Page:Judson Burmese Grammar.djvu/16

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burmese grammar.

NUMERICAL FIGURES.

§43.

၁, ၂, ၃, ၄, ၅, ၆, ၇, ၈, ၉, ၁၀.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

PUNCTUATION.

§44. The mark called ပိုက် or အပုဒ်, a stop, is used to separate sentences, and the clauses of a sentence. The double mark ။ ။, ပုဒ်​ကြီး, a great stop, is used to divide paragraphs.

§45. The mark ပုဒ်​က​လေး, a little stop, begins to be used in printed books, as an equivalent to the English comma, (a great desideratum in Burmese writing) leaving the to supply the place of the semicolon and period.

PARTS OF SPEECH.

§46. The Etymology of Burmese Grammar may be exhibited under the six classes of Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, and Interjections.

nouns.

§47. The usual division of nouns into common and proper obtains in the Burmese, as in all other languages.

§48. Under common nouns are included three kinds of derivatives; the simple, the reduplicative, and the compound.

§49. Simple derivatives are mostly formed from verbal roots, by prefixing အ, as အ​လင်း, light, from လင်း to be light; but in composition the အ, is commonly dropped; thus အ​စာ, food, from စား, to eat, when combined with ည, evening, becomes ညစာ evening food, or supper.

§50. The same is true of all nouns, whose initial is a syllable အ; thus အရည်, liquor, when combined with ပျား, a bee, becomes ပျား​ရည်, honey; and sometimes even when a syllable or word is added; thus အရောင်, brightness, when followed by ခြည်, a ray, becomes ရောင်​ခြည်, a ray of brightness.