Sunday, July 21, 2013

My Burmese lexicon (or, the extent of it)

Mingalabar ~ Hello
Mingala Nanat/ney-le/nya-ney Kinba oozing-doe ~ Good morning/afternoon/evening monks
Jezu dem bar day ~ Thank you very much
Jezu-be ~ Thanks
Dhao ben bar day ~ Sorry
Can-ow low ~ Excuse me
Can-ow low ba ~ Come here
Sadhu ~ Well said/Well done
Quen bu ba o ~ Excuse me (sorry)
Quen loa ba ~ Forgive me
oozing - monk
1 ~ te
2 ~ ne
3 ~ thou
4 ~ lay
5 ~ nya
6 ~ chau
7 ~ corni
8 ~ shi
9 ~ co
10 ~ tesa

And my students taught me to say: "Sia ma goo; mar sa ba ney" which means, Don't tease me; I am a teacher!

But what's really cool, is that monks are named according to the day they were born. You can decipher which day of the week they were born by their names!

Names beginning with:
Sun: vowels
Mon: K/Ga
Tue: J/Nya/C
Wed: Ra/La
Thu: Pa/Ma
Fri: S/Ha
Sat: Dham

So Dhammobhasa was born on a Sat; Khemika on a Monday; Suvanna on a Fri; Pannavansa on Thu and so on...

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