On The History Of The Burmese Language Voice Stages Of Historical Development

Burmese is the most widely used language in the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino- Tibetan family. More than forty million people use the language as a lingua franca. In terms of geographical distribution it is also the southernmost language of the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken mainly on the western part of Indo-China Peninsula. To be more specific, Burmese is used in the fourteen states of Myanmar, especially along the Irrawaddy River Valley.As the mother tongue of Burmans, the evolution of Burmese is very closely related with the nation. Historically, the origin of Burmans was the Xi-qiang tribe, of the same cultural type as the Majiayao Culture of the New Stone Age, linked with the Yangshao Culture of Huaxia tribe. During the West Han dynasty (206B.C. ~ 24A.D.), Maoniu Qiang, a tribe speaking Proto-Tibeto-Burmese, lived in the Sichuan Basin and on the eastern edge of the Qinghai -Tibetan Plateau. Consanguineously, it was the direct source of Burmese. Three or four thousand years ago, Maoniu Qiang's ancestors went down south from the Huangtu Plateau along the "Chinese Tribes Migrating Route" to the western part of Sichuan province and the northern part of Yunnan province. The Maoniu Qiang tribe developed into many sub-tribes, including the Yuexi clan, who were ancestors of Bailang Qiang, the forefathers of Burmans. Between the 7th and 9th century, Bailang Qiang moved southern after a few decades of staying in Nanzhao, a local minority national state in the west of Yunnan province. They built 11 Villages around Kyaukse, an area in central Myanmar. In the year 1044 Burmans defeated Mons, the former ruling nationality of Myanmar, and established its first dynasty ---- Pugan, also called "the Pugan kingdom". From then on, Burman gradually became the most powerful nationality in Myanmar.From a linguistic angle, every stage of a nation will leave its trace on its language. From Maoniu Qiang's Proto-Lolo-Burmese to Bailang Qiang's early ancient Burmese and Pugan's middle ancient Burmese and so on, the Burmese language evolved over two thousand years. Up to now, it has become the most widely used language except Chinese in the Sino-Tibetan family. It is difficult for us to identify the historical path of Burmese's evolution very clearly because of the late appearance of Burmese scripts. The author of this thesis has been working hard in this field by using all kinds of methods of comparative historical linguistics in order to correctly reconstruct the evolution path of Burmese sound, and has made some achievements in establishing the remote sound of Burmese. The thesis consists of three parts. Part One, a theoretical discussion, includes Chapter One and Chapter Two, providing relevant background materials. The first chapter discusses the research task, research methods, and the theoretical basis in the historical linguistics of Myanmar. Chapter Two deals with the cultural source and phylum position of Burmese, and principles of identifying different periods of the historical development of Burmese. In this thesis the historical development of the language is divided into five periods: the early ancient period (before the 10th century), the middle ancient period (between the 11th to 13th century), the late ancient period (between the 14th and 17th century), the middle period (between 17th to 18th century), and the modern period (since the 20th century).The second part of the thesis includes five chapters (Chapter Three to Seven). In this part, the sound change process in each period is explained in detail, using the methods of comparative historical linguistics, phonology, and acoustic phonetics, etc. In addition, the historical level of Burmese phonemes, the sound evolution process and the phonetic law are well discussed.Part Three of the thesis is a summary, including Chapter Eight and the Conclusion. In this part, the development of Burmese initials, rhymes, and tones is explained comprehensively, and the relationships among initials, rhymes and tones are explored. Finally, we come to a common understanding that language is a non-linear structure, but with linear structures as one of its facets, and that the initials, rhymes, and tones of Burmese constitute a system. They depend upon one another and constrain one another. Each component part has its own inherent law in the process of sound evolution, though they constrain one another. Any change in the Burmese phonic subsystem may cause a series of change in other subsystems. And each component part of phonic system is associated with another, combining to push forward the Burmese phonetic system.