Those familiar with conventional Romanised Pali and Mon/Myanmar script Pali will have already noticed the difference in spelling/pronunciation between the two. There are a small set of standard conversions between these scripts, which can be quickly memorised. Eisel Mazard, who provides some very useful online resources for learning Pali, has prepared a helpful chart on "How the Burmese pronounce Pali", which I have pasted below for quick reference.
The letters on the left of each pointing hand are the standard Romanised Pali form. The letters to the right of each pointing hand represent the Myanmar pronunciation of the same letter. The Myanmar letter above each couplet is the letter used when writing in Mon/Myanmar script. However, I'm not entirely sure about Eisel Mazard's use of "sh" for the pronunciation of ဆ, which I would think should be written out as "hs" instead. Also, for သ, the pronunciation "th" (as in သီလာ = thila, morals/precepts) should be added.
1 comments:
Yes, indeed. I noticed several errors in Mazard's understanding of Burmese Pali and contacted him to have them rectified. ဇ/ဈ are both pronounced 'z' ('zh' doesn't exist in Burmese phonology), and I've no idea how he came to the conclusion that သ/ဿ are capable of carrying pronunciations other than 'th' or a weakened 'th.'
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