Ngaba (8)

This translation of Ngaba covers the text starting from the last paragraph of page 9 (see previous post for the scanned image) and continuing to the top of column 2, page 10 (until the red line in the scanned text below).

Ngaba (7)

This post covers page 9, chapter 2 of Ngaba. The translation continues until the end of the last full paragraph in the second column.

Ngaba (6)

This post contains the final section of Ngaba, chapter 1.  As in the previous section, the dialogue by the Chinese men at the store is written in Myanmar script as though with a Chinese accent.  I have not reproduced that device in the English version.  The text (p. 8) begins with the latter half of a sentence that began at the end of page 7 (see Ngaba (5)).

Myanmar language study resources

The following is a list of some useful early stage study aids for Myanmar language available online.

1.  Burmese By Ear or Essential Myanmar by John Okell (available in full online via the SOAS webpage)

2. Online versions of Saya Saw Tun's Myanmar language study texts (via Northern Illinois University)

3. The SOAS resource page for "Burmese Language Study Materials"

4. The Online Burma/Myanmar Library resource page for Myanmar language

Ngaba (5)

Here is the fifth installment of the Ngaba translation with accompanying vocabulary. Regarding the translation of the dialogue at the Chinese store, the original Myanmar text is written as though with a Chinese accent (rather than strictly according to correct spelling). As is evident, I have not replicated this in the English version. Also, the translated portion of the text ends at the red line at the bottom of the right column.

Maung Tha Noe on translating

The following is a copy of Maung Tha Noe's insightful article on translating between English and Myanmar. It is can also be downloaded here.

Losing gems as you translate

Some experiences of a Burmese translator

Maung Tha Noe

When I was an 8^th grader at high school I thought of translating a piece of Greek mythology into Burmese for the school magazine. The story I had in mind was from our English reading text and it tells of Ulysses returning from the Trojan War and being captured by Cyclops. Ulysses had told the Cyclops his name was No Man. One night he managed to blind the one-eyed giant with a burning log. When the monster screamed for help, the neighbors came to his cave door inquiring “Who is hurting you?” He answered “No Man is hurting me” and the neighbors cursed him and went home. It was the Cyclops’ answer that undid me. We have no equivalent in Burmese for the English word no, either for the opposite of yes or for phrases like no money, no food, no home, no man.

Iron Cross: Yawga

This post includes a video of Iron Cross performing the song Yawga (ရောဂါ) written by Iron Cross member Saw Bwe Hmu (စောဘွဲ့မှူး). To view the video, a transcription and translation of the lyrics, and a vocabulary list, click the read more link below.

Ngaba (4)

This post continues on with the Ngaba translation and covers the text following the red line at the bottom of column one and continues to the end of column two in the scanned page below. You can click on the image to view a larger version. Key vocabulary and a translation are listed below.

Myanmarised Pali

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.

Grammar terms

This vocabulary set contains some basic grammar terms in Myanmar language.

သဒ္ဒါ	grammar
အက္ခရာ	letters/alphabet
သရအက္ခရာ	vowel
ဗြည်းအက္ခရာ	consonant
ဝါစင်္ဂ	parts of speech
ပုဒ်	word; punctuation mark; part numerical classifier for counting pieces of writing such as articles,verse, songs, etc.
ဝေါဟာရ	vocabulary
ဝါကျ	sentence
နာမ်	noun
နာမ်စား	pronoun
ကြိယာ	verb
နာမဝိသေသန	adjective
ကြိယာဝိသေသန	adverb
ဝိဘတ်	postpositional marker; word suffixed to a noun or pronoun to designate it as the subject or object, and to a verb to indicate time or mood
သမ္ဗန္ဓ	conjunction
ပစ္စည်း	particle; word serving to qualify a noun, pronoun, adjective, verb or an adverb
အာမေဍိတ်	exclamation; interjection

The Pali Trap

In his 1990 study Traditions of Buddhist Practice in Burma, Gustaaf Houtman provides some helpful notes on the use of Pali loanwords in contemporary Myanmar language.

Houtman warns against falling into the 'Pali Trap'. By this he means:

the unquestioned acceptance of the meanings of particular Pali loanwords in the vernacular context as being of the same order as that attributed to it in the Buddhological and Indological literature or, indeed, in the work of other anthropologists. [p.21]

He goes on:

This 'Pali trap' of habitual use of romanised Pali for Pali loanwords in the vernacular as pursued in most prominent works on Buddhism in Thailand and Burma (e.g. Spiro and Tambiah) is problematic. It is doubtful that even terms such as tha-tha-na, the way used in Burmese, correspond in all contexts to what we reconstruct as being the scriptural/commentarial 'Pali' meanings we attribute to P. sasana. [p.74-75]

And finally:

we must get away from the 'Pali trap' which misleads people into believing that Pali loanwords have 'universal' meanings even across vernaculars. The anthropologist's treatment of Pali loanwords in the vernacular is symptomatic of their textual orientation; they have used the Indologist's romanised spelling in preference to treating the words as part of the vernacular language. Unfamiliarity with context has been sacrificed for familiarity with text. [p.253]

Buddhism and violence

This post presents chapter 58 of the ရုပ်စုံ ပုဒ္ဓသါသနာဝင် (Illustrated History of Buddhism), published by the YMBA. The image below accompanies the text. Vocabulary and my translation are included below.

The first Buddhist synod

This post presents chapter 54 of the ရုပ်စုံ ပုဒ္ဓသါသနာဝင် (Illustrated History of Buddhism), published by the YMBA. The image below accompanies the text. Vocabulary and my translation are included below.