ထနော့အက္ခရာများ

Htanaw alphabet

Here you find the set of consonants, vowels, and combinations of thereof used to write Htanaw adequately using only standard Burmese letters. The aim is to make Htanaw easily writable on mobile devices without the need to introduce new letters. This involves the use of unfamiliar combinations, most of which are based on similar usage by other non-Burmese orthographies, such as Mon, Shan, and Palaung. For examples of how to write Htanaw words, please check out the Htanaw Primer on this site, where you can find Htanaw word lists with corresponding audio files.

As this is still work in progress, please come back to check out the latest developments. Comments and suggestions are most welcome and can be directed to info@htanawsar.org.

ဗျည်းများ Consonants

က k ခ kʰ င ŋ

စ s ဆ sʰ ည ɲ

တ t ထ tʰ ဒ d န n

ပ p ဖ pʰ ဗ b မ m

ယ j ရ r လ l ဝ w

ဟ h အ ʔ အံ ɴ

Most consonants are pronounced as in Burmese, with the exception of ရ, which corresponds to Pali ရ or English r.

ဗ and ဒ represent implosive ɓ and ɗ, more voiced than in Burmese, similar to b and d in Thai and Karen.

အံ is used for the syllabic nasal (here written as ɴ), which is pronounced as ŋ, n, or m, depending on the following consonant. It is not clear whether the syllabic nasal shows phonemic tone distinctions. The vocalic nasal ɴ အံ only occurs in presyllables and never combines with either onset or coda.

ဗျည်းတွဲများ Combining consonants

ပ + ယ → ပျ- pj-

ပ + ရ → ပြ- pr-

ပ + လ → ပ္လ- pl-

ပ + ဝ → ပွ- pw-

ပ + ရ + ဝ → ပြွ- prw-

မ + လ + ဝ → မြွ- mlw-

Combining consonants are used in words that begin with more than one consonant. The combination ပ္လ is like English pl- in 'play' (which sounds similar to Htanaw ပ္လေ့ plé 'fruit').

The combination မြွ is used to render the complex initial mlw-.

The combination ဖြ pʰr- is pronounced as f-,fr-,pʰr-, depending on the speaker and context.

The combinations ကျ c- and ချ cʰ- are similar to Burmese.

အဆုံးဗျည်းများ Final consonants

-ဉ် -ɴ -အ် -ʔ -ဟ် -h *-ယ -j

Final အ် represents a final glottal stop, similar to the sound in words like တတ် taʔ and လစ် liʔ in Burmese. There is some variation in pronunciation among individual speakers, final အ် sometimes being realized as -k, -t, or -p. The final ဉ် represents a nasal vowel, like in Burmese ကန် kaɴ and ပင် piɴ. There is some variation in pronunciation among individual speakers, final ဉ် sometimes being realized as -ŋ, -n, or -m. For speakers who wish to distinguish final consonants by place of articulation, the additional finals -က်, -တ်, -ပ်, -င်, -န်, -မ် can be used.

*The rhyme ɯj/ɤj with final ယ် -j is found in some interjections, such as hɯj, hɯ́j (or hɤj, hɤ́j) and can be written as အီုယ်. Final -j does not occur with other vowels.

သရများ Vowels

အ ə, *ɐ အာ a အီ i အူ u အေ e အဲ ɛ

အဲာ ai အုဲ ui အော ɔ အော် ɒ အောံ au အို o အီု ɯ

အိ *ɪ အု *ʊ အေဲ *eə အေံ *ɛe

အိူ *ou အေိ *ei အီူ ɤ

Htanaw has more different vowel sounds than Burmese, so more combinations must be used to represent all sounds correctly. The vowel အော် ɒ always occurs without final consonant, though a glottal stop or fricative coda is heard in some contexts (ɒʔ/ɒh). The inherent (unwritten) vowel is pronounced ɐ in closed syllables, ə in open syllables (presyllables). The vowels /ɤ/ and /ei/ do not occur in all varieties and do not have phonemic status in the Taung Poe Hla dialect, which serves as the basis for the present orthography. They are included in the orthography so that all varieties can be represented adequately without the need for a standard language.

* occur only in closed syllables

တက်ကျသံများ Tones

အာ ʔà အား ʔa အာ့ ʔá

Htanaw distinguishes three lexical tones: low/low-falling, mid/mid-falling, and high/high-rising. These are written as -, း, and ့, respectively: အာ အား အာ့ ʔà ʔa ʔá, အီ အီး အီ့ ʔì ʔi ʔí, အဲ အဲး အဲ့ ʔɛ̀ ʔɛ ʔɛ́, etc. The realization of tones may vary according to the context, and the tone assignment is not certain in many cases. Besides distinguishing lexical meanings, tones in Htanaw also have grammatical function (see grammar). Tone sandhi changes the tone of some, but not all, words in low or mid tone to high when preceded by a high tone. This can be seen in wàh 'cow', which is pronounced as wáh in the phrase kətá wáh 'cow's tail', but in the elicitation form wàh in the phrase kài wàh 'cow's food'. Other words do not undergo tone changes in the same contexts, as seen in sàɴ 'bird', which retains the low tone in kətá sàɴ 'bird's tail'. The exact functioning of tone sandhi is subject to further research.

Presentation by the project team on the development of Htanaw orthography

ICAAL 10 Htanaw orthography new.pdf