name "Kaw" (/k;);)/), and the Northern Thais, "E-kaw" (/'liik;);)/). The prefix /'lii-/ in l1iik;)JI might be the same as Ilii-I, which is often prefixed to nouns and denotes "female," such as /'liinii/, /'liinan/, /'liimtew/, etc. This is perhaps because of the eye-striking appearance of the Akha women. "Kha Kaw" C/khaa kJ;)/) is mostly used by the Laotians or the inhabitants of Laos, but the /khaa-/ is very often prefixed to the names of the minority peoples regardless of their geneological relations. The Thai Lus often call the Akhas "Kaw Ho Laem" Uk;);) hoo Ih:m/), which means "Akhas with pointed head," due to the shape of the head-dress of the Akha women. The name "O-ni" or "Wo-ni" used by the Chinese includes not only the Akhas but also many peoples belonging to the Burmese-Loloish Group.2l These names used by other peoples * {i TIIiU;ffi-~~ 1) This is a part of the report of the author's field work on the Akha language conducted in Northern Thailand in 1964-1965 under the sponsorship of the National Research Council of Thai­ land and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University.
    [Show full text]
  • Hill Tribes Phrasebook & Dictionary 4 Preview
    CONTENTS INTRODUCTION........................................................ 7 Hill Tribes of SE Asia Map .......8 Vietnam & Laos .......................10 Local Names of the Five Myanmar (Burma) ................. 10 Largest Groups ...................9 Thailand .................................... 10 China .............................................9 The Languages .......................14 LAHU ...................................................................... 17 Culture, Subgroups Sounds....................................... 21 & Locations ........................17 The Language .........................24 Lahu Language Map ............ 18 Words & Phrases .................... 26 AKHA ...................................................................... 41 Culture, Subgroups Sounds....................................... 50 & Locations ........................41 The Language .........................52 Akha Language Map ............ 42 Words & Phrases .................... 55 LISU ........................................................................ 75 Culture & Locations .............. 75 The Language .........................81 Lisu Language Map .............. 76 Words & Phrases .................... 84 Sounds....................................... 79 MONG ..................................................................... 99 Culture, Subgroups Sounds.....................................104 & Locations ........................99 The Language .......................108 Mong Language Map.........100 Words & Phrases ..................111
    [Show full text]
  • Shwe U Daung and the Burmese Sherlock Holmes: to Be a Modern Burmese Citizen Living in a Nation‐State, 1889 – 1962
    Shwe U Daung and the Burmese Sherlock Holmes: To be a modern Burmese citizen living in a nation‐state, 1889 – 1962 Yuri Takahashi Southeast Asian Studies School of Languages and Cultures Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney April 2017 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Statement of originality This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources has been acknowledged. Yuri Takahashi 2 April 2017 CONTENTS page Acknowledgements i Notes vi Abstract vii Figures ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Biography Writing as History and Shwe U Daung 20 Chapter 2 A Family after the Fall of Mandalay: Shwe U Daung’s Childhood and School Life 44 Chapter 3 Education, Occupation and Marriage 67 Chapter ‘San Shar the Detective’ and Burmese Society between 1917 and 1930 88 Chapter 5 ‘San Shar the Detective’ and Burmese Society between 1930 and 1945 114 Chapter 6 ‘San Shar the Detective’ and Burmese Society between 1945 and 1962 140 Conclusion 166 Appendix 1 A biography of Shwe U Daung 172 Appendix 2 Translation of Pyone Cho’s Buddhist songs 175 Bibliography 193 i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I came across Shwe U Daung’s name quite a long time ago in a class on the history of Burmese literature at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
    [Show full text]