Tavoyan dialects

Tavoyan
Dawei
RegionSoutheast
Ethnicityincl. Taungyo
Native speakers
ca. 440,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
tvn – Tavoyan proper
tco – Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo)
Glottologtavo1242  Tavoyan
taun1248  Taungyo

The Tavoyan or Dawei dialect of Burmese (ထားဝယ်စကား) is spoken in Dawei (Tavoy), in the coastal Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar (Burma).

Tavoyan retains an /-l-/ medial that has since merged into the /-j-/ medial in standard Burmese and can form the following consonant clusters: /ɡl-/, /kl-/, /kʰl-/, /bl-/, /pl-/, /pʰl-/, /ml-/, /m̥l-/. Examples include မ္လေ (/mlè/ → Standard Burmese /mjè/) for "ground" and က္လောင်း (/kláʊɴ/ → Standard Burmese /tʃáʊɴ/) for "school".[2] Also, voicing can only occur with unaspirated consonants in Tavoyan, whereas in standard Burmese, voicing can occur with both aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Also, there are many loan words from Malay and Thai not found in Standard Burmese. An example is the word for goat, which is hseit (ဆိတ်) in Standard Burmese but bê (ဘဲ့) in Tavoyan, most likely from Mon /həbeˀ/ (ဗၜေံ) or Thai /pʰɛ́ʔ/ (แพะ).[3]

In the Tavoyan dialect, terms of endearment, as well as family terms, are considerably different from Standard Burmese. For instance, the terms for "father" and "mother" are ဖစု (/pʰa̰ òu/) and မိစု (/mḭ òu/) respectively.[4] Moreover, the honorific နောင် (Naung) is used in lieu of မောင် (Maung) for young males.[4]

Rhymes

[edit]

The following is a list of rhyme correspondences unique to the Tavoyan dialect[5]

Written Burmese Standard Burmese Tavoyan dialect Notes
-င် -န် -မ် /-ɪɴ -aɴ -aɴ/ /-aɴ/
-ဉ် -ျင် /-ɪɴ -jɪɴ/ /-ɪɴ -jɪɴ/
ောင် /-aʊɴ/ /-ɔɴ/
ုန် /-oʊɴ/ /-uːɴ/
ုမ် /-aoɴ/
ိမ် /-eɪɴ/ /-iːɴ/
ုတ် /-oʊʔ/ /-ṵ/
ုပ် /-aoʔ/
-က် -တ် -ပ် /-ɛʔ -aʔ -aʔ/ /-aʔ/
-ိတ် -ိပ် /-eɪʔ/ /-ḭ/
-ည် /-ɛ, -e, -i// /-ɛ/
-စ် -ျက် /-ɪʔ -jɛʔ/ /-ɪʔ -jɪʔ/
ေွ /-we/ /-i/ ေ is pronounced as in standard Burmese
Rhymes
Open syllables weak = ə
full = i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u
Closed syllables nasal = iːɴ, ɪɴ, aɪɴ, an, ɔɴ, ʊɴ, uːɴ, aoɴ
stop = ɪʔ, aɪʔ, aʔ, ɔʔ, ʊʔ, aoʔ

History

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According to Michael Aung-Thwin, the Burmese dialect of Dawei/Tavoy preserved the "spelling (and presumably pronunciation)" of the Old Burmese from the Bagan era. As a result, he suggests that it diverged from other Burmese varieties sometime after the Burmese settlement of Lower Burma under the Bagan era, between the 11th and 13th centuries. He attributes this divergence to a migration of Mon speakers into the area north of Dawei in the late 13th century, which would have cut off Dawei from the main Burmese area.[6]: 112–3 

References

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  1. ^ Tavoyan proper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "Htarrwaalhcakarr bamarhcakarr" ထားဝယ်စကား ဗမာစကား (in Burmese). BBC Burmese. 20 May 2011. Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  3. ^ Census of India, 1901 – Burma. Vol. XII. Burma: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 1902. p. 76.
  4. ^ a b "Aalainkar pulellpaann htarrwaal hcakarr" အလင်္ကာပုလဲပန်း ထားဝယ်စကား (in Burmese). BBC Burmese. 10 June 2011. Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  5. ^ Barron, Sandy; John Okell; Saw Myat Yin; Kenneth VanBik; Arthur Swain; Emma Larkin; Anna J. Allott; Kirsten Ewers (2007). Refugees From Burma: Their Backgrounds and Refugee Experiences (PDF) (Report). Center for Applied Linguistics. pp. 16–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  6. ^ Aung-Thwin, Michael (2005). The mists of Rāmañña: The Legend that was Lower Burma (PDF). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-8248-2886-0. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  • Wang, Dayou 汪大年 (2007). "Miǎndiànyǔ Dōngyǒu fāngyán" 缅甸语东友方言 [The Taungyo Dialect of Burmese]. Mínzú yǔwén (in Chinese). 2007 (3): 66–80.
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